My soule into eternall night, Where itt shall ne're behold bright day. O doe not frowne; thy angry looke But, woe is me! all is in vaine, Nor thou surcease before I dye. But seeing thou obdurate art, And wilt no pittye on me show, And left unpaid what I did owe : And thus, as one being in a trance, His body then they tooke away, Ver. 120. MS. Hath made my breath my life forsooke. 120 125 130 135 XXIII. THE WITCHES' SONG From Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens, presented at Whitehall, Feb. 2, 1609. The Editor thought it incumbent on him to insert some old pieces on the popular superstition concerning witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and ghosts. The last of these make their appearance in most of the tragical ballads; and in the following songs will be found some description of the former. It is true, this song of the Witches, falling from the learned pen of Ben Jonson, is rather an extract from the various incantations of classical antiquity, than a display of the opinions of our own vulgar. But let it be observed, that a parcel of learned wiseacres had just before busied themselves on this subject, in compliment to King James I. whose weakness on this head is well known and these had so ransacked all writers, ancient and modern, and so blended and kneaded together the several superstitions of different times and nations, that those of genuine English growth could no longer be traced out and distinguished. By good luck the whimsical belief of fairies and goblins could furnish no pretences for torturing our fellow-creatures, and therefore we have this handed down to us pure and unsophisticated. 1 WITCH. I HAVE been all day looking after A raven feeding upon a quarter: And, soone as she turn'd her beak to the south, I snatch'd this morsell out of her mouth. 2 WITCH. I last night lay all alone O' the ground, to heare the mandrake grone; 4 WITCH. And I ha' beene chusing out this scull 10 From private grots, and publike pits; 15 5 WITCH. Under a cradle I did crepe By day; and, when the childe was a-sleepe 6 WITCH. I had a dagger: what did I with that? Killed an infant to have his fat. A piper it got at a church-ale. 1 bade him again blow wind i' the taile. 20 7 WITCH. 7 WITCH, A murderer, yonder, was hung in chaines; ز I brought off his ragges, that danc'd i' the ayre. 8 WITCH. 25 The scrich-owles egges and the feathers blacke, A purset, to keepe sir Cranion in. 9 WITCH. And I ha' beene plucking (plants among) 10 WITCH. I from the jawes of a gardiner's bitch Did snatch these bones, and then leap'd the ditch : Kill'd the blacke cat, and here is the braine. 11 WITCH. I went to the toad, breedes under the wall, I charmed him out, and he came at my call; I scratch'd out the eyes of the owle before; I tore the batts wing: what would you have more? 35 40 DAME. |