It appears, notwithstanding, that, even among the old women of the sixteenth century, there could be found some who, while they profited by, could, at the same time, despise, the credulity of their neighbours. “An old woman,” says Scot, "that healed all diseases of cattell (for the which she never tooke any reward but a penie and a loafe) being seriouslie examined by what words she brought these things to passe, confessed that after she had touched the sicke creature, she alwaies departed immediatlie; saieng: "My loafe in my lap, my penie in my pursse; Thou art never the better, and I am never the wursse.” * The same author, after relating the terrible curse or charm of St. Adelbert against thieves, facetiously adds, "But I will answer this cruell cursse with another cursse farre more mild and civill, performed by as honest a man (I dare saie) as he that made the other.— "So it was, that a certeine sir John, with some of his companie, once went abroad a jetting. and in a moone light evening robbed a millers weire, and stole all his éeles. The poor miller made his mone to SirJohn himselfe, who willed him to be quiet; for he would so curse the theese, and all his confederates, with bell, booke and candell, that they should have small joy of their fish. And therefore the next sundaie, Sir John got him to the pulpit, with his surplisse on his backe, and his stole about his necke, and pronounced these words following in the audience of the people: All you that have stolne the miller's éeles, Laudate Dominum de cœlis. And all they that have consented thereto, So (saith he) there is sauce for your éeles my maisters."+ A third portion of the popular creed may be considered as including the various kinds of superstitious Cures, Preventatives, and Sympathies; a species of credulity which has suffered little diminution even in the present day; for, though the materials selected for the purpose be different, the folly and the fraud are the same. Instead of animal magnetism and metallic tractors, the public faith, in the days of Shakspeare, rested, with implicit confidence, on the virtues supposed to be inherent in bones, precious stones, sympathetic signs, powders, etc.; and the poet, accordingly, has occasionally introduced imagery founded on these imaginary qualities. Thus, in the Merchant of Venice, the high value which Shylock places on his turquoise ring, was derived from this source, the turquoise or Turkeystone being considered as inestimable for its properties of indicating the health of the wearer by the increase or decrease of its colour, and for its protective power in shielding him from enmity and peril. That this was the cause of Shylock's deep regret for the loss of his ring, will appear probable from the more direct intimations of his contemporaries, Jonson and Drayton; the former, in his Sejanus, remarking of two parasites, that they would, A more distinct allusion to the sanative virtue of precious stones, is to be found in the celebrated simile in As You Like It: 66 Sweet are the uses of adversity: Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Act ii. sc. 1. * Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 245. + Ibid. p. 265, 266. § Chalmers's Poets, vol. iv. p. 465. This stone or jewel was supposed to secure the possessor from the effects of poison, and to be, likewise, a sovereign remedy for the stone. These important effects are ascribed to it by numerous writers of Shakspeare's time, by Gesner; by Batman; † by Maplett; + by Fenton; S by Lupton; by Topsell, and, subsequently, by Fuller. ++ It even formed, very early indeed, a part of medical treatment; for Lloyd, in his " Treasure of helth," recommends its exhibition for the stone, and orders it, after having been stampt, to be "geven to the pacyent to drinke in warme wine." To the Bezoar stone also was attributed great potency in expelling the plague and other pestilential diseases; and Gesner has given it an origin even more marvellous than the cures for which it has been celebrated; "when the hart is sick," says he," and hath eaten many serpents for his recoverie, he is brought unto so great a heate, that he hasteth to the water, and there covereth his body unto the very eares and eyes, at which time distilleth many teares from which the (Bezoar) stone is gendered." ‡‡ The Belemnites or hag-stones, perforated flints hung up at the 'bed's head, to prevent the night-mare, or in stables to secure the horses from being hag-ridden, and their manes elf-knotted, were at this period in common use. To one of the superstitious evils against which it was held as a protective, Shakspeare alludes, in his Romeo and Juliet, where Mercutio exclaims "It was believed," remarks Mr. Douce, commenting on this passage, "that certain malignant spirits whose delight was to wander in groves and pleasant places, assumed occasionally the likenesses of women clothed in white; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables in the night-time, carrying in their hands tapers of wax, which they dropped on the horses' manes, thereby plaiting them in inextricable knots, to the great annoyance of the poor animals and vexation of their masters. These hags are mentioned in the works of William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris in the thirteenth century. There is a very uncommon old print by Hans Burgmair relating to this subject. A witch enters the stable with a lighted torch; and, previously to the operation of entangling the horse's mane, practises her enchantments on the groom, who is lying asleep on his back, and apparently influenced by the night-mare." SS The most copious account of the preservative and curative virtues which credulity has ascribed to precious stones, is to be drawn from the pages of Reginald Scot, who appears faithfully and minutely to have recorded the superstitions of his day. "An Agat (they saie) hath vertue against the biting of scorpions or serpents. It is written (but I will not stand to it) that it maketh a man eloquent, and procureth the favour of princes; yea, that the fume thereof dooth turn awaie tempests. Alectorius is a stone about the bignesse of a beane, as cleere as the christall, taken out of a cocks bellie which hath been gelt or made a capon foure years. If it be held in ones mouth, it assuageth thirst, it maketh the husband to love the wife, and the bearer invincible :--Chelidonius is a stone taken out of a swallowe, which cureth melancholie: howbeit, some authors saie, it is the hearbe whereby the swallowes recover the sight of their yoong, even if their eies be picked out with an instrument. Geranites is taken out of a crane and Draconites out of a dragon. But it is to be noted, that such stones must be taken out of the bellies of the serpents, beasts or birds (wherein they are) whiles they live: otherwise, they vanish awaie with the life, and so they reteine the vertues of those starres under which they are. Amethysus maketh a droonken man sober, and refresheth the wit. The corall preserveth such as bear it from fascination or bewitching, and in this respect they are banged about children's necks. But from whence that superstition is derived, and who invented the lie, I knowe not: De Quadrup. Ovip., p. 65. Batman uppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, 1582, fol. article Botrax. A Green Forest, or a Natural History, 1567. First Book of Notable Things, 4to. § Secrete Wonders of Nature, 4to. 1569. Topsell's History of Serpents, 1608. fol., p. 188.and Fuller's Church History, p. 151. #Quoted by Batman on Bartholome, L. xviii. c. 30. $5 Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 180, 181. but I see how redie the people are to give credit thereunto, by the multitude of coralls that waie emploied. Heliotropius stauncheth bloud, driveth awaie poisons, preserveth health: yea, and some write that it provoketh raine, and darkeneth the sunne, suffering not him that beareth it to be abused. Hyacinthus dooth all that the other dooth, and also preserveth from lightening. Dinothera hanged about the necke, collar, or yoke of any creature, tameth it presentlie. A Topase healeth the lunatike person of his passion of lunacie. Aitites, if it be shaken, soundeth as if there were a little stone in the bellie thereof: it is good for the falling sicknesse, and to prevent untimelie birth. Chalcedonius maketh the bearer luckie in lawe, quickeneth the power of the bodie, and is force also against the illusions of the divell, and phantasticall cogitations arising of melancholie. Corneolus mitigateth the heate of the mind, and qualifieth malice, it stancheth bloudie fluxes. Iris helpeth a woman to speedy deliverance, and maketh rainebowes to appeere. A Saphire preserveth the members, and maketh them livelie, and helpeth agues and gowts, and suffereth not the bearer to be afraid: it hath vertue against venome, and staieth bleeding at the nose, being often put thereto. A Smarag is good for the eiesight, and maketh one rich and elo quent. Mephis (as Aaron and Hermes report out of Albertus Magnus) being broken into powder, and droonke with water, maketh insensibilitie of torture. Hereby you may understand, that as God hath bestowed upon these stones, and such other like bodies, most excellent and woonderfull vertues so according to the abundance of humane superstitions and follies, many ascribe unto them either more virtues, or others than they have."* This passage has been closely imitated by Drayton, in the ninth Nymphal of his Muse's Elysium; he has made, however, some additions to the catalogue, one of which we have already noticed, and another will be shortly quoted. Virtues of a kind equally miraculous were attributed to bones and horns; thus Scot tells us, that a bone taken out of a carp's head staunches blood; that the bone in a hare's foot mitigates the cramp, and that the unicorn's horn is inestimable; ‡ and were we to enumerate the wonders performed by herbs, we might fill a volume. Many of them, indeed, were considered of such potency as to render the persons who rightly used them, either invisible or invulnerable, and, therefore, to those who were engaged to fight a legal duel, an oath was administered, purporting "that they had ne charme, ne herbe of vertue" about them. Several diseases were held to be incurable, by ordinary means; such as wens, warts, the king's evil, agues, rickets, and ruptures; and the remedies which were adopted present a most deplorable instance of human folly. Tumours were to be dispelled by stroking them nine times with a dead man's hand, and the evil by the royal touch, a miraculous power supposed to have been first exercised by Edward the Confessor, and to have been since hereditary in the royal line, at least to the period of the decease of Queen Anne. Of the discharge of this important function by the Confessor, and of its regal descent, our poet has left us a pretty accurate description : "Malcolm. - Comes the king forth, I pray you? Doctor. Ay, Sir: there are a crew of wretched souls, The great assay of art; but, at his touch, Macduff. What's the disease he means? * Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 293–295. + Ibid. p. 305. Chalmers's English Poets, vol. iv. p. 465. This golden stamp was the coin called an angel, from the figure which it bore, and was worth ten shillings. To the succeeding royalty he leaves Macbeth, act iv. sc. 3. That Shakspeare had frequently witnessed Queen Elizabeth's exercise of this extraordinary gift, is very probable; for it appears from Laneham, that even on her visits to her nobility, she was in the habit of exerting this sanative power. In his "Account of the Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle," he records "by her highness accustomed mercy and charitee, nyne cured of the peynful and dangerous diseaz called the King's Evil, for that kings and queens of this realm without oother medsin (than by touching and prayer) only doo it." * Most of the superstitious cures for warts and agues remain as articles of popular credulity; but the mode of removing ruptures and the rickets which prevailed at this period, and for some centuries before, is now nearly, if not altogether extinct. A young tree was split longitudinally, and the diseased child, being stripped naked, was passed, with the head foremost, thrice through the fissure. The wounded tree was then drawn together with a cord so as to unite it perfectly, and as the tree healed, the child was to acquire health and strength. The same result followed if the child crept through a stone perforated by some operation of Nature; of stones of this kind there are some instances in Cornwall, and Mr. Borlase tells us, in his History of that County, that there was one of this description in the parish of Marden, which had a perforation through it fourteen inches in diameter, and was celebrated for its cures on those who ventured, under these complaints, to travel through its healing aperture. The doctrine of sympathetic indications and cures was very prevalent during the era of Elizabeth and James, and is repeatedly insisted upon by the writers of that age. One of the most generally credited of these was, that a murdered body bled upon the touch or approach of the murderer; an idea which has not only been adopted by our elder bards as poetically striking, but has been adduced, as a truth, by some of our very grave writers in prose. Among the Dramatists it will be sufficient to produce Shakspeare, who represents the corpse of Henry the Sixth as bleeding on the approach of the Tyrant Richard :— "O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's wounds From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells; Provokes this deluge most unnatural:" Act i. sc. 2. and Drayton seems to have been a firm believer in the same preternatural effect; for he informs us in his forty-sixth "Idea," that, "In making trial of a murther wrought, If the vile actors of the heinous deed, Oft't hath been prov'd the breathless corps will bleed."† Of the prose authorities, besides Lupton, and Sir Kenelm Digby mentioned in the notes of the Variorum Edition of our author, Lavaterus, Reginald Scot, and King James may be quoted, as reposing an implicit faith in the miracle. The first of these writers tells us, in his English dress, of 1572, that "some men beeing slayne by theeves, when the theeves come to the dead body, by and by there gusheth out freshe blood, or else there is declaration by other tokens, that the theefe is there present;" and he then adds, "touching these and other such Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i.: and Scot, speaking of the pretensions of the French monarchs to cure the evil, observes of Elizabeth's practice, that "if the French king use it no worsse than Our Princesse doth, God will not be offended thereat: for hir majestic onelie useth godlie and divine praier, with some almes, and referreth the cure to God and to the physician," p. 304, a report which reflects great credit on her majesty's judgment and good sense. + Chaimers's English Poets, vol iv. p. 505. marvellous things there might be many histories and testimonies alleaged. But whosoever readeth this booke, may call to their remembraunce, that they have seene these and suche like things themselves, or that they have heard them of their freends and acquaintaunce and of such as deserve sufficient credit." The second, in 1584, justifying what he terms common experience, says, "I have heard by credible report, and I have read many grave authors constantlie affirme, that the wound of a man murthered reneweth bleeding, at the presence of a deere freend, or of a mortall enimie;"† and the third, in 1603, asserts, that "in a secret murther, if the dead carkasse bee at any time thereafter handled by the murtherer, it will gush out of bloud, as if the bloud were crying to the heaven for revenge of the murtherer, God having appointed that secret supernatural signe, for triall of that secred unnaturall crime." The influence of sympathy or affection, as it was termed at the period of which we are writing, over the passions and feelings of the human mind, is curiously though correctly exemplified by the poet, in the character of Shylock, who tells the Duke "Some men there are, love not a gaping pig; Merchant of Venice, act iv. sc. 1. Another sympathy mentioned by Shakspeare, but of a nature wholly superstitious, relates to the Mandrake, a vegetable, the root of which was supposed to be endued with animal life, and to shriek so horribly when drawn out of the ground, as to occasion madness, and even death, in those who made the attempt : "What with loathsome smells,' And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad; O! if I wake, shall I not be distraught?" Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 3. exclaims Juliet; and Suffolk, in King Henry the Sixth, declares that every joint of his body should curse and ban his enemies, “Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan.”—Act iii. sc. 2. To avoid these dreadful effects, it was the custom of those who collected this root, to compel some animal to be the instrument of extraction, and consequently the object of punishment. "They doe affyrme," says Bulleine, "that this herbe (the Mandragora) commeth of the seede of some convicted dead men: and also without the death of some lyvinge thinge it cannot be drawnen out of the earth to man's use. Therefore they did tye some dogge or other lyving beast unto the roote thereof wyth a corde, and digged the earth in compasse round about, and in the meane tyme stopp'd their own cares for feare of the terrible shriek and cry of this Mandrack. In whych cry it doth not only dye itselfe, but the feare thereof kylleth the dogge or beast which pulleth it out of the earth." S One of the most fantastic sympathies which yet lingers in the popular creed, is founded on the idea that when a person is seized with a sudden shivering, some one is walking over his future grave. "Probably," remarks Mr. Grose, "all persons are not subject to this sensation; otherwise the inhabitants of those parishes, whose burial grounds lie in the common foot-path, would live in one continual fit of shaking.' Of all the modes of sympathetic credulity, however, none was more prevalent *Of Ghostes and Spirites walking by nyght, p. 80. Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 303. The Workes of the Most High and Mighty Prince James. fol. edit. 1616. p. 136. The Dæmonologu was first printed at Edinburgh in 1597, and next in London, 1603, 4to. § Bulwarke of Defence against Sickness, fol. 1579, P. 41. **Grose's Provincial Glossary, p. 291 |