The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with
witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century
before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit
of one of these witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be
done she used to bid Rutterkin _go and fly_, but once when she would
have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland,
instead of _going_ or _flying_, he only cried _mew_, from whence she
discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches
being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to
inculcate:
_Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost._
The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were
melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of
Shakespeare's witches:
_Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine._
It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their
neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure
their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been
most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made
one of his witches declare that she has been _killing swine_, and Dr.
Harsenet observes, that about that time, _a sow could not be ill of the
measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with
witchcraft_.
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