Yett on her death-bed when shee lay,
Shee prayd for thy profperitye,
Befeeching god, that every day

Might breed thy great felicitye:

Thus by thy meanes I lost a friend;
Heavens fend thee fuch untimely end.

1

When he these lines, full fraught with gall,
Perufed had, and wayed them right,

His lofty courage then did fall; ...

And straight appeared in his fight

Queene Dido's ghoft, both grim and pale;
Which made this valliant fouldier quaile.

Æneas, quoth this ghaftly ghost,

My whole delight when I did live, Thee of all men I loved moft;"

My fancy and my will did give;

For entertainment I thee gave,
Unthankefully thou didst me grave.

Therfore prepare thy flitting foule

To wander with me in the aire;

Where deadlye griefe fhall make it howle,

Because of me thou tookft no care:

My foule into eternall night,

Where itt shall ne're behold bright day,

O doe not frowne; thy angry looke
Hath all my foule with horror fhooke."

20

But, woe is me! all is in vaine,

And bootless is my difmall crye;
Time will not be recalled againe,

Nor thou furceafe before I dye.
O lett me live, and make amends
To fome of thy most deerest friends,

But feeing thou obdurate art,

And wilt no pittye on me show,
Because from thee I did depart,

And left unpaid what I did owe:
I must content myselfe to take
What lott to me thou wilt partake,

120

125

139

And thus, as one being in a trance,
A multitude of uglye feinds

About this woffull prince did dance ;

135

He had no helpe of any friends;

His body then they tooke away,

And no man knew his dying day.

Ver. 120. MS. Hath made my breath my life forfooke,

XXIII, THE

XXIII.

THE WITCHES'

SONG

From Ben Jonson's Mafque of Queens presented at Whitehall, Feb. 2, 1609.

The Editor thought it incumbent on him to infert fome old pieces on the popular fuperftition concerning witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and ghofts. The last of these make their ap pearance in most of the tragical ballads; and in the following fongs will be found fome defeription of the former.

It is true, this fong of the Witches, falling from the learned pen of Ben Jonson, is rather an extract from the various incantations of claffical antiquity, than a difplay of the opinions of our own vulgar. But let it be obferved, that a parcel of learned wifeacres had just before bufied themselves on this fubject, in compliment to K. James I. whofe weakness on this head is well-known: and thefe had fo ranfacked all writers, ancient and modern, and fo blended and kneaded together the feveral fuperftitions of different times and natious, that thofe of genuine English growth could no longer be traced out and diftinguished.

By good luck the whimfical 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 unfophifticated.

I

I WITCH.

Have been all day looking after

A raven feeding upon a quarter;

And, foone as the turn'd her beak to the south,

Į fnatch'd this morfell out of her mouth.

2 WITCH.

I have beene gathering wolves haires,

The madd dogges foames, and adders eares;

The spurging of a deadmans eyes:

And all fince the evening starre did rife.

O' the ground, to heare the mandrake grone;
And pluckt him up, though he grew full low:
And, as I had done, the cocke did crow,

4 WITCH.

And I ha' beene chufing out this fcull
From charnell houses that were full;
From private grots, and publike pits;
And frighted a fexton out of his wits.

ΙΟ

5

By day; and, when the childe was a-sleepe
At night, I fuck'd the breath; and rose,
And pluck'd the nodding nurfe by the nofe.

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,

I bade him again blow wind i' the taile.

7 WITCH.

20

A murderer, yonder, was hung in chaines;

The funne and the wind had fhrunke his veines:

25

I bit off a finew; I clipp'd his haire;

I brought off his ragges, that danc'd i'the ayre.

8 WITCH.

The fcrich-owles egges and the feathers blacke,
The bloud of the frogge, and the bone in his backe 30
I have been getting; and made of his skin

A purset, to keepe fir Cranion in.

And I ha' beene plucking (plants among)
Hemlock, henbane, adders-tongue,
Night-fhade, moone-wort, libbards-bane;

And twife by the dogges was like to be tane.

10 WITCH.

I from the jawes of a gardiner's bitch

Did fnatch these bones, and then leap'd the ditch:

Yet went I back to the house againe,

Kill'd the blacke cat, and here is the braine.

35

40

II 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 ?

DAME.

Yes: I have brought, to helpe your vows,
Horned poppie, cypreffe boughes,

45

The