rest, yor fauor to letters and these gentler studies, that goe vnder the title of Humanitye, is not the least honor of yo' wreath. For if once the worthy Professors of these learnings shall come (as here to fore they were) to be the care of Princes, the crownes theyr Soveraignes weare will not more adorne theyr Temples; nor theyr stamps liue longer in theyr Medalls, than in such subjects labors. Poetry, my Lord, is not borne wth euery man, nor euery day: And in her generall right, it is now my minute to thanke yor Highnesse, who not only do honor her wth yor eare, but are curious to examine her wth yor eye, and inquire into her beauties, and strengths. Where, though it hath prou'd a worke of some difficulty to mee to retriue the particular authorities (according to yo' gracious command, and a desire borne out of iudgment) to those things wch I writt out of fullnesse, and memory of my former readings; yet, now I haue overcome it, the reward that meetes mee is double to one act; wch is, that therby yor excellent vnderstanding will not only iustifie mee to your owne knowledge, but decline the stiffnesse of others originall Ignorance, allready armd to censure. For wch singular bounty, if my Fate (most excellent Prince, and only Delicacy of mankind) shall reserue mee to the Age of your Actions, whether in the Campe, or the Councell Chamber, yt I may write, at nights, the deedes of yo' dayes; I will then labor to bring forth some worke as worthy of yo fame, as my ambition therin is of yor pardon.

By the most trew admirer of yor Hignesse Vertues,

And most hearty Celebrater of them.

BEN: JONSON.

THE MASQUE OF QUEENES.

It encreasing, now, to the third time of my being vs'd in these seruices to her Maties personall presentatio's, wth the Ladyes whome she pleaseth to honor; it was my first, and speciall reguard, to see that the Nobilyty of the Invention should be answerable to the dignity of theyr persons. For wch reason, I chose the argument, to be, A Celebration of honorable & true Fame, bred out of Vertue: obseruing that rule of the best Artist, to suffer no obiect of delight to passe a Hor. in Art. wthout his mixture of profit, and example.

And because her Matie (best knowing, that a principall part of life in these spectacles lay in theyr variety) had commaunded mee to think on some Daunce, or shew, that might præcede hers, and haue the place of a foyle, or false-Masque ;

b

Poetic.

I was carefull to decline not only from others, but mine owne stepps in that kind, since the last yeare I had an In the MasAnti-Masque of Boyes: and therefore, now, deuis'd that twelue que at my L. women, in the habite of Haggs, or Witches, sustayning the Hading.wedpersons of Ignorance, Suspicion, Credulity, &c., the opposites

to good Fame, should fill that part, not as a Masque, but a spectacle of strangeness, producing multiplicity of Gesture, and not vnaptly sorting wth the current, and whole fall of the Deuise.

First, then, his Matie being set, and the whole Company in full expectation, that weh presented it selfe was an ougly Hell; weh, flaming beneath, smoak'd vnto the top of the Roofe. And,

ding.

in respect all Erills are (morally) sayd to come from Hell; as also from that obseruation of Torrentius upon Horace his Canidia, quae tot instructa venenis, ex Orci faucibus profecta Vid. La- videri possit. These Witches, with a kind of hollow and inuin. Torr, fernall musique, came forth from thence. First one, then two,

comment. in

Hor. Epod. and three, and more, till theyr number encreased to eleuen; lib. ode. v. all differently attired; some wth ratts on theyr heads; some

King's Ma

on their shoulders; others wth oyntment-potts at theyr girdles; all wth spindells, timbrells, rattles, or other veneficall instruments, making a confused noyse, wth strange gestures. The deuise of their attire was Mr. Jones his, wth the Invention and Architecture of the whole Scene and Machine, only I præscribed them theyr properties, of vipers, snakes, bones, herbes, rootes, and other ensignes of theyr Magick, out of the authority of antient, and late writers. Wherin the faults are mine, if there be any found; and for that cause I confesse them.

These eleuen Witches beginning to daunce (wch is an usual

d See the ceremony at theyr Convents, or meetings, where sometimes, ties booke (or also, they are vizarded and masqu'd) on the sodayne one of Soveraigne) them miss'd their Cheife, and interrupted the rest wth this

of Dæmo

nologie. Bo

din. Remig.

Speach.

Delrio. Mall. Malefi., and a world of others, in the generall: but let us follow particulars.

e Amongst o vulgar witches the honor

of Dame (for

Sisters, stay; we want ore Dame;
Call upon her, by her name,

so I translate it) is giuen, with a kind of pre-eminence, to some speciall one at theyr meetings, which Delrio insinuates, Disquis. mag. lib. ij. Qu. ix., quoting that of Apuleius. lib. j. de Asin. aureo. de quadam caupona Regina sagaru: and addes, vt scias etiam tum quasdam ab ijs hoc titulo honoratas; weh Title M. Phillippo Ludwigus Elich, Dæmonomagia Quest. x., doth also remember.

f When they

are to be

And the charme we vse to say,

That she quickly anoynt, and come away.

trasported from place to place, they vse to anoynt themselues, and sometimes the things they ride on. Beside Apule. testimony, see these later, Remig. Dæmonolatria,

lib. j. cap. xiiii. Delrio. Disquis., Mag. lib. ij. Quæst. xvj. Bodin. Dæmonoman. lib. ij. cap. iiij. Barthol. de Spina quæst. de strigib. Phillippo Ludwigus Elich. Quaest. x. Paracelsus in magn. et occul. Philosophid teacheth the confection. Unguentu ex carne recens natorù infantium, in pulmenti formá coctum, et cum herbis somniferis, quales sunt papauer, solanū, cicuta, &c. and Joa. Bapti. Porta, lib. ij. Mag. natur. cap. xxvij.

I. CHARME.

Dame, Dame, the watch is set:
Quickly come, we all are met.
From the lakes, and from the fennes,
From the rockes, and from the dennes,
From the woods, and from the caues,
From the Church-yards, from the graues,
From the dungeon, from the tree,

That they die on, here are wee.

such persons

should come; and were notably obserued by that excellent Lucan in the description of his Erictho. lib. vj. To which we may adde this corollarye, out of Agrippa de Occult. philosop. lib j. cap. xlviij. Saturno correspondent loca quævis fætida, tenebrosa, subterranea, religiosa et funesta, vt cœmiteria, busta, et hominibus deserta habitacula, et vetustate caduca, loca obscura, et horrenda, et solitaria antra, cauernæ, putei, præterea piscina, stagna, paludes et eiusmodi. And in lib. iij. cap. xlij., speaking of the like, and in lib. iiij. about the end. Aptissima sunt loca plurimum experientia visionū, nocturnarūq incursionum et consimilium phantasmatu, vt cœmiteria, et in quibus fieri solent executio et criminalis iudicij, in quibus recentibus annis publicæ strages factæ sunt, vel ubi occisorū cadauera nec dum expiata, nec rite sepulta recentioribus annis subhumata sunt.

Comes she not yet?

Strike another heate.

2. CHARME.

The weather is fayre, the wind is good,
Vp, Dame o' yorh horse of wood,

h Delrio. Disq. Magic.

lib. 2 Quæst vj. has a story out of Triezius of this horse of wood: But y' wch or witches call so is sometime a broome staffe, sometime a reede, sometime a distaffe. See Remig. Dæmonol. lib. j. cap. xiiij. Bodin. lib. ij. cap. iiij. &c.

Or else, tuck up yo' gray frock,

And sadle yori Goate, or yor greene' Cock,

i The goate is

nities, as ap

And make his bridle a bottome of thrid,

To roule up how many miles you have rid.
Quickly come away:

For we all stay.

pears by th' confessions in Rem. and Bodin, ibid. His Matie also remembers the story of the Diuell's appearance to those of Calicut, in that forme. Daemonol. lib. ij. cap. iij. j of the greene Cock we have no other ground (to confesse ingenuously) than a vulgar fable of a witch that wth a cock of that colour, and a bottome of blewe thred, would transport herselfe through the ayre; and so escap'd (at the time of her being brought to execution) from the hand of Justice. It was a tale when I went to schoole. And somewhat there is like it in Mar. Delrio. Disqui. Mag. lib. ij. quest vj. of one Zyto, a Bohemian, that, among other his dexterities, aliquoties equis rhedarijs vectum, gallis gallinaceis ad epirrhedium suum alligatis susequebatur.

k All this is but a Periphrasis of the night, in theyr

Nor yet? Nay, then,

Wee'll try her agen.

3. CHARME.

The Owle is abroad, the Bat, and the Toade,

And so is the Cat-à-Mountaine;

The Ant and the Mole sit both in a hole,

And Frog peepes out o' the fountayne;

The Dogges they do bay, and the Timbrells play,
The Spindle is now à turning;

The Moone is red, and the starres are fled,

But all the Sky is à burning;

charme, and theyr applying themselves to it with theyr instruments, wherofye spindle, in antiquitye, was ye cheife: and (beside the testemony of Theocritus in Pharmaceutria, who only vsd it in amorous affayres) was of speciall act to the troubling of the moone. To wch Martial alludes, lib. ix. Epi. xxx. Quæ nunc Thessalico Luna deducere rhombo, etc. And lib. xij. Epig. Ivij. Cum secta Colcho, Luna vapulat rhombo.

This rite

also of making a ditch with theyr nayles is frequent with

The ditch is made, and or nayles the spade,

With pictures full of waxe and of wooll;

Theyre livers I stick wth needles quick:

There lackes but the blood to make vp the flood.

our witches; whereof see Bodin. Remigius, Delrio, Malleus Malefic. Godelman, lib.ij. de Lamijs, as also the antiquity of it most viuely exprest by Hora. Satir. viij. lib. j., where he mentions the pictures and the blood of a blacke lambe, all wch are yet in vse wth of moderne