Arras.
THE WITCH MANIA.
What wrath of gods, or wicked influence
Of tears, conspiring wretched men t' afflict,
Hath pour'd on earth this noyous pestilence
That mortal minds doth inwardly infect
With love of blindness and of ignorance?
Spencer's Tears of the Muses.
Of tears, conspiring wretched men t' afflict,
Hath pour'd on earth this noyous pestilence
That mortal minds doth inwardly infect
With love of blindness and of ignorance?
Spencer's Tears of the Muses.
Countrymen. Hang her! beat her! kill her!
Justice. How now? Forbear this violence!
Mother Sawyer. A crew of villains—a knot of bloody hangmen! set to torment me! I know not why.
Justice. Alas, neighbour Banks! are you a ringleader in mischief? Fie! to abuse an aged woman!
Banks. Woman! a she hell-cat, a witch! To prove her one, we no sooner set fire on the thatch
of her house, but in she came running, as if the devil had sent her in a barrel of gunpowder.
Ford's Witch of Edmonton.
Justice. How now? Forbear this violence!
Mother Sawyer. A crew of villains—a knot of bloody hangmen! set to torment me! I know not why.
Justice. Alas, neighbour Banks! are you a ringleader in mischief? Fie! to abuse an aged woman!
Banks. Woman! a she hell-cat, a witch! To prove her one, we no sooner set fire on the thatch
of her house, but in she came running, as if the devil had sent her in a barrel of gunpowder.
Ford's Witch of Edmonton.
The belief that disembodied spirits may be permitted to revisit this world has its foundation upon that sublime hope of immortality which is at once the chief solace and greatest triumph of our reason. Even
