XVI. The Coverley Witch
Motto. "They make their own visions."—Virgil, Eclogues, viii. 108.
[129]: 9. The subject of witchcraft. The Spectator was less credulous, on this matter of witchcraft, than most of his contemporaries. The witchcraft craze in Salem, Massachusetts, occurred in 1692; only a few years before this paper was written, two women had been hanged in Northampton, England, for witchcraft; and as late as 1716 a certain Mrs. Hicks and her daughter were executed in Huntingdon for selling their souls to the devil, etc. The statute of James I, 1603, punishing witchcraft by death, was not repealed until 1736; and the belief in witchcraft continued to be common long after that, not only among the ignorant, but among the educated. John Wesley, on most matters a man of very sound practical judgement, writes in his Journal as late as 1770: "I cannot give up to all the Deists in Great Britain the existence of witchcraft till I give up the credit of all history, sacred and profane. And at the present time I have not only as strong but stronger proofs of this from eye and ear witnesses than I have of murder; so that I cannot rationally doubt of one any more than the other." And Samuel Johnson, when questioned by Boswell on the matter, while he would "not affirm anything positively upon the subject," reminded Mr. Boswell that in support of witchcraft "You have not only the general report and belief, but many solemn, voluntary confessions." (Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, April 9, 1772.)
For an account of the kind of evidence used against alleged witches, see a case cited in Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. x.
[130]: 19. Otway. Thomas Otway (1651-1685), the best tragic dramatist of the Restoration period. The passage is from his tragedy, The Orphan, ii. 1.
[131]: 8. Carried her several hundreds of miles. In accordance with the superstition that a witch rode through the air at night on a broomstick. Other superstitions are referred to in the following lines.
131: 15. Take a pin of her. Because bewitched people were frequently said to be tormented with pins, or to be made to vomit pins. The pins that figured so conspicuously in the Salem witchcraft trials may still be seen in the Museum there.
[132]: 5. A tabby cat. A black cat was traditionally supposed to be a favourite form in which Satan embodied himself, and hence a constant figure in all witchcraft stories.
132: 15. Advising her, as a justice of peace. This sentence admirably indicates Sir Roger's half belief in the preternatural powers of the old woman, and his anxiety to avoid any trouble that would oblige him to come to a conclusion in the matter.
132: 24. Trying experiments with her. Because, if she floated, she was accounted a witch; if she sank, she was probably innocent, and they might pull her out.