THE WITCHES' SONG

"I have beene all day looking after

A raven feeding upon a quarter;

And, soone as she turned her back to the south,

I snatched this morsell out of her mouth."...

"I last night lay all alone

O' the ground, to heare the madrake grone;

And pluckt him up, though he grew full low:

And, as I had done, the cocke did crow."...

"And I ha' been plucking (plants among)

Hemlock, henbane, adders-tongue,

Night-shade, moone-wort, libbards-bane;

And twise by the dogges was like to be tane."...

"Yes: I have brought, to helpe your vows,

Hornèd poppie, cypresse boughes,

The fig-tree wild, that grows on tombes,

And juice that from the larch-tree comes,

The basiliske's bloud, and the viper's skin;

And now our orgies let's begin."

Ben Jonson