Mil. Till I wondring at his stay, went out and found him in the Trance; since which time, he has beene haunted and frighted with Goblins, 40 times; and never durst tell any thing (as I sayd) because the Hags had so threatned him till in his sicknes he revealed it to his mother.
Dough. And she told no body but folkes on't. Well Gossip Gretty, as thou art a Miller, and a close thiefe, now let us keepe it as close as we may till we take 'hem, and see them handsomly hanged o'the way: Ha my little Cuffe-divell, thou art a made man. Come, away with me.
Exeunt."
Heywood and Broome's Late Lancashire Witches, Acts 2 and 3.
[D] Sic in orig.
[57] These names are thus given in Baines's Transcript:—
"Dickensons
Henrie Priestleyes wife and his ladd
Alice Hargrave, widdowe
Jane Davies (als. Jennet Device)
William Davies
The wife of Henrie Offep and her sonnes
John and Myles
The wife of Duckers
James Hargrave of Maresden
Loyards wife
James wife
Sanders wife, And as hee beleeveth
Lawnes wife
Sander Pynes wife of Baraford
One Foolegate and his wife
And Leonards of the West Close."
And thus in Webster:—
"Dickensons Wife, Henry Priestleys Wife, and his Lad, Alice Hargreene Widow, Jane Davies, William Davies, and the Wife of Henry Fackes, and her Sons John and Miles, the Wife of —— Denneries, James Hargreene of Marsdead, Loynd's Wife, one James his Wife, Saunders his Wife, and Saunders himself sicut credit, one Laurence his Wife, one Saunder Pyn's Wife of Barraford, one Holgate and his Wife of Leonards of the West close."
[58] The learned "practitioner in physick," Mr. William Drage, in his "Treatise of Diseases from Witchcraft," published Lond. 1668, 4to. p. 22, recommends "birch" in such cases, "as a specifical medicine, antipathetical to demons." One can only lament that this valuable remedy was not vigorously applied in the present instance, as well as in most others in which these juvenile sufferers appear. I doubt whether, in the whole Materia Medica, a more powerful Lamia-fuge could have been discovered, or one which would have been more universally successful, if applied perseveringly, whenever the suspicious symptoms recurred. The following is, however, Drage's great panacea in these cases, a mode of treatment which must have been vastly popular, judging from its extensive adoption in all parts of the country: "Punish the witch, threaten to hang her if she helps not the sick, scratch her and fetch blood. When she is cast into prison the sick are some time delivered, some time he or she (they are most females, most old women, and most poor,) must transfer the disease to other persons, sometimes to a dog, or horse, or cow, &c. Threaten her and beat her to remove it."—Drage, p. 23.