1. 2. 22 Why, are there lawes against ’hem? It was found necessary in 1541 to pass an act (33 Hen. VIII. c. 8) by which—‘it shall be felony to practise, or cause to be practised conjuration, witchcrafte, enchantment, or sorcery, to get money: or to consume any person in his body, members or goods; or to provoke any person to unlawful love; or for the despight of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any cross; or to declare where goods stolen be.’ Another law was passed 1 Edward VI. c. 12 (1547). 5 Elizabeth. c. 16 (1562) gives the ‘several penalties of conjuration, or invocation of wicked spirits, and witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery.’ Under Jas. I, anno secundo (vulgo primo), c. 12, still another law was passed, whereby the second offense was declared a felony. The former act of Elizabeth was repealed. This act of James was not repealed until 9 George II. c. 5.
Social England, p. 270, quotes from Ms. Lansdowne, 2. Art. 26, a deposition from William Wicherley, conjurer, in which he places the number of conjurers in England in 1549 above five hundred. A good idea of the character of the more disreputable type of conjurer can be got from Beaumont and Fletcher’s Fair Maid of the Inn. See especially Act 5, Sc. 2.
1. 2. 26 circles. The magic circle is one of the things most frequently mentioned among the arts of the conjurer. Scot (Discovery, p. 476) has a long satirical passage on the subject, in which he enjoins the conjurer to draw a double circle with his own blood, to divide the circle into seven parts and to set at each division a ‘candle lighted in a brazen candlestick.’
1. 2. 27 his hard names. A long list of the ‘diverse names of the divell’ is given in The Discovery, p. 436, and another in the Second Appendix, p. 522.
1. 2. 31, 2 I long for thee. An’ I were with child by him, ... I could not more. The expression is common enough. Cf. Eastward Hoe: ‘Ger. As I am a lady, I think I am with child already, I long for a coach so.’ Dekker, Shomakers Holiday, Wks. 1. 17: ‘I am with child till I behold this huffecap.’ The humors of the longing wife are a constant subject of ridicule. See Bart. Fair, Act 1, and Butler’s Hudibras, ed. 1819, 3. 78 and note.
1. 2. 39 A thousand miles. ‘Neither are they so much limited as Tradition would have them; for they are not at all shut up in any separated place: but can remove millions of miles in the twinkling of an eye.’—Scot, Discovery, Ap. II, p. 493.
1. 2. 43 The burn’t child dreads the fire. Jonson is fond of proverbial expressions. Cf. 1. 6. 125; 1. 6. 145; 5. 8. 142, 3, etc.
1. 3. 5 while things be reconcil’d. In Elizabethan English both while and whiles often meant ‘up to the time when’, as well as ‘during the time when’ (d. a similar use of ‘dum’ in Latin and of ἕ ος in Greek).—Abbot, §137.
For its frequent use in this sense in Shakespeare see Schmidt and note on Macbeth 3. 1. 51, Furness’s edition. Cf. also Nash, Prognostication, Wks. 2. 150: ‘They shall ly in their beds while noon.’
1. 3. 8, 9 those roses Were bigge inough to hide a clouen foote. Dyce (Remarks, p. 289) quotes Webster, White Devil, 1612: