The insulting hand of Douglas over you,
Which would have been as speedy in your end
As all the poisonous potions in the world.
And again, in Part 2, Act 1, Scene 1, Morton declares:
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain’d,
As men drink potions.
In these previously cited instances, in the Shakespearean contexts, it is evident that the term potion had often a malefic connotation, implying venom and destruction in its use. But it was equally a term of amatory and sensual significance, associated largely with physiological refreshment.
In Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe’s drama, the protagonist, passionately eager to embrace all knowledge that offers power, that is, the thaumaturgic and necromantic skills, exclaims:
’Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me.
He then proceeds, after his pact with Mephistopheles, to demand the implementation of the conditions. He is aroused erotically, and commands: