Certainly a very odd form of commendation of the soul, and a variant on that of the third shepherd.
Launcelot Sharpe, in his remarks on the “Towneley Mysteries” (Archæol., 1838), gives “the rural charm which, when a boy, I have often heard in Kent:—
‘Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Guard the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Guard the bed that I lie on.’”
Ady, in his “Candle in the Dark, or Treatise concerning the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft,” Lond., 1656, says, “An old woman in Essex who was living in my time, she had lived also in Queen Mary’s time, and had learned thence many popish charms, one whereof was this: every night when she lay down to sleep she charmed her bed, saying—
‘Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,