Again, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 2), Benedick, who is represented as having the toothache, after listening to the banter of his comrades, replies: “Yet is this no charm for the toothache.”
Perfect silence seems to have been regarded as indispensable for the success of any charm; and Pliny informs us that “favete linguis” was the usual exclamation employed on such an occasion. From this circumstance it has been suggested that the well-known phrase “to charm a tongue” may have originated. Thus we have the following dialogue in “Othello” (v. 2):
“Iago.Go to, charm your tongue.
Emilia. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak.”
Thus, on the appearance, amid thunder, of the first apparition to Macbeth, after the witches have performed certain charms (iv. 1), Shakespeare introduces the following dialogue:
“Macbeth. Tell me, thou unknown power—
First Witch.He knows thy thought:
Hear his speech, but say thou nought.”
Again, in “The Tempest” (iv. 1), Prospero says:
“hush, and be mute,
Or else our spell is marr’d.”
Metrical Charms. There was a superstition long prevalent that life might be taken away by metrical charms.[941] Reginald Scot, in his “Discovery of Witchcraft” (1584), says: “The Irishmen addict themselves, etc.; yea, they will not sticke to affirme that they can rime a man to death.” In “1 Henry VI.” (i. 1), the Duke of Exeter, referring to the lamented death of Henry V., says: