The cunning man or woman was a kind of physician and in large practice. He undertook to cure all diseases under the sun by the “Ephemerides,” the marks on almanacks of lucky or unlucky days. Besides his medical learning he knew how to advise in the matter of winning at horse races; in card playing, how to win; he could search for things lost, he sold charms, he told girls about their future lovers, and he erected astrological figures. Often he was a physician by profession, like that unfortunate Dr. Lambe, done to death by the crowd in the City for being an astrologer or cunning man.
The level of medical science in the seventeenth century may be judged by the prescriptions which follow:—
“(1) For Dimness of sight.
For dimness of the Eyes, eat 12 leaves of Rue in a morning with bread and butter and it will very much availe.”
For the stopping of bleeding
“Take red nettles, stamp them and straine them alone, then take the juice and rubb all over the forehead and temples, so lett it dry upon the face 7 or 8 hours, after you may wash it of, but if you bleede againe, renew it.”
For the plague we have
“The Medicine that the Lord Mayor of London had sent him from Q. Elisa: the ingredients are sage, rue, elder leaves, red bramble leaves, white wine and ginger. ‘So drink of it till evening and morning 9 dayes together: the first spoonfull will by God’s grace preserve safe for 24 dayes and after the ninth spoonfull for one whole yeare.’”
Another “safe medicine” is as follows:—
“Take a locke of your Owne hair, cutt it as small as may bee, and so take it in beere or wine.”
The next is not so appetising. For a dull hearing
“Take a grey snaile, prick him, and putt the water which comes from him into the eare and stop it with blackwool, it will cure.”
“(2) To cure the biting or stinging of a Snake, as it hath often been tryed.
‘Take the leaves of a Burr-dock stamp and straine them and so drinke a good quantity, halfe a pint at the least, the simple juice itselfe is best.’
(3) A most pretious Water of Wallnutts.
Cures many ailments. Among the rest: ‘One drop in the eyes healeth all infirmityes, it healeth palsyes, it causeth sleep in the night. If it be used moderately with wine, it preserveth life so long as nature will permitt.’
(4) For Sciatica.
The principal ingredient is the marrow of a horse (killed by chance, not dying of any disease) mixed with some rose water. ‘Chafe it in with a warme hand for a quarter of an houre, then putt on a Scarlett cloth, broad enough to cover the parte affected and go into a warme bed.’
(5) Headache.
The juice of Ground-ivy snuft up into the nose out of a spoone taketh away the greatest paine thereof. This medicine is worth gold.
(6) For consumption is recommended an infusion in which the following ingredients take part:—
“Malaga-sacke, liverwort, Dandelion-root scrapt and the pith tooke out, and a piece of Elecampane sliced.
(7) Madness in a Dog or anything:—
Pega, tega, sega, docemena, Mega. These words written and the paper rowl’d up and given to a Dog or anything that is mad, will cure him.”
Floyer, for his part, placed the greatest reliance on the sovereign virtues of cold water, administered externally. He spared no pains to inculcate on sufferers from rheumatism, nervous disorders, and other maladies, the virtue of cold bathing, and maintained that the prevalence of consumption in this country dated only from the time when baptism by immersion had been discontinued.
I have mentioned the “cunning man” who was also an astrologer. But there was the astrologer in higher practice. Everybody believed in astrology, from the King downwards. The astrologer followed a profession both lucrative and honourable. Sometimes, as in the case of Dr. Nenier of Linford, he was an enthusiast who prayed continually and was in confidential communication with the archangels, being by them enabled to heal many diseases, especially ague, and the falling sickness by means of consecrated rings.
When the Civil War began there were astrologers on both sides who prophesied, each for the good of his own cause. Thus, on the Parliamentary side the astrologer prophesied disasters to the Cavaliers and victory to the Roundheads. These predictions became weapons of great weight because people believed them. Butler puts the case in his own way:—
“Do not our great reformers use
This Sidrophel to forbode news?
To write of victories next year,
And castles taken yet i’ th’ air?