The True Story vs. Myth of Witchcraft. William Godwin
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href="#ulink_a66027ff-7d98-50ff-87b5-265d6b96b481">26 gives us the reason:
‘Philomathes. But before yee goe further, permit me, I pray you, to interrupt you one worde, which yee haue put mee in memory of, by speaking of Women. What can be the cause that there are twentie women giuen to that craft, where there is one man?
‘Epistemon. The reason is easie, for, as that sexe is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be intrapped in these grosse snares of the Diuell, as was ouer well proued to be true, by the Serpent’s deceiving of Eua at the beginning, which makes him the homelier with that sex sensine.
Reginald Scot, than whom there can be no better English authority, tells us27 ‘who they be that are called witches.’
‘The sort of such as are said to bee witches, are women which be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; poore, sullen, superstitious, and papists; or such as knowe no religion: in whose drousie minds the diuell hath gotten a fine seat; so as, what mischeefe, mischance, calamitie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easilie persuaded the same is doone by themselues; imprinting in their minds an earnest and constant imagination thereof. They are leane and deformed, shewing melancholie in their faces, to the horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, diuelish; and not much differing from them that are thought to be possessed with spirits: so firme and stedfast in their opinions, as whosoeuer shall onelie haue respect to the constancie of their words uttered, would easilie belieue they were true indeed.
‘These miserable wretches are so odious unto all their neighbours, and so feared, as few dare offend them, or denie them anie thing they aske; whereby they take upon them; yea, and sometimes thinke, that they can doo such things as are beyond the abilitie of humane nature. These go from house to house, and from doore to doore for a pot full of milke, yest, drinke, pottage, or some such releefe; without the which they could hardlie liue: neither obtaining for their seruice and paines, nor by their art, nor yet at the diuel’s hands (with whome they are said to make a perfect and visible bargaine) either beautie, monie, promotion, welth, worship, pleasure, honor, knowledge, learning, or anie other benefit whatsoeuer.
‘It falleth out many times, that neither their necessities, nor their expectation is answered or serued, in those places where they beg or borrowe; but rather their lewdnesse is by their neighbors reproued. And further, in tract of time, the witch waxeth odious and tedious to her neighbors; and they, againe, are despised and despited of hir; so as sometimes she cursseth one, and sometimes another; and that from the maister of the house, his wife, children, cattell &c. to the little pig that lieth in the stie. Thus, in processe of time they have all displeased hir, and she hath wished euill lucke unto them all: perhaps with cursses and imprecations made in forme. Doubtlesse (at length) some of hir neighbors die or fall sicke; or some of their children are visited with diseases that vex them strangelie; as apoplexies, epilepsies, conuulsions, hot feuers, wormes &c. Which by ignorant parents are supposed to be the vengeance of witches. Yea, and their opinions and conceits are confirmed and maintained by unskilful physicians: according to the common saieing; Inscitiæ pallium maleficio et incantatio. Witchcraft and inchantment is the cloke of ignorance: whereas, indeed, euill humors, and not strange words, witches or spirits are the Causes of such diseases. Also some of their cattell perish, either by disease or mischance. Then they, upon whom such aduersities fall, weighing the same that goeth upon this woman (hir words, displeasure and cursses meeting so iustlie with their misfortune) do not onelie conceiue, but, also, are resolued, that all their mishaps are brought to passe by hir onelie meanes.
‘The witch, on the other side, expecting her neighbors’ mischances, and seeing things sometimes come to passe according to her wishes, cursses and incantations (for Bodin himselfe confesseth that not aboue two in a hundred of their witchings or wishings take effect) being called before a Iustice, by due examination of the circumstances, is driuen to see hir imprecations and desires, and hir neighbors’ harmes and losses, to concurre, and, as it were, to take effect; and so confesseth that she (as a goddes) hath brought such things to passe. Wherein, not onelie she, but the accuser, and also the Iustice, are fowlie deceiued and abused; as being, thorough hir confession and other circumstances, persuaded (to the iniurie of God’s glory) that she hath done, or can doo that which is proper onelie to God himselfe.’
This is a good definition of a witch, and was published in 1584 when the witch mania was becoming a cult. Let us hear what Addison28 writes of it in 1711, when it was decidedly on the wane:
‘... It is with this Temper of Mind that I consider the Subject of Witchcraft. When I hear the Relations that are made from all parts of the World, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and West Indies, but from every particular Nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that there is such an Intercourse and Commerce with Evil Spirits, as that which we express by the name of Witchcraft. But, when I consider that the ignorant and credulous Parts of the World abound most in these Relations, and that the Persons among us who are supposed to engage in such an Infernal Commerce, are People of a weak Understanding and crazed Imagination, and, at the same time, reflect on the many Impostures and Delusions of this Nature that have been detected in all Ages, I endeavour to suspend my Belief, till I have more certain Accounts than any which have yet come to my Knowledge. In short, when I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? My Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions, or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe, in general, that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but, at the same time, can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
‘I am engaged in this speculation, by some Occurrences that I met with Yesterday, which I shall give my Reader an Account of at large. As I was walking with my Friend Sir Roger, by the side of one of his Woods, an old Woman applied herself to me for my Charity. Her Dress and Figure put me in mind of a Description in Ottway, which I could not forbear repeating on this Occasion.
‘“In a close Lane as I pursu’d my Journey,
I spy’d a wrinkled Hag, with Age grown double,
Picking dry Sticks, and mumbling to her self.
Her Eyes with Scalding Rheum were gall’d and red,
Cold Palsy shook her Head; her Hands seem’d wither’d;
And on her crooked Shoulders had she wrap’d
The tatter’d Remnants of an old Striped Hanging,
Which serv’d to keep her Carcass from the Cold:
So there was nothing of a-piece about her.
Her lower Weeds were all o’er coarsly patch’d
With diff’rent colour’d Rags, black, white, red, yellow,
And seem’d to speak Variety of Wretchedness.”
‘The Knight told me, upon hearing the Description, that this very old Woman had the Reputation of a Witch all over the Country, that her Lips were observed to be always in Motion, and that there was not a Switch about her House, which her Neighbours did not believe had carried her several hundreds of Miles. If she chanced to stumble, they always found Sticks or Straws that lay in the Figure of a Cross before her. If she made any Mistake at Church, and cryed Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that she was saying her Prayers backwards. There was not a Maid in the Parish that would take a Pinn of her, though she should offer a Bag of Mony with it. She goes by the Name of Moll White, and has made the Country ring with several imaginary Exploits that are palmed upon her. If the Dairy Maid does not make the Butter come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the bottom of the Churne. If a Horse sweats in the Stable, Moll White has been upon his Back. If a Hare makes an unexpected Escape from the Hounds, the Huntsman curses Moll White. Nay, (says Sir Roger) I have known the Master of the Pack, upon such an Occasion, send one of his Servants to see if Moll White had been out that Morning.
‘This Account raised my Curiosity so far, that I beg’d my Friend,