have 'em straight in Crooked-Lane:-double bells all, if it be possible.

Cud. Double bells? double coxcombs! trebles, buy me trebles, all trebles; for our purpose is to be in the altitudes.

2 Cl. All trebles? not a mean?

Cud. Not one. The morrice is so cast, we'll have neither mean nor base in our company, fellow Rowland.

3 Cl. What! nor a counter?

Cud. By no means, no hunting counter; leave that to the Enfield Chase men: all trebles, all in the altitudes. Now for the disposing of parts in the Morrice, little or no labour will serve.

2 Cl. If you that be minded to follow your leader, know me, (an ancient honour belonging to our house,) for a fore-horse [i'th'] team, and fore-gallant in a morrice, my father's stable is not unfurnish'd.

3 Cl. So much for the fore-horse; but how for a good Hobby-horse?

Cud. For a Hobby-horse? let me see an almanack. Midsummer-moon, let me see you. let me see you. "When the moon's in the full, then wit's in the wane." No more. Use your best skill; your morrice will suffer an eclipse.

1 Cl. An eclipse?

Cud. A strange one.

2 Cl. Strange?

Cud. Yes, and most sudden. Remember the

fore-gallant, and forget the hobby-horse!

the

whole body of your morrice will be darkened.There be of us-but 'tis no matter:-forget the hobby-horse!

1 Cl. Cuddy Banks !-have you forgot since he paced it from Enfield Chase to Edmonton ?Cuddy, honest Cuddy, cast thy stuff."

Seek

Cud. Suffer may ye all! it shall be known, I can take my ease as well as another man. your hobby-horse where you can get him.

1 Cl. Cuddy, honest Cuddy, we confess, and are sorry for our neglect.

2 Cl. The old horse shall have a new bridle. 3 Cl. The caparisons new painted.

4 Cl. The tail repair'd.

1 Cl. The snaffle and the bosses new saffroned

over.

1 Cl. Kind,

2 Cl. Honest,

3 Cl. Loving, ingenious-

4 Cl. Affable, Cuddy.

Cud. To show I am not flint, but affable, as you say, very well stuft, a kind of warm dough or puffpaste, I relent, I connive, most affable Jack. Let the hobby-horse provide a strong back, he shall

Cast thy stuff.] So the quarto. The context might lead us to suppose, that the author's word was snuff, did not Cuddy subsequently advert to it. Cuddy's anger arises from the unlucky question asked by the 3d Clown. "How shall we do for a good hobby-horse?'-as he apparently expected, from his former celebrity in that respectable character, to have been appointed by acclamation.

not want a belly when I am in him-but (seeing the witch)-uds me, mother Sawyer!

1 Cl. The old witch of Edmonton!-if our mirth 'be not cross'd

2 Cl. Bless us, Cuddy, and let her curse her t'other eye out. out. What dost now?

Cud. "Ungirt, unblest," says the proverb; but my girdle shall serve [for] a riding knot; and a fig for all the witches in Christendom! What wouldst thou?

1 Cl. The devil cannot abide to be crossed. 2 Cl. And scorns to come at any man's whistle. 3 Cl. Away

4 Cl. With the witch!

All. Away with the Witch of Edmonton!

[Exeunt in strange postures. Saw. Still vex'd! still tortured! that curmud

geon Banks

Is ground of all my scandal; I am shunn'd
And hated like a sickness; made a scorn

To all degrees and sexes. I have heard old beldams

Talk of familiars in the shape of mice,

Rats, ferrets, weasels, and I wot not what,

That have appear'd, and suck'd, some say, their

blood;

But by what means they came acquainted with

them,

I am now ignorant. Would some power, good or

bad,

Instruct me which way I might be revenged
Upon this churl, I'd go out of myself,
And give this fury leave to dwell within
This ruin'd cottage, ready to fall with age!
Abjure all goodness, be at hate with prayer,
And study curses, imprecations,

Blasphemous speeches, oaths, detested oaths,
Or any thing that's ill; so I might work
Revenge upon this miser, this black cur,
That barks and bites, and sucks the very blood
Of me, and of my credit. Tis all one,
To be a witch, as to be counted one:
Vengeance, shame, ruin light upon that canker!

Enter a BLACK DOG."

Dog. Ho! have I found thee cursing? now thou

art

Mine own.

6 Enter a Black Dog.] "A great matter," Dr. Hutchinson says, "had been made at the time of the said commission, (1697,) of a black dog, that frequently appeared to Somers, and persuaded him to say he had dissembled; and when they asked him, why he said he counterfeited? he said: A dog, a dog! And as odd things will fall in with such stories, it happened that there was a black dog in the chamber, that belonged to one Clark, a spurrier. Some of the commissioners spying him, thought they saw the devil! one thought his eyes glared like fire! and much speech was afterwards made of it.' p. 260. This was under Elizabeth, whose reign, if we may trust the competent authorities, was far more infested with witches, than that of James I. when the Black Dog again made his appearance among the Lancashire witches. The audiences of those days, therefore, were well prepared for his reception, and probably viewed him with a sufficient degree of fearful credulity to create an interest in his feats. But there is "nothing new under the sun." The whole machinery of witchcraft was as well known to Lucan

Saw. Thine! what art thou?

Dog. He thou hast so often

Importuned to appear to thee, the devil.
Saw. Bless me! the devil?

Dog. Come, do not fear; I love thee much too well

To hurt or fright thee; if I seem terrible,
It is to such as hate me. I have found
Thy love unfeign'd; have seen and pitied
Thy open wrongs, and come, out of my love,
To give thee just revenge against thy foes.
Saw. May I believe thee?

Do

Dog. To confirm't, command me

any mischief unto man or beast,

And I'll effect it, on condition

That, uncompell'd, thou make a deed of gift

Of soul and body to me.

Saw. Out, alas!

My soul and body?

Dog. And that instantly,

And seal it with thy blood; if thou deniest,

I'll tear thy body in a thousand pieces.

Saw. I know not where to seek relief: but

shall I,

After such covenants seal'd, see full revenge

On all that wrong me?

as to us; and the black dogs of Mother Sawyer and Mother Demdike had their origin in the infernæ canes of the Greek and Latin poets, and descended, in regular succession, through all the demonology of the dark ages, to the times of the Revolution, when they quietly disappeared with the sorcerers, their employers.