ACT V.

SCENE I.-The Witch's Cottage.

Enter Mother SAWYER.

Saw. Still wrong'd by every slave! and not a
dog

Bark in his dame's defence! I am call'd witch,
Yet am myself bewitch'd from doing harm.
Have I giv'n up myself to thy black lust
Thus to be scorn'd? Not see me in three days!
I'm lost without my Tomalin; prithee come:
Revenge to me is sweeter far than life:*
Thou art my raven, on whose coal-black wings
Revenge comes flying to me. Oh my best love!
I am on fire, even in the midst of ice,

Raking my blood up, till my

shrunk knees feel Thy curl'd head leaning on them; come, then, my darling;

If in the air thou hover'st, fall upon me

* Revenge to me is sweeter far than life.]

At vindicta bonum vita jucundius.

I have already observed on the incongruous language put into the mouth of our village witch. Either of the poets could have written down to her vulgar estimation, but they appear to entertain some indistinct notion of raising her character. This soliloquy, which is a very fine one, might have been pronounced by a Sagana, or a Canidia.-GIFFORD.

Art thou i' th' sea?

In some dark cloud; and as I oft have seen
Dragons and serpents in the elements,
Appear thou now so to me.
Muster up all the monsters from the deep,
And be the ugliest of them; so that my bulch*
Show but his swarth cheek to me, let earth
cleave

And break from hell, I care not!—could I run
Like a swift powder-mine beneath the world,
Up would I blow it all, to find out thee,

Though I lay ruin'd in it.

I must then fall to my old

Sanctibicetur nomen tuum.

Not yet come!

prayer:

Not yet come! the worrying of wolves, biting of mad dogs, and the

Enter Doo, white.

Dog. How now! whom art thou cursing?

Saw. Thee!

Ha! no, 'tis my black cur I am cursing,

For not attending on me.

Dog. I am that cur.

Saw. Thou liest: hence! come not nigh me.
Dog. Bow, wow!

Saw. Why dost thou thus appear to me in white,

As if thou wert the ghost of my dear love?

Dog. I am dogg'd, and list not to tell thee; yet, to torment thee,-my whiteness puts thee in mind of thy winding-sheet.

*So that my bulch.] Literally, a calf; sometimes used, as here, as an expression of kindness; but generally indicative of familiarity and contempt.-GIFFORD.

Saw. Am I near death?

Dog. Yes, if the dog of hell be near thee; when the devil comes to thee as a lamb, have at thy throat!

San. Off, cur!

Dog. He has the back of a sheep, but the belly of an otter; devours by sea and land.

66

Why am

I in white?" didst thou not pray to me? Saw. Yes, thou dissembling hell-hound; Why now in white more than at other times? Dog. Be blasted with the news! whiteness is day's foot-boy, a forerunner to light, which shows thy old rivell'd face: villainies are stripp'd naked; the witch must be beaten out of her cock-pit.

Saw. Must she? she shall not; thou'rt a lying spirit:

Why to mine eyes art thou a flag of truce?
I am at peace with none; 'tis the black colour
Or none, which I fight under: I do not like
Thy puritan paleness; glowing furnaces

Are far more hot than they which flame outright.
If thou my old dog art, go and bite such
As I shall set thee on.

Dog. I will not.

San. I'll sell myself to twenty thousand fiends, To have thee torn in pieces then.

Dog. Thou canst not; thou art so ripe to fall into hell, that no more of my kennel will so much as bark at him that hangs thee.

Saw. I shall run mad.

Dog. Do so, thy time is come to curse, and rave, and die; the glass of thy sins is full, and it must run out at gallows.

Saw. It cannot, ugly cur, I'll confess nothing ;
And not confessing, who dare come and swear
I have bewitch'd them? I'll not confess one mouth-
ful.

Dog. Choose, and be hang'd or burn'd.
Sam. Spite of the devil and thee,

I'll muzzle up my tongue from telling tales.
Dog. Spite of thee and the devil, thou❜lt be con-

demn'd.

San. Yes! when?

Dog. And ere the executioner catch thee full in's claws, thou❜lt confess all.

Saw. Out dog!

Dog. Out witch! thy trial is at hand :

Our prey being had, the devil does laughing stand.

[ Goes aside.

Enter Old BANKS, RATCLIFFE, and Countrymen.

Banks. She's here; attach her.

must go with us.

Saw. Whither? to hell?

Witch, you

[They seize her.

Banks. No, no, no, old crone; your mittimus shall be made thither, but your own jailors shall receive you. Away with her!

Saw. My Tommy! my sweet Tom-boy; Oh, thou dog!

Dost thou now fly to thy kennel and forsake me! Plagues and consumptions

Dog. Ha, ha, ha, ha!

[She is carried off.

Let not the world witches or devils condemn;

They follow us, and then we follow them.

[Exit DOG.

SCENE II.-London.-The neighbourhood of

Tyburn.

Enter JUSTICE, Sir ARTHUR, SOMERTON, WARBECK, CARTER, and Katherine,

Just. Sir Arthur, though the bench hath mildly censured your errors, yet you have indeed been the instrument that wrought all their misfortunes ; I would wish you paid down your fine speedily and willingly.

Sir Ar. I shall need no urging to it.

Car. If you should, 'twere a shame to you; for, if I should speak my conscience, you are worthier to be hang'd of the two, all things considered; and now make what you can of it: but I am glad these gentlemen are freed.

War. We knew our innocence.

Som. And therefore fear'd it not.

Kath. But I am glad that I have you safe.

[A noise within.

Just. How now? what noise is that?

Car. Young Frank is going the wrong way.-Alas, poor youth! now, I begin to pity him.

Enter Old THORNEY and WINNIFREDE weeping.

Thor. Here let our sorrows wait him; to press

nearer

The place of his sad death, some apprehensions May tempt our grief too much, at height already;

Daughter, be comforted.