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Back The Witch
Chapters (43)
  1. Cover Page
  2. The Witch
  3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  4. ABBREVIATIONS
  5. INTRODUCTION
  6. FURTHER READING
  7. The Witch
  8. [DRAMATIS PERSONAE]
  9. THE WITCH
  10. [Act I,] Scene ii
  11. Act II, Scene i
  12. [Act II,] Scene ii
  13. [Act II,] Scene iii
  14. Act III, Scene i
  15. [Act III,] Scene ii
  16. [Act III,] Scene iii
  17. Act IV, Scene i
  18. [Act IV,] Scene ii
  19. [Act IV,] Scene iii
  20. Act V, Scene i
  21. [Act V,] Scene ii
  22. [Act V,] Scene iii
  23. APPENDIX
  24. In a maiden time profess’d
  25. Come Away, Hecate!
  26. Notes
  27. Thomas Holmes, Esquire
  28. Act I, Scene i
  29. [Act I,] Scene ii
  30. Act II, Scene i
  31. [Act II,] Scene ii
  32. [Act II,] Scene iii
  33. Act III, Scene i
  34. [Act III,] Scene ii
  35. [Act III,] Scene iii
  36. Act IV, Scene i
  37. [Act IV,] Scene ii
  38. Act IV Scene iii
  39. Act V, Scene i
  40. [Act V,] Scene ii
  41. [Act V,] Scene iii
  42. Appendix
  43. Footnotes
Thou shalt have all when I die – and that will be
Even just at twelve o’clock at night come three year.
FIRESTONE
And may you not have one o’clock into th’ dozen, mother?
HECATE
No. 70
FIRESTONE
Your spirits are then more unconscionable than bakers;
you’ll have lived then, mother, six-score year to the
hundred – and methinks after six-score years the devil
might give you a cast – for he’s a fruiterer too and has
been from the beginning; the first apple that e’er was 75
eaten came through his fingers. The costermonger’s,
then, I hold to be the ancientest trade, though some
would have the tailor pricked down before him.
HECATE
Go, and take heed you shed not by the way.
The hour must have her portion, ’tis dear syrup; 80
Each charmed drop is able to confound
A family consisting of nineteen
Or one-and-twenty feeders.
FIRESTONE [Aside]      Marry, here’s stuff indeed!
Dear syrup call you it? A little thing
Would make me give you a dram on’t in a posset, 85
And cut you three years shorter.
HECATE
Thou’rt now about some villainy?
FIRESTONE
Not I forsooth. [Aside] Truly the devil’s in her, I think.
How one villain smells out another straight! There’s no
knavery but is nosed like a dog and can smell out a dog’s 90
meaning. [To HECATE] Mother I pray give me leave to
ramble abroad tonight with the Nightmare, for I have a
great mind to overlay a fat parson’s daughter.
HECATE
And who shall lie with me then?
FIRESTONE
The great cat for one night mother. ’Tis but a night – 95
Make shift with him for once.
HECATE      You’re a kind son!
But ’tis the nature of you all, I see that.
You had rather hunt after strange women still
Than lie with your own mothers. Get thee gone.
Sweat thy six ounces out about the vessel 100
And thou shalt play at midnight. The Nightmare
Shall call thee when it walks.
FIRESTONE      Thanks, most sweet mother.

Exit

Enter SEBASTIAN