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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

[MALKIN] a spirit like a cat descends

A kiss, a coll, a sip of blood –
And why thou stay’st so long
I muse, I muse,
Since the air’s so sweet and good.
HECATE
Oh art thou come? 55
What news, what news?
[MALKIN]
All goes still to our delight;
Either come or else
Refuse, refuse.
HECATE
Now I am furnished for the flight. 60
FIRESTONE
Hark, hark! The cat sings a brave treble in her own
language.
HECATE going up [with MALKIN]
Now I go, now I fly,
Malkin my sweet spirit and I.
Oh what a dainty pleasure ’tis 65
To ride in the air
When the moon shines fair,
And sing and dance and toy and kiss.
Over woods, high rocks and mountains,
Over seas, our mistress’ fountains, 70
Over steeples, towers and turrets,
We fly by night, ’mongst troops of spirits.
No ring of bells to our ears sounds,
No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds;
No, not the noise of water’s breach 75
Or cannon’s throat our height can reach.
[VOICES] above
No ring of bells to our ears sounds,
No howls of wolves, no yelps of hounds;
No, not the noise of water’s breach
Or cannon’s throat our height can reach. 80
FIRESTONE
Well mother, I thank your kindness; you must be gambolling
i’th’ air and leave me to walk here like a fool and
a mortal.      Exit

Act IV, Scene i

Enter ALMACHILDES

ALMACHILDES
Though the fates have endued me with a pretty kind of
lightness, that I can laugh at the world in a corner on’t,
and can make myself merry on fasting nights to rub out
a supper – which were a precious quality in a young,
formal student – yet, let the world know, there is some 5
difference betwixt my jovial condition and the lunary
state of madness. I am not quite out of my wits. I know
a bawd from an aqua-vitae shop, a strumpet from wild-fire
and a beadle from brimstone. Now shall I try the
honesty of a great woman soundly. She reckoning the 10
duke’s made away, I’ll be hanged if I be not the next
now. If I trust her, as she’s a woman, let one of her long
hairs wind about my heart and be the end of me – which
were a piteous, lamentable tragedy and might be entitled
‘A fair warning for all hair-bracelets’. 15
Already there’s an insurrection
Among the people; they are up in arms –
Not out of any reason but their wills,
Which are in them their saints – sweating and swearing,
Out of their zeal to rudeness, that no stranger, 20
As they term her, shall govern over them.
They say they’ll raise a duke among themselves first.

Enter DUCHESS