31 incubus evil spirit or demon which takes a man’s form to have sexual intercourse with women when they are asleep. Scot discusses various incubus manifestations in 4.5, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.12. A succubus takes a woman’s form to have intercourse with a sleeping man and so would seem to be the more appropriate term here.

33 Whelplie’s ed. (Wlelplies MS) an invented name suggesting the youthful, whelp-like character of Stadlin’s victim?

36 mounting flight and sexual encounter

38 his the dead baby’s

40–5 I thrust in … oleum Cf. Scot 10.8: ‘They put hereunto eleoselinum, aconitum, frondes populeas, and soot. Another receipt [recipe] to the same purpose. R. sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the blood of a flitter-mouse, solanum somniferum, & oleum’.

eleoselinum parsley

41 Aconitum deadly poisonous plant, monk’s head and wolf’s bane. See Masque of Queens (p. 299): ‘the juice of it, is like that liquor which the devil gives witches to sprinkle abroad, and do hurt, in the opinion of all the magic masters’.

frondes populeus poplar leaves

42 black ed. (back MS)

acharum vulgaro common myrtle

43 sium glabrous herb, yellow watercress

44 Pentaphyllon ed. following Scot (‘Dentaphillon’ MS); cinquefoil, literally five-leaved

flitter-mouse bat

45 Solanum somnificum sleep-inducing, deadly nightshade

oleum oil

46–7 heart … needles Scot 12.16 describes ‘A charm teaching how to hurt whom you list with images of wax etc.’ and the use of ‘a heart of wax, and pricking the same with pins and needles’.

52–3 Denying a witch charity was commonly supposed to result in being bewitched; cf. Macbeth I.iii.4–10.

52 barm froth on fermenting liquors, used to leaven bread and cause fermentation in liquors

53 charmings variant form of churnings, the quantity of butter produced from a churn

54 brew-locks not in OED; variant on ‘brew-lead’, a leaden vessel used in brewing?

batches of bread

forespoke bewitched

55 breedings of animals on the farm

be meet with be even with

57 Lineation is as in MS. Other editors regularise the verse.

58 after … too Attending evensong might be thought to protect the farmer, and so Hecate is particularly proud of this exploit.

59 sop liquid (here milk) in which bread, etc. is dipped

60 milch-kine milk cows

62 stroke … dugs i.e. the cows will yield no milk

63 syllabubs drink or dish made from milk or cream curdled by a mixture of wine, cider, etc., often sweetened and flavoured

71 unconscionable without regard for conscience

74 cast chance. Firestone’s joke is laboured. If the devil gives 120 years, i.e. a dozen × 10, he could round it up to a baker’s dozen or 13.

75 first apple Eve’s in the Garden of Eden

76 costermonger fruit seller

78 pricked written or noted down (with a pun on ‘prick’ meaning penis)

80 hour … portion spells or poisons must be matched to auspicious times

81 confound kill

85 posset drink of hot milk curdled with ale, wine, sugar and spices

89 villain MS could be read as ‘villainy’.

straight straight away

90–1 nosed … meaning i.e. knavery has as good a nose for smelling as a dog and is particularly good at smelling out the meanings of other knaves