Part 7 (1/2)

[Footnote 3: Harsnet, p. 225.]

73. The treatment to which, in consequence of his belief in possession, unfortunate persons like Mainy and Sommers, who were probably only suffering from some harmless form of mental disease, were subjected, was hardly calculated to effect a cure. The most ignorant quack was considered perfectly competent to deal with cases which, in reality, require the most delicate and judicious management, combined with the profoundest physiological, as well as psychological, knowledge. The ordinary method of dealing with these lunatics was as simple as it was irritating. Bonds and confinement in a darkened room were the specifics; and the monotony of this treatment was relieved by occasional visits from the sage who had charge of the case, to mumble a prayer or mutter an exorcism. Another popular but unpleasant cure was by flagellation; so that Romeo's

”Not mad, but bound more than a madman is, Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipped and tormented,”[1]

if an exaggerated description of his own mental condition is in itself no inflated metaphor.

[Footnote 1: I. ii. 55.]

74. Shakspere, in ”The Comedy of Errors,” and indirectly also in ”Twelfth Night,” has given us intentionally ridiculous ill.u.s.trations of scenes which he had not improbably witnessed, in the country at any rate, and which bring vividly before us the absurdity of the methods of diagnosis and treatment usually adopted:--

_Courtesan._ How say you now? is not your husband mad?

_Adriana._ His incivility confirms no less.

Good doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer; Establish him in his true sense again, And I will please you what you will demand.

_Luciana._ Alas! how fiery and how sharp he looks!

_Courtesan._ Mark how he trembles in his extasy!

_Pinch._ Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.[1]

_Ant. E._ There is my hand, and let it feel your ear.

_Pinch._ I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, To yield possession to my holy prayers, And to thy state of darkness his thee straight; I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven.

_Ant. E._ Peace, doting wizard, peace; I am not mad.

_Pinch._ O that thou wert not, poor distressed soul![2]

After some further business, Pinch p.r.o.nounces his opinion:

”Mistress, both man and master are possessed; I know it by their pale and deadly looks: They must be bound, and laid in some dark room.”[3]

But ”good doctor Pinch” seems to have been mild even to feebleness in his conjuration; many of his brethren in art had much more effective formulae. It seems that devils were peculiarly sensitive to any opprobrious epithets that chanced to be bestowed upon them. The skilful exorcist took advantage of this weakness, and, if he could only manage to keep up a flow of uncomplimentary remarks sufficiently long and offensive, the unfortunate spirit became embarra.s.sed, restless, agitated, and finally took to flight. Here is a specimen of the ”nicknames” which had so potent an effect, if Harsnet is to be credited:--

”Heare therefore, thou senceless false lewd spirit, maister of devils, miserable creature, tempter of men, deceaver of bad angels, captaine of heretiques, father of lyes, fatuous b.e.s.t.i.a.l ninnie, drunkard, infernal theefe, wicked serpent, ravening woolfe, leane hunger-bitten impure sow, seely beast, truculent beast, cruel beast, b.l.o.o.d.y beast, beast of all blasts, the most b.e.s.t.i.a.ll acherontall spirit, smoakie spirit, Tartareus spirit!”[4] Whether this objurgation terminates from loss of breath on the part of the conjurer, or the precipitate departure of the spirit addressed, it is impossible to say; it is difficult to imagine any logical reason for its conclusion.

[Footnote 1: The cessation of the pulse was one of the symptoms of possession. See the case of Sommers, Tryal of Maister Darrell, 1599.]

[Footnote 2: IV. iv. 48, 62.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid. 95.]

[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 113.]

75. Occasionally other, and sometimes more elaborate, methods of exorcism than those mentioned by Romeo were adopted, especially when the operation was conducted for the purpose of bringing into prominence some great religious truth. The more evangelical of the operators adopted the plan of lying on the top of their patients, ”after the manner of Elias and Pawle.”[1] But the Catholic exorcists invented and carried to perfection the greatest refinement in the art. The patient, seated in a ”holy chair,” specially sanctified for the occasion, was compelled to drink about a pint of a compound of sack and salad oil; after which refreshment a pan of burning brimstone was held under his nose, until his face was blackened by the smoke.[2] All this while the officiating priest kept up his invocation of the fiends in the manner ill.u.s.trated above; and, under such circ.u.mstances, it is extremely doubtful whether the most determined character would not be prepared to see somewhat unusual phenomena for the sake of a short respite.

[Footnote 1: The Tryall of Maister Darrell, 1599, p. 2.]

[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 53.]