Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings _ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a
great toad shut in a vial_, upon which those that prosecuted him,
_Veneficium exprebrabent, charged him_, I suppose, _with witchcraft_.

_Fillet of fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bakae:
Eye of newt, and toe of frog;--
For a charm, &c_.

The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books
_de Viribus Animalium_ and _de Mirabilibus Mundi_, ascribed to Albertus
Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover
very wonderful secrets.

_Finger of birth-strangled babe,
Ditch deliver'd by a drab_;--

It has been already mentioned in the law against witches, that they are
supposed to take up dead bodies to use in enchantments, which was
confessed by the woman whom king James examined, and who had of a dead
body that was divided in one of their assemblies, two fingers for her
share. It is observable that Shakespeare, on this great occasion, which
involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circumstanaces of
horror. The babe, whose finger is used, must be strangled in its birth;
the grease must not only be human, but must have dropped from a gibbet,
the gibbet of a murderer; and even the sow, whose blood is used, must
have offended nature by devouring her own farrow. These are touches of
judgment and genius.

_And now about the cauldron sing--