Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/86

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. JULY 26, 1902.

The favourite pieces were the ' Warwickshire Wagg ' and ' Bombastes Furioso.' The latter piece, it need hardly be added, was a burlesque tragic opera, written by William Barnes Rhodes in ridicule of the heroic style of the modern dramas, and produced in 1790. In the days of my youth in Dublin, I understood that the expression

Ye gods and little fishes !

What is a man without his breeches ?

was to be found in ' Bombastes Furioso.'

HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, Clapham; S.W.

Does not "Ye gods" refer to the cycle of the gods, and the latter part of the phrase to the mystical association therewith of the fishes (Pisces) of the zodiac ?

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

HEBREW INCANTATIONS (9 th S. x. 29). This question is to me personally a most interest- ing one. I fancy the association, real or sup- posed, of Jews with the black art must date from the captivity in Babylon. Recent re- searches have proved that the Babylonians were desperate sorcerers, second to none. It has even been suggested (I forget by whom) that the extraordinary hieroglyphics which figure in mediaeval grimoires as the seals denoting planets are survivals of the cunei- form syllabary. Be that as it may, the asso- ciation of magic with the Hebrews is very old. If MR. BRESLAR can find time to inspect at the British Museum a copy of Cornelius Agrippa's 'Occult Philosophy,' he will see that from cover to cover it is crammed with Hebrew names and phrases, sometimes very correctly written, but often misprinted or debased. Thus, Aye Saraye, a sacred sentence frequent in this and similar treatises, is ob- viously intended for rvnK "IPX HMN. Agrippa was far from considering the Kabbala as merely mystical. For him it was a practical handbook to magic. The amulets which are illustrated in his pages are mostly in Hebrew, and I may add that in Petticoat Lane Hebrew amulets may still be bought, protective against almost every ill that flesh is heir to, from croup to the evil eye. Among English writers I have always looked upon Harrison Ains- worth a.sfacileprincepsin dealing with things hidden, and in some of his works notably ' Crichton ' he shows very clearly that there was a Hebrew substratum to his magical studies. Besides, in Jewish history there are well-known cases of wonder-working Rabbins. MR. BRESLAR must have heard of Rabbi Ezekiel, he of the magic hammer, at each blow of which upon a nail in his cell one of his enemies, " even were he 2,000 leagues off,

sank into the earth, which swallowed him up" (see 'Notre Dame,' lib. vi. cap. iv., wnere Hugo has made skilful use of this tradition). Another magician of legendary fame is the Rabbi Lion of Prague (died 1609), and I must plead guilty to having myself per- petrated a snort story under his name, which appeared in French in a Belgian journal, the IndJpendant, 30 March, 1899. A great-grand- son of his, Naphthali Cohen, was also a magi- cian. Upon nis house in Frankfort taking fire, he began to recite an exorcism to summon a spirit to pnt it out. But in his hurry he made the trifling mistake of calling up, in- stead of the extinguishing angel, the angel of fire ; the consequence of which was that not only Cohen's house, but most of the Jewish quarter, was burnt. The local autho- rities took the matter very seriously, and for his error the unfortunate mage had to lose his position as Rabbi and even to suffer a long imprisonment. Magicians are favourite characters in the modern Yiddish drama. I remember a play, called ' Gliickliche Liebe,' in which demons are invoked from the " vasty deep " under burlesque names (one of them was Schnappsiel !), evidently as a skit upon the Kabbalistic nomenclature of the spirit world, whereof it is a leading principle that every name must end in either -el or -jah. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

After all, there is a good deal about magic in the Bible, and the Jews undoubtedly practised it. Was not Lilith the first of the witches ; and does not the witch of Endor stand high among them ? It is not surprising that in the popular mind, at any rate, magic and Hebrew should be closely associated. Then, too, there are what Robert Burton calls "Solomon's decayed works" to be taken account of. It is not altogether without reason, though it may be not with strict accuracy, that Scott classes " magic, cabala, and spells " together. C. C. B.

In this connexion the books used by Faust to conjure with may be worth noting. Mar- lowe, ' The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus,' I. i., at the end :

Faust. Come, shew me some demonstrations

magical,

That I may conjure in some lusty grove, And have these joys in full possession.

Valdes. Then haste thee to some solitary grove, And bear wise Bacon's and Albertus' works, The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament ; And whatsoever else is requisite We will inform thee ere our conference cease.

W. R. B. PRIDEAUX.

According to MacGregor Mathers (' The Kabbalah Unveiled ') one section of the