No More Learning

72. Cf. also _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 186: 'And why
would you so fain see the devil? would I say. Because he has horns,
wife, and may be a cuckold as well as a devil. '

=5. 8. 35 How he foames! = For the stock indications of
witchcraft see Introduction, p. xlix.

=5. 8. 40 The Cockscomb, and the Couerlet.
= Wittipol is
evidently selecting an appropriate name for Fitzdottrel's
buffoonery after the manner of the puppet-shows. It is quite
possible that some actual _motion_ of the day was styled
'the Coxcomb and the Coverlet. '

=5. 8. 50 shee puts in a pinne. = Pricking with pins and needles was
one of the devil's regular ways of tormenting bewitched persons. They
were often supposed to vomit these articles. So when Voltore feigns
possession, Volpone cries out: 'See! He vomits crooked pins' (_The
Fox_, _Wks. _ 3. 312).

=5. 8. 61 the Kings Constable. = 'From the earliest times to our
own days, there were two bodies of police in England, namely, the
parish and high constables, and the watchmen in cities and boroughs.
Nothing could exceed their inefficiency in the 17th century.