urp the whole. Thou'rt a lost woman.

_Wife._ I hope, not so.

_Gen._ Why, hast thou any hope?

_Wife._ Yes, sir, I have.

_Gen._ Make it appear to me.

_Wife._ I hope I never bargain'd for that fire,
Further than penitent tears have power to quench.

_Gen._ I would see some of them.

_Wife._ You behold them now
(If you look on me with charitable eyes)
Tinctur'd in blood, blood issuing from the heart.
Sir, I am sorry; when I look towards heaven,
I beg a gracious pardon; when on you,
Methinks your native goodness should not be
Less pitiful than they; 'gainst both I have err'd;
From both I beg atonement.

_Gen._ May I presume 't?

_Wife._ I kneel to both your mercies.

_Gen._ Knowest thou what
A witch is?

_Wife._ Alas, none better;
Or after mature recollection can be
More sad to think on 't.

_Gen._ Tell me, are those tears
As full of true hearted penitence,
As mine of sorrow to behold what state,
What desperate state, thou'rt fain in?

_Wife._ Sir, they are.

_Gen._ Rise; and, as I do you, so heaven pardon me;
We all offend, but from such falling off
Defend us! Well, I do remember, wife,
When I first took thee, 'twas _for good and bad_:
O change thy bad to good, that I may keep thee
(As then we past our faiths) 'till Death us sever.
O woman, thou hast need to weep thyself
Into a fountain, such a penitent spring
As may have power to quench invisible flames;
In which my eyes shall aid: too little, all.
_Late Lancashire Witches, Act 4._

P 2 _a_ 1. "_Being examined by my Lord._"] She had evidently learned
her lesson well; but this was, with all submission to his Lordship, if
adopted as a test, a mighty poor one. Jennet Device must have known
well the persons of the parties she accused, and who were now upon
their trial, as they were all her near neighbours.

P 2 _a_ 2. "_Whether she knew Iohan a Style?_"] His Lordship's
introduction of this apocryphal legal personage on such an occasion is
very amusing. Had he studied Littleton and Perkins a little less, and
given some attention to the Lancashire dialect, and some also to the
study of that great book, in which even a judge may find valuable
matter, the book of human nature, he might have been more successfull
in his examination. Jack's o' Dick's o' Harry's would have been more
likely to have been recognised as a veritable person of this world by
Jennet Device, than such a name as Johan a Style; which, though ver