3457. This story is told of Thales by Plato, in his Theaetetus; it also
occurs, says Tyrwhitt, in the Cento Novelle Antiche, no. 36. It has often
been repeated, and may now be found in James's edition of Æsop, 1852, Fable
170.
3469. Nearly repeated from A. 545.
3479. 'I defend thee with the sign of the cross from elves and living
creatures.' At the same time, the carpenter would make the sign over him.
_Wightes_ does not mean 'witches,' as Tyrwhitt thought, but 'creatures.'
Cf. l. 3484.
3480. _night-spel_, night-spell, a charm said at night to keep off evil
spirits. The carpenter says it five times, viz. towards the four corners of
the house and on the threshold. The charm is contained in lines 3483-6, and
is partly intentional nonsense, as such charms often were. See several
unintelligible examples in Cockayne's Leechdoms, iii. 286. The object of
saying it four times towards the four corners of the house was to invoke
the four evangelists, just as in the child's hymn still current, which is,
in fact, a charm:-- [106]
'Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on;
Four angels round my bed,' &c.
Lines 3483-4 are clear, viz. 'May Jesus Christ and St. Benedict bless this
house from every wicked creature.' As this is a reproduction of a popular
saying, it is not necessary that the lines should scan; still, they run
correctly, if we pronounce _seynt_ as _se-ynt_, as elsewhere (note to A.
509), and if we take both to be defective at the beginning. The last two
lines are mere scraps of older charms. It is just possible that _for
nightes verye_[25] represents an A. S. _for nihte werigum_, 'against the
evil spirits of night'; against whom 'the white Paternoster' is to be said.
The reading _white_ is perfectly correct. There really was a prayer so
called. See Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. xi. 206, 313; whence we learn that
the charm above quoted, beginning 'Matthew, Mark,' &c., resembles one in
the _Patenôtre Blanche_, to be found in the (apocryphal) Enchiridion Leonis
Papae (Romae, MDCLX), where occurs:--'Petite Patenôtre Blanche, que Dieu
fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir m'allant coucher, je
trouvis trois anges à mon lit, couchès, un aux pieds, deux au chevet'; &c.
Here is a charm that mentions it, quoted in Notes and Queries, 1 Ser. viii.
613:--
'White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother,
What hast thou i' th' t'one hand? White Booke leaves.
What hast i' th' t'other hand? Heven-Yate Keyes.
Open Heaven-Yates, and steike [shut] Hell-Yates.
And let every crysome-child creepe to its owne mother.
White Paternoster! Amen.'
The mention of St. Peter's brother is remarkable. It is a substitution for
the older 'Saint Peter's sister' here mentioned. Again, St. Peter's sister
is a substitution for St. Peter's daughter, who is a well-known saint,
usually called St. Petronilla, or, in English, Saint Parnell, once a very
common female name, and subsequently a surname. Her day is May 31, and she
was said to cure the quartan ague; see Brand, Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i.
363. A curious passage in the Ancren Riwle, p. 47, gives directions for
crossing oneself at night, and particularly mentions the use of four
crosses on 'four halves,' or in the original, 'vour creoices a uour halue';
with the remark 'Crux fugat omne malum,' &c. For 'Rural Charms,' see the
chapter in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii.; and see the charm
against rats in Political and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 23. I may add
that, in Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, p. 136, is an A. S. poem, in which
the Paternoster is _personified_, and destroys evil spirits. In
Longfellow's Golden Legend, § II., Lucifer is made to say a _Black_
Paternoster.