Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2005/11/04/barretts_mixology.php
Friday, November 4, 2005
Physic Against Witchery & Malefic Acts
2 Drams Port
1 Pennyweight Balm of Gilead Buds, crush'd
1 Grain true Cross, powder'd
1 Knuckle-Bone of the Apostle Peter, garnish
Make ye an Amalgam of yon divers Elements. Quaff.
I lately rode in from East Anglia and—Zounds!—is my Nubbing-Cheat dilapidat'd! Ha! Ho! Ha! But seriously, ye Faithful—many's the Crone I hang'd by the Neck 'til dead and sent back to the blistering Bosom of her baneful Master in Perdition. And, blessed be God, many's the straunge and marvelous Draught I took,—on some fellow-Traveler's advisement—to ward off Dome and get the Grace of Christ. The present Elixir, surely the most efficacious, was given me by a Friar—a stout Fellow and true—this Hallow's Eve past. I came upon him at a Nunnery by a Cross-roads, round the Stroke of Midnight.
Ho! quoth he. On what Business go thou? Spake I, On the Business of the Lord—for I go a-hunting Witches! Said he: Then come, tarry a while with yon Sisters, and drink a Flagon of their good and holy Physic.
So tarry I did, with such Sisters as you ne'er saw, took divers deep Draughts of their Physic, and was much pleas'd. But—Heaven save me—thank these good Christians I did not. When I roused myself for Matins, I found that in the Night I had wandered out-of-doors, into the Damp and Cold, and—though I spied the Cross-roads—the Nunnery seemed to have vanished! Blast! At least I had saved the Recipe.