ILLUSTRATIONS.

*ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page 165. ver. 4.

On the left,

Refide the + Sages skill'd in nature's lore: ti. e. The Euvates; one of the three claffes of the Druids, according to Am. Marcellinus. Studia liberalium doctrinarum inchoata per Bardos, Euvates, & Druidas. This clafs, Strabo tells us, had the care of the facrifices, and ftudied natural philofophy; which here, by the changeful universe, is fhewn to be on Pythagorean principles. Whenever the Priefts are mentioned in the fubfequent parts of the Drama, this order of men is intended to be meant, as distinguished from the Druids and Bards.

Yet fhalt thou live an interdicted wretch, All rights of nature cancell'd.

Alluding to the Druidical power of excommunication mentioned by Cæfar. Si quis aut privatus, aut publicus, eorum decreto non ftetit, facrificiis interdicunt.

T 2

NOTE.

*The above quotations, from antient authors, are here thrown together, in order to fupport and explain some paffages in the Drama of CARACTACUs, that refpect the manners of the Druids; and which, the general account of their cuftoms, to be found in our histories of Britain, does not include.

dicunt. Hæc pœna apud eos eft graviffima. Quibus
ita eft interdiétum, ii numero impiorum ac fcelerato
rum habentur neque iis petentibus jus redditur, neque
honos ullus communicatur. Cæf. Com. Lib. vi.

Page 174. ver. 5.

Are the milk-white fteers prepar'd?

In the minute defcription which Pliny gives us of
the ceremony of gathering the mifletoe, he tells us,
they facrificed two white bulls. See Pliny's Natural
Hiftory, 1. xvi. c. 44, which Drayton, in his Polyol-
bion, thus verfifies,

Sometimes within my fhades, in many an antient wood,
Whofe often-twined tops great Phœbus' fires withstood,
The fearless British prieft, under an aged oak,
Taking a milk-white bull, unstrained with the yoke,
And with an axe of gold, from that Jove-facred tree
The misletoe cut down; then with a bended knee
On th' unhew'd altar laid, put-to the hallow'd fires;
And whilst in the sharp flame the trembling flesh expires,
As their strong fury mov'd (when all the rest adore)
Pronouncing their defires the facrifice before,

Up to th' eternal Heav'n their bloodied hands did rear :
And whilst the murm'ring woods ev'n fhudder'd as with fear,
Preach'd to the beardlefs youth the foul's immortal state;
To other bodies still how it fhould transmigrate,

That to contempt of death them strongly did excite.

Page 175. ver. 3.

Ninth Song.

Where our matron fifter dwells,

The existence of female Druids feems afcertained by
Tacitus, in his defcription of the final deftruction of

Mona

Mona by Paulinus Suetonius. Stabat pro litore diver fa acies denfa armis virifque, intercurfantibus fœminis, &c. Alfo by the known ftory of Dioclefian, on which Fletcher formed a play, called the Prophetess.

Page 175. ver. 6.

And the potent adder-ftone.

The ovum anguinum, or ferpent's egg; a famous Druidical amulet, thus circumftantially defcribed by Pliny- -Præterea eft ovorum genus in magna Galliarum fama, omiffum Græcis. Angues innumeri æftate convoluti, falivis faucium corporumque fpumis artifici complexu glomerantur; Anguinum appellatur. Druidæ fibilis id dicunt in fublime jactari, fagoque oportere intercipi, ne tellurem attingat. Profugere raptorem equo, ferpentes enim infequi, donec arceantur, amnis alicujus interventu, &c. Nat. Hift. 1. xxix. c. 3

There are remains of this fuperftition ftill, both in the northern and western parts of our island. For Lhwyd, the author of the Archæologia, writes thus to Rowland; fee Mona Antiqua, p. 338. "The Druid "doctrine about the Glain Neidr, obtains very much

86

through all Scotland, as well lowlands as highlands; "but there is not a word of it in this kingdom (Ire"land); where, as there are no fnakes, they could "not propagate it. Befides fakes-ftones, the high"landers have their fnail-ftones, paddock-stones, &c. "to all which they attribute their feveral virtues, and "wear them as amulets." And in another letter he writes, "The Cornish retain variety of charms, and "have ftill, towards the land's end, the amulet of

"Maen