What is a “Witch Bottle”? Assembling the Textual Evidence from Early Modern England

Abstract

Sometime around 1670, a ballad entitled A miraculous cure for witchcraft, or, Strange news from the Blew-Boar in Holburn was anonymously printed. It told the story of a girl bewitched not far from London, who was “vext in Body, and perplex in mind.” After trying countless remedies, the girl and her friends finally found a “chymist,” well known for his art and skill. He told them to take the bewitched girl’s urine, put it in a bottle with some other “ingredients,” and then bury it in a dunghill, not to be touched or meddled with at all; this would cut the witch’s charms. Sure enough, after following these instructions and waiting eagerly by the hill all night, the witch appeared looking “swell’d” and demanding the bottle. The girl and her friends refused this request, the witch left and died, and the bewitched girl immediately began to recover. In this ballad, a chymical physician instructed the girl how to make a “witch bottle” to cure her bewitchment, though he did not label it as such. This curative procedure was written about by various contemporary authors, including elite, educated men, but its existence in ballad form shows how it was also known about by a broad spectrum of society.