A Most Wicked Work of a Witch

This is a pamphlet I found on Early English Books Online (EEBO). It is about a man names Richard Burt who is cast into hell for four days by Mother Atkins, a witch.

The first part of hte pamphlet is all about why people should be good Christians and how Satan is evil and shuld not be trusted. It is a typical warning of that day; be good or evil things will happen to you.

The next part of the pamphlet is talking about how one day Richard Burt saw some dogs at night, followed them, and they ended up at Mother Atkins house. Mother Atkins was a known witch so Burt did not go any farther. A month later while he was working he gave Mother Atkins the time of day. From what I got out of that section was that Mother Atkins was not appreciative, but instead acted like what you would think a witch would act like, although it does not go into detail. The day after this Burt was working in the field and stopped to eat his lunch. While he was eating a black cat came to him and said put down your food and follow me. As soon as he put down his food he was transported to hell. At first he did not know where he was, put he soon figured it out. He heard all the people of hell crying out and felt the fire burining him and it was terrible. After a time he was sent back to his field.

When he first came back he thought he had only been gone a little while, but in fact he had been gone for four days. The day he came back was a Sunday, and another man who worked with Burt saw him as he was walking to church. He asked Burt where he had been, but Burt could not say. After a little while he wasa able to say that Mother Atkins had bewitched him. This is when the pamphlet ends its part about Richard Burt, but the last page is about Mother Atkins.

When Mother Atkins was bewitching Richard Burt, the creame in the Burbidge house started to swell and turned bad. After this she past Georgie Coulson's house where he was tending to two lambs. She asked him to accompany her and he said no because he was busy. When she had left the lambs started to "skip and frolic" and did not stop until they died. All of these things are the usual things that a witch in England would be blamed for. Normally witches were the cause of household problems, but this is the first time that I have seen one transport someone to hell.

I picked this pamphlet because it is different from others that I have read. For one Richard Burt is taken to hell, which is not normal. Second most of the things that happen are to men and usually witchcraft is against women because it is associated with the household. And the last reason I picked this pamphlet was because Richard Burt worked for a Master Edling of Woodhall and that is my last name. I thought it was interesting that my last name showed up in witch pamphlet. Another thing that was interseting about this pamplet is that they say Mother Atkins is a known witch, yet she is never arrested for being a witch. The pamphlet ends with the lambs dying and does not say anything happened to Mother Atkins. I assume that at some point she was arrested and tried as a witch, but I cannot be sure because the pamphlet does not address this issue.