Strange and wonderful history and prophecies of Mother Shipton/Chapter 1
THE
HISTORY
OF
MOTHER SHIPTON, &c.
CHAP. I.
Of her Birth and Parentage.
MOTHER SHIPTON, as all histories agree, was a Yorkshire woman. The particular place was very much disputed, because several towns have pretended to the honour of her birth; but the most credible and received opinion ascribes it to Knaresborough, near the the dropping well, in the said county. Concerning her pedigree, or parentage, there is likewise very various reports; some say her father was a Necromancer, and that he had skill in the black art, which thereby became entailed on her by inheritance; but the common story, which therefore, I shall follow, yet without forcing the reader to believe whether he will or no, is, that she never had any father of human race, or mortal weight, but was begot as the great Welch prophet Motlia was of old, by the phantasm of Apollo, or some wanton ærial Dæmon, in manner following: Her mother, whom some records call Agatha, and others Emmathe, being left an orphan about the age of sixteen, very poor, and much troubled with that grievous, but common disease, called by some idleness, and others sloth: As she was once upon a time sitting bemoaning herself on a shady bank by the highway side, a spirit appeared to her in the shape of a handsome young man; and smiling on her, "pretty maid" quoth he, "why dost thou sit so sad; thou art not old enough to have thy head pestered with the cares of the world: Prithee tell me thy business and doubt not but I will help thee out of thy troubles," The maid casting up her eyes, and not suspecting a devil hid in so comely a countenance, related to him her wants, and that she knew not how to live: "Pish," said he, "that's nothing be ruled by me, thou shalt never lack" She hearing him promise so fairly; told him she would; and there upon to draw her by degrees to destruction, he first tempted her to fornication, and prevailed so far as to gain her; but his touches, as she afterwards confessed to the midwife, were as cold as ice or snow—From this time forward, she was commonly visited once a day by her hellish gallant, and never wanted money; for still as she swept the house, she would find some odd nine pences, quarters of thirteen-pence half-pences, and the like, sufficient to supply her occasions.