[Footnote 1:  The Fall of Anthony Tyrell, by Persoun.  See The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, by John Morris, p. 103.]

[Footnote 2:  He was examined by the Government as to his connection with the Paris conspirators.—­See State Papers, vol. clxxx. 16, 17.]

68.  With the truth or falsehood of the statements and deductions made by Harsnet, we have little or no concern.  Western did not pretend to deny that he had the power of exorcism, or that he exercised it upon the persons in question, but he did not admit the truth of any of the more ridiculous stories which Harsnet so triumphantly brings forward to convict him of intentional deceit; and his features, if the portrait in Father Morris’s book is an accurate representation of him, convey an impression of feeble, unpractical piety that one is loth to associate with a malicious impostor.  In addition to this, one of the witnesses against him, Tyrell, was a manifest knave and coward; another, Mainy, as conspicuous a fool; while the rest were servant-maids—­all of them interested in exonerating themselves from the stigma of having been adherents of a lost cause, at the expense of a ringleader who seemed to have made himself too conspicuous to escape punishment.  Furthermore, the evidence of these witnesses was not taken until 1598 and 1602, twelve and sixteen years after the events to which it related took place; and when taken, was taken by Harsnet, a violent Protestant and almost maniacal exorcist-hunter, as the miscellaneous collection of literature evoked by his exposure of Parson Darrell’s dealings with Will Sommers and others will show.

69.  Among the many devils’ names mentioned by Harsnet in his “Declaration,” and in the examinations of witnesses annexed to it, the following have undoubtedly been repeated in “King Lear":—­Fliberdigibet, spelt in the play Flibbertigibbet; Hoberdidance called Hopdance and Hobbididance; and Frateretto, who are called morris-dancers; Haberdicut, who appears in “Lear” as Obidicut; Smolkin, one of Trayford’s devils; Modu, who possessed Mainy; and Maho, who possessed Sara Williams.  These two latter devils have in the play managed to exchange the final vowels of their names, and appear as Modo and Mahu.[1]

[Footnote 1:  In addition to these, Killico has probably been corrupted into Pillicock—­a much more probable explanation of the word than either of those suggested by Dyce in his glossary; and I have little doubt that the ordinary reading of the line, “Pur! the cat is gray!” in Act III. vi. 47, is incorrect; that Pur is not an interjection, but the repetition of the name of another devil, Purre, who is mentioned by Harsnet.  The passage in question occurs only in the quartos, and therefore the fact that there is no stop at all after the word “Pur” cannot be relied upon as helping to prove the correctness of this supposition.  On the other hand, there is nothing in the texts to justify the insertion of the note of exclamation.]