Malkin E-Book

Camille Ralphs

• Herausgeber: The Emma Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 21

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Malkin is a vivid evocation of the trials of the Pendle Witches in 1612. The sequence of poems is delivered in the form of epitaphic monologues, with the accused men and women eerily addressing the reader with their confessions and pleas. Strikingly, Camille Ralphs has employed unorthodox spelling throughout the monologues, bringing out new meanings in familiar words and encouraging the reader to immerse themselves in the world of the poems. Fully illustrated with woodcut-style drawings from Emma Wright.

Leseprobe

* * *Malkin

* * *

an ellegy in 14 spels by Camille Ralphs

with illustrations by Emma Wright

Epigraph

‘It is natural to unnatural people, and peculiar unto witchmongers, to pursue the poor, to accuse the simple, and to kill the innocent.’

– Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584)

Historical note

In the Pendle region of Lancashire in March 1612, a travelling trader collapsed in Trawden Forest. He believed he had been cursed by a witch. Following this accusation, four local women were taken from their homes in early April and imprisoned at Lancaster Castle.

On April 27, a group of approximately twenty people gathered at a house known as Malkin Tower. After this meeting, those thought to have attended were arrested and a further nine inhabitants of the Forest of Pendle sent to await trial.

At the Lancaster Assizes, between August 18 and 19, the Pendle Witches were tried. One of the accused – a child, aged nine – spoke out against the others, including her mother, brother and a number of people she barely knew.

On August 19, ten of the accused were hanged on charges of witchcraft. Another was also charged, and was imprisoned for a further year as a result. One more had already died in the dungeon. Only one walked away.

– Camille Ralphs, October 2015

Contents

Cover

Title page

Epigraph

Historical note

Illustration 1

* * *

Pendle Hill

Illustration 2

Elizabeth Sowtherns

Elizabeth Device

Alizon Device

Illustration 3

James Device

Anne Whittle

Anne Redferne

Alice Nutter

Jane Bulcock

John Bulcock

Katherine Hewit

Illustration 4

Isabel Robey

Margaret Pearson

Jennet Device

Illustration 5

* * *

Note on free spelling

Acknowledgements

About the poet and illustrator

Endnotes

About the Emma Press

Also from the Emma Press

Malkin

[illustration 1]

Pendle Hill

Now where is Demdike, old as toothache, she who set two families to shelling stars like peas, who firmly pelled the mell?

Helle

And whose now is Elizabeth, her cross-eye set high-low, unsoundable, – who onetime bricked a cat into the wall, who frothed its bones to mortar for the hours?

Ours

And which of these is Alizon – the catalyst – who cursed John Law but was blindsided when the lameness flattened him, flung down a flyswat sky?

I

And what remains of James – the son, the bumbler scarved in pigswill – overleaping sickly faith to come aground?

Grownd