Skip to main content

The Deuill who hath a readye eare to listen to the lewde motions of cursed men.


In High Germany, in the towns of Quadrath and Bedburg near Cologne, was born and raised Stubbe Peeter. He was inclined to evil from the start, practising wicked arts from his twelfth year to his twentieth, and until the day he died; bursting with the damnable desire for magic, necromancy and sorcery, he made the acquaintance of all manner of spirit and fiend, and so forgot the God who made him and his Saviour who spilled his blood for our redemption. 

In the end, caring nothing for his salvation, he gave himself to the Devil, body and soul, for all time, all for the small carnal pleasures of this life, for the sake of earthly fame and reputation, even though he lost Heaven thereby. The Devil - who ever gives ear to the lewd desires of cursed men - promised him whatever his heart desired for the term of his mortal life.

But this vile wretch desired neither riches nor status, or the satisfaction of any pleasure he could imagine; rather, having a heart full of rapine and cruel bloody mind, desired only to turn his malice on men, women and children in the form of some beast, that he might so live without fear of capture or death for any bloody enterprise he set out on, whatever he had mind to commit. 

The Devil saw a fit instrument to work his mischief, possessed of a fiend's will to wickedness, the desire for destruction; and so he gave Stubbe Peeter a girdle to wear. The moment he wrapped it round himself, he was took on the appearance of a greedy, devouring wolf, powerful, great in might, with large eyes that sparkled in the night like burning brands, and a wide mouth full of teeth most sharp and cruel. Huge in body, weighty of paw. 

No sooner than he undid the girdle, he resumed the appearance of a man, as if he had never been otherwise. 

Stubbe Peeter was well pleased. 


Notes.

Quadrath. In the text, this is Cperadt; pronounce the cp as qu, and there it is. It is now the small town of Quadrath-Ichendorf, which is a little to the southwest of Bedburg. 

'the damnable desire for magic, necromancy and sorcery'. In the text, 'the Damnable desire of magick, negromancye, and sorcery'. Then as now, these terms could be used loosely, but one authentic way to account for the distinction being made is that Magic - the art of the Magi - deals in astrological tides and sidereal entities, Necromancy in the souls of the dead, and Sorcery in non-human earthbound spirits or demons. 

'and so forgot the God who made him and his Saviour who spilled his blood for our redemption'. This pamphlet belongs to the same genre as those concerned with Dr. Faustus and Agrippa; in their case, promising minds are drawn into illicit studies to their damnation, while Peter Stump is honestly more like Fred West. 

Like the genre of signs and wonders which it intersects, these spooky morality tales flow into the later Gothic, and so the supernatural and horror genres we enjoy today. 

It also, of course, belongs to the tradition of true life crime, which people in the Early Modern world also consumed. 

'he gave himself to the Devil, body and soul, for all time'. Again, like Faustus and Agrippa, and all manner of Witch and Jew. 'The Deuill who hath a readye eare to listen to the lewde motions of cursed men, promised to giue vnto him whatsoeuer his hart desired during his mortall life'.

'a heart full of rapine. In the text, a tiramous hart'. Looking through various dictionaries and grammars with a sense of deepening worry, I finally went with this being likely related to Latin Tiro and its cognates in the Romance languages, which has connotations of snatching, dragging off or throwing down. In the context of this story, that makes sense to me. 

'he gave Stubbe Peeter a girdle to wear'. So much to unpack. The echo of Eurasian Shamanic and aspects of Northern European magical praxis is striking, as is the resonance with the Grimoire literature, with its magical garments, girdles and garters. 

At this time, girdles were hanging belts, usually richly decorated, serving to emphasise the hips when worn with a bodice. That, however, is its feminine form; while something similar could be worn by men with one of the styles of shaped, fitted doublet, it would more likely assume the form of either a regular belt, or a sash, which would be especially worn for the sake of identification on military campaign. 

Peter Stump girds himself. Perhaps that is as far as we can go.  




Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Journey to the Moon

Viaje a la Luna 1 White bed on a grey wall. Across the bedclothes a dance unfolds 13 & 22. First two, then more till they cover the bed like ants. 2 The bedclothes are torn off the bed by an invisible hand. 3 Big feet run fast in black and white lozenged socks. 4 A frightened head gaze fixed on a point dissolves into a wire head against a backdrop of water. 5 Letters help help help double exposure a vulva moving up and down. 6 A long corridor traversed by the machine a window down the end.  7 A view of Broadway by night. 8 Dissolve to previous scene. 9 A pair of legs swing quickly. 10 Legs dissolve into a mass of trembling hands. 11 Trembling hands double-exposure a weeping child. 12 The weeping child double-exposure the woman  who beats him. 13 Fade to the long corridor camera moving backwards fast. 14 At the end wide shot of an eye double-exposure a fish dissolving into what follows. 15 Falling fast through a window letters double-exposed in blue help help . 16 Dissolve...
Post a Comment
Read more

He understands well all manner of languages, and the virtue of all manner of herbs.

  Capitulo xxxj. Which be friends and kin unto Reynard the Fox. The first child is named Byteluys who is much cherished and can make much sport and game wherefore is given him the fat trenchers and much other good meat which comes well to profit Fulrompe his brother and also my third child is a daughter and is named Hatenette she can well pick out lice and nits from men's heads these three be to each other true wherefore I love them well Dame Rukenawe called them forth and said welcome my dear children come forth and stand by Reynard your dear nephew then said she come forth all ye that be my kin and Reynard's and let us pray the King he will do to Reynard right of the land then came forth many a beast anon as the Squirrel the Stoat the Polecat the Marten the Bever with his wife Ordegale the Genet the Ostrole the Boussyng and  the Ferret this twain fain eat a pullet as Reynard the Otter and Pantecroet his wife whom I had almost forgotten yet were they before with the Bever ene...
Post a Comment
Read more

His Tongue did gaggle as if it were made of the Devil's Bollock Leather.

  Chapter IV. How Robin the Cobbler, having got loose of the witches, became a new man, and of many notable exploits which he did, you shall pleasantly hear. Now, when Robin the Cobbler had broken the spells of witchcraft his eyesight his hearing his speech his senses and his knowledge was all restored unto him again yet he looked of a pitiful complexion just as a man may say like one of Pharaoh's lean kine his visage was pale and ghastly his eyes seemed as if they were sunk into his head his nose was like the nose of a scolding ale-wife long and sharp and his tongue did gaggle as if it were made of the Devil's bollock leather his belly and his back were so clung together he was scarce able to shit for bones Nor had he any kind of habit to put on that was worth the throwing to the dunghill only an old lousy smock and a pair of slip-shoes which one of the witches gave him out of here mere pitiful charity yet he knew himself to be far happier than he was before when he was ridden...
Post a Comment
Read more