Jennet Device | Kit Perriman

A Charme to Cure the Bewitched.

(Painting: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

“Upon Good-Friday, I will fast while I may
Untill I heare them knell
Our Lords owne Bell,
Lord in his messe
With his twelve Apostles good,
What hath he in his hand
Ligh in leath wand:
What hath he in his other hand?
Heavens doore key,
Open, open Heaven doore keyes,
Steck, steck hell doore.
Let Crizum child
Goe to it Mother mild,
What is yonder that casts a light so farrandly,
Mine owne deare Sonne that’s naild to the Tree.
He is naild sore by the heart and hand,
And holy barne Panne,
Well is that man
That Fryday spell can,
His childe to learne;
A Crosse of Blew, and another of Red,
As good Lord was to the Roode.
Gabriel laid him downe to sleepe
Upon the ground of holy weepe:
Good Lord came walking by,
Slep’st thou, wak’st thou Gabriel,
No Lord I am sted with sticke abd stake,
That I can neither sleepe nor wake:
Rise up Gabriel and goe with me,
The stick nor the stake shall never deere thee.
Sweete Jesus our Lord, Amen.”

(Taken from Jennet Device’s testimony against her brother, James – August 1612)

(Painting: Public Domain)

Geraldine Monk’s Interregnum is a collection of experimental poems based on the Lancashire Witch Trials of 1612. The title refers to a gap or pause in history where the social order shifts. In this collection, nine-year-old Jennet Device represents such a metamorphosis on several different levels. She is the downtrodden, exploited child – a female in the lowest patriarchal position – and is closely aligned with the animal kingdom. But she also becomes an instrument of change.

As the folklorist John Roby shrewdly observed, “Witchcraft and kingcraft both came in with the Stuarts and went out with them.” Twenty-two years after the first Lancashire Witch Trials, another group of Pendle folk were sent to the assizes, found guilty, but eventually received a royal pardon from Charles 1st who was not as superstitious as his father, King James. Jennet Device is thought to have been among the accused – “Babyface on the chopping block” (Monk) – but the times were finally changing.

This anthology is strange and penetrating. It pushes against traditional language, exploring a stark landscape where everything struggles to survive against poverty, prejudice, and oppression. Resistance is inscribed on the body in scabs and scars. But there is a freedom in the natural world that can liberate even the weariest spirit.

Monk explores the importance of what happened on the slopes of Pendle Hill – past and present – questioning to what extent history can impact the future. She ultimately concludes that although we cannot live the lives of others – nor escape “Words birthed. Made flesh. Took wing. Horrids and / enormaties” – we can strive to be less ignorant and more compassionate.

If you like challenging poetry that is felt and processed in gut before being savored in the mind, you will probably enjoy Interregnum.

Kit Perriman

The Hill – A Historical Novel About Witches

Tag Archives: Jennet Device

Old Demdike’s Charme

Kit’s Crit: Interregnum (Geraldine Monk)