Mother Shipton

“ THE MOTHER SHIPTON OF ROMANCE—RICHARD HEAD'S BOOK—HOW URSULA SHIPTON'S MOTHER MARRIED THE DEVIL—FORMULA TO BE REPEATED BY THOSE WHO WISH TO ALLY THEMSELVES TO THE EVIL ONE—THE BIRTH OF MOTHER SHIPTON—HER WONDERFUL NOSE—HER BABYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS—HER ALLEGED PROPHECIES AND HER DEATH.
The miraculous incidents in the life of Mother Shipton, as published in various almanacs and pamphlets during the last 200 years, are, for the most part, culled from a book written by Richard Head. The earliest extant edition of this work is dated 1684, and to it his initials only are attached. ”

“ The minister and inhabitants entered, and searching the house, missed the child; one of them looking up the chimney, saw the cradle wonderfully hanging up, three yards high, without any support; this was as strangely conveyed down again. They encouraged the nurse, left her in the house (though affrighted) , and departed.
Mother Shipton’s nurse was, after this, sometimes in great perplexity, not knowing what was become of her for days together; but when she was in her greatest scare after her, she saw her oftentimes drop suddenly through the roof of the house. ”

“ This Mother Shipton lived till she was of an extraordinary age, and though she was generally believed to be a witch, yet all persons whatever, that either saw or heard of her, had her in esteem, and her memory is to this day much honoured by those of her own country.
“A stone was erected near Clifton, about a mile from the city of York, from which the following is taken:—
Here lyes she who never ly’d,
Whose skill often has been try’d. ”

“ He therefore said unto her, “Mother Shipton, it is more than some extraordinary matter which hath made you break out into this sudden passion; and if it may not be troublesome unto you, I shall desire that, as hitherto you have not been scrupulous in revealing p. 176those secrets unto me, which have wrought in me both wonder and amazement, so that you will not so abruptly break off as to leave me in suspense of the cause of your sorrow.” “Ah! Mr. Abbot,” said she, “who can with dry eyes repeat what must next ensue, or but think upon it without a heart full of agony? ”

“ The chairs and stools would frequently march up stairs and down, and they usually played at bowls with the trenches and dishes: sometimes at dinner the meat would be removed before she could touch a bit; which things, as they much troubled the nurse, so they gave great satisfaction to Mother Shipton, as it appeared by her monstrous smiles. Now and then, to pacify her nurse, when she saw her much vexed, she would say, “Be contented; there is nothing here that will harm you.” ”

“ One day Mother Shipton, cradle and all, were missing; sweet harmony from an unknown source was heard; finally the babe and cradle were found three feet up the chimney. As she grew old her foul fiend of a father visited her daily in the form of a cat, dog, bat, or hog. She was sent to school where, says the chronicler, "her Mistris began to instruct her, as other children, beginning with the Cris-cross-row as they call'd it, showing and naming onely three or four Letters, at first, but to the amazement and astonishment of her Mistris ”

“ The Duchess, more cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother Shipton—once the strongest of the party—seemed to sicken and fade. At midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I'm going," she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, "but don't say anything about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head and open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for the last week, untouched. "Give 'em to the child," she said, pointing to the sleeping Piney. "You've starved yourself," said the gambler. ”

“ Smith took up the flowers and looked at them as if he was trying to discover how they were made, so intently were his eyes bent upon them.
"Mother says we are like daisies, sometimes," said Janet merrily.
"How?" asked the old man.
The child coloured, and did not answer; but Mrs. Shipton replied for her,—"Because whenever I am gloomy and unhappy, these children brighten me and cheer me by looking up to the sun; they always find out a sunny side to my troubles." ”

“ This unexpected recovery of the old man struck such a damp into the young heir, that he presently took to his bed, fell extremely ill, and in a short time grew so much p. 138worse that all the symptoms of a dying man appeared in him; the old man having no more children, was very desirous of his life; and to know whether he should recover, he sent to Mother Shipton, who, knowing by her art what her maid had done, severely chid her for the same, threatening to turn her out of her service. ”

“ Shipton slowly, for there was something about her lodger which she could not understand; and she was not quite sure whether she liked him or not.
"He goes out to see London, doesn't he, mother?"
"Yes; he has never been here before, and there is plenty for a stranger to see."
"But, mother."
"Well, Ellen?"
"I think he's very kind, and all that; but I don't think he's happy: often and often when I look up, I see him looking at me with his eyes full of tears. Isn't it odd and queer for a man to cry. Father never cried." ”

“ Besley would have put in the Lords before him; but shee said, Come in, Mr. Besley, you know the way, but they doe not. This they thought strange that shee should know them and never saw them; then they went into the house, where there was a great fire, and they dranke and were very merry. Mother Shipton, said the Duke, if you knew what we came about you would not bid us so welcome; shee said the messenger should not be hanged: Mother Shipton, said the Duke, you said the Cardinall should never see Yorke; Yea, said shee, I said he might see Yorke, yet never come at it. ”

“ Being without a mother, and the exact position of her father’s domicile not being ascertainable, the parish authorities were obliged to take upon themselves the expense of her maintenance; they accordingly handed her over to a nurse, and a very hard time of it the nurse had with her. All the spirits of the neighbourhood seem to have assembled in the nurse’s cottage to amuse the weird infant ”

“ Then shall be in the North, that one woman shall say unto another, Mother I have seen a man to day, and for one man there shall be a thousand women, there shall be a man sitting upon St. James's Church hill weeping his fill ”

“ He had fathered many a boy and stood many a woman on her own feet, and yet Life, the Great Mother, had held back from him what he, as human, knew must be the ultimate and only gift. Women had angled for Watts Shipman because of his fame ”

“ Somebody who can be silent and brave and steady until your fever is passed. The shipwrecked sailor wants a rope rather than a feint of throwing one; the shipwrecked soul wants a heart like rock, rather than a handclasp and a promise. The sister-mother may be all right to go to parties with, but you want something stronger and more steadfast to lean upon in time of perplexity. You want a mother in all the holy significance of the name. However sweet the tie of sisterhood, it cannot be so blessed as the bond of patient, long-suffering, sanctified motherhood. ”

“ My only excuse, my dear mother, is the extreme desire I have always had to please you. It is for you alone, and for my father, that I wished to marry. Desiring to live with you for the remainder of my life, I consented to your finding me a wife with whom I could abide. The choice of Mademoiselle de Vesian had overwhelmed me, because her mother is a woman for whom I have a true attachment; and Heaven is my witness to-day that I should have preferred her daughter to the most brilliant match in the universe. ”

“ Clephane murmured, forcing a thin smile.
“To change your mind about being with us? You don’t want to, then, after all?”
Mrs. Clephane pushed the tray away and propped herself on her elbow. “No, I don’t want to.”
“How you say it, mother! As if I were a stranger. I don’t understand....” The girl’s lip was beginning to tremble. “I thought ... Chris and I both thought....”
“I’m sorry. But I must really decide as I think best. When you are married you won’t need me.”
“And shan’t you need me, mother? Not a little?” Anne hesitated, and then ventured, timidly: “You’re so alone—so awfully alone.” ”

“ But Kate Clephane’s daughter—her own Anne! She closed her eyes and tried to face the look in Anne’s as the truth dawned on her.
“You—you, mother? The mother I’ve come to adore—the mother I can’t live without, even with all my other happiness? You?”
Yes—perhaps that would be the worst of it, the way Anne would look at her and say “You?” For, once the girl knew the truth, her healthy youth might so revolt from Chris’s baseness, Chris’s duplicity, that the shock of the discovery would be its own cure. ”

“ While they were feasting, Mary Chilton slipped away. Down in a lowly bed lay a mother and a young babe, even as that other mother of old; low and mean and poor the surroundings, but holding the hope, almost divine, of a people. ”

“ She was not so stupid as not to suspect that Shippen had something to do with this sudden desire that George had to live in New York. “Playing the game” meant coming in constant contact with men like Shippen, women like the women they had discussed that night at dinner—Shippen and soubrettes; somebody’s wife they had seen in a café with a man who was not her husband and whom they had discussed with a curious sort of grinning admiration, as if this lady was a lady to be reckoned with. ”

“ Edward and Sadye went off on their ride, while Ray and Daisy talked and prayed over the offer Edward and his companion had so unexpectedly made.
"If I could only feel it was right to delegate my duty to another," Daisy said, "that would end the matter. But no one can care for a mother as a daughter can. I know Sadye would see that mother was comfortable in every way. That is not the chief trouble It is that mother will not see me, and I cannot bear to give her this pain; she has so little now to comfort her." ”

“ It's harder for poor mother than me, because she'll have to wait, and now she has nobody but me."
"But you'll be put into a coffin," said Sandy, "and buried deep down in the ground."
"That's not much," replied John Shafto, "that's only my body; but I shall go to the other children. Mother says all this world is like one large room to God; and He is among us, like a mother is with her children when she sits at work in the same room with them, seeing all they do, and hearing all they say, but perhaps not seeming to take much notice of them. ”

“ Nevertheless, when he entered that room his mind took on the attitude of prayer and he felt that somehow the Presence got close to him, so that questions that had perplexed him were made clear.
As he stood that night looking about the plain walls, his eyes fell upon that picture of Stephen Marshall's mother. A mother! Ah! if there were a mother somewhere to whom that girl could go! Some one who would understand her; be gentle and tender with her; love her, as he should think a real mother would do—what a difference that would make! ”

“ It was all owing to that scamp, Mark Ingestrie."
"Mother!"
"Marry come up! you need not look at me in such a way. We don't all of us see with the same eyes. A scamp he is, and a scamp he will be."
"Mother, he whom you so name is with his God. Mention him no more. The wild ocean rolls over his body—his soul is in heaven. Speak not irreverently of one whose sole crime was that he loved me. Oh, mother, mother, you—"
Johanna could say no more, she burst into tears.
"Well," said Mrs. Oakley, "if he is dead, pray what hinders you from listening to the chosen vessel, I should like to know?" ”

“ Just a year ago she had given up her social career, to her mother’s despair and her father’s amazement.
“Why on earth had you rather wait on strange sick folks than have a dozen fine young Kentuckians waiting on you?”
“Let me try!” she pleaded. “The work has always seemed to call me.” ”

“ John's wife thought to regulate this one small pleasant excitement of her mother-in-law's life by remarking to her husband that "somebody ought to tell Benjamin to write on a particular day, mother was so fidgety when it was time for the mail."
How small a thing is a letter to make one happy! and yet some of us let the sword pierce the dear mother heart by withholding that which costs us so little. God pity us when our mothers are gone beyond the reach of voice or pen. ”

“ From the moment when she had seen Anne’s lids drop on that secret vision, the mother had known that her days of quietude were over. Anne’s choice might be perfect; she, Kate Clephane, might live out the rest of her days in peace between Anne and Anne’s husband. But the mere possibility of a husband made everything incalculable again.
The morning brought better counsel. There was Anne herself, in her riding-habit, aglow from an early canter, and bringing in her mother’s breakfast, without a trace of mystery in her clear eyes. ”

“ She would not encourage any of them, however.
"If I marry," she said to herself, "it is giving Maxence over to that l'Étang girl. She will crow about it. She will say, 'At last he is mine altogether. She has surrendered.' No, I could not stand that."
So that winter passed, and the next summer, and other winters and summers. Zabette did not marry; and after a time she began hearing herself spoken of as an old maid. The young men flocked to other houses, not hers. At the end of twelve years both her father and mother were dead, and she was alone in the world, thirty, and unprovided for. ”

“ Nay, when, as in duty bound, I pressed the question, I found her reason was disordered by my importunity, and therefore I abandoned the attempt. Some heavy weight was on thy mother's mind, my son, yet would she never confess or trust it with me. Tell me, before she died, hadst thou this secret from her? ”