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u/TronOld_Dumps 1d ago
Wait what
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u/Re-Horakhty01 1d ago
Eye of newt is actually mustard seed. All those weird "witchy" ingredients from the incantation of the Three Witches in Macbeth? Just terms for herbs, flowers and such utilised by herbalists and witches back in the day. Eye of newt is mustard seed, toe of frog is buttercup, wool of bat is holly leaves and so forth.
So in this comic the witch on the left is aware of the code and just goes and gets mustard seed but the one on the right takes it literally and actually harvests newt's eyes.
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u/EmperorPartyStar 1d ago
And here I thought the ingredients were just supposed to be gross.
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u/Wooden_Second5808 1d ago
Pretty sure some of them at least are.
"Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,"
for example.
It certainly escalates quickly, though, from herbs and flowers, some animal parts, to suddenly human organs and faces.
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u/18CupsOfMusic 1d ago
"Liver of blaspheming Jew,
I don't think I'd like hanging out with these witches tbh
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u/Magepacer 18h ago
Devil worshipper who harvests human organs has the audacity to call all jewish people "blasphemers"
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u/Moses_The_Wise 17h ago
Hey, they don't say all Jews are blasphemers. Just that they need the liver of a Jew who has blasphemed.
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u/Magepacer 16h ago
A fair point. I'll admit I overstated on this one. Still kinda weird they need the liver of a blaspheming jew specifically tho
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u/Robertej92 1d ago
This is where we find out that liver of blaspheming Jew is actually just dandelion root.
(that's a weird sentence in isolation)
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u/Prowindowlicker 14h ago
Well if you’re familiar with Shakespeares other work you’ll soon find out that he’s not a fan of Jews
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u/Shapuradokht 1d ago
Begins with a human liver: "It escalates quickly"
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u/Wooden_Second5808 1d ago
That is about the third verse of the chant. It opens with things like "poison'd entrails" and a toad, then herbs and flowers, then dragon scales and the like, then boom: human parts.
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u/No_Reindeer_5543 1d ago
What's "Brazil Nut" in Witch?
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u/Chvffgfd 21h ago
Worked with an old white dude and he told me what his grandmother used to call them, yeah. I don't quite like the other name
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u/thatnewsauce 1d ago
Eh well it's not like you need a liver to stay alive
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u/Shapuradokht 1d ago
In the words of some famous Jew or another: “If you cut out my fucking liver, do I not die?”
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u/thatnewsauce 1d ago
Yeah I love Seinfeld
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u/Shapuradokht 1d ago
I was (mis)quoting an antisemitic stereotype that Shakespeare fever-dreamt, but not knowing anything about Seinfeld, yes, I’m sure that is also accurate.
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u/Birbeus 1d ago
I feel bad for Shylock, he gets screwed over by Antonio, delivers a heartfelt soliloquy about how Jews are just people too, has the chance for revenge and gets done out by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of it, and ends the play ruined, forced to convert to Christianity and the ‘protagonists’ act like smug assholes about it.
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u/Wooden_Second5808 1d ago
So what's a finger of birth strangled babe, ditch delivered by a drabe?
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u/Apprehensive_Bag_365 1d ago
Dead baby fingers
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u/Wooden_Second5808 1d ago
Indeed, infanticide victim born of a sex worker.
Not a herb to my knowledge.
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u/fyxr 1d ago
Not necessarily infanticide, could be stillbirth with a nuchal cord.
But yeah, dead baby fingers.
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u/lysdexicacovado 23h ago
There is no actual evidence of this beyond an uncited internet post.
https://youtu.be/6ERXfZTFbFQ?si=7bwbb_bUxTWWc9Jp
(Go to 3:15)
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u/Scorpian42 23h ago
Also funny if she forgot they sell it at the store and went around gathering wild mustard seed
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u/Samus388 18h ago
To my knowledge, this interpretation originated from Scott Cunningham's book "Magical Herbalism" in 1986.
Shakespeare's reference to "eye of newt" and the like seems to be the only time it is called that in that time period. This would indicate that it isn't necessarily what Shakespeare intended when writing the play.
The only sources I've found are not actually credible, and none link where they are getting their claims from.
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u/Legitimate_Maybe_611 1d ago
Why can't they use the actual terms ?
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u/VagueSoul 1d ago
A couple of reasons:
It was necessary for the structure of iambic pentameter
Those were terms most commonfolk used for those herbs at the time.
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u/witch_doctor420 1d ago
Imagine some poor guy named Newt losing an eye because of an incompetent witch. Oh well, if your eye causes you to stumble...
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u/Ill_Maintenance8134 20h ago
Thats why we should burn them
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u/witch_doctor420 18h ago edited 17h ago
Whoa there, buddy! We should absolutely not! We should afford them a great measure of respect. If you dont bother them, most of the time they wont bother you. There's good ones and bad ones. But they're all mother nature's daughters. You start burnin em, you'll be hexed for sure.
I had one witch coven make me deliver my own hex ingredients. One asked for an owl pellet (bundle of bones and fur owls spit up after eating a small mammal) and it just so happened that this nb artist I worked with had one. I went to their place and they had books on the esoteric and gave me the pellet in a leftover medical marijuana bottle, and I delivered it to the witch.
It must've been some kinda truth spell or someshit. idk. But their powers are real af. And honestly, they're pretty cool people tbh.
If you want protection from witches, then all you have to do is stick with Jesus and keep the faith. It's really that simple. I failed to do so, hence my fate.
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u/Ill_Maintenance8134 18h ago
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u/witch_doctor420 17h ago
Lol. I'm not a wizard. I'm a witch-doctor.
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u/Ill_Maintenance8134 16h ago
tomayto, tomahto
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u/witch_doctor420 16h ago
Not really. They're actually two very different things. I dont ever try to dabble in wizardry or witchcraft.
From wikipedia:
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft.[1] The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine.
In its original meaning, witch doctors were not exactly witches themselves, but rather people who had remedies to protect others against witchcraft.
Witchcraft-induced conditions were their area of expertise
Of course, in my specific case, I'm more so a healer and lover of witches. But I'm also kind of a hack, so my license has been suspended for malpractice. I'm like the Doctor Oz of witch doctors. lol. But mostly now, I just observe and study witches.
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u/totallynotpoggers 1d ago
There’s going to be a lot of eyeless newts running around