And then (they say) no spirit can walke abroad,
The nights are wholsome, then no Planets strike,
No Faiery talkes, nor Witch hath power to Charme:
So hallow'd, and so gracious is the time.
This quote is at the very beginning of the novel. I was curious as to why he ( John Updike) would choose such a quote to begin a book with.
And then, they say, no spirit dares to walk abroad.
The nights are wholesome, no planets change course,
No fairy takes children, a witch has no power to charm,
The time is so holy and so full of goodness.
That is the translation i found of that particular quote. It states:
That no spirit dares to walk around in the open, when in the first book they fought the wicked spirit, also known as Darryl Van Horne, and the ladies won.
The nights are wholesome and the planets don't change course, when Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie believe in the changing of planets and full moons and super natural powers because they all have experienced them being possessed by themselves while in their prime.
No fairy takes children, a witch has no power to charm, is the most powerful line of the quote because it pertains directly to these three women. All three are witches and it says that they can not use their charm to either get out of trouble or to get their way, which is becoming truer everyday for these women because they are slowly dissintegrating towards their doom and inevitable death.
The time is so holy and so full of goodness, might be a foreshadowing moment when Updike is trying to tell us that good fortune will soon seek out these three women and help them along in their journey to these exotic places as well as their cross over to the other side.
