madbaker: (oxford comma)
madbaker ([personal profile] madbaker) wrote2008-12-18 11:04 am
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My contribution to the OEDILF: for "black art".

The devil produces a spark
Of power for spells in the dark.
Black arts are espoused
By people like Faust
Who bargain their souls for a lark.

According to the OED, the first documented usage of "black art" is in Marlowe's Faust.

[identity profile] ermine-rat.livejournal.com 2008-12-18 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I was thinking the Basque Witch Trials might have produced the term that 'dark arts' was based on.... but that wouldn't have been in English.