Poisoners (Secret)

(1) Locusta, a woman of ancient Rome, who was employed by the Empress Agrippiʹna to poison her husband Claudius. Nero employed the same woman to poison Britannicus and others.

(2) The Borgias (Pope Alexander VI. and his children, Cæsar and Lucrezia) were noted poisoners.

(3) Hieronyma Spara and Toffania, of Italy. (See Aqua Tofana.)

(4) Marquise de Brinvilliers, a young profligate Frenchwoman, taught the art by an officer named Sainte Croix, who learnt it in Italy. (See World of Wonders, part vii. p. 203.)

(5) Lavoisin and Lavigoreux, French midwives and fortune-tellers.

(6) Anna Maria Zweinziger, sentenced to death in 1811.

In English history we have a few instances: e.g. Sir Thomas Overbury was so murdered by the Countess of Somerset. King James, it has been said, was a victim to similar poisoning, by Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Poisoners (Secret)

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