diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 12890-0.txt | 4455 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12890-8.txt | 4846 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12890-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 106055 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12890.txt | 4847 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/12890.zip | bin | 0 -> 106050 bytes |
8 files changed, 14164 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12890-0.txt b/12890-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c828d3d --- /dev/null +++ b/12890-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4455 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12890 *** + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY + +An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, +and the Powers Possessed By Them, as It Was Generally Held during the +Period of the Reformation, and the Times Immediately Succeeding; +with Special Reference to Shakspere and His Works + +by + +THOMAS ALFRED SPALDING, LL.B. (LOND.) + +Barrister-at-Law, Honorary Treasurer of The New Shakspere Society + +London + +1880 + + + + + + +TO + +ROBERT BROWNING, + +PRESIDENT OF THE + +NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY, + +THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. + + + + +FOREWORDS. + + +This Essay is an expansion, in accordance with a preconceived scheme, of +two papers, one on "The Witches in Macbeth," and the other on "The +Demonology of Shakspere," which were read before the New Shakspere +Society in the years 1877 and 1878. The Shakspere references in the text +are made to the Globe Edition. + +The writer's best thanks are due to his friends Mr. F.J. Furnivall and +Mr. Lauriston E. Shaw, for their kindness in reading the proof sheets, +and suggesting emendations. + +TEMPLE, + October 7, 1879. + + + + + "We are too hasty when we set down our ancestors in the gross for + fools for the monstrous inconsistencies (as they seem to us) + involved in their creed of witchcraft."--C. LAMB. + + "But I will say, of Shakspere's works generally, that we have no + full impress of him there, even as full as we have of many men. His + works are so many windows, through which we see a glimpse of the + world that was in him."--T. CARLYLE. + + + + +ANALYSIS. + +I. + +1. Difficulty in understanding our elder writers without a knowledge of +their language and ideas. 2. Especially in the case of dramatic poets. +3. Examples. Hamlet's "assume a virtue." 4. Changes in ideas and law +relating to marriage. Massinger's "Maid of Honour" as an example. 5. +_Sponsalia de futuro_ and _Sponsalia de praesenti_. Shakspere's +marriage. 6. Student's duty is to get to know the opinions and feelings +of the folk amongst whom his author lived. 7. It will be hard work, but +a gain in the end. First, in preventing conceit. 8. Secondly, in +preventing rambling reading. 9. Author's present object to illustrate +the dead belief in Demonology, especially as far as it concerns +Shakspere. He thinks that this may perhaps bring us into closer contact +with Shakspere's soul. 10. Some one objects that Shakspere can speak +better for himself. Yes, but we must be sure that we understand the +media through which he speaks. 11. Division of subject. + +II. + +12. Reasons why the empire of the supernatural is so extended amongst +savages. 13. All important affairs of life transacted under +superintendence of Supreme Powers. 14. What are these Powers? Three +principles regarding them. 15. (I.) Incapacity of mankind to accept +monotheism. The Jews. 16. Roman Catholicism really polytheistic, +although believers won't admit it. Virgin Mary. Saints. Angels. +Protestantism in the same condition in a less degree. 17. Francis of +Assisi. Gradually made into a god. 18. (II.) Manichaeism. Evil spirits +as inevitable as good. 19. (III.) Tendency to treat the gods of hostile +religions as devils. 20. In the Greek theology. [Greek: daimones]. +Platonism. 21. Neo-Platonism. Makes the elder gods into daemons. 22. +Judaism. Recognizes foreign gods at first. _Elohim_, but they get +degraded in time. Beelzebub, Belial, etc. 23. Early Christians treat +gods of Greece in the same way. St. Paul's view. 24. The Church, +however, did not stick to its colours in this respect. Honesty not the +best policy. A policy of compromise. 25. The oracles. Sosthenion and St. +Michael. Delphi. St. Gregory's saintliness and magnanimity. Confusion of +pagan gods and Christian saints. 26. Church in North Europe. Thonar, +etc., are devils, but Balda gets identified with Christ. 27. Conversion +of Britons. Their gods get turned into fairies rather than devils. +Deuce. Old Nick. 28. Subsequent evolution of belief. Carlyle's Abbot +Sampson. Religious formulae of witchcraft. 29. The Reformers and +Catholics revive the old accusations. The Reformers only go half-way in +scepticism. Calfhill and Martiall. 30. Catholics. Siege of Alkmaar. +Unfortunate mistake of a Spanish prisoner. 31. Conditions that tended to +vivify the belief during Elizabethan era. 32. The new freedom. Want of +rules of evidence. Arthur Hacket and his madnesses. Sneezing. +Cock-crowing. Jackdaw in the House of Commons. Russell and Drake both +mistaken for devils. 33. Credulousness of people. "To make one danse +naked." A parson's proof of transubstantiation. 34. But the Elizabethans +had strong common sense nevertheless. People do wrong if they set them +down as fools. If we had not learned to be wiser than they, we should +have to be ashamed of ourselves. We shall learn nothing from them if we +don't try to understand them. + +III. + +35. The three heads. 36. (I.) Classification of devils. Greater and +lesser devils. Good and bad angels. 37. Another classification, not +popular. 38. Names of greater devils. Horribly uncouth. The number of +them. Shakspere's devils. 39. (II.) Form of devils of the greater. 40. +Of the lesser. The horns, goggle eyes, and tail. Scot's +carnal-mindedness. He gets his book burnt, and written against by James +I. 41. Spenser's idol-devil. 42. Dramatists' satire of popular opinion. +43. Favourite form for appearing in when conjured. Devils in Macbeth. +44. Powers of devils. 45. Catholic belief in devil's power to create +bodies. 46. Reformers deny this, but admit that he deceives people into +believing that he can do so, either by getting hold of a dead body, and +restoring animation. 47. Or by means of illusion. 48. The common people +stuck to the Catholic doctrine. Devils appear in likeness of an ordinary +human being. 49. Even a living one, which was sometimes awkward. "The +Troublesome Raigne of King John." They like to appear as priests or +parsons. The devil quoting Scripture. 50. Other human shapes. 51. +Animals. Ariel. 52. Puck. 53. "The Witch of Edmonton." The devil on the +stage. Flies. Urban Grandier. Sir M. Hale. 54. Devils as angels. As +Christ. 55. As dead friend. Reformers denied the possibility of ghosts, +and said the appearances so called were devils. James I. and his +opinion. 56. The common people believed in the ghosts. Bishop +Pilkington's troubles. 57. The two theories. Illustrated in "Julius +Caesar," "Macbeth." 58. And "Hamlet." 59. This explains an apparent +inconsistency in "Hamlet." 60. Possession and obsession. Again the +Catholics and Protestants differ. 61. But the common people believe in +possession. 62. Ignorance on the subject of mental disease. The +exorcists. 63. John Cotta on possession. What the "learned physicion" +knew. 64. What was manifest to the vulgar view. Will Sommers. "The Devil +is an Ass." 65. Harsnet's "Declaration," and "King Lear." 66. The +Babington conspiracy. 67. Weston, alias Edmonds. His exorcisms. Mainy. +The basis of Harsnet's statements. 69. The devils in "Lear." 70. Edgar +and Mainy. Mainy's loose morals. 71. The devils tempt with knives and +halters. 72. Mainy's seven devils: Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Envy, +Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth. The Nightingale business. 73. Treatment of the +possessed: confinement, flagellation. 74. Dr Pinch. Nicknames. 75. Other +methods. That of "Elias and Pawle". The holy chair, sack and oil, +brimstone. 76. Firing out. 77. Bodily diseases the work of the devil. +Bishop Hooper on hygiene. 78. But devils couldn't kill people unless +they renounced God. 79. Witchcraft. 80. People now-a-days can't +sympathize with the witch persecutors, because they don't believe in the +devil. Satan is a mere theory now. 81. But they believed in him once, +and therefore killed people that were suspected of having to do with +him. 82. And we don't sympathize with the persecuted witches, although +we make a great fuss about the sufferings of the Reformers. 83. The +witches in Macbeth. Some take them to be Norns. 84. Gervinus. His +opinion. 85. Mr. F.G. Fleay. His opinion. 86. Evidence. Simon Forman's +note. 87. Holinshed's account. 88. Criticism. 89. It is said that the +appearance and powers of the sisters are not those of witches. 90. It is +going to be shown that they are. 91. A third piece of criticism. 92. +Objections. 93. Contemporary descriptions of witches. Scot, Harsnet. +Witches' beards. 94. Have Norns chappy fingers, skinny lips, and beards? +95. Powers of witches "looking into the seeds of time." Bessie Roy, how +she looked into them. 96. Meaning of first scene of "Macbeth." 97. +Witches power to vanish. Ointments for the purpose. Scot's instance of +their efficacy. 98. "Weird sisters." 99. Other evidence. 100. Why +Shakspere chose witches. Command over elements. 101. Peculiar to Scotch +trials of 1590-91. 102. Earlier case of Bessie Dunlop--a poor, starved, +half daft creature. "Thom Reid," and how he tempted her. Her canny +Scotch prudence. Poor Bessie gets burnt for all that. 103. Reason for +peculiarity of trials of 1590. James II. comes from Denmark to Scotland. +The witches raise a storm at the instigation of the devil. How the +trials were conducted. 104. John Fian. Raising a mist. Toad-omen. Ship +sinking. 105. Sieve-sailing. Excitement south of the Border. The +"Daemonologie." Statute of James against witchcraft. 106. The origin of +the incubus and succubus. 107. Mooncalves. 108. Division of opinion +amongst Reformers regarding devils. Giordano Bruno. Bullinger's opinion +about Sadducees and Epicures. 109. Emancipation a gradual process. +Exorcism in Edward VI.'s Prayer-book. 110. The author hopes he has been +reverent in his treatment of the subject. Any sincere belief entitled to +respect. Our pet beliefs may some day appear as dead and ridiculous as +these. + +IV. + +111. Fairies and devils differ in degree, not in origin. 112. Evidence. +113. Cause of difference. Folk, until disturbed by religious doubt, +don't believe in devils, but fairies. 114. Reformation shook people up, +and made them think of hell and devils. 115. The change came in the +towns before the country. Fairies held on a long time in the country. +116. Shakspere was early impressed with fairy lore. In middle life, came +in contact with town thought and devils, and at the end of it returned +to Stratford and fairydom. 117. This is reflected in his works. 118. But +there is progression of thought to be observed in these stages. 119. +Shakspere indirectly tells us his thoughts, if we will take the trouble +to learn them. 120. Three stages of thought that men go through on +religious matters. Hereditary belief. Scepticism. Reasoned belief. 121. +Shakspere went through all this. 122. Illustrations. Hereditary belief. +"A Midsummer Night's Dream." Fairies chiefly an adaptation of current +tradition. 123. The dawn of doubt. 124. Scepticism. Evil spirits +dominant. No guiding good. 125. Corresponding lapse of faith in other +matters. Woman's purity. 126. Man's honour. 127. Mr. Ruskin's view of +Shakspere's message. 128. Founded chiefly on plays of sceptical period. +Message of third period entirely different. 129. Reasoned belief. "The +Tempest." 130. Man can master evil of all forms if he go about it in the +right way--is not the toy of fate. 131. Prospero a type of Shakspere in +this final stage of thought. How pleasant to think this! + + + + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY. + + +1. It is impossible to understand and appreciate thoroughly the +production of any great literary genius who lived and wrote in times far +removed from our own, without a certain amount of familiarity, not only +with the precise shades of meaning possessed by the vocabulary he made +use of, as distinguished from the sense conveyed by the same words in +the present day, but also with the customs and ideas, political, +religious and moral, that predominated during the period in which his +works were produced. Without such information, it will be found +impossible, in many matters of the first importance, to grasp the +writer's true intent, and much will appear vague and lifeless that was +full of point and vigour when it was first conceived; or, worse still, +modern opinion upon the subject will be set up as the standard of +interpretation, ideas will be forced into the writer's sentences that +could not by any manner of possibility have had place in his mind, and +utterly false conclusions as to his meaning will be the result. Even the +man who has had some experience in the study of an early literature, +occasionally finds some difficulty in preventing the current opinions of +his day from obtruding themselves upon his work and warping his +judgment; to the general reader this must indeed be a frequent and +serious stumbling-block. + +2. This is a special source of danger in the study of the works of +dramatic poets, whose very art lies in the representation of the current +opinions, habits, and foibles of their times--in holding up the mirror +to their age. It is true that, if their works are to live, they must +deal with subjects of more than mere passing interest; but it is also +true that many, and the greatest of them, speak upon questions of +eternal interest in the particular light cast upon them in their times, +and it is quite possible that the truth may be entirely lost from want +of power to recognize it under the disguise in which it comes. A certain +motive, for instance, that is an overpowering one in a given period, +subsequently appears grotesque, weak, or even powerless; the consequent +action becomes incomprehensible, and the actor is contemned; and a +simile that appeared most appropriate in the ears of the author's +contemporaries, seems meaningless, or ridiculous, to later generations. + +3. An example or two of this possibility of error, derived from works +produced during the period with which it is the object of these pages to +deal, will not be out of place here. + +A very striking illustration of the manner in which a word may mislead +is afforded by the oft-quoted line: + + "Assume a virtue, if you have it not." + +By most readers the secondary, and, in the present day, almost +universal, meaning of the word assume--"pretend that to be, which in +reality has no existence;"--that is, in the particular case, "ape the +chastity you do not in reality possess"--is understood in this sentence; +and consequently Hamlet, and through him, Shakspere, stand committed to +the appalling doctrine that hypocrisy in morals is to be commended and +cultivated. Now, such a proposition never for an instant entered +Shakspere's head. He used the word "assume" in this case in its primary +and justest sense; _ad-sumo_, take to, acquire; and the context plainly +shows that Hamlet meant that his mother, by self-denial, would gradually +acquire that virtue in which she was so conspicuously wanting. Yet, for +lack of a little knowledge of the history of the word employed, the +other monstrous gloss has received almost universal and applauding +acceptance. + +4. This is a fair example of the style of error which a reader +unacquainted with the history of the changes our language has undergone +may fall into. Ignorance of changes in customs and morals may cause +equal or greater error. + +The difference between the older and more modern law, and popular +opinion, relating to promises of marriage and their fulfilment, affords +a striking illustration of the absurdities that attend upon the +interpretation of the ideas of one generation by the practice of +another. Perhaps no greater nonsense has been talked upon any subject +than this one, especially in relation to Shakspere's own marriage, by +critics who seem to have thought that a fervent expression of acute +moral feeling would replace and render unnecessary patient +investigation. + +In illustration of this difference, a play of Massinger's, "The Maid of +Honour," may be advantageously cited, as the catastrophe turns upon this +question of marriage contracts. Camiola, the heroine, having been +precontracted by oath[1] to Bertoldo, the king's natural brother, and +hearing of his subsequent engagement to the Duchess of Sienna, +determines to quit the world and take the veil. But before doing so, and +without informing any one, except her confessor, of her intention, she +contrives a somewhat dramatic scene for the purpose of exposing her +false lover. She comes into the presence of the king and all the court, +produces her contract, claims Bertoldo as her husband, and demands +justice of the king, adjuring him that he shall not-- + + "Swayed or by favour or affection, + By a false gloss or wrested comment, alter + The true intent and letter of the law." + +[Footnote 1: Act v. sc. I.] + +Now, the only remedy that would occur to the mind of the reader of the +present day under such circumstances, would be an action for breach of +promise of marriage, and he would probably be aware of the very recent +origin of that method of procedure. The only reply, therefore, that he +would expect from Roberto would be a mild and sympathetic assurance of +inability to interfere; and he must be somewhat taken aback to find this +claim of Camiola admitted as indisputable. The riddle becomes somewhat +further involved when, having established her contract, she immediately +intimates that she has not the slightest intention of observing it +herself, by declaring her desire to take the veil. + +5. This can only be explained by the rules current at the time regarding +spousals. The betrothal, or handfasting, was, in Massinger's time, a +ceremony that entailed very serious obligations upon the parties to it. +There were two classes of spousals--_sponsalia de futuro_ and _sponsalia +de praesenti_: a promise of marriage in the future, and an actual +declaration of present marriage. This last form of betrothal was, in +fact, marriage, as far as the contracting parties were concerned.[1] It +could not, even though not consummated, be dissolved by mutual consent; +and a subsequent marriage, even though celebrated with religious rites, +was utterly invalid, and could be set aside at the suit of the injured +person. + +[Footnote 1: Swinburne, A Treatise of Spousals, 1686, p. 236. In England +the offspring were, nevertheless, illegitimate.] + +The results entailed by _sponsalia de futuro_ were less serious. +Although no spousals of the same nature could be entered into with a +third person during the existence of the contract, yet it could be +dissolved by mutual consent, and was dissolved by subsequent _sponsalia +in praesenti_, or matrimony. But such spousals could be converted into +valid matrimony by the cohabitation of the parties; and this, instead of +being looked upon as reprehensible, seems to have been treated as a +laudable action, and to be by all means encouraged.[1] In addition to +this, completion of a contract for marriage _de futuro_ confirmed by +oath, if such a contract were not indeed indissoluble, as was thought by +some, could at any rate be enforced against an unwilling party. But +there were some reasons that justified the dissolution of _sponsalia_ of +either description. Affinity was one of these; and--what is to the +purpose here, in England before the Reformation, and in those parts of +the continent unaffected by it--the entrance into a religious order was +another. Here, then, we have a full explanation of Camiola's conduct. +She is in possession of evidence of a contract of marriage between +herself and Bertoldo, which, whether _in praesenti_ or _in futuro_, +being confirmed by oath, she can force upon him, and which will +invalidate his proposed marriage with the duchess. Having established +her right, she takes the only step that can with certainty free both +herself and Bertoldo from the bond they had created, by retiring into a +nunnery. + +[Footnote 1: Swinburne, p. 227.] + +This explanation renders the action of the play clear, and at the same +time shows that Shakspere in his conduct with regard to his marriage may +have been behaving in the most honourable and praiseworthy manner; as +the bond, with the date of which the date of the birth of his first +child is compared, is for the purpose of exonerating the ecclesiastics +from any liability for performing the ecclesiastical ceremony, which was +not at all a necessary preliminary to a valid marriage, so far as the +husband and wife were concerned, although it was essential to render +issue of the marriage legitimate. + +6. These are instances of the deceptions that are likely to arise +from the two fertile sources that have been specified. There can +be no doubt that the existence of errors arising from the former +source--misapprehension of the meaning of words--is very generally +admitted, and effectual remedies have been supplied by modern scholars +for those who will make use of them. Errors arising from the latter +source are not so entirely recognized, or so securely guarded against. +But what has just been said surely shows that it is of no use reading a +writer of a past age with merely modern conceptions; and, therefore, +that if such a man's works are worth study at all, they must be read +with the help of the light thrown upon them by contemporary history, +literature, laws, and morals. The student must endeavour to divest +himself, as far as possible, of all ideas that are the result of a +development subsequent to the time in which his author lived, and to +place himself in harmony with the life and thoughts of the people of +that age: sit down with them in their homes, and learn the sources of +their loves, their hates, their fears, and see wherein domestic +happiness, or lack of it, made them strong or weak; follow them to the +market-place, and witness their dealings with their fellows--the honesty +or baseness of them, and trace the cause; look into their very hearts, +if it may be, as they kneel at the devotion they feel or simulate, and +become acquainted with the springs of their dearest aspirations and most +secret prayers. + +7. A hard discipline, no doubt, but not more hard than salutary. +Salutary in two ways. First, as a test of the student's own earnestness +of purpose. For in these days of revival of interest in our elder +literature, it has become much the custom for flippant persons, who are +covetous of being thought "well-read" by their less-enterprising +companions, to skim over the surface of the pages of the wisest and +noblest of our great teachers, either not understanding, or +misunderstanding them. "I have read Chaucer, Shakspere, Milton," is the +sublimely satirical expression constantly heard from the mouths of those +who, having read words set down by the men they name, have no more +capacity for reading the hearts of the men themselves, through those +words, than a blind man has for discerning the colour of flowers. As a +consequence of this flippancy of reading, numberless writers, whose +works have long been consigned to a well-merited oblivion, have of late +years been disinterred and held up for public admiration, chiefly upon +the ground that they are ancient and unknown. The man who reads for the +sake of having done so, not for the sake of the knowledge gained by +doing so, finds as much charm in these petty writers as in the greater, +and hence their transient and undeserved popularity. It would be well, +then, for every earnest student, before beginning the study of any one +having pretensions to the position of a master, and who is not of our +own generation, to ask himself, "Am I prepared thoroughly to sift out +and ascertain the true import of every allusion contained in this +volume?" And if he cannot honestly answer "Yes," let him shut the book, +assured that he is not impelled to the study of it by a sincere thirst +for knowledge, but by impertinent curiosity, or a shallow desire to +obtain undeserved credit for learning. + +8. The second way in which such a discipline will prove salutary is +this: it will prevent the student from straying too far afield in his +reading. The number of "classical" authors whose works will repay such +severe study is extremely limited. However much enthusiasm he may throw +into his studies, he will find that nine-tenths of our older literature +yields too small a harvest of instruction to attract any but the pedant +to expend so much labour upon them. The two great vices of modern +reading will be avoided--flippancy on the one hand, and pedantry on the +other. + +9. The object, therefore, which I have had in view in the compilation of +the following pages, is to attempt to throw some additional light upon a +condition of thought, utterly different from any belief that has firm +hold in the present generation, that was current and peculiarly +prominent during the lifetime of the man who bears overwhelmingly the +greatest name, either in our own or any other literature. It may be +said, and perhaps with much force, that enough, and more than enough, +has been written in the way of Shakspere criticism. But is it not better +that somewhat too much should be written upon such a subject than too +little? We cannot expect that every one shall see all the greatness of +Shakspere's vast and complex mind--by one a truth will be grasped that +has eluded the vigilance of others;--and it is better that those who can +by no possibility grasp anything at all should have patient hearing, +rather than that any additional light should be lost. The useless, +lifeless criticism vanishes quietly away into chaos; the good remains +quietly to be useful: and it is in reliance upon the justice and +certainty of this law that I aim at bringing before the mind, as clearly +as may be, a phase of belief that was continually and powerfully +influencing Shakspere during the whole of his life, but is now well-nigh +forgotten or entirely misunderstood. If the endeavour is a useless and +unprofitable one, let it be forgotten--I am content; but I hope to be +able to show that an investigation of the subject does furnish us with a +key which, in a manner, unlocks the secrets of Shakspere's heart, and +brings us closer to the real living man--to the very soul of him who, +with hardly any history in the accepted sense of the word, has left us +in his works a biography of far deeper and more precious meaning, if we +will but understand it. + +10. But it may be said that Shakspere, of all men, is able to speak for +himself without aid or comment. His works appeal to all, young and old, +in every time, every nation. It is true; he can be understood. He is, +to use again Ben Jonson's oft-quoted words, "Not of an age, but for +all time." Yet he is so thoroughly imbued with the spirit and opinions +of his era, that without a certain comprehension of the men of +the Elizabethan period he cannot be understood fully. Indeed, +his greatness is to a large extent due to his sympathy with the men +around him, his power of clearly thinking out the answers to the +all-time questions, and giving a voice to them that his contemporaries +could understand;--answers that others could not for themselves +formulate--could, perhaps, only vaguely and dimly feel after. To +understand these answers fully, the language in which they were +delivered must be first thoroughly mastered. + +11. I intend, therefore, to attempt to sketch out the leading features +of a phase of religious belief that acquired peculiar distinctness and +prominence during Shakspere's lifetime--more, perhaps, than it ever did +before, or has done since--the belief in the existence of evil spirits, +and their influence upon and dealings with mankind. The subject will be +treated in three sections. The first will contain a short statement of +the laws that seem to be of universal operation in the creation and +maintenance of the belief in a multitudinous band of spirits, good and +evil; and of a few of the conditions of the Elizabethan epoch that may +have had a formative and modifying influence upon that belief. The +second will be devoted to an outline of the chief features of that +belief, as it existed at the time in question--the organization, +appearance, and various functions and powers of the evil spirits, with +special reference to Shakspere's plays. The third and concluding +section, will embody an attempt to trace the growth of Shakspere's +thought upon religious matters through the medium of his allusions to +this subject. + + * * * * * + +12. The empire of the supernatural must obviously be most extended +where civilization is the least advanced. An educated man has to make a +conscious, and sometimes severe, effort to refrain from pronouncing a +dogmatic opinion as to the cause of a given result when sufficient +evidence to warrant a definite conclusion is wanting; to the savage, +the notion of any necessity for, or advantage to be derived from, such +self-restraint never once occurs. Neither the lightning that strikes +his hut, the blight that withers his crops, the disease that destroys +the life of those he loves; nor, on the other hand, the beneficent +sunshine or life-giving rain, is by him traceable to any known +physical cause. They are the results of influences utterly beyond his +understanding--supernatural,--matters upon which imagination is allowed +free scope to run riot, and from which spring up a legion of myths, or +attempts to represent in some manner these incomprehensible processes, +grotesque or poetic, according to the character of the people with which +they originate, which, if their growth be not disturbed by extraneous +influences, eventually develop into the national creed. The most +ordinary events of the savage's every-day life do not admit of a natural +solution; his whole existence is bound in, from birth to death, by a +network of miracles, and regulated, in its smallest details, by unseen +powers of whom he knows little or nothing. + +13. Hence it is that, in primitive societies, the functions of +legislator, judge, priest, and medicine man are all combined in one +individual, the great medium of communication between man and the +unknown, whose person is pre-eminently sacred. The laws that are to +guide the community come in some mysterious manner through him from the +higher powers. If two members of the clan are involved in a quarrel, he +is appealed to to apply some test in order to ascertain which of the two +is in the wrong--an ordeal that can have no judicial operation, except +upon the assumption of the existence of omnipotent beings interested in +the discovery of evil-doers, who will prevent the test from operating +unjustly. Maladies and famines are unmistakeable signs of the +displeasure of the good, or spite of the bad spirits, and are to be +averted by some propitiatory act on the part of the sufferers, or the +mediation of the priest-doctor. The remedy that would put an end to a +long-continued drought will be equally effective in arresting an +epidemic. + +14. But who, and of what nature, are these supernatural powers whose +influences are thus brought to bear upon every-day life, and who appear +to take such an interest in the affairs of mankind? It seems that there +are three great principles at work in the evolution and modification of +the ideas upon this subject, which must now be shortly stated. + +15. (i.) The first of these is the apparent incapacity of the majority +of mankind to accept a purely monotheistic creed. It is a demonstrable +fact that the primitive religions now open to observation attribute +specific events and results to distinct supernatural beings; and there +can be little doubt that this is the initial step in every creed. It is +a bold and somewhat perilous revolution to attempt to overturn this +doctrine and to set up monotheism in its place, and, when successfully +accomplished, is rarely permanent. The more educated portions of the +community maintain allegiance to the new teaching, perhaps; but among +the lower classes it soon becomes degraded to, or amalgamated with, some +form of polytheism more or less pronounced, and either secret or +declared. Even the Jews, the nation the most conspicuous for its +supposed uncompromising adherence to a monotheistic creed, cannot claim +absolute freedom from taint in this respect; for in the country places, +far from the centre of worship, the people were constantly following +after strange gods; and even some of their most notable worthies were +liable to the same accusation. + +16. It is not necessary, however, that the individuality and +specialization of function of the supreme beings recognized by any +religious system should be so conspicuous as they are in this case, or +in the Greek or Roman Pantheon, to mark it as in its essence +polytheistic or of polytheistic tendency. It is quite enough that the +immortals are deemed to be capable of hearing and answering the prayers +of their adorers, and of interfering actively in passing events, either +for good or for evil. This, at the root of it, constitutes the crucial +difference between polytheism and monotheism; and in this sense the +Roman Catholic form of Christianity, representing the oldest undisturbed +evolution of a strictly monotheistic doctrine, is undeniably +polytheistic. Apart from the Virgin Mary, there is a whole hierarchy of +inferior deities, saints, and angels, subordinate to the One Supreme +Being. This may possibly be denied by the authorized expounders of the +doctrine of the Church of Rome; but it is nevertheless certain that it +is the view taken by the uneducated classes, with whom the saints are +much more present and definite deities than even the Almighty Himself. +It is worth noting, that during the dancing mania of 1418, not God, or +Christ, or the Virgin Mary, but St. Vitus, was prayed to by the populace +to stop the epidemic that was afterwards known by his name.[1] There was +a temple to St. Michael on Mount St. Angelo, and Augustine thought it +necessary to declare that angel-worshippers were heretics.[2] Even +Protestantism, though a much younger growth than Catholicism, shows a +slight tendency towards polytheism. The saints are, of course, quite +out of the question, and angels are as far as possible relegated from +the citadel of asserted belief into the vaguer regions of poetical +sentimentality; but--although again unadmitted by the orthodox of the +sect--the popular conception of Christ is, and, until the masses are +more educated in theological niceties than they are at present, +necessarily must be, as of a Supreme Being totally distinct from God the +Father. This applies in a less degree to the third Person in the +Trinity; less, because His individuality is less clear. George Eliot +has, with her usual penetration, noted this fact in "Silas Marner," +where, in Mrs. Winthrop's simple theological system, the Trinity is +always referred to as "Them." + +[Footnote 1: Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 85.] + +[Footnote 2: Bullinger, p. 348. Parker Society.] + +17. The posthumous history of Francis of Assisi affords a striking +illustration of this strange tendency towards polytheism. This +extraordinary man received no little reverence and adulation during his +lifetime; but it was not until after his death that the process of +deification commenced. It was then discovered that the stigmata were not +the only points of resemblance between the departed saint and the Divine +Master he professed to follow; that his birth had been foretold by the +prophets; that, like Christ, he underwent transfiguration; and that he +had worked miracles during his life. The climax of the apotheosis was +reached in 1486, when a monk, preaching at Paris, seriously maintained +that St. Francis was in very truth a second Christ, the second Son of +God; and that after his death he descended into purgatory, and +liberated all the spirits confined there who had the good fortune to be +arrayed in the Franciscan garb.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Maury, Histoire de la Magie, p. 354.] + +18. (ii.) The second principle is that of the Manichaeists: the division +of spirits into hostile camps, good and evil. This is a much more common +belief than the orthodox are willing to allow. There is hardly any +religious system that does not recognize a first source of evil, as well +as a first source of good. But the spirit of evil occupies a position of +varying importance: in some systems he maintains himself as co-equal of +the spirit of good; in others he sinks to a lower stage, remaining very +powerful to do harm, but nevertheless under the control, in matters of +the highest importance, of the more beneficent Being. In each of these +cases, the first principle is found operating, ever augmenting the +ranks; monodiabolism being as impossible as monotheism; and hence the +importance of fully establishing that proposition. + +19. (iii.) The last and most important of these principles is the +tendency of all theological systems to absorb into themselves the +deities extraneous to themselves, not as gods, but as inferior, or even +evil, spirits. The actual existence of the foreign deity is not for a +moment disputed, the presumption in favour of innumerable spiritual +agencies being far too strong to allow the possibility of such a doubt; +but just as the alien is looked upon as an inferior being, created +chiefly for the use and benefit of the chosen people--and what nation is +not, if its opinion of itself may be relied upon, a chosen people?--so +the god the alien worships is a spirit of inferior power and capacity, +and can be recognized solely as occupying a position subordinate to that +of the gods of the land. + +This principle has such an important influence in the elaboration of the +belief in demons, that it is worth while to illustrate the generality of +its application. + +20. In the Greek system of theology we find in the first place a number +of deities of varying importance and power, whose special functions are +defined with some distinctness; and then, below these, an innumerable +band of spirits, the souls of the departed--probably the relics of an +earlier pure ancestor-worship--who still interest themselves in the +inhabitants of this world. These [Greek: daimones] were certainly +accredited with supernatural power, and were not of necessity either +good or evil in their influence or action. It was to this second class +that foreign deities were assimilated. They found it impossible, +however, to retain even this humble position. The ceremonies of their +worship, and the language in which those ceremonies were performed, were +strange to the inhabitants of the land in which the acclimatization was +attempted; and the incomprehensible is first suspected, then loathed. It +is not surprising, then, that the new-comers soon fell into the ranks of +purely evil spirits, and that those who persisted in exercising their +rites were stigmatized as devil-worshippers, or magicians. + +But in process of time this polytheistic system became pre-eminently +unsatisfactory to the thoughtful men whom Greece produced in such +numbers. The tendency towards monotheism which is usually associated +with the name of Plato is hinted at in the writings of other +philosophers who were his predecessors. The effect of this revolution +was to recognize one Supreme Being, the First Cause, and to subordinate +to him all the other deities of the ancient and popular theology--to +co-ordinate them, in fact, with the older class of daemons; the first +step in the descent to the lowest category of all. + +21. The history of the neo-Platonic belief is one of elaboration upon +these ideas. The conception of the Supreme Being was complicated in a +manner closely resembling the idea of the Christian Trinity, and all the +subordinate daemons were classified into good and evil geniuses. Thus, a +theoretically monotheistic system was established, with a tremendous +hierarchy of inferior spirits, who frequently bore the names of the +ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, strikingly +resembling that of Roman Catholicism. The subordinate daemons were not +at first recognized as entitled to any religious rites; but in the +course of time, by the inevitable operation of the first principle just +enunciated, a form of theurgy sprang up with the object of attracting +the kindly help and patronage of the good spirits, and was tolerated; +and attempts were made to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, which +were, as far as possible suppressed and discountenanced. + +22. The history of the operation of this principle upon the Jewish +religion is very similar, and extremely interesting. Although they do +not seem to have ever had any system of ancestor-worship, as the Greeks +had, yet the Jews appear originally to have recognized the deities of +their neighbours as existing spirits, but inferior in power to the God +of Israel. "All the gods of the nations are idols" are words that +entirely fail to convey the idea of the Psalmist; for the word +translated "idols" is _Elohim_, the very term usually employed to +designate Jehovah; and the true sense of the passage therefore is: "All +the gods of the nations are gods, but Jehovah made the heavens."[1] In +another place we read that "The Lord is a great God, and a great King +above all gods."[2] As, however, the Jews gradually became acquainted +with the barbarous rites with which their neighbours did honour to their +gods, the foreigners seem to have fallen more and more in estimation, +until they came to be classed as evil spirits. To this process such +names as Beelzebub, Moloch, Ashtaroth, and Belial bear witness; +Beelzebub, "the prince of the devils" of later time, being one of the +gods of the hostile Philistines. + +[Footnote 1: Psalm xcvi. 5 (xcv. Sept.).] + +[Footnote 2: Psalm xcv. 3 (xciv. Sept.). Maury, p. 98.] + +23. The introduction of Christianity made no difference in this respect. +Paul says to the believers at Corinth, "that the things which the +Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils ([Greek: daimonia]), and +not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with +devils;"[1] and the Septuagint renders the word _Elohim_ in the +ninety-fifth Psalm by this [Greek: daimonia], which as the Christians +had already a distinct term for good spirits, came to be applied to evil +ones only. + +[Footnote 1: I Cor. x. 20.] + +Under the influence therefore, of the new religion, the gods of Greece +and Rome, who in the days of their supremacy had degraded so many +foreign deities to the position of daemons, were in their turn deposed +from their high estate, and became the nucleus around which the +Christian belief in demonology formed itself. The gods who under the old +theologies reigned paramount in the lower regions became pre-eminently +diabolic in character in the new system, and it was Hecate who to the +last retained her position of active patroness and encourager of +witchcraft; a practice which became almost indissolubly connected with +her name. Numerous instances of the completeness with which this process +of diabolization was effected, and the firmness with which it retained +its hold upon the popular belief, even to late times, might be given; +but the following must suffice. In one of the miracle plays, "The +Conversion of Saul," a council of devils is held, at which Mercury +appears as the messenger of Belial.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Digby Mysteries, New Shakspere Society, 1880, p. 44.] + +24. But this absolute rejection of every pagan belief and ceremony was +characteristic of the Christian Church in its infancy only. So long as +the band of believers was a small and persecuted one, no temptation to +violate the rule could exist. But as the Church grew, and acquired +influence and position, it discovered that good policy demanded that the +sternness and inflexibility of its youthful theories should undergo some +modification. It found that it was not the most successful method of +enticing stragglers into its fold to stigmatize the gods they ignorantly +worshipped as devils, and to persecute them as magicians. The more +impetuous and enthusiastic supporters did persecute, and persecute most +relentlessly, the adherents of the dying faith; but persecution, whether +of good or evil, always fails as a means of suppressing a hated +doctrine, unless it can be carried to the extent of extermination of its +supporters; and the more far-seeing leaders of the Catholic Church soon +recognized that a slight surrender of principle was a far surer road to +success than stubborn, uncompromising opposition. + +25. It was in this spirit that the Catholics dealt with the oracles of +heathendom. Mr. Lecky is hardly correct when he says that nothing +analogous to the ancient oracles was incorporated with Christianity.[1] +There is the notable case of the god Sosthenion, whom Constantine +identified with the archangel Michael, and whose oracular functions were +continued in a precisely similar manner by the latter.[2] Oracles that +were not thus absorbed and supported were recognized as existent, but +under diabolic control, and to be tolerated, if not patronized, by the +representatives of the dominant religion. The oracle at Delphi gave +forth prophetic utterances for centuries after the commencement of the +Christian era; and was the less dangerous, as its operations could be +stopped at any moment by holding a saintly relic to the god or devil +Apollo's nose. There is a fable that St. Gregory, in the course of his +travels, passed near the oracle, and his extraordinary sanctity was such +as to prevent all subsequent utterances. This so disturbed the presiding +genius of the place, that he appealed to the saint to undo the baneful +effects his presence had produced; and Gregory benevolently wrote a +letter to the devil, which was in fact a license to continue the +business of prophesying unmolested.[3] This nonsensical fiction shows +clearly enough that the oracles were not generally looked upon as +extinguished by Christianity. As the result of a similar policy we find +the names and functions of the pagan gods and the earlier Christian +saints confused in the most extraordinary manner; the saints assuming +the duties of the moribund deities where those duties were of a harmless +or necessary character.[4] + +[Footnote 1: Rise and Influence of Rationalism, i. p. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: Maury, p. 244, et seq.] + +[Footnote 3: Scot, book vii. ch. i.] + +[Footnote 4: Middleton's Letter from Rome.] + +26. The Church carried out exactly the same principles in her missionary +efforts amongst the heathen hordes of Northern Europe. "Do you renounce +the devils, and all their words and works; Thonar, Wodin, and Saxenote?" +was part of the form of recantation administered to the Scandinavian +converts;[1] and at the present day "Odin take you" is the Norse +equivalent of "the devil take you." On the other hand, an attempt was +made to identify Balda "the beautiful" with Christ--a confusion of +character that may go far towards accounting for a custom joyously +observed by our forefathers at Christmastide but which the false +modesty of modern society has nearly succeeded in banishing from amongst +us, for Balda was slain by Loké with a branch of mistletoe, and Christ +was betrayed by Judas with a kiss. + +[Footnote 1: Milman, History of Latin Christianity, iii. 267; ix. 65.] + +27. Upon the conversion of the inhabitants of Great Britain to +Christianity, the native deities underwent the same inevitable fate, and +sank into the rank of evil spirits. Perhaps the juster opinion is that +they became the progenitors of our fairy mythology rather than the +subsequent devil-lore, although the similarity between these two classes +of spirits is sufficient to warrant us in classing them as species of +the same genus; their characters and functions being perfectly +interchangeable, and even at times merging and becoming +indistinguishable. A certain lurking affection in the new converts for +the religion they had deserted, perhaps under compulsion, may have led +them to look upon their ancient objects of veneration as less detestable +in nature, and dangerous in act, than the devils imported as an integral +portion of their adopted faith; and so originated this class of spirits +less evil than the other. Sir Walter Scott may be correct in his +assertion that many of these fairy-myths owe their origin to the +existence of a diminutive autochthonic race that was conquered by the +invading Celts, and the remnants of which lurked about the mountains and +forests, and excited in their victors a superstitious reverence on +account of their great skill in metallurgy; but this will not explain +the retention of many of the old god-names; as that of the Dusii, the +Celtic nocturnal spirits, in our word "deuce," and that of the Nikr or +water-spirits in "nixie" and old "Nick."[1] These words undoubtedly +indicate the accomplishment of the "facilis descensus Averno" by the +native deities. Elves, brownies, gnomes, and trolds were all at one time +Scotch or Irish gods. The trolds obtained a character similar to that of +the more modern succubus, and have left their impression upon +Elizabethan English in the word "trull." + +[Footnote 1: Maury, p. 189.] + +28. The preceding very superficial outline of the growth of the belief +in evil spirits is enough for the purpose of this essay, as it shows +that the basis of English devil-lore was the annihilated mythologies of +the ancient heathen religions--Italic and Teutonic, as well as those +brought into direct conflict with the Jewish system; and also that the +more important of the Teutonic deities are not to be traced in the +subsequent hierarchy of fiends, on account probably of their temporary +or permanent absorption into the proselytizing system, or the refusal of +the new converts to believe them to be so black as their teachers +painted them. The gradual growth of the superstructure it would be +well-nigh impossible and quite unprofitable to trace. It is due chiefly +to the credulous ignorance and distorted imagination, monkish and +otherwise, of several centuries. Carlyle's graphic picture of Abbot +Sampson's vision of the devil in "Past and Present" will perhaps do more +to explain how the belief grew and flourished than pages of explanatory +statements. It is worthy of remark, however, that to the last, +communication with evil spirits was kept up by means of formulae and +rites that are undeniably the remnants of a form of religious worship. +Incomprehensible in their jargon as these formulae mostly are, and +strongly tinctured as they have become with burlesqued Christian +symbolism and expression--for those who used them could only supply the +fast-dying memory of the elder forms from the existing system--they +still, in all their grotesqueness, remain the battered relics of a dead +faith. + +29. Such being the natural history of the conflict of religions, it will +not be a matter of surprise that the leaders of our English Reformation +should, in their turn, have attributed the miracles of the Roman +Catholic saints to the same infernal source as the early Christians +supposed to have been the origin of the prodigies and oracles of +paganism. The impulse given by the secession from the Church of Rome to +the study of the Bible by all classes added impetus to this tendency. In +Holy Writ the Reformers found full authority for believing in the +existence of evil spirits, possession by devils, witchcraft, and divine +and diabolic interference by way of miracle generally; and they +consequently acknowledged the possibility of the repetition of such +phenomena in the times in which they lived--a position more tenable, +perhaps, than that of modern orthodoxy, that accepts without murmur all +the supernatural events recorded in the Bible, and utterly rejects all +subsequent relations of a similar nature, however well authenticated. +The Reformers believed unswervingly in the truth of the Biblical +accounts of miracles, and that what God had once permitted to take place +might and would be repeated in case of serious necessity. But they found +it utterly impossible to accept the puerile and meaningless miracles +perpetrated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church as evidence +of divine interference; and they had not travelled far enough upon the +road towards rationalism to be able to reject them, one and all, as in +their very nature impossible. The consequence of this was one of those +compromises which we so often meet with in the history of the changes of +opinion effected by the Reformation. Only those particular miracles that +were indisputably demonstrated to be impostures--and there were plenty +of them, such as the Rood of Boxley[1]--were treated as such by them. +The unexposed remainder were treated as genuine supernatural phenomena, +but caused by diabolical, not divine, agency. The reforming divine +Calfhill, supporting this view of the Catholic miracles in his answer to +Martiall's "Treatise of the Cross," points out that the majority of +supernatural events that have taken place in this world have been, most +undoubtedly, the work of the devil; and puts his opponents into a rather +embarrassing dilemma by citing the miracles of paganism, which both +Catholic and Protestant concurred in attributing to the evil one. He +then clinches his argument by asserting that "it is the devil's cunning +that persuades those that will walk in a popish blindness" that they are +worshipping God when they are in reality serving him. "Therefore," he +continues, consciously following an argument of St. Cyprianus against +the pagan miracles, "these wicked spirits do lurk in shrines, in roods, +in crosses, in images: and first of all pervert the priests, which are +easiest to be caught with bait of a little gain. Then work they +miracles. They appear to men in divers shapes; disquiet them when they +are awake; trouble them in their sleeps; distort their members; take +away their health; afflict them with diseases; only to bring them to +some idolatry. Thus, when they have obtained their purpose that a lewd +affiance is reposed where it should not, they enter (as it were) into a +new league, and trouble them no more. What do the simple people then? +Verily suppose that the image, the cross, the thing that they have +kneeled and offered unto (the very devil indeed) hath restored them +health, whereas he did nothing but leave off to molest them. This is the +help and cure that the devils give when they leave off their wrong and +injury."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Froude, History of England, cabinet edition, iii. 102.] + +[Footnote 2: Calfhill, pp. 317-8. Parker Society.] + +30. Here we have a distinct charge of devil-worship--the old doctrine +cropping up again after centuries of repose: "all the gods of our +opponents are devils." Nor were the Catholics a whit behind the +Protestants in this matter. The priests zealously taught that the +Protestants were devil-worshippers and magicians;[1] and the common +people so implicitly believed in the truth of the statement, that we +find one poor prisoner, taken by the Dutch at the siege of Alkmaar in +1578, making a desperate attempt to save his life by promising to +worship his captors' devil precisely as they did[2]--a suggestion that +failed to pacify those to whom it was addressed. + +[Footnote 1: Hutchinson's Essay, p. 218. Harsnet, Declaration, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 2: Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 400.] + +31. Having thus stated, so far as necessary, the chief laws that are +constantly working the extension of the domain of the supernatural as +far as demonology is concerned, without a remembrance of which the +subject itself would remain somewhat difficult to comprehend fully, I +shall now attempt to indicate one or two conditions of thought and +circumstance that may have tended to increase and vivify the belief +during the period in which the Elizabethan literature flourished. + +32. It was an era of change. The nation was emerging from the dim +twilight of mediaevalism into the full day of political and religious +freedom. But the morning mists, which the rising sun had not yet +dispelled, rendered the more distant and complex objects distorted and +portentous. The very fact that doubt, or rather, perhaps, independence +of thought, was at last, within certain limits, treated as non-criminal +in theology, gave an impetus to investigation and speculation in all +branches of politics and science; and with this change came, in the +main, improvement. But the great defect of the time was that this newly +liberated spirit of free inquiry was not kept in check by any sufficient +previous discipline in logical methods of reasoning. Hence the +possibility of the wild theories that then existed, followed out into +action or not, according as circumstances favoured or discouraged: +Arthur Hacket, with casting out of devils, and other madnesses, +vehemently declaring himself the Messiah and King of Europe in the year +of grace 1591, and getting himself believed by some, so long as he +remained unhanged; or, more pathetic still, many weary lives wasted day +by day in fruitless silent search after the impossible philosopher's +stone, or elixir of life. As in law, so in science, there were no +sufficient rules of evidence clearly and unmistakably laid down for the +guidance of the investigator; and consequently it was only necessary to +broach a novel theory in order to have it accepted, without any previous +serious testing. Men do not seem to have been able to distinguish +between an hypothesis and a proved conclusion; or, rather, the rule of +presumptions was reversed, and men accepted the hypothesis as conclusive +until it was disproved. It was a perfectly rational and sufficient +explanation in those days to refer some extraordinary event to some +given supernatural cause, even though there might be no ostensible link +between the two: now, such a suggestion would be treated by the vast +majority with derision or contempt. On the other hand, the most trivial +occurrences, such as sneezing, the appearance of birds of ill omen, the +crowing of a cock, and events of like unimportance happening at a +particular moment, might, by some unseen concatenation of causes and +effects, exercise an incomprehensible influence upon men, and +consequently had important bearings upon their conduct. It is solemnly +recorded in the Commons' Journals that during the discussion of the +statute against witchcraft passed in the reign of James I., a young +jackdaw flew into the House; which accident was generally regarded as +_malum omen_ to the Bill.[1] Extraordinary bravery on the part of an +adversary was sometimes accounted for by asserting that he was the devil +in the form of a man; as the Volscian soldier does with regard to +Coriolanus. This is no mere dramatist's fancy, but a fixed belief of the +times. Sir William Russell fought so desperately at Zutphen, that he got +mistaken for the Evil One;[2] and Drake also gave the Spaniards good +reason for believing that he was a devil, and no man.[3] + +[Footnote 1: See also D'Ewes, p. 688.] + +[Footnote 2: Froude, xii. 87.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 663.] + +33. This intense credulousness, childish almost in itself, but yet at +the same time combined with the strong man's intellect, permeated all +classes of society. Perhaps a couple of instances, drawn from strangely +diverse sources, will bring this more vividly before the mind than any +amount of attempted theorizing. The first is one of the tricks of the +jugglers of the period. + + "_To make one danse naked._ + +"Make a poore boie confederate with you, so as after charms, etc., +spoken by you, he unclothe himself and stand naked, seeming (whilest he +undresseth himselfe) to shake, stamp, and crie, still hastening to be +unclothed, till he be starke naked; or if you can procure none to go so +far, let him onlie beginne to stampe and shake, etc., and unclothe him, +and then you may (for reverence of the companie) seeme to release +him."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Scott, p. 339.] + +The second illustration must have demanded, if possible, more credulity +on the part of the audience than this harmless entertainment. Cranmer +tells us that in the time of Queen Mary a monk preached a sermon at St. +Paul's, the object of which was to prove the truth of the doctrine of +transubstantiation; and, after the manner of his kind, told the +following little anecdote in support of it:--"A maid of Northgate parish +in Canterbury, in pretence to wipe her mouth, kept the host in her +handkerchief; and, when she came home, she put the same into a pot, +close covered, and she spitted in another pot, and after a few days, she +looking in the one pot, found a little young pretty babe, about a +shaftmond long; and the other pot was full of gore blood."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Cranmer, A Confutation of Unwritten Verities, p. 66. Parker +Society.] + +34. That the audiences before which these absurdities were seriously +brought, for amusement or instruction, could be excited in either case +to any other feeling than good-natured contempt for a would-be impostor, +seems to us now-a-days to be impossible. It was not so in the times when +these things transpired: the actors of them were not knaves, nor were +their audiences fools, to any unusual extent. If any one is inclined to +form a low opinion of the Elizabethans intellectually, on account of the +divergence of their capacities of belief in this respect from his own, +he does them a great injustice. Let him take at once Charles Lamb's +warning, and try to understand, rather than to judge them. We, who have +had the benefit of three hundred more years of experience and liberty of +thought than they, should have to hide our faces for very shame had we +not arrived at juster and truer conclusions upon those difficult topics +that so bewildered our ancestors. But can we, with all our boasted +advantages of wealth, power, and knowledge, truly say that all our aims +are as high, all our desires as pure, our words as true, and our deeds +as noble, as those whose opinions we feel this tendency to contemn? If +not, or if indeed they have anything whatsoever to teach us in these +respects, let us remember that we shall never learn the lesson wholly, +perhaps not learn it at all, unless, casting aside this first impulse to +despise, we try to enter fully into and understand these strange dead +beliefs of the past. + + * * * * * + +35. It is in this spirit that I now enter upon the second division of +the subject in hand, in which I shall try to indicate the chief features +of the belief in demonology as it existed during the Elizabethan period. +These will be taken up in three main heads: the classification, physical +appearance, and powers of the evil spirits. + +36. (i.) It is difficult to discover any classification of devils as +well authenticated and as universally received as that of the angels +introduced by Dionysius the Areopagite, which was subsequently imported +into the creed of the Western Church, and popularized in Elizabethan +times by Dekker's "Hierarchie." The subject was one which, from its +nature, could not be settled _ex cathedrâ_, and consequently the subject +had to grow up as best it might, each writer adopting the arrangement +that appeared to him most suitable. There was one rough but popular +classification into greater and lesser devils. The former branch was +subdivided into classes of various grades of power, the members of +which passed under the titles of kings, dukes, marquises, lords, +captains, and other dignities. Each of these was supposed to have a +certain number of legions of the latter class under his command. These +were the evil spirits who appeared most frequently on the earth as the +emissaries of the greater fiends, to carry out their evil designs. The +more important class kept for the most part in a mystical seclusion, and +only appeared upon earth in cases of the greatest emergency, or when +compelled to do so by conjuration. To the class of lesser devils +belonged the bad angel which, together with a good one, was supposed to +be assigned to every person at birth, to follow him through life--the +one to tempt, the other to guard from temptation;[1] so that a struggle +similar to that recorded between Michael and Satan for the body of Moses +was raging for the soul of every existing human being. This was not a +mere theory, but a vital active belief, as the beautiful well-known +lines at the commencement of the eighth canto of the second book of "The +Faerie Queene," and the use made of these opposing spirits in Marlowe's +"Dr. Faustus," and in "The Virgin Martyr," by Massinger and Dekker, +conclusively show. + +[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 506.] + +37. Another classification, which seems to retain a reminiscence of the +origin of devils from pagan deities, is effected by reference to the +localities supposed to be inhabited by the different classes of evil +spirits. According to this arrangement we get six classes:-- + +(1.) Devils of the fire, who wander in the region near the moon. + +(2.) Devils of the air, who hover round the earth. + +(3.) Devils of the earth; to whom the fairies are allied. + +(4.) Devils of the water. + +(5.) Submundane devils.[1] + +(6.) Lucifugi. + +These devils' power and desire to injure mankind appear to have +increased with the proximity of their location to the earth's centre; +but this classification had nothing like the hold upon the popular mind +that the former grouping had, and may consequently be dismissed with +this mention. + +[Footnote 1: Cf. I Hen. VI. V. iii. 10; 2 Hen. VI. I. ii. 77; +Coriolanus, IV. v. 97.] + +38. The greater devils, or the most important of them, had +distinguishing names--strange, uncouth names; some of them telling of a +heathenish origin; others inexplicable and almost unpronounceable--as +Ashtaroth, Bael, Belial, Zephar, Cerberus, Phoenix, Balam (why he?), and +Haagenti, Leraie, Marchosias, Gusoin, Glasya Labolas. Scot enumerates +seventy-nine, the above amongst them, and he does not by any means +exhaust the number. As each arch-devil had twenty, thirty, or forty +legions of inferior spirits under his command, and a legion was composed +of six hundred and sixty-six devils, it is not surprising that the +latter did not obtain distinguishing names until they made their +appearance upon earth, when they frequently obtained one from the form +they loved to assume; for example, the familiars of the witches in +"Macbeth"--Paddock (toad), Graymalkin (cat), and Harpier (harpy, +possibly). Is it surprising that, with resources of this nature at his +command, such an adept in the art of necromancy as Owen Glendower +should hold Harry Percy, much to his disgust, at the least nine hours + + "In reckoning up the several devils' names + That were his lackeys"? + +Of the twenty devils mentioned by Shakspere, four only belong to the +class of greater devils. Hecate, the principal patroness of witchcraft, +is referred to frequently, and appears once upon the scene.[1] The two +others are Amaimon and Barbazon, both of whom are mentioned twice. +Amaimon was a very important personage, being no other than one of the +four kings. Ziminar was King of the North, and is referred to in "Henry +VI. Part I.;"[2] Gorson of the South; Goap of the West; and Amaimon of +the East. He is mentioned in "Henry IV. Part I.,"[3] and "Merry +Wives."[4] Barbazon also occurs in the same passage in the latter play, +and again in "Henry V."[5]--a fact that does to a slight extent help to +bear out the otherwise ascertained chronological sequence of these +plays. The remainder of the devils belong to the second class. Nine of +these occur in "King Lear," and will be referred to again when the +subject of possession is touched upon.[6] + +[Footnote 1: It is perhaps worthy of remark that in every case except +the allusion in the probably spurious Henry VI., "I speak not to that +railing Hecate," (I Hen. VI. III. ii. 64), the name is "Hecat," a +di-syllable.] + +[Footnote 2: V. iii. 6.] + +[Footnote 3: II. iv. 370.] + +[Footnote 4: II. ii. 311.] + +[Footnote 5: II. i. 57. Scot, p. 393.] + +[Footnote 6: § 65.] + +39. (ii.) It would appear that each of the greater devils, on the rare +occasion upon which he made his appearance upon earth, assumed a form +peculiar to himself; the lesser devils, on the other hand, had an +ordinary type, common to the whole species, with a capacity for almost +infinite variation and transmutation which they used, as will be seen, +to the extreme perplexity and annoyance of mortals. As an illustration +of the form in which a greater devil might appear, this is what Scot +says of the questionable Balam, above mentioned: "Balam cometh with +three heads, the first of a bull, the second of a man, and the third of +a ram. He hath a serpent's taile, and flaming eies; riding upon a +furious beare, and carrieng a hawke on his fist."[1] But it was the +lesser devils, not the greater, that came into close contact with +humanity, who therefore demand careful consideration. + +[Footnote 1: p. 361.] + +40. All the lesser devils seem to have possessed a normal form, which +was as hideous and distorted as fancy could render it. To the conception +of an angel imagination has given the only beautiful appendage the human +body does not possess--wings; to that of a devil it has added all those +organs of the brute creation that are most hideous or most harmful. +Advancing civilization has almost exterminated the belief in a being +with horns, cloven hoofs, goggle eyes, and scaly tail, that was held up +to many yet living as the avenger of childish disobedience in their +earlier days, together perhaps with some strength of conviction of the +moral hideousness of the evil he was intended, in a rough way, to +typify; but this hazily retained impression of the Author of Evil was +the universal and entirely credited conception of the ordinary +appearance of those bad spirits who were so real to our ancestors of +Elizabethan days. "Some are so carnallie minded," says Scot, "that a +spirit is no sooner spoken of, but they thinke of a blacke man with +cloven feet, a paire of hornes, a taile, and eies as big as a bason."[1] +Scot, however, was one of a very small minority in his opinion as to the +carnal-mindedness of such a belief. He in his day, like those in every +age and country who dare to hold convictions opposed to the creed of the +majority, was a dangerous sceptic; his book was publicly burnt by the +common hangman;[2] and not long afterwards a royal author wrote a +treatise "against the damnable doctrines of two principally in our age; +whereof the one, called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public +print to deny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft, and so +mainteines the old error of the Sadducees in denying of spirits."[3] The +abandoned impudence of the man!--and the logic of his royal opponent! + +[Footnote 1: p. 507. See also Hutchinson, Essay on Witchcraft, p. 13; +and Harsnet, p. 71.] + +[Footnote 2: Bayle, ix. 152.] + +[Footnote 3: James I., Daemonologie. Edinburgh, 1597.] + +41. Spenser has clothed with horror this conception of the appearance of +a fiend, just as he has enshrined in beauty the belief in the guardian +angel. It is worthy of remark that he describes the devil as dwelling +beneath the altar of an idol in a heathen temple. Prince Arthur strikes +the image thrice with his sword-- + + "And the third time, out of an hidden shade, + There forth issewed from under th' altar's smoake + A dreadfull feend with fowle deformèd looke, + That stretched itselfe as it had long lyen still; + And her long taile and fethers strongly shooke, + That all the temple did with terrour fill; + Yet him nought terrifide that fearèd nothing ill. + + "An huge great beast it was, when it in length + Was stretchèd forth, that nigh filled all the place, + And seemed to be of infinite great strength; + Horrible, hideous, and of hellish race, + Borne of the brooding of Echidna base, + Or other like infernall Furies kinde, + For of a maide she had the outward face + To hide the horrour which did lurke behinde + The better to beguile whom she so fond did finde. + + "Thereto the body of a dog she had, + Full of fell ravin and fierce greedinesse; + A lion's clawes, with power and rigour clad + To rende and teare whatso she can oppresse; + A dragon's taile, whose sting without redresse + Full deadly wounds whereso it is empight, + And eagle's wings for scope and speedinesse + That nothing may escape her reaching might, + Whereto she ever list to make her hardy flight." + +42. The dramatists of the period make frequent references to this +belief, but nearly always by way of ridicule. It is hardly to be +expected that they would share in the grosser opinions held by the +common people in those times--common, whether king or clown. In "The +Virgin Martyr," Harpax is made to say-- + + "I'll tell you what now of the devil; + He's no such horrid creature, cloven-footed, + Black, saucer-eyed, his nostrils breathing fire, + As these lying Christians make him."[1] + +But his opinion was, perhaps, a prejudiced one. In Ben Jonson's "The +Devil is an Ass," when Fitzdottrell, doubting Pug's statement as to his +infernal character, says, "I looked on your feet afore; you cannot cozen +me; your shoes are not cloven, sir, you are whole hoofed;" Pug, with +great presence of mind, replies, "Sir, that's a popular error deceives +many." So too Othello, when he is questioning whether Iago is a devil or +not, says-- + + "I look down to his feet, but that's a fable."[2] + +And when Edgar is trying to persuade the blind Gloucester that he has in +reality cast himself over the cliff, he describes the being from whom he +is supposed to have just parted, thus:-- + + "As I stood here below, methought his eyes + Were two full moons: he had a thousand noses; + Horns whelked and wavèd like the enridgèd sea: + It was some fiend."[3] + +It can hardly be but that the "thousand noses" are intended as a +satirical hit at the enormity of the popular belief. + +[Footnote 1: Act I. sc. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Act V. sc. ii. l. 285.] + +[Footnote 3: Lear, IV. vi. 69.] + +43. In addition to this normal type, common to all these devils, each +one seems to have had, like the greater devils, a favourite form in +which he made his appearance when conjured; generally that of some +animal, real or imagined. It was telling of + + "the moldwarp and the ant, + Of the dreamer Merlin, and his prophecies; + And of a dragon and a finless fish, + A clipwinged griffin, and a moulten raven, + A couching lion, and a ramping cat,"[1] + +that annoyed Harry Hotspur so terribly; and neither in this allusion, +which was suggested by a passage in Holinshed,[2] nor in "Macbeth," +where he makes the three witches conjure up their familiars in the +shapes of an armed head, a bloody child, and a child crowned, has +Shakspere gone beyond the fantastic conceptions of the time. + +[Footnote 1: I Hen. IV. III. i. 148.] + +[Footnote 2: p. 521, c. 2.] + +44. (iii.) But the third proposed section, which deals with the powers +and functions exercised by the evil spirits, is by far the most +interesting and important; and the first branch of the series is one +that suggests itself as a natural sequence upon what has just been said +as to the ordinary shapes in which devils appeared, namely, the capacity +to assume at will any form they chose. + +45. In the early and middle ages it was universally believed that a +devil could, of his own inherent power, call into existence any manner +of body that it pleased his fancy to inhabit, or that would most conduce +to the success of any contemplated evil. In consequence of this belief +the devils became the rivals, indeed the successful rivals, of Jupiter +himself in the art of physical tergiversation. There was, indeed, a +tradition that a devil could not create any animal form of less size +than a barley-corn, and that it was in consequence of this incapacity +that the magicians of Egypt--those indubitable devil-worshippers--failed +to produce lice, as Moses did, although they had been so successful in +the matter of the serpents and the frogs; "a verie gross absurditie," as +Scot judiciously remarks.[1] This, however, would not be a serious +limitation upon the practical usefulness of the power. + +[Footnote 1: p. 314.] + +46. The great Reformation movement wrought a change in this respect. Men +began to accept argument and reason, though savouring of special +pleading of the schools, in preference to tradition, though never so +venerable and well authenticated; and the leaders of the revolution +could not but recognize the absurdity of laying down as infallible dogma +that God was the Creator of all things, and then insisting with equal +vehemence, by way of postulate, that the devil was the originator of +some. The thing was gross and palpable in its absurdity, and had to be +done away with as quickly as might be. But how? On the other hand, it +was clear as daylight that the devil _did_ appear in various forms to +tempt and annoy the people of God--was at that very time doing so in the +most open and unabashed manner. How were reasonable men to account for +this manifest conflict between rigorous logic and more rigorous fact? +There was a prolonged and violent controversy upon the point--the +Reformers not seeing their way to agree amongst themselves--and tedious +as violent. Sermons were preached; books were written; and, when +argument was exhausted, unpleasant epithets were bandied about, much as +in the present day, in similar cases. The result was that two theories +were evolved, both extremely interesting as illustrations of the +hair-splitting, chop-logic tendency which, amidst all their +straightforwardness, was so strongly characteristic of the Elizabethans. +The first suggestion was, that although the devil could not, of his own +inherent power, create a body, he might get hold of a dead carcase and +temporarily restore animation, and so serve his turn. This belief was +held, amongst others, by the erudite King James,[1] and is pleasantly +satirized by sturdy old Ben Jonson in "The Devil is an Ass," where Satan +(the greater devil, who only appears in the first scene just to set the +storm a-brewing) says to Pug (Puck, the lesser devil, who does all the +mischief; or would have done it, had not man, in those latter times, got +to be rather beyond the devils in evil than otherwise), not without a +touch of regret at the waning of his power-- + + "You must get a body ready-made, Pug, + I can create you none;" + +and consequently Pug is advised to assume the body of a handsome +cutpurse that morning hung at Tyburn. + +[Footnote 1: Daemonologie, p. 56.] + +But the theory, though ingenious, was insufficient. The devil would +occasionally appear in the likeness of a living person; and how could +that be accounted for? Again, an evil spirit, with all his ingenuity, +would find it hard to discover the dead body of a griffin, or a harpy, +or of such eccentricity as was affected by the before-mentioned Balam; +and these and other similar forms were commonly favoured by the +inhabitants of the nether world. + +47. The second theory, therefore, became the more popular amongst the +learned, because it left no one point unexplained. The divines held that +although the power of the Creator had in no wise been delegated to the +devil, yet he was, in the course of providence, permitted to exercise a +certain supernatural influence over the minds of men, whereby he could +persuade them that they really saw a form that had no material objective +existence.[1] Here was a position incontrovertible, not on account of +the arguments by which it could be supported, but because it was +impossible to reason against it; and it slowly, but surely, took hold +upon the popular mind. Indeed, the elimination of the diabolic factor +leaves the modern sceptical belief that such apparitions are nothing +more than the result of disease, physical or mental. + +[Footnote 1: Dialogicall Discourses, by Deacon and Walker, 4th Dialogue. +Bullinger, p. 361. Parker Society.] + +48. But the semi-sceptical state of thought was in Shakspere's time +making its way only amongst the more educated portion of the nation. The +masses still clung to the old and venerated, if not venerable, belief +that devils could at any moment assume what form soever they might +please--not troubling themselves further to inquire into the method of +the operation. They could appear in the likeness of an ordinary human +being, as Harpax[1] and Mephistopheles[2] do, creating thereby the most +embarrassing complications in questions of identity; and if this belief +is borne in mind, the charge of being a devil, so freely made, in the +times of which we write, and before alluded to, against persons who +performed extraordinary feats of valour, or behaved in a manner +discreditable and deserving of general reprobation, loses much of its +barbarous grotesqueness. There was no doubt as to Coriolanus,[3] as has +been said; nor Shylock.[4] Even "the outward sainted Angelo is yet a +devil;"[5] and Prince Hal confesses that "there is a devil haunts him in +the likeness of an old fat man ... an old white-bearded Satan."[6] + +[Footnote 1: In The Virgin Martyr.] + +[Footnote 2: In Dr. Faustus.] + +[Footnote 3: Coriolanus, I. x. 16.] + +[Footnote 4: Merchant of Venice, III. i. 22.] + +[Footnote 5: Measure for Measure, III. i. 90.] + +[Footnote 6: I Hen. IV., II. iv. 491-509.] + +49. The devils had an inconvenient habit of appearing in the guise of an +ecclesiastic[1]--at least, so the churchmen were careful to insist, +especially when busying themselves about acts of temptation that would +least become the holy robe they had assumed. This was the ecclesiastical +method of accounting for certain stories, not very creditable to the +priesthood, that had too inconvenient a basis of evidence to be +dismissed as fabricatious. But the honest lay public seem to have +thought, with downright old Chaucer, that there was more in the matter +than the priests chose to admit. This feeling we, as usual, find +reflected in the dramatic literature of our period. In "The Troublesome +Raigne of King John," an old play upon the basis of which Shakspere +constructed his own "King John," we find this question dealt with in +some detail. In the elder play, the Bastard does "the shaking of bags of +hoarding abbots," _coram populo_, and thereby discloses a phase of +monastic life judiciously suppressed by Shakspere. Philip sets at +liberty much more than "imprisoned angels"--according to one account, +and that a monk's, imprisoned beings of quite another sort. "Faire +Alice, the nonne," having been discovered in the chest where the abbot's +wealth was supposed to be concealed, proposes to purchase pardon for the +offence by disclosing the secret hoard of a sister nun. Her offer being +accepted, a friar is ordered to force the box in which the treasure is +supposed to be secreted. On being questioned as to its contents, he +answers-- + + "Frier Laurence, my lord, now holy water help us! + Some witch or some divell is sent to delude us: + _Haud credo Laurentius_ that thou shouldst be pen'd thus + In the presse of a nun; we are all undone, + And brought to discredence, if thou be Frier Laurence."[2] + +Unfortunately it proves indubitably to be that good man; and he is +ordered to execution, not, however, without some hope of redemption by +money payment; for times are hard, and cash in hand not to be despised. + +[Footnote 1: See the story about Bishop Sylvanus.--Lecky, Rationalism in +Europe, i. 79.] + +[Footnote 2: Hazlitt, Shakspere Library, part ii. vol. i. p. 264.] + +It is amusing to notice, too, that when assuming the clerical garb, the +devil carefully considered the religious creed of the person to whom he +intended to make himself known. The Catholic accounts of him show him +generally assuming the form of a Protestant parson;[1] whilst to those +of the reformed creed he invariably appeared in the habit of a Catholic +priest. In the semblance of a friar the devil is reported (by a +Protestant) to have preached, upon a time, "a verie Catholic sermon;"[2] +so good, indeed, that a priest who was a listener could find no fault +with the doctrine--a stronger basis of fact than one would have imagined +for Shakspere's saying, "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." + +[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 2: Scot, p. 481.] + +50. It is not surprising that of human forms, that of a negro or Moor +should be considered a favourite one with evil spirits.[1] Iago makes +allusion to this when inciting Brabantio to search for his daughter.[2] +The power of coming in the likeness of humanity generally is referred to +somewhat cynically in "Timon of Athens,"[3] thus-- + +"_Varro's Servant._ What is a whoremaster, fool? + +"_Fool._ A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: +sometime 't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a +philosopher with two stones more than 's artificial one: he is very +often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and +down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in." + +[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 89.] + +[Footnote 2: Othello, I. i. 91.] + +[Footnote 3: II. ii. 113.] + +"All shapes that man goes up and down in" seem indeed to have been at +the devils' control. So entirely was this the case, that to Constance +even the fair Blanche was none other than the devil tempting Louis "in +likeness of a new uptrimmed bride;"[1] and perhaps not without a certain +prophetic feeling of the fitness of things, as it may possibly seem to +some of our more warlike politicians, evil spirits have been known to +appear as Russians.[2] + +[Footnote 1: King John, III. i. 209.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 139.] + +51. But all the "shapes that man goes up and down in" did not suffice. +The forms of the whole of the animal kingdom seem to have been at the +devils' disposal; and, not content with these, they seem to have sought +further for unlikely shapes to assume.[1] Poor Caliban complains that +Prospero's spirits + + "Lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark,"[2] + +just as Ariel[3] and Puck[4] (Will-o'-th'-wisp) mislead their victims; +and that + + "For every trifle are they set upon me: + Sometimes like apes, that mow and chatter at me, + And after bite me; then like hedgehogs, which + Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount + Their pricks at my footfall. Sometime am I + All wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues, + Do hiss me into madness." + +And doubtless the scene which follows this soliloquy, in which Caliban, +Trinculo, and Stephano mistake one another in turn for evil spirits, +fully flavoured with fun as it still remains, had far more point for the +audiences at the Globe--to whom a stray devil or two was quite in the +natural order of things under such circumstances--than it can possibly +possess for us. In this play, Ariel, Prospero's familiar, besides +appearing in his natural shape, and dividing into flames, and behaving +in such a manner as to cause young Ferdinand to leap into the sea, +crying, "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!" assumes the forms +of a water-nymph,[5] a harpy,[6] and also the goddess Ceres;[7] while +the strange shapes, masquers, and even the hounds that hunt and worry +the would-be king and viceroys of the island, are Ariel's "meaner +fellows." + +[Footnote 1: For instance, an eye without a head.--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: The Tempest, II. ii. 10.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. I. ii. 198.] + +[Footnote 4: A Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 39; III. i. 111.] + +[Footnote 5: I. ii. 301-318.] + +[Footnote 6: III. iii. 53.] + +[Footnote 7: IV. i. 166.] + +52. Puck's favourite forms seem to have been more outlandish than +Ariel's, as might have been expected of that malicious little spirit. He +beguiles "the fat and bean-fed horse" by + + "Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: + And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, + In very likeness of a roasted crab; + And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, + And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. + The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, + Sometime for three-foot stool[1] mistaketh me; + Then slip I from her, and down topples she." + +And again: + + "Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, + A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; + And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, + Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn."[2] + +With regard to this last passage, it is worthy of note that in the year +1584, strange news came out of Somersetshire, entitled "A Dreadful +Discourse of the Dispossessing of one Margaret Cowper, at Ditchet, from +a Devil in the Likeness of a Headless Bear."[3] + +[Footnote 1: A Scotch witch, when leaving her bed to go to a sabbath, +used to put a three-foot stool in the vacant place; which, after charms +duly mumbled, assumed the appearance of a woman until her +return.--Pitcairn, iii. 617.] + +[Footnote 2: III. i. 111.] + +[Footnote 3: Hutchinson, p. 40.] + +53. In Heywood and Brome's "Witch of Edmonton," the devil appears in the +likeness of a black dog, and takes his part in the dialogue, as if his +presence were a matter of quite ordinary occurrence, not in any way +calling for special remark. However gross and absurd this may appear, it +must be remembered that this play is, in its minutest details, merely a +dramatization of the events duly proved in a court of law, to the +satisfaction of twelve Englishmen, in the year 1612.[1] The shape of a +fly, too, was a favourite one with the evil spirits; so much so that the +term "fly" became a common synonym for a familiar.[2] The word +"Beelzebub" was supposed to mean "the king of flies." At the execution +of Urban Grandier, the famous magician of London, in 1634, a large fly +was seen buzzing about the stake, and a priest promptly seizing the +opportunity of improving the occasion for the benefit of the onlookers, +declared that Beelzebub had come in his own proper person to carry off +Grandier's soul to hell. In 1664 occurred the celebrated witch-trials +which took place before Sir Matthew Hale. The accused were charged with +bewitching two children; and part of the evidence against them was that +flies and bees were seen to carry into the victims' mouths the nails and +pins which they afterwards vomited.[3] There is an allusion to this +belief in the fly-killing scene in "Titus Andronicus."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Potts, Discoveries. Edit. Cheetham Society.] + +[Footnote 2: Cf. B. Jonson's Alchemist.] + +[Footnote 3: A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts relating to +Witchcraft, 1838.] + +[Footnote 4: III. ii. 51, et seq.] + +54. But it was not invariably a repulsive or ridiculous form that was +assumed by these enemies of mankind. Their ingenuity would have been but +little worthy of commendation had they been content to appear as +ordinary human beings, or animals, or even in fancy costume. The Swiss +divine Bullinger, after a lengthy and elaborately learned argument as to +the particular day in the week of creation upon which it was most +probable that God called the angels into being, says, by way of +peroration, "Let us lead a holy and angel-like life in the sight of +God's holy angels. Let us watch, lest he that transfigureth and turneth +himself into an angel of light under a good show and likeness deceive +us."[1] They even went so far, according to Cranmer,[2] as to appear in +the likeness of Christ, in their desire to mislead mankind; for-- + + "When devils will the blackest sins put on, + They do suggest at first with heavenly shows."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Bullinger, Fourth Decade, 9th Sermon. Parker Society.] + +[Footnote 2: Cranmer, Confutation, p. 42. Parker Society.] + +[Footnote 3: Othello, II. iii. 357. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, IV. iii. +257; Comedy of Errors, IV. iii. 56.] + +55. But one of the most ordinary forms supposed at this period to be +assumed by devils was that of a dead friend of the object of the +visitation. Before the Reformation, the belief that the spirits of the +departed had power at will to revisit the scenes and companions of their +earthly life was almost universal. The reforming divines distinctly +denied the possibility of such a revisitation, and accounted for the +undoubted phenomena, as usual, by attributing them to the devil.[1] +James I. says that the devil, when appearing to men, frequently assumed +the form of a person newly dead, "to make them believe that it was some +good spirit that appeared to them, either to forewarn them of the death +of their friend, or else to discover unto them the will of the defunct, +or what was the way of his slauchter.... For he dare not so illude anie +that knoweth that neither can the spirit of the defunct returne to his +friend, nor yet an angell use such formes."[2] He further explains that +such devils follow mortals to obtain two ends: "the one is the tinsell +(loss) of their life by inducing them to such perrilous places at such +times as he either follows or possesses them. The other thing that he +preases to obtain is the tinsell of their soule."[3] + +[Footnote 1: See Hooper's Declaration of the Ten Commandments. Parker +Society. Hooper, 326.] + +[Footnote 2: Daemonologie, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 3: Cf. Hamlet, I. iv. 60-80; and post, § 58.] + +56. But the belief in the appearance of ghosts was too deeply rooted in +the popular mind to be extirpated, or even greatly affected, by a +dogmatic declaration. The masses went on believing as they always had +believed, and as their fathers had believed before them, in spite of the +Reformers, and to their no little discontent. Pilkington, Bishop of +Durham, in a letter to Archbishop Parker, dated 1564, complains that, +"among other things that be amiss here in your great cares, ye shall +understand that in Blackburn there is a fantastical (and as some say, +lunatic) young man, which says that he has spoken with one of his +neighbours that died four year since, or more. Divers times he says he +has seen him, and talked with him, and took with him the curate, the +schoolmaster, and other neighbours, who all affirm that they see him. +_These things be so common here_ that none in authority will gainsay it, +but rather believe and confirm it, that everybody believes it. If I had +known how to examine with authority, I would have done it."[1] Here is a +little glimpse at the practical troubles of a well-intentioned bishop of +the sixteenth century that is surely worth preserving. + +[Footnote 1: Parker Correspondence, 222. Parker Society.] + +57. There were thus two opposite schools of belief in this matter of the +supposed spirits of the departed:--the conservative, which held to the +old doctrine of ghosts; and the reforming, which denied the possibility +of ghosts, and held to the theory of devils. In the midst of this +disagreement of doctors it was difficult for a plain man to come to a +definite conclusion upon the question; and, in consequence, all who were +not content with quiet dogmatism were in a state of utter uncertainty +upon a point not entirely without importance in practical life as well +as in theory. This was probably the position in which the majority of +thoughtful men found themselves; and it is accurately reflected in three +of Shakspere's plays, which, for other and weightier reasons, are +grouped together in the same chronological division--"Julius Caesar," +"Macbeth," and "Hamlet." In the first-mentioned play, Brutus, who +afterwards confesses his belief that the apparition he saw at Sardis was +the ghost of Caesar,[1] when in the actual presence of the spirit, +says-- + + "Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil?"[2] + +The same doubt flashes across the mind of Macbeth on the second entrance +of Banquo's ghost--which is probably intended to be a devil appearing at +the instigation of the witches--when he says, with evident allusion to a +diabolic power before referred to-- + + "What man dare, I dare: + Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, + The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger, + Take any shape but that."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Julius Caesar, V. v. 17.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. IV. iii. 279.] + +[Footnote 3: Macbeth, III. iv. 100.] + +58. But it is in "Hamlet" that the undecided state of opinion upon this +subject is most clearly reflected; and hardly enough influence has been +allowed to the doubts arising from this conflict of belief, as urgent or +deterrent motives in the play, because this temporary condition of +thought has been lost sight of. It is exceedingly interesting to note +how frequently the characters who have to do with the apparition of the +late King Hamlet alternate between the theories that it is a ghost and +that it is a devil which they have seen. The whole subject has such an +important bearing upon any attempt to estimate the character of Hamlet, +that no excuse need be offered for once again traversing such +well-trodden ground. + +Horatio, it is true, is introduced to us in a state of determined +scepticism; but this lasts for a few seconds only, vanishing upon the +first entrance of the spectre, and never again appearing. His first +inclination seems to be to the belief that he is the victim of a +diabolical illusion; for he says-- + + "What art thou, that _usurp'st_ this time of night, + Together with that fair and warlike form + In which the majesty of buried Denmark + Did sometimes march?"[1] + +And Marcellus seems to be of the same opinion, for immediately before, +he exclaims-- + + "Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio;" + +having apparently the same idea as had Coachman Toby, in "The +Night-Walker," when he exclaims-- + + "Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, + And that will daunt the devil."[2] + +On the second appearance of the illusion, however, Horatio leans to the +opinion that it is really the ghost of the late king that he sees, +probably in consequence of the conversation that has taken place since +the former visitation; and he now appeals to the ghost for information +that may enable him to procure rest for his wandering soul. Again, +during his interview with Hamlet, when he discloses the secret of the +spectre's appearance, though very guarded in his language, Horatio +clearly intimates his conviction that he has seen the spirit of the late +king. + +[Footnote 1: I. i. 46.] + +[Footnote 2: II. i.] + +The same variation of opinion is visible in Hamlet himself; but, as +might be expected, with much more frequent alternations. When first he +hears Horatio's story, he seems to incline to the belief that it must be +the work of some diabolic agency: + + "If it assume my noble father's person, + I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, + And bid me hold my peace;"[1] + +although, characteristically, in almost the next line he exclaims-- + + "My father's spirit in arms! All is not well," etc. + +This, too, seems to be the dominant idea in his mind when he is first +brought face to face with the apparition and exclaims-- + + "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!-- + Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, + Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, + Be thine intents wicked or charitable, + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, + That I will speak to thee."[2] + +For it cannot be supposed that Hamlet imagined that a "goblin damned" +could actually be the spirit of his dead father; and, therefore, the +alternative in his mind must have been that he saw a devil assuming his +father's likeness--a form which the Evil One knew would most incite +Hamlet to intercourse. But even as he speaks, the other theory gradually +obtains ascendency in his mind, until it becomes strong enough to induce +him to follow the spirit. + +[Footnote 1: I. ii. 244.] + +[Footnote 2: I. iv. 39.] + +But whilst the devil-theory is gradually relaxing its hold upon Hamlet's +mind, it is fastening itself with ever-increasing force upon the minds +of his companions; and Horatio expresses their fears in words that are +worth comparing with those just quoted from James's "Daemonologie." +Hamlet responds to their entreaties not to follow the spectre thus-- + + "Why, what should be the fear? + I do not set my life at a pin's fee; + And, for my soul, what can it do to that, + Being a thing immortal as itself?" + +And Horatio answers-- + + "What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, + Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, + That beetles o'er his base into the sea, + And there assume some other horrible form, + Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, + And draw you into madness?" + +The idea that the devil assumed the form of a dead friend in order to +procure the "tinsell" of both body and soul of his victim is here +vividly before the minds of the speakers of these passages.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See ante, § 55.] + +The subsequent scene with the ghost convinces Hamlet that he is not the +victim of malign influences--as far as he is capable of conviction, for +his very first words when alone restate the doubt: + + "O all you host of heaven! O earth! _What else?_ And shall I couple + hell?"[1] + +and the enthusiasm with which he is inspired in consequence of this +interview is sufficient to support his certainty of conviction until the +time for decisive action again arrives. It is not until the idea of the +play-test occurs to him that his doubts are once more aroused; and then +they return with redoubled force:-- + + "The spirit that I have seen + May be the devil: and the devil hath power + To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps, + Out of my weakness and my melancholy, + (As he is very potent with such spirits,) + Abuses me to damn me."[2] + +And he again alludes to this in his speech to Horatio, just before the +entry of the king and his train to witness the performance of the +players.[3] + +[Footnote 1: I. v. 92.] + +[Footnote 2: II. ii. 627.] + +[Footnote 3: III. ii. 87.] + +59. This question was, in Shakspere's time, quite a legitimate element +of uncertainty in the complicated problem that presented itself for +solution to Hamlet's ever-analyzing mind; and this being so, an apparent +inconsistency in detail which has usually been charged upon Shakspere +with regard to this play, can be satisfactorily explained. Some critics +are never weary of exclaiming that Shakspere's genius was so vast and +uncontrollable that it must not be tested, or expected to be found +conformable to the rules of art that limit ordinary mortals; that there +are many discrepancies and errors in his plays that are to be condoned +upon that account; in fact, that he was a very careless and slovenly +workman. A favourite instance of this is taken from "Hamlet," where +Shakspere actually makes the chief character of the play talk of death +as "the bourne from whence no traveller returns" not long after he has +been engaged in a prolonged conversation with such a returned traveller. + +Now, no artist, however distinguished or however transcendent his +genius, is to be pardoned for insincere workmanship, and the greater the +man, the less his excuse. Errors arising from want of information (and +Shakspere commits these often) may be pardoned if the means for +correcting them be unattainable; but errors arising from mere +carelessness are not to be pardoned. Further, in many of these cases of +supposed contradiction there is an element of carelessness indeed; but +it lies at the door of the critic, not of the author; and this appears +to be true in the present instance. The dilemma, as it presented itself +to the contemporary mind, must be carefully kept in view. Either the +spirits of the departed could revisit this world, or they could not. If +they could not, then the apparitions mistaken for them must be devils +assuming their forms. Now, the tendency of Hamlet's mind, immediately +before the great soliloquy on suicide, is decidedly in favour of the +latter alternative. The last words that he has uttered, which are also +the last quoted here,[1] are those in which he declares most forcibly +that he believes the devil-theory possible, and consequently that the +dead do not return to this world; and his utterances in his soliloquy +are only an accentuate and outcome of this feeling of uncertainty. The +very root of his desire for death is that he cannot discard with any +feeling of certitude the Protestant doctrine that no traveller does +after death return from the invisible world, and that the so-called +ghosts are a diabolic deception. + +[Footnote 1: § 58, p. 59.] + +60. Another power possessed by the evil spirits, and one that excited +much attention and created an immense amount of strife during +Elizabethan times, was that of entering into the bodies of human beings, +or otherwise influencing them so as utterly to deprive them of all +self-control, and render them mere automata under the command of the +fiends. This was known as possession, or obsession. It was another of +the mediaeval beliefs against which the reformers steadily set their +faces; and all the resources of their casuistry were exhausted to expose +its absurdity. But their position in this respect was an extremely +delicate one. On one side of them zealous Catholics were exorcising +devils, who shrieked out their testimony to the eternal truth of the +Holy Catholic Church; whilst at the same time, on the other side, the +zealous Puritans of the extremer sort were casting out fiends, who bore +equally fervent testimony to the superior efficacy and purity of the +Protestant faith. The tendency of the more moderate members of the +party, therefore was towards a compromise similar to that arrived at +upon the question how the devils came by the forms in which they +appeared upon the earth. They could not admit that devils could actually +enter into and possess the body of a man in those latter days, although +during the earlier history of the Church such things had been permitted +by Divine Providence for some inscrutable but doubtless satisfactory +reason:--that was Catholicism. On the other hand, they could not for an +instant tolerate or even sanction the doctrine that devils had no power +whatever over humanity:--that was Atheism. But it was quite possible +that evil spirits, without actually entering into the body of a man, +might so infest, worry, and torment him, as to produce all the symptoms +indicative of possession. The doctrine of obsession replaced that of +possession; and, once adopted, was supported by a string of those +quaint, conceited arguments so peculiar to the time.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Dialogicall Discourses, by Deacon and Walker, 3rd +Dialogue.] + +61. But, as in all other cases, the refinements of the theologians had +little or no effect upon the world outside their controversies. To the +ordinary mind, if a man's eyes goggled, body swelled, and mouth foamed, +and it was admitted that these were the work of a devil, the question +whether the evil-doer were actually housed within the sufferer, or only +hovered in his immediate neighbourhood, seemed a question of such minor +importance as to be hardly worth discussing--a conclusion that the lay +mind is apt to come to upon other questions that appear portentous to +the divines--and the theory of possession, having the advantage in time +over that of obsession, was hard to dislodge. + +62. One of the chief causes of the persistency with which the old belief +was maintained was the utter ignorance of the medical men of the period +on the subject of mental disease. The doctors of the time were mere +children in knowledge of the science they professed; and to attribute a +disease, the symptoms of which they could not comprehend, to a power +outside their control by ordinary methods, was a safe method of +screening a reputation which might otherwise have suffered. "Canst thou +not minister to a mind diseased?" cries Macbeth to the doctor, in one of +those moments of yearning after the better life he regrets, but cannot +return to, which come over him now and again. No; the disease is beyond +his practice; and, although this passage has in it a deeper meaning than +the one attributed to it here, it well illustrates the position of the +medical man in such cases. Most doctors of the time were mere empirics; +dabbled more or less in alchemy; and, in the treatment of mental +disease, were little better than children. They had for co-practitioners +all who, by their credit with the populace for superior wisdom, found +themselves in a position to engage in a profitable employment. Priests, +preachers, schoolmasters--Dr. Pinches and Sir Topazes--became so +commonly exorcists, that the Church found it necessary to forbid the +casting out of spirits without a special license for that purpose.[1] +But as the Reformers only combated the doctrine of possession upon +strictly theological grounds, and did not go on to suggest any +substitute for the time-honoured practice of exorcism as a means for +getting rid of the admittedly obnoxious result of diabolic interference, +it is not altogether surprising that the method of treatment did not +immediately change. + +[Footnote 1: 72nd Canon.] + +63. Upon this subject a book called "Tryal of Witchcraft," by John +Cotta, "Doctor in Physike," published in 1616, is extremely instructive. +The writer is evidently in advance of his time in his opinions upon the +principal subject with which he professes to deal, and weighs the +evidence for and against the reality of witchcraft with extreme +precision and fairness. In the course of his argument he has to +distinguish the symptoms that show a person to have been bewitched, from +those that point to a demoniacal possession.[1] "Reason doth detect," +says he, "the sicke to be afflicted by the immediate supernaturall power +of the devil two wayes: the first way is by such things as are subject +and manifest to the learned physicion only; the second is by such things +as are subject and manifest to the vulgar view." The two signs by which +the "learned physicion" recognized diabolic intervention were: first, +the preternatural appearance of the disease from which the patient was +suffering; and, secondly, the inefficacy of the remedies applied. In +other words, if the leech encountered any disease the symptoms of which +were unknown to him, or if, through some unforeseen circumstances, the +drug he prescribed failed to operate in its accustomed manner, a case of +demoniacal possession was considered to be conclusively proved, and the +medical man was merged in the magician. + +[Footnote 1: Ch. 10.] + +64. The second class of cases, in which the diabolic agency is palpable +to the layman as well as the doctor, Cotta illustrates thus: "In the +time of their paroxysmes or fits, some diseased persons have been seene +to vomit crooked iron, coales, brimstone, nailes, needles, pinnes, lumps +of lead, waxe, hayre, strawe, and the like, in such quantities, figure, +fashion, and proportion as could never possiblie pass down, or arise up +thorow the natural narrownesse of the throate, or be contained in the +unproportionable small capacitie, naturall susceptibilitie, and position +of the stomake." Possessed persons, he says, were also clairvoyant, +telling what was being said and done at a far distance; and also spoke +languages which at ordinary times they did not understand, as their +successors, the modern spirit mediums, do. This gift of tongues was one +of the prominent features of the possession of Will Sommers and the +other persons exorcised by the Protestant preacher John Darrell, whose +performances as an exorcist created quite a domestic sensation in +England at the close of the sixteenth century.[1] The whole affair was +investigated by Dr. Harsnet, who had already acquired fame as an +iconoclast in these matters, as will presently be seen; but it would +have little more than an antiquarian interest now, were it not for the +fact that Ben Jonson made it the subject of his satire in one of his +most humorous plays, "The Devil is an Ass." In it he turns the +last-mentioned peculiarity to good account; for when Fitzdottrell, in +the fifth act, feigns madness, and quotes Aristophanes, and speaks in +Spanish and French, the judicious Sir Paul Eithersides comes to the +conclusion that "it is the devil by his several languages." + +[Footnote 1: A True Relation of the Grievious Handling of William +Sommers, etc. London: T. Harper, 1641 (? 1601). The Tryall of Maister +Darrell, 1599.] + +65. But more interesting, and more important for the present purpose, +are the cases of possession that were dealt with by Father Parsons and +his colleagues in 1585-6, and of which Dr. Harsnet gave such a highly +spiced and entertaining account in his "Declaration of Egregious Popish +Impostures," first published in the year 1603. It is from this work that +Shakspere took the names of the devils mentioned by Edgar, and other +references made by him in "King Lear;" and an outline of the relation of +the play to the book will furnish incidentally much matter illustrative +of the subject of possession. But before entering upon this outline, a +brief glance at the condition of affairs political and domestic, which +partially caused and nourished these extraordinary eccentricities, is +almost essential to a proper understanding of them. + +66. The year 1586 was probably one of the most critical years that +England has passed through since she was first a nation. Standing alone +amongst the European States, with even the Netherlanders growing cold +towards her on account of her ambiguous treatment of them, she had to +fight out the battle of her independence against odds to all appearances +irresistible. With Sixtus plotting her overthrow at Rome, Philip at +Madrid, Mendoza and the English traitors at Paris, and Mary of Scotland +at Chartley, while a third of her people were malcontent, and James the +Sixth was friend or enemy as it best suited his convenience, the outlook +was anything but reassuring for the brave men who held the helm in those +stormy times. But although England owed her deliverance chiefly to the +forethought and hardihood of her sons, it cannot be doubted that the +sheer imbecility of her foes contributed not a little to that result. To +both these conditions she owed the fact that the great Armada, the +embodiment of the foreign hatred and hostility, threatening to break +upon her shores like a huge wave, vanished like its spray. Medina +Sidonia, with his querulous complaints and general ineffectuality,[1] +was hardly a match for Drake and his sturdy companions; nor were the +leaders of the Babington conspiracy, the representatives and would-be +leaders of the corresponding internal convulsion, the infatuated +worshippers of the fair devil of Scotland, the men to cope for a moment +with the intellects of Walsingham and Burleigh. + +[Footnote 1: Froude, xii. p. 405.] + +67. The events which Harsnet investigated and wrote upon with +politico-theological animus formed an eddy in the main current of the +Babington conspiracy. For some years before that plot had taken definite +shape, seminary priests had been swarming into England from the +continent, and were sedulously engaged in preaching rebellion in the +rural districts, sheltered and protected by the more powerful of the +disaffected nobles and gentry--modern apostles, preparing the way before +the future regenerator of England, Cardinal Allen, the would-be Catholic +Archbishop of Canterbury. Among these was one Weston, who, in his +enthusiastic admiration for the martyr-traitor, Edmund Campion, had +adopted the alias of Edmonds. This Jesuit was gifted with the power of +casting out devils, and he exercised it in order to prove the divine +origin of the Holy Catholic faith, and, by implication, the duty of all +persons religiously inclined, to rebel against a sovereign who was +ruthlessly treading it into the dust. The performances which Harsnet +examined into took place chiefly in the house of Lord Vaux at Hackney, +and of one Peckham at Denham, in the end of the year 1585 and the +beginning of 1586. The possessed persons were Anthony Tyrell, another +Jesuit who rounded upon his friends in the time of their tribulation;[1] +Marwood, Antony Babington's private servant, who subsequently found it +convenient to leave the country, and was never examined upon the +subject; Trayford and Mainy, two young gentlemen, and Sara and Friswood +Williams, and Anne Smith, maid-servants. Richard Mainy, the most +edifying subject of them all, was seventeen only when the possession +seized him; he had only just returned to England from Rheims, and, when +passing through Paris, had come under the influence of Charles Paget and +Morgan; so his antecedents appeared somewhat open to suspicion.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The Fall of Anthony Tyrell, by Persoun. See The Troubles of +our Catholic Forefathers, by John Morris, p. 103.] + +[Footnote 2: He was examined by the Government as to his connection with +the Paris conspirators.--See State Papers, vol. clxxx. 16, 17.] + +68. With the truth or falsehood of the statements and deductions made by +Harsnet, we have little or no concern. Western did not pretend to deny +that he had the power of exorcism, or that he exercised it upon the +persons in question, but he did not admit the truth of any of the more +ridiculous stories which Harsnet so triumphantly brings forward to +convict him of intentional deceit; and his features, if the portrait in +Father Morris's book is an accurate representation of him, convey an +impression of feeble, unpractical piety that one is loth to associate +with a malicious impostor. In addition to this, one of the witnesses +against him, Tyrell, was a manifest knave and coward; another, Mainy, as +conspicuous a fool; while the rest were servant-maids--all of them +interested in exonerating themselves from the stigma of having been +adherents of a lost cause, at the expense of a ringleader who seemed to +have made himself too conspicuous to escape punishment. Furthermore, the +evidence of these witnesses was not taken until 1598 and 1602, twelve +and sixteen years after the events to which it related took place; and +when taken, was taken by Harsnet, a violent Protestant and almost +maniacal exorcist-hunter, as the miscellaneous collection of literature +evoked by his exposure of Parson Darrell's dealings with Will Sommers +and others will show. + +69. Among the many devils' names mentioned by Harsnet in his +"Declaration," and in the examinations of witnesses annexed to it, the +following have undoubtedly been repeated in "King Lear":--Fliberdigibet, +spelt in the play Flibbertigibbet; Hoberdidance called Hopdance and +Hobbididance; and Frateretto, who are called morris-dancers; Haberdicut, +who appears in "Lear" as Obidicut; Smolkin, one of Trayford's devils; +Modu, who possessed Mainy; and Maho, who possessed Sara Williams. These +two latter devils have in the play managed to exchange the final vowels +of their names, and appear as Modo and Mahu.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In addition to these, Killico has probably been corrupted +into Pillicock--a much more probable explanation of the word than either +of those suggested by Dyce in his glossary; and I have little doubt that +the ordinary reading of the line, "Pur! the cat is gray!" in Act III. +vi. 47, is incorrect; that Pur is not an interjection, but the +repetition of the name of another devil, Purre, who is mentioned by +Harsnet. The passage in question occurs only in the quartos, and +therefore the fact that there is no stop at all after the word "Pur" +cannot be relied upon as helping to prove the correctness of this +supposition. On the other hand, there is nothing in the texts to justify +the insertion of the note of exclamation.] + +70. A comparison of the passages in "King Lear" spoken by Edgar when +feigning madness, with those in Harsnet's book which seem to have +suggested them, will furnish as vivid a picture as it is possible to +give of the state of contemporary belief upon the subject of +possession. It is impossible not to notice that nearly all the allusions +in the play refer to the performance of the youth Richard Mainy. Even +Edgar's hypothetical account of his moral failings in the past seems to +have been an accurate reproduction of Mainy's conduct in some +particulars, as the quotation below will prove;[1] and there appears to +be so little necessity for these remarks of Edgar's, that it seems +almost possible that there may have been some point in these passages +that has since been lost. A careful search, however, has failed to +disclose any reason why Mainy should be held up to obloquy; and the +passages in question were evidently not the result of a direct reference +to the "Declaration." After his examination by Harsnet in 1602, Mainy +seems to have sunk into the insignificant position which he was so +calculated to adorn, and nothing more is heard of him; so the references +to him must be accidental merely. + +[Footnote 1: "He would needs have persuaded this examinate's sister to +have gone thence with him in the apparel of a youth, and to have been +his boy and waited upon him.... He urged this examinate divers times to +have yielded to his carnal desires, using very unfit tricks with her. +There was also a very proper woman, one Mistress Plater, with whom this +examinate perceived he had many allurements, showing great tokens of +extraordinary affection towards her."--Evidence of Sara Williams, +Harsnet, p. 190. Compare King Lear, Act iii. sc. iv. ll. 82-101; note +especially l. 84.] + +71. One curious little repetition in the play of a somewhat unimportant +incident recorded by Harsnet is to be found in the fourth scene of the +third act, where Edgar says-- + +"Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through +fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and +quagmire; _that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his +pew_; set ratsbane by his porridge," etc.[1] + +[Footnote 1: l. 51, et seq.] + +The events referred to took place at Denham. A halter and some +knife-blades were found in a corridor of the house. "A great search was +made in the house to know how the said halter and knife-blades came +thither, but it could not in any wise be found out, as it was pretended, +till Master Mainy in his next fit said, as it was reported, that the +devil layd them in the gallery, that some of those that were possessed +might either hang themselves with the halter, or kill themselves with +the blades."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 218.] + +72. But the bulk of the references relating to the possession of Mainy +occur further on in the same scene:-- + +"_Fool._ This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. + +"_Edgar._ Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word +justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse;[1] set not thy +sweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. + +"_Lear._ What hast thou been? + +"_Edgar._ A serving-man, proud in heart and mind, that curled my hair, +wore my gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did +the act of darkness with her;[2] swore as many oaths as I spake words, +and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the +contriving of lust, and waked to do it; wine loved I deeply; dice +dearly; and in women out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of +ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, +dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the +rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to woman; keep thy foot out of +brothels, thy hand out of plackets,[3] thy pen from lenders' books, and +defy the foul fiend."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Cf. § 70, and note.] + +[Footnote 2: Cf. § 70, and note.] + +[Footnote 3: Placket probably here means pockets; not, as usual, the +slip in a petticoat. Tom was possessed by Mahu, the prince of stealing.] + +[Footnote 4: l. 82, et seq.] + +This must be read in conjunction with what Edgar says of himself +subsequently:-- + +"Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; +Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; +Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses +chamber-maids and waiting-women."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Act IV. i. 61.] + +The following are the chief parts of the account given by Harsnet of the +exorcism of Mainy by Weston--a most extraordinary transaction,--said to +be taken from Weston's own account of the matter. He was supposed to be +possessed by the devils who represented the seven deadly sins, and "by +instigation of the first of the seven, began to set his hands into his +side, curled his hair, and used such gestures as Maister Edmunds present +affirmed that that spirit was Pride.[1] Heerewith he began to curse and +to banne, saying, 'What a poxe do I heare? I will stay no longer among a +company of rascal priests, but goe to the court and brave it amongst my +fellowes, the noblemen there assembled.'[2] ... Then Maister Edmunds did +proceede againe with his exorcismes, and suddenly the sences of Mainy +were taken from him, his belly began to swell, and his eyes to stare, +and suddainly he cried out, 'Ten pounds in the hundred!' he called for a +scrivener to make a bond, swearing that he would not lend his money +without a pawne.... There could be no other talke had with this spirit +but money and usury, so as all the company deemed this devil to be the +author of Covetousnesse....[3] + +[Footnote 1: "A serving-man, proud of heart and mind, that curled my +hair," etc.--l. 87; cf. also l. 84. Curling the hair as a sign of +Mainy's possession is mentioned again, Harsnet, p. 57.] + +[Footnote 2: "That ... swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke +them in the sweet face of heaven."--l. 90.] + +[Footnote 3: "Keep ... thy pen out of lenders' books."--l. 100.] + +"Ere long Maister Edmunds beginneth againe his exorcismes, wherein he +had not proceeded farre, but up cometh another spirit singing most +filthy and baudy songs: every word almost that he spake was nothing but +ribaldry. They that were present with one voyce affirmed that devill to +be the author of Luxury.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in women +out-paramoured the Turk."--l. 93.] + +"Envy was described by disdainful looks and contemptuous speeches; +Wrath, by furious gestures, and talke as though he would have fought;[1] +Gluttony, by vomiting;[2] and Sloth,[3] by gasping and snorting, as +though he had been asleepe."[4] + +[Footnote 1: "Dog in madness, lion in prey."--l. 96.] + +[Footnote 2: "Wolf in greediness."--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 3: "Hog in sloth."--l. 95.] + +[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 278.] + +A sort of prayer-meeting was then held for the relief of the distressed +youth: "Whereupon the spirit of Pride departed in the forme of a +Peacocke; the spirit of Sloth in the likenesse of an Asse; the spirit of +Envy in the similitude of a Dog; the spirit of Gluttony in the forme of +a Wolfe."[1] + +[Footnote 1: The words, "Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in +greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey," are clearly an imperfect +reminiscence of this part of the transaction.] + +There is in another part of "King Lear" a further reference to the +incidents attendant upon these exorcisms Edgar says,[1] "The foul fiend +haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale." This seems to refer to +the following incident related by Friswood Williams:-- + +"There was also another strange thing happened at Denham about a bird. +Mistris Peckham had a nightingale, which she kept in a cage, wherein +Maister Dibdale took great delight, and would often be playing with it. +This nightingale was one night conveyed out of the cage, and being next +morning diligently sought for, could not be heard of, till Maister +Mainie's devil, in one of his fits (as it was pretended), said that the +wicked spirit which was in this examinate's sister[2] had taken the bird +out of the cage, and killed it in despite of Maister Dibdale."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Act III. sc. vi. l. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: Sara Williams.] + +[Footnote 3: Harsnet, p. 225.] + +73. The treatment to which, in consequence of his belief in possession, +unfortunate persons like Mainy and Sommers, who were probably only +suffering from some harmless form of mental disease, were subjected, was +hardly calculated to effect a cure. The most ignorant quack was +considered perfectly competent to deal with cases which, in reality, +require the most delicate and judicious management, combined with the +profoundest physiological, as well as psychological, knowledge. The +ordinary method of dealing with these lunatics was as simple as it was +irritating. Bonds and confinement in a darkened room were the specifics; +and the monotony of this treatment was relieved by occasional visits +from the sage who had charge of the case, to mumble a prayer or mutter +an exorcism. Another popular but unpleasant cure was by flagellation; so +that Romeo's + + "Not mad, but bound more than a madman is, + Shut up in prison, kept without my food, + Whipped and tormented,"[1] + +if an exaggerated description of his own mental condition is in itself +no inflated metaphor. + +[Footnote 1: I. ii. 55.] + +74. Shakspere, in "The Comedy of Errors," and indirectly also in +"Twelfth Night," has given us intentionally ridiculous illustrations of +scenes which he had not improbably witnessed, in the country at any +rate, and which bring vividly before us the absurdity of the methods of +diagnosis and treatment usually adopted:-- + + _Courtesan._ How say you now? is not your husband mad? + + _Adriana._ His incivility confirms no less. + Good doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer; + Establish him in his true sense again, + And I will please you what you will demand. + + _Luciana._ Alas! how fiery and how sharp he looks! + + _Courtesan._ Mark how he trembles in his extasy! + + _Pinch._ Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.[1] + + _Ant. E._ There is my hand, and let it feel your ear. + + _Pinch._ I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, + To yield possession to my holy prayers, + And to thy state of darkness his thee straight; + I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven. + + _Ant. E._ Peace, doting wizard, peace; I am not mad. + + _Pinch._ O that thou wert not, poor distressed soul![2] + +After some further business, Pinch pronounces his opinion: + + "Mistress, both man and master are possessed; + I know it by their pale and deadly looks: + They must be bound, and laid in some dark room."[3] + +But "good doctor Pinch" seems to have been mild even to feebleness in +his conjuration; many of his brethren in art had much more effective +formulae. It seems that devils were peculiarly sensitive to any +opprobrious epithets that chanced to be bestowed upon them. The skilful +exorcist took advantage of this weakness, and, if he could only manage +to keep up a flow of uncomplimentary remarks sufficiently long and +offensive, the unfortunate spirit became embarrassed, restless, +agitated, and finally took to flight. Here is a specimen of the +"nicknames" which had so potent an effect, if Harsnet is to be +credited:-- + +"Heare therefore, thou senceless false lewd spirit, maister of devils, +miserable creature, tempter of men, deceaver of bad angels, captaine of +heretiques, father of lyes, fatuous bestial ninnie, drunkard, infernal +theefe, wicked serpent, ravening woolfe, leane hunger-bitten impure sow, +seely beast, truculent beast, cruel beast, bloody beast, beast of all +blasts, the most bestiall acherontall spirit, smoakie spirit, Tartareus +spirit!"[4] Whether this objurgation terminates from loss of breath on +the part of the conjurer, or the precipitate departure of the spirit +addressed, it is impossible to say; it is difficult to imagine any +logical reason for its conclusion. + +[Footnote 1: The cessation of the pulse was one of the symptoms of +possession. See the case of Sommers, Tryal of Maister Darrell, 1599.] + +[Footnote 2: IV. iv. 48, 62.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 95.] + +[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 113.] + +75. Occasionally other, and sometimes more elaborate, methods of +exorcism than those mentioned by Romeo were adopted, especially when the +operation was conducted for the purpose of bringing into prominence some +great religious truth. The more evangelical of the operators adopted the +plan of lying on the top of their patients, "after the manner of Elias +and Pawle."[1] But the Catholic exorcists invented and carried to +perfection the greatest refinement in the art. The patient, seated in a +"holy chair," specially sanctified for the occasion, was compelled to +drink about a pint of a compound of sack and salad oil; after which +refreshment a pan of burning brimstone was held under his nose, until +his face was blackened by the smoke.[2] All this while the officiating +priest kept up his invocation of the fiends in the manner illustrated +above; and, under such circumstances, it is extremely doubtful whether +the most determined character would not be prepared to see somewhat +unusual phenomena for the sake of a short respite. + +[Footnote 1: The Tryall of Maister Darrell, 1599, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 53.] + +76. Another remarkable method of exorcism was a process termed "firing +out" the fiend.[1] The holy flame of piety resident in the priest was so +terrible to the evil spirit, that the mere contact of the holy hand with +that part of the body of the afflicted person in which he was resident +was enough to make him shrink away into some more distant portion; so, +by a judicious application of the hand, the exorcist could drive the +devil into some limb, from which escape into the body was impossible, +and the evil spirit, driven to the extremity, was obliged to depart, +defeated and disgraced.[2] This influence could be exerted, however, +without actual corporal contact, as the following quaint extract from +Harsnet's book will show:-- + +"Some punie rash devil doth stay till the holy priest be come somewhat +neare, as into the chamber where the demoniacke doth abide, purposing, +as it seemes, to try a pluck with the priest; and then his hart sodainly +failing him (as Demas, when he saw his friend Chinias approach), cries +out that he is tormented with the presence of the priest, and so is +fierd out of his hold."[3] + +[Footnote 1: This expression occurs in Sonnet cxliv., and evidently with +the meaning here explained; only the bad angel is supposed to fire out +the good one.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, pp. 77, 96, 97.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 65.] + +77. The more violent or uncommon of the bodily diseases were, as the +quotation from Cotta's book shows[1], attributed to the same diabolic +source. In an era when the most profound ignorance prevailed with regard +to the simplest laws of health; when the commoner diseases were +considered as God's punishment for sin, and not attributable to natural +causes; when so eminent a divine as Bishop Hooper could declare that +"the air, the water, and the earth have no poison in themselves to hurt +their lord and master man,"[2] unless man first poisoned himself with +sin; and when, in consequence of this ignorance and this false +philosophy, and the inevitable neglect attendant upon them, those +fearful plagues known as "the Black Death" could, almost without notice, +sweep down upon a country, and decimate its inhabitants--it is not +wonderful that these terrible scourges were attributed to the +malevolence of the Evil One. + +[Footnote 1: See §§ 63, 64.] + +[Footnote 2: I Hooper, p. 308. Parker Society.] + +78. But it is curious to notice that, although possessing such terrible +powers over the bodies and minds of mortals, devils were not believed to +be potent enough to destroy the lives of the persons they persecuted +unless they could persuade their victims to renounce God. This theory +probably sprang out of the limitation imposed by the Almighty upon the +power of Satan during his temptation of Job, and the advice given to the +sufferer by his wife, "Curse God, and die." Hence, when evil spirits +began their assaults upon a man, one of their first endeavours was to +induce him to do some act that would be equivalent to such a +renunciation. Sometimes this was a bond assigning the victim's soul to +the Evil One in consideration of certain worldly advantages; sometimes a +formal denial of his baptism; sometimes a deed that drives away the +guardian angel from his side, and leaves the devil's influence +uncounteracted. In "The Witch of Edmonton,"[1] the first act that Mother +Sawyer demands her familiar to perform after she has struck her bargain, +is to kill her enemy Banks; and the fiend has reluctantly to declare +that he cannot do so unless by good fortune he could happen to catch him +cursing. Both Harpax[2] and Mephistophiles[3] suggest to their victims +that they have power to destroy their enemies, but neither of them is +able to exercise it. Faust can torment, but not kill, his would-be +murderers; and Springius and Hircius are powerless to take Dorothea's +life. In the latter case it is distinctly the protection of the guardian +angel that limits the diabolic power; so it is not unnatural that +Gratiano should think the cursing of his better angel from his side the +"most desperate turn" that poor old Brabantio could have done himself, +had he been living to hear of his daughter's cruel death.[4] It is next +to impossible for people in the present day to have any idea what a +consolation this belief in a good attendant spirit, specially appointed +to guard weak mortals through life, to ward off evils, and guide to +eternal safety, must have been in a time when, according to the current +belief, any person, however blameless, however holy, was liable at any +moment to be possessed by a devil, or harried and tortured by a witch. + +[Footnote 1: Act II. sc. i.] + +[Footnote 2: The Virgin Martyr, Act III. sc. iii.] + +[Footnote 3: Dr. Faustus, Act I. sc. iii.] + +[Footnote 4: Othello, Act V. sc. ii. 204.] + +79. This leads by a natural sequence to the consideration of another and +more insidious form of attack upon mankind adopted by the evil spirits. +Possession and obsession were methods of assault adopted against the +will of the afflicted person, and hardly to be avoided by him without +the supernatural intervention of the Church. The practice of witchcraft +and magic involved the absolute and voluntary barter of body and soul to +the Evil One, for the purpose of obtaining a few short years of +superhuman power, to be employed for the gratification of the culprit's +avarice, ambition, or desire for revenge. + +80. In the strange history of that most inexplicable mental disease, the +witchcraft epidemic, as it has been justly called by a high authority on +such matters,[1] we moderns are, by the nature of our education and +prejudices, completely incapacitated for sympathizing with either the +persecutors or their victims. We are at a loss to understand how +clear-sighted and upright men, like Sir Matthew Hale, could consent to +become parties to a relentless persecution to the death of poor helpless +beings whose chief crime, in most cases, was, that they had suffered +starvation both in body and in mind. We cannot understand it, because +none of us believe in the existence of evil spirits. None; for although +there are still a few persons who nominally hold to the ancient faith, +as they do to many other respectable but effete traditions, yet they +would be at a loss for a reason for the faith that is in them, should +they chance to be asked for one; and not one of them would be prepared +to make the smallest material sacrifice for the sake of it. It is true +that the existence of evil spirits recently received a tardy and +somewhat hesitating recognition in our ecclesiastical courts,[2] which +at first authoritatively declared that a denial of the existence of the +personality of the devil constituted a man a notorious evil liver, and +depraver of the Book of Common Prayer;[3] but this was promptly reversed +by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, under the auspices of +two Low Church law lords and two archbishops, with the very vague +proviso that "they do not mean to decide that those doctrines are +otherwise than inconsistent with the formularities of the Church of +England;"[4] yet the very contempt with which these portentous +declarations of Church law have been received shows how great has been +the fall of the once almost omnipotent minister of evil. The ancient +Satan does indeed exist in some few formularies, but in such a +washed-out and flimsy condition as to be the reverse of conspicuous. All +that remains of him and of his subordinate legions is the ineffectual +ghost of a departed creed, for the resuscitation of which no man will +move a finger. + +[Footnote 1: See Dr. Carpenter in _Frazer_ for November, 1877.] + +[Footnote 2: See Jenkins v. Cooke, Law Reports, Admiralty and +Ecclesiastical Cases, vol. iv. p. 463, et seq.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 499, Sir R. Phillimore.] + +[Footnote 4: Law Reports, I Probate Division, p. 102.] + +81. It is perfectly impossible for us, therefore, to comprehend, +although by an effort we may perhaps bring ourselves to imagine, the +horror and loathing with which good men, entirely believing in the +existence and omnipresence of countless legions of evil spirits, able +and anxious to perpetrate the mischiefs that it has been the object of +these pages in some part to describe, would regard those who, for their +own selfish gratification, deliberately surrendered their hopes of +eternal happiness in exchange for an alliance with the devils, which +would render these ten times more capable than before of working their +wicked wills. To men believing this, no punishment could seem too sudden +or too terrible for such offenders against religion and society, and no +means of possible detection too slight or far-fetched to be neglected; +indeed, it might reasonably appear to them better that many innocent +persons should perish, with the assurance of future reward for their +undeserved sufferings, than that a single guilty one should escape +undetected, and become the medium by which the devil might destroy more +souls. + +82. But the persecuted, far more than the persecutors, deserve our +sympathy, although they rarely obtain it. It is frequently asserted that +the absolute truth of a doctrine is the only support that will enable +its adherents successfully to weather the storms of persecution. Those +who assent to this proposition must be prepared to find a large amount +of truth in the beliefs known to us under the name of witchcraft, if the +position is to be successfully maintained; for never was any sect +persecuted more systematically, or with more relentlessness, than these +little-offending heretics. Protestants and Catholics, Anglicans and +Calvinists, so ready at all times to commit one another to the flames +and to the headsman, found in this matter common ground, upon which all +could heartily unite for the grand purpose of extirpating error. When, +out of the quiet of our own times, we look back upon the terrors of the +Tower, and the smoke and glare of Smithfield, we think with mingled pity +and admiration of those brave men and women who, in the sixteenth +century, enriched with their blood and ashes the soil from whence was to +spring our political and religious freedom. But no whit of admiration, +hardly a glimmer of pity, is even casually evinced for those poor +creatures who, neglected, despised, and abhorred, were, at the same +time, dying the same agonizing death, and passing through the torment of +the flames to that "something after death--the undiscovered country," +without the sweet assurance which sustained their better-remembered +fellow-sufferers, that beyond the martyr's cross was waiting the +martyr's crown. No such hope supported those who were condemned to die +for the crime of witchcraft: their anticipations of the future were as +dreary as their memories of the past, and no friendly voice was raised, +or hand stretched out, to encourage or console them during that last sad +journey. Their hope of mercy from man was small--strangulation before +the application of the fire, instead of the more lingering and painful +death at most;--their hope of mercy from Heaven, nothing; yet, under +these circumstances, the most auspicious perhaps that could be imagined +for the extirpation of a heretical belief, persecution failed to effect +its object. The more the Government burnt the witches, the more the +crime of witchcraft spread; and it was not until an attitude of +contemptuous toleration was adopted towards the culprits that the belief +died down, gradually but surely, not on account of the conclusiveness of +the arguments directed against it, but from its own inherent lack of +vitality.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Mr. Lecky's elaborate and interesting description of +the demise of the belief in the first chapter of his History of the Rise +of Rationalism in Europe.] + +83. The history and phenomena of witchcraft have been so admirably +treated by more than one modern investigator, as to render it +unnecessary to deal exhaustively with a subject which presents such a +vast amount of material for arrangement and comment. The scope of the +following remarks will therefore be limited to a consideration of such +features of the subject as appear to throw light upon the +supernaturalism in "Macbeth." This consideration will be carried out +with some minuteness, as certain modern critics, importing mythological +learning that is the outcome of comparatively recent investigation into +the interpretation of the text, have declared that the three sisters who +play such an important part in that drama are not witches at all, but +are, or are intimately allied to, the Norns or Fates of Scandinavian +paganism. It will be the object of the following pages to illustrate the +contemporary belief concerning witches and their powers, by showing that +nearly every characteristic point attributed to the sisters has its +counterpart in contemporary witch-lore; that some of the allusions, +indeed, bear so strong a resemblance to certain events that had +transpired not many years before "Macbeth" was written, that it is not +improbable that Shakspere was alluding to them in much the same +off-hand, cursory manner as he did to the Mainy incident when writing +"King Lear." + +84. The first critic whose comments upon this subject call for notice is +the eminent Gervinus. In evident ignorance of the history of witchcraft, +he says, "In the witches Shakspere has made use of the popular belief in +evil geniuses and in adverse persecutors of mankind, and has produced a +similar but darker race of beings, just as he made use of the belief in +fairies in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' This creation is less +attractive and complete, but not less masterly. The poet, in the text of +the play itself, calls these beings witches only derogatorily; they call +themselves weird sisters; the Fates bore this denomination, and the +sisters remind us indeed of the Northern Fates or Valkyries. They appear +wild and weather-beaten in exterior and attire, common in speech, +ignoble, half-human creatures, ugly as the Evil One, and in like manner +old, and of neither sex. They are guided by more powerful masters, their +work entirely springs from delight in evil, and they are wholly devoid +of human sympathies.... They are simply the embodiment of inward +temptation; they come in storm and vanish in air, like corporeal +impulses, which, originating in the blood, cast up bubbles of sin and +ambition in the soul; they are weird sisters only in the sense in which +men carry their own fates within their bosoms."[1] This criticism is so +entirely subjective and unsupported by evidence that it is difficult to +deal satisfactorily with it. It will be shown hereafter that this +description does not apply in the least to the Scandinavian Norns, +while, so far as it is true to Shakspere's text, it does not clash with +contemporary records of the appearance and actions of witches. + +[Footnote 1: Shakspere Commentaries, translated by F.E. Bunnert, p. +591.] + +85. The next writer to bring forward a view of this character was the +Rev. F.G. Fleay, the well-known Shakspere critic, whose ingenious +efforts in iconoclasm cause a curious alternation of feeling between +admiration and amazement. His argument is unfortunately mixed up with a +question of textual criticism; for he rejects certain scenes in the play +as the work of the inferior dramatist Middleton.[1] The question +relating to the text will only be noticed so far as it is inextricably +involved with the argument respecting the nature of the weird sisters. +Mr. Fleay's position is, shortly, this. He thinks that Shakspere's play +commenced with the entrance of Macbeth and Banquo in the third scene of +the first act, and that the weird sisters who subsequently take part in +that scene are Norns, not witches; and that in the first scene of the +fourth act, Shakspere discarded the Norns, and introduced three +entirely new characters, who were intended to be genuine witches. + +[Footnote 1: Of the witch scenes Mr. Fleay rejects Act I. sc. i., and +sc. iii. down to l. 37, and Act III. sc. v.] + +86. The evidence which can be produced in support of this theory, apart +from question of style and probability, is threefold. The first proof is +derived from a manuscript entitled "The Booke of Plaies and Notes +thereof, for Common Pollicie," written by a somewhat famous +magician-doctor, Simon Forman, who was implicated in the murder of Sir +Thomas Overbury. He says, "In 'Macbeth,' at the Globe, 1610, the 20th +April, Saturday, there was to be observed first how Macbeth and Banquo, +two noblemen of Scotland, riding through a wood, there stood before them +three women fairies, or nymphs, and saluted Macbeth, saying three times +unto him, 'Hail, Macbeth, King of Codor, for thou shalt be a king, but +thou shalt beget no kings,'" etc.[1] This, if Forman's account held +together decently in other respects, would be strong, although not +conclusive, evidence in favour of the theory; but the whole note is so +full of inconsistencies and misstatements, that it is not unfair to +conclude, either that the writer was not paying marvellous attention to +the entertainment he professed to describe, or that the player's copy +differed in many essential points from the present text. Not the least +conspicuous of these inconsistencies is the account of the sisters' +greeting of Macbeth just quoted. Subsequently Forman narrates that +Duncan created Macbeth Prince of Cumberland; and that "when Macbeth had +murdered the king, the blood on his hands could not be washed off by +any means, nor from his wife's hands, which handled the bloody daggers +in hiding them, by which means they became both much amazed and +affronted." Such a loose narration cannot be relied upon if the text in +question contains any evidence at all rebutting the conclusion that the +sisters are intended to be "women fairies, or nymphs." + +[Footnote 1: See Furness, Variorum, p. 384.] + +87. The second piece of evidence is the story of Macbeth as it is +narrated by Holinshed, from which Shakspere derived his material. In +that account we read that "It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho journied +toward Fores, where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie +togither without other companie, saue onlie themselues, passing thorough +the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund there met +them three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of +elder world, whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the +sight, the first of them spake and said; 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of +Glammis' (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by +the death of his father Sinell). The second of them said; 'Haile, +Makbeth, thane of Cawder.' But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that +heereafter shall be King of Scotland.' ... Afterwards the common opinion +was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would +say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, indued +with knowledge of prophesie by their necromanticall science, because +everiething came to passe as they had spoken."[1] This is all that is +heard of these "goddesses of Destinie" in Holinshed's narrative. Macbeth +is warned to "beware Macduff"[2] by "certeine wizzards, in whose words +he put great confidence;" and the false promises were made to him by "a +certeine witch, whome he had in great trust, (who) had told him that he +should neuer be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till +the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Holinshed, Scotland, p. 170, c. 2, l. 55.] + +[Footnote 2: Macbeth, IV. l. 71. Holinshed, p. 174, c. 2, l. 10.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. l. 13.] + +88. In this account we find that the supernatural communications adopted +by Shakspere were derived from three sources; and the contention is that +he has retained two of them--the "goddesses of Destinie" and the +witches; and the evidence of this retention is the third proof relied +on, namely, that the stage direction in the first folio, Act IV. sc. i., +is, "Enter Hecate and the _other_ three witches," when three characters +supposed to be witches are already upon the scene. Holinshed's narrative +makes it clear that the idea of the "goddesses of Destinie" was +distinctly suggested to Shakspere's mind, as well as that of the +witches, as the mediums of supernatural influence. The question is, did +he retain both, or did he reject one and retain the other? It can +scarcely be doubted that one such influence running through the play +would conduce to harmony and unity of idea; and as Shakspere, not a +servile follower of his source in any case, has interwoven in "Macbeth" +the totally distinct narrative of the murder of King Duffe,[1] it is +hardly to be supposed that he would scruple to blend these two +different sets of characters if any advantage were to be gained by so +doing. As to the stage direction in the first folio, it is difficult to +see what it would prove, even supposing that the folio were the most +scrupulous piece of editorial work that had ever been effected. It +presupposes that the "weird sisters" are on the stage as well as the +witches. But it is perfectly clear that the witches continue the +dialogue; so the other more powerful beings must be supposed to be +standing silent in the background--a suggestion so monstrous that it is +hardly necessary to refer to the slovenliness of the folio stage +directions to show how unsatisfactory an argument based upon one of them +must be. + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. p. 149. "A sort of witches dwelling in a towne of +Murreyland called Fores" (c. 2, l. 30) were prominent in this account.] + +89. The evidence of Forman and Holinshed has been stated fully, in order +that the reader may be in possession of all the materials that may be +necessary for forming an accurate judgment upon the point in question; +but it seems to be less relied upon than the supposition that the +appearance and powers of the beings in the admittedly genuine part of +the third scene of the first act are not those formerly attributed to +witches, and that Shakspere, having once decided to represent Norns, +would never have degraded them "to three old women, who are called by +Paddock and Graymalkin, sail in sieves, kill swine, serve Hecate, and +deal in all the common charms, illusions, and incantations of vulgar +witches. The three who 'look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, and +yet are on't;' they who can 'look into the seeds of time, and say which +grain will grow;' they who seem corporal, but melt into the air, like +bubbles of the earth; the weyward sisters, who make themselves air, and +have in them more than mortal knowledge, are not beings of this +stamp."[1] + +[Footnote 1: New Shakspere Society Transactions, vol. i. p.342; Fleay's +Shakspere Manual, p. 248.] + +90. Now, there is a great mass of contemporary evidence to show that +these supposed characteristics of the Norns are, in fact, some of the +chief attributes of the witches of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. If this be so--if it can be proved that the supposed +"goddesses of Destinie" of the play in reality possess no higher powers +than could be acquired by ordinary communication with evil spirits, then +no weight must be attached to the vague stage direction in the folio, +occurring as it does in a volume notorious for the extreme carelessness +with which it was produced; and it must be admitted that the "goddesses +of Destinie" of Holinshed were sacrificed for the sake of the witches. +If, in addition to this, it can be shown that there was a very +satisfactory reason why the witches should have been chosen as the +representatives of the evil influence instead of the Norns, the argument +will be as complete as it is possible to make it. + +91. But before proceeding to examine the contemporary evidence, it is +necessary, in order to obtain a complete conception of the mythological +view of the weird sisters, to notice a piece of criticism that is at +once an expansion of, and a variation upon, the theory just stated.[1] +It is suggested that the sisters of "Macbeth" are but three in number, +but that Shakspere drew upon Scandinavian mythology for a portion of the +material he used in constructing these characters, and that he derived +the rest from the traditions of contemporary witchcraft; in fact, that +the "sisters" are hybrids between Norns and witches. The supposed proof +of this is that each sister exercises the special function of one of the +Norns. "The third is the special prophetess, whilst the first takes +cognizance of the past, and the second of the present, in affairs +connected with humanity. These are the tasks of Urda, Verdandi, and +Skulda. The first begins by asking, 'When shall we three meet again?' +The second decides the time: 'When the battle's lost or won.' The third, +the future prophesies: 'That will be ere set of sun.' The first again +asks, 'Where?' The second decides: 'Upon the heath.' The third, the +future prophesies: 'There to meet with Macbeth.'" But their _rôle_ is +most clearly brought out in the famous "Hails":-- + + _1st. Urda._ [Past.] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of + Glamis! + + _2nd. Verdandi._ [Present.] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane + of Cawdor! + + _3rd. Skulda._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shalt be king hereafter.[2] + +This sequence is supposed to be retained in other of the sisters' +speeches; but a perusal of these will soon show that it is only in the +second of the above quotations that it is recognizable with any +definiteness; and this, it must be remembered, is an almost verbal +transcript from Holinshed, and not an original conception of +Shakspere's, who might feel himself quite justified in changing the +characters of the speakers, while retaining their utterances. In +addition to this, the natural sequence is in many cases utterly and +unnecessarily violated; as, for instance, in Act I. sc. iii., where +Urda, who should be solely occupied with past matters, predicts, with +extreme minuteness, the results that are to follow from her projected +voyage to Aleppo, and that without any expression of resentment, but +rather with promise of assistance, from Skulda, whose province she is +thus invading. + +[Footnote 1: In a letter to _The Academy_, 8th February, 1879, signed +"Charlotte Carmichael."] + +[Footnote 2: I have taken the liberty of printing this quotation as it +stands in the text. The writer in _The Academy_ has effected a +rearrangement of the dialogue by importing what might be Macbeth's +replies to the three sisters from his speech beginning at l. 70, and +alternating them with the different "Hails," which, in addition, are not +correctly quoted--for what purpose it is difficult to see. It may be +added here that in a subsequent number of _The Academy_, a long letter +upon the same subject appeared from Mr. Karl Blind, which seems to prove +little except the author's erudition. He assumes the Teutonic origin of +the sisters throughout, and, consequently, adduces little evidence in +favour of the theory. One of his points is the derivation of the word +"weird" or "wayward," which, as will be shown subsequently, was applied +to witches. Another point is, that the witch scenes savour strongly of +the staff-rime of old German poetry. It is interesting to find two +upholders of the Norn-theory relying mainly for proof of their position +upon a scene (Act I. sc. i.) which Mr Fleay says that the very statement +of this theory (p. 249) must brand as spurious. The question of the +sisters' beards too, regarding which Mr. Blind brings somewhat +far-fetched evidence, is, I think, more satisfactorily settled by the +quotations in the text.] + +92. But this latter piece of criticism seems open to one grave +objection to which the former is not liable. Mr. Fleay separates the +portions of the play which are undoubtedly to be assigned to witches +from the parts he gives to his Norns, and attributes them to different +characters; the other mixes up the witch and Norn elements in one +confused mass. The earlier critic saw the absurdity of such a +supposition when he wrote: "Shakspere may have raised the wizard and +witches of the latter parts of Holinshed to the weird sisters of the +former parts, but the converse process is impossible."[1] Is it +conceivable that Shakspere, who, as most people admit, was a man of some +poetic feeling, being in possession of the beautiful Norn-legend--the +silent Fate-goddesses sitting at the foot of Igdrasil, the mysterious +tree of human existence, and watering its roots with water from the +sacred spring--could, ruthlessly and without cause, mar the charm of the +legend by the gratuitous introduction of the gross and primarily +unpoetical details incident to the practice of witchcraft? No man with a +glimmer of poetry in his soul will imagine it for a moment. The +separation of characters is more credible than this; but if that theory +can be shown to be unfounded, there is no improbability in supposing +that Shakspere, finding that the question of witchcraft was, in +consequence of events that had taken place not long before the time of +the production of "Macbeth," absorbing the attention of all men, from +king to peasant, should set himself to deal with such a popular subject, +and, by the magic of his art, so raise it out of its degradation into +the region of poetry, that men should wonder and say, "Can this be +witchcraft indeed?" + +[Footnote 1: Shakspere Manual, p. 249.] + +93. In comparing the evidence to be deduced from the contemporary +records of witchcraft with the sayings and doings of the sisters in +"Macbeth," those parts of the play will first be dealt with upon which +no doubt as to their genuineness has ever been cast, and which are +asserted to be solely applicable to Norns. If it can be shown that these +describe witches rather than Norns, the position that Shakspere +intentionally substituted witches for the "goddesses of Destinie" +mentioned in his authority is practically unassailable. First, then, it +is asserted that the description of the appearance of the sisters given +by Banquo applies to Norns rather than witches-- + + "They look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't." + +This question of applicability, however, must not be decided by the +consideration of a single sentence, but of the whole passage from which +it is extracted; and, whilst considering it, it should be carefully +borne in mind that it occurs immediately before those lines which are +chiefly relied upon as proving the identity of the sisters with Urda, +Verdandi, and Skulda. + +Banquo, on seeing the sisters, says-- + + "What are these, + So withered and so wild in their attire, + That look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't? Live you, or are you aught + That man may question? You seem to understand me, + By each at once her chappy finger laying + Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, + And yet your beards forbid me to interpret + That you are so." + +It is in the first moment of surprise that the sisters, appearing so +suddenly, seem to Banquo unlike the inhabitants of this earth. When he +recovers from the shock and is capable of deliberate criticism, he sees +chappy fingers, skinny lips--in fact, nothing to distinguish them from +poverty-stricken, ugly old women but their beards. A more accurate +poetical counterpart to the prose descriptions given by contemporary +writers of the appearance of the poor creatures who were charged with +the crime of witchcraft could hardly have been penned. Scot, for +instance, says, "They are women which commonly be old, lame, +bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles.... They are leane and +deformed, showing melancholie in their faces;"[1] and Harsnet describes +a witch as "an old weather-beaten crone, having her chin and knees +meeting for age, walking like a bow, leaning on a staff, hollow-eyed, +untoothed, furrowed, having her lips trembling with palsy, going +mumbling in the streets; one that hath forgotten her Pater-noster, yet +hath a shrewd tongue to call a drab a drab."[2] It must be remembered +that these accounts are by two sceptics, who saw nothing in the witches +but poor, degraded old women. In a description which assumes their +supernatural power such minute details would not be possible; yet there +is quite enough in Banquo's description to suggest neglect, squalor, and +misery. But if this were not so, there is one feature in the +description of the sisters that would settle the question once and for +ever. The beard was in Elizabethan times the recognized characteristic +of the witch. In one old play it is said, "The women that come to us for +disguises must wear beards, and that's to say a token of a witch;"[3] +and in another, "Some women have beards; marry, they are half +witches;"[4] and Sir Hugh Evans gives decisive testimony to the fact +when he says of the disguised Falstaff, "By yea and no, I think, the +'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I +spy a great peard under her muffler."[5] + +[Footnote 1: Discoverie, book i. ch. 3, p. 7.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, Declaration, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 3: Honest Man's Fortune, II. i. Furness, Variorum, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 4: Dekker's Honest Whore, sc. x. l. 126.] + +[Footnote 5: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV. sc. ii.] + +94. Every item of Banquo's description indicates that he is speaking of +witches; nothing in it is incompatible with that supposition. Will it +apply with equal force to Norns? It can hardly be that these mysterious +mythical beings, who exercise an incomprehensible yet powerful influence +over human destiny, could be described with any propriety in terms so +revolting. A veil of wild, weird grandeur might be thrown around them; +but can it be supposed that Shakspere would degrade them by representing +them with chappy fingers, skinny lips, and beards? It is particularly to +be noticed, too, that although in this passage he is making an almost +verbal transcript from Holinshed, these details are interpolated without +the authority of the chronicle. Let it be supposed, for an instant, +that the text ran thus-- + + _Banquo._ ... What are these + So withered and so wild in their attire,[1] + That look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't?[2] Live you, or are you ought + That man may question?[3] + + _Macbeth._ Speak if you can, what are you? + + _1st Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis![4] + + _2nd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor![5] + + _3rd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shall be king hereafter.[6] + +This is so accurate a dramatization of the parallel passage in +Holinshed, and so entire in itself, that there is some temptation to ask +whether it was not so written at first, and the interpolated lines +subsequently inserted by the author. Whether this be so or not, the +question must be put--Why, in such a passage, did Shakspere insert three +lines of most striking description of the appearance of witches? Can any +other reason be suggested than that he had made up his mind to replace +the "goddesses of Destinie" by the witches, and had determined that +there should be no possibility of any doubt arising about it? + +[Footnote 1: Three women in strange and wild apparel,] + +[Footnote 2: resembling creatures of elder world,] + +[Footnote 3: whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the +sight, the first of them spake and said;] + +[Footnote 4: 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of Glammis' (for he had latelie +entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father +Sinell).] + +[Footnote 5: The second of them said; 'Haile, Makbeth, thane of +Cawder.'] + +[Footnote 6: But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that heereafter +shalt be king of Scotland.'] + +95. The next objection is, that the sisters exercise powers that witches +did not possess. They can "look into the seeds of time, and say which +grain will grow, and which will not." In other words, they foretell +future events, which witches could not do. But this is not the fact. The +recorded witch trials teem with charges of having prophesied what things +were about to happen; no charge is more common. The following, quoted by +Charles Knight in his biography of Shakspere, might almost have +suggested the simile in the last-mentioned lines. Johnnet Wischert is +"indicted for passing to the green growing corn in May, twenty-two years +since or thereby, sitting thereupon tymous in the morning before the +sun-rising, and being there found and demanded what she was doing, +thou[1] answered, I shall tell thee; I have been peeling the blades of +the corn. I find it will be a dear year, the blade of the corn grows +withersones [contrary to the course of the sun], and when it grows +sonegatis about [with the course of the sun] it will be good cheap +year."[2] The following is another apt illustration of the power, which +has been translated from the unwieldy Lowland Scotch account of the +trial of Bessie Roy in 1590. The Dittay charged her thus: "You are +indicted and accused that whereas, when you were dwelling with William +King in Barra, about twelve years ago, or thereabouts, and having gone +into the field to pluck lint with other women, in their presence made a +compass in the earth, and a hole in the midst thereof; and afterwards, +by thy conjurations thou causedst a great worm to come up first out of +the said hole, and creep over the compass; and next a little worm came +forth, which crept over also; and last [thou] causedst a great worm to +come forth, which could not pass over the compass, but fell down and +died. Which enchantment and witchcraft thou interpretedst in this form: +that the first great worm that crept over the compass was the goodman +William King, who should live; and the little worm was a child in the +goodwife's womb, who was unknown to any one to be with child, and that +the child should live; and, thirdly, the last great worm thou +interpretedst to be the goodwife, who should die: _which came to pass +after thy speaking_."[3] Surely there could hardly be plainer instances +of looking "into the seeds of time, and saying which grain will grow, +and which will not," than these. + +[Footnote 1: Sic.] + +[Footnote 2: p. 438.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, I. ii. 207. Cf. also Ibid. pp. 212, 213, and 231, +where the crime is described as "foreknowledge."] + +96. Perhaps this is the most convenient place for pointing out the full +meaning of the first scene of "Macbeth," and its necessary connection +with the rest of the play. It is, in fact, the fag-end of a witches' +sabbath, which, if fully represented, would bear a strong resemblance to +the scene at the commencement of the fourth act. But a long scene on +such a subject would be tedious and unmeaning at the commencement of the +play. The audience is therefore left to assume that the witches have +met, performed their conjurations, obtained from the evil spirits the +information concerning Macbeth's career that they desired to obtain, and +perhaps have been commanded by the fiends to perform the mission they +subsequently carry through. All that is needed for the dramatic effect +is a slight hint of probable diabolical interference, and that Macbeth +is to be the special object of it; and this is done in as artistic a +manner as is perhaps imaginable. In the first scene they obtain their +information; in the second they utter their prediction. Every minute +detail of these scenes is based upon the broad, recognized facts of +witchcraft. + +97. It is also suggested that the power of vanishing from the sight +possessed by the sisters--the power to make themselves air--was not +characteristic of witches. But this is another assertion that would not +have been made, had the authorities upon the subject been investigated +with only slight attention. No feature of the crime of witchcraft is +better attested than this; and the modern witch of story-books is still +represented as riding on a broomstick--a relic of the enchanted rod with +which the devil used to provide his worshippers, upon which to come to +his sabbaths.[1] One of the charges in the indictment against the +notorious Dr. Fian ran thus: "Fylit for suffering himself to be careit +to North Berwik kirk, as if he had bene souchand athoirt [whizzing +above] the eird."[2] Most effectual ointments were prepared for +effecting this method of locomotion, which have been recorded, and are +given below[3] as an illustration of the wild kind of recipes which +Shakspere rendered more grim in his caldron scene. The efficacy of these +ointments is well illustrated by a story narrated by Reginald Scot, +which unfortunately, on account of certain incidents, cannot be given in +his own terse words. The hero of it happened to be staying temporarily +with a friend, and on one occasion found her rubbing her limbs with a +certain preparation, and mumbling the while. After a time she vanished +out of his sight; and he, being curious to investigate the affair, +rubbed himself with the remaining ointment, and almost immediately he +found himself transported a long distance through the air, and +deposited right in the very midst of a witches' sabbath. Naturally +alarmed, he cried out, "'In the name of God, what make I heere?' and +upon those words the whole assemblie vanished awaie."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Scot, book iii. ch. iii. p. 43.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, I. ii. 210. Cf. also Ibid. p. 211. Scot, book +iii. ch. vii. p. 51.] + +[Footnote 3: "Sundrie receipts and ointments made and used for the +transportation of witches, and other miraculous effects. + +"Rx. The fat of yoong children, & seeth it with water in a brazen +vessell, reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the +bottome, which they laie up & keep untill occasion serveth to use it. +They put hereinto Eleoselinum, Aconitum, frondes populeas, & Soote." +This is given almost verbatim in Middleton's Witch. + +"Rx. Sium, Acarum Vulgare, Pentaphyllon, the bloud of a Flittermouse, +Solanum Somniferum, & oleum." + +It would seem that fern seed had the same virtue.--I Hen. IV. II. i.] + +[Footnote 4: Scot, book iii. ch. vi. p. 46.] + +98. The only vestige of a difficulty, therefore, that remains is the use +of the term "weird sisters" in describing the witches. It is perfectly +clear that Holinshed used these words as a sort of synonym for the +"goddesses of Destinie;" but with such a mass of evidence as has been +produced to show that Shakspere elected to introduce witches in the +place of the Norns, it surely would not be unwarrantable to suppose that +he might retain this term as a poetical and not unsuitable description +of the characters to whom it was applied. And this is the less +improbable as it can be shown that both words were at times applied to +witches. As the quotation given subsequently[1] proves, the Scotch +witches were in the habit of speaking of the frequenters of a particular +sabbath as "the sisters;" and in Heywood's "Witches of Lancashire," one +of the characters says about a certain act of supposed witchcraft, "I +remember that some three months since I crossed a wayward woman; one +that I now suspect."[2] + +[Footnote 1: § 107, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 2: Act V. sc. iii.] + +99. Here, then, in the very stronghold of the supposed proof of the +Norn-theory, it is possible to extract convincing evidence that the +sisters are intended to be merely witches. It is not surprising that +other portions of the play in which the sisters are mentioned should +confirm this view. Banquo, upon hearing the fulfilment of the prophecy +of the second witch, clearly expresses his opinion of the origin of the +"foreknowledge" he has received, in the exclamation, "What, can the +devil speak true?" For the devil most emphatically spoke through the +witches; but how could he in any sense be said to speak through Norns? +Again, Macbeth informs his wife that on his arrival at Forres, he made +inquiry into the amount of reliance that could be placed in the +utterances of the witches, "and learned by the perfectest report that +they had more in them than mortal knowledge."[1] This would be possible +enough if witches were the subjects of the investigation, for their +chief title to authority would rest upon the general opinion current in +the neighbourhood in which they dwelt; but how could such an inquiry be +carried out successfully in the case of Norns? It is noticeable, too, +that Macbeth knows exactly where to find the sisters when he wants them; +and when he says-- + + "More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, + By the worst means, the worst,"[2] + +he makes another clear allusion to the traffic of the witches with the +devil. After the events recorded in Act IV. sc. i., Macbeth speaks of +the prophecies upon which he relies as "the equivocation of the +fiend,"[3] and the prophets as "these juggling fiends;"[4] and with +reason--for he has seen and heard the very devils themselves, the +masters of the witches and sources of all their evil power. Every point +in the play that bears upon the subject at all tends to show that +Shakspere intentionally replaced the "goddesses of Destinie" by witches; +and that the supposed Norn origin of these characters is the result of a +somewhat too great eagerness to unfold a novel and startling theory. + +[Footnote 1: Act I. sc. v. l. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Fleay avoids the difficulty created by this passage, +which alludes to the witches as "the weird sisters," by supposing that +these lines were interpolated by Middleton--a method of criticism that +hardly needs comment. Act III. sc. iv. l. 134.] + +[Footnote 3: Act V. sc. v. l. 43.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. sc. viii. l. 19.] + +100. Assuming, therefore, that the witch-nature of the sisters is +conclusively proved, it now becomes necessary to support the assertion +previously made, that good reason can be shown why Shakspere should +have elected to represent witches rather than Norns. + +It is impossible to read "Macbeth" without noticing the prominence given +to the belief that witches had the power of creating storms and other +atmospheric disturbances, and that they delighted in so doing. The +sisters elect to meet in thunder, lightning, or rain. To them "fair is +foul, and foul is fair," as they "hover through the fog and filthy air." +The whole of the earlier part of the third scene of the first act is one +blast of tempest with its attendant devastation. They can loose and bind +the winds,[1] cause vessels to be tempest-tossed at sea, and mutilate +wrecked bodies.[2] They describe themselves as "posters of the sea and +land;"[3] the heath they meet upon is blasted;[4] and they vanish "as +breath into the wind."[5] Macbeth conjures them to answer his questions +thus:-- + + "Though you untie the winds, and let them fight + Against the churches; though the yesty waves + Confound and swallow navigation up; + Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down; + Though castles topple on their warders' heads; + Though palaces and pyramids do slope + Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure + Of nature's germens tumble all together, + Even till destruction sicken."[6] + +[Footnote 1: I. iii. 11, 12.] + +[Footnote 2: Act I. sc. iii. l. 28.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. l. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. l. 77.] + +[Footnote 5: Ibid. ll. 81, 82.] + +[Footnote 6: Act IV. sc. i. ll. 52-60.] + +101. Now, this command over the elements does not form at all a +prominent feature in the English records of witchcraft. A few isolated +charges of the kind may be found. In 1565, for instance, a witch was +burnt who confessed that she had caused all the tempests that had taken +place in that year. Scot, too, has a few short sentences upon this +subject, but does not give it the slightest prominence.[1] Nor in the +earlier Scotch trials recorded by Pitcairn does this charge appear +amongst the accusations against the witches. It is exceedingly curious +to notice the utter harmless nature of the charges brought against the +earlier culprits; and how, as time went on and the panic increased, they +gradually deepened in colour, until no act was too gross, too repulsive, +or too ridiculously impossible to be excluded from the indictment. The +following quotations from one of the earliest reported trials are given +because they illustrate most forcibly the condition of the poor women +who were supposed to be witches, and the real basis of fact upon which +the belief in the crime subsequently built itself. + +[Footnote 1: Book iii. ch. 13, p. 60.] + +102. Bessie Dunlop was tried for witchcraft in 1576. One of the +principal accusations against her was that she held intercourse with a +devil who appeared to her in the shape of a neighbour of hers, one Thom +Reed, who had recently died. Being asked how and where she met Thom +Reed, she said, "As she was gangand betwixt her own house and the yard +of Monkcastell, dryvand her ky to the pasture, and makand heavy sair +dule with herself, gretand[1] very fast for her cow that was dead, her +husband and child that wer lyand sick in the land ill, and she new +risen out of gissane,[2] the aforesaid Thom met her by the way, +healsit[3] her, and said, 'Gude day, Bessie,' and she said, 'God speed +you, guidman.' 'Sancta Marie,' said he, 'Bessie, why makes thow sa great +dule and sair greting for ony wardlie thing?' She answered 'Alas! have I +not great cause to make great dule, for our gear is trakit,[4] and my +husband is on the point of deid, and one babie of my own will not live, +and myself at ane weak point; have I not gude cause then to have ane +sair hart?' But Thom said, 'Bessie, thou hast crabit[5] God, and askit +some thing you suld not have done; and tharefore I counsell thee to mend +to Him, for I tell thee thy barne sall die and the seik cow, or you come +hame; and thy twa sheep shall die too; but thy husband shall mend, and +shall be as hale and fair as ever he was.' And then I was something +blyther, for he tauld me that my guidman would mend. Then Thom Reed went +away fra me in through the yard of Monkcastell, and I thought that he +gait in at ane narrower hole of the dyke nor anie erdlie man culd have +gone throw, and swa I was something fleit."[6] + +[Footnote 1: Weeping. I have only half translated this passage, for I +feared to spoil the sad simplicity of it.] + +[Footnote 2: Child-bed.] + +[Footnote 3: Saluted.] + +[Footnote 4: Dwindled away.] + +[Footnote 5: Displeased.] + +[Footnote 6: Frightened.] + +This was the first time that Thom appeared to her. On the third occasion +he asked her "if she would not trow[1] in him." She said "she would trow +in ony bodye did her gude." Then Thom promised her much wealth if she +would deny her christendom. She answered that "if she should be riven at +horsis taillis, she suld never do that, but promised to be leal and +trew to him in ony thing she could do," whereat he was angry. + +[Footnote 1: Trust.] + +On the fourth occasion, the poor woman fell further into sin, and +accompanied Thom to a fairy meeting. Thom asked her to join the party; +but she said "she saw na proffeit to gang thai kind of gaittis, unless +she kend wherefor." Thom offered the old inducement, wealth; but she +replied that "she dwelt with her awin husband and bairnis," and could +not leave them. And so Thom began to be very crabit with her, and said, +"if so she thought, she would get lytill gude of him." + +She was then demanded if she had ever asked any favour of Thom for +herself or any other person. She answered that "when sundrie persons +came to her to seek help for their beast, their cow, or ewe, or for any +barne that was tane away with ane evill blast of wind, or elf grippit, +she gait and speirit[1] at Thom what myght help them; and Thom would +pull ane herb and gif her out of his awin hand, and bade her scheir[2] +the same with ony other kind of herbis, and oppin the beistes mouth, and +put thame in, and the beist wald mend."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Inquired.] + +[Footnote 2: Chop.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, I. ii. 51, et seq.] + +It seems hardly possible to believe that a story like this, which is +half marred by the attempt to partially modernize its simple pathetic +language, and which would probably bring a tear to the eye, if not a +shilling from the pocket, of the most unsympathetic being of the present +day, should be considered sufficient three hundred years ago, to convict +the narrator of a crime worthy of death; yet so it was. This sad +picture of the breakdown of a poor woman's intellect in the unequal +struggle against poverty and sickness is only made visible to us by the +light of the flames that, mercifully to her perhaps, took poor Bessie +Dunlop away for ever from the sick husband, and weakly children, and the +"ky," and the humble hovel where they all dwelt together, and from the +daily, heart-rending, almost hopeless struggle to obtain enough food to +keep life in the bodies of this miserable family. The historian--who +makes it his chief anxiety to record, to the minutest and most +irrelevant details, the deeds, noble or ignoble, of those who have +managed to stamp their names upon the muster-roll of Fame--turns +carelessly or scornfully the page which contains such insignificant +matter as this; but those who believe + + "That not a worm is cloven in vain; + That not a moth with vain desire + Is shrivel'd in a fruitless fire, + Or but subserves another's gain," + +will hardly feel that poor Bessie's life and death were entirely without +their meaning. + +103. As the trials for witchcraft increase, however, the details grow +more and more revolting; and in the year 1590 we find a most +extraordinary batch of cases--extraordinary for the monstrosity of the +charges contained in them, and also for the fact that this feature, so +insisted upon in Macbeth, the raising of winds and storms, stands out in +extremely bold relief. The explanation of this is as follows. In the +year 1589, King James VI. brought his bride, Anne of Denmark, home to +Scotland. During the voyage an unusually violent storm raged, which +scattered the vessels composing the royal escort, and, it would appear, +caused the destruction of one of them. By a marvellous chance, the +king's ship was driven by a wind which blew directly contrary to that +which filled the sails of the other vessels;[1] and the king and queen +were both placed in extreme jeopardy. James, who seems to have been as +perfectly convinced of the reality of witchcraft as he was of his own +infallibility, at once came to the conclusion that the storm had been +raised by the aid of evil spirits, for the express purpose of getting +rid of so powerful an enemy of the Prince of Darkness as the righteous +king. The result was that a rigorous investigation was made into the +whole affair; a great number of persons were tried for attempting the +king's life by witchcraft; and that prince, undeterred by the apparent +impropriety of being judge in what was, in reality, his own cause, +presided at many of the trials, condescended to superintend the tortures +applied to the accused in order to extort a confession, and even went so +far in one case as to write a letter to the judges commanding a +condemnation. + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 218.] + +104. Under these circumstances, considering who the prosecutor was, and +who the judge, and the effectual methods at the service of the court for +extorting confessions,[1] it is not surprising that the king's surmises +were fully justified by the statements of the accused. It is impossible +to read these without having parts of the witch-scenes in "Macbeth" +ringing in the ears like an echo. John Fian, a young schoolmaster, and +leader of the gang, or "coven" as it was called, was charged with having +caused the leak in the king's ship, and with having raised the wind and +created a mist for the purpose of hindering his voyage.[2] On another +occasion he and several other witches entered into a ship, and caused it +to perish.[3] He was also able by witchcraft to open locks.[4] He +visited churchyards at night, and dismembered bodies for his charms; the +bodies of unbaptized infants being preferred.[5] + +[Footnote 1: The account of the tortures inflicted upon Fian are too +horrible for quotation.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, I. ii. 211.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 212. He confessed that Satan commanded him to chase +cats "purposlie to be cassin into the sea to raise windis for +destructioune of schippis." Macbeth, I. iii. 15-25.] + +[Footnote 4: "Fylit for opening of ane loke be his sorcerie in David +Seytounis moderis, be blawing in ane woman's hand, himself sittand att +the fyresyde."--See also the case of Bessie Roy, I. ii. 208. The English +method of opening locks was more complicated than the Scotch, as will +appear from the following quotation from Scot, book xii. ch. xiv. p. +246:-- + +"A charme to open locks. Take a peece of wax crossed in baptisme, and +doo but print certeine floures therein, and tie them in the hinder skirt +of your shirt; and when you would undoo the locke, blow thrice therein, +saieing, 'Arato hoc partico hoc maratarykin; I open this doore in thy +name that I am forced to breake, as thou brakest hell gates. In nomine +patris etc. Amen.'" Macbeth, IV. i. 46.] + +[Footnote 5: + + "Finger of birth-strangled babe, + Ditch-delivered by a drab." + +Macbeth, IV. i. 30.] + +Agnes Sampsoune confessed to the king that to compass his death she took +a black toad and hung it by the hind legs for three days, and collected +the venom that fell from it. She said that if she could have obtained a +piece of linen that the king had worn, she could have destroyed his +life with this venom; "causing him such extraordinarie paines as if he +had beene lying upon sharpe thornes or endis of needles."[1] She went +out to sea to a vessel called _The Grace of God_, and when she came away +the devil raised a wind, and the vessel was wrecked.[2] She delivered a +letter from Fian to another witch, which was to this effect: "Ye sall +warne the rest of the sisteris to raise the winde this day at ellewin +houris to stay the queenis cuming in Scotland."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 218. + + "Toad, that under cold stone + Days and nights has thirty-one + Sweltered venom sleeping got." + +Macbeth, IV. i. 6.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 235.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 236.] + +This is her confession as to the methods adopted for raising the storm. +"At the time when his Majestie was in Denmarke, shee being accompanied +by the parties before speciallie named, took a cat and christened it, +and afterwards bounde to each part of that cat the cheefest parts of a +dead man, and the severall joyntes of his bodie; and that in the night +following the said cat was conveyed into the middest of the sea by all +these witches, sayling in their riddles or cives,[1] as is afore said, +and so left the said cat right before the town of Leith in Scotland. +This done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath +not been seene, which tempest was the cause of the perishing of a +vessell coming over from the town of Brunt Ilande to the town of +Leith.... Againe, it is confessed that the said christened cat was the +cause that the kinges Majesties shippe at his coming forth of Denmarke +had a contrarie wind to the rest of his shippes...."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Macbeth, I. iii. 8.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, Reprint of Newes from Scotland, I. ii. 218. See +also Trial of Ewsame McCalgane, I. ii. 254.] + +105. It is worth a note that this art of going to sea in sieves, which +Shakspere has referred to in his drama, seems to have been peculiar to +this set of witches. English witches had the reputation of being able to +go upon the water in egg-shells and cockle-shells, but seem never to +have detected any peculiar advantages in the sieve. Not so these Scotch +witches. Agnes told the king that she, "with a great many other witches, +to the number of two hundreth, all together went to sea, each one in a +riddle or cive, and went into the same very substantially, with flaggons +of wine, making merrie, and drinking by the way in the same riddles or +cives, to the kirke of North Barrick in Lowthian, and that after they +landed they tooke hands on the lande and daunced a reill or short +daunce." They then opened the graves and took the fingers, toes, and +knees of the bodies to make charms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 217.] + +It can be easily understood that these trials created an intense +excitement in Scotland. The result was that a tract was printed, +containing a full account of all the principal incidents; and the fact +that this pamphlet was reprinted once, if not twice,[1] in London, +shows that interest in the affair spread south of the Border; and this +is confirmed by the publisher's prefatorial apology, in which he states +that the pamphlet was printed to prevent the public from being imposed +upon by unauthorized and extravagant statements of what had taken +place.[2] Under ordinary circumstances, events of this nature would form +a nine days' wonder, and then die a natural death; but in this +particular case the public interest continued for an abnormal time; for +eight years subsequent to the date of the trials, James published his +"Daemonologie"--a work founded to a great extent upon his experiences at +the trials of 1590. This was a sign to both England and Scotland that +the subject of witchcraft was still of engrossing interest to him; and +as he was then the fully recognized heir-apparent to the English crown, +the publication of such a work would not fail to induce a great amount +of attention to the subject dealt with. In 1603 he ascended the English +throne. His first parliament met on the 19th of March, 1604, and on the +27th of the same month a bill was brought into the House of Lords +dealing with the question of witchcraft. It was referred to a committee +of which twelve bishops were members; and this committee, after much +debating, came to the conclusion that the bill was imperfect. In +consequence of this a fresh one was drawn, and by the 9th of June a +statute had passed both Houses of Parliament, which enacted, among other +things, that "if any person shall practise or exercise any invocation or +conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit, or shall consult with, +entertain, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit,[3] or take up any +dead man, woman, or child out of his, her, or their grave ... or the +skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person to be employed or used +in any manner of witchcraft,[4] ... or shall ... practise ... any +witchcraft ... whereby any person shall be killed, wasted, pined, or +lamed in his or her body or any part thereof,[5] such offender shall +suffer the pains of death as felons, without benefit of clergy or +sanctuary." Hutchinson, in his "Essay on Witchcraft," published in 1720, +declares that this statute was framed expressly to meet the offences +exposed by the trials of 1590-1; but, although this cannot be +conclusively proved, yet it is not at all improbable that the hurry with +which the statute was passed into law immediately upon the accession of +James, would recall to the public mind the interest he had taken in +those trials in particular and the subject in general, and that +Shakspere producing, as nearly all the critics agree, his tragedy at +about this date, should draw upon his memory for the half-forgotten +details of those trials, and thus embody in "Macbeth" the allusions to +them that have been pointed out--much less accurately than he did in the +case of the Babington affair, because the facts had been far less +carefully recorded, and the time at which his attention had been called +to them far more remote.[6] + +[Footnote 1: One copy of this reprint bears the name of W. Wright, +another that of Thomas Nelson. The full title is-- + +"Newes from Scotland, + +"Declaring the damnable life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was +burned at Edenborough in Januarie last, 1591; which Doctor was Register +to the Deuill, that sundrie times preached at North Barricke kirke to a +number of notorious witches; with the true examinations of the said +Doctor and witches as they uttered them in the presence of the Scottish +king: Discouering how they pretended to bewitch and drowne his Majestie +in the sea, comming from Denmarke, with such other wonderfull matters, +as the like hath not bin heard at anie time. + +"Published according to the Scottish copie. + +"Printed for William Wright."] + +[Footnote 2: These events are referred to in an existing letter by the +notorious Thos. Phelippes to Thos. Barnes, Cal. State Papers (May 21, +1591), 1591-4, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 3: Such as Paddock, Graymalkin, and Harpier.] + +[Footnote 4: "Liver of blaspheming Jew," etc.--Macbeth, IV. i. 26.] + +[Footnote 5: + + "I will drain him dry as hay; + Sleep shall neither night nor day + Hang upon his pent-house lid; + He shall live a man forbid: + Weary se'nnights, nine times nine, + Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." + +Macbeth, I. iii. 18-23.] + +[Footnote 6: The excitement about the details of the witch trials would +culminate in 1592. Harsnet's book would be read by Shakspere in 1603.] + +106. There is one other mode of temptation which was adopted by the evil +spirits, implicated to a great extent with the traditions of witchcraft, +but nevertheless more suitably handled as a separate subject, which is +of so gross and revolting a nature that it should willingly be passed +over in silence, were it not for the fact that the belief in it was, as +Scot says, "so stronglie and universallie received" in the times of +Elizabeth and James. + +From the very earliest period of the Christian era the affection of one +sex for the other was considered to be under the special control of the +devil. Marriage was to be tolerated; but celibacy was the state most +conducive to the near intercourse with heaven that was so dearly sought +after. This opinion was doubtless generated by the tendency of the early +Christian leaders to hold up the events of the life rather than the +teachings of the sacred Founder of the sect as the one rule of conduct +to be received by His followers. To have been the recipients of the +stigmata was a far greater evidence of holiness and favour with Heaven +than the quiet and unnoted daily practice of those virtues upon which +Christ pronounced His blessing; and in less improbable matters they did +not scruple, in their enthusiasm, to attempt to establish a rule of life +in direct contradiction to the laws of that universe of which they +professed to believe Him to be the Creator. The futile attempt to +imitate His immaculate purity blinded their eyes to the fact that He +never taught or encouraged celibacy among His followers, and this +gradually led them to the strange conclusion that the passion which, +sublimed and brought under control, is the source of man's noblest and +holiest feelings, was a prompting proceeding from the author of all +evil. Imbued with this idea, religious enthusiasts of both sexes immured +themselves in convents; took oaths of perpetual celibacy; and even, in +certain isolated cases, sought to compromise with Heaven, and baffle the +tempter, by rendering a fall impossible--forgetting that the victory +over sin does not consist in immunity from temptation, but, being +tempted, not to fall. But no convent walls are so strong as to shut +great nature out; and even within these sacred precincts the ascetics +found that they were not free from the temptations of their arch-enemy. +In consequence of this, a belief sprang up, and spread from its original +source into the outer world, in a class of devils called incubi and +succubi, who roamed the earth with no other object than to tempt people +to abandon their purity of life. The cases of assault by incubi were +much more frequent than those by succubi, just as women were much more +affected by the dancing manias in the fifteenth century than +men;[1]--the reason, perhaps, being that they are much less capable of +resisting physical privation;--but, according to the belief of the +Middle Ages, there was no generic difference between the incubus and +succubus. Here was a belief that, when the witch fury sprang up, +attached itself as a matter of course as the phase of the crime; and it +was an almost universal charge against the accused that they offended in +this manner with their familiars, and hundreds of poor creatures +suffered death upon such an indictment. More details will be found in +the authorities upon this unpleasant subject.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 2: Hutchinson, p. 52. The Witch of Edmonton, Act V. Scot, +Discoverie, book iv.] + +107. This intercourse did not, as a rule, result in offspring; but this +was not universally the case. All badly deformed or monstrous children +were suspected of having had such an undesirable parentage, and there +was a great tendency to believe that they ought to be destroyed. Luther +was a decided advocate of this course, deeming the destruction of a life +far preferable to the chance of having a devil in the family. In +Drayton's poem, "The Mooncalf," one of the gossips present at the birth +of the calf suggests that it ought to be buried alive as a monster.[1] +Caliban is a mooncalf,[2] and his origin is distinctly traced to a +source of this description. It is perfectly clear what was the one +thing that the foul witch Sycorax did which prevented her life from +being taken; and it would appear from this that the inhabitants of +Argier were far more merciful in this respect than their European +neighbours. Such a charge would have sent any woman to the stake in +Scotland, without the slightest hope of mercy, and the usual plea for +respite would only have been an additional reason for hastening the +execution of the sentence.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Ed. 1748, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 2: Tempest, II. ii. 111, 115.] + +[Footnote 3: Cf. Othello, I. i. 91. Titus Andronicus, IV. ii.] + +108. In the preceding pages an endeavour has been made to delineate the +most prominent features of a belief which the great Reformation was +destined first to foster into unnatural proportions and vitality, and in +the end to destroy. Up to the period of the Reformation, the creed of +the nation had been practically uniform, and one set of dogmas was +unhesitatingly accepted by the people as infallible, and therefore +hardly demanding critical consideration. The great upheaval of the +sixteenth century rent this quiescent uniformity into shreds; doctrines +until then considered as indisputable were brought within the pale of +discussion, and hence there was a great diversity of opinion, not only +between the supporters of the old and of the new faith, but between the +Reformers themselves. This was conspicuously the case with regard to the +belief in the devils and their works. The more timid of the Reformers +clung in a great measure to the Catholic opinions; a small band, under +the influence possibly of that knight-errant of freedom of thought, +Giordano Bruno, who exercised some considerable influence during his +visit to England by means of his Oxford lectures and disputations, +entirely denied the existence of evil spirits; but the great majority +gave in their adherence to a creed that was the mean between the +doctrines of the old faith and the new scepticism. Their strong common +sense compelled them to reject the puerilities advanced as serious +evidence by the Catholic Church; but they cast aside with equal +vehemence and more horror the doctrines of the Bruno school. "That there +are devils," says Bullinger, reduced apparently from argument to +invective, "the Sadducees in times past denied, and at this day also +some scarce religious, nay, rather Epicures, deny the same; who, unless +they repent, shall one day feel, to their exceeding great pain and +smart, both that there are devils, and that they are the tormentors and +executioners of all wicked men and Epicures."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullinger, Fourth Decade, 9th Sermon, p. 348, Parker +Society.] + +109. It must be remembered, too, that the emancipation from medievalism +was a very gradual process, not, as we are too prone to think it, a +revolution suddenly and completely effected. It was an evolution, not an +explosion. There is found, in consequence, a great divergence of +opinion, not only between the earliest and the later Reformers, but +between the statements of the same man at different periods of his +career. Tyndale, for instance, seems to have believed in the actual +possession of the human body by devils;[1] and this appears to have +been the opinion of the majority at the beginning of the Reformation, +for the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. contained the Catholic form of +exorcism for driving devils out of children, which was expunged upon +revision, the doctrine of obsession having in the mean time triumphed +over the older belief. It is necessary to bear these facts in mind +whilst considering any attempt to depict the general bearings of a +belief such as that in evil spirits; for many irreconcilable statements +are to be found among the authorities; and it is the duty of the writer +to sift out and describe those views which predominated, and these must +not be supposed to be proved inaccurate because a chance quotation can +be produced in contradiction. + +[Footnote 1: I Tyndale, p. 82. Parker Society.] + +110. There is great danger, in the attempt to bring under analysis any +phase of religious belief, that the method of treatment may appear +unsympathetic if not irreverent. The greatest effort has been made in +these pages to avoid this fault as far as possible; for, without doubt, +any form of religious dogma, however barbarous, however seemingly +ridiculous, if it has once been sincerely believed and trusted by any +portion of mankind, is entitled to reverent treatment. No body of great +and good men can at any time credit and take comfort from a lie pure and +simple; and if an extinct creed appears to lack that foundation of truth +which makes creeds tolerable, it is safer to assume that it had a +meaning and a truthfulness, to those who held it, that lapse of time +has tended to destroy, together with the creed itself, than to condemn +men wholesale as knaves and hypocrites. But the particular subject which +has here been dealt with will surely be considered to be specially +entitled to respect, when it is remembered that it was once an integral +portion of the belief of most of our best and bravest ancestors--of men +and women who dared to witness to their own sincerity amidst the fires +of persecution and in the solitude of exile. It has nearly all +disappeared now. The terrific hierarchy of fiends, which was so real, so +full of horror three hundred years ago[1], has gradually vanished away +before the advent of fuller knowledge and purer faith, and is now hardly +thought of, unless as a dead mediaeval myth. But let us deal tenderly +with it, remembering that the day may come when the beliefs that are +nearest to our hearts may be treated as open to contempt or ridicule, +and the dogmas to which we most passionately cling will, "like an +insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a wrack behind." + +[Footnote 1: Perhaps the following prayer, contained in Thomas Becon's +"Pomander," shows more clearly than the comments of any critic the +reality of the terror:-- + +"An infinite number of wicked angels there are, O Lord Christ, which +without ceasing seek my destruction. Against this exceeding great +multitude of evil spirits send Thou me Thy blessed and heavenly angels, +which may deliver me from then tyranny. Thou, O Lord, hast devoured +hell, and overcome the prince of darkness and all his ministers; yea, +and that not for Thyself, but for those that believe in Thee. Suffer me +not, therefore, to be overcome of Satan and of his servants, but rather +let me triumph over them, that I, through strong faith and help of the +blessed angels, having the victory of the hellish army, may with a +joyful heart say, Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy +victory?--and so for ever and ever magnify Thy Holy Name. Amen." Parker +Society, p. 84.] + + * * * * * + +111. Little attempt has hitherto been made, in the way of direct proof, +to show that fairies are really only a class of devils who exercise +their powers in a manner less terrible and revolting than that depicted +by theologians; and for this reason chiefly--that the proposition is +already more than half established when it has been shown that the +attributes and functions possessed by both fairy and devil are similar +in kind, although differing in degree. This has already been done to a +great extent in the preceding pages, where the various actions of Puck +and Ariel have been shown to differ in no essential respect from those +of the devils of the time; but before commencing to study this phase of +supernaturalism in Shakspere's works as a whole, and as indicative, to a +certain extent, of the development of his thought upon the relation of +man to the invisible world about and above him, it is necessary that +this identity should be admitted without a shadow of a doubt. + +112. It has been shown that fairies were probably the descendants of the +lesser local deities, as devils were of the more important of the +heathen gods that were overturned by the advancing wave of +Christianity, although in the course of time this distinction was +entirely obliterated and forgotten. It has also been shown, as before +mentioned, that many of the powers exercised by fairies were in their +essence similar to those exercised by devils, especially that of +appearing in divers shapes. These parallels could be carried out to an +almost unlimited extent; but a few proofs only need be cited to show +this identity. In the mediaeval romance of "King Orfeo" fairyland has +been substituted for the classical Hades.[1] King James, in his +"Daemonologie," adopts a fourfold classification of devils, one of which +he names "Phairie," and co-ordinates with the incubus.[2] The name of +the devil supposed to preside at the witches' sabbaths is sometimes +given as Hecat, Diana, Sybilla; sometimes Queen of Elfame,[3] or +Fairie.[4] Indeed, Shakspere's line in "The Comedy of Errors," had it +not been unnecessarily tampered with by the critics-- + + "A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough,"[5] + +would have conclusively proved this identity of character. + +[Footnote 1: Fairy Mythology of Shakspere, Hazlitt, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 2: Daemonologie, p. 69. An instance of a fairy incubus is +given in the "Life of Robin Goodfellow," Hazlitt's Fairy Mythology, p. +176.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, iii. p. 162.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. i. p. 162, and many other places.] + +[Footnote 5: Fairy has been altered to "fury," but compare Peele, Battle +of Alcazar: "Fiends, fairies, hags that fight in beds of steel."] + +113. The real distinction between these two classes of spirits depends +on the condition of national thought upon the subject of +supernaturalism in its largest sense. A belief which has little or no +foundation upon indisputable phenomena must be continually passing +through varying phases, and these phases will be regulated by the nature +of the subjects upon which the attention of the mass of the people is +most firmly concentrated. Hence, when a nation has but one religious +creed, and one that has for centuries been accepted by them, almost +without question or doubt, faith becomes stereotyped, and the mind +assumes an attitude of passive receptivity, undisturbed by doubts or +questionings. Under such conditions, a belief in evil spirits ever ready +and watching to tempt a man into heresy of belief or sinful act, and +thus to destroy both body and soul, although it may exist as a theoretic +portion of the accepted creed, cannot possibly become a vital doctrine +to be believed by the general public. It may exist as a subject for +learned dispute to while away the leisure hours of divines, but cannot +by any possibility obtain an influence over the thoughts and lives of +their charges. Mental disturbance on questions of doctrinal importance +being, for these reasons, out of the question, the attention of the +people is almost entirely riveted upon questions of material ease and +advantage. The little lets and hindrances of every-day life in +agricultural and domestic matters are the tribulations that appeal most +incessantly to the ineradicable sense of an invisible power adverse to +the interests of mankind, and consequently the class of evil spirits +believed in at such a time will be fairies rather than devils--malicious +little spirits, who blight the growing corn; stop the butter from +forming in the churn; pinch the sluttish housemaid black and blue; and +whose worst act is the exchange of the baby from its cot for a fairy +changeling;--beings of a nature most exasperating to thrifty housewife +and hard-handed farmer, but nevertheless not irrevocably prejudiced +against humanity, and easily to be pacified and reduced into a state of +fawning friendship by such little attentions as could be rendered +without difficulty by the poorest cotter. The whole fairy mythology is +perfumed with an honest, healthy, careless joy in life, and a freedom +from mental doubt. "I love true lovers, honest men, good fellowes, good +huswives, good meate, good drinke, and all things that good is, but +nothing that is ill," declares Robin Goodfellow;[1] and this jovial +materialism only reflects the state of mind of the folk who were not +unwilling to believe that this lively little spirit might be seen of +nights busying himself in their houses by the dying embers of the +deserted fire. + +[Footnote 1: Hazlitt, Fairy Mythology, p. 182.] + +114. Such seems to have been the condition of England immediately before +the period of the great Reformation. But with the progress of that +revolution of thought the condition changes. The one true and eternal +creed, as it had been deemed, is shattered for ever. Men who have +hitherto accepted their religious convictions in much the same way as +they had succeeded to their patrimonies are compelled by this tide of +opposition to think and study for themselves. Each man finds himself +left face to face with the great hereafter, and his relation to it. +Terrible doctrines are formulated, and press themselves with remorseless +vigour upon his understanding--original sin, justification by faith, +eternal damnation for even honest error of belief,--doctrines that throw +an atmosphere of solemnity, if not gloom, about national thought, in +which no fairy mythology can flourish. It is no longer questions of +material ease and gain that are of the chief concern; and consequently +the fairies and their doings, from their own triviality, fall far into +the background, and their place is occupied by a countless horde of +remorseless schemers, who are never ceasing in their efforts to drag +both body and soul to perdition. + +115. But it is in the towns, the centres of interchange of thought, of +learning, and of controversy, that this revolution first gathers power; +the sparsely populated country-sides are far more impervious to the new +ideas, and the country people cling far longer and more tenaciously to +the dying religion and its attendant beliefs. The rural districts were +but little affected by the Reformation for years after it had triumphed +in the towns, and consequently the beliefs of the inhabitants were +hardly touched by the struggle that was going on within so short a +distance. We find a Reginald Scot, indeed, complaining, half in joke, +half in sarcasm, that Robin Goodfellow has long disappeared from the +land;[1] but it is only from the towns that he has fled--towns in which +the spirit of the Cartwrights and the Latimers, the Barnhams and the +Delabers, is abroad. In the same Cambridge where Scot had been educated, +a young student had hanged himself because the shadow of the doctrine of +predestination was too terrible for him to live under;[2] and such a +place was surely no home for Puck and his merry band. But in the country +places, remote from the growl and trembling of this mental earthquake, +he still loved to lurk; and even at the very moment when Scot was +penning the denial of his existence, he was nestling amongst the woods +and flowers of Avonside, and, invisible, whispering in the ear of a +certain fair-haired youth there thoughts of no inconsiderable moment. +And long time after that--after the youth had become a man, and had +coined those thoughts into words that glitter still; after his monument +had been erected in the quiet Stratford churchyard--Puck revelled, +harmless and undisturbed, along many a country-side; nay, even to the +present day, in some old-world nooks, a faint whispering rumour of him +may still be heard. + +[Footnote 1: Scot, Introduction.] + +[Footnote 2: Foxe, iv. p. 694.] + +116. Now, perhaps one of the most distinctive marks of literary genius +is a certain receptivity of mind; a capability of receiving impressions +from all surrounding circumstance--of extracting from all sources, +whether from nature or man, consciously or unconsciously, the material +upon which it shall work. For this process to be perfectly accomplished, +an entire and enthusiastic sympathy with man and the current ideas of +the time is absolutely essential, and in proportion as this sympathy is +contracted and partial, so will the work produced be stunted and untrue; +and, on the other hand, the more universal and entire it is, the more +perfect and vital will be the art. Bearing this in mind, and also the +facts that Shakspere's early training was effected in a little country +village; that upon the verge of manhood, he came to London, where he +spent his prime in contact with the bustle and friction of busy town +life; and that the later years of his life were passed in the quiet +retirement of the home of his boyhood--there would be good ground for an +argument, _a priori_, even were there none of a more conclusive nature, +that his earlier works would be found impregnated with the country +fairy-myths with which his youth would come in contact; that the result +of the labours of his middle life would show that these earlier +reminiscenses had been gradually obliterated by the gloomier influence +of ideas that were the result of the struggle of opposed theories that +had not then ceased to rage in the towns, and that the diabolic element +and questions relating thereto would predominate; and that, finally, his +later works, written under the calmer influence of Stratford life, would +show a certain return to the fairy-lore of his earlier years. + +117. But fortunately we are not left to rely upon any such hypothetical +evidence in this matter, however probable it may appear. Although the +general reading public cannot be asked to accept as infallible any +chronological order of Shakspere's plays that dogmatically asserts a +particular sequence, or to investigate the somewhat dry and specialist +arguments upon which the conclusions are founded, yet there are certain +groupings into periods which are agreed upon as accurate by nearly all +critics, and which, without the slightest danger of error, may be +asserted to be correct. For instance, it is indisputable that "Love's +Labour's Lost," "The Comedy of Errors," "Romeo and Juliet," and "A +Midsummer Night's Dream" are amongst Shakspere's earliest works; that +the tragedies of "Julius Caesar," "Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and +"Lear" are the productions of his middle life, between 1600 and 1606; +and that "A Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest" are amongst the latest +plays which he wrote.[1] Here we have everything that is required to +prove the question in hand. At the commencement and at the end of his +writings--when a youth fresh from the influence of his country nurture +and education, and when a mature man, settling down into the old life +again after a long and victorious struggle with the world, with his +accumulated store of experience--we find plays which are perfectly +saturated with fairy-lore: "The Dream" and "The Tempest." These are the +poles of Shakspere's thought in this respect; and in the centre, +imbedded as it were between two layers of material that do not bear any +distinctive stamp of their own, but appear rather as a medium for +uniting the diverse strata, lie the great tragedies, produced while he +was in the very rush and swirl of town life, and reflecting accurately, +as we have seen, many of the doubts and speculations that were agitating +the minds of men who were ardently searching out truth. It is worth +noting too, in passing, that directly Shakspere steps out of his beaten +path to depict, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," the happy country life +and manners of his day, he at the same time returns to fairyland again, +and brings out the Windsor children trooping to pinch and plague the +town-bred, tainted Falstaff. + +[Footnote 1: For an elaborate and masterly investigation of the question +of the chronological order of the plays, which must be assumed here, see +Mr. Furnivall's Introduction to the Leopold Shakspere.] + +118. But this is not by any means all that this subject reveals to us +about Shakspere; if it were, the less said about it the better. To look +upon "The Tempest" as in its essence merely a return to "The Dream"--the +end as the beginning; to believe that his thoughts worked in a weary, +unending circle--that the Valley of the Shadow of Death only leads back +to the foot of the Hill Difficulty--is intolerable, and not more +intolerable than false. Although based upon similar material, the ideas +and tendencies of "The Tempest" upon supernaturalism are no more +identical with those of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" than the thoughts of +Berowne upon things in general are those of Hamlet, or Hamlet's those of +Prospero. But before it is possible to point out the nature of this +difference, and to show that the change is a natural growth of thought, +not a mere retrogression, a few explanatory remarks are necessary. + +There is no more insufficient and misleading view of Shakspere and his +work than that which until recently obtained almost universal credence, +and is even at the present time somewhat loudly asserted in some +quarters; namely, that he was a man of considerable genius, who wrote +and got acted some thirty plays more or less, simply for commercial +purposes and nothing more; made money thereby, and died leaving a will; +and that, beyond this, he and his works are, and must remain, an +inexplicable mystery. The critic who holds this view, and finds it +equally advantageous to commence a study of Shakspere's work by taking +"The Tempest" or "Love's Labour's Lost" as his text, is about as +judicious as the botanist who would enlarge upon the structure of the +seed-pod without first explaining the preliminary stages of plant +growth, or the architect who would dilate upon the most convenient +arrangement of chimney-pots before he had discussed the laws of +foundation. The plays may be studied separately, and studied so are +found beautiful; but taken in an approximate chronological order, like a +string of brilliant jewels, each one gains lustre from those that +precede and follow it. + +119. For no man ever wrote sincerely and earnestly, or indeed ever did +any one thing in such a spirit, without leaving some impress upon his +work of his mental condition whilst he was doing it; and no such man +ever continued his literary labours from the period of youth right +through his manhood, without leaving behind him, in more or less legible +character, a record of the ripening of his thought upon matters of +eternal importance, although they may not be of necessity directly +connected with the ostensible subject in hand. Insincere men may ape +sentiments they do not really believe in; but in the end they will +either be exposed and held up to ridicule, or their work will sink into +obscurity. Sincerity in the expression of genuine thought and feeling +alone can stand the test of time. And this is in reality no +contradiction to what has just been said as to the necessity of a +receptive condition of mind in the production of works of true genius. +This capacity of receiving the most delicate objective impressions is, +indeed, one essential; but without the cognate power to assimilate this +food, and evolve the result that these influences have produced +subjectively, it is, worse than useless. The two must co-exist and act +and react upon one another. Nor must we be induced to surrender these +principles, in the present particular case, on account of the usual fine +but vague talk about Shakspere's absolute self-annihilation in favour of +the characters that he depicts. It is said that Shakspere so identifies +himself with each person in his dramas, that it is impossible to detect +the great master and his thoughts behind this cunningly devised screen. +If this means that Shakespere has always a perfect comprehension of his +characters, is competent to measure out to each absolute and unerring +justice, and is capable of sympathy with even the most repulsive, it +will not be disputed for an instant. It is so true, that it is dangerous +to take a sentence out of the mouth of any one of his characters and say +for certain, "This Shakspere thought," although there are many +characters with whom every one must feel that Shakspere identified +himself for the time being rather than others. But if it is intended to +assert that Shakspere has so eliminated himself from his writings as to +make it impossible to trace anywhere the tendencies of his own thought +at the time when he was writing, it must be most emphatically denied for +the reasons just stated. Freedom from prejudice must be carefully +dissociated from lack of interest in the motive that underlies the +construction of each play. There is a tone or key-note in each drama +that indicates the author's mental condition at the time when it was +produced; and if several plays, following each other in brisk +succession, all have the same predominant tone, it seems to be past +question that Shakspere is incidentally and indirectly uttering his own +personal thought and experience. + +120. If it be granted, then, that it is possible to follow thus the +growth of Shakspere's thought through the medium of his successive +works, there is only one small point to be glanced at before attempting +to trace this growth in the matter of supernaturalism. + +The natural history of the evolution of opinion upon matters which, for +want of a more embracing and satisfactory word, we must be content to +call "religious," follows a uniform course in the minds of all men, +except those "duller than the fat weed that roots itself at ease on +Lethe's wharf," who never get beyond the primary stage. This course is +separable into three periods. The first is that in which a man accepts +unhesitatingly the doctrines which he has received from his spiritual +teachers--customary not intellectual, belief. This sits lightly on him; +entails no troublesome doubts and questionings; possesses, or appears to +possess, formulae to meet all possible emergencies, and consequently +brings with it a happiness that is genuine, though superficial. But this +customary belief rarely satisfies for long. Contact with the world +brings to light other and opposed theories: introspection and +independent investigation of the bases of the hereditary faith are +commenced; many doctrines that have been hitherto accepted as eternally +and indisputably true are found to rest upon but slight foundation, +apart from their title to respect on account of age; doubts follow as to +the claim to acceptance of the whole system that has been so easily and +unhesitatingly swallowed; and the period of scepticism, or no-belief, +with its attendant misery, commences--for although Dagon has been but +little honoured in the time of his strength, in his downfall he is much +regretted. Then comes that long, weary groping after some firm, reliable +basis of belief: but heaven and earth appear for the time to conspire +against the seeker; an intellectual flood has drowned out the old order +of things; not even a mountain peak appears in the wide waste of +desolation as assurance of ultimate rest; and in the dark, overhanging +firmament no arc of promise is to be seen. But this is a state of mind +which, from its very nature, cannot continue for ever: no man could +endure it. While it lasts the struggle must be continuous, but +somewhere through the cloud lies the sunshine and the land of peace--the +final period of intellectual belief. Out of the chaos comes order; ideas +that but recently appeared confused, incoherent, and meaningless assume +their true perspective. It is found that all the strands of the old +conventional faith have not been snapped in the turmoil; and these, +re-knit and strengthened with the new and full knowledge of experience +and investigation, form the cable that secures that strange holy +confidence of belief that can only be gained by a preliminary warfare +with doubt--a peace that truly passes all understanding to those who +have never battled for it,--as to its foundation, diverse to a miracle +in diverse minds, but still, a peace. + +121. If this be a true history of the course of development of every +mind that is capable of independent thought upon and investigation of +such high matters, it follows that Shakspere's soul must have +experienced a similar struggle--for he was a man of like passions with +ourselves; indeed, to so acute and sensitive a mind the struggle would +be, probably, more prolonged and more agonizing than to many; and it is +these three mental conditions--first, of unthinking acceptance of +generally received teaching; second, of profound and agitating +scepticism; and, thirdly, of belief founded upon reason and +experience--that may be naturally expected to be found impressed upon +his early, middle, and later works. + +122. It is impossible here to do more than indicate some of the +evidence that this supposition is correct, for to attempt to investigate +the question exhaustively would involve the minute consideration of a +majority of the plays. The period of Shakspere's customary or +conventional belief is illustrated in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and +to a certain extent also in the "Comedy of Errors." In the former play +we find him loyally accepting certain phases of the hereditary Stratford +belief in supernaturalism, throwing them into poetical form, and making +them beautiful. It has often before been observed, and it is well worthy +of observation, that of the three groups of characters in the play, the +country folk--a class whose manner and appearance had most vividly +reflected themselves upon the camera of Shakspere's mind--are by far the +most lifelike and distinct; the fairies, who had been the companions of +his childhood and youth in countless talks in the ingle and ballads in +the lanes, come second in prominence and finish; whilst the ostensible +heroes and heroines of the piece, the aristocrats of Athens, are +colourless and uninteresting as a dumb-show--the real shadows of the +play. This is exactly the ratio of impressionability that the three +classes would have for the mind of the youthful dramatist. The first is +a creation from life, the second from traditionary belief, the third +from hearsay. And when it has been said that the fairies are a creation +from traditionary belief, a full and accurate description of them has +been afforded. They are an embodiment of a popular superstition, and +nothing more. They do not conceal any thought of the poet who has +created them, nor are they used for any deeper purpose with regard to +the other persons of the drama than temporary and objectless annoyance. +Throughout the whole play runs a healthy, thoughtless, honest, almost +riotous happiness; no note of difficulty, no shadow of coming doubt +being perceptible. The pert and nimble spirit of mirth is fully +awakened; the worst tricks of the intermeddling spirits are mischievous +merely, and of only transitory influence, and "the summer still doth +tend upon their state," brightening this fairyland with its sunshine and +flowers. Man has absolutely no power to govern these supernatural +powers, and they have but unimportant influence over him. They can +affect his comfort, but they cannot control his fate. But all this is +merely an adapting and elaborating of ideas which had been handed down +from father to son for many generations. Shakspere's Puck is only the +Puck of a hundred ballads reproduced by the hand of a true poet; no +original thought upon the connection of the visible with the invisible +world is imported into the creation. All these facts tend to show that +when Shakspere wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream," that is, at the +beginning of his career as a dramatic author, he had not broken away +from the trammels of the beliefs in which he had been brought up, but +accepted them unhesitatingly and joyously. + +123. But there is a gradual toning down of this spirit of unbroken +content as time wears on. Putting aside the historical plays, in which +Shakspere was much more bound down by his subject-matter than in any +other species of drama, we find the comedies, in which his room for +expression of individual feeling was practically unlimited, gradually +losing their unalloyed hilarity, and deepening down into a sadness of +thought and expression that sometimes leaves a doubt whether the plays +should be classed as comedies at all. Shakspere has been more and more +in contact with the disputes and doubts of the educated men of his time, +and seeds have been silently sowing themselves in his heart, which are +soon to bring forth a plenteous harvest in the great tragedies of which +these semi-comedies, such as "All's Well that Ends Well" and "Measure +for Measure," are but the first-fruits. + +124. Thus, when next we find Shakspere dealing with questions relating +to supernaturalism, the tone is quite different from that taken in his +earlier work. He has reached the second period of his thought upon the +subject, and this has cast its attendant gloom upon his writings. That +he was actually battling with questions current in his time is +demonstrated by the way in which, in three consecutive plays, derived +from utterly diverse sources, the same question of ghost or devil is +agitated, as has before been pointed out. But it is not merely a point +of theological dogma which stamps these plays as the product of +Shakspere's period of scepticism, but a theory of the influence of +supernatural beings upon the whole course of human life. Man is still +incapable of influencing these unseen forces, or bending them to his +will; but they are now no longer harmless, or incapable of anything but +temporary or trivial evil. Puck might lead night wanderers into +mischance, and laugh mischievously at the bodily harm that he had caused +them; but Puck has now disappeared, and in his stead is found a +malignant spirit, who seeks to laugh his fiendish laughter over the soul +he has deceived into destruction. Questions arise thick and fast that +are easier put than answered. Can it be that evil influences have the +upper hand in this world? that, be a man never so honest, never so pure, +he may nevertheless become the sport of blind chance or ruthless +wickedness? May a Hamlet, patiently struggling after truth and duty, be +put upon and abused by the darker powers? May Macbeth, who would fain do +right, were not evil so ever present with him, be juggled with and led +to destruction by fiends? May an undistinguishing fate sweep away at +once the good with the evil--Hamlet with Laertes; Desdemona with Iago; +Cordelia with Edmund? And above the turmoil of this reign of terror, is +there no word uttered of a Supreme Good guiding and controlling the +unloosed ill--no word of encouragement, none of hope? If this be so +indeed, that man is but the puppet of malignant spirits, away with this +life. It is not worth the living; for what power has man against the +fiends? But at this point arises a further question to demand solution: +what shall be hereafter? If evil is supreme here, shall it not be so in +that undiscovered country,--that life to come? The dreams that may come +give him pause, and he either shuffles on, doubting, hesitating, and +incapable of decision, or he hurls himself wildly against his fate. In +either case his life becomes like to a tale + + "Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying--nothing!" + +125. It is strange to note, too, how the ebb of this wave of scepticism +upon questions relating to the immaterial world is only recoil that adds +force to a succeeding wave of cynicism with regard to the physical world +around. "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and "Othello" give place to "Lear," +"Troilus and Cressida," "Antony and Cleopatra," and "Timon." So true is +it that "unfaith in aught is want of faith in all," that in these later +plays it would seem that honour, honesty, and justice were virtues not +possessed by man or woman; or, if possessed, were only a curse to bring +down disgrace and destruction upon the possessor. Contrast the women of +these plays with those of the comedies immediately preceding the Hamlet +period. In the latter plays we find the heroines, by their sweet womanly +guidance and gentle but firm control, triumphantly bringing good out of +evil in spite of adverse circumstance. Beatrice, Rosalind, Viola, +Helena, and Isabella are all, not without a tinge of knight-errantry +that does not do the least violence to the conception of tender, +delicate womanhood, the good geniuses of the little worlds in which +their influence is made to be felt. Events must inevitably have gone +tragically but for their intervention. But with the advent of the second +period all this changes. At first the women, like Brutus' Portia, +Ophelia, Desdemona, however noble or sweet in character and well +meaning in motive, are incapable of grasping the guiding threads of the +events around them and controlling them for good. They have to give way +to characters of another kind, who bear the form without the nature of +women. Commencing with Lady Macbeth, the conception falls lower and +lower, through Goneril and Regan, Cressida, Cleopatra, until in the +climax of this utter despair, "Timon," there is no character that it +would not be a profanity to call by the name of woman. + +126. And just as womanly purity and innocence quail before unwomanly +self-assertion and voluptuousness, so manly loyalty and unselfishness +give way before unmanly treachery and self-seeking. It is true that the +bad men do not finally triumph, but they triumph over the good with whom +they happen to come in contact. In "King Lear," what man shows any +virtue who does not receive punishment for the same? Not Gloucester, +whose loyal devotion to his king obtains for him a punishment that is +only merciful in that it prevents him from further suffering the sight +of his beloved master's misery; not Kent, who, faithful in his +self-denying service through all manner of obloquy, is left at last with +a prayer that he may be allowed to follow Lear to the grave; and beyond +these two there is little good to be found. But "Lear" is not by any +means the climax. The utter despair of good in man or woman rises higher +in "Troilus and Cressida," and reaches its culminating point in "Timon," +a fragment only of which is Shakspere's. The pen fell from the tired +hand; the worn and distracted brain refused to fulfil the task of +depicting the depth to which the poet's estimate of mankind had fallen; +and we hardly know whether to rejoice or to regret that the clumsy hand +of an inferior writer has screened from our knowledge the full +disclosure of the utter and contemptuous cynicism and want of faith with +which, for the time being, Shakspere was infected. + +127. Before passing on to consider the plays of the third period as +evidence of Shakspere's final thought, it will be well to pause and +re-read with attention a summing-up of Shakspere's teaching as it has +been presented to us by one of the greatest and most earnest teachers of +morality of the present day. Every word that Mr. Ruskin writes is so +evidently from the depth of his own good heart, and every doctrine that +he enunciates so pure in theory and so true in practice, that a +difference with him upon the final teaching of Shakspere's work cannot +be too cautiously expressed. But the estimate of this which he has given +in the third Lecture of "Sesame and Lilies"[1] is so painful, if +regarded as Shakspere's latest and most mature opinion, that everybody, +even Mr. Ruskin himself, would be glad to modify its gloom with a few +rays of hope, if it were possible to do so. "What then," says Mr. +Ruskin, "is the message to us of our own poet and searcher of hearts, +after fifteen hundred years of Christian faith have been numbered over +the graves of men? Are his words more cheerful than the heathen's +(Homer)? is his hope more near, his trust more sure, his reading of +fate more happy? Ah no! He differs from the heathen poet chiefly in +this, that he recognizes for deliverance no gods nigh at hand, and that, +by petty chance, by momentary folly, by broken message, by fool's +tyranny, or traitor's snare, the strongest and most righteous are +brought to their ruin, and perish without word of hope. He, indeed, as +part of his rendering of character, ascribes the power and modesty of +habitual devotion to the gentle and the just. The death-bed of Katharine +is bright with visions of angels; and the great soldier-king, standing +by his few dead, acknowledges the presence of the hand that can save +alike by many or by few. But observe that from those who with deepest +spirit meditate, and with deepest passion mourn, there are no such words +as these; nor in their hearts are any such consolations. Instead of the +perpetual sense of the helpful presence of the Deity, which, through all +heathen tradition, is the source of heroic strength, in battle, in +exile, and in the valley of the shadow of death, we find only in the +great Christian poet the consciousness of a moral law, through which +'the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to +scourge us;' and of the resolved arbitration of the destinies, that +conclude into precision of doom what we feebly and blindly began; and +force us, when our indiscretion serves us, and our deepest plots do +pall, to the confession that 'there's a divinity that shapes our ends, +rough-hew them how we will.'"[2] + +[Footnote 1: 3rd edition, § 115.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Ruskin has analyzed "The Tempest," in "Munera +Pulveris," § 124, et seqq., but from another point of view.] + +128. Now, it is perfectly clear that this criticism was written with two +or three plays, all belonging to one period, very conspicuously before +the mind. Of the illustrative exceptions that are made to the general +rule, one is derived from a play which Shakspere wrote at a very early +date, and the other from a scene which he almost certainly never wrote +at all; the whole of the rest of the passage quoted is founded upon +"Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Othello," and "Lear"--that is, upon the earlier +productions of what we must call Shakspere's sceptical period. But these +plays represent an essentially transient state of thought. Shakspere was +to learn and to teach that those who most deeply meditate and most +passionately mourn are not the men of noblest or most influential +character--that such may command our sympathy, but hardly our respect or +admiration. Still less did Shakspere finally assert, although for a time +he believed, that a blind destiny concludes into precision what we +feebly and blindly begin. Far otherwise and nobler was his conception of +man and his mission, and the unseen powers and their influences, in the +third and final stage of his thought. + +129. Had Shakspere lived longer, he would doubtless have left us a +series of plays filled with the bright and reassuring tenderness and +confidence of this third period, as long and as brilliant in execution +as those of the second period. But as it is we are in possession of +quite enough material to enable us to form accurate conclusions upon the +state of his final thought. It is upon "The Tempest" that we must in +the main rely for an exposition of this; for though the other plays and +fragments fully exhibit the restoration of his faith in man and woman, +which was a necessary concurrence with his return from scepticism, yet +it is in "The Tempest" that he brings himself as nearly face to face as +dramatic possibilities would allow him with circumstances that admit of +the indirect expression of such thought. It is fortunate, too, for the +purpose of comparing Shakspere's earliest and latest opinions, that the +characters of "The Tempest" are divisible into the same groups as those +of "The Dream." The gross _canaille_ are represented, but now no longer +the most accurate in colour and most absorbing in interest of the +characters of the play, or unessential to the evolution of the plot. +They have a distinct importance in the movement of the piece, and +represent the unintelligent, material resistance to the work of +regeneration that Prospero seeks to carry out, and which must be +controlled by him, just as Sebastian and Antonio form the intelligent, +designing resistance. The spirit world is there too, but they, like the +former class, have no independent plot of their own, and no independent +operation against mankind; they only represent the invisible forces over +which Prospero must assert control if he would insure success for his +schemes. Ariel is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary of all +Shakspere's creations. He is, indeed, formed upon a basis half fairy, +half devil, because it was only through the current notions upon +demonology that Shakspere could speak his ideas. But he certainly is not +a fairy in the sense that Puck is a fairy; and he is very far indeed +from bearing even a slight resemblance to the familiars whom the +magicians of the time professed to call from the vasty deep. He is +indeed but air, as Prospero says--the embodiment of an idea, the +representative of those invisible forces which operate as factors in the +shaping of events which, ignored, may prove resistant or fatal, but, +properly controlled and guided, work for good.[1] Lastly, there are the +heroes and heroine of the play, now no longer shadows, but the centres +of interest and admiration, and assuming their due position and +prominence. + +[Footnote 1: It is difficult to accept Mr. Ruskin's view of Ariel as +"the spirit of generous and free-hearted service" (Mun. Pul. § 124); he +is throughout the play the more-than-half-unwilling agent of Prospero.] + +130. It is probable, therefore, that it is not merely a student's fancy +that in Prospero's storm-girt, spirit-haunted island can be seen +Shakspere's final and matured image of the mighty world. If this be so, +how far more bright and hopeful it is than the verdict which Mr. Ruskin +finds Shakspere to have returned. Man is no longer "a pipe for fortune's +fingers to sound what stop she please." The evil elements still exist in +the world, and are numerous and formidable; but man, by nobleness of +life and word, by patience and self-mastery, can master them, bring them +into subjection, and make them tend to eventual good. Caliban, the +gross, sensual, earthly element--though somewhat raised--would run riot, +and is therefore compelled to menial service. The brute force of +Stephano and Trinculo is vanquished by mental superiority. Even the +supermundane spirits, now no longer thirsting for the destruction of +body and soul, are bound down to the work of carrying out the decrees of +truth and justice. Man is no longer the plaything, but the master of his +fate; and he, seeing now the possible triumph of good over evil, and his +duty to do his best in aid of this triumph, has no more fear of the +dreams--the something after death. Our little life is still rounded by a +sleep, but the thought which terrifies Hamlet has no power to affright +Prospero. The hereafter is still a mystery, it is true; he has tried to +see into it, and has found it impenetrable. But revelation has come like +an angel, with peace upon its wings, in another and an unexpected way. +Duty lies here, in and around him in this world. Here he can right +wrong, succour the weak, abase the proud, do something to make the world +better than he found it; and in the performance of this he finds a +holier calm than the vain strivings after the unknowable could ever +afford. Let him work while it is day, for "the night cometh, when no man +can work." + +131. It is not a piece of pure sentimentality that sees in Prospero a +type of Shakspere in his final stage of thought. It is a type altogether +as it should be; and it is pleasing to think of him, in the full +maturity of his manhood, wrapping his seer's cloak about him, and, while +waiting calmly the unfolding of the mystery which he has sought in vain +to solve, watching with noble benevolence the gradual working out of +truth, order, and justice. It is pleasing to think of him as speaking +to the world the great Christian doctrine so universally overlooked by +Christians, that the only remedy for sin demanded by eternal justice "is +nothing but heart's sorrow, and a clear life ensuing"--a speech which, +though uttered by Ariel, is spoken by Prospero, who himself beautifully +iterates part of the doctrine when he says-- + + "The rarer action is + In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, + The sole drift of my purpose doth extend + Not a frown further."[1] + +It is pleasant to dwell upon his sympathy with Ferdinand and +Miranda--for the love of man and woman is pure and holy in this +regenerate world: no more of Troilus and Cressida--upon his patient +waiting for the evolution of his schemes; upon his faith in their +ultimate success; and, above all, upon the majestic and unaffected +reverence that appears indirectly in every line--"reverence," to adapt +the words of the great teacher whose opinion about Shakspere has been +perhaps too rashly questioned, "for what is pure and bright in youth; +for what is true and tried in age; for all that is gracious among the +living, great among the dead, and marvellous in the Powers that cannot +die." + +[Footnote 1: V. l. 27.] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12890 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff88a1d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12890 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12890) diff --git a/old/12890-8.txt b/old/12890-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb724f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12890-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4846 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Elizabethan Demonology, by Thomas Alfred +Spalding + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Elizabethan Demonology + +Author: Thomas Alfred Spalding + +Release Date: July 12, 2004 [eBook #12890] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY*** + + +E-text prepared by Imran Ghory, Stan Goodman, Linda Cantoni, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY + +An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, +and the Powers Possessed By Them, as It Was Generally Held during the +Period of the Reformation, and the Times Immediately Succeeding; +with Special Reference to Shakspere and His Works + +by + +THOMAS ALFRED SPALDING, LL.B. (LOND.) + +Barrister-at-Law, Honorary Treasurer of The New Shakspere Society + +London + +1880 + + + + + + +TO + +ROBERT BROWNING, + +PRESIDENT OF THE + +NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY, + +THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. + + + + +FOREWORDS. + + +This Essay is an expansion, in accordance with a preconceived scheme, of +two papers, one on "The Witches in Macbeth," and the other on "The +Demonology of Shakspere," which were read before the New Shakspere +Society in the years 1877 and 1878. The Shakspere references in the text +are made to the Globe Edition. + +The writer's best thanks are due to his friends Mr. F.J. Furnivall and +Mr. Lauriston E. Shaw, for their kindness in reading the proof sheets, +and suggesting emendations. + +TEMPLE, + October 7, 1879. + + + + + "We are too hasty when we set down our ancestors in the gross for + fools for the monstrous inconsistencies (as they seem to us) + involved in their creed of witchcraft."--C. LAMB. + + "But I will say, of Shakspere's works generally, that we have no + full impress of him there, even as full as we have of many men. His + works are so many windows, through which we see a glimpse of the + world that was in him."--T. CARLYLE. + + + + +ANALYSIS. + +I. + +1. Difficulty in understanding our elder writers without a knowledge of +their language and ideas. 2. Especially in the case of dramatic poets. +3. Examples. Hamlet's "assume a virtue." 4. Changes in ideas and law +relating to marriage. Massinger's "Maid of Honour" as an example. 5. +_Sponsalia de futuro_ and _Sponsalia de praesenti_. Shakspere's +marriage. 6. Student's duty is to get to know the opinions and feelings +of the folk amongst whom his author lived. 7. It will be hard work, but +a gain in the end. First, in preventing conceit. 8. Secondly, in +preventing rambling reading. 9. Author's present object to illustrate +the dead belief in Demonology, especially as far as it concerns +Shakspere. He thinks that this may perhaps bring us into closer contact +with Shakspere's soul. 10. Some one objects that Shakspere can speak +better for himself. Yes, but we must be sure that we understand the +media through which he speaks. 11. Division of subject. + +II. + +12. Reasons why the empire of the supernatural is so extended amongst +savages. 13. All important affairs of life transacted under +superintendence of Supreme Powers. 14. What are these Powers? Three +principles regarding them. 15. (I.) Incapacity of mankind to accept +monotheism. The Jews. 16. Roman Catholicism really polytheistic, +although believers won't admit it. Virgin Mary. Saints. Angels. +Protestantism in the same condition in a less degree. 17. Francis of +Assisi. Gradually made into a god. 18. (II.) Manichaeism. Evil spirits +as inevitable as good. 19. (III.) Tendency to treat the gods of hostile +religions as devils. 20. In the Greek theology. [Greek: daimones]. +Platonism. 21. Neo-Platonism. Makes the elder gods into daemons. 22. +Judaism. Recognizes foreign gods at first. _Elohim_, but they get +degraded in time. Beelzebub, Belial, etc. 23. Early Christians treat +gods of Greece in the same way. St. Paul's view. 24. The Church, +however, did not stick to its colours in this respect. Honesty not the +best policy. A policy of compromise. 25. The oracles. Sosthenion and St. +Michael. Delphi. St. Gregory's saintliness and magnanimity. Confusion of +pagan gods and Christian saints. 26. Church in North Europe. Thonar, +etc., are devils, but Balda gets identified with Christ. 27. Conversion +of Britons. Their gods get turned into fairies rather than devils. +Deuce. Old Nick. 28. Subsequent evolution of belief. Carlyle's Abbot +Sampson. Religious formulae of witchcraft. 29. The Reformers and +Catholics revive the old accusations. The Reformers only go half-way in +scepticism. Calfhill and Martiall. 30. Catholics. Siege of Alkmaar. +Unfortunate mistake of a Spanish prisoner. 31. Conditions that tended to +vivify the belief during Elizabethan era. 32. The new freedom. Want of +rules of evidence. Arthur Hacket and his madnesses. Sneezing. +Cock-crowing. Jackdaw in the House of Commons. Russell and Drake both +mistaken for devils. 33. Credulousness of people. "To make one danse +naked." A parson's proof of transubstantiation. 34. But the Elizabethans +had strong common sense nevertheless. People do wrong if they set them +down as fools. If we had not learned to be wiser than they, we should +have to be ashamed of ourselves. We shall learn nothing from them if we +don't try to understand them. + +III. + +35. The three heads. 36. (I.) Classification of devils. Greater and +lesser devils. Good and bad angels. 37. Another classification, not +popular. 38. Names of greater devils. Horribly uncouth. The number of +them. Shakspere's devils. 39. (II.) Form of devils of the greater. 40. +Of the lesser. The horns, goggle eyes, and tail. Scot's +carnal-mindedness. He gets his book burnt, and written against by James +I. 41. Spenser's idol-devil. 42. Dramatists' satire of popular opinion. +43. Favourite form for appearing in when conjured. Devils in Macbeth. +44. Powers of devils. 45. Catholic belief in devil's power to create +bodies. 46. Reformers deny this, but admit that he deceives people into +believing that he can do so, either by getting hold of a dead body, and +restoring animation. 47. Or by means of illusion. 48. The common people +stuck to the Catholic doctrine. Devils appear in likeness of an ordinary +human being. 49. Even a living one, which was sometimes awkward. "The +Troublesome Raigne of King John." They like to appear as priests or +parsons. The devil quoting Scripture. 50. Other human shapes. 51. +Animals. Ariel. 52. Puck. 53. "The Witch of Edmonton." The devil on the +stage. Flies. Urban Grandier. Sir M. Hale. 54. Devils as angels. As +Christ. 55. As dead friend. Reformers denied the possibility of ghosts, +and said the appearances so called were devils. James I. and his +opinion. 56. The common people believed in the ghosts. Bishop +Pilkington's troubles. 57. The two theories. Illustrated in "Julius +Caesar," "Macbeth." 58. And "Hamlet." 59. This explains an apparent +inconsistency in "Hamlet." 60. Possession and obsession. Again the +Catholics and Protestants differ. 61. But the common people believe in +possession. 62. Ignorance on the subject of mental disease. The +exorcists. 63. John Cotta on possession. What the "learned physicion" +knew. 64. What was manifest to the vulgar view. Will Sommers. "The Devil +is an Ass." 65. Harsnet's "Declaration," and "King Lear." 66. The +Babington conspiracy. 67. Weston, alias Edmonds. His exorcisms. Mainy. +The basis of Harsnet's statements. 69. The devils in "Lear." 70. Edgar +and Mainy. Mainy's loose morals. 71. The devils tempt with knives and +halters. 72. Mainy's seven devils: Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Envy, +Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth. The Nightingale business. 73. Treatment of the +possessed: confinement, flagellation. 74. Dr Pinch. Nicknames. 75. Other +methods. That of "Elias and Pawle". The holy chair, sack and oil, +brimstone. 76. Firing out. 77. Bodily diseases the work of the devil. +Bishop Hooper on hygiene. 78. But devils couldn't kill people unless +they renounced God. 79. Witchcraft. 80. People now-a-days can't +sympathize with the witch persecutors, because they don't believe in the +devil. Satan is a mere theory now. 81. But they believed in him once, +and therefore killed people that were suspected of having to do with +him. 82. And we don't sympathize with the persecuted witches, although +we make a great fuss about the sufferings of the Reformers. 83. The +witches in Macbeth. Some take them to be Norns. 84. Gervinus. His +opinion. 85. Mr. F.G. Fleay. His opinion. 86. Evidence. Simon Forman's +note. 87. Holinshed's account. 88. Criticism. 89. It is said that the +appearance and powers of the sisters are not those of witches. 90. It is +going to be shown that they are. 91. A third piece of criticism. 92. +Objections. 93. Contemporary descriptions of witches. Scot, Harsnet. +Witches' beards. 94. Have Norns chappy fingers, skinny lips, and beards? +95. Powers of witches "looking into the seeds of time." Bessie Roy, how +she looked into them. 96. Meaning of first scene of "Macbeth." 97. +Witches power to vanish. Ointments for the purpose. Scot's instance of +their efficacy. 98. "Weird sisters." 99. Other evidence. 100. Why +Shakspere chose witches. Command over elements. 101. Peculiar to Scotch +trials of 1590-91. 102. Earlier case of Bessie Dunlop--a poor, starved, +half daft creature. "Thom Reid," and how he tempted her. Her canny +Scotch prudence. Poor Bessie gets burnt for all that. 103. Reason for +peculiarity of trials of 1590. James II. comes from Denmark to Scotland. +The witches raise a storm at the instigation of the devil. How the +trials were conducted. 104. John Fian. Raising a mist. Toad-omen. Ship +sinking. 105. Sieve-sailing. Excitement south of the Border. The +"Daemonologie." Statute of James against witchcraft. 106. The origin of +the incubus and succubus. 107. Mooncalves. 108. Division of opinion +amongst Reformers regarding devils. Giordano Bruno. Bullinger's opinion +about Sadducees and Epicures. 109. Emancipation a gradual process. +Exorcism in Edward VI.'s Prayer-book. 110. The author hopes he has been +reverent in his treatment of the subject. Any sincere belief entitled to +respect. Our pet beliefs may some day appear as dead and ridiculous as +these. + +IV. + +111. Fairies and devils differ in degree, not in origin. 112. Evidence. +113. Cause of difference. Folk, until disturbed by religious doubt, +don't believe in devils, but fairies. 114. Reformation shook people up, +and made them think of hell and devils. 115. The change came in the +towns before the country. Fairies held on a long time in the country. +116. Shakspere was early impressed with fairy lore. In middle life, came +in contact with town thought and devils, and at the end of it returned +to Stratford and fairydom. 117. This is reflected in his works. 118. But +there is progression of thought to be observed in these stages. 119. +Shakspere indirectly tells us his thoughts, if we will take the trouble +to learn them. 120. Three stages of thought that men go through on +religious matters. Hereditary belief. Scepticism. Reasoned belief. 121. +Shakspere went through all this. 122. Illustrations. Hereditary belief. +"A Midsummer Night's Dream." Fairies chiefly an adaptation of current +tradition. 123. The dawn of doubt. 124. Scepticism. Evil spirits +dominant. No guiding good. 125. Corresponding lapse of faith in other +matters. Woman's purity. 126. Man's honour. 127. Mr. Ruskin's view of +Shakspere's message. 128. Founded chiefly on plays of sceptical period. +Message of third period entirely different. 129. Reasoned belief. "The +Tempest." 130. Man can master evil of all forms if he go about it in the +right way--is not the toy of fate. 131. Prospero a type of Shakspere in +this final stage of thought. How pleasant to think this! + + + + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY. + + +1. It is impossible to understand and appreciate thoroughly the +production of any great literary genius who lived and wrote in times far +removed from our own, without a certain amount of familiarity, not only +with the precise shades of meaning possessed by the vocabulary he made +use of, as distinguished from the sense conveyed by the same words in +the present day, but also with the customs and ideas, political, +religious and moral, that predominated during the period in which his +works were produced. Without such information, it will be found +impossible, in many matters of the first importance, to grasp the +writer's true intent, and much will appear vague and lifeless that was +full of point and vigour when it was first conceived; or, worse still, +modern opinion upon the subject will be set up as the standard of +interpretation, ideas will be forced into the writer's sentences that +could not by any manner of possibility have had place in his mind, and +utterly false conclusions as to his meaning will be the result. Even the +man who has had some experience in the study of an early literature, +occasionally finds some difficulty in preventing the current opinions of +his day from obtruding themselves upon his work and warping his +judgment; to the general reader this must indeed be a frequent and +serious stumbling-block. + +2. This is a special source of danger in the study of the works of +dramatic poets, whose very art lies in the representation of the current +opinions, habits, and foibles of their times--in holding up the mirror +to their age. It is true that, if their works are to live, they must +deal with subjects of more than mere passing interest; but it is also +true that many, and the greatest of them, speak upon questions of +eternal interest in the particular light cast upon them in their times, +and it is quite possible that the truth may be entirely lost from want +of power to recognize it under the disguise in which it comes. A certain +motive, for instance, that is an overpowering one in a given period, +subsequently appears grotesque, weak, or even powerless; the consequent +action becomes incomprehensible, and the actor is contemned; and a +simile that appeared most appropriate in the ears of the author's +contemporaries, seems meaningless, or ridiculous, to later generations. + +3. An example or two of this possibility of error, derived from works +produced during the period with which it is the object of these pages to +deal, will not be out of place here. + +A very striking illustration of the manner in which a word may mislead +is afforded by the oft-quoted line: + + "Assume a virtue, if you have it not." + +By most readers the secondary, and, in the present day, almost +universal, meaning of the word assume--"pretend that to be, which in +reality has no existence;"--that is, in the particular case, "ape the +chastity you do not in reality possess"--is understood in this sentence; +and consequently Hamlet, and through him, Shakspere, stand committed to +the appalling doctrine that hypocrisy in morals is to be commended and +cultivated. Now, such a proposition never for an instant entered +Shakspere's head. He used the word "assume" in this case in its primary +and justest sense; _ad-sumo_, take to, acquire; and the context plainly +shows that Hamlet meant that his mother, by self-denial, would gradually +acquire that virtue in which she was so conspicuously wanting. Yet, for +lack of a little knowledge of the history of the word employed, the +other monstrous gloss has received almost universal and applauding +acceptance. + +4. This is a fair example of the style of error which a reader +unacquainted with the history of the changes our language has undergone +may fall into. Ignorance of changes in customs and morals may cause +equal or greater error. + +The difference between the older and more modern law, and popular +opinion, relating to promises of marriage and their fulfilment, affords +a striking illustration of the absurdities that attend upon the +interpretation of the ideas of one generation by the practice of +another. Perhaps no greater nonsense has been talked upon any subject +than this one, especially in relation to Shakspere's own marriage, by +critics who seem to have thought that a fervent expression of acute +moral feeling would replace and render unnecessary patient +investigation. + +In illustration of this difference, a play of Massinger's, "The Maid of +Honour," may be advantageously cited, as the catastrophe turns upon this +question of marriage contracts. Camiola, the heroine, having been +precontracted by oath[1] to Bertoldo, the king's natural brother, and +hearing of his subsequent engagement to the Duchess of Sienna, +determines to quit the world and take the veil. But before doing so, and +without informing any one, except her confessor, of her intention, she +contrives a somewhat dramatic scene for the purpose of exposing her +false lover. She comes into the presence of the king and all the court, +produces her contract, claims Bertoldo as her husband, and demands +justice of the king, adjuring him that he shall not-- + + "Swayed or by favour or affection, + By a false gloss or wrested comment, alter + The true intent and letter of the law." + +[Footnote 1: Act v. sc. I.] + +Now, the only remedy that would occur to the mind of the reader of the +present day under such circumstances, would be an action for breach of +promise of marriage, and he would probably be aware of the very recent +origin of that method of procedure. The only reply, therefore, that he +would expect from Roberto would be a mild and sympathetic assurance of +inability to interfere; and he must be somewhat taken aback to find this +claim of Camiola admitted as indisputable. The riddle becomes somewhat +further involved when, having established her contract, she immediately +intimates that she has not the slightest intention of observing it +herself, by declaring her desire to take the veil. + +5. This can only be explained by the rules current at the time regarding +spousals. The betrothal, or handfasting, was, in Massinger's time, a +ceremony that entailed very serious obligations upon the parties to it. +There were two classes of spousals--_sponsalia de futuro_ and _sponsalia +de praesenti_: a promise of marriage in the future, and an actual +declaration of present marriage. This last form of betrothal was, in +fact, marriage, as far as the contracting parties were concerned.[1] It +could not, even though not consummated, be dissolved by mutual consent; +and a subsequent marriage, even though celebrated with religious rites, +was utterly invalid, and could be set aside at the suit of the injured +person. + +[Footnote 1: Swinburne, A Treatise of Spousals, 1686, p. 236. In England +the offspring were, nevertheless, illegitimate.] + +The results entailed by _sponsalia de futuro_ were less serious. +Although no spousals of the same nature could be entered into with a +third person during the existence of the contract, yet it could be +dissolved by mutual consent, and was dissolved by subsequent _sponsalia +in praesenti_, or matrimony. But such spousals could be converted into +valid matrimony by the cohabitation of the parties; and this, instead of +being looked upon as reprehensible, seems to have been treated as a +laudable action, and to be by all means encouraged.[1] In addition to +this, completion of a contract for marriage _de futuro_ confirmed by +oath, if such a contract were not indeed indissoluble, as was thought by +some, could at any rate be enforced against an unwilling party. But +there were some reasons that justified the dissolution of _sponsalia_ of +either description. Affinity was one of these; and--what is to the +purpose here, in England before the Reformation, and in those parts of +the continent unaffected by it--the entrance into a religious order was +another. Here, then, we have a full explanation of Camiola's conduct. +She is in possession of evidence of a contract of marriage between +herself and Bertoldo, which, whether _in praesenti_ or _in futuro_, +being confirmed by oath, she can force upon him, and which will +invalidate his proposed marriage with the duchess. Having established +her right, she takes the only step that can with certainty free both +herself and Bertoldo from the bond they had created, by retiring into a +nunnery. + +[Footnote 1: Swinburne, p. 227.] + +This explanation renders the action of the play clear, and at the same +time shows that Shakspere in his conduct with regard to his marriage may +have been behaving in the most honourable and praiseworthy manner; as +the bond, with the date of which the date of the birth of his first +child is compared, is for the purpose of exonerating the ecclesiastics +from any liability for performing the ecclesiastical ceremony, which was +not at all a necessary preliminary to a valid marriage, so far as the +husband and wife were concerned, although it was essential to render +issue of the marriage legitimate. + +6. These are instances of the deceptions that are likely to arise +from the two fertile sources that have been specified. There can +be no doubt that the existence of errors arising from the former +source--misapprehension of the meaning of words--is very generally +admitted, and effectual remedies have been supplied by modern scholars +for those who will make use of them. Errors arising from the latter +source are not so entirely recognized, or so securely guarded against. +But what has just been said surely shows that it is of no use reading a +writer of a past age with merely modern conceptions; and, therefore, +that if such a man's works are worth study at all, they must be read +with the help of the light thrown upon them by contemporary history, +literature, laws, and morals. The student must endeavour to divest +himself, as far as possible, of all ideas that are the result of a +development subsequent to the time in which his author lived, and to +place himself in harmony with the life and thoughts of the people of +that age: sit down with them in their homes, and learn the sources of +their loves, their hates, their fears, and see wherein domestic +happiness, or lack of it, made them strong or weak; follow them to the +market-place, and witness their dealings with their fellows--the honesty +or baseness of them, and trace the cause; look into their very hearts, +if it may be, as they kneel at the devotion they feel or simulate, and +become acquainted with the springs of their dearest aspirations and most +secret prayers. + +7. A hard discipline, no doubt, but not more hard than salutary. +Salutary in two ways. First, as a test of the student's own earnestness +of purpose. For in these days of revival of interest in our elder +literature, it has become much the custom for flippant persons, who are +covetous of being thought "well-read" by their less-enterprising +companions, to skim over the surface of the pages of the wisest and +noblest of our great teachers, either not understanding, or +misunderstanding them. "I have read Chaucer, Shakspere, Milton," is the +sublimely satirical expression constantly heard from the mouths of those +who, having read words set down by the men they name, have no more +capacity for reading the hearts of the men themselves, through those +words, than a blind man has for discerning the colour of flowers. As a +consequence of this flippancy of reading, numberless writers, whose +works have long been consigned to a well-merited oblivion, have of late +years been disinterred and held up for public admiration, chiefly upon +the ground that they are ancient and unknown. The man who reads for the +sake of having done so, not for the sake of the knowledge gained by +doing so, finds as much charm in these petty writers as in the greater, +and hence their transient and undeserved popularity. It would be well, +then, for every earnest student, before beginning the study of any one +having pretensions to the position of a master, and who is not of our +own generation, to ask himself, "Am I prepared thoroughly to sift out +and ascertain the true import of every allusion contained in this +volume?" And if he cannot honestly answer "Yes," let him shut the book, +assured that he is not impelled to the study of it by a sincere thirst +for knowledge, but by impertinent curiosity, or a shallow desire to +obtain undeserved credit for learning. + +8. The second way in which such a discipline will prove salutary is +this: it will prevent the student from straying too far afield in his +reading. The number of "classical" authors whose works will repay such +severe study is extremely limited. However much enthusiasm he may throw +into his studies, he will find that nine-tenths of our older literature +yields too small a harvest of instruction to attract any but the pedant +to expend so much labour upon them. The two great vices of modern +reading will be avoided--flippancy on the one hand, and pedantry on the +other. + +9. The object, therefore, which I have had in view in the compilation of +the following pages, is to attempt to throw some additional light upon a +condition of thought, utterly different from any belief that has firm +hold in the present generation, that was current and peculiarly +prominent during the lifetime of the man who bears overwhelmingly the +greatest name, either in our own or any other literature. It may be +said, and perhaps with much force, that enough, and more than enough, +has been written in the way of Shakspere criticism. But is it not better +that somewhat too much should be written upon such a subject than too +little? We cannot expect that every one shall see all the greatness of +Shakspere's vast and complex mind--by one a truth will be grasped that +has eluded the vigilance of others;--and it is better that those who can +by no possibility grasp anything at all should have patient hearing, +rather than that any additional light should be lost. The useless, +lifeless criticism vanishes quietly away into chaos; the good remains +quietly to be useful: and it is in reliance upon the justice and +certainty of this law that I aim at bringing before the mind, as clearly +as may be, a phase of belief that was continually and powerfully +influencing Shakspere during the whole of his life, but is now well-nigh +forgotten or entirely misunderstood. If the endeavour is a useless and +unprofitable one, let it be forgotten--I am content; but I hope to be +able to show that an investigation of the subject does furnish us with a +key which, in a manner, unlocks the secrets of Shakspere's heart, and +brings us closer to the real living man--to the very soul of him who, +with hardly any history in the accepted sense of the word, has left us +in his works a biography of far deeper and more precious meaning, if we +will but understand it. + +10. But it may be said that Shakspere, of all men, is able to speak for +himself without aid or comment. His works appeal to all, young and old, +in every time, every nation. It is true; he can be understood. He is, +to use again Ben Jonson's oft-quoted words, "Not of an age, but for +all time." Yet he is so thoroughly imbued with the spirit and opinions +of his era, that without a certain comprehension of the men of +the Elizabethan period he cannot be understood fully. Indeed, +his greatness is to a large extent due to his sympathy with the men +around him, his power of clearly thinking out the answers to the +all-time questions, and giving a voice to them that his contemporaries +could understand;--answers that others could not for themselves +formulate--could, perhaps, only vaguely and dimly feel after. To +understand these answers fully, the language in which they were +delivered must be first thoroughly mastered. + +11. I intend, therefore, to attempt to sketch out the leading features +of a phase of religious belief that acquired peculiar distinctness and +prominence during Shakspere's lifetime--more, perhaps, than it ever did +before, or has done since--the belief in the existence of evil spirits, +and their influence upon and dealings with mankind. The subject will be +treated in three sections. The first will contain a short statement of +the laws that seem to be of universal operation in the creation and +maintenance of the belief in a multitudinous band of spirits, good and +evil; and of a few of the conditions of the Elizabethan epoch that may +have had a formative and modifying influence upon that belief. The +second will be devoted to an outline of the chief features of that +belief, as it existed at the time in question--the organization, +appearance, and various functions and powers of the evil spirits, with +special reference to Shakspere's plays. The third and concluding +section, will embody an attempt to trace the growth of Shakspere's +thought upon religious matters through the medium of his allusions to +this subject. + + * * * * * + +12. The empire of the supernatural must obviously be most extended +where civilization is the least advanced. An educated man has to make a +conscious, and sometimes severe, effort to refrain from pronouncing a +dogmatic opinion as to the cause of a given result when sufficient +evidence to warrant a definite conclusion is wanting; to the savage, +the notion of any necessity for, or advantage to be derived from, such +self-restraint never once occurs. Neither the lightning that strikes +his hut, the blight that withers his crops, the disease that destroys +the life of those he loves; nor, on the other hand, the beneficent +sunshine or life-giving rain, is by him traceable to any known +physical cause. They are the results of influences utterly beyond his +understanding--supernatural,--matters upon which imagination is allowed +free scope to run riot, and from which spring up a legion of myths, or +attempts to represent in some manner these incomprehensible processes, +grotesque or poetic, according to the character of the people with which +they originate, which, if their growth be not disturbed by extraneous +influences, eventually develop into the national creed. The most +ordinary events of the savage's every-day life do not admit of a natural +solution; his whole existence is bound in, from birth to death, by a +network of miracles, and regulated, in its smallest details, by unseen +powers of whom he knows little or nothing. + +13. Hence it is that, in primitive societies, the functions of +legislator, judge, priest, and medicine man are all combined in one +individual, the great medium of communication between man and the +unknown, whose person is pre-eminently sacred. The laws that are to +guide the community come in some mysterious manner through him from the +higher powers. If two members of the clan are involved in a quarrel, he +is appealed to to apply some test in order to ascertain which of the two +is in the wrong--an ordeal that can have no judicial operation, except +upon the assumption of the existence of omnipotent beings interested in +the discovery of evil-doers, who will prevent the test from operating +unjustly. Maladies and famines are unmistakeable signs of the +displeasure of the good, or spite of the bad spirits, and are to be +averted by some propitiatory act on the part of the sufferers, or the +mediation of the priest-doctor. The remedy that would put an end to a +long-continued drought will be equally effective in arresting an +epidemic. + +14. But who, and of what nature, are these supernatural powers whose +influences are thus brought to bear upon every-day life, and who appear +to take such an interest in the affairs of mankind? It seems that there +are three great principles at work in the evolution and modification of +the ideas upon this subject, which must now be shortly stated. + +15. (i.) The first of these is the apparent incapacity of the majority +of mankind to accept a purely monotheistic creed. It is a demonstrable +fact that the primitive religions now open to observation attribute +specific events and results to distinct supernatural beings; and there +can be little doubt that this is the initial step in every creed. It is +a bold and somewhat perilous revolution to attempt to overturn this +doctrine and to set up monotheism in its place, and, when successfully +accomplished, is rarely permanent. The more educated portions of the +community maintain allegiance to the new teaching, perhaps; but among +the lower classes it soon becomes degraded to, or amalgamated with, some +form of polytheism more or less pronounced, and either secret or +declared. Even the Jews, the nation the most conspicuous for its +supposed uncompromising adherence to a monotheistic creed, cannot claim +absolute freedom from taint in this respect; for in the country places, +far from the centre of worship, the people were constantly following +after strange gods; and even some of their most notable worthies were +liable to the same accusation. + +16. It is not necessary, however, that the individuality and +specialization of function of the supreme beings recognized by any +religious system should be so conspicuous as they are in this case, or +in the Greek or Roman Pantheon, to mark it as in its essence +polytheistic or of polytheistic tendency. It is quite enough that the +immortals are deemed to be capable of hearing and answering the prayers +of their adorers, and of interfering actively in passing events, either +for good or for evil. This, at the root of it, constitutes the crucial +difference between polytheism and monotheism; and in this sense the +Roman Catholic form of Christianity, representing the oldest undisturbed +evolution of a strictly monotheistic doctrine, is undeniably +polytheistic. Apart from the Virgin Mary, there is a whole hierarchy of +inferior deities, saints, and angels, subordinate to the One Supreme +Being. This may possibly be denied by the authorized expounders of the +doctrine of the Church of Rome; but it is nevertheless certain that it +is the view taken by the uneducated classes, with whom the saints are +much more present and definite deities than even the Almighty Himself. +It is worth noting, that during the dancing mania of 1418, not God, or +Christ, or the Virgin Mary, but St. Vitus, was prayed to by the populace +to stop the epidemic that was afterwards known by his name.[1] There was +a temple to St. Michael on Mount St. Angelo, and Augustine thought it +necessary to declare that angel-worshippers were heretics.[2] Even +Protestantism, though a much younger growth than Catholicism, shows a +slight tendency towards polytheism. The saints are, of course, quite +out of the question, and angels are as far as possible relegated from +the citadel of asserted belief into the vaguer regions of poetical +sentimentality; but--although again unadmitted by the orthodox of the +sect--the popular conception of Christ is, and, until the masses are +more educated in theological niceties than they are at present, +necessarily must be, as of a Supreme Being totally distinct from God the +Father. This applies in a less degree to the third Person in the +Trinity; less, because His individuality is less clear. George Eliot +has, with her usual penetration, noted this fact in "Silas Marner," +where, in Mrs. Winthrop's simple theological system, the Trinity is +always referred to as "Them." + +[Footnote 1: Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 85.] + +[Footnote 2: Bullinger, p. 348. Parker Society.] + +17. The posthumous history of Francis of Assisi affords a striking +illustration of this strange tendency towards polytheism. This +extraordinary man received no little reverence and adulation during his +lifetime; but it was not until after his death that the process of +deification commenced. It was then discovered that the stigmata were not +the only points of resemblance between the departed saint and the Divine +Master he professed to follow; that his birth had been foretold by the +prophets; that, like Christ, he underwent transfiguration; and that he +had worked miracles during his life. The climax of the apotheosis was +reached in 1486, when a monk, preaching at Paris, seriously maintained +that St. Francis was in very truth a second Christ, the second Son of +God; and that after his death he descended into purgatory, and +liberated all the spirits confined there who had the good fortune to be +arrayed in the Franciscan garb.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Maury, Histoire de la Magie, p. 354.] + +18. (ii.) The second principle is that of the Manichaeists: the division +of spirits into hostile camps, good and evil. This is a much more common +belief than the orthodox are willing to allow. There is hardly any +religious system that does not recognize a first source of evil, as well +as a first source of good. But the spirit of evil occupies a position of +varying importance: in some systems he maintains himself as co-equal of +the spirit of good; in others he sinks to a lower stage, remaining very +powerful to do harm, but nevertheless under the control, in matters of +the highest importance, of the more beneficent Being. In each of these +cases, the first principle is found operating, ever augmenting the +ranks; monodiabolism being as impossible as monotheism; and hence the +importance of fully establishing that proposition. + +19. (iii.) The last and most important of these principles is the +tendency of all theological systems to absorb into themselves the +deities extraneous to themselves, not as gods, but as inferior, or even +evil, spirits. The actual existence of the foreign deity is not for a +moment disputed, the presumption in favour of innumerable spiritual +agencies being far too strong to allow the possibility of such a doubt; +but just as the alien is looked upon as an inferior being, created +chiefly for the use and benefit of the chosen people--and what nation is +not, if its opinion of itself may be relied upon, a chosen people?--so +the god the alien worships is a spirit of inferior power and capacity, +and can be recognized solely as occupying a position subordinate to that +of the gods of the land. + +This principle has such an important influence in the elaboration of the +belief in demons, that it is worth while to illustrate the generality of +its application. + +20. In the Greek system of theology we find in the first place a number +of deities of varying importance and power, whose special functions are +defined with some distinctness; and then, below these, an innumerable +band of spirits, the souls of the departed--probably the relics of an +earlier pure ancestor-worship--who still interest themselves in the +inhabitants of this world. These [Greek: daimones] were certainly +accredited with supernatural power, and were not of necessity either +good or evil in their influence or action. It was to this second class +that foreign deities were assimilated. They found it impossible, +however, to retain even this humble position. The ceremonies of their +worship, and the language in which those ceremonies were performed, were +strange to the inhabitants of the land in which the acclimatization was +attempted; and the incomprehensible is first suspected, then loathed. It +is not surprising, then, that the new-comers soon fell into the ranks of +purely evil spirits, and that those who persisted in exercising their +rites were stigmatized as devil-worshippers, or magicians. + +But in process of time this polytheistic system became pre-eminently +unsatisfactory to the thoughtful men whom Greece produced in such +numbers. The tendency towards monotheism which is usually associated +with the name of Plato is hinted at in the writings of other +philosophers who were his predecessors. The effect of this revolution +was to recognize one Supreme Being, the First Cause, and to subordinate +to him all the other deities of the ancient and popular theology--to +co-ordinate them, in fact, with the older class of daemons; the first +step in the descent to the lowest category of all. + +21. The history of the neo-Platonic belief is one of elaboration upon +these ideas. The conception of the Supreme Being was complicated in a +manner closely resembling the idea of the Christian Trinity, and all the +subordinate daemons were classified into good and evil geniuses. Thus, a +theoretically monotheistic system was established, with a tremendous +hierarchy of inferior spirits, who frequently bore the names of the +ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, strikingly +resembling that of Roman Catholicism. The subordinate daemons were not +at first recognized as entitled to any religious rites; but in the +course of time, by the inevitable operation of the first principle just +enunciated, a form of theurgy sprang up with the object of attracting +the kindly help and patronage of the good spirits, and was tolerated; +and attempts were made to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, which +were, as far as possible suppressed and discountenanced. + +22. The history of the operation of this principle upon the Jewish +religion is very similar, and extremely interesting. Although they do +not seem to have ever had any system of ancestor-worship, as the Greeks +had, yet the Jews appear originally to have recognized the deities of +their neighbours as existing spirits, but inferior in power to the God +of Israel. "All the gods of the nations are idols" are words that +entirely fail to convey the idea of the Psalmist; for the word +translated "idols" is _Elohim_, the very term usually employed to +designate Jehovah; and the true sense of the passage therefore is: "All +the gods of the nations are gods, but Jehovah made the heavens."[1] In +another place we read that "The Lord is a great God, and a great King +above all gods."[2] As, however, the Jews gradually became acquainted +with the barbarous rites with which their neighbours did honour to their +gods, the foreigners seem to have fallen more and more in estimation, +until they came to be classed as evil spirits. To this process such +names as Beelzebub, Moloch, Ashtaroth, and Belial bear witness; +Beelzebub, "the prince of the devils" of later time, being one of the +gods of the hostile Philistines. + +[Footnote 1: Psalm xcvi. 5 (xcv. Sept.).] + +[Footnote 2: Psalm xcv. 3 (xciv. Sept.). Maury, p. 98.] + +23. The introduction of Christianity made no difference in this respect. +Paul says to the believers at Corinth, "that the things which the +Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils ([Greek: daimonia]), and +not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with +devils;"[1] and the Septuagint renders the word _Elohim_ in the +ninety-fifth Psalm by this [Greek: daimonia], which as the Christians +had already a distinct term for good spirits, came to be applied to evil +ones only. + +[Footnote 1: I Cor. x. 20.] + +Under the influence therefore, of the new religion, the gods of Greece +and Rome, who in the days of their supremacy had degraded so many +foreign deities to the position of daemons, were in their turn deposed +from their high estate, and became the nucleus around which the +Christian belief in demonology formed itself. The gods who under the old +theologies reigned paramount in the lower regions became pre-eminently +diabolic in character in the new system, and it was Hecate who to the +last retained her position of active patroness and encourager of +witchcraft; a practice which became almost indissolubly connected with +her name. Numerous instances of the completeness with which this process +of diabolization was effected, and the firmness with which it retained +its hold upon the popular belief, even to late times, might be given; +but the following must suffice. In one of the miracle plays, "The +Conversion of Saul," a council of devils is held, at which Mercury +appears as the messenger of Belial.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Digby Mysteries, New Shakspere Society, 1880, p. 44.] + +24. But this absolute rejection of every pagan belief and ceremony was +characteristic of the Christian Church in its infancy only. So long as +the band of believers was a small and persecuted one, no temptation to +violate the rule could exist. But as the Church grew, and acquired +influence and position, it discovered that good policy demanded that the +sternness and inflexibility of its youthful theories should undergo some +modification. It found that it was not the most successful method of +enticing stragglers into its fold to stigmatize the gods they ignorantly +worshipped as devils, and to persecute them as magicians. The more +impetuous and enthusiastic supporters did persecute, and persecute most +relentlessly, the adherents of the dying faith; but persecution, whether +of good or evil, always fails as a means of suppressing a hated +doctrine, unless it can be carried to the extent of extermination of its +supporters; and the more far-seeing leaders of the Catholic Church soon +recognized that a slight surrender of principle was a far surer road to +success than stubborn, uncompromising opposition. + +25. It was in this spirit that the Catholics dealt with the oracles of +heathendom. Mr. Lecky is hardly correct when he says that nothing +analogous to the ancient oracles was incorporated with Christianity.[1] +There is the notable case of the god Sosthenion, whom Constantine +identified with the archangel Michael, and whose oracular functions were +continued in a precisely similar manner by the latter.[2] Oracles that +were not thus absorbed and supported were recognized as existent, but +under diabolic control, and to be tolerated, if not patronized, by the +representatives of the dominant religion. The oracle at Delphi gave +forth prophetic utterances for centuries after the commencement of the +Christian era; and was the less dangerous, as its operations could be +stopped at any moment by holding a saintly relic to the god or devil +Apollo's nose. There is a fable that St. Gregory, in the course of his +travels, passed near the oracle, and his extraordinary sanctity was such +as to prevent all subsequent utterances. This so disturbed the presiding +genius of the place, that he appealed to the saint to undo the baneful +effects his presence had produced; and Gregory benevolently wrote a +letter to the devil, which was in fact a license to continue the +business of prophesying unmolested.[3] This nonsensical fiction shows +clearly enough that the oracles were not generally looked upon as +extinguished by Christianity. As the result of a similar policy we find +the names and functions of the pagan gods and the earlier Christian +saints confused in the most extraordinary manner; the saints assuming +the duties of the moribund deities where those duties were of a harmless +or necessary character.[4] + +[Footnote 1: Rise and Influence of Rationalism, i. p. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: Maury, p. 244, et seq.] + +[Footnote 3: Scot, book vii. ch. i.] + +[Footnote 4: Middleton's Letter from Rome.] + +26. The Church carried out exactly the same principles in her missionary +efforts amongst the heathen hordes of Northern Europe. "Do you renounce +the devils, and all their words and works; Thonar, Wodin, and Saxenote?" +was part of the form of recantation administered to the Scandinavian +converts;[1] and at the present day "Odin take you" is the Norse +equivalent of "the devil take you." On the other hand, an attempt was +made to identify Balda "the beautiful" with Christ--a confusion of +character that may go far towards accounting for a custom joyously +observed by our forefathers at Christmastide but which the false +modesty of modern society has nearly succeeded in banishing from amongst +us, for Balda was slain by Loké with a branch of mistletoe, and Christ +was betrayed by Judas with a kiss. + +[Footnote 1: Milman, History of Latin Christianity, iii. 267; ix. 65.] + +27. Upon the conversion of the inhabitants of Great Britain to +Christianity, the native deities underwent the same inevitable fate, and +sank into the rank of evil spirits. Perhaps the juster opinion is that +they became the progenitors of our fairy mythology rather than the +subsequent devil-lore, although the similarity between these two classes +of spirits is sufficient to warrant us in classing them as species of +the same genus; their characters and functions being perfectly +interchangeable, and even at times merging and becoming +indistinguishable. A certain lurking affection in the new converts for +the religion they had deserted, perhaps under compulsion, may have led +them to look upon their ancient objects of veneration as less detestable +in nature, and dangerous in act, than the devils imported as an integral +portion of their adopted faith; and so originated this class of spirits +less evil than the other. Sir Walter Scott may be correct in his +assertion that many of these fairy-myths owe their origin to the +existence of a diminutive autochthonic race that was conquered by the +invading Celts, and the remnants of which lurked about the mountains and +forests, and excited in their victors a superstitious reverence on +account of their great skill in metallurgy; but this will not explain +the retention of many of the old god-names; as that of the Dusii, the +Celtic nocturnal spirits, in our word "deuce," and that of the Nikr or +water-spirits in "nixie" and old "Nick."[1] These words undoubtedly +indicate the accomplishment of the "facilis descensus Averno" by the +native deities. Elves, brownies, gnomes, and trolds were all at one time +Scotch or Irish gods. The trolds obtained a character similar to that of +the more modern succubus, and have left their impression upon +Elizabethan English in the word "trull." + +[Footnote 1: Maury, p. 189.] + +28. The preceding very superficial outline of the growth of the belief +in evil spirits is enough for the purpose of this essay, as it shows +that the basis of English devil-lore was the annihilated mythologies of +the ancient heathen religions--Italic and Teutonic, as well as those +brought into direct conflict with the Jewish system; and also that the +more important of the Teutonic deities are not to be traced in the +subsequent hierarchy of fiends, on account probably of their temporary +or permanent absorption into the proselytizing system, or the refusal of +the new converts to believe them to be so black as their teachers +painted them. The gradual growth of the superstructure it would be +well-nigh impossible and quite unprofitable to trace. It is due chiefly +to the credulous ignorance and distorted imagination, monkish and +otherwise, of several centuries. Carlyle's graphic picture of Abbot +Sampson's vision of the devil in "Past and Present" will perhaps do more +to explain how the belief grew and flourished than pages of explanatory +statements. It is worthy of remark, however, that to the last, +communication with evil spirits was kept up by means of formulae and +rites that are undeniably the remnants of a form of religious worship. +Incomprehensible in their jargon as these formulae mostly are, and +strongly tinctured as they have become with burlesqued Christian +symbolism and expression--for those who used them could only supply the +fast-dying memory of the elder forms from the existing system--they +still, in all their grotesqueness, remain the battered relics of a dead +faith. + +29. Such being the natural history of the conflict of religions, it will +not be a matter of surprise that the leaders of our English Reformation +should, in their turn, have attributed the miracles of the Roman +Catholic saints to the same infernal source as the early Christians +supposed to have been the origin of the prodigies and oracles of +paganism. The impulse given by the secession from the Church of Rome to +the study of the Bible by all classes added impetus to this tendency. In +Holy Writ the Reformers found full authority for believing in the +existence of evil spirits, possession by devils, witchcraft, and divine +and diabolic interference by way of miracle generally; and they +consequently acknowledged the possibility of the repetition of such +phenomena in the times in which they lived--a position more tenable, +perhaps, than that of modern orthodoxy, that accepts without murmur all +the supernatural events recorded in the Bible, and utterly rejects all +subsequent relations of a similar nature, however well authenticated. +The Reformers believed unswervingly in the truth of the Biblical +accounts of miracles, and that what God had once permitted to take place +might and would be repeated in case of serious necessity. But they found +it utterly impossible to accept the puerile and meaningless miracles +perpetrated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church as evidence +of divine interference; and they had not travelled far enough upon the +road towards rationalism to be able to reject them, one and all, as in +their very nature impossible. The consequence of this was one of those +compromises which we so often meet with in the history of the changes of +opinion effected by the Reformation. Only those particular miracles that +were indisputably demonstrated to be impostures--and there were plenty +of them, such as the Rood of Boxley[1]--were treated as such by them. +The unexposed remainder were treated as genuine supernatural phenomena, +but caused by diabolical, not divine, agency. The reforming divine +Calfhill, supporting this view of the Catholic miracles in his answer to +Martiall's "Treatise of the Cross," points out that the majority of +supernatural events that have taken place in this world have been, most +undoubtedly, the work of the devil; and puts his opponents into a rather +embarrassing dilemma by citing the miracles of paganism, which both +Catholic and Protestant concurred in attributing to the evil one. He +then clinches his argument by asserting that "it is the devil's cunning +that persuades those that will walk in a popish blindness" that they are +worshipping God when they are in reality serving him. "Therefore," he +continues, consciously following an argument of St. Cyprianus against +the pagan miracles, "these wicked spirits do lurk in shrines, in roods, +in crosses, in images: and first of all pervert the priests, which are +easiest to be caught with bait of a little gain. Then work they +miracles. They appear to men in divers shapes; disquiet them when they +are awake; trouble them in their sleeps; distort their members; take +away their health; afflict them with diseases; only to bring them to +some idolatry. Thus, when they have obtained their purpose that a lewd +affiance is reposed where it should not, they enter (as it were) into a +new league, and trouble them no more. What do the simple people then? +Verily suppose that the image, the cross, the thing that they have +kneeled and offered unto (the very devil indeed) hath restored them +health, whereas he did nothing but leave off to molest them. This is the +help and cure that the devils give when they leave off their wrong and +injury."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Froude, History of England, cabinet edition, iii. 102.] + +[Footnote 2: Calfhill, pp. 317-8. Parker Society.] + +30. Here we have a distinct charge of devil-worship--the old doctrine +cropping up again after centuries of repose: "all the gods of our +opponents are devils." Nor were the Catholics a whit behind the +Protestants in this matter. The priests zealously taught that the +Protestants were devil-worshippers and magicians;[1] and the common +people so implicitly believed in the truth of the statement, that we +find one poor prisoner, taken by the Dutch at the siege of Alkmaar in +1578, making a desperate attempt to save his life by promising to +worship his captors' devil precisely as they did[2]--a suggestion that +failed to pacify those to whom it was addressed. + +[Footnote 1: Hutchinson's Essay, p. 218. Harsnet, Declaration, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 2: Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 400.] + +31. Having thus stated, so far as necessary, the chief laws that are +constantly working the extension of the domain of the supernatural as +far as demonology is concerned, without a remembrance of which the +subject itself would remain somewhat difficult to comprehend fully, I +shall now attempt to indicate one or two conditions of thought and +circumstance that may have tended to increase and vivify the belief +during the period in which the Elizabethan literature flourished. + +32. It was an era of change. The nation was emerging from the dim +twilight of mediaevalism into the full day of political and religious +freedom. But the morning mists, which the rising sun had not yet +dispelled, rendered the more distant and complex objects distorted and +portentous. The very fact that doubt, or rather, perhaps, independence +of thought, was at last, within certain limits, treated as non-criminal +in theology, gave an impetus to investigation and speculation in all +branches of politics and science; and with this change came, in the +main, improvement. But the great defect of the time was that this newly +liberated spirit of free inquiry was not kept in check by any sufficient +previous discipline in logical methods of reasoning. Hence the +possibility of the wild theories that then existed, followed out into +action or not, according as circumstances favoured or discouraged: +Arthur Hacket, with casting out of devils, and other madnesses, +vehemently declaring himself the Messiah and King of Europe in the year +of grace 1591, and getting himself believed by some, so long as he +remained unhanged; or, more pathetic still, many weary lives wasted day +by day in fruitless silent search after the impossible philosopher's +stone, or elixir of life. As in law, so in science, there were no +sufficient rules of evidence clearly and unmistakably laid down for the +guidance of the investigator; and consequently it was only necessary to +broach a novel theory in order to have it accepted, without any previous +serious testing. Men do not seem to have been able to distinguish +between an hypothesis and a proved conclusion; or, rather, the rule of +presumptions was reversed, and men accepted the hypothesis as conclusive +until it was disproved. It was a perfectly rational and sufficient +explanation in those days to refer some extraordinary event to some +given supernatural cause, even though there might be no ostensible link +between the two: now, such a suggestion would be treated by the vast +majority with derision or contempt. On the other hand, the most trivial +occurrences, such as sneezing, the appearance of birds of ill omen, the +crowing of a cock, and events of like unimportance happening at a +particular moment, might, by some unseen concatenation of causes and +effects, exercise an incomprehensible influence upon men, and +consequently had important bearings upon their conduct. It is solemnly +recorded in the Commons' Journals that during the discussion of the +statute against witchcraft passed in the reign of James I., a young +jackdaw flew into the House; which accident was generally regarded as +_malum omen_ to the Bill.[1] Extraordinary bravery on the part of an +adversary was sometimes accounted for by asserting that he was the devil +in the form of a man; as the Volscian soldier does with regard to +Coriolanus. This is no mere dramatist's fancy, but a fixed belief of the +times. Sir William Russell fought so desperately at Zutphen, that he got +mistaken for the Evil One;[2] and Drake also gave the Spaniards good +reason for believing that he was a devil, and no man.[3] + +[Footnote 1: See also D'Ewes, p. 688.] + +[Footnote 2: Froude, xii. 87.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 663.] + +33. This intense credulousness, childish almost in itself, but yet at +the same time combined with the strong man's intellect, permeated all +classes of society. Perhaps a couple of instances, drawn from strangely +diverse sources, will bring this more vividly before the mind than any +amount of attempted theorizing. The first is one of the tricks of the +jugglers of the period. + + "_To make one danse naked._ + +"Make a poore boie confederate with you, so as after charms, etc., +spoken by you, he unclothe himself and stand naked, seeming (whilest he +undresseth himselfe) to shake, stamp, and crie, still hastening to be +unclothed, till he be starke naked; or if you can procure none to go so +far, let him onlie beginne to stampe and shake, etc., and unclothe him, +and then you may (for reverence of the companie) seeme to release +him."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Scott, p. 339.] + +The second illustration must have demanded, if possible, more credulity +on the part of the audience than this harmless entertainment. Cranmer +tells us that in the time of Queen Mary a monk preached a sermon at St. +Paul's, the object of which was to prove the truth of the doctrine of +transubstantiation; and, after the manner of his kind, told the +following little anecdote in support of it:--"A maid of Northgate parish +in Canterbury, in pretence to wipe her mouth, kept the host in her +handkerchief; and, when she came home, she put the same into a pot, +close covered, and she spitted in another pot, and after a few days, she +looking in the one pot, found a little young pretty babe, about a +shaftmond long; and the other pot was full of gore blood."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Cranmer, A Confutation of Unwritten Verities, p. 66. Parker +Society.] + +34. That the audiences before which these absurdities were seriously +brought, for amusement or instruction, could be excited in either case +to any other feeling than good-natured contempt for a would-be impostor, +seems to us now-a-days to be impossible. It was not so in the times when +these things transpired: the actors of them were not knaves, nor were +their audiences fools, to any unusual extent. If any one is inclined to +form a low opinion of the Elizabethans intellectually, on account of the +divergence of their capacities of belief in this respect from his own, +he does them a great injustice. Let him take at once Charles Lamb's +warning, and try to understand, rather than to judge them. We, who have +had the benefit of three hundred more years of experience and liberty of +thought than they, should have to hide our faces for very shame had we +not arrived at juster and truer conclusions upon those difficult topics +that so bewildered our ancestors. But can we, with all our boasted +advantages of wealth, power, and knowledge, truly say that all our aims +are as high, all our desires as pure, our words as true, and our deeds +as noble, as those whose opinions we feel this tendency to contemn? If +not, or if indeed they have anything whatsoever to teach us in these +respects, let us remember that we shall never learn the lesson wholly, +perhaps not learn it at all, unless, casting aside this first impulse to +despise, we try to enter fully into and understand these strange dead +beliefs of the past. + + * * * * * + +35. It is in this spirit that I now enter upon the second division of +the subject in hand, in which I shall try to indicate the chief features +of the belief in demonology as it existed during the Elizabethan period. +These will be taken up in three main heads: the classification, physical +appearance, and powers of the evil spirits. + +36. (i.) It is difficult to discover any classification of devils as +well authenticated and as universally received as that of the angels +introduced by Dionysius the Areopagite, which was subsequently imported +into the creed of the Western Church, and popularized in Elizabethan +times by Dekker's "Hierarchie." The subject was one which, from its +nature, could not be settled _ex cathedrâ_, and consequently the subject +had to grow up as best it might, each writer adopting the arrangement +that appeared to him most suitable. There was one rough but popular +classification into greater and lesser devils. The former branch was +subdivided into classes of various grades of power, the members of +which passed under the titles of kings, dukes, marquises, lords, +captains, and other dignities. Each of these was supposed to have a +certain number of legions of the latter class under his command. These +were the evil spirits who appeared most frequently on the earth as the +emissaries of the greater fiends, to carry out their evil designs. The +more important class kept for the most part in a mystical seclusion, and +only appeared upon earth in cases of the greatest emergency, or when +compelled to do so by conjuration. To the class of lesser devils +belonged the bad angel which, together with a good one, was supposed to +be assigned to every person at birth, to follow him through life--the +one to tempt, the other to guard from temptation;[1] so that a struggle +similar to that recorded between Michael and Satan for the body of Moses +was raging for the soul of every existing human being. This was not a +mere theory, but a vital active belief, as the beautiful well-known +lines at the commencement of the eighth canto of the second book of "The +Faerie Queene," and the use made of these opposing spirits in Marlowe's +"Dr. Faustus," and in "The Virgin Martyr," by Massinger and Dekker, +conclusively show. + +[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 506.] + +37. Another classification, which seems to retain a reminiscence of the +origin of devils from pagan deities, is effected by reference to the +localities supposed to be inhabited by the different classes of evil +spirits. According to this arrangement we get six classes:-- + +(1.) Devils of the fire, who wander in the region near the moon. + +(2.) Devils of the air, who hover round the earth. + +(3.) Devils of the earth; to whom the fairies are allied. + +(4.) Devils of the water. + +(5.) Submundane devils.[1] + +(6.) Lucifugi. + +These devils' power and desire to injure mankind appear to have +increased with the proximity of their location to the earth's centre; +but this classification had nothing like the hold upon the popular mind +that the former grouping had, and may consequently be dismissed with +this mention. + +[Footnote 1: Cf. I Hen. VI. V. iii. 10; 2 Hen. VI. I. ii. 77; +Coriolanus, IV. v. 97.] + +38. The greater devils, or the most important of them, had +distinguishing names--strange, uncouth names; some of them telling of a +heathenish origin; others inexplicable and almost unpronounceable--as +Ashtaroth, Bael, Belial, Zephar, Cerberus, Phoenix, Balam (why he?), and +Haagenti, Leraie, Marchosias, Gusoin, Glasya Labolas. Scot enumerates +seventy-nine, the above amongst them, and he does not by any means +exhaust the number. As each arch-devil had twenty, thirty, or forty +legions of inferior spirits under his command, and a legion was composed +of six hundred and sixty-six devils, it is not surprising that the +latter did not obtain distinguishing names until they made their +appearance upon earth, when they frequently obtained one from the form +they loved to assume; for example, the familiars of the witches in +"Macbeth"--Paddock (toad), Graymalkin (cat), and Harpier (harpy, +possibly). Is it surprising that, with resources of this nature at his +command, such an adept in the art of necromancy as Owen Glendower +should hold Harry Percy, much to his disgust, at the least nine hours + + "In reckoning up the several devils' names + That were his lackeys"? + +Of the twenty devils mentioned by Shakspere, four only belong to the +class of greater devils. Hecate, the principal patroness of witchcraft, +is referred to frequently, and appears once upon the scene.[1] The two +others are Amaimon and Barbazon, both of whom are mentioned twice. +Amaimon was a very important personage, being no other than one of the +four kings. Ziminar was King of the North, and is referred to in "Henry +VI. Part I.;"[2] Gorson of the South; Goap of the West; and Amaimon of +the East. He is mentioned in "Henry IV. Part I.,"[3] and "Merry +Wives."[4] Barbazon also occurs in the same passage in the latter play, +and again in "Henry V."[5]--a fact that does to a slight extent help to +bear out the otherwise ascertained chronological sequence of these +plays. The remainder of the devils belong to the second class. Nine of +these occur in "King Lear," and will be referred to again when the +subject of possession is touched upon.[6] + +[Footnote 1: It is perhaps worthy of remark that in every case except +the allusion in the probably spurious Henry VI., "I speak not to that +railing Hecate," (I Hen. VI. III. ii. 64), the name is "Hecat," a +di-syllable.] + +[Footnote 2: V. iii. 6.] + +[Footnote 3: II. iv. 370.] + +[Footnote 4: II. ii. 311.] + +[Footnote 5: II. i. 57. Scot, p. 393.] + +[Footnote 6: § 65.] + +39. (ii.) It would appear that each of the greater devils, on the rare +occasion upon which he made his appearance upon earth, assumed a form +peculiar to himself; the lesser devils, on the other hand, had an +ordinary type, common to the whole species, with a capacity for almost +infinite variation and transmutation which they used, as will be seen, +to the extreme perplexity and annoyance of mortals. As an illustration +of the form in which a greater devil might appear, this is what Scot +says of the questionable Balam, above mentioned: "Balam cometh with +three heads, the first of a bull, the second of a man, and the third of +a ram. He hath a serpent's taile, and flaming eies; riding upon a +furious beare, and carrieng a hawke on his fist."[1] But it was the +lesser devils, not the greater, that came into close contact with +humanity, who therefore demand careful consideration. + +[Footnote 1: p. 361.] + +40. All the lesser devils seem to have possessed a normal form, which +was as hideous and distorted as fancy could render it. To the conception +of an angel imagination has given the only beautiful appendage the human +body does not possess--wings; to that of a devil it has added all those +organs of the brute creation that are most hideous or most harmful. +Advancing civilization has almost exterminated the belief in a being +with horns, cloven hoofs, goggle eyes, and scaly tail, that was held up +to many yet living as the avenger of childish disobedience in their +earlier days, together perhaps with some strength of conviction of the +moral hideousness of the evil he was intended, in a rough way, to +typify; but this hazily retained impression of the Author of Evil was +the universal and entirely credited conception of the ordinary +appearance of those bad spirits who were so real to our ancestors of +Elizabethan days. "Some are so carnallie minded," says Scot, "that a +spirit is no sooner spoken of, but they thinke of a blacke man with +cloven feet, a paire of hornes, a taile, and eies as big as a bason."[1] +Scot, however, was one of a very small minority in his opinion as to the +carnal-mindedness of such a belief. He in his day, like those in every +age and country who dare to hold convictions opposed to the creed of the +majority, was a dangerous sceptic; his book was publicly burnt by the +common hangman;[2] and not long afterwards a royal author wrote a +treatise "against the damnable doctrines of two principally in our age; +whereof the one, called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public +print to deny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft, and so +mainteines the old error of the Sadducees in denying of spirits."[3] The +abandoned impudence of the man!--and the logic of his royal opponent! + +[Footnote 1: p. 507. See also Hutchinson, Essay on Witchcraft, p. 13; +and Harsnet, p. 71.] + +[Footnote 2: Bayle, ix. 152.] + +[Footnote 3: James I., Daemonologie. Edinburgh, 1597.] + +41. Spenser has clothed with horror this conception of the appearance of +a fiend, just as he has enshrined in beauty the belief in the guardian +angel. It is worthy of remark that he describes the devil as dwelling +beneath the altar of an idol in a heathen temple. Prince Arthur strikes +the image thrice with his sword-- + + "And the third time, out of an hidden shade, + There forth issewed from under th' altar's smoake + A dreadfull feend with fowle deformèd looke, + That stretched itselfe as it had long lyen still; + And her long taile and fethers strongly shooke, + That all the temple did with terrour fill; + Yet him nought terrifide that fearèd nothing ill. + + "An huge great beast it was, when it in length + Was stretchèd forth, that nigh filled all the place, + And seemed to be of infinite great strength; + Horrible, hideous, and of hellish race, + Borne of the brooding of Echidna base, + Or other like infernall Furies kinde, + For of a maide she had the outward face + To hide the horrour which did lurke behinde + The better to beguile whom she so fond did finde. + + "Thereto the body of a dog she had, + Full of fell ravin and fierce greedinesse; + A lion's clawes, with power and rigour clad + To rende and teare whatso she can oppresse; + A dragon's taile, whose sting without redresse + Full deadly wounds whereso it is empight, + And eagle's wings for scope and speedinesse + That nothing may escape her reaching might, + Whereto she ever list to make her hardy flight." + +42. The dramatists of the period make frequent references to this +belief, but nearly always by way of ridicule. It is hardly to be +expected that they would share in the grosser opinions held by the +common people in those times--common, whether king or clown. In "The +Virgin Martyr," Harpax is made to say-- + + "I'll tell you what now of the devil; + He's no such horrid creature, cloven-footed, + Black, saucer-eyed, his nostrils breathing fire, + As these lying Christians make him."[1] + +But his opinion was, perhaps, a prejudiced one. In Ben Jonson's "The +Devil is an Ass," when Fitzdottrell, doubting Pug's statement as to his +infernal character, says, "I looked on your feet afore; you cannot cozen +me; your shoes are not cloven, sir, you are whole hoofed;" Pug, with +great presence of mind, replies, "Sir, that's a popular error deceives +many." So too Othello, when he is questioning whether Iago is a devil or +not, says-- + + "I look down to his feet, but that's a fable."[2] + +And when Edgar is trying to persuade the blind Gloucester that he has in +reality cast himself over the cliff, he describes the being from whom he +is supposed to have just parted, thus:-- + + "As I stood here below, methought his eyes + Were two full moons: he had a thousand noses; + Horns whelked and wavèd like the enridgèd sea: + It was some fiend."[3] + +It can hardly be but that the "thousand noses" are intended as a +satirical hit at the enormity of the popular belief. + +[Footnote 1: Act I. sc. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Act V. sc. ii. l. 285.] + +[Footnote 3: Lear, IV. vi. 69.] + +43. In addition to this normal type, common to all these devils, each +one seems to have had, like the greater devils, a favourite form in +which he made his appearance when conjured; generally that of some +animal, real or imagined. It was telling of + + "the moldwarp and the ant, + Of the dreamer Merlin, and his prophecies; + And of a dragon and a finless fish, + A clipwinged griffin, and a moulten raven, + A couching lion, and a ramping cat,"[1] + +that annoyed Harry Hotspur so terribly; and neither in this allusion, +which was suggested by a passage in Holinshed,[2] nor in "Macbeth," +where he makes the three witches conjure up their familiars in the +shapes of an armed head, a bloody child, and a child crowned, has +Shakspere gone beyond the fantastic conceptions of the time. + +[Footnote 1: I Hen. IV. III. i. 148.] + +[Footnote 2: p. 521, c. 2.] + +44. (iii.) But the third proposed section, which deals with the powers +and functions exercised by the evil spirits, is by far the most +interesting and important; and the first branch of the series is one +that suggests itself as a natural sequence upon what has just been said +as to the ordinary shapes in which devils appeared, namely, the capacity +to assume at will any form they chose. + +45. In the early and middle ages it was universally believed that a +devil could, of his own inherent power, call into existence any manner +of body that it pleased his fancy to inhabit, or that would most conduce +to the success of any contemplated evil. In consequence of this belief +the devils became the rivals, indeed the successful rivals, of Jupiter +himself in the art of physical tergiversation. There was, indeed, a +tradition that a devil could not create any animal form of less size +than a barley-corn, and that it was in consequence of this incapacity +that the magicians of Egypt--those indubitable devil-worshippers--failed +to produce lice, as Moses did, although they had been so successful in +the matter of the serpents and the frogs; "a verie gross absurditie," as +Scot judiciously remarks.[1] This, however, would not be a serious +limitation upon the practical usefulness of the power. + +[Footnote 1: p. 314.] + +46. The great Reformation movement wrought a change in this respect. Men +began to accept argument and reason, though savouring of special +pleading of the schools, in preference to tradition, though never so +venerable and well authenticated; and the leaders of the revolution +could not but recognize the absurdity of laying down as infallible dogma +that God was the Creator of all things, and then insisting with equal +vehemence, by way of postulate, that the devil was the originator of +some. The thing was gross and palpable in its absurdity, and had to be +done away with as quickly as might be. But how? On the other hand, it +was clear as daylight that the devil _did_ appear in various forms to +tempt and annoy the people of God--was at that very time doing so in the +most open and unabashed manner. How were reasonable men to account for +this manifest conflict between rigorous logic and more rigorous fact? +There was a prolonged and violent controversy upon the point--the +Reformers not seeing their way to agree amongst themselves--and tedious +as violent. Sermons were preached; books were written; and, when +argument was exhausted, unpleasant epithets were bandied about, much as +in the present day, in similar cases. The result was that two theories +were evolved, both extremely interesting as illustrations of the +hair-splitting, chop-logic tendency which, amidst all their +straightforwardness, was so strongly characteristic of the Elizabethans. +The first suggestion was, that although the devil could not, of his own +inherent power, create a body, he might get hold of a dead carcase and +temporarily restore animation, and so serve his turn. This belief was +held, amongst others, by the erudite King James,[1] and is pleasantly +satirized by sturdy old Ben Jonson in "The Devil is an Ass," where Satan +(the greater devil, who only appears in the first scene just to set the +storm a-brewing) says to Pug (Puck, the lesser devil, who does all the +mischief; or would have done it, had not man, in those latter times, got +to be rather beyond the devils in evil than otherwise), not without a +touch of regret at the waning of his power-- + + "You must get a body ready-made, Pug, + I can create you none;" + +and consequently Pug is advised to assume the body of a handsome +cutpurse that morning hung at Tyburn. + +[Footnote 1: Daemonologie, p. 56.] + +But the theory, though ingenious, was insufficient. The devil would +occasionally appear in the likeness of a living person; and how could +that be accounted for? Again, an evil spirit, with all his ingenuity, +would find it hard to discover the dead body of a griffin, or a harpy, +or of such eccentricity as was affected by the before-mentioned Balam; +and these and other similar forms were commonly favoured by the +inhabitants of the nether world. + +47. The second theory, therefore, became the more popular amongst the +learned, because it left no one point unexplained. The divines held that +although the power of the Creator had in no wise been delegated to the +devil, yet he was, in the course of providence, permitted to exercise a +certain supernatural influence over the minds of men, whereby he could +persuade them that they really saw a form that had no material objective +existence.[1] Here was a position incontrovertible, not on account of +the arguments by which it could be supported, but because it was +impossible to reason against it; and it slowly, but surely, took hold +upon the popular mind. Indeed, the elimination of the diabolic factor +leaves the modern sceptical belief that such apparitions are nothing +more than the result of disease, physical or mental. + +[Footnote 1: Dialogicall Discourses, by Deacon and Walker, 4th Dialogue. +Bullinger, p. 361. Parker Society.] + +48. But the semi-sceptical state of thought was in Shakspere's time +making its way only amongst the more educated portion of the nation. The +masses still clung to the old and venerated, if not venerable, belief +that devils could at any moment assume what form soever they might +please--not troubling themselves further to inquire into the method of +the operation. They could appear in the likeness of an ordinary human +being, as Harpax[1] and Mephistopheles[2] do, creating thereby the most +embarrassing complications in questions of identity; and if this belief +is borne in mind, the charge of being a devil, so freely made, in the +times of which we write, and before alluded to, against persons who +performed extraordinary feats of valour, or behaved in a manner +discreditable and deserving of general reprobation, loses much of its +barbarous grotesqueness. There was no doubt as to Coriolanus,[3] as has +been said; nor Shylock.[4] Even "the outward sainted Angelo is yet a +devil;"[5] and Prince Hal confesses that "there is a devil haunts him in +the likeness of an old fat man ... an old white-bearded Satan."[6] + +[Footnote 1: In The Virgin Martyr.] + +[Footnote 2: In Dr. Faustus.] + +[Footnote 3: Coriolanus, I. x. 16.] + +[Footnote 4: Merchant of Venice, III. i. 22.] + +[Footnote 5: Measure for Measure, III. i. 90.] + +[Footnote 6: I Hen. IV., II. iv. 491-509.] + +49. The devils had an inconvenient habit of appearing in the guise of an +ecclesiastic[1]--at least, so the churchmen were careful to insist, +especially when busying themselves about acts of temptation that would +least become the holy robe they had assumed. This was the ecclesiastical +method of accounting for certain stories, not very creditable to the +priesthood, that had too inconvenient a basis of evidence to be +dismissed as fabricatious. But the honest lay public seem to have +thought, with downright old Chaucer, that there was more in the matter +than the priests chose to admit. This feeling we, as usual, find +reflected in the dramatic literature of our period. In "The Troublesome +Raigne of King John," an old play upon the basis of which Shakspere +constructed his own "King John," we find this question dealt with in +some detail. In the elder play, the Bastard does "the shaking of bags of +hoarding abbots," _coram populo_, and thereby discloses a phase of +monastic life judiciously suppressed by Shakspere. Philip sets at +liberty much more than "imprisoned angels"--according to one account, +and that a monk's, imprisoned beings of quite another sort. "Faire +Alice, the nonne," having been discovered in the chest where the abbot's +wealth was supposed to be concealed, proposes to purchase pardon for the +offence by disclosing the secret hoard of a sister nun. Her offer being +accepted, a friar is ordered to force the box in which the treasure is +supposed to be secreted. On being questioned as to its contents, he +answers-- + + "Frier Laurence, my lord, now holy water help us! + Some witch or some divell is sent to delude us: + _Haud credo Laurentius_ that thou shouldst be pen'd thus + In the presse of a nun; we are all undone, + And brought to discredence, if thou be Frier Laurence."[2] + +Unfortunately it proves indubitably to be that good man; and he is +ordered to execution, not, however, without some hope of redemption by +money payment; for times are hard, and cash in hand not to be despised. + +[Footnote 1: See the story about Bishop Sylvanus.--Lecky, Rationalism in +Europe, i. 79.] + +[Footnote 2: Hazlitt, Shakspere Library, part ii. vol. i. p. 264.] + +It is amusing to notice, too, that when assuming the clerical garb, the +devil carefully considered the religious creed of the person to whom he +intended to make himself known. The Catholic accounts of him show him +generally assuming the form of a Protestant parson;[1] whilst to those +of the reformed creed he invariably appeared in the habit of a Catholic +priest. In the semblance of a friar the devil is reported (by a +Protestant) to have preached, upon a time, "a verie Catholic sermon;"[2] +so good, indeed, that a priest who was a listener could find no fault +with the doctrine--a stronger basis of fact than one would have imagined +for Shakspere's saying, "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." + +[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 2: Scot, p. 481.] + +50. It is not surprising that of human forms, that of a negro or Moor +should be considered a favourite one with evil spirits.[1] Iago makes +allusion to this when inciting Brabantio to search for his daughter.[2] +The power of coming in the likeness of humanity generally is referred to +somewhat cynically in "Timon of Athens,"[3] thus-- + +"_Varro's Servant._ What is a whoremaster, fool? + +"_Fool._ A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: +sometime 't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a +philosopher with two stones more than 's artificial one: he is very +often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and +down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in." + +[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 89.] + +[Footnote 2: Othello, I. i. 91.] + +[Footnote 3: II. ii. 113.] + +"All shapes that man goes up and down in" seem indeed to have been at +the devils' control. So entirely was this the case, that to Constance +even the fair Blanche was none other than the devil tempting Louis "in +likeness of a new uptrimmed bride;"[1] and perhaps not without a certain +prophetic feeling of the fitness of things, as it may possibly seem to +some of our more warlike politicians, evil spirits have been known to +appear as Russians.[2] + +[Footnote 1: King John, III. i. 209.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 139.] + +51. But all the "shapes that man goes up and down in" did not suffice. +The forms of the whole of the animal kingdom seem to have been at the +devils' disposal; and, not content with these, they seem to have sought +further for unlikely shapes to assume.[1] Poor Caliban complains that +Prospero's spirits + + "Lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark,"[2] + +just as Ariel[3] and Puck[4] (Will-o'-th'-wisp) mislead their victims; +and that + + "For every trifle are they set upon me: + Sometimes like apes, that mow and chatter at me, + And after bite me; then like hedgehogs, which + Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount + Their pricks at my footfall. Sometime am I + All wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues, + Do hiss me into madness." + +And doubtless the scene which follows this soliloquy, in which Caliban, +Trinculo, and Stephano mistake one another in turn for evil spirits, +fully flavoured with fun as it still remains, had far more point for the +audiences at the Globe--to whom a stray devil or two was quite in the +natural order of things under such circumstances--than it can possibly +possess for us. In this play, Ariel, Prospero's familiar, besides +appearing in his natural shape, and dividing into flames, and behaving +in such a manner as to cause young Ferdinand to leap into the sea, +crying, "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!" assumes the forms +of a water-nymph,[5] a harpy,[6] and also the goddess Ceres;[7] while +the strange shapes, masquers, and even the hounds that hunt and worry +the would-be king and viceroys of the island, are Ariel's "meaner +fellows." + +[Footnote 1: For instance, an eye without a head.--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: The Tempest, II. ii. 10.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. I. ii. 198.] + +[Footnote 4: A Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 39; III. i. 111.] + +[Footnote 5: I. ii. 301-318.] + +[Footnote 6: III. iii. 53.] + +[Footnote 7: IV. i. 166.] + +52. Puck's favourite forms seem to have been more outlandish than +Ariel's, as might have been expected of that malicious little spirit. He +beguiles "the fat and bean-fed horse" by + + "Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: + And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, + In very likeness of a roasted crab; + And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, + And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. + The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, + Sometime for three-foot stool[1] mistaketh me; + Then slip I from her, and down topples she." + +And again: + + "Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, + A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; + And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, + Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn."[2] + +With regard to this last passage, it is worthy of note that in the year +1584, strange news came out of Somersetshire, entitled "A Dreadful +Discourse of the Dispossessing of one Margaret Cowper, at Ditchet, from +a Devil in the Likeness of a Headless Bear."[3] + +[Footnote 1: A Scotch witch, when leaving her bed to go to a sabbath, +used to put a three-foot stool in the vacant place; which, after charms +duly mumbled, assumed the appearance of a woman until her +return.--Pitcairn, iii. 617.] + +[Footnote 2: III. i. 111.] + +[Footnote 3: Hutchinson, p. 40.] + +53. In Heywood and Brome's "Witch of Edmonton," the devil appears in the +likeness of a black dog, and takes his part in the dialogue, as if his +presence were a matter of quite ordinary occurrence, not in any way +calling for special remark. However gross and absurd this may appear, it +must be remembered that this play is, in its minutest details, merely a +dramatization of the events duly proved in a court of law, to the +satisfaction of twelve Englishmen, in the year 1612.[1] The shape of a +fly, too, was a favourite one with the evil spirits; so much so that the +term "fly" became a common synonym for a familiar.[2] The word +"Beelzebub" was supposed to mean "the king of flies." At the execution +of Urban Grandier, the famous magician of London, in 1634, a large fly +was seen buzzing about the stake, and a priest promptly seizing the +opportunity of improving the occasion for the benefit of the onlookers, +declared that Beelzebub had come in his own proper person to carry off +Grandier's soul to hell. In 1664 occurred the celebrated witch-trials +which took place before Sir Matthew Hale. The accused were charged with +bewitching two children; and part of the evidence against them was that +flies and bees were seen to carry into the victims' mouths the nails and +pins which they afterwards vomited.[3] There is an allusion to this +belief in the fly-killing scene in "Titus Andronicus."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Potts, Discoveries. Edit. Cheetham Society.] + +[Footnote 2: Cf. B. Jonson's Alchemist.] + +[Footnote 3: A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts relating to +Witchcraft, 1838.] + +[Footnote 4: III. ii. 51, et seq.] + +54. But it was not invariably a repulsive or ridiculous form that was +assumed by these enemies of mankind. Their ingenuity would have been but +little worthy of commendation had they been content to appear as +ordinary human beings, or animals, or even in fancy costume. The Swiss +divine Bullinger, after a lengthy and elaborately learned argument as to +the particular day in the week of creation upon which it was most +probable that God called the angels into being, says, by way of +peroration, "Let us lead a holy and angel-like life in the sight of +God's holy angels. Let us watch, lest he that transfigureth and turneth +himself into an angel of light under a good show and likeness deceive +us."[1] They even went so far, according to Cranmer,[2] as to appear in +the likeness of Christ, in their desire to mislead mankind; for-- + + "When devils will the blackest sins put on, + They do suggest at first with heavenly shows."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Bullinger, Fourth Decade, 9th Sermon. Parker Society.] + +[Footnote 2: Cranmer, Confutation, p. 42. Parker Society.] + +[Footnote 3: Othello, II. iii. 357. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, IV. iii. +257; Comedy of Errors, IV. iii. 56.] + +55. But one of the most ordinary forms supposed at this period to be +assumed by devils was that of a dead friend of the object of the +visitation. Before the Reformation, the belief that the spirits of the +departed had power at will to revisit the scenes and companions of their +earthly life was almost universal. The reforming divines distinctly +denied the possibility of such a revisitation, and accounted for the +undoubted phenomena, as usual, by attributing them to the devil.[1] +James I. says that the devil, when appearing to men, frequently assumed +the form of a person newly dead, "to make them believe that it was some +good spirit that appeared to them, either to forewarn them of the death +of their friend, or else to discover unto them the will of the defunct, +or what was the way of his slauchter.... For he dare not so illude anie +that knoweth that neither can the spirit of the defunct returne to his +friend, nor yet an angell use such formes."[2] He further explains that +such devils follow mortals to obtain two ends: "the one is the tinsell +(loss) of their life by inducing them to such perrilous places at such +times as he either follows or possesses them. The other thing that he +preases to obtain is the tinsell of their soule."[3] + +[Footnote 1: See Hooper's Declaration of the Ten Commandments. Parker +Society. Hooper, 326.] + +[Footnote 2: Daemonologie, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 3: Cf. Hamlet, I. iv. 60-80; and post, § 58.] + +56. But the belief in the appearance of ghosts was too deeply rooted in +the popular mind to be extirpated, or even greatly affected, by a +dogmatic declaration. The masses went on believing as they always had +believed, and as their fathers had believed before them, in spite of the +Reformers, and to their no little discontent. Pilkington, Bishop of +Durham, in a letter to Archbishop Parker, dated 1564, complains that, +"among other things that be amiss here in your great cares, ye shall +understand that in Blackburn there is a fantastical (and as some say, +lunatic) young man, which says that he has spoken with one of his +neighbours that died four year since, or more. Divers times he says he +has seen him, and talked with him, and took with him the curate, the +schoolmaster, and other neighbours, who all affirm that they see him. +_These things be so common here_ that none in authority will gainsay it, +but rather believe and confirm it, that everybody believes it. If I had +known how to examine with authority, I would have done it."[1] Here is a +little glimpse at the practical troubles of a well-intentioned bishop of +the sixteenth century that is surely worth preserving. + +[Footnote 1: Parker Correspondence, 222. Parker Society.] + +57. There were thus two opposite schools of belief in this matter of the +supposed spirits of the departed:--the conservative, which held to the +old doctrine of ghosts; and the reforming, which denied the possibility +of ghosts, and held to the theory of devils. In the midst of this +disagreement of doctors it was difficult for a plain man to come to a +definite conclusion upon the question; and, in consequence, all who were +not content with quiet dogmatism were in a state of utter uncertainty +upon a point not entirely without importance in practical life as well +as in theory. This was probably the position in which the majority of +thoughtful men found themselves; and it is accurately reflected in three +of Shakspere's plays, which, for other and weightier reasons, are +grouped together in the same chronological division--"Julius Caesar," +"Macbeth," and "Hamlet." In the first-mentioned play, Brutus, who +afterwards confesses his belief that the apparition he saw at Sardis was +the ghost of Caesar,[1] when in the actual presence of the spirit, +says-- + + "Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil?"[2] + +The same doubt flashes across the mind of Macbeth on the second entrance +of Banquo's ghost--which is probably intended to be a devil appearing at +the instigation of the witches--when he says, with evident allusion to a +diabolic power before referred to-- + + "What man dare, I dare: + Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, + The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger, + Take any shape but that."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Julius Caesar, V. v. 17.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. IV. iii. 279.] + +[Footnote 3: Macbeth, III. iv. 100.] + +58. But it is in "Hamlet" that the undecided state of opinion upon this +subject is most clearly reflected; and hardly enough influence has been +allowed to the doubts arising from this conflict of belief, as urgent or +deterrent motives in the play, because this temporary condition of +thought has been lost sight of. It is exceedingly interesting to note +how frequently the characters who have to do with the apparition of the +late King Hamlet alternate between the theories that it is a ghost and +that it is a devil which they have seen. The whole subject has such an +important bearing upon any attempt to estimate the character of Hamlet, +that no excuse need be offered for once again traversing such +well-trodden ground. + +Horatio, it is true, is introduced to us in a state of determined +scepticism; but this lasts for a few seconds only, vanishing upon the +first entrance of the spectre, and never again appearing. His first +inclination seems to be to the belief that he is the victim of a +diabolical illusion; for he says-- + + "What art thou, that _usurp'st_ this time of night, + Together with that fair and warlike form + In which the majesty of buried Denmark + Did sometimes march?"[1] + +And Marcellus seems to be of the same opinion, for immediately before, +he exclaims-- + + "Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio;" + +having apparently the same idea as had Coachman Toby, in "The +Night-Walker," when he exclaims-- + + "Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, + And that will daunt the devil."[2] + +On the second appearance of the illusion, however, Horatio leans to the +opinion that it is really the ghost of the late king that he sees, +probably in consequence of the conversation that has taken place since +the former visitation; and he now appeals to the ghost for information +that may enable him to procure rest for his wandering soul. Again, +during his interview with Hamlet, when he discloses the secret of the +spectre's appearance, though very guarded in his language, Horatio +clearly intimates his conviction that he has seen the spirit of the late +king. + +[Footnote 1: I. i. 46.] + +[Footnote 2: II. i.] + +The same variation of opinion is visible in Hamlet himself; but, as +might be expected, with much more frequent alternations. When first he +hears Horatio's story, he seems to incline to the belief that it must be +the work of some diabolic agency: + + "If it assume my noble father's person, + I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, + And bid me hold my peace;"[1] + +although, characteristically, in almost the next line he exclaims-- + + "My father's spirit in arms! All is not well," etc. + +This, too, seems to be the dominant idea in his mind when he is first +brought face to face with the apparition and exclaims-- + + "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!-- + Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, + Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, + Be thine intents wicked or charitable, + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, + That I will speak to thee."[2] + +For it cannot be supposed that Hamlet imagined that a "goblin damned" +could actually be the spirit of his dead father; and, therefore, the +alternative in his mind must have been that he saw a devil assuming his +father's likeness--a form which the Evil One knew would most incite +Hamlet to intercourse. But even as he speaks, the other theory gradually +obtains ascendency in his mind, until it becomes strong enough to induce +him to follow the spirit. + +[Footnote 1: I. ii. 244.] + +[Footnote 2: I. iv. 39.] + +But whilst the devil-theory is gradually relaxing its hold upon Hamlet's +mind, it is fastening itself with ever-increasing force upon the minds +of his companions; and Horatio expresses their fears in words that are +worth comparing with those just quoted from James's "Daemonologie." +Hamlet responds to their entreaties not to follow the spectre thus-- + + "Why, what should be the fear? + I do not set my life at a pin's fee; + And, for my soul, what can it do to that, + Being a thing immortal as itself?" + +And Horatio answers-- + + "What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, + Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, + That beetles o'er his base into the sea, + And there assume some other horrible form, + Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, + And draw you into madness?" + +The idea that the devil assumed the form of a dead friend in order to +procure the "tinsell" of both body and soul of his victim is here +vividly before the minds of the speakers of these passages.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See ante, § 55.] + +The subsequent scene with the ghost convinces Hamlet that he is not the +victim of malign influences--as far as he is capable of conviction, for +his very first words when alone restate the doubt: + + "O all you host of heaven! O earth! _What else?_ And shall I couple + hell?"[1] + +and the enthusiasm with which he is inspired in consequence of this +interview is sufficient to support his certainty of conviction until the +time for decisive action again arrives. It is not until the idea of the +play-test occurs to him that his doubts are once more aroused; and then +they return with redoubled force:-- + + "The spirit that I have seen + May be the devil: and the devil hath power + To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps, + Out of my weakness and my melancholy, + (As he is very potent with such spirits,) + Abuses me to damn me."[2] + +And he again alludes to this in his speech to Horatio, just before the +entry of the king and his train to witness the performance of the +players.[3] + +[Footnote 1: I. v. 92.] + +[Footnote 2: II. ii. 627.] + +[Footnote 3: III. ii. 87.] + +59. This question was, in Shakspere's time, quite a legitimate element +of uncertainty in the complicated problem that presented itself for +solution to Hamlet's ever-analyzing mind; and this being so, an apparent +inconsistency in detail which has usually been charged upon Shakspere +with regard to this play, can be satisfactorily explained. Some critics +are never weary of exclaiming that Shakspere's genius was so vast and +uncontrollable that it must not be tested, or expected to be found +conformable to the rules of art that limit ordinary mortals; that there +are many discrepancies and errors in his plays that are to be condoned +upon that account; in fact, that he was a very careless and slovenly +workman. A favourite instance of this is taken from "Hamlet," where +Shakspere actually makes the chief character of the play talk of death +as "the bourne from whence no traveller returns" not long after he has +been engaged in a prolonged conversation with such a returned traveller. + +Now, no artist, however distinguished or however transcendent his +genius, is to be pardoned for insincere workmanship, and the greater the +man, the less his excuse. Errors arising from want of information (and +Shakspere commits these often) may be pardoned if the means for +correcting them be unattainable; but errors arising from mere +carelessness are not to be pardoned. Further, in many of these cases of +supposed contradiction there is an element of carelessness indeed; but +it lies at the door of the critic, not of the author; and this appears +to be true in the present instance. The dilemma, as it presented itself +to the contemporary mind, must be carefully kept in view. Either the +spirits of the departed could revisit this world, or they could not. If +they could not, then the apparitions mistaken for them must be devils +assuming their forms. Now, the tendency of Hamlet's mind, immediately +before the great soliloquy on suicide, is decidedly in favour of the +latter alternative. The last words that he has uttered, which are also +the last quoted here,[1] are those in which he declares most forcibly +that he believes the devil-theory possible, and consequently that the +dead do not return to this world; and his utterances in his soliloquy +are only an accentuate and outcome of this feeling of uncertainty. The +very root of his desire for death is that he cannot discard with any +feeling of certitude the Protestant doctrine that no traveller does +after death return from the invisible world, and that the so-called +ghosts are a diabolic deception. + +[Footnote 1: § 58, p. 59.] + +60. Another power possessed by the evil spirits, and one that excited +much attention and created an immense amount of strife during +Elizabethan times, was that of entering into the bodies of human beings, +or otherwise influencing them so as utterly to deprive them of all +self-control, and render them mere automata under the command of the +fiends. This was known as possession, or obsession. It was another of +the mediaeval beliefs against which the reformers steadily set their +faces; and all the resources of their casuistry were exhausted to expose +its absurdity. But their position in this respect was an extremely +delicate one. On one side of them zealous Catholics were exorcising +devils, who shrieked out their testimony to the eternal truth of the +Holy Catholic Church; whilst at the same time, on the other side, the +zealous Puritans of the extremer sort were casting out fiends, who bore +equally fervent testimony to the superior efficacy and purity of the +Protestant faith. The tendency of the more moderate members of the +party, therefore was towards a compromise similar to that arrived at +upon the question how the devils came by the forms in which they +appeared upon the earth. They could not admit that devils could actually +enter into and possess the body of a man in those latter days, although +during the earlier history of the Church such things had been permitted +by Divine Providence for some inscrutable but doubtless satisfactory +reason:--that was Catholicism. On the other hand, they could not for an +instant tolerate or even sanction the doctrine that devils had no power +whatever over humanity:--that was Atheism. But it was quite possible +that evil spirits, without actually entering into the body of a man, +might so infest, worry, and torment him, as to produce all the symptoms +indicative of possession. The doctrine of obsession replaced that of +possession; and, once adopted, was supported by a string of those +quaint, conceited arguments so peculiar to the time.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Dialogicall Discourses, by Deacon and Walker, 3rd +Dialogue.] + +61. But, as in all other cases, the refinements of the theologians had +little or no effect upon the world outside their controversies. To the +ordinary mind, if a man's eyes goggled, body swelled, and mouth foamed, +and it was admitted that these were the work of a devil, the question +whether the evil-doer were actually housed within the sufferer, or only +hovered in his immediate neighbourhood, seemed a question of such minor +importance as to be hardly worth discussing--a conclusion that the lay +mind is apt to come to upon other questions that appear portentous to +the divines--and the theory of possession, having the advantage in time +over that of obsession, was hard to dislodge. + +62. One of the chief causes of the persistency with which the old belief +was maintained was the utter ignorance of the medical men of the period +on the subject of mental disease. The doctors of the time were mere +children in knowledge of the science they professed; and to attribute a +disease, the symptoms of which they could not comprehend, to a power +outside their control by ordinary methods, was a safe method of +screening a reputation which might otherwise have suffered. "Canst thou +not minister to a mind diseased?" cries Macbeth to the doctor, in one of +those moments of yearning after the better life he regrets, but cannot +return to, which come over him now and again. No; the disease is beyond +his practice; and, although this passage has in it a deeper meaning than +the one attributed to it here, it well illustrates the position of the +medical man in such cases. Most doctors of the time were mere empirics; +dabbled more or less in alchemy; and, in the treatment of mental +disease, were little better than children. They had for co-practitioners +all who, by their credit with the populace for superior wisdom, found +themselves in a position to engage in a profitable employment. Priests, +preachers, schoolmasters--Dr. Pinches and Sir Topazes--became so +commonly exorcists, that the Church found it necessary to forbid the +casting out of spirits without a special license for that purpose.[1] +But as the Reformers only combated the doctrine of possession upon +strictly theological grounds, and did not go on to suggest any +substitute for the time-honoured practice of exorcism as a means for +getting rid of the admittedly obnoxious result of diabolic interference, +it is not altogether surprising that the method of treatment did not +immediately change. + +[Footnote 1: 72nd Canon.] + +63. Upon this subject a book called "Tryal of Witchcraft," by John +Cotta, "Doctor in Physike," published in 1616, is extremely instructive. +The writer is evidently in advance of his time in his opinions upon the +principal subject with which he professes to deal, and weighs the +evidence for and against the reality of witchcraft with extreme +precision and fairness. In the course of his argument he has to +distinguish the symptoms that show a person to have been bewitched, from +those that point to a demoniacal possession.[1] "Reason doth detect," +says he, "the sicke to be afflicted by the immediate supernaturall power +of the devil two wayes: the first way is by such things as are subject +and manifest to the learned physicion only; the second is by such things +as are subject and manifest to the vulgar view." The two signs by which +the "learned physicion" recognized diabolic intervention were: first, +the preternatural appearance of the disease from which the patient was +suffering; and, secondly, the inefficacy of the remedies applied. In +other words, if the leech encountered any disease the symptoms of which +were unknown to him, or if, through some unforeseen circumstances, the +drug he prescribed failed to operate in its accustomed manner, a case of +demoniacal possession was considered to be conclusively proved, and the +medical man was merged in the magician. + +[Footnote 1: Ch. 10.] + +64. The second class of cases, in which the diabolic agency is palpable +to the layman as well as the doctor, Cotta illustrates thus: "In the +time of their paroxysmes or fits, some diseased persons have been seene +to vomit crooked iron, coales, brimstone, nailes, needles, pinnes, lumps +of lead, waxe, hayre, strawe, and the like, in such quantities, figure, +fashion, and proportion as could never possiblie pass down, or arise up +thorow the natural narrownesse of the throate, or be contained in the +unproportionable small capacitie, naturall susceptibilitie, and position +of the stomake." Possessed persons, he says, were also clairvoyant, +telling what was being said and done at a far distance; and also spoke +languages which at ordinary times they did not understand, as their +successors, the modern spirit mediums, do. This gift of tongues was one +of the prominent features of the possession of Will Sommers and the +other persons exorcised by the Protestant preacher John Darrell, whose +performances as an exorcist created quite a domestic sensation in +England at the close of the sixteenth century.[1] The whole affair was +investigated by Dr. Harsnet, who had already acquired fame as an +iconoclast in these matters, as will presently be seen; but it would +have little more than an antiquarian interest now, were it not for the +fact that Ben Jonson made it the subject of his satire in one of his +most humorous plays, "The Devil is an Ass." In it he turns the +last-mentioned peculiarity to good account; for when Fitzdottrell, in +the fifth act, feigns madness, and quotes Aristophanes, and speaks in +Spanish and French, the judicious Sir Paul Eithersides comes to the +conclusion that "it is the devil by his several languages." + +[Footnote 1: A True Relation of the Grievious Handling of William +Sommers, etc. London: T. Harper, 1641 (? 1601). The Tryall of Maister +Darrell, 1599.] + +65. But more interesting, and more important for the present purpose, +are the cases of possession that were dealt with by Father Parsons and +his colleagues in 1585-6, and of which Dr. Harsnet gave such a highly +spiced and entertaining account in his "Declaration of Egregious Popish +Impostures," first published in the year 1603. It is from this work that +Shakspere took the names of the devils mentioned by Edgar, and other +references made by him in "King Lear;" and an outline of the relation of +the play to the book will furnish incidentally much matter illustrative +of the subject of possession. But before entering upon this outline, a +brief glance at the condition of affairs political and domestic, which +partially caused and nourished these extraordinary eccentricities, is +almost essential to a proper understanding of them. + +66. The year 1586 was probably one of the most critical years that +England has passed through since she was first a nation. Standing alone +amongst the European States, with even the Netherlanders growing cold +towards her on account of her ambiguous treatment of them, she had to +fight out the battle of her independence against odds to all appearances +irresistible. With Sixtus plotting her overthrow at Rome, Philip at +Madrid, Mendoza and the English traitors at Paris, and Mary of Scotland +at Chartley, while a third of her people were malcontent, and James the +Sixth was friend or enemy as it best suited his convenience, the outlook +was anything but reassuring for the brave men who held the helm in those +stormy times. But although England owed her deliverance chiefly to the +forethought and hardihood of her sons, it cannot be doubted that the +sheer imbecility of her foes contributed not a little to that result. To +both these conditions she owed the fact that the great Armada, the +embodiment of the foreign hatred and hostility, threatening to break +upon her shores like a huge wave, vanished like its spray. Medina +Sidonia, with his querulous complaints and general ineffectuality,[1] +was hardly a match for Drake and his sturdy companions; nor were the +leaders of the Babington conspiracy, the representatives and would-be +leaders of the corresponding internal convulsion, the infatuated +worshippers of the fair devil of Scotland, the men to cope for a moment +with the intellects of Walsingham and Burleigh. + +[Footnote 1: Froude, xii. p. 405.] + +67. The events which Harsnet investigated and wrote upon with +politico-theological animus formed an eddy in the main current of the +Babington conspiracy. For some years before that plot had taken definite +shape, seminary priests had been swarming into England from the +continent, and were sedulously engaged in preaching rebellion in the +rural districts, sheltered and protected by the more powerful of the +disaffected nobles and gentry--modern apostles, preparing the way before +the future regenerator of England, Cardinal Allen, the would-be Catholic +Archbishop of Canterbury. Among these was one Weston, who, in his +enthusiastic admiration for the martyr-traitor, Edmund Campion, had +adopted the alias of Edmonds. This Jesuit was gifted with the power of +casting out devils, and he exercised it in order to prove the divine +origin of the Holy Catholic faith, and, by implication, the duty of all +persons religiously inclined, to rebel against a sovereign who was +ruthlessly treading it into the dust. The performances which Harsnet +examined into took place chiefly in the house of Lord Vaux at Hackney, +and of one Peckham at Denham, in the end of the year 1585 and the +beginning of 1586. The possessed persons were Anthony Tyrell, another +Jesuit who rounded upon his friends in the time of their tribulation;[1] +Marwood, Antony Babington's private servant, who subsequently found it +convenient to leave the country, and was never examined upon the +subject; Trayford and Mainy, two young gentlemen, and Sara and Friswood +Williams, and Anne Smith, maid-servants. Richard Mainy, the most +edifying subject of them all, was seventeen only when the possession +seized him; he had only just returned to England from Rheims, and, when +passing through Paris, had come under the influence of Charles Paget and +Morgan; so his antecedents appeared somewhat open to suspicion.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The Fall of Anthony Tyrell, by Persoun. See The Troubles of +our Catholic Forefathers, by John Morris, p. 103.] + +[Footnote 2: He was examined by the Government as to his connection with +the Paris conspirators.--See State Papers, vol. clxxx. 16, 17.] + +68. With the truth or falsehood of the statements and deductions made by +Harsnet, we have little or no concern. Western did not pretend to deny +that he had the power of exorcism, or that he exercised it upon the +persons in question, but he did not admit the truth of any of the more +ridiculous stories which Harsnet so triumphantly brings forward to +convict him of intentional deceit; and his features, if the portrait in +Father Morris's book is an accurate representation of him, convey an +impression of feeble, unpractical piety that one is loth to associate +with a malicious impostor. In addition to this, one of the witnesses +against him, Tyrell, was a manifest knave and coward; another, Mainy, as +conspicuous a fool; while the rest were servant-maids--all of them +interested in exonerating themselves from the stigma of having been +adherents of a lost cause, at the expense of a ringleader who seemed to +have made himself too conspicuous to escape punishment. Furthermore, the +evidence of these witnesses was not taken until 1598 and 1602, twelve +and sixteen years after the events to which it related took place; and +when taken, was taken by Harsnet, a violent Protestant and almost +maniacal exorcist-hunter, as the miscellaneous collection of literature +evoked by his exposure of Parson Darrell's dealings with Will Sommers +and others will show. + +69. Among the many devils' names mentioned by Harsnet in his +"Declaration," and in the examinations of witnesses annexed to it, the +following have undoubtedly been repeated in "King Lear":--Fliberdigibet, +spelt in the play Flibbertigibbet; Hoberdidance called Hopdance and +Hobbididance; and Frateretto, who are called morris-dancers; Haberdicut, +who appears in "Lear" as Obidicut; Smolkin, one of Trayford's devils; +Modu, who possessed Mainy; and Maho, who possessed Sara Williams. These +two latter devils have in the play managed to exchange the final vowels +of their names, and appear as Modo and Mahu.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In addition to these, Killico has probably been corrupted +into Pillicock--a much more probable explanation of the word than either +of those suggested by Dyce in his glossary; and I have little doubt that +the ordinary reading of the line, "Pur! the cat is gray!" in Act III. +vi. 47, is incorrect; that Pur is not an interjection, but the +repetition of the name of another devil, Purre, who is mentioned by +Harsnet. The passage in question occurs only in the quartos, and +therefore the fact that there is no stop at all after the word "Pur" +cannot be relied upon as helping to prove the correctness of this +supposition. On the other hand, there is nothing in the texts to justify +the insertion of the note of exclamation.] + +70. A comparison of the passages in "King Lear" spoken by Edgar when +feigning madness, with those in Harsnet's book which seem to have +suggested them, will furnish as vivid a picture as it is possible to +give of the state of contemporary belief upon the subject of +possession. It is impossible not to notice that nearly all the allusions +in the play refer to the performance of the youth Richard Mainy. Even +Edgar's hypothetical account of his moral failings in the past seems to +have been an accurate reproduction of Mainy's conduct in some +particulars, as the quotation below will prove;[1] and there appears to +be so little necessity for these remarks of Edgar's, that it seems +almost possible that there may have been some point in these passages +that has since been lost. A careful search, however, has failed to +disclose any reason why Mainy should be held up to obloquy; and the +passages in question were evidently not the result of a direct reference +to the "Declaration." After his examination by Harsnet in 1602, Mainy +seems to have sunk into the insignificant position which he was so +calculated to adorn, and nothing more is heard of him; so the references +to him must be accidental merely. + +[Footnote 1: "He would needs have persuaded this examinate's sister to +have gone thence with him in the apparel of a youth, and to have been +his boy and waited upon him.... He urged this examinate divers times to +have yielded to his carnal desires, using very unfit tricks with her. +There was also a very proper woman, one Mistress Plater, with whom this +examinate perceived he had many allurements, showing great tokens of +extraordinary affection towards her."--Evidence of Sara Williams, +Harsnet, p. 190. Compare King Lear, Act iii. sc. iv. ll. 82-101; note +especially l. 84.] + +71. One curious little repetition in the play of a somewhat unimportant +incident recorded by Harsnet is to be found in the fourth scene of the +third act, where Edgar says-- + +"Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through +fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and +quagmire; _that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his +pew_; set ratsbane by his porridge," etc.[1] + +[Footnote 1: l. 51, et seq.] + +The events referred to took place at Denham. A halter and some +knife-blades were found in a corridor of the house. "A great search was +made in the house to know how the said halter and knife-blades came +thither, but it could not in any wise be found out, as it was pretended, +till Master Mainy in his next fit said, as it was reported, that the +devil layd them in the gallery, that some of those that were possessed +might either hang themselves with the halter, or kill themselves with +the blades."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 218.] + +72. But the bulk of the references relating to the possession of Mainy +occur further on in the same scene:-- + +"_Fool._ This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. + +"_Edgar._ Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word +justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse;[1] set not thy +sweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. + +"_Lear._ What hast thou been? + +"_Edgar._ A serving-man, proud in heart and mind, that curled my hair, +wore my gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did +the act of darkness with her;[2] swore as many oaths as I spake words, +and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the +contriving of lust, and waked to do it; wine loved I deeply; dice +dearly; and in women out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of +ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, +dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the +rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to woman; keep thy foot out of +brothels, thy hand out of plackets,[3] thy pen from lenders' books, and +defy the foul fiend."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Cf. § 70, and note.] + +[Footnote 2: Cf. § 70, and note.] + +[Footnote 3: Placket probably here means pockets; not, as usual, the +slip in a petticoat. Tom was possessed by Mahu, the prince of stealing.] + +[Footnote 4: l. 82, et seq.] + +This must be read in conjunction with what Edgar says of himself +subsequently:-- + +"Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; +Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; +Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses +chamber-maids and waiting-women."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Act IV. i. 61.] + +The following are the chief parts of the account given by Harsnet of the +exorcism of Mainy by Weston--a most extraordinary transaction,--said to +be taken from Weston's own account of the matter. He was supposed to be +possessed by the devils who represented the seven deadly sins, and "by +instigation of the first of the seven, began to set his hands into his +side, curled his hair, and used such gestures as Maister Edmunds present +affirmed that that spirit was Pride.[1] Heerewith he began to curse and +to banne, saying, 'What a poxe do I heare? I will stay no longer among a +company of rascal priests, but goe to the court and brave it amongst my +fellowes, the noblemen there assembled.'[2] ... Then Maister Edmunds did +proceede againe with his exorcismes, and suddenly the sences of Mainy +were taken from him, his belly began to swell, and his eyes to stare, +and suddainly he cried out, 'Ten pounds in the hundred!' he called for a +scrivener to make a bond, swearing that he would not lend his money +without a pawne.... There could be no other talke had with this spirit +but money and usury, so as all the company deemed this devil to be the +author of Covetousnesse....[3] + +[Footnote 1: "A serving-man, proud of heart and mind, that curled my +hair," etc.--l. 87; cf. also l. 84. Curling the hair as a sign of +Mainy's possession is mentioned again, Harsnet, p. 57.] + +[Footnote 2: "That ... swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke +them in the sweet face of heaven."--l. 90.] + +[Footnote 3: "Keep ... thy pen out of lenders' books."--l. 100.] + +"Ere long Maister Edmunds beginneth againe his exorcismes, wherein he +had not proceeded farre, but up cometh another spirit singing most +filthy and baudy songs: every word almost that he spake was nothing but +ribaldry. They that were present with one voyce affirmed that devill to +be the author of Luxury.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in women +out-paramoured the Turk."--l. 93.] + +"Envy was described by disdainful looks and contemptuous speeches; +Wrath, by furious gestures, and talke as though he would have fought;[1] +Gluttony, by vomiting;[2] and Sloth,[3] by gasping and snorting, as +though he had been asleepe."[4] + +[Footnote 1: "Dog in madness, lion in prey."--l. 96.] + +[Footnote 2: "Wolf in greediness."--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 3: "Hog in sloth."--l. 95.] + +[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 278.] + +A sort of prayer-meeting was then held for the relief of the distressed +youth: "Whereupon the spirit of Pride departed in the forme of a +Peacocke; the spirit of Sloth in the likenesse of an Asse; the spirit of +Envy in the similitude of a Dog; the spirit of Gluttony in the forme of +a Wolfe."[1] + +[Footnote 1: The words, "Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in +greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey," are clearly an imperfect +reminiscence of this part of the transaction.] + +There is in another part of "King Lear" a further reference to the +incidents attendant upon these exorcisms Edgar says,[1] "The foul fiend +haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale." This seems to refer to +the following incident related by Friswood Williams:-- + +"There was also another strange thing happened at Denham about a bird. +Mistris Peckham had a nightingale, which she kept in a cage, wherein +Maister Dibdale took great delight, and would often be playing with it. +This nightingale was one night conveyed out of the cage, and being next +morning diligently sought for, could not be heard of, till Maister +Mainie's devil, in one of his fits (as it was pretended), said that the +wicked spirit which was in this examinate's sister[2] had taken the bird +out of the cage, and killed it in despite of Maister Dibdale."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Act III. sc. vi. l. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: Sara Williams.] + +[Footnote 3: Harsnet, p. 225.] + +73. The treatment to which, in consequence of his belief in possession, +unfortunate persons like Mainy and Sommers, who were probably only +suffering from some harmless form of mental disease, were subjected, was +hardly calculated to effect a cure. The most ignorant quack was +considered perfectly competent to deal with cases which, in reality, +require the most delicate and judicious management, combined with the +profoundest physiological, as well as psychological, knowledge. The +ordinary method of dealing with these lunatics was as simple as it was +irritating. Bonds and confinement in a darkened room were the specifics; +and the monotony of this treatment was relieved by occasional visits +from the sage who had charge of the case, to mumble a prayer or mutter +an exorcism. Another popular but unpleasant cure was by flagellation; so +that Romeo's + + "Not mad, but bound more than a madman is, + Shut up in prison, kept without my food, + Whipped and tormented,"[1] + +if an exaggerated description of his own mental condition is in itself +no inflated metaphor. + +[Footnote 1: I. ii. 55.] + +74. Shakspere, in "The Comedy of Errors," and indirectly also in +"Twelfth Night," has given us intentionally ridiculous illustrations of +scenes which he had not improbably witnessed, in the country at any +rate, and which bring vividly before us the absurdity of the methods of +diagnosis and treatment usually adopted:-- + + _Courtesan._ How say you now? is not your husband mad? + + _Adriana._ His incivility confirms no less. + Good doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer; + Establish him in his true sense again, + And I will please you what you will demand. + + _Luciana._ Alas! how fiery and how sharp he looks! + + _Courtesan._ Mark how he trembles in his extasy! + + _Pinch._ Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.[1] + + _Ant. E._ There is my hand, and let it feel your ear. + + _Pinch._ I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, + To yield possession to my holy prayers, + And to thy state of darkness his thee straight; + I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven. + + _Ant. E._ Peace, doting wizard, peace; I am not mad. + + _Pinch._ O that thou wert not, poor distressed soul![2] + +After some further business, Pinch pronounces his opinion: + + "Mistress, both man and master are possessed; + I know it by their pale and deadly looks: + They must be bound, and laid in some dark room."[3] + +But "good doctor Pinch" seems to have been mild even to feebleness in +his conjuration; many of his brethren in art had much more effective +formulae. It seems that devils were peculiarly sensitive to any +opprobrious epithets that chanced to be bestowed upon them. The skilful +exorcist took advantage of this weakness, and, if he could only manage +to keep up a flow of uncomplimentary remarks sufficiently long and +offensive, the unfortunate spirit became embarrassed, restless, +agitated, and finally took to flight. Here is a specimen of the +"nicknames" which had so potent an effect, if Harsnet is to be +credited:-- + +"Heare therefore, thou senceless false lewd spirit, maister of devils, +miserable creature, tempter of men, deceaver of bad angels, captaine of +heretiques, father of lyes, fatuous bestial ninnie, drunkard, infernal +theefe, wicked serpent, ravening woolfe, leane hunger-bitten impure sow, +seely beast, truculent beast, cruel beast, bloody beast, beast of all +blasts, the most bestiall acherontall spirit, smoakie spirit, Tartareus +spirit!"[4] Whether this objurgation terminates from loss of breath on +the part of the conjurer, or the precipitate departure of the spirit +addressed, it is impossible to say; it is difficult to imagine any +logical reason for its conclusion. + +[Footnote 1: The cessation of the pulse was one of the symptoms of +possession. See the case of Sommers, Tryal of Maister Darrell, 1599.] + +[Footnote 2: IV. iv. 48, 62.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 95.] + +[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 113.] + +75. Occasionally other, and sometimes more elaborate, methods of +exorcism than those mentioned by Romeo were adopted, especially when the +operation was conducted for the purpose of bringing into prominence some +great religious truth. The more evangelical of the operators adopted the +plan of lying on the top of their patients, "after the manner of Elias +and Pawle."[1] But the Catholic exorcists invented and carried to +perfection the greatest refinement in the art. The patient, seated in a +"holy chair," specially sanctified for the occasion, was compelled to +drink about a pint of a compound of sack and salad oil; after which +refreshment a pan of burning brimstone was held under his nose, until +his face was blackened by the smoke.[2] All this while the officiating +priest kept up his invocation of the fiends in the manner illustrated +above; and, under such circumstances, it is extremely doubtful whether +the most determined character would not be prepared to see somewhat +unusual phenomena for the sake of a short respite. + +[Footnote 1: The Tryall of Maister Darrell, 1599, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 53.] + +76. Another remarkable method of exorcism was a process termed "firing +out" the fiend.[1] The holy flame of piety resident in the priest was so +terrible to the evil spirit, that the mere contact of the holy hand with +that part of the body of the afflicted person in which he was resident +was enough to make him shrink away into some more distant portion; so, +by a judicious application of the hand, the exorcist could drive the +devil into some limb, from which escape into the body was impossible, +and the evil spirit, driven to the extremity, was obliged to depart, +defeated and disgraced.[2] This influence could be exerted, however, +without actual corporal contact, as the following quaint extract from +Harsnet's book will show:-- + +"Some punie rash devil doth stay till the holy priest be come somewhat +neare, as into the chamber where the demoniacke doth abide, purposing, +as it seemes, to try a pluck with the priest; and then his hart sodainly +failing him (as Demas, when he saw his friend Chinias approach), cries +out that he is tormented with the presence of the priest, and so is +fierd out of his hold."[3] + +[Footnote 1: This expression occurs in Sonnet cxliv., and evidently with +the meaning here explained; only the bad angel is supposed to fire out +the good one.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, pp. 77, 96, 97.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 65.] + +77. The more violent or uncommon of the bodily diseases were, as the +quotation from Cotta's book shows[1], attributed to the same diabolic +source. In an era when the most profound ignorance prevailed with regard +to the simplest laws of health; when the commoner diseases were +considered as God's punishment for sin, and not attributable to natural +causes; when so eminent a divine as Bishop Hooper could declare that +"the air, the water, and the earth have no poison in themselves to hurt +their lord and master man,"[2] unless man first poisoned himself with +sin; and when, in consequence of this ignorance and this false +philosophy, and the inevitable neglect attendant upon them, those +fearful plagues known as "the Black Death" could, almost without notice, +sweep down upon a country, and decimate its inhabitants--it is not +wonderful that these terrible scourges were attributed to the +malevolence of the Evil One. + +[Footnote 1: See §§ 63, 64.] + +[Footnote 2: I Hooper, p. 308. Parker Society.] + +78. But it is curious to notice that, although possessing such terrible +powers over the bodies and minds of mortals, devils were not believed to +be potent enough to destroy the lives of the persons they persecuted +unless they could persuade their victims to renounce God. This theory +probably sprang out of the limitation imposed by the Almighty upon the +power of Satan during his temptation of Job, and the advice given to the +sufferer by his wife, "Curse God, and die." Hence, when evil spirits +began their assaults upon a man, one of their first endeavours was to +induce him to do some act that would be equivalent to such a +renunciation. Sometimes this was a bond assigning the victim's soul to +the Evil One in consideration of certain worldly advantages; sometimes a +formal denial of his baptism; sometimes a deed that drives away the +guardian angel from his side, and leaves the devil's influence +uncounteracted. In "The Witch of Edmonton,"[1] the first act that Mother +Sawyer demands her familiar to perform after she has struck her bargain, +is to kill her enemy Banks; and the fiend has reluctantly to declare +that he cannot do so unless by good fortune he could happen to catch him +cursing. Both Harpax[2] and Mephistophiles[3] suggest to their victims +that they have power to destroy their enemies, but neither of them is +able to exercise it. Faust can torment, but not kill, his would-be +murderers; and Springius and Hircius are powerless to take Dorothea's +life. In the latter case it is distinctly the protection of the guardian +angel that limits the diabolic power; so it is not unnatural that +Gratiano should think the cursing of his better angel from his side the +"most desperate turn" that poor old Brabantio could have done himself, +had he been living to hear of his daughter's cruel death.[4] It is next +to impossible for people in the present day to have any idea what a +consolation this belief in a good attendant spirit, specially appointed +to guard weak mortals through life, to ward off evils, and guide to +eternal safety, must have been in a time when, according to the current +belief, any person, however blameless, however holy, was liable at any +moment to be possessed by a devil, or harried and tortured by a witch. + +[Footnote 1: Act II. sc. i.] + +[Footnote 2: The Virgin Martyr, Act III. sc. iii.] + +[Footnote 3: Dr. Faustus, Act I. sc. iii.] + +[Footnote 4: Othello, Act V. sc. ii. 204.] + +79. This leads by a natural sequence to the consideration of another and +more insidious form of attack upon mankind adopted by the evil spirits. +Possession and obsession were methods of assault adopted against the +will of the afflicted person, and hardly to be avoided by him without +the supernatural intervention of the Church. The practice of witchcraft +and magic involved the absolute and voluntary barter of body and soul to +the Evil One, for the purpose of obtaining a few short years of +superhuman power, to be employed for the gratification of the culprit's +avarice, ambition, or desire for revenge. + +80. In the strange history of that most inexplicable mental disease, the +witchcraft epidemic, as it has been justly called by a high authority on +such matters,[1] we moderns are, by the nature of our education and +prejudices, completely incapacitated for sympathizing with either the +persecutors or their victims. We are at a loss to understand how +clear-sighted and upright men, like Sir Matthew Hale, could consent to +become parties to a relentless persecution to the death of poor helpless +beings whose chief crime, in most cases, was, that they had suffered +starvation both in body and in mind. We cannot understand it, because +none of us believe in the existence of evil spirits. None; for although +there are still a few persons who nominally hold to the ancient faith, +as they do to many other respectable but effete traditions, yet they +would be at a loss for a reason for the faith that is in them, should +they chance to be asked for one; and not one of them would be prepared +to make the smallest material sacrifice for the sake of it. It is true +that the existence of evil spirits recently received a tardy and +somewhat hesitating recognition in our ecclesiastical courts,[2] which +at first authoritatively declared that a denial of the existence of the +personality of the devil constituted a man a notorious evil liver, and +depraver of the Book of Common Prayer;[3] but this was promptly reversed +by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, under the auspices of +two Low Church law lords and two archbishops, with the very vague +proviso that "they do not mean to decide that those doctrines are +otherwise than inconsistent with the formularities of the Church of +England;"[4] yet the very contempt with which these portentous +declarations of Church law have been received shows how great has been +the fall of the once almost omnipotent minister of evil. The ancient +Satan does indeed exist in some few formularies, but in such a +washed-out and flimsy condition as to be the reverse of conspicuous. All +that remains of him and of his subordinate legions is the ineffectual +ghost of a departed creed, for the resuscitation of which no man will +move a finger. + +[Footnote 1: See Dr. Carpenter in _Frazer_ for November, 1877.] + +[Footnote 2: See Jenkins v. Cooke, Law Reports, Admiralty and +Ecclesiastical Cases, vol. iv. p. 463, et seq.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 499, Sir R. Phillimore.] + +[Footnote 4: Law Reports, I Probate Division, p. 102.] + +81. It is perfectly impossible for us, therefore, to comprehend, +although by an effort we may perhaps bring ourselves to imagine, the +horror and loathing with which good men, entirely believing in the +existence and omnipresence of countless legions of evil spirits, able +and anxious to perpetrate the mischiefs that it has been the object of +these pages in some part to describe, would regard those who, for their +own selfish gratification, deliberately surrendered their hopes of +eternal happiness in exchange for an alliance with the devils, which +would render these ten times more capable than before of working their +wicked wills. To men believing this, no punishment could seem too sudden +or too terrible for such offenders against religion and society, and no +means of possible detection too slight or far-fetched to be neglected; +indeed, it might reasonably appear to them better that many innocent +persons should perish, with the assurance of future reward for their +undeserved sufferings, than that a single guilty one should escape +undetected, and become the medium by which the devil might destroy more +souls. + +82. But the persecuted, far more than the persecutors, deserve our +sympathy, although they rarely obtain it. It is frequently asserted that +the absolute truth of a doctrine is the only support that will enable +its adherents successfully to weather the storms of persecution. Those +who assent to this proposition must be prepared to find a large amount +of truth in the beliefs known to us under the name of witchcraft, if the +position is to be successfully maintained; for never was any sect +persecuted more systematically, or with more relentlessness, than these +little-offending heretics. Protestants and Catholics, Anglicans and +Calvinists, so ready at all times to commit one another to the flames +and to the headsman, found in this matter common ground, upon which all +could heartily unite for the grand purpose of extirpating error. When, +out of the quiet of our own times, we look back upon the terrors of the +Tower, and the smoke and glare of Smithfield, we think with mingled pity +and admiration of those brave men and women who, in the sixteenth +century, enriched with their blood and ashes the soil from whence was to +spring our political and religious freedom. But no whit of admiration, +hardly a glimmer of pity, is even casually evinced for those poor +creatures who, neglected, despised, and abhorred, were, at the same +time, dying the same agonizing death, and passing through the torment of +the flames to that "something after death--the undiscovered country," +without the sweet assurance which sustained their better-remembered +fellow-sufferers, that beyond the martyr's cross was waiting the +martyr's crown. No such hope supported those who were condemned to die +for the crime of witchcraft: their anticipations of the future were as +dreary as their memories of the past, and no friendly voice was raised, +or hand stretched out, to encourage or console them during that last sad +journey. Their hope of mercy from man was small--strangulation before +the application of the fire, instead of the more lingering and painful +death at most;--their hope of mercy from Heaven, nothing; yet, under +these circumstances, the most auspicious perhaps that could be imagined +for the extirpation of a heretical belief, persecution failed to effect +its object. The more the Government burnt the witches, the more the +crime of witchcraft spread; and it was not until an attitude of +contemptuous toleration was adopted towards the culprits that the belief +died down, gradually but surely, not on account of the conclusiveness of +the arguments directed against it, but from its own inherent lack of +vitality.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Mr. Lecky's elaborate and interesting description of +the demise of the belief in the first chapter of his History of the Rise +of Rationalism in Europe.] + +83. The history and phenomena of witchcraft have been so admirably +treated by more than one modern investigator, as to render it +unnecessary to deal exhaustively with a subject which presents such a +vast amount of material for arrangement and comment. The scope of the +following remarks will therefore be limited to a consideration of such +features of the subject as appear to throw light upon the +supernaturalism in "Macbeth." This consideration will be carried out +with some minuteness, as certain modern critics, importing mythological +learning that is the outcome of comparatively recent investigation into +the interpretation of the text, have declared that the three sisters who +play such an important part in that drama are not witches at all, but +are, or are intimately allied to, the Norns or Fates of Scandinavian +paganism. It will be the object of the following pages to illustrate the +contemporary belief concerning witches and their powers, by showing that +nearly every characteristic point attributed to the sisters has its +counterpart in contemporary witch-lore; that some of the allusions, +indeed, bear so strong a resemblance to certain events that had +transpired not many years before "Macbeth" was written, that it is not +improbable that Shakspere was alluding to them in much the same +off-hand, cursory manner as he did to the Mainy incident when writing +"King Lear." + +84. The first critic whose comments upon this subject call for notice is +the eminent Gervinus. In evident ignorance of the history of witchcraft, +he says, "In the witches Shakspere has made use of the popular belief in +evil geniuses and in adverse persecutors of mankind, and has produced a +similar but darker race of beings, just as he made use of the belief in +fairies in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' This creation is less +attractive and complete, but not less masterly. The poet, in the text of +the play itself, calls these beings witches only derogatorily; they call +themselves weird sisters; the Fates bore this denomination, and the +sisters remind us indeed of the Northern Fates or Valkyries. They appear +wild and weather-beaten in exterior and attire, common in speech, +ignoble, half-human creatures, ugly as the Evil One, and in like manner +old, and of neither sex. They are guided by more powerful masters, their +work entirely springs from delight in evil, and they are wholly devoid +of human sympathies.... They are simply the embodiment of inward +temptation; they come in storm and vanish in air, like corporeal +impulses, which, originating in the blood, cast up bubbles of sin and +ambition in the soul; they are weird sisters only in the sense in which +men carry their own fates within their bosoms."[1] This criticism is so +entirely subjective and unsupported by evidence that it is difficult to +deal satisfactorily with it. It will be shown hereafter that this +description does not apply in the least to the Scandinavian Norns, +while, so far as it is true to Shakspere's text, it does not clash with +contemporary records of the appearance and actions of witches. + +[Footnote 1: Shakspere Commentaries, translated by F.E. Bunnert, p. +591.] + +85. The next writer to bring forward a view of this character was the +Rev. F.G. Fleay, the well-known Shakspere critic, whose ingenious +efforts in iconoclasm cause a curious alternation of feeling between +admiration and amazement. His argument is unfortunately mixed up with a +question of textual criticism; for he rejects certain scenes in the play +as the work of the inferior dramatist Middleton.[1] The question +relating to the text will only be noticed so far as it is inextricably +involved with the argument respecting the nature of the weird sisters. +Mr. Fleay's position is, shortly, this. He thinks that Shakspere's play +commenced with the entrance of Macbeth and Banquo in the third scene of +the first act, and that the weird sisters who subsequently take part in +that scene are Norns, not witches; and that in the first scene of the +fourth act, Shakspere discarded the Norns, and introduced three +entirely new characters, who were intended to be genuine witches. + +[Footnote 1: Of the witch scenes Mr. Fleay rejects Act I. sc. i., and +sc. iii. down to l. 37, and Act III. sc. v.] + +86. The evidence which can be produced in support of this theory, apart +from question of style and probability, is threefold. The first proof is +derived from a manuscript entitled "The Booke of Plaies and Notes +thereof, for Common Pollicie," written by a somewhat famous +magician-doctor, Simon Forman, who was implicated in the murder of Sir +Thomas Overbury. He says, "In 'Macbeth,' at the Globe, 1610, the 20th +April, Saturday, there was to be observed first how Macbeth and Banquo, +two noblemen of Scotland, riding through a wood, there stood before them +three women fairies, or nymphs, and saluted Macbeth, saying three times +unto him, 'Hail, Macbeth, King of Codor, for thou shalt be a king, but +thou shalt beget no kings,'" etc.[1] This, if Forman's account held +together decently in other respects, would be strong, although not +conclusive, evidence in favour of the theory; but the whole note is so +full of inconsistencies and misstatements, that it is not unfair to +conclude, either that the writer was not paying marvellous attention to +the entertainment he professed to describe, or that the player's copy +differed in many essential points from the present text. Not the least +conspicuous of these inconsistencies is the account of the sisters' +greeting of Macbeth just quoted. Subsequently Forman narrates that +Duncan created Macbeth Prince of Cumberland; and that "when Macbeth had +murdered the king, the blood on his hands could not be washed off by +any means, nor from his wife's hands, which handled the bloody daggers +in hiding them, by which means they became both much amazed and +affronted." Such a loose narration cannot be relied upon if the text in +question contains any evidence at all rebutting the conclusion that the +sisters are intended to be "women fairies, or nymphs." + +[Footnote 1: See Furness, Variorum, p. 384.] + +87. The second piece of evidence is the story of Macbeth as it is +narrated by Holinshed, from which Shakspere derived his material. In +that account we read that "It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho journied +toward Fores, where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie +togither without other companie, saue onlie themselues, passing thorough +the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund there met +them three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of +elder world, whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the +sight, the first of them spake and said; 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of +Glammis' (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by +the death of his father Sinell). The second of them said; 'Haile, +Makbeth, thane of Cawder.' But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that +heereafter shall be King of Scotland.' ... Afterwards the common opinion +was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would +say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, indued +with knowledge of prophesie by their necromanticall science, because +everiething came to passe as they had spoken."[1] This is all that is +heard of these "goddesses of Destinie" in Holinshed's narrative. Macbeth +is warned to "beware Macduff"[2] by "certeine wizzards, in whose words +he put great confidence;" and the false promises were made to him by "a +certeine witch, whome he had in great trust, (who) had told him that he +should neuer be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till +the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Holinshed, Scotland, p. 170, c. 2, l. 55.] + +[Footnote 2: Macbeth, IV. l. 71. Holinshed, p. 174, c. 2, l. 10.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. l. 13.] + +88. In this account we find that the supernatural communications adopted +by Shakspere were derived from three sources; and the contention is that +he has retained two of them--the "goddesses of Destinie" and the +witches; and the evidence of this retention is the third proof relied +on, namely, that the stage direction in the first folio, Act IV. sc. i., +is, "Enter Hecate and the _other_ three witches," when three characters +supposed to be witches are already upon the scene. Holinshed's narrative +makes it clear that the idea of the "goddesses of Destinie" was +distinctly suggested to Shakspere's mind, as well as that of the +witches, as the mediums of supernatural influence. The question is, did +he retain both, or did he reject one and retain the other? It can +scarcely be doubted that one such influence running through the play +would conduce to harmony and unity of idea; and as Shakspere, not a +servile follower of his source in any case, has interwoven in "Macbeth" +the totally distinct narrative of the murder of King Duffe,[1] it is +hardly to be supposed that he would scruple to blend these two +different sets of characters if any advantage were to be gained by so +doing. As to the stage direction in the first folio, it is difficult to +see what it would prove, even supposing that the folio were the most +scrupulous piece of editorial work that had ever been effected. It +presupposes that the "weird sisters" are on the stage as well as the +witches. But it is perfectly clear that the witches continue the +dialogue; so the other more powerful beings must be supposed to be +standing silent in the background--a suggestion so monstrous that it is +hardly necessary to refer to the slovenliness of the folio stage +directions to show how unsatisfactory an argument based upon one of them +must be. + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. p. 149. "A sort of witches dwelling in a towne of +Murreyland called Fores" (c. 2, l. 30) were prominent in this account.] + +89. The evidence of Forman and Holinshed has been stated fully, in order +that the reader may be in possession of all the materials that may be +necessary for forming an accurate judgment upon the point in question; +but it seems to be less relied upon than the supposition that the +appearance and powers of the beings in the admittedly genuine part of +the third scene of the first act are not those formerly attributed to +witches, and that Shakspere, having once decided to represent Norns, +would never have degraded them "to three old women, who are called by +Paddock and Graymalkin, sail in sieves, kill swine, serve Hecate, and +deal in all the common charms, illusions, and incantations of vulgar +witches. The three who 'look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, and +yet are on't;' they who can 'look into the seeds of time, and say which +grain will grow;' they who seem corporal, but melt into the air, like +bubbles of the earth; the weyward sisters, who make themselves air, and +have in them more than mortal knowledge, are not beings of this +stamp."[1] + +[Footnote 1: New Shakspere Society Transactions, vol. i. p.342; Fleay's +Shakspere Manual, p. 248.] + +90. Now, there is a great mass of contemporary evidence to show that +these supposed characteristics of the Norns are, in fact, some of the +chief attributes of the witches of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. If this be so--if it can be proved that the supposed +"goddesses of Destinie" of the play in reality possess no higher powers +than could be acquired by ordinary communication with evil spirits, then +no weight must be attached to the vague stage direction in the folio, +occurring as it does in a volume notorious for the extreme carelessness +with which it was produced; and it must be admitted that the "goddesses +of Destinie" of Holinshed were sacrificed for the sake of the witches. +If, in addition to this, it can be shown that there was a very +satisfactory reason why the witches should have been chosen as the +representatives of the evil influence instead of the Norns, the argument +will be as complete as it is possible to make it. + +91. But before proceeding to examine the contemporary evidence, it is +necessary, in order to obtain a complete conception of the mythological +view of the weird sisters, to notice a piece of criticism that is at +once an expansion of, and a variation upon, the theory just stated.[1] +It is suggested that the sisters of "Macbeth" are but three in number, +but that Shakspere drew upon Scandinavian mythology for a portion of the +material he used in constructing these characters, and that he derived +the rest from the traditions of contemporary witchcraft; in fact, that +the "sisters" are hybrids between Norns and witches. The supposed proof +of this is that each sister exercises the special function of one of the +Norns. "The third is the special prophetess, whilst the first takes +cognizance of the past, and the second of the present, in affairs +connected with humanity. These are the tasks of Urda, Verdandi, and +Skulda. The first begins by asking, 'When shall we three meet again?' +The second decides the time: 'When the battle's lost or won.' The third, +the future prophesies: 'That will be ere set of sun.' The first again +asks, 'Where?' The second decides: 'Upon the heath.' The third, the +future prophesies: 'There to meet with Macbeth.'" But their _rôle_ is +most clearly brought out in the famous "Hails":-- + + _1st. Urda._ [Past.] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of + Glamis! + + _2nd. Verdandi._ [Present.] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane + of Cawdor! + + _3rd. Skulda._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shalt be king hereafter.[2] + +This sequence is supposed to be retained in other of the sisters' +speeches; but a perusal of these will soon show that it is only in the +second of the above quotations that it is recognizable with any +definiteness; and this, it must be remembered, is an almost verbal +transcript from Holinshed, and not an original conception of +Shakspere's, who might feel himself quite justified in changing the +characters of the speakers, while retaining their utterances. In +addition to this, the natural sequence is in many cases utterly and +unnecessarily violated; as, for instance, in Act I. sc. iii., where +Urda, who should be solely occupied with past matters, predicts, with +extreme minuteness, the results that are to follow from her projected +voyage to Aleppo, and that without any expression of resentment, but +rather with promise of assistance, from Skulda, whose province she is +thus invading. + +[Footnote 1: In a letter to _The Academy_, 8th February, 1879, signed +"Charlotte Carmichael."] + +[Footnote 2: I have taken the liberty of printing this quotation as it +stands in the text. The writer in _The Academy_ has effected a +rearrangement of the dialogue by importing what might be Macbeth's +replies to the three sisters from his speech beginning at l. 70, and +alternating them with the different "Hails," which, in addition, are not +correctly quoted--for what purpose it is difficult to see. It may be +added here that in a subsequent number of _The Academy_, a long letter +upon the same subject appeared from Mr. Karl Blind, which seems to prove +little except the author's erudition. He assumes the Teutonic origin of +the sisters throughout, and, consequently, adduces little evidence in +favour of the theory. One of his points is the derivation of the word +"weird" or "wayward," which, as will be shown subsequently, was applied +to witches. Another point is, that the witch scenes savour strongly of +the staff-rime of old German poetry. It is interesting to find two +upholders of the Norn-theory relying mainly for proof of their position +upon a scene (Act I. sc. i.) which Mr Fleay says that the very statement +of this theory (p. 249) must brand as spurious. The question of the +sisters' beards too, regarding which Mr. Blind brings somewhat +far-fetched evidence, is, I think, more satisfactorily settled by the +quotations in the text.] + +92. But this latter piece of criticism seems open to one grave +objection to which the former is not liable. Mr. Fleay separates the +portions of the play which are undoubtedly to be assigned to witches +from the parts he gives to his Norns, and attributes them to different +characters; the other mixes up the witch and Norn elements in one +confused mass. The earlier critic saw the absurdity of such a +supposition when he wrote: "Shakspere may have raised the wizard and +witches of the latter parts of Holinshed to the weird sisters of the +former parts, but the converse process is impossible."[1] Is it +conceivable that Shakspere, who, as most people admit, was a man of some +poetic feeling, being in possession of the beautiful Norn-legend--the +silent Fate-goddesses sitting at the foot of Igdrasil, the mysterious +tree of human existence, and watering its roots with water from the +sacred spring--could, ruthlessly and without cause, mar the charm of the +legend by the gratuitous introduction of the gross and primarily +unpoetical details incident to the practice of witchcraft? No man with a +glimmer of poetry in his soul will imagine it for a moment. The +separation of characters is more credible than this; but if that theory +can be shown to be unfounded, there is no improbability in supposing +that Shakspere, finding that the question of witchcraft was, in +consequence of events that had taken place not long before the time of +the production of "Macbeth," absorbing the attention of all men, from +king to peasant, should set himself to deal with such a popular subject, +and, by the magic of his art, so raise it out of its degradation into +the region of poetry, that men should wonder and say, "Can this be +witchcraft indeed?" + +[Footnote 1: Shakspere Manual, p. 249.] + +93. In comparing the evidence to be deduced from the contemporary +records of witchcraft with the sayings and doings of the sisters in +"Macbeth," those parts of the play will first be dealt with upon which +no doubt as to their genuineness has ever been cast, and which are +asserted to be solely applicable to Norns. If it can be shown that these +describe witches rather than Norns, the position that Shakspere +intentionally substituted witches for the "goddesses of Destinie" +mentioned in his authority is practically unassailable. First, then, it +is asserted that the description of the appearance of the sisters given +by Banquo applies to Norns rather than witches-- + + "They look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't." + +This question of applicability, however, must not be decided by the +consideration of a single sentence, but of the whole passage from which +it is extracted; and, whilst considering it, it should be carefully +borne in mind that it occurs immediately before those lines which are +chiefly relied upon as proving the identity of the sisters with Urda, +Verdandi, and Skulda. + +Banquo, on seeing the sisters, says-- + + "What are these, + So withered and so wild in their attire, + That look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't? Live you, or are you aught + That man may question? You seem to understand me, + By each at once her chappy finger laying + Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, + And yet your beards forbid me to interpret + That you are so." + +It is in the first moment of surprise that the sisters, appearing so +suddenly, seem to Banquo unlike the inhabitants of this earth. When he +recovers from the shock and is capable of deliberate criticism, he sees +chappy fingers, skinny lips--in fact, nothing to distinguish them from +poverty-stricken, ugly old women but their beards. A more accurate +poetical counterpart to the prose descriptions given by contemporary +writers of the appearance of the poor creatures who were charged with +the crime of witchcraft could hardly have been penned. Scot, for +instance, says, "They are women which commonly be old, lame, +bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles.... They are leane and +deformed, showing melancholie in their faces;"[1] and Harsnet describes +a witch as "an old weather-beaten crone, having her chin and knees +meeting for age, walking like a bow, leaning on a staff, hollow-eyed, +untoothed, furrowed, having her lips trembling with palsy, going +mumbling in the streets; one that hath forgotten her Pater-noster, yet +hath a shrewd tongue to call a drab a drab."[2] It must be remembered +that these accounts are by two sceptics, who saw nothing in the witches +but poor, degraded old women. In a description which assumes their +supernatural power such minute details would not be possible; yet there +is quite enough in Banquo's description to suggest neglect, squalor, and +misery. But if this were not so, there is one feature in the +description of the sisters that would settle the question once and for +ever. The beard was in Elizabethan times the recognized characteristic +of the witch. In one old play it is said, "The women that come to us for +disguises must wear beards, and that's to say a token of a witch;"[3] +and in another, "Some women have beards; marry, they are half +witches;"[4] and Sir Hugh Evans gives decisive testimony to the fact +when he says of the disguised Falstaff, "By yea and no, I think, the +'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I +spy a great peard under her muffler."[5] + +[Footnote 1: Discoverie, book i. ch. 3, p. 7.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, Declaration, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 3: Honest Man's Fortune, II. i. Furness, Variorum, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 4: Dekker's Honest Whore, sc. x. l. 126.] + +[Footnote 5: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV. sc. ii.] + +94. Every item of Banquo's description indicates that he is speaking of +witches; nothing in it is incompatible with that supposition. Will it +apply with equal force to Norns? It can hardly be that these mysterious +mythical beings, who exercise an incomprehensible yet powerful influence +over human destiny, could be described with any propriety in terms so +revolting. A veil of wild, weird grandeur might be thrown around them; +but can it be supposed that Shakspere would degrade them by representing +them with chappy fingers, skinny lips, and beards? It is particularly to +be noticed, too, that although in this passage he is making an almost +verbal transcript from Holinshed, these details are interpolated without +the authority of the chronicle. Let it be supposed, for an instant, +that the text ran thus-- + + _Banquo._ ... What are these + So withered and so wild in their attire,[1] + That look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't?[2] Live you, or are you ought + That man may question?[3] + + _Macbeth._ Speak if you can, what are you? + + _1st Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis![4] + + _2nd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor![5] + + _3rd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shall be king hereafter.[6] + +This is so accurate a dramatization of the parallel passage in +Holinshed, and so entire in itself, that there is some temptation to ask +whether it was not so written at first, and the interpolated lines +subsequently inserted by the author. Whether this be so or not, the +question must be put--Why, in such a passage, did Shakspere insert three +lines of most striking description of the appearance of witches? Can any +other reason be suggested than that he had made up his mind to replace +the "goddesses of Destinie" by the witches, and had determined that +there should be no possibility of any doubt arising about it? + +[Footnote 1: Three women in strange and wild apparel,] + +[Footnote 2: resembling creatures of elder world,] + +[Footnote 3: whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the +sight, the first of them spake and said;] + +[Footnote 4: 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of Glammis' (for he had latelie +entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father +Sinell).] + +[Footnote 5: The second of them said; 'Haile, Makbeth, thane of +Cawder.'] + +[Footnote 6: But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that heereafter +shalt be king of Scotland.'] + +95. The next objection is, that the sisters exercise powers that witches +did not possess. They can "look into the seeds of time, and say which +grain will grow, and which will not." In other words, they foretell +future events, which witches could not do. But this is not the fact. The +recorded witch trials teem with charges of having prophesied what things +were about to happen; no charge is more common. The following, quoted by +Charles Knight in his biography of Shakspere, might almost have +suggested the simile in the last-mentioned lines. Johnnet Wischert is +"indicted for passing to the green growing corn in May, twenty-two years +since or thereby, sitting thereupon tymous in the morning before the +sun-rising, and being there found and demanded what she was doing, +thou[1] answered, I shall tell thee; I have been peeling the blades of +the corn. I find it will be a dear year, the blade of the corn grows +withersones [contrary to the course of the sun], and when it grows +sonegatis about [with the course of the sun] it will be good cheap +year."[2] The following is another apt illustration of the power, which +has been translated from the unwieldy Lowland Scotch account of the +trial of Bessie Roy in 1590. The Dittay charged her thus: "You are +indicted and accused that whereas, when you were dwelling with William +King in Barra, about twelve years ago, or thereabouts, and having gone +into the field to pluck lint with other women, in their presence made a +compass in the earth, and a hole in the midst thereof; and afterwards, +by thy conjurations thou causedst a great worm to come up first out of +the said hole, and creep over the compass; and next a little worm came +forth, which crept over also; and last [thou] causedst a great worm to +come forth, which could not pass over the compass, but fell down and +died. Which enchantment and witchcraft thou interpretedst in this form: +that the first great worm that crept over the compass was the goodman +William King, who should live; and the little worm was a child in the +goodwife's womb, who was unknown to any one to be with child, and that +the child should live; and, thirdly, the last great worm thou +interpretedst to be the goodwife, who should die: _which came to pass +after thy speaking_."[3] Surely there could hardly be plainer instances +of looking "into the seeds of time, and saying which grain will grow, +and which will not," than these. + +[Footnote 1: Sic.] + +[Footnote 2: p. 438.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, I. ii. 207. Cf. also Ibid. pp. 212, 213, and 231, +where the crime is described as "foreknowledge."] + +96. Perhaps this is the most convenient place for pointing out the full +meaning of the first scene of "Macbeth," and its necessary connection +with the rest of the play. It is, in fact, the fag-end of a witches' +sabbath, which, if fully represented, would bear a strong resemblance to +the scene at the commencement of the fourth act. But a long scene on +such a subject would be tedious and unmeaning at the commencement of the +play. The audience is therefore left to assume that the witches have +met, performed their conjurations, obtained from the evil spirits the +information concerning Macbeth's career that they desired to obtain, and +perhaps have been commanded by the fiends to perform the mission they +subsequently carry through. All that is needed for the dramatic effect +is a slight hint of probable diabolical interference, and that Macbeth +is to be the special object of it; and this is done in as artistic a +manner as is perhaps imaginable. In the first scene they obtain their +information; in the second they utter their prediction. Every minute +detail of these scenes is based upon the broad, recognized facts of +witchcraft. + +97. It is also suggested that the power of vanishing from the sight +possessed by the sisters--the power to make themselves air--was not +characteristic of witches. But this is another assertion that would not +have been made, had the authorities upon the subject been investigated +with only slight attention. No feature of the crime of witchcraft is +better attested than this; and the modern witch of story-books is still +represented as riding on a broomstick--a relic of the enchanted rod with +which the devil used to provide his worshippers, upon which to come to +his sabbaths.[1] One of the charges in the indictment against the +notorious Dr. Fian ran thus: "Fylit for suffering himself to be careit +to North Berwik kirk, as if he had bene souchand athoirt [whizzing +above] the eird."[2] Most effectual ointments were prepared for +effecting this method of locomotion, which have been recorded, and are +given below[3] as an illustration of the wild kind of recipes which +Shakspere rendered more grim in his caldron scene. The efficacy of these +ointments is well illustrated by a story narrated by Reginald Scot, +which unfortunately, on account of certain incidents, cannot be given in +his own terse words. The hero of it happened to be staying temporarily +with a friend, and on one occasion found her rubbing her limbs with a +certain preparation, and mumbling the while. After a time she vanished +out of his sight; and he, being curious to investigate the affair, +rubbed himself with the remaining ointment, and almost immediately he +found himself transported a long distance through the air, and +deposited right in the very midst of a witches' sabbath. Naturally +alarmed, he cried out, "'In the name of God, what make I heere?' and +upon those words the whole assemblie vanished awaie."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Scot, book iii. ch. iii. p. 43.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, I. ii. 210. Cf. also Ibid. p. 211. Scot, book +iii. ch. vii. p. 51.] + +[Footnote 3: "Sundrie receipts and ointments made and used for the +transportation of witches, and other miraculous effects. + +"Rx. The fat of yoong children, & seeth it with water in a brazen +vessell, reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the +bottome, which they laie up & keep untill occasion serveth to use it. +They put hereinto Eleoselinum, Aconitum, frondes populeas, & Soote." +This is given almost verbatim in Middleton's Witch. + +"Rx. Sium, Acarum Vulgare, Pentaphyllon, the bloud of a Flittermouse, +Solanum Somniferum, & oleum." + +It would seem that fern seed had the same virtue.--I Hen. IV. II. i.] + +[Footnote 4: Scot, book iii. ch. vi. p. 46.] + +98. The only vestige of a difficulty, therefore, that remains is the use +of the term "weird sisters" in describing the witches. It is perfectly +clear that Holinshed used these words as a sort of synonym for the +"goddesses of Destinie;" but with such a mass of evidence as has been +produced to show that Shakspere elected to introduce witches in the +place of the Norns, it surely would not be unwarrantable to suppose that +he might retain this term as a poetical and not unsuitable description +of the characters to whom it was applied. And this is the less +improbable as it can be shown that both words were at times applied to +witches. As the quotation given subsequently[1] proves, the Scotch +witches were in the habit of speaking of the frequenters of a particular +sabbath as "the sisters;" and in Heywood's "Witches of Lancashire," one +of the characters says about a certain act of supposed witchcraft, "I +remember that some three months since I crossed a wayward woman; one +that I now suspect."[2] + +[Footnote 1: § 107, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 2: Act V. sc. iii.] + +99. Here, then, in the very stronghold of the supposed proof of the +Norn-theory, it is possible to extract convincing evidence that the +sisters are intended to be merely witches. It is not surprising that +other portions of the play in which the sisters are mentioned should +confirm this view. Banquo, upon hearing the fulfilment of the prophecy +of the second witch, clearly expresses his opinion of the origin of the +"foreknowledge" he has received, in the exclamation, "What, can the +devil speak true?" For the devil most emphatically spoke through the +witches; but how could he in any sense be said to speak through Norns? +Again, Macbeth informs his wife that on his arrival at Forres, he made +inquiry into the amount of reliance that could be placed in the +utterances of the witches, "and learned by the perfectest report that +they had more in them than mortal knowledge."[1] This would be possible +enough if witches were the subjects of the investigation, for their +chief title to authority would rest upon the general opinion current in +the neighbourhood in which they dwelt; but how could such an inquiry be +carried out successfully in the case of Norns? It is noticeable, too, +that Macbeth knows exactly where to find the sisters when he wants them; +and when he says-- + + "More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, + By the worst means, the worst,"[2] + +he makes another clear allusion to the traffic of the witches with the +devil. After the events recorded in Act IV. sc. i., Macbeth speaks of +the prophecies upon which he relies as "the equivocation of the +fiend,"[3] and the prophets as "these juggling fiends;"[4] and with +reason--for he has seen and heard the very devils themselves, the +masters of the witches and sources of all their evil power. Every point +in the play that bears upon the subject at all tends to show that +Shakspere intentionally replaced the "goddesses of Destinie" by witches; +and that the supposed Norn origin of these characters is the result of a +somewhat too great eagerness to unfold a novel and startling theory. + +[Footnote 1: Act I. sc. v. l. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Fleay avoids the difficulty created by this passage, +which alludes to the witches as "the weird sisters," by supposing that +these lines were interpolated by Middleton--a method of criticism that +hardly needs comment. Act III. sc. iv. l. 134.] + +[Footnote 3: Act V. sc. v. l. 43.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. sc. viii. l. 19.] + +100. Assuming, therefore, that the witch-nature of the sisters is +conclusively proved, it now becomes necessary to support the assertion +previously made, that good reason can be shown why Shakspere should +have elected to represent witches rather than Norns. + +It is impossible to read "Macbeth" without noticing the prominence given +to the belief that witches had the power of creating storms and other +atmospheric disturbances, and that they delighted in so doing. The +sisters elect to meet in thunder, lightning, or rain. To them "fair is +foul, and foul is fair," as they "hover through the fog and filthy air." +The whole of the earlier part of the third scene of the first act is one +blast of tempest with its attendant devastation. They can loose and bind +the winds,[1] cause vessels to be tempest-tossed at sea, and mutilate +wrecked bodies.[2] They describe themselves as "posters of the sea and +land;"[3] the heath they meet upon is blasted;[4] and they vanish "as +breath into the wind."[5] Macbeth conjures them to answer his questions +thus:-- + + "Though you untie the winds, and let them fight + Against the churches; though the yesty waves + Confound and swallow navigation up; + Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down; + Though castles topple on their warders' heads; + Though palaces and pyramids do slope + Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure + Of nature's germens tumble all together, + Even till destruction sicken."[6] + +[Footnote 1: I. iii. 11, 12.] + +[Footnote 2: Act I. sc. iii. l. 28.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. l. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. l. 77.] + +[Footnote 5: Ibid. ll. 81, 82.] + +[Footnote 6: Act IV. sc. i. ll. 52-60.] + +101. Now, this command over the elements does not form at all a +prominent feature in the English records of witchcraft. A few isolated +charges of the kind may be found. In 1565, for instance, a witch was +burnt who confessed that she had caused all the tempests that had taken +place in that year. Scot, too, has a few short sentences upon this +subject, but does not give it the slightest prominence.[1] Nor in the +earlier Scotch trials recorded by Pitcairn does this charge appear +amongst the accusations against the witches. It is exceedingly curious +to notice the utter harmless nature of the charges brought against the +earlier culprits; and how, as time went on and the panic increased, they +gradually deepened in colour, until no act was too gross, too repulsive, +or too ridiculously impossible to be excluded from the indictment. The +following quotations from one of the earliest reported trials are given +because they illustrate most forcibly the condition of the poor women +who were supposed to be witches, and the real basis of fact upon which +the belief in the crime subsequently built itself. + +[Footnote 1: Book iii. ch. 13, p. 60.] + +102. Bessie Dunlop was tried for witchcraft in 1576. One of the +principal accusations against her was that she held intercourse with a +devil who appeared to her in the shape of a neighbour of hers, one Thom +Reed, who had recently died. Being asked how and where she met Thom +Reed, she said, "As she was gangand betwixt her own house and the yard +of Monkcastell, dryvand her ky to the pasture, and makand heavy sair +dule with herself, gretand[1] very fast for her cow that was dead, her +husband and child that wer lyand sick in the land ill, and she new +risen out of gissane,[2] the aforesaid Thom met her by the way, +healsit[3] her, and said, 'Gude day, Bessie,' and she said, 'God speed +you, guidman.' 'Sancta Marie,' said he, 'Bessie, why makes thow sa great +dule and sair greting for ony wardlie thing?' She answered 'Alas! have I +not great cause to make great dule, for our gear is trakit,[4] and my +husband is on the point of deid, and one babie of my own will not live, +and myself at ane weak point; have I not gude cause then to have ane +sair hart?' But Thom said, 'Bessie, thou hast crabit[5] God, and askit +some thing you suld not have done; and tharefore I counsell thee to mend +to Him, for I tell thee thy barne sall die and the seik cow, or you come +hame; and thy twa sheep shall die too; but thy husband shall mend, and +shall be as hale and fair as ever he was.' And then I was something +blyther, for he tauld me that my guidman would mend. Then Thom Reed went +away fra me in through the yard of Monkcastell, and I thought that he +gait in at ane narrower hole of the dyke nor anie erdlie man culd have +gone throw, and swa I was something fleit."[6] + +[Footnote 1: Weeping. I have only half translated this passage, for I +feared to spoil the sad simplicity of it.] + +[Footnote 2: Child-bed.] + +[Footnote 3: Saluted.] + +[Footnote 4: Dwindled away.] + +[Footnote 5: Displeased.] + +[Footnote 6: Frightened.] + +This was the first time that Thom appeared to her. On the third occasion +he asked her "if she would not trow[1] in him." She said "she would trow +in ony bodye did her gude." Then Thom promised her much wealth if she +would deny her christendom. She answered that "if she should be riven at +horsis taillis, she suld never do that, but promised to be leal and +trew to him in ony thing she could do," whereat he was angry. + +[Footnote 1: Trust.] + +On the fourth occasion, the poor woman fell further into sin, and +accompanied Thom to a fairy meeting. Thom asked her to join the party; +but she said "she saw na proffeit to gang thai kind of gaittis, unless +she kend wherefor." Thom offered the old inducement, wealth; but she +replied that "she dwelt with her awin husband and bairnis," and could +not leave them. And so Thom began to be very crabit with her, and said, +"if so she thought, she would get lytill gude of him." + +She was then demanded if she had ever asked any favour of Thom for +herself or any other person. She answered that "when sundrie persons +came to her to seek help for their beast, their cow, or ewe, or for any +barne that was tane away with ane evill blast of wind, or elf grippit, +she gait and speirit[1] at Thom what myght help them; and Thom would +pull ane herb and gif her out of his awin hand, and bade her scheir[2] +the same with ony other kind of herbis, and oppin the beistes mouth, and +put thame in, and the beist wald mend."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Inquired.] + +[Footnote 2: Chop.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, I. ii. 51, et seq.] + +It seems hardly possible to believe that a story like this, which is +half marred by the attempt to partially modernize its simple pathetic +language, and which would probably bring a tear to the eye, if not a +shilling from the pocket, of the most unsympathetic being of the present +day, should be considered sufficient three hundred years ago, to convict +the narrator of a crime worthy of death; yet so it was. This sad +picture of the breakdown of a poor woman's intellect in the unequal +struggle against poverty and sickness is only made visible to us by the +light of the flames that, mercifully to her perhaps, took poor Bessie +Dunlop away for ever from the sick husband, and weakly children, and the +"ky," and the humble hovel where they all dwelt together, and from the +daily, heart-rending, almost hopeless struggle to obtain enough food to +keep life in the bodies of this miserable family. The historian--who +makes it his chief anxiety to record, to the minutest and most +irrelevant details, the deeds, noble or ignoble, of those who have +managed to stamp their names upon the muster-roll of Fame--turns +carelessly or scornfully the page which contains such insignificant +matter as this; but those who believe + + "That not a worm is cloven in vain; + That not a moth with vain desire + Is shrivel'd in a fruitless fire, + Or but subserves another's gain," + +will hardly feel that poor Bessie's life and death were entirely without +their meaning. + +103. As the trials for witchcraft increase, however, the details grow +more and more revolting; and in the year 1590 we find a most +extraordinary batch of cases--extraordinary for the monstrosity of the +charges contained in them, and also for the fact that this feature, so +insisted upon in Macbeth, the raising of winds and storms, stands out in +extremely bold relief. The explanation of this is as follows. In the +year 1589, King James VI. brought his bride, Anne of Denmark, home to +Scotland. During the voyage an unusually violent storm raged, which +scattered the vessels composing the royal escort, and, it would appear, +caused the destruction of one of them. By a marvellous chance, the +king's ship was driven by a wind which blew directly contrary to that +which filled the sails of the other vessels;[1] and the king and queen +were both placed in extreme jeopardy. James, who seems to have been as +perfectly convinced of the reality of witchcraft as he was of his own +infallibility, at once came to the conclusion that the storm had been +raised by the aid of evil spirits, for the express purpose of getting +rid of so powerful an enemy of the Prince of Darkness as the righteous +king. The result was that a rigorous investigation was made into the +whole affair; a great number of persons were tried for attempting the +king's life by witchcraft; and that prince, undeterred by the apparent +impropriety of being judge in what was, in reality, his own cause, +presided at many of the trials, condescended to superintend the tortures +applied to the accused in order to extort a confession, and even went so +far in one case as to write a letter to the judges commanding a +condemnation. + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 218.] + +104. Under these circumstances, considering who the prosecutor was, and +who the judge, and the effectual methods at the service of the court for +extorting confessions,[1] it is not surprising that the king's surmises +were fully justified by the statements of the accused. It is impossible +to read these without having parts of the witch-scenes in "Macbeth" +ringing in the ears like an echo. John Fian, a young schoolmaster, and +leader of the gang, or "coven" as it was called, was charged with having +caused the leak in the king's ship, and with having raised the wind and +created a mist for the purpose of hindering his voyage.[2] On another +occasion he and several other witches entered into a ship, and caused it +to perish.[3] He was also able by witchcraft to open locks.[4] He +visited churchyards at night, and dismembered bodies for his charms; the +bodies of unbaptized infants being preferred.[5] + +[Footnote 1: The account of the tortures inflicted upon Fian are too +horrible for quotation.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, I. ii. 211.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 212. He confessed that Satan commanded him to chase +cats "purposlie to be cassin into the sea to raise windis for +destructioune of schippis." Macbeth, I. iii. 15-25.] + +[Footnote 4: "Fylit for opening of ane loke be his sorcerie in David +Seytounis moderis, be blawing in ane woman's hand, himself sittand att +the fyresyde."--See also the case of Bessie Roy, I. ii. 208. The English +method of opening locks was more complicated than the Scotch, as will +appear from the following quotation from Scot, book xii. ch. xiv. p. +246:-- + +"A charme to open locks. Take a peece of wax crossed in baptisme, and +doo but print certeine floures therein, and tie them in the hinder skirt +of your shirt; and when you would undoo the locke, blow thrice therein, +saieing, 'Arato hoc partico hoc maratarykin; I open this doore in thy +name that I am forced to breake, as thou brakest hell gates. In nomine +patris etc. Amen.'" Macbeth, IV. i. 46.] + +[Footnote 5: + + "Finger of birth-strangled babe, + Ditch-delivered by a drab." + +Macbeth, IV. i. 30.] + +Agnes Sampsoune confessed to the king that to compass his death she took +a black toad and hung it by the hind legs for three days, and collected +the venom that fell from it. She said that if she could have obtained a +piece of linen that the king had worn, she could have destroyed his +life with this venom; "causing him such extraordinarie paines as if he +had beene lying upon sharpe thornes or endis of needles."[1] She went +out to sea to a vessel called _The Grace of God_, and when she came away +the devil raised a wind, and the vessel was wrecked.[2] She delivered a +letter from Fian to another witch, which was to this effect: "Ye sall +warne the rest of the sisteris to raise the winde this day at ellewin +houris to stay the queenis cuming in Scotland."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 218. + + "Toad, that under cold stone + Days and nights has thirty-one + Sweltered venom sleeping got." + +Macbeth, IV. i. 6.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 235.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 236.] + +This is her confession as to the methods adopted for raising the storm. +"At the time when his Majestie was in Denmarke, shee being accompanied +by the parties before speciallie named, took a cat and christened it, +and afterwards bounde to each part of that cat the cheefest parts of a +dead man, and the severall joyntes of his bodie; and that in the night +following the said cat was conveyed into the middest of the sea by all +these witches, sayling in their riddles or cives,[1] as is afore said, +and so left the said cat right before the town of Leith in Scotland. +This done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath +not been seene, which tempest was the cause of the perishing of a +vessell coming over from the town of Brunt Ilande to the town of +Leith.... Againe, it is confessed that the said christened cat was the +cause that the kinges Majesties shippe at his coming forth of Denmarke +had a contrarie wind to the rest of his shippes...."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Macbeth, I. iii. 8.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, Reprint of Newes from Scotland, I. ii. 218. See +also Trial of Ewsame McCalgane, I. ii. 254.] + +105. It is worth a note that this art of going to sea in sieves, which +Shakspere has referred to in his drama, seems to have been peculiar to +this set of witches. English witches had the reputation of being able to +go upon the water in egg-shells and cockle-shells, but seem never to +have detected any peculiar advantages in the sieve. Not so these Scotch +witches. Agnes told the king that she, "with a great many other witches, +to the number of two hundreth, all together went to sea, each one in a +riddle or cive, and went into the same very substantially, with flaggons +of wine, making merrie, and drinking by the way in the same riddles or +cives, to the kirke of North Barrick in Lowthian, and that after they +landed they tooke hands on the lande and daunced a reill or short +daunce." They then opened the graves and took the fingers, toes, and +knees of the bodies to make charms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 217.] + +It can be easily understood that these trials created an intense +excitement in Scotland. The result was that a tract was printed, +containing a full account of all the principal incidents; and the fact +that this pamphlet was reprinted once, if not twice,[1] in London, +shows that interest in the affair spread south of the Border; and this +is confirmed by the publisher's prefatorial apology, in which he states +that the pamphlet was printed to prevent the public from being imposed +upon by unauthorized and extravagant statements of what had taken +place.[2] Under ordinary circumstances, events of this nature would form +a nine days' wonder, and then die a natural death; but in this +particular case the public interest continued for an abnormal time; for +eight years subsequent to the date of the trials, James published his +"Daemonologie"--a work founded to a great extent upon his experiences at +the trials of 1590. This was a sign to both England and Scotland that +the subject of witchcraft was still of engrossing interest to him; and +as he was then the fully recognized heir-apparent to the English crown, +the publication of such a work would not fail to induce a great amount +of attention to the subject dealt with. In 1603 he ascended the English +throne. His first parliament met on the 19th of March, 1604, and on the +27th of the same month a bill was brought into the House of Lords +dealing with the question of witchcraft. It was referred to a committee +of which twelve bishops were members; and this committee, after much +debating, came to the conclusion that the bill was imperfect. In +consequence of this a fresh one was drawn, and by the 9th of June a +statute had passed both Houses of Parliament, which enacted, among other +things, that "if any person shall practise or exercise any invocation or +conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit, or shall consult with, +entertain, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit,[3] or take up any +dead man, woman, or child out of his, her, or their grave ... or the +skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person to be employed or used +in any manner of witchcraft,[4] ... or shall ... practise ... any +witchcraft ... whereby any person shall be killed, wasted, pined, or +lamed in his or her body or any part thereof,[5] such offender shall +suffer the pains of death as felons, without benefit of clergy or +sanctuary." Hutchinson, in his "Essay on Witchcraft," published in 1720, +declares that this statute was framed expressly to meet the offences +exposed by the trials of 1590-1; but, although this cannot be +conclusively proved, yet it is not at all improbable that the hurry with +which the statute was passed into law immediately upon the accession of +James, would recall to the public mind the interest he had taken in +those trials in particular and the subject in general, and that +Shakspere producing, as nearly all the critics agree, his tragedy at +about this date, should draw upon his memory for the half-forgotten +details of those trials, and thus embody in "Macbeth" the allusions to +them that have been pointed out--much less accurately than he did in the +case of the Babington affair, because the facts had been far less +carefully recorded, and the time at which his attention had been called +to them far more remote.[6] + +[Footnote 1: One copy of this reprint bears the name of W. Wright, +another that of Thomas Nelson. The full title is-- + +"Newes from Scotland, + +"Declaring the damnable life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was +burned at Edenborough in Januarie last, 1591; which Doctor was Register +to the Deuill, that sundrie times preached at North Barricke kirke to a +number of notorious witches; with the true examinations of the said +Doctor and witches as they uttered them in the presence of the Scottish +king: Discouering how they pretended to bewitch and drowne his Majestie +in the sea, comming from Denmarke, with such other wonderfull matters, +as the like hath not bin heard at anie time. + +"Published according to the Scottish copie. + +"Printed for William Wright."] + +[Footnote 2: These events are referred to in an existing letter by the +notorious Thos. Phelippes to Thos. Barnes, Cal. State Papers (May 21, +1591), 1591-4, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 3: Such as Paddock, Graymalkin, and Harpier.] + +[Footnote 4: "Liver of blaspheming Jew," etc.--Macbeth, IV. i. 26.] + +[Footnote 5: + + "I will drain him dry as hay; + Sleep shall neither night nor day + Hang upon his pent-house lid; + He shall live a man forbid: + Weary se'nnights, nine times nine, + Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." + +Macbeth, I. iii. 18-23.] + +[Footnote 6: The excitement about the details of the witch trials would +culminate in 1592. Harsnet's book would be read by Shakspere in 1603.] + +106. There is one other mode of temptation which was adopted by the evil +spirits, implicated to a great extent with the traditions of witchcraft, +but nevertheless more suitably handled as a separate subject, which is +of so gross and revolting a nature that it should willingly be passed +over in silence, were it not for the fact that the belief in it was, as +Scot says, "so stronglie and universallie received" in the times of +Elizabeth and James. + +From the very earliest period of the Christian era the affection of one +sex for the other was considered to be under the special control of the +devil. Marriage was to be tolerated; but celibacy was the state most +conducive to the near intercourse with heaven that was so dearly sought +after. This opinion was doubtless generated by the tendency of the early +Christian leaders to hold up the events of the life rather than the +teachings of the sacred Founder of the sect as the one rule of conduct +to be received by His followers. To have been the recipients of the +stigmata was a far greater evidence of holiness and favour with Heaven +than the quiet and unnoted daily practice of those virtues upon which +Christ pronounced His blessing; and in less improbable matters they did +not scruple, in their enthusiasm, to attempt to establish a rule of life +in direct contradiction to the laws of that universe of which they +professed to believe Him to be the Creator. The futile attempt to +imitate His immaculate purity blinded their eyes to the fact that He +never taught or encouraged celibacy among His followers, and this +gradually led them to the strange conclusion that the passion which, +sublimed and brought under control, is the source of man's noblest and +holiest feelings, was a prompting proceeding from the author of all +evil. Imbued with this idea, religious enthusiasts of both sexes immured +themselves in convents; took oaths of perpetual celibacy; and even, in +certain isolated cases, sought to compromise with Heaven, and baffle the +tempter, by rendering a fall impossible--forgetting that the victory +over sin does not consist in immunity from temptation, but, being +tempted, not to fall. But no convent walls are so strong as to shut +great nature out; and even within these sacred precincts the ascetics +found that they were not free from the temptations of their arch-enemy. +In consequence of this, a belief sprang up, and spread from its original +source into the outer world, in a class of devils called incubi and +succubi, who roamed the earth with no other object than to tempt people +to abandon their purity of life. The cases of assault by incubi were +much more frequent than those by succubi, just as women were much more +affected by the dancing manias in the fifteenth century than +men;[1]--the reason, perhaps, being that they are much less capable of +resisting physical privation;--but, according to the belief of the +Middle Ages, there was no generic difference between the incubus and +succubus. Here was a belief that, when the witch fury sprang up, +attached itself as a matter of course as the phase of the crime; and it +was an almost universal charge against the accused that they offended in +this manner with their familiars, and hundreds of poor creatures +suffered death upon such an indictment. More details will be found in +the authorities upon this unpleasant subject.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 2: Hutchinson, p. 52. The Witch of Edmonton, Act V. Scot, +Discoverie, book iv.] + +107. This intercourse did not, as a rule, result in offspring; but this +was not universally the case. All badly deformed or monstrous children +were suspected of having had such an undesirable parentage, and there +was a great tendency to believe that they ought to be destroyed. Luther +was a decided advocate of this course, deeming the destruction of a life +far preferable to the chance of having a devil in the family. In +Drayton's poem, "The Mooncalf," one of the gossips present at the birth +of the calf suggests that it ought to be buried alive as a monster.[1] +Caliban is a mooncalf,[2] and his origin is distinctly traced to a +source of this description. It is perfectly clear what was the one +thing that the foul witch Sycorax did which prevented her life from +being taken; and it would appear from this that the inhabitants of +Argier were far more merciful in this respect than their European +neighbours. Such a charge would have sent any woman to the stake in +Scotland, without the slightest hope of mercy, and the usual plea for +respite would only have been an additional reason for hastening the +execution of the sentence.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Ed. 1748, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 2: Tempest, II. ii. 111, 115.] + +[Footnote 3: Cf. Othello, I. i. 91. Titus Andronicus, IV. ii.] + +108. In the preceding pages an endeavour has been made to delineate the +most prominent features of a belief which the great Reformation was +destined first to foster into unnatural proportions and vitality, and in +the end to destroy. Up to the period of the Reformation, the creed of +the nation had been practically uniform, and one set of dogmas was +unhesitatingly accepted by the people as infallible, and therefore +hardly demanding critical consideration. The great upheaval of the +sixteenth century rent this quiescent uniformity into shreds; doctrines +until then considered as indisputable were brought within the pale of +discussion, and hence there was a great diversity of opinion, not only +between the supporters of the old and of the new faith, but between the +Reformers themselves. This was conspicuously the case with regard to the +belief in the devils and their works. The more timid of the Reformers +clung in a great measure to the Catholic opinions; a small band, under +the influence possibly of that knight-errant of freedom of thought, +Giordano Bruno, who exercised some considerable influence during his +visit to England by means of his Oxford lectures and disputations, +entirely denied the existence of evil spirits; but the great majority +gave in their adherence to a creed that was the mean between the +doctrines of the old faith and the new scepticism. Their strong common +sense compelled them to reject the puerilities advanced as serious +evidence by the Catholic Church; but they cast aside with equal +vehemence and more horror the doctrines of the Bruno school. "That there +are devils," says Bullinger, reduced apparently from argument to +invective, "the Sadducees in times past denied, and at this day also +some scarce religious, nay, rather Epicures, deny the same; who, unless +they repent, shall one day feel, to their exceeding great pain and +smart, both that there are devils, and that they are the tormentors and +executioners of all wicked men and Epicures."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullinger, Fourth Decade, 9th Sermon, p. 348, Parker +Society.] + +109. It must be remembered, too, that the emancipation from medievalism +was a very gradual process, not, as we are too prone to think it, a +revolution suddenly and completely effected. It was an evolution, not an +explosion. There is found, in consequence, a great divergence of +opinion, not only between the earliest and the later Reformers, but +between the statements of the same man at different periods of his +career. Tyndale, for instance, seems to have believed in the actual +possession of the human body by devils;[1] and this appears to have +been the opinion of the majority at the beginning of the Reformation, +for the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. contained the Catholic form of +exorcism for driving devils out of children, which was expunged upon +revision, the doctrine of obsession having in the mean time triumphed +over the older belief. It is necessary to bear these facts in mind +whilst considering any attempt to depict the general bearings of a +belief such as that in evil spirits; for many irreconcilable statements +are to be found among the authorities; and it is the duty of the writer +to sift out and describe those views which predominated, and these must +not be supposed to be proved inaccurate because a chance quotation can +be produced in contradiction. + +[Footnote 1: I Tyndale, p. 82. Parker Society.] + +110. There is great danger, in the attempt to bring under analysis any +phase of religious belief, that the method of treatment may appear +unsympathetic if not irreverent. The greatest effort has been made in +these pages to avoid this fault as far as possible; for, without doubt, +any form of religious dogma, however barbarous, however seemingly +ridiculous, if it has once been sincerely believed and trusted by any +portion of mankind, is entitled to reverent treatment. No body of great +and good men can at any time credit and take comfort from a lie pure and +simple; and if an extinct creed appears to lack that foundation of truth +which makes creeds tolerable, it is safer to assume that it had a +meaning and a truthfulness, to those who held it, that lapse of time +has tended to destroy, together with the creed itself, than to condemn +men wholesale as knaves and hypocrites. But the particular subject which +has here been dealt with will surely be considered to be specially +entitled to respect, when it is remembered that it was once an integral +portion of the belief of most of our best and bravest ancestors--of men +and women who dared to witness to their own sincerity amidst the fires +of persecution and in the solitude of exile. It has nearly all +disappeared now. The terrific hierarchy of fiends, which was so real, so +full of horror three hundred years ago[1], has gradually vanished away +before the advent of fuller knowledge and purer faith, and is now hardly +thought of, unless as a dead mediaeval myth. But let us deal tenderly +with it, remembering that the day may come when the beliefs that are +nearest to our hearts may be treated as open to contempt or ridicule, +and the dogmas to which we most passionately cling will, "like an +insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a wrack behind." + +[Footnote 1: Perhaps the following prayer, contained in Thomas Becon's +"Pomander," shows more clearly than the comments of any critic the +reality of the terror:-- + +"An infinite number of wicked angels there are, O Lord Christ, which +without ceasing seek my destruction. Against this exceeding great +multitude of evil spirits send Thou me Thy blessed and heavenly angels, +which may deliver me from then tyranny. Thou, O Lord, hast devoured +hell, and overcome the prince of darkness and all his ministers; yea, +and that not for Thyself, but for those that believe in Thee. Suffer me +not, therefore, to be overcome of Satan and of his servants, but rather +let me triumph over them, that I, through strong faith and help of the +blessed angels, having the victory of the hellish army, may with a +joyful heart say, Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy +victory?--and so for ever and ever magnify Thy Holy Name. Amen." Parker +Society, p. 84.] + + * * * * * + +111. Little attempt has hitherto been made, in the way of direct proof, +to show that fairies are really only a class of devils who exercise +their powers in a manner less terrible and revolting than that depicted +by theologians; and for this reason chiefly--that the proposition is +already more than half established when it has been shown that the +attributes and functions possessed by both fairy and devil are similar +in kind, although differing in degree. This has already been done to a +great extent in the preceding pages, where the various actions of Puck +and Ariel have been shown to differ in no essential respect from those +of the devils of the time; but before commencing to study this phase of +supernaturalism in Shakspere's works as a whole, and as indicative, to a +certain extent, of the development of his thought upon the relation of +man to the invisible world about and above him, it is necessary that +this identity should be admitted without a shadow of a doubt. + +112. It has been shown that fairies were probably the descendants of the +lesser local deities, as devils were of the more important of the +heathen gods that were overturned by the advancing wave of +Christianity, although in the course of time this distinction was +entirely obliterated and forgotten. It has also been shown, as before +mentioned, that many of the powers exercised by fairies were in their +essence similar to those exercised by devils, especially that of +appearing in divers shapes. These parallels could be carried out to an +almost unlimited extent; but a few proofs only need be cited to show +this identity. In the mediaeval romance of "King Orfeo" fairyland has +been substituted for the classical Hades.[1] King James, in his +"Daemonologie," adopts a fourfold classification of devils, one of which +he names "Phairie," and co-ordinates with the incubus.[2] The name of +the devil supposed to preside at the witches' sabbaths is sometimes +given as Hecat, Diana, Sybilla; sometimes Queen of Elfame,[3] or +Fairie.[4] Indeed, Shakspere's line in "The Comedy of Errors," had it +not been unnecessarily tampered with by the critics-- + + "A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough,"[5] + +would have conclusively proved this identity of character. + +[Footnote 1: Fairy Mythology of Shakspere, Hazlitt, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 2: Daemonologie, p. 69. An instance of a fairy incubus is +given in the "Life of Robin Goodfellow," Hazlitt's Fairy Mythology, p. +176.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, iii. p. 162.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. i. p. 162, and many other places.] + +[Footnote 5: Fairy has been altered to "fury," but compare Peele, Battle +of Alcazar: "Fiends, fairies, hags that fight in beds of steel."] + +113. The real distinction between these two classes of spirits depends +on the condition of national thought upon the subject of +supernaturalism in its largest sense. A belief which has little or no +foundation upon indisputable phenomena must be continually passing +through varying phases, and these phases will be regulated by the nature +of the subjects upon which the attention of the mass of the people is +most firmly concentrated. Hence, when a nation has but one religious +creed, and one that has for centuries been accepted by them, almost +without question or doubt, faith becomes stereotyped, and the mind +assumes an attitude of passive receptivity, undisturbed by doubts or +questionings. Under such conditions, a belief in evil spirits ever ready +and watching to tempt a man into heresy of belief or sinful act, and +thus to destroy both body and soul, although it may exist as a theoretic +portion of the accepted creed, cannot possibly become a vital doctrine +to be believed by the general public. It may exist as a subject for +learned dispute to while away the leisure hours of divines, but cannot +by any possibility obtain an influence over the thoughts and lives of +their charges. Mental disturbance on questions of doctrinal importance +being, for these reasons, out of the question, the attention of the +people is almost entirely riveted upon questions of material ease and +advantage. The little lets and hindrances of every-day life in +agricultural and domestic matters are the tribulations that appeal most +incessantly to the ineradicable sense of an invisible power adverse to +the interests of mankind, and consequently the class of evil spirits +believed in at such a time will be fairies rather than devils--malicious +little spirits, who blight the growing corn; stop the butter from +forming in the churn; pinch the sluttish housemaid black and blue; and +whose worst act is the exchange of the baby from its cot for a fairy +changeling;--beings of a nature most exasperating to thrifty housewife +and hard-handed farmer, but nevertheless not irrevocably prejudiced +against humanity, and easily to be pacified and reduced into a state of +fawning friendship by such little attentions as could be rendered +without difficulty by the poorest cotter. The whole fairy mythology is +perfumed with an honest, healthy, careless joy in life, and a freedom +from mental doubt. "I love true lovers, honest men, good fellowes, good +huswives, good meate, good drinke, and all things that good is, but +nothing that is ill," declares Robin Goodfellow;[1] and this jovial +materialism only reflects the state of mind of the folk who were not +unwilling to believe that this lively little spirit might be seen of +nights busying himself in their houses by the dying embers of the +deserted fire. + +[Footnote 1: Hazlitt, Fairy Mythology, p. 182.] + +114. Such seems to have been the condition of England immediately before +the period of the great Reformation. But with the progress of that +revolution of thought the condition changes. The one true and eternal +creed, as it had been deemed, is shattered for ever. Men who have +hitherto accepted their religious convictions in much the same way as +they had succeeded to their patrimonies are compelled by this tide of +opposition to think and study for themselves. Each man finds himself +left face to face with the great hereafter, and his relation to it. +Terrible doctrines are formulated, and press themselves with remorseless +vigour upon his understanding--original sin, justification by faith, +eternal damnation for even honest error of belief,--doctrines that throw +an atmosphere of solemnity, if not gloom, about national thought, in +which no fairy mythology can flourish. It is no longer questions of +material ease and gain that are of the chief concern; and consequently +the fairies and their doings, from their own triviality, fall far into +the background, and their place is occupied by a countless horde of +remorseless schemers, who are never ceasing in their efforts to drag +both body and soul to perdition. + +115. But it is in the towns, the centres of interchange of thought, of +learning, and of controversy, that this revolution first gathers power; +the sparsely populated country-sides are far more impervious to the new +ideas, and the country people cling far longer and more tenaciously to +the dying religion and its attendant beliefs. The rural districts were +but little affected by the Reformation for years after it had triumphed +in the towns, and consequently the beliefs of the inhabitants were +hardly touched by the struggle that was going on within so short a +distance. We find a Reginald Scot, indeed, complaining, half in joke, +half in sarcasm, that Robin Goodfellow has long disappeared from the +land;[1] but it is only from the towns that he has fled--towns in which +the spirit of the Cartwrights and the Latimers, the Barnhams and the +Delabers, is abroad. In the same Cambridge where Scot had been educated, +a young student had hanged himself because the shadow of the doctrine of +predestination was too terrible for him to live under;[2] and such a +place was surely no home for Puck and his merry band. But in the country +places, remote from the growl and trembling of this mental earthquake, +he still loved to lurk; and even at the very moment when Scot was +penning the denial of his existence, he was nestling amongst the woods +and flowers of Avonside, and, invisible, whispering in the ear of a +certain fair-haired youth there thoughts of no inconsiderable moment. +And long time after that--after the youth had become a man, and had +coined those thoughts into words that glitter still; after his monument +had been erected in the quiet Stratford churchyard--Puck revelled, +harmless and undisturbed, along many a country-side; nay, even to the +present day, in some old-world nooks, a faint whispering rumour of him +may still be heard. + +[Footnote 1: Scot, Introduction.] + +[Footnote 2: Foxe, iv. p. 694.] + +116. Now, perhaps one of the most distinctive marks of literary genius +is a certain receptivity of mind; a capability of receiving impressions +from all surrounding circumstance--of extracting from all sources, +whether from nature or man, consciously or unconsciously, the material +upon which it shall work. For this process to be perfectly accomplished, +an entire and enthusiastic sympathy with man and the current ideas of +the time is absolutely essential, and in proportion as this sympathy is +contracted and partial, so will the work produced be stunted and untrue; +and, on the other hand, the more universal and entire it is, the more +perfect and vital will be the art. Bearing this in mind, and also the +facts that Shakspere's early training was effected in a little country +village; that upon the verge of manhood, he came to London, where he +spent his prime in contact with the bustle and friction of busy town +life; and that the later years of his life were passed in the quiet +retirement of the home of his boyhood--there would be good ground for an +argument, _a priori_, even were there none of a more conclusive nature, +that his earlier works would be found impregnated with the country +fairy-myths with which his youth would come in contact; that the result +of the labours of his middle life would show that these earlier +reminiscenses had been gradually obliterated by the gloomier influence +of ideas that were the result of the struggle of opposed theories that +had not then ceased to rage in the towns, and that the diabolic element +and questions relating thereto would predominate; and that, finally, his +later works, written under the calmer influence of Stratford life, would +show a certain return to the fairy-lore of his earlier years. + +117. But fortunately we are not left to rely upon any such hypothetical +evidence in this matter, however probable it may appear. Although the +general reading public cannot be asked to accept as infallible any +chronological order of Shakspere's plays that dogmatically asserts a +particular sequence, or to investigate the somewhat dry and specialist +arguments upon which the conclusions are founded, yet there are certain +groupings into periods which are agreed upon as accurate by nearly all +critics, and which, without the slightest danger of error, may be +asserted to be correct. For instance, it is indisputable that "Love's +Labour's Lost," "The Comedy of Errors," "Romeo and Juliet," and "A +Midsummer Night's Dream" are amongst Shakspere's earliest works; that +the tragedies of "Julius Caesar," "Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and +"Lear" are the productions of his middle life, between 1600 and 1606; +and that "A Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest" are amongst the latest +plays which he wrote.[1] Here we have everything that is required to +prove the question in hand. At the commencement and at the end of his +writings--when a youth fresh from the influence of his country nurture +and education, and when a mature man, settling down into the old life +again after a long and victorious struggle with the world, with his +accumulated store of experience--we find plays which are perfectly +saturated with fairy-lore: "The Dream" and "The Tempest." These are the +poles of Shakspere's thought in this respect; and in the centre, +imbedded as it were between two layers of material that do not bear any +distinctive stamp of their own, but appear rather as a medium for +uniting the diverse strata, lie the great tragedies, produced while he +was in the very rush and swirl of town life, and reflecting accurately, +as we have seen, many of the doubts and speculations that were agitating +the minds of men who were ardently searching out truth. It is worth +noting too, in passing, that directly Shakspere steps out of his beaten +path to depict, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," the happy country life +and manners of his day, he at the same time returns to fairyland again, +and brings out the Windsor children trooping to pinch and plague the +town-bred, tainted Falstaff. + +[Footnote 1: For an elaborate and masterly investigation of the question +of the chronological order of the plays, which must be assumed here, see +Mr. Furnivall's Introduction to the Leopold Shakspere.] + +118. But this is not by any means all that this subject reveals to us +about Shakspere; if it were, the less said about it the better. To look +upon "The Tempest" as in its essence merely a return to "The Dream"--the +end as the beginning; to believe that his thoughts worked in a weary, +unending circle--that the Valley of the Shadow of Death only leads back +to the foot of the Hill Difficulty--is intolerable, and not more +intolerable than false. Although based upon similar material, the ideas +and tendencies of "The Tempest" upon supernaturalism are no more +identical with those of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" than the thoughts of +Berowne upon things in general are those of Hamlet, or Hamlet's those of +Prospero. But before it is possible to point out the nature of this +difference, and to show that the change is a natural growth of thought, +not a mere retrogression, a few explanatory remarks are necessary. + +There is no more insufficient and misleading view of Shakspere and his +work than that which until recently obtained almost universal credence, +and is even at the present time somewhat loudly asserted in some +quarters; namely, that he was a man of considerable genius, who wrote +and got acted some thirty plays more or less, simply for commercial +purposes and nothing more; made money thereby, and died leaving a will; +and that, beyond this, he and his works are, and must remain, an +inexplicable mystery. The critic who holds this view, and finds it +equally advantageous to commence a study of Shakspere's work by taking +"The Tempest" or "Love's Labour's Lost" as his text, is about as +judicious as the botanist who would enlarge upon the structure of the +seed-pod without first explaining the preliminary stages of plant +growth, or the architect who would dilate upon the most convenient +arrangement of chimney-pots before he had discussed the laws of +foundation. The plays may be studied separately, and studied so are +found beautiful; but taken in an approximate chronological order, like a +string of brilliant jewels, each one gains lustre from those that +precede and follow it. + +119. For no man ever wrote sincerely and earnestly, or indeed ever did +any one thing in such a spirit, without leaving some impress upon his +work of his mental condition whilst he was doing it; and no such man +ever continued his literary labours from the period of youth right +through his manhood, without leaving behind him, in more or less legible +character, a record of the ripening of his thought upon matters of +eternal importance, although they may not be of necessity directly +connected with the ostensible subject in hand. Insincere men may ape +sentiments they do not really believe in; but in the end they will +either be exposed and held up to ridicule, or their work will sink into +obscurity. Sincerity in the expression of genuine thought and feeling +alone can stand the test of time. And this is in reality no +contradiction to what has just been said as to the necessity of a +receptive condition of mind in the production of works of true genius. +This capacity of receiving the most delicate objective impressions is, +indeed, one essential; but without the cognate power to assimilate this +food, and evolve the result that these influences have produced +subjectively, it is, worse than useless. The two must co-exist and act +and react upon one another. Nor must we be induced to surrender these +principles, in the present particular case, on account of the usual fine +but vague talk about Shakspere's absolute self-annihilation in favour of +the characters that he depicts. It is said that Shakspere so identifies +himself with each person in his dramas, that it is impossible to detect +the great master and his thoughts behind this cunningly devised screen. +If this means that Shakespere has always a perfect comprehension of his +characters, is competent to measure out to each absolute and unerring +justice, and is capable of sympathy with even the most repulsive, it +will not be disputed for an instant. It is so true, that it is dangerous +to take a sentence out of the mouth of any one of his characters and say +for certain, "This Shakspere thought," although there are many +characters with whom every one must feel that Shakspere identified +himself for the time being rather than others. But if it is intended to +assert that Shakspere has so eliminated himself from his writings as to +make it impossible to trace anywhere the tendencies of his own thought +at the time when he was writing, it must be most emphatically denied for +the reasons just stated. Freedom from prejudice must be carefully +dissociated from lack of interest in the motive that underlies the +construction of each play. There is a tone or key-note in each drama +that indicates the author's mental condition at the time when it was +produced; and if several plays, following each other in brisk +succession, all have the same predominant tone, it seems to be past +question that Shakspere is incidentally and indirectly uttering his own +personal thought and experience. + +120. If it be granted, then, that it is possible to follow thus the +growth of Shakspere's thought through the medium of his successive +works, there is only one small point to be glanced at before attempting +to trace this growth in the matter of supernaturalism. + +The natural history of the evolution of opinion upon matters which, for +want of a more embracing and satisfactory word, we must be content to +call "religious," follows a uniform course in the minds of all men, +except those "duller than the fat weed that roots itself at ease on +Lethe's wharf," who never get beyond the primary stage. This course is +separable into three periods. The first is that in which a man accepts +unhesitatingly the doctrines which he has received from his spiritual +teachers--customary not intellectual, belief. This sits lightly on him; +entails no troublesome doubts and questionings; possesses, or appears to +possess, formulae to meet all possible emergencies, and consequently +brings with it a happiness that is genuine, though superficial. But this +customary belief rarely satisfies for long. Contact with the world +brings to light other and opposed theories: introspection and +independent investigation of the bases of the hereditary faith are +commenced; many doctrines that have been hitherto accepted as eternally +and indisputably true are found to rest upon but slight foundation, +apart from their title to respect on account of age; doubts follow as to +the claim to acceptance of the whole system that has been so easily and +unhesitatingly swallowed; and the period of scepticism, or no-belief, +with its attendant misery, commences--for although Dagon has been but +little honoured in the time of his strength, in his downfall he is much +regretted. Then comes that long, weary groping after some firm, reliable +basis of belief: but heaven and earth appear for the time to conspire +against the seeker; an intellectual flood has drowned out the old order +of things; not even a mountain peak appears in the wide waste of +desolation as assurance of ultimate rest; and in the dark, overhanging +firmament no arc of promise is to be seen. But this is a state of mind +which, from its very nature, cannot continue for ever: no man could +endure it. While it lasts the struggle must be continuous, but +somewhere through the cloud lies the sunshine and the land of peace--the +final period of intellectual belief. Out of the chaos comes order; ideas +that but recently appeared confused, incoherent, and meaningless assume +their true perspective. It is found that all the strands of the old +conventional faith have not been snapped in the turmoil; and these, +re-knit and strengthened with the new and full knowledge of experience +and investigation, form the cable that secures that strange holy +confidence of belief that can only be gained by a preliminary warfare +with doubt--a peace that truly passes all understanding to those who +have never battled for it,--as to its foundation, diverse to a miracle +in diverse minds, but still, a peace. + +121. If this be a true history of the course of development of every +mind that is capable of independent thought upon and investigation of +such high matters, it follows that Shakspere's soul must have +experienced a similar struggle--for he was a man of like passions with +ourselves; indeed, to so acute and sensitive a mind the struggle would +be, probably, more prolonged and more agonizing than to many; and it is +these three mental conditions--first, of unthinking acceptance of +generally received teaching; second, of profound and agitating +scepticism; and, thirdly, of belief founded upon reason and +experience--that may be naturally expected to be found impressed upon +his early, middle, and later works. + +122. It is impossible here to do more than indicate some of the +evidence that this supposition is correct, for to attempt to investigate +the question exhaustively would involve the minute consideration of a +majority of the plays. The period of Shakspere's customary or +conventional belief is illustrated in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and +to a certain extent also in the "Comedy of Errors." In the former play +we find him loyally accepting certain phases of the hereditary Stratford +belief in supernaturalism, throwing them into poetical form, and making +them beautiful. It has often before been observed, and it is well worthy +of observation, that of the three groups of characters in the play, the +country folk--a class whose manner and appearance had most vividly +reflected themselves upon the camera of Shakspere's mind--are by far the +most lifelike and distinct; the fairies, who had been the companions of +his childhood and youth in countless talks in the ingle and ballads in +the lanes, come second in prominence and finish; whilst the ostensible +heroes and heroines of the piece, the aristocrats of Athens, are +colourless and uninteresting as a dumb-show--the real shadows of the +play. This is exactly the ratio of impressionability that the three +classes would have for the mind of the youthful dramatist. The first is +a creation from life, the second from traditionary belief, the third +from hearsay. And when it has been said that the fairies are a creation +from traditionary belief, a full and accurate description of them has +been afforded. They are an embodiment of a popular superstition, and +nothing more. They do not conceal any thought of the poet who has +created them, nor are they used for any deeper purpose with regard to +the other persons of the drama than temporary and objectless annoyance. +Throughout the whole play runs a healthy, thoughtless, honest, almost +riotous happiness; no note of difficulty, no shadow of coming doubt +being perceptible. The pert and nimble spirit of mirth is fully +awakened; the worst tricks of the intermeddling spirits are mischievous +merely, and of only transitory influence, and "the summer still doth +tend upon their state," brightening this fairyland with its sunshine and +flowers. Man has absolutely no power to govern these supernatural +powers, and they have but unimportant influence over him. They can +affect his comfort, but they cannot control his fate. But all this is +merely an adapting and elaborating of ideas which had been handed down +from father to son for many generations. Shakspere's Puck is only the +Puck of a hundred ballads reproduced by the hand of a true poet; no +original thought upon the connection of the visible with the invisible +world is imported into the creation. All these facts tend to show that +when Shakspere wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream," that is, at the +beginning of his career as a dramatic author, he had not broken away +from the trammels of the beliefs in which he had been brought up, but +accepted them unhesitatingly and joyously. + +123. But there is a gradual toning down of this spirit of unbroken +content as time wears on. Putting aside the historical plays, in which +Shakspere was much more bound down by his subject-matter than in any +other species of drama, we find the comedies, in which his room for +expression of individual feeling was practically unlimited, gradually +losing their unalloyed hilarity, and deepening down into a sadness of +thought and expression that sometimes leaves a doubt whether the plays +should be classed as comedies at all. Shakspere has been more and more +in contact with the disputes and doubts of the educated men of his time, +and seeds have been silently sowing themselves in his heart, which are +soon to bring forth a plenteous harvest in the great tragedies of which +these semi-comedies, such as "All's Well that Ends Well" and "Measure +for Measure," are but the first-fruits. + +124. Thus, when next we find Shakspere dealing with questions relating +to supernaturalism, the tone is quite different from that taken in his +earlier work. He has reached the second period of his thought upon the +subject, and this has cast its attendant gloom upon his writings. That +he was actually battling with questions current in his time is +demonstrated by the way in which, in three consecutive plays, derived +from utterly diverse sources, the same question of ghost or devil is +agitated, as has before been pointed out. But it is not merely a point +of theological dogma which stamps these plays as the product of +Shakspere's period of scepticism, but a theory of the influence of +supernatural beings upon the whole course of human life. Man is still +incapable of influencing these unseen forces, or bending them to his +will; but they are now no longer harmless, or incapable of anything but +temporary or trivial evil. Puck might lead night wanderers into +mischance, and laugh mischievously at the bodily harm that he had caused +them; but Puck has now disappeared, and in his stead is found a +malignant spirit, who seeks to laugh his fiendish laughter over the soul +he has deceived into destruction. Questions arise thick and fast that +are easier put than answered. Can it be that evil influences have the +upper hand in this world? that, be a man never so honest, never so pure, +he may nevertheless become the sport of blind chance or ruthless +wickedness? May a Hamlet, patiently struggling after truth and duty, be +put upon and abused by the darker powers? May Macbeth, who would fain do +right, were not evil so ever present with him, be juggled with and led +to destruction by fiends? May an undistinguishing fate sweep away at +once the good with the evil--Hamlet with Laertes; Desdemona with Iago; +Cordelia with Edmund? And above the turmoil of this reign of terror, is +there no word uttered of a Supreme Good guiding and controlling the +unloosed ill--no word of encouragement, none of hope? If this be so +indeed, that man is but the puppet of malignant spirits, away with this +life. It is not worth the living; for what power has man against the +fiends? But at this point arises a further question to demand solution: +what shall be hereafter? If evil is supreme here, shall it not be so in +that undiscovered country,--that life to come? The dreams that may come +give him pause, and he either shuffles on, doubting, hesitating, and +incapable of decision, or he hurls himself wildly against his fate. In +either case his life becomes like to a tale + + "Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying--nothing!" + +125. It is strange to note, too, how the ebb of this wave of scepticism +upon questions relating to the immaterial world is only recoil that adds +force to a succeeding wave of cynicism with regard to the physical world +around. "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and "Othello" give place to "Lear," +"Troilus and Cressida," "Antony and Cleopatra," and "Timon." So true is +it that "unfaith in aught is want of faith in all," that in these later +plays it would seem that honour, honesty, and justice were virtues not +possessed by man or woman; or, if possessed, were only a curse to bring +down disgrace and destruction upon the possessor. Contrast the women of +these plays with those of the comedies immediately preceding the Hamlet +period. In the latter plays we find the heroines, by their sweet womanly +guidance and gentle but firm control, triumphantly bringing good out of +evil in spite of adverse circumstance. Beatrice, Rosalind, Viola, +Helena, and Isabella are all, not without a tinge of knight-errantry +that does not do the least violence to the conception of tender, +delicate womanhood, the good geniuses of the little worlds in which +their influence is made to be felt. Events must inevitably have gone +tragically but for their intervention. But with the advent of the second +period all this changes. At first the women, like Brutus' Portia, +Ophelia, Desdemona, however noble or sweet in character and well +meaning in motive, are incapable of grasping the guiding threads of the +events around them and controlling them for good. They have to give way +to characters of another kind, who bear the form without the nature of +women. Commencing with Lady Macbeth, the conception falls lower and +lower, through Goneril and Regan, Cressida, Cleopatra, until in the +climax of this utter despair, "Timon," there is no character that it +would not be a profanity to call by the name of woman. + +126. And just as womanly purity and innocence quail before unwomanly +self-assertion and voluptuousness, so manly loyalty and unselfishness +give way before unmanly treachery and self-seeking. It is true that the +bad men do not finally triumph, but they triumph over the good with whom +they happen to come in contact. In "King Lear," what man shows any +virtue who does not receive punishment for the same? Not Gloucester, +whose loyal devotion to his king obtains for him a punishment that is +only merciful in that it prevents him from further suffering the sight +of his beloved master's misery; not Kent, who, faithful in his +self-denying service through all manner of obloquy, is left at last with +a prayer that he may be allowed to follow Lear to the grave; and beyond +these two there is little good to be found. But "Lear" is not by any +means the climax. The utter despair of good in man or woman rises higher +in "Troilus and Cressida," and reaches its culminating point in "Timon," +a fragment only of which is Shakspere's. The pen fell from the tired +hand; the worn and distracted brain refused to fulfil the task of +depicting the depth to which the poet's estimate of mankind had fallen; +and we hardly know whether to rejoice or to regret that the clumsy hand +of an inferior writer has screened from our knowledge the full +disclosure of the utter and contemptuous cynicism and want of faith with +which, for the time being, Shakspere was infected. + +127. Before passing on to consider the plays of the third period as +evidence of Shakspere's final thought, it will be well to pause and +re-read with attention a summing-up of Shakspere's teaching as it has +been presented to us by one of the greatest and most earnest teachers of +morality of the present day. Every word that Mr. Ruskin writes is so +evidently from the depth of his own good heart, and every doctrine that +he enunciates so pure in theory and so true in practice, that a +difference with him upon the final teaching of Shakspere's work cannot +be too cautiously expressed. But the estimate of this which he has given +in the third Lecture of "Sesame and Lilies"[1] is so painful, if +regarded as Shakspere's latest and most mature opinion, that everybody, +even Mr. Ruskin himself, would be glad to modify its gloom with a few +rays of hope, if it were possible to do so. "What then," says Mr. +Ruskin, "is the message to us of our own poet and searcher of hearts, +after fifteen hundred years of Christian faith have been numbered over +the graves of men? Are his words more cheerful than the heathen's +(Homer)? is his hope more near, his trust more sure, his reading of +fate more happy? Ah no! He differs from the heathen poet chiefly in +this, that he recognizes for deliverance no gods nigh at hand, and that, +by petty chance, by momentary folly, by broken message, by fool's +tyranny, or traitor's snare, the strongest and most righteous are +brought to their ruin, and perish without word of hope. He, indeed, as +part of his rendering of character, ascribes the power and modesty of +habitual devotion to the gentle and the just. The death-bed of Katharine +is bright with visions of angels; and the great soldier-king, standing +by his few dead, acknowledges the presence of the hand that can save +alike by many or by few. But observe that from those who with deepest +spirit meditate, and with deepest passion mourn, there are no such words +as these; nor in their hearts are any such consolations. Instead of the +perpetual sense of the helpful presence of the Deity, which, through all +heathen tradition, is the source of heroic strength, in battle, in +exile, and in the valley of the shadow of death, we find only in the +great Christian poet the consciousness of a moral law, through which +'the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to +scourge us;' and of the resolved arbitration of the destinies, that +conclude into precision of doom what we feebly and blindly began; and +force us, when our indiscretion serves us, and our deepest plots do +pall, to the confession that 'there's a divinity that shapes our ends, +rough-hew them how we will.'"[2] + +[Footnote 1: 3rd edition, § 115.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Ruskin has analyzed "The Tempest," in "Munera +Pulveris," § 124, et seqq., but from another point of view.] + +128. Now, it is perfectly clear that this criticism was written with two +or three plays, all belonging to one period, very conspicuously before +the mind. Of the illustrative exceptions that are made to the general +rule, one is derived from a play which Shakspere wrote at a very early +date, and the other from a scene which he almost certainly never wrote +at all; the whole of the rest of the passage quoted is founded upon +"Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Othello," and "Lear"--that is, upon the earlier +productions of what we must call Shakspere's sceptical period. But these +plays represent an essentially transient state of thought. Shakspere was +to learn and to teach that those who most deeply meditate and most +passionately mourn are not the men of noblest or most influential +character--that such may command our sympathy, but hardly our respect or +admiration. Still less did Shakspere finally assert, although for a time +he believed, that a blind destiny concludes into precision what we +feebly and blindly begin. Far otherwise and nobler was his conception of +man and his mission, and the unseen powers and their influences, in the +third and final stage of his thought. + +129. Had Shakspere lived longer, he would doubtless have left us a +series of plays filled with the bright and reassuring tenderness and +confidence of this third period, as long and as brilliant in execution +as those of the second period. But as it is we are in possession of +quite enough material to enable us to form accurate conclusions upon the +state of his final thought. It is upon "The Tempest" that we must in +the main rely for an exposition of this; for though the other plays and +fragments fully exhibit the restoration of his faith in man and woman, +which was a necessary concurrence with his return from scepticism, yet +it is in "The Tempest" that he brings himself as nearly face to face as +dramatic possibilities would allow him with circumstances that admit of +the indirect expression of such thought. It is fortunate, too, for the +purpose of comparing Shakspere's earliest and latest opinions, that the +characters of "The Tempest" are divisible into the same groups as those +of "The Dream." The gross _canaille_ are represented, but now no longer +the most accurate in colour and most absorbing in interest of the +characters of the play, or unessential to the evolution of the plot. +They have a distinct importance in the movement of the piece, and +represent the unintelligent, material resistance to the work of +regeneration that Prospero seeks to carry out, and which must be +controlled by him, just as Sebastian and Antonio form the intelligent, +designing resistance. The spirit world is there too, but they, like the +former class, have no independent plot of their own, and no independent +operation against mankind; they only represent the invisible forces over +which Prospero must assert control if he would insure success for his +schemes. Ariel is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary of all +Shakspere's creations. He is, indeed, formed upon a basis half fairy, +half devil, because it was only through the current notions upon +demonology that Shakspere could speak his ideas. But he certainly is not +a fairy in the sense that Puck is a fairy; and he is very far indeed +from bearing even a slight resemblance to the familiars whom the +magicians of the time professed to call from the vasty deep. He is +indeed but air, as Prospero says--the embodiment of an idea, the +representative of those invisible forces which operate as factors in the +shaping of events which, ignored, may prove resistant or fatal, but, +properly controlled and guided, work for good.[1] Lastly, there are the +heroes and heroine of the play, now no longer shadows, but the centres +of interest and admiration, and assuming their due position and +prominence. + +[Footnote 1: It is difficult to accept Mr. Ruskin's view of Ariel as +"the spirit of generous and free-hearted service" (Mun. Pul. § 124); he +is throughout the play the more-than-half-unwilling agent of Prospero.] + +130. It is probable, therefore, that it is not merely a student's fancy +that in Prospero's storm-girt, spirit-haunted island can be seen +Shakspere's final and matured image of the mighty world. If this be so, +how far more bright and hopeful it is than the verdict which Mr. Ruskin +finds Shakspere to have returned. Man is no longer "a pipe for fortune's +fingers to sound what stop she please." The evil elements still exist in +the world, and are numerous and formidable; but man, by nobleness of +life and word, by patience and self-mastery, can master them, bring them +into subjection, and make them tend to eventual good. Caliban, the +gross, sensual, earthly element--though somewhat raised--would run riot, +and is therefore compelled to menial service. The brute force of +Stephano and Trinculo is vanquished by mental superiority. Even the +supermundane spirits, now no longer thirsting for the destruction of +body and soul, are bound down to the work of carrying out the decrees of +truth and justice. Man is no longer the plaything, but the master of his +fate; and he, seeing now the possible triumph of good over evil, and his +duty to do his best in aid of this triumph, has no more fear of the +dreams--the something after death. Our little life is still rounded by a +sleep, but the thought which terrifies Hamlet has no power to affright +Prospero. The hereafter is still a mystery, it is true; he has tried to +see into it, and has found it impenetrable. But revelation has come like +an angel, with peace upon its wings, in another and an unexpected way. +Duty lies here, in and around him in this world. Here he can right +wrong, succour the weak, abase the proud, do something to make the world +better than he found it; and in the performance of this he finds a +holier calm than the vain strivings after the unknowable could ever +afford. Let him work while it is day, for "the night cometh, when no man +can work." + +131. It is not a piece of pure sentimentality that sees in Prospero a +type of Shakspere in his final stage of thought. It is a type altogether +as it should be; and it is pleasing to think of him, in the full +maturity of his manhood, wrapping his seer's cloak about him, and, while +waiting calmly the unfolding of the mystery which he has sought in vain +to solve, watching with noble benevolence the gradual working out of +truth, order, and justice. It is pleasing to think of him as speaking +to the world the great Christian doctrine so universally overlooked by +Christians, that the only remedy for sin demanded by eternal justice "is +nothing but heart's sorrow, and a clear life ensuing"--a speech which, +though uttered by Ariel, is spoken by Prospero, who himself beautifully +iterates part of the doctrine when he says-- + + "The rarer action is + In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, + The sole drift of my purpose doth extend + Not a frown further."[1] + +It is pleasant to dwell upon his sympathy with Ferdinand and +Miranda--for the love of man and woman is pure and holy in this +regenerate world: no more of Troilus and Cressida--upon his patient +waiting for the evolution of his schemes; upon his faith in their +ultimate success; and, above all, upon the majestic and unaffected +reverence that appears indirectly in every line--"reverence," to adapt +the words of the great teacher whose opinion about Shakspere has been +perhaps too rashly questioned, "for what is pure and bright in youth; +for what is true and tried in age; for all that is gracious among the +living, great among the dead, and marvellous in the Powers that cannot +die." + +[Footnote 1: V. l. 27.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY*** + + +******* This file should be named 12890-8.txt or 12890-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/9/12890 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/12890-8.zip b/old/12890-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bce9263 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12890-8.zip diff --git a/old/12890.txt b/old/12890.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d673a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12890.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4847 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Elizabethan Demonology, by Thomas Alfred +Spalding + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Elizabethan Demonology + +Author: Thomas Alfred Spalding + +Release Date: July 12, 2004 [eBook #12890] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY*** + + +E-text prepared by Imran Ghory, Stan Goodman, Linda Cantoni, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY + +An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, +and the Powers Possessed By Them, as It Was Generally Held during the +Period of the Reformation, and the Times Immediately Succeeding; +with Special Reference to Shakspere and His Works + +by + +THOMAS ALFRED SPALDING, LL.B. (LOND.) + +Barrister-at-Law, Honorary Treasurer of The New Shakspere Society + +London + +1880 + + + + + + +TO + +ROBERT BROWNING, + +PRESIDENT OF THE + +NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY, + +THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. + + + + +FOREWORDS. + + +This Essay is an expansion, in accordance with a preconceived scheme, of +two papers, one on "The Witches in Macbeth," and the other on "The +Demonology of Shakspere," which were read before the New Shakspere +Society in the years 1877 and 1878. The Shakspere references in the text +are made to the Globe Edition. + +The writer's best thanks are due to his friends Mr. F.J. Furnivall and +Mr. Lauriston E. Shaw, for their kindness in reading the proof sheets, +and suggesting emendations. + +TEMPLE, + October 7, 1879. + + + + + "We are too hasty when we set down our ancestors in the gross for + fools for the monstrous inconsistencies (as they seem to us) + involved in their creed of witchcraft."--C. LAMB. + + "But I will say, of Shakspere's works generally, that we have no + full impress of him there, even as full as we have of many men. His + works are so many windows, through which we see a glimpse of the + world that was in him."--T. CARLYLE. + + + + +ANALYSIS. + +I. + +1. Difficulty in understanding our elder writers without a knowledge of +their language and ideas. 2. Especially in the case of dramatic poets. +3. Examples. Hamlet's "assume a virtue." 4. Changes in ideas and law +relating to marriage. Massinger's "Maid of Honour" as an example. 5. +_Sponsalia de futuro_ and _Sponsalia de praesenti_. Shakspere's +marriage. 6. Student's duty is to get to know the opinions and feelings +of the folk amongst whom his author lived. 7. It will be hard work, but +a gain in the end. First, in preventing conceit. 8. Secondly, in +preventing rambling reading. 9. Author's present object to illustrate +the dead belief in Demonology, especially as far as it concerns +Shakspere. He thinks that this may perhaps bring us into closer contact +with Shakspere's soul. 10. Some one objects that Shakspere can speak +better for himself. Yes, but we must be sure that we understand the +media through which he speaks. 11. Division of subject. + +II. + +12. Reasons why the empire of the supernatural is so extended amongst +savages. 13. All important affairs of life transacted under +superintendence of Supreme Powers. 14. What are these Powers? Three +principles regarding them. 15. (I.) Incapacity of mankind to accept +monotheism. The Jews. 16. Roman Catholicism really polytheistic, +although believers won't admit it. Virgin Mary. Saints. Angels. +Protestantism in the same condition in a less degree. 17. Francis of +Assisi. Gradually made into a god. 18. (II.) Manichaeism. Evil spirits +as inevitable as good. 19. (III.) Tendency to treat the gods of hostile +religions as devils. 20. In the Greek theology. [Greek: daimones]. +Platonism. 21. Neo-Platonism. Makes the elder gods into daemons. 22. +Judaism. Recognizes foreign gods at first. _Elohim_, but they get +degraded in time. Beelzebub, Belial, etc. 23. Early Christians treat +gods of Greece in the same way. St. Paul's view. 24. The Church, +however, did not stick to its colours in this respect. Honesty not the +best policy. A policy of compromise. 25. The oracles. Sosthenion and St. +Michael. Delphi. St. Gregory's saintliness and magnanimity. Confusion of +pagan gods and Christian saints. 26. Church in North Europe. Thonar, +etc., are devils, but Balda gets identified with Christ. 27. Conversion +of Britons. Their gods get turned into fairies rather than devils. +Deuce. Old Nick. 28. Subsequent evolution of belief. Carlyle's Abbot +Sampson. Religious formulae of witchcraft. 29. The Reformers and +Catholics revive the old accusations. The Reformers only go half-way in +scepticism. Calfhill and Martiall. 30. Catholics. Siege of Alkmaar. +Unfortunate mistake of a Spanish prisoner. 31. Conditions that tended to +vivify the belief during Elizabethan era. 32. The new freedom. Want of +rules of evidence. Arthur Hacket and his madnesses. Sneezing. +Cock-crowing. Jackdaw in the House of Commons. Russell and Drake both +mistaken for devils. 33. Credulousness of people. "To make one danse +naked." A parson's proof of transubstantiation. 34. But the Elizabethans +had strong common sense nevertheless. People do wrong if they set them +down as fools. If we had not learned to be wiser than they, we should +have to be ashamed of ourselves. We shall learn nothing from them if we +don't try to understand them. + +III. + +35. The three heads. 36. (I.) Classification of devils. Greater and +lesser devils. Good and bad angels. 37. Another classification, not +popular. 38. Names of greater devils. Horribly uncouth. The number of +them. Shakspere's devils. 39. (II.) Form of devils of the greater. 40. +Of the lesser. The horns, goggle eyes, and tail. Scot's +carnal-mindedness. He gets his book burnt, and written against by James +I. 41. Spenser's idol-devil. 42. Dramatists' satire of popular opinion. +43. Favourite form for appearing in when conjured. Devils in Macbeth. +44. Powers of devils. 45. Catholic belief in devil's power to create +bodies. 46. Reformers deny this, but admit that he deceives people into +believing that he can do so, either by getting hold of a dead body, and +restoring animation. 47. Or by means of illusion. 48. The common people +stuck to the Catholic doctrine. Devils appear in likeness of an ordinary +human being. 49. Even a living one, which was sometimes awkward. "The +Troublesome Raigne of King John." They like to appear as priests or +parsons. The devil quoting Scripture. 50. Other human shapes. 51. +Animals. Ariel. 52. Puck. 53. "The Witch of Edmonton." The devil on the +stage. Flies. Urban Grandier. Sir M. Hale. 54. Devils as angels. As +Christ. 55. As dead friend. Reformers denied the possibility of ghosts, +and said the appearances so called were devils. James I. and his +opinion. 56. The common people believed in the ghosts. Bishop +Pilkington's troubles. 57. The two theories. Illustrated in "Julius +Caesar," "Macbeth." 58. And "Hamlet." 59. This explains an apparent +inconsistency in "Hamlet." 60. Possession and obsession. Again the +Catholics and Protestants differ. 61. But the common people believe in +possession. 62. Ignorance on the subject of mental disease. The +exorcists. 63. John Cotta on possession. What the "learned physicion" +knew. 64. What was manifest to the vulgar view. Will Sommers. "The Devil +is an Ass." 65. Harsnet's "Declaration," and "King Lear." 66. The +Babington conspiracy. 67. Weston, alias Edmonds. His exorcisms. Mainy. +The basis of Harsnet's statements. 69. The devils in "Lear." 70. Edgar +and Mainy. Mainy's loose morals. 71. The devils tempt with knives and +halters. 72. Mainy's seven devils: Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Envy, +Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth. The Nightingale business. 73. Treatment of the +possessed: confinement, flagellation. 74. Dr Pinch. Nicknames. 75. Other +methods. That of "Elias and Pawle". The holy chair, sack and oil, +brimstone. 76. Firing out. 77. Bodily diseases the work of the devil. +Bishop Hooper on hygiene. 78. But devils couldn't kill people unless +they renounced God. 79. Witchcraft. 80. People now-a-days can't +sympathize with the witch persecutors, because they don't believe in the +devil. Satan is a mere theory now. 81. But they believed in him once, +and therefore killed people that were suspected of having to do with +him. 82. And we don't sympathize with the persecuted witches, although +we make a great fuss about the sufferings of the Reformers. 83. The +witches in Macbeth. Some take them to be Norns. 84. Gervinus. His +opinion. 85. Mr. F.G. Fleay. His opinion. 86. Evidence. Simon Forman's +note. 87. Holinshed's account. 88. Criticism. 89. It is said that the +appearance and powers of the sisters are not those of witches. 90. It is +going to be shown that they are. 91. A third piece of criticism. 92. +Objections. 93. Contemporary descriptions of witches. Scot, Harsnet. +Witches' beards. 94. Have Norns chappy fingers, skinny lips, and beards? +95. Powers of witches "looking into the seeds of time." Bessie Roy, how +she looked into them. 96. Meaning of first scene of "Macbeth." 97. +Witches power to vanish. Ointments for the purpose. Scot's instance of +their efficacy. 98. "Weird sisters." 99. Other evidence. 100. Why +Shakspere chose witches. Command over elements. 101. Peculiar to Scotch +trials of 1590-91. 102. Earlier case of Bessie Dunlop--a poor, starved, +half daft creature. "Thom Reid," and how he tempted her. Her canny +Scotch prudence. Poor Bessie gets burnt for all that. 103. Reason for +peculiarity of trials of 1590. James II. comes from Denmark to Scotland. +The witches raise a storm at the instigation of the devil. How the +trials were conducted. 104. John Fian. Raising a mist. Toad-omen. Ship +sinking. 105. Sieve-sailing. Excitement south of the Border. The +"Daemonologie." Statute of James against witchcraft. 106. The origin of +the incubus and succubus. 107. Mooncalves. 108. Division of opinion +amongst Reformers regarding devils. Giordano Bruno. Bullinger's opinion +about Sadducees and Epicures. 109. Emancipation a gradual process. +Exorcism in Edward VI.'s Prayer-book. 110. The author hopes he has been +reverent in his treatment of the subject. Any sincere belief entitled to +respect. Our pet beliefs may some day appear as dead and ridiculous as +these. + +IV. + +111. Fairies and devils differ in degree, not in origin. 112. Evidence. +113. Cause of difference. Folk, until disturbed by religious doubt, +don't believe in devils, but fairies. 114. Reformation shook people up, +and made them think of hell and devils. 115. The change came in the +towns before the country. Fairies held on a long time in the country. +116. Shakspere was early impressed with fairy lore. In middle life, came +in contact with town thought and devils, and at the end of it returned +to Stratford and fairydom. 117. This is reflected in his works. 118. But +there is progression of thought to be observed in these stages. 119. +Shakspere indirectly tells us his thoughts, if we will take the trouble +to learn them. 120. Three stages of thought that men go through on +religious matters. Hereditary belief. Scepticism. Reasoned belief. 121. +Shakspere went through all this. 122. Illustrations. Hereditary belief. +"A Midsummer Night's Dream." Fairies chiefly an adaptation of current +tradition. 123. The dawn of doubt. 124. Scepticism. Evil spirits +dominant. No guiding good. 125. Corresponding lapse of faith in other +matters. Woman's purity. 126. Man's honour. 127. Mr. Ruskin's view of +Shakspere's message. 128. Founded chiefly on plays of sceptical period. +Message of third period entirely different. 129. Reasoned belief. "The +Tempest." 130. Man can master evil of all forms if he go about it in the +right way--is not the toy of fate. 131. Prospero a type of Shakspere in +this final stage of thought. How pleasant to think this! + + + + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY. + + +1. It is impossible to understand and appreciate thoroughly the +production of any great literary genius who lived and wrote in times far +removed from our own, without a certain amount of familiarity, not only +with the precise shades of meaning possessed by the vocabulary he made +use of, as distinguished from the sense conveyed by the same words in +the present day, but also with the customs and ideas, political, +religious and moral, that predominated during the period in which his +works were produced. Without such information, it will be found +impossible, in many matters of the first importance, to grasp the +writer's true intent, and much will appear vague and lifeless that was +full of point and vigour when it was first conceived; or, worse still, +modern opinion upon the subject will be set up as the standard of +interpretation, ideas will be forced into the writer's sentences that +could not by any manner of possibility have had place in his mind, and +utterly false conclusions as to his meaning will be the result. Even the +man who has had some experience in the study of an early literature, +occasionally finds some difficulty in preventing the current opinions of +his day from obtruding themselves upon his work and warping his +judgment; to the general reader this must indeed be a frequent and +serious stumbling-block. + +2. This is a special source of danger in the study of the works of +dramatic poets, whose very art lies in the representation of the current +opinions, habits, and foibles of their times--in holding up the mirror +to their age. It is true that, if their works are to live, they must +deal with subjects of more than mere passing interest; but it is also +true that many, and the greatest of them, speak upon questions of +eternal interest in the particular light cast upon them in their times, +and it is quite possible that the truth may be entirely lost from want +of power to recognize it under the disguise in which it comes. A certain +motive, for instance, that is an overpowering one in a given period, +subsequently appears grotesque, weak, or even powerless; the consequent +action becomes incomprehensible, and the actor is contemned; and a +simile that appeared most appropriate in the ears of the author's +contemporaries, seems meaningless, or ridiculous, to later generations. + +3. An example or two of this possibility of error, derived from works +produced during the period with which it is the object of these pages to +deal, will not be out of place here. + +A very striking illustration of the manner in which a word may mislead +is afforded by the oft-quoted line: + + "Assume a virtue, if you have it not." + +By most readers the secondary, and, in the present day, almost +universal, meaning of the word assume--"pretend that to be, which in +reality has no existence;"--that is, in the particular case, "ape the +chastity you do not in reality possess"--is understood in this sentence; +and consequently Hamlet, and through him, Shakspere, stand committed to +the appalling doctrine that hypocrisy in morals is to be commended and +cultivated. Now, such a proposition never for an instant entered +Shakspere's head. He used the word "assume" in this case in its primary +and justest sense; _ad-sumo_, take to, acquire; and the context plainly +shows that Hamlet meant that his mother, by self-denial, would gradually +acquire that virtue in which she was so conspicuously wanting. Yet, for +lack of a little knowledge of the history of the word employed, the +other monstrous gloss has received almost universal and applauding +acceptance. + +4. This is a fair example of the style of error which a reader +unacquainted with the history of the changes our language has undergone +may fall into. Ignorance of changes in customs and morals may cause +equal or greater error. + +The difference between the older and more modern law, and popular +opinion, relating to promises of marriage and their fulfilment, affords +a striking illustration of the absurdities that attend upon the +interpretation of the ideas of one generation by the practice of +another. Perhaps no greater nonsense has been talked upon any subject +than this one, especially in relation to Shakspere's own marriage, by +critics who seem to have thought that a fervent expression of acute +moral feeling would replace and render unnecessary patient +investigation. + +In illustration of this difference, a play of Massinger's, "The Maid of +Honour," may be advantageously cited, as the catastrophe turns upon this +question of marriage contracts. Camiola, the heroine, having been +precontracted by oath[1] to Bertoldo, the king's natural brother, and +hearing of his subsequent engagement to the Duchess of Sienna, +determines to quit the world and take the veil. But before doing so, and +without informing any one, except her confessor, of her intention, she +contrives a somewhat dramatic scene for the purpose of exposing her +false lover. She comes into the presence of the king and all the court, +produces her contract, claims Bertoldo as her husband, and demands +justice of the king, adjuring him that he shall not-- + + "Swayed or by favour or affection, + By a false gloss or wrested comment, alter + The true intent and letter of the law." + +[Footnote 1: Act v. sc. I.] + +Now, the only remedy that would occur to the mind of the reader of the +present day under such circumstances, would be an action for breach of +promise of marriage, and he would probably be aware of the very recent +origin of that method of procedure. The only reply, therefore, that he +would expect from Roberto would be a mild and sympathetic assurance of +inability to interfere; and he must be somewhat taken aback to find this +claim of Camiola admitted as indisputable. The riddle becomes somewhat +further involved when, having established her contract, she immediately +intimates that she has not the slightest intention of observing it +herself, by declaring her desire to take the veil. + +5. This can only be explained by the rules current at the time regarding +spousals. The betrothal, or handfasting, was, in Massinger's time, a +ceremony that entailed very serious obligations upon the parties to it. +There were two classes of spousals--_sponsalia de futuro_ and _sponsalia +de praesenti_: a promise of marriage in the future, and an actual +declaration of present marriage. This last form of betrothal was, in +fact, marriage, as far as the contracting parties were concerned.[1] It +could not, even though not consummated, be dissolved by mutual consent; +and a subsequent marriage, even though celebrated with religious rites, +was utterly invalid, and could be set aside at the suit of the injured +person. + +[Footnote 1: Swinburne, A Treatise of Spousals, 1686, p. 236. In England +the offspring were, nevertheless, illegitimate.] + +The results entailed by _sponsalia de futuro_ were less serious. +Although no spousals of the same nature could be entered into with a +third person during the existence of the contract, yet it could be +dissolved by mutual consent, and was dissolved by subsequent _sponsalia +in praesenti_, or matrimony. But such spousals could be converted into +valid matrimony by the cohabitation of the parties; and this, instead of +being looked upon as reprehensible, seems to have been treated as a +laudable action, and to be by all means encouraged.[1] In addition to +this, completion of a contract for marriage _de futuro_ confirmed by +oath, if such a contract were not indeed indissoluble, as was thought by +some, could at any rate be enforced against an unwilling party. But +there were some reasons that justified the dissolution of _sponsalia_ of +either description. Affinity was one of these; and--what is to the +purpose here, in England before the Reformation, and in those parts of +the continent unaffected by it--the entrance into a religious order was +another. Here, then, we have a full explanation of Camiola's conduct. +She is in possession of evidence of a contract of marriage between +herself and Bertoldo, which, whether _in praesenti_ or _in futuro_, +being confirmed by oath, she can force upon him, and which will +invalidate his proposed marriage with the duchess. Having established +her right, she takes the only step that can with certainty free both +herself and Bertoldo from the bond they had created, by retiring into a +nunnery. + +[Footnote 1: Swinburne, p. 227.] + +This explanation renders the action of the play clear, and at the same +time shows that Shakspere in his conduct with regard to his marriage may +have been behaving in the most honourable and praiseworthy manner; as +the bond, with the date of which the date of the birth of his first +child is compared, is for the purpose of exonerating the ecclesiastics +from any liability for performing the ecclesiastical ceremony, which was +not at all a necessary preliminary to a valid marriage, so far as the +husband and wife were concerned, although it was essential to render +issue of the marriage legitimate. + +6. These are instances of the deceptions that are likely to arise +from the two fertile sources that have been specified. There can +be no doubt that the existence of errors arising from the former +source--misapprehension of the meaning of words--is very generally +admitted, and effectual remedies have been supplied by modern scholars +for those who will make use of them. Errors arising from the latter +source are not so entirely recognized, or so securely guarded against. +But what has just been said surely shows that it is of no use reading a +writer of a past age with merely modern conceptions; and, therefore, +that if such a man's works are worth study at all, they must be read +with the help of the light thrown upon them by contemporary history, +literature, laws, and morals. The student must endeavour to divest +himself, as far as possible, of all ideas that are the result of a +development subsequent to the time in which his author lived, and to +place himself in harmony with the life and thoughts of the people of +that age: sit down with them in their homes, and learn the sources of +their loves, their hates, their fears, and see wherein domestic +happiness, or lack of it, made them strong or weak; follow them to the +market-place, and witness their dealings with their fellows--the honesty +or baseness of them, and trace the cause; look into their very hearts, +if it may be, as they kneel at the devotion they feel or simulate, and +become acquainted with the springs of their dearest aspirations and most +secret prayers. + +7. A hard discipline, no doubt, but not more hard than salutary. +Salutary in two ways. First, as a test of the student's own earnestness +of purpose. For in these days of revival of interest in our elder +literature, it has become much the custom for flippant persons, who are +covetous of being thought "well-read" by their less-enterprising +companions, to skim over the surface of the pages of the wisest and +noblest of our great teachers, either not understanding, or +misunderstanding them. "I have read Chaucer, Shakspere, Milton," is the +sublimely satirical expression constantly heard from the mouths of those +who, having read words set down by the men they name, have no more +capacity for reading the hearts of the men themselves, through those +words, than a blind man has for discerning the colour of flowers. As a +consequence of this flippancy of reading, numberless writers, whose +works have long been consigned to a well-merited oblivion, have of late +years been disinterred and held up for public admiration, chiefly upon +the ground that they are ancient and unknown. The man who reads for the +sake of having done so, not for the sake of the knowledge gained by +doing so, finds as much charm in these petty writers as in the greater, +and hence their transient and undeserved popularity. It would be well, +then, for every earnest student, before beginning the study of any one +having pretensions to the position of a master, and who is not of our +own generation, to ask himself, "Am I prepared thoroughly to sift out +and ascertain the true import of every allusion contained in this +volume?" And if he cannot honestly answer "Yes," let him shut the book, +assured that he is not impelled to the study of it by a sincere thirst +for knowledge, but by impertinent curiosity, or a shallow desire to +obtain undeserved credit for learning. + +8. The second way in which such a discipline will prove salutary is +this: it will prevent the student from straying too far afield in his +reading. The number of "classical" authors whose works will repay such +severe study is extremely limited. However much enthusiasm he may throw +into his studies, he will find that nine-tenths of our older literature +yields too small a harvest of instruction to attract any but the pedant +to expend so much labour upon them. The two great vices of modern +reading will be avoided--flippancy on the one hand, and pedantry on the +other. + +9. The object, therefore, which I have had in view in the compilation of +the following pages, is to attempt to throw some additional light upon a +condition of thought, utterly different from any belief that has firm +hold in the present generation, that was current and peculiarly +prominent during the lifetime of the man who bears overwhelmingly the +greatest name, either in our own or any other literature. It may be +said, and perhaps with much force, that enough, and more than enough, +has been written in the way of Shakspere criticism. But is it not better +that somewhat too much should be written upon such a subject than too +little? We cannot expect that every one shall see all the greatness of +Shakspere's vast and complex mind--by one a truth will be grasped that +has eluded the vigilance of others;--and it is better that those who can +by no possibility grasp anything at all should have patient hearing, +rather than that any additional light should be lost. The useless, +lifeless criticism vanishes quietly away into chaos; the good remains +quietly to be useful: and it is in reliance upon the justice and +certainty of this law that I aim at bringing before the mind, as clearly +as may be, a phase of belief that was continually and powerfully +influencing Shakspere during the whole of his life, but is now well-nigh +forgotten or entirely misunderstood. If the endeavour is a useless and +unprofitable one, let it be forgotten--I am content; but I hope to be +able to show that an investigation of the subject does furnish us with a +key which, in a manner, unlocks the secrets of Shakspere's heart, and +brings us closer to the real living man--to the very soul of him who, +with hardly any history in the accepted sense of the word, has left us +in his works a biography of far deeper and more precious meaning, if we +will but understand it. + +10. But it may be said that Shakspere, of all men, is able to speak for +himself without aid or comment. His works appeal to all, young and old, +in every time, every nation. It is true; he can be understood. He is, +to use again Ben Jonson's oft-quoted words, "Not of an age, but for +all time." Yet he is so thoroughly imbued with the spirit and opinions +of his era, that without a certain comprehension of the men of +the Elizabethan period he cannot be understood fully. Indeed, +his greatness is to a large extent due to his sympathy with the men +around him, his power of clearly thinking out the answers to the +all-time questions, and giving a voice to them that his contemporaries +could understand;--answers that others could not for themselves +formulate--could, perhaps, only vaguely and dimly feel after. To +understand these answers fully, the language in which they were +delivered must be first thoroughly mastered. + +11. I intend, therefore, to attempt to sketch out the leading features +of a phase of religious belief that acquired peculiar distinctness and +prominence during Shakspere's lifetime--more, perhaps, than it ever did +before, or has done since--the belief in the existence of evil spirits, +and their influence upon and dealings with mankind. The subject will be +treated in three sections. The first will contain a short statement of +the laws that seem to be of universal operation in the creation and +maintenance of the belief in a multitudinous band of spirits, good and +evil; and of a few of the conditions of the Elizabethan epoch that may +have had a formative and modifying influence upon that belief. The +second will be devoted to an outline of the chief features of that +belief, as it existed at the time in question--the organization, +appearance, and various functions and powers of the evil spirits, with +special reference to Shakspere's plays. The third and concluding +section, will embody an attempt to trace the growth of Shakspere's +thought upon religious matters through the medium of his allusions to +this subject. + + * * * * * + +12. The empire of the supernatural must obviously be most extended +where civilization is the least advanced. An educated man has to make a +conscious, and sometimes severe, effort to refrain from pronouncing a +dogmatic opinion as to the cause of a given result when sufficient +evidence to warrant a definite conclusion is wanting; to the savage, +the notion of any necessity for, or advantage to be derived from, such +self-restraint never once occurs. Neither the lightning that strikes +his hut, the blight that withers his crops, the disease that destroys +the life of those he loves; nor, on the other hand, the beneficent +sunshine or life-giving rain, is by him traceable to any known +physical cause. They are the results of influences utterly beyond his +understanding--supernatural,--matters upon which imagination is allowed +free scope to run riot, and from which spring up a legion of myths, or +attempts to represent in some manner these incomprehensible processes, +grotesque or poetic, according to the character of the people with which +they originate, which, if their growth be not disturbed by extraneous +influences, eventually develop into the national creed. The most +ordinary events of the savage's every-day life do not admit of a natural +solution; his whole existence is bound in, from birth to death, by a +network of miracles, and regulated, in its smallest details, by unseen +powers of whom he knows little or nothing. + +13. Hence it is that, in primitive societies, the functions of +legislator, judge, priest, and medicine man are all combined in one +individual, the great medium of communication between man and the +unknown, whose person is pre-eminently sacred. The laws that are to +guide the community come in some mysterious manner through him from the +higher powers. If two members of the clan are involved in a quarrel, he +is appealed to to apply some test in order to ascertain which of the two +is in the wrong--an ordeal that can have no judicial operation, except +upon the assumption of the existence of omnipotent beings interested in +the discovery of evil-doers, who will prevent the test from operating +unjustly. Maladies and famines are unmistakeable signs of the +displeasure of the good, or spite of the bad spirits, and are to be +averted by some propitiatory act on the part of the sufferers, or the +mediation of the priest-doctor. The remedy that would put an end to a +long-continued drought will be equally effective in arresting an +epidemic. + +14. But who, and of what nature, are these supernatural powers whose +influences are thus brought to bear upon every-day life, and who appear +to take such an interest in the affairs of mankind? It seems that there +are three great principles at work in the evolution and modification of +the ideas upon this subject, which must now be shortly stated. + +15. (i.) The first of these is the apparent incapacity of the majority +of mankind to accept a purely monotheistic creed. It is a demonstrable +fact that the primitive religions now open to observation attribute +specific events and results to distinct supernatural beings; and there +can be little doubt that this is the initial step in every creed. It is +a bold and somewhat perilous revolution to attempt to overturn this +doctrine and to set up monotheism in its place, and, when successfully +accomplished, is rarely permanent. The more educated portions of the +community maintain allegiance to the new teaching, perhaps; but among +the lower classes it soon becomes degraded to, or amalgamated with, some +form of polytheism more or less pronounced, and either secret or +declared. Even the Jews, the nation the most conspicuous for its +supposed uncompromising adherence to a monotheistic creed, cannot claim +absolute freedom from taint in this respect; for in the country places, +far from the centre of worship, the people were constantly following +after strange gods; and even some of their most notable worthies were +liable to the same accusation. + +16. It is not necessary, however, that the individuality and +specialization of function of the supreme beings recognized by any +religious system should be so conspicuous as they are in this case, or +in the Greek or Roman Pantheon, to mark it as in its essence +polytheistic or of polytheistic tendency. It is quite enough that the +immortals are deemed to be capable of hearing and answering the prayers +of their adorers, and of interfering actively in passing events, either +for good or for evil. This, at the root of it, constitutes the crucial +difference between polytheism and monotheism; and in this sense the +Roman Catholic form of Christianity, representing the oldest undisturbed +evolution of a strictly monotheistic doctrine, is undeniably +polytheistic. Apart from the Virgin Mary, there is a whole hierarchy of +inferior deities, saints, and angels, subordinate to the One Supreme +Being. This may possibly be denied by the authorized expounders of the +doctrine of the Church of Rome; but it is nevertheless certain that it +is the view taken by the uneducated classes, with whom the saints are +much more present and definite deities than even the Almighty Himself. +It is worth noting, that during the dancing mania of 1418, not God, or +Christ, or the Virgin Mary, but St. Vitus, was prayed to by the populace +to stop the epidemic that was afterwards known by his name.[1] There was +a temple to St. Michael on Mount St. Angelo, and Augustine thought it +necessary to declare that angel-worshippers were heretics.[2] Even +Protestantism, though a much younger growth than Catholicism, shows a +slight tendency towards polytheism. The saints are, of course, quite +out of the question, and angels are as far as possible relegated from +the citadel of asserted belief into the vaguer regions of poetical +sentimentality; but--although again unadmitted by the orthodox of the +sect--the popular conception of Christ is, and, until the masses are +more educated in theological niceties than they are at present, +necessarily must be, as of a Supreme Being totally distinct from God the +Father. This applies in a less degree to the third Person in the +Trinity; less, because His individuality is less clear. George Eliot +has, with her usual penetration, noted this fact in "Silas Marner," +where, in Mrs. Winthrop's simple theological system, the Trinity is +always referred to as "Them." + +[Footnote 1: Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 85.] + +[Footnote 2: Bullinger, p. 348. Parker Society.] + +17. The posthumous history of Francis of Assisi affords a striking +illustration of this strange tendency towards polytheism. This +extraordinary man received no little reverence and adulation during his +lifetime; but it was not until after his death that the process of +deification commenced. It was then discovered that the stigmata were not +the only points of resemblance between the departed saint and the Divine +Master he professed to follow; that his birth had been foretold by the +prophets; that, like Christ, he underwent transfiguration; and that he +had worked miracles during his life. The climax of the apotheosis was +reached in 1486, when a monk, preaching at Paris, seriously maintained +that St. Francis was in very truth a second Christ, the second Son of +God; and that after his death he descended into purgatory, and +liberated all the spirits confined there who had the good fortune to be +arrayed in the Franciscan garb.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Maury, Histoire de la Magie, p. 354.] + +18. (ii.) The second principle is that of the Manichaeists: the division +of spirits into hostile camps, good and evil. This is a much more common +belief than the orthodox are willing to allow. There is hardly any +religious system that does not recognize a first source of evil, as well +as a first source of good. But the spirit of evil occupies a position of +varying importance: in some systems he maintains himself as co-equal of +the spirit of good; in others he sinks to a lower stage, remaining very +powerful to do harm, but nevertheless under the control, in matters of +the highest importance, of the more beneficent Being. In each of these +cases, the first principle is found operating, ever augmenting the +ranks; monodiabolism being as impossible as monotheism; and hence the +importance of fully establishing that proposition. + +19. (iii.) The last and most important of these principles is the +tendency of all theological systems to absorb into themselves the +deities extraneous to themselves, not as gods, but as inferior, or even +evil, spirits. The actual existence of the foreign deity is not for a +moment disputed, the presumption in favour of innumerable spiritual +agencies being far too strong to allow the possibility of such a doubt; +but just as the alien is looked upon as an inferior being, created +chiefly for the use and benefit of the chosen people--and what nation is +not, if its opinion of itself may be relied upon, a chosen people?--so +the god the alien worships is a spirit of inferior power and capacity, +and can be recognized solely as occupying a position subordinate to that +of the gods of the land. + +This principle has such an important influence in the elaboration of the +belief in demons, that it is worth while to illustrate the generality of +its application. + +20. In the Greek system of theology we find in the first place a number +of deities of varying importance and power, whose special functions are +defined with some distinctness; and then, below these, an innumerable +band of spirits, the souls of the departed--probably the relics of an +earlier pure ancestor-worship--who still interest themselves in the +inhabitants of this world. These [Greek: daimones] were certainly +accredited with supernatural power, and were not of necessity either +good or evil in their influence or action. It was to this second class +that foreign deities were assimilated. They found it impossible, +however, to retain even this humble position. The ceremonies of their +worship, and the language in which those ceremonies were performed, were +strange to the inhabitants of the land in which the acclimatization was +attempted; and the incomprehensible is first suspected, then loathed. It +is not surprising, then, that the new-comers soon fell into the ranks of +purely evil spirits, and that those who persisted in exercising their +rites were stigmatized as devil-worshippers, or magicians. + +But in process of time this polytheistic system became pre-eminently +unsatisfactory to the thoughtful men whom Greece produced in such +numbers. The tendency towards monotheism which is usually associated +with the name of Plato is hinted at in the writings of other +philosophers who were his predecessors. The effect of this revolution +was to recognize one Supreme Being, the First Cause, and to subordinate +to him all the other deities of the ancient and popular theology--to +co-ordinate them, in fact, with the older class of daemons; the first +step in the descent to the lowest category of all. + +21. The history of the neo-Platonic belief is one of elaboration upon +these ideas. The conception of the Supreme Being was complicated in a +manner closely resembling the idea of the Christian Trinity, and all the +subordinate daemons were classified into good and evil geniuses. Thus, a +theoretically monotheistic system was established, with a tremendous +hierarchy of inferior spirits, who frequently bore the names of the +ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, strikingly +resembling that of Roman Catholicism. The subordinate daemons were not +at first recognized as entitled to any religious rites; but in the +course of time, by the inevitable operation of the first principle just +enunciated, a form of theurgy sprang up with the object of attracting +the kindly help and patronage of the good spirits, and was tolerated; +and attempts were made to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, which +were, as far as possible suppressed and discountenanced. + +22. The history of the operation of this principle upon the Jewish +religion is very similar, and extremely interesting. Although they do +not seem to have ever had any system of ancestor-worship, as the Greeks +had, yet the Jews appear originally to have recognized the deities of +their neighbours as existing spirits, but inferior in power to the God +of Israel. "All the gods of the nations are idols" are words that +entirely fail to convey the idea of the Psalmist; for the word +translated "idols" is _Elohim_, the very term usually employed to +designate Jehovah; and the true sense of the passage therefore is: "All +the gods of the nations are gods, but Jehovah made the heavens."[1] In +another place we read that "The Lord is a great God, and a great King +above all gods."[2] As, however, the Jews gradually became acquainted +with the barbarous rites with which their neighbours did honour to their +gods, the foreigners seem to have fallen more and more in estimation, +until they came to be classed as evil spirits. To this process such +names as Beelzebub, Moloch, Ashtaroth, and Belial bear witness; +Beelzebub, "the prince of the devils" of later time, being one of the +gods of the hostile Philistines. + +[Footnote 1: Psalm xcvi. 5 (xcv. Sept.).] + +[Footnote 2: Psalm xcv. 3 (xciv. Sept.). Maury, p. 98.] + +23. The introduction of Christianity made no difference in this respect. +Paul says to the believers at Corinth, "that the things which the +Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils ([Greek: daimonia]), and +not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with +devils;"[1] and the Septuagint renders the word _Elohim_ in the +ninety-fifth Psalm by this [Greek: daimonia], which as the Christians +had already a distinct term for good spirits, came to be applied to evil +ones only. + +[Footnote 1: I Cor. x. 20.] + +Under the influence therefore, of the new religion, the gods of Greece +and Rome, who in the days of their supremacy had degraded so many +foreign deities to the position of daemons, were in their turn deposed +from their high estate, and became the nucleus around which the +Christian belief in demonology formed itself. The gods who under the old +theologies reigned paramount in the lower regions became pre-eminently +diabolic in character in the new system, and it was Hecate who to the +last retained her position of active patroness and encourager of +witchcraft; a practice which became almost indissolubly connected with +her name. Numerous instances of the completeness with which this process +of diabolization was effected, and the firmness with which it retained +its hold upon the popular belief, even to late times, might be given; +but the following must suffice. In one of the miracle plays, "The +Conversion of Saul," a council of devils is held, at which Mercury +appears as the messenger of Belial.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Digby Mysteries, New Shakspere Society, 1880, p. 44.] + +24. But this absolute rejection of every pagan belief and ceremony was +characteristic of the Christian Church in its infancy only. So long as +the band of believers was a small and persecuted one, no temptation to +violate the rule could exist. But as the Church grew, and acquired +influence and position, it discovered that good policy demanded that the +sternness and inflexibility of its youthful theories should undergo some +modification. It found that it was not the most successful method of +enticing stragglers into its fold to stigmatize the gods they ignorantly +worshipped as devils, and to persecute them as magicians. The more +impetuous and enthusiastic supporters did persecute, and persecute most +relentlessly, the adherents of the dying faith; but persecution, whether +of good or evil, always fails as a means of suppressing a hated +doctrine, unless it can be carried to the extent of extermination of its +supporters; and the more far-seeing leaders of the Catholic Church soon +recognized that a slight surrender of principle was a far surer road to +success than stubborn, uncompromising opposition. + +25. It was in this spirit that the Catholics dealt with the oracles of +heathendom. Mr. Lecky is hardly correct when he says that nothing +analogous to the ancient oracles was incorporated with Christianity.[1] +There is the notable case of the god Sosthenion, whom Constantine +identified with the archangel Michael, and whose oracular functions were +continued in a precisely similar manner by the latter.[2] Oracles that +were not thus absorbed and supported were recognized as existent, but +under diabolic control, and to be tolerated, if not patronized, by the +representatives of the dominant religion. The oracle at Delphi gave +forth prophetic utterances for centuries after the commencement of the +Christian era; and was the less dangerous, as its operations could be +stopped at any moment by holding a saintly relic to the god or devil +Apollo's nose. There is a fable that St. Gregory, in the course of his +travels, passed near the oracle, and his extraordinary sanctity was such +as to prevent all subsequent utterances. This so disturbed the presiding +genius of the place, that he appealed to the saint to undo the baneful +effects his presence had produced; and Gregory benevolently wrote a +letter to the devil, which was in fact a license to continue the +business of prophesying unmolested.[3] This nonsensical fiction shows +clearly enough that the oracles were not generally looked upon as +extinguished by Christianity. As the result of a similar policy we find +the names and functions of the pagan gods and the earlier Christian +saints confused in the most extraordinary manner; the saints assuming +the duties of the moribund deities where those duties were of a harmless +or necessary character.[4] + +[Footnote 1: Rise and Influence of Rationalism, i. p. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: Maury, p. 244, et seq.] + +[Footnote 3: Scot, book vii. ch. i.] + +[Footnote 4: Middleton's Letter from Rome.] + +26. The Church carried out exactly the same principles in her missionary +efforts amongst the heathen hordes of Northern Europe. "Do you renounce +the devils, and all their words and works; Thonar, Wodin, and Saxenote?" +was part of the form of recantation administered to the Scandinavian +converts;[1] and at the present day "Odin take you" is the Norse +equivalent of "the devil take you." On the other hand, an attempt was +made to identify Balda "the beautiful" with Christ--a confusion of +character that may go far towards accounting for a custom joyously +observed by our forefathers at Christmastide but which the false +modesty of modern society has nearly succeeded in banishing from amongst +us, for Balda was slain by Loke with a branch of mistletoe, and Christ +was betrayed by Judas with a kiss. + +[Footnote 1: Milman, History of Latin Christianity, iii. 267; ix. 65.] + +27. Upon the conversion of the inhabitants of Great Britain to +Christianity, the native deities underwent the same inevitable fate, and +sank into the rank of evil spirits. Perhaps the juster opinion is that +they became the progenitors of our fairy mythology rather than the +subsequent devil-lore, although the similarity between these two classes +of spirits is sufficient to warrant us in classing them as species of +the same genus; their characters and functions being perfectly +interchangeable, and even at times merging and becoming +indistinguishable. A certain lurking affection in the new converts for +the religion they had deserted, perhaps under compulsion, may have led +them to look upon their ancient objects of veneration as less detestable +in nature, and dangerous in act, than the devils imported as an integral +portion of their adopted faith; and so originated this class of spirits +less evil than the other. Sir Walter Scott may be correct in his +assertion that many of these fairy-myths owe their origin to the +existence of a diminutive autochthonic race that was conquered by the +invading Celts, and the remnants of which lurked about the mountains and +forests, and excited in their victors a superstitious reverence on +account of their great skill in metallurgy; but this will not explain +the retention of many of the old god-names; as that of the Dusii, the +Celtic nocturnal spirits, in our word "deuce," and that of the Nikr or +water-spirits in "nixie" and old "Nick."[1] These words undoubtedly +indicate the accomplishment of the "facilis descensus Averno" by the +native deities. Elves, brownies, gnomes, and trolds were all at one time +Scotch or Irish gods. The trolds obtained a character similar to that of +the more modern succubus, and have left their impression upon +Elizabethan English in the word "trull." + +[Footnote 1: Maury, p. 189.] + +28. The preceding very superficial outline of the growth of the belief +in evil spirits is enough for the purpose of this essay, as it shows +that the basis of English devil-lore was the annihilated mythologies of +the ancient heathen religions--Italic and Teutonic, as well as those +brought into direct conflict with the Jewish system; and also that the +more important of the Teutonic deities are not to be traced in the +subsequent hierarchy of fiends, on account probably of their temporary +or permanent absorption into the proselytizing system, or the refusal of +the new converts to believe them to be so black as their teachers +painted them. The gradual growth of the superstructure it would be +well-nigh impossible and quite unprofitable to trace. It is due chiefly +to the credulous ignorance and distorted imagination, monkish and +otherwise, of several centuries. Carlyle's graphic picture of Abbot +Sampson's vision of the devil in "Past and Present" will perhaps do more +to explain how the belief grew and flourished than pages of explanatory +statements. It is worthy of remark, however, that to the last, +communication with evil spirits was kept up by means of formulae and +rites that are undeniably the remnants of a form of religious worship. +Incomprehensible in their jargon as these formulae mostly are, and +strongly tinctured as they have become with burlesqued Christian +symbolism and expression--for those who used them could only supply the +fast-dying memory of the elder forms from the existing system--they +still, in all their grotesqueness, remain the battered relics of a dead +faith. + +29. Such being the natural history of the conflict of religions, it will +not be a matter of surprise that the leaders of our English Reformation +should, in their turn, have attributed the miracles of the Roman +Catholic saints to the same infernal source as the early Christians +supposed to have been the origin of the prodigies and oracles of +paganism. The impulse given by the secession from the Church of Rome to +the study of the Bible by all classes added impetus to this tendency. In +Holy Writ the Reformers found full authority for believing in the +existence of evil spirits, possession by devils, witchcraft, and divine +and diabolic interference by way of miracle generally; and they +consequently acknowledged the possibility of the repetition of such +phenomena in the times in which they lived--a position more tenable, +perhaps, than that of modern orthodoxy, that accepts without murmur all +the supernatural events recorded in the Bible, and utterly rejects all +subsequent relations of a similar nature, however well authenticated. +The Reformers believed unswervingly in the truth of the Biblical +accounts of miracles, and that what God had once permitted to take place +might and would be repeated in case of serious necessity. But they found +it utterly impossible to accept the puerile and meaningless miracles +perpetrated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church as evidence +of divine interference; and they had not travelled far enough upon the +road towards rationalism to be able to reject them, one and all, as in +their very nature impossible. The consequence of this was one of those +compromises which we so often meet with in the history of the changes of +opinion effected by the Reformation. Only those particular miracles that +were indisputably demonstrated to be impostures--and there were plenty +of them, such as the Rood of Boxley[1]--were treated as such by them. +The unexposed remainder were treated as genuine supernatural phenomena, +but caused by diabolical, not divine, agency. The reforming divine +Calfhill, supporting this view of the Catholic miracles in his answer to +Martiall's "Treatise of the Cross," points out that the majority of +supernatural events that have taken place in this world have been, most +undoubtedly, the work of the devil; and puts his opponents into a rather +embarrassing dilemma by citing the miracles of paganism, which both +Catholic and Protestant concurred in attributing to the evil one. He +then clinches his argument by asserting that "it is the devil's cunning +that persuades those that will walk in a popish blindness" that they are +worshipping God when they are in reality serving him. "Therefore," he +continues, consciously following an argument of St. Cyprianus against +the pagan miracles, "these wicked spirits do lurk in shrines, in roods, +in crosses, in images: and first of all pervert the priests, which are +easiest to be caught with bait of a little gain. Then work they +miracles. They appear to men in divers shapes; disquiet them when they +are awake; trouble them in their sleeps; distort their members; take +away their health; afflict them with diseases; only to bring them to +some idolatry. Thus, when they have obtained their purpose that a lewd +affiance is reposed where it should not, they enter (as it were) into a +new league, and trouble them no more. What do the simple people then? +Verily suppose that the image, the cross, the thing that they have +kneeled and offered unto (the very devil indeed) hath restored them +health, whereas he did nothing but leave off to molest them. This is the +help and cure that the devils give when they leave off their wrong and +injury."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Froude, History of England, cabinet edition, iii. 102.] + +[Footnote 2: Calfhill, pp. 317-8. Parker Society.] + +30. Here we have a distinct charge of devil-worship--the old doctrine +cropping up again after centuries of repose: "all the gods of our +opponents are devils." Nor were the Catholics a whit behind the +Protestants in this matter. The priests zealously taught that the +Protestants were devil-worshippers and magicians;[1] and the common +people so implicitly believed in the truth of the statement, that we +find one poor prisoner, taken by the Dutch at the siege of Alkmaar in +1578, making a desperate attempt to save his life by promising to +worship his captors' devil precisely as they did[2]--a suggestion that +failed to pacify those to whom it was addressed. + +[Footnote 1: Hutchinson's Essay, p. 218. Harsnet, Declaration, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 2: Motley, Dutch Republic, ii. 400.] + +31. Having thus stated, so far as necessary, the chief laws that are +constantly working the extension of the domain of the supernatural as +far as demonology is concerned, without a remembrance of which the +subject itself would remain somewhat difficult to comprehend fully, I +shall now attempt to indicate one or two conditions of thought and +circumstance that may have tended to increase and vivify the belief +during the period in which the Elizabethan literature flourished. + +32. It was an era of change. The nation was emerging from the dim +twilight of mediaevalism into the full day of political and religious +freedom. But the morning mists, which the rising sun had not yet +dispelled, rendered the more distant and complex objects distorted and +portentous. The very fact that doubt, or rather, perhaps, independence +of thought, was at last, within certain limits, treated as non-criminal +in theology, gave an impetus to investigation and speculation in all +branches of politics and science; and with this change came, in the +main, improvement. But the great defect of the time was that this newly +liberated spirit of free inquiry was not kept in check by any sufficient +previous discipline in logical methods of reasoning. Hence the +possibility of the wild theories that then existed, followed out into +action or not, according as circumstances favoured or discouraged: +Arthur Hacket, with casting out of devils, and other madnesses, +vehemently declaring himself the Messiah and King of Europe in the year +of grace 1591, and getting himself believed by some, so long as he +remained unhanged; or, more pathetic still, many weary lives wasted day +by day in fruitless silent search after the impossible philosopher's +stone, or elixir of life. As in law, so in science, there were no +sufficient rules of evidence clearly and unmistakably laid down for the +guidance of the investigator; and consequently it was only necessary to +broach a novel theory in order to have it accepted, without any previous +serious testing. Men do not seem to have been able to distinguish +between an hypothesis and a proved conclusion; or, rather, the rule of +presumptions was reversed, and men accepted the hypothesis as conclusive +until it was disproved. It was a perfectly rational and sufficient +explanation in those days to refer some extraordinary event to some +given supernatural cause, even though there might be no ostensible link +between the two: now, such a suggestion would be treated by the vast +majority with derision or contempt. On the other hand, the most trivial +occurrences, such as sneezing, the appearance of birds of ill omen, the +crowing of a cock, and events of like unimportance happening at a +particular moment, might, by some unseen concatenation of causes and +effects, exercise an incomprehensible influence upon men, and +consequently had important bearings upon their conduct. It is solemnly +recorded in the Commons' Journals that during the discussion of the +statute against witchcraft passed in the reign of James I., a young +jackdaw flew into the House; which accident was generally regarded as +_malum omen_ to the Bill.[1] Extraordinary bravery on the part of an +adversary was sometimes accounted for by asserting that he was the devil +in the form of a man; as the Volscian soldier does with regard to +Coriolanus. This is no mere dramatist's fancy, but a fixed belief of the +times. Sir William Russell fought so desperately at Zutphen, that he got +mistaken for the Evil One;[2] and Drake also gave the Spaniards good +reason for believing that he was a devil, and no man.[3] + +[Footnote 1: See also D'Ewes, p. 688.] + +[Footnote 2: Froude, xii. 87.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 663.] + +33. This intense credulousness, childish almost in itself, but yet at +the same time combined with the strong man's intellect, permeated all +classes of society. Perhaps a couple of instances, drawn from strangely +diverse sources, will bring this more vividly before the mind than any +amount of attempted theorizing. The first is one of the tricks of the +jugglers of the period. + + "_To make one danse naked._ + +"Make a poore boie confederate with you, so as after charms, etc., +spoken by you, he unclothe himself and stand naked, seeming (whilest he +undresseth himselfe) to shake, stamp, and crie, still hastening to be +unclothed, till he be starke naked; or if you can procure none to go so +far, let him onlie beginne to stampe and shake, etc., and unclothe him, +and then you may (for reverence of the companie) seeme to release +him."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Scott, p. 339.] + +The second illustration must have demanded, if possible, more credulity +on the part of the audience than this harmless entertainment. Cranmer +tells us that in the time of Queen Mary a monk preached a sermon at St. +Paul's, the object of which was to prove the truth of the doctrine of +transubstantiation; and, after the manner of his kind, told the +following little anecdote in support of it:--"A maid of Northgate parish +in Canterbury, in pretence to wipe her mouth, kept the host in her +handkerchief; and, when she came home, she put the same into a pot, +close covered, and she spitted in another pot, and after a few days, she +looking in the one pot, found a little young pretty babe, about a +shaftmond long; and the other pot was full of gore blood."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Cranmer, A Confutation of Unwritten Verities, p. 66. Parker +Society.] + +34. That the audiences before which these absurdities were seriously +brought, for amusement or instruction, could be excited in either case +to any other feeling than good-natured contempt for a would-be impostor, +seems to us now-a-days to be impossible. It was not so in the times when +these things transpired: the actors of them were not knaves, nor were +their audiences fools, to any unusual extent. If any one is inclined to +form a low opinion of the Elizabethans intellectually, on account of the +divergence of their capacities of belief in this respect from his own, +he does them a great injustice. Let him take at once Charles Lamb's +warning, and try to understand, rather than to judge them. We, who have +had the benefit of three hundred more years of experience and liberty of +thought than they, should have to hide our faces for very shame had we +not arrived at juster and truer conclusions upon those difficult topics +that so bewildered our ancestors. But can we, with all our boasted +advantages of wealth, power, and knowledge, truly say that all our aims +are as high, all our desires as pure, our words as true, and our deeds +as noble, as those whose opinions we feel this tendency to contemn? If +not, or if indeed they have anything whatsoever to teach us in these +respects, let us remember that we shall never learn the lesson wholly, +perhaps not learn it at all, unless, casting aside this first impulse to +despise, we try to enter fully into and understand these strange dead +beliefs of the past. + + * * * * * + +35. It is in this spirit that I now enter upon the second division of +the subject in hand, in which I shall try to indicate the chief features +of the belief in demonology as it existed during the Elizabethan period. +These will be taken up in three main heads: the classification, physical +appearance, and powers of the evil spirits. + +36. (i.) It is difficult to discover any classification of devils as +well authenticated and as universally received as that of the angels +introduced by Dionysius the Areopagite, which was subsequently imported +into the creed of the Western Church, and popularized in Elizabethan +times by Dekker's "Hierarchie." The subject was one which, from its +nature, could not be settled _ex cathedra_, and consequently the subject +had to grow up as best it might, each writer adopting the arrangement +that appeared to him most suitable. There was one rough but popular +classification into greater and lesser devils. The former branch was +subdivided into classes of various grades of power, the members of +which passed under the titles of kings, dukes, marquises, lords, +captains, and other dignities. Each of these was supposed to have a +certain number of legions of the latter class under his command. These +were the evil spirits who appeared most frequently on the earth as the +emissaries of the greater fiends, to carry out their evil designs. The +more important class kept for the most part in a mystical seclusion, and +only appeared upon earth in cases of the greatest emergency, or when +compelled to do so by conjuration. To the class of lesser devils +belonged the bad angel which, together with a good one, was supposed to +be assigned to every person at birth, to follow him through life--the +one to tempt, the other to guard from temptation;[1] so that a struggle +similar to that recorded between Michael and Satan for the body of Moses +was raging for the soul of every existing human being. This was not a +mere theory, but a vital active belief, as the beautiful well-known +lines at the commencement of the eighth canto of the second book of "The +Faerie Queene," and the use made of these opposing spirits in Marlowe's +"Dr. Faustus," and in "The Virgin Martyr," by Massinger and Dekker, +conclusively show. + +[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 506.] + +37. Another classification, which seems to retain a reminiscence of the +origin of devils from pagan deities, is effected by reference to the +localities supposed to be inhabited by the different classes of evil +spirits. According to this arrangement we get six classes:-- + +(1.) Devils of the fire, who wander in the region near the moon. + +(2.) Devils of the air, who hover round the earth. + +(3.) Devils of the earth; to whom the fairies are allied. + +(4.) Devils of the water. + +(5.) Submundane devils.[1] + +(6.) Lucifugi. + +These devils' power and desire to injure mankind appear to have +increased with the proximity of their location to the earth's centre; +but this classification had nothing like the hold upon the popular mind +that the former grouping had, and may consequently be dismissed with +this mention. + +[Footnote 1: Cf. I Hen. VI. V. iii. 10; 2 Hen. VI. I. ii. 77; +Coriolanus, IV. v. 97.] + +38. The greater devils, or the most important of them, had +distinguishing names--strange, uncouth names; some of them telling of a +heathenish origin; others inexplicable and almost unpronounceable--as +Ashtaroth, Bael, Belial, Zephar, Cerberus, Phoenix, Balam (why he?), and +Haagenti, Leraie, Marchosias, Gusoin, Glasya Labolas. Scot enumerates +seventy-nine, the above amongst them, and he does not by any means +exhaust the number. As each arch-devil had twenty, thirty, or forty +legions of inferior spirits under his command, and a legion was composed +of six hundred and sixty-six devils, it is not surprising that the +latter did not obtain distinguishing names until they made their +appearance upon earth, when they frequently obtained one from the form +they loved to assume; for example, the familiars of the witches in +"Macbeth"--Paddock (toad), Graymalkin (cat), and Harpier (harpy, +possibly). Is it surprising that, with resources of this nature at his +command, such an adept in the art of necromancy as Owen Glendower +should hold Harry Percy, much to his disgust, at the least nine hours + + "In reckoning up the several devils' names + That were his lackeys"? + +Of the twenty devils mentioned by Shakspere, four only belong to the +class of greater devils. Hecate, the principal patroness of witchcraft, +is referred to frequently, and appears once upon the scene.[1] The two +others are Amaimon and Barbazon, both of whom are mentioned twice. +Amaimon was a very important personage, being no other than one of the +four kings. Ziminar was King of the North, and is referred to in "Henry +VI. Part I.;"[2] Gorson of the South; Goap of the West; and Amaimon of +the East. He is mentioned in "Henry IV. Part I.,"[3] and "Merry +Wives."[4] Barbazon also occurs in the same passage in the latter play, +and again in "Henry V."[5]--a fact that does to a slight extent help to +bear out the otherwise ascertained chronological sequence of these +plays. The remainder of the devils belong to the second class. Nine of +these occur in "King Lear," and will be referred to again when the +subject of possession is touched upon.[6] + +[Footnote 1: It is perhaps worthy of remark that in every case except +the allusion in the probably spurious Henry VI., "I speak not to that +railing Hecate," (I Hen. VI. III. ii. 64), the name is "Hecat," a +di-syllable.] + +[Footnote 2: V. iii. 6.] + +[Footnote 3: II. iv. 370.] + +[Footnote 4: II. ii. 311.] + +[Footnote 5: II. i. 57. Scot, p. 393.] + +[Footnote 6: sec. 65.] + +39. (ii.) It would appear that each of the greater devils, on the rare +occasion upon which he made his appearance upon earth, assumed a form +peculiar to himself; the lesser devils, on the other hand, had an +ordinary type, common to the whole species, with a capacity for almost +infinite variation and transmutation which they used, as will be seen, +to the extreme perplexity and annoyance of mortals. As an illustration +of the form in which a greater devil might appear, this is what Scot +says of the questionable Balam, above mentioned: "Balam cometh with +three heads, the first of a bull, the second of a man, and the third of +a ram. He hath a serpent's taile, and flaming eies; riding upon a +furious beare, and carrieng a hawke on his fist."[1] But it was the +lesser devils, not the greater, that came into close contact with +humanity, who therefore demand careful consideration. + +[Footnote 1: p. 361.] + +40. All the lesser devils seem to have possessed a normal form, which +was as hideous and distorted as fancy could render it. To the conception +of an angel imagination has given the only beautiful appendage the human +body does not possess--wings; to that of a devil it has added all those +organs of the brute creation that are most hideous or most harmful. +Advancing civilization has almost exterminated the belief in a being +with horns, cloven hoofs, goggle eyes, and scaly tail, that was held up +to many yet living as the avenger of childish disobedience in their +earlier days, together perhaps with some strength of conviction of the +moral hideousness of the evil he was intended, in a rough way, to +typify; but this hazily retained impression of the Author of Evil was +the universal and entirely credited conception of the ordinary +appearance of those bad spirits who were so real to our ancestors of +Elizabethan days. "Some are so carnallie minded," says Scot, "that a +spirit is no sooner spoken of, but they thinke of a blacke man with +cloven feet, a paire of hornes, a taile, and eies as big as a bason."[1] +Scot, however, was one of a very small minority in his opinion as to the +carnal-mindedness of such a belief. He in his day, like those in every +age and country who dare to hold convictions opposed to the creed of the +majority, was a dangerous sceptic; his book was publicly burnt by the +common hangman;[2] and not long afterwards a royal author wrote a +treatise "against the damnable doctrines of two principally in our age; +whereof the one, called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public +print to deny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft, and so +mainteines the old error of the Sadducees in denying of spirits."[3] The +abandoned impudence of the man!--and the logic of his royal opponent! + +[Footnote 1: p. 507. See also Hutchinson, Essay on Witchcraft, p. 13; +and Harsnet, p. 71.] + +[Footnote 2: Bayle, ix. 152.] + +[Footnote 3: James I., Daemonologie. Edinburgh, 1597.] + +41. Spenser has clothed with horror this conception of the appearance of +a fiend, just as he has enshrined in beauty the belief in the guardian +angel. It is worthy of remark that he describes the devil as dwelling +beneath the altar of an idol in a heathen temple. Prince Arthur strikes +the image thrice with his sword-- + + "And the third time, out of an hidden shade, + There forth issewed from under th' altar's smoake + A dreadfull feend with fowle deformed looke, + That stretched itselfe as it had long lyen still; + And her long taile and fethers strongly shooke, + That all the temple did with terrour fill; + Yet him nought terrifide that feared nothing ill. + + "An huge great beast it was, when it in length + Was stretched forth, that nigh filled all the place, + And seemed to be of infinite great strength; + Horrible, hideous, and of hellish race, + Borne of the brooding of Echidna base, + Or other like infernall Furies kinde, + For of a maide she had the outward face + To hide the horrour which did lurke behinde + The better to beguile whom she so fond did finde. + + "Thereto the body of a dog she had, + Full of fell ravin and fierce greedinesse; + A lion's clawes, with power and rigour clad + To rende and teare whatso she can oppresse; + A dragon's taile, whose sting without redresse + Full deadly wounds whereso it is empight, + And eagle's wings for scope and speedinesse + That nothing may escape her reaching might, + Whereto she ever list to make her hardy flight." + +42. The dramatists of the period make frequent references to this +belief, but nearly always by way of ridicule. It is hardly to be +expected that they would share in the grosser opinions held by the +common people in those times--common, whether king or clown. In "The +Virgin Martyr," Harpax is made to say-- + + "I'll tell you what now of the devil; + He's no such horrid creature, cloven-footed, + Black, saucer-eyed, his nostrils breathing fire, + As these lying Christians make him."[1] + +But his opinion was, perhaps, a prejudiced one. In Ben Jonson's "The +Devil is an Ass," when Fitzdottrell, doubting Pug's statement as to his +infernal character, says, "I looked on your feet afore; you cannot cozen +me; your shoes are not cloven, sir, you are whole hoofed;" Pug, with +great presence of mind, replies, "Sir, that's a popular error deceives +many." So too Othello, when he is questioning whether Iago is a devil or +not, says-- + + "I look down to his feet, but that's a fable."[2] + +And when Edgar is trying to persuade the blind Gloucester that he has in +reality cast himself over the cliff, he describes the being from whom he +is supposed to have just parted, thus:-- + + "As I stood here below, methought his eyes + Were two full moons: he had a thousand noses; + Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea: + It was some fiend."[3] + +It can hardly be but that the "thousand noses" are intended as a +satirical hit at the enormity of the popular belief. + +[Footnote 1: Act I. sc. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Act V. sc. ii. l. 285.] + +[Footnote 3: Lear, IV. vi. 69.] + +43. In addition to this normal type, common to all these devils, each +one seems to have had, like the greater devils, a favourite form in +which he made his appearance when conjured; generally that of some +animal, real or imagined. It was telling of + + "the moldwarp and the ant, + Of the dreamer Merlin, and his prophecies; + And of a dragon and a finless fish, + A clipwinged griffin, and a moulten raven, + A couching lion, and a ramping cat,"[1] + +that annoyed Harry Hotspur so terribly; and neither in this allusion, +which was suggested by a passage in Holinshed,[2] nor in "Macbeth," +where he makes the three witches conjure up their familiars in the +shapes of an armed head, a bloody child, and a child crowned, has +Shakspere gone beyond the fantastic conceptions of the time. + +[Footnote 1: I Hen. IV. III. i. 148.] + +[Footnote 2: p. 521, c. 2.] + +44. (iii.) But the third proposed section, which deals with the powers +and functions exercised by the evil spirits, is by far the most +interesting and important; and the first branch of the series is one +that suggests itself as a natural sequence upon what has just been said +as to the ordinary shapes in which devils appeared, namely, the capacity +to assume at will any form they chose. + +45. In the early and middle ages it was universally believed that a +devil could, of his own inherent power, call into existence any manner +of body that it pleased his fancy to inhabit, or that would most conduce +to the success of any contemplated evil. In consequence of this belief +the devils became the rivals, indeed the successful rivals, of Jupiter +himself in the art of physical tergiversation. There was, indeed, a +tradition that a devil could not create any animal form of less size +than a barley-corn, and that it was in consequence of this incapacity +that the magicians of Egypt--those indubitable devil-worshippers--failed +to produce lice, as Moses did, although they had been so successful in +the matter of the serpents and the frogs; "a verie gross absurditie," as +Scot judiciously remarks.[1] This, however, would not be a serious +limitation upon the practical usefulness of the power. + +[Footnote 1: p. 314.] + +46. The great Reformation movement wrought a change in this respect. Men +began to accept argument and reason, though savouring of special +pleading of the schools, in preference to tradition, though never so +venerable and well authenticated; and the leaders of the revolution +could not but recognize the absurdity of laying down as infallible dogma +that God was the Creator of all things, and then insisting with equal +vehemence, by way of postulate, that the devil was the originator of +some. The thing was gross and palpable in its absurdity, and had to be +done away with as quickly as might be. But how? On the other hand, it +was clear as daylight that the devil _did_ appear in various forms to +tempt and annoy the people of God--was at that very time doing so in the +most open and unabashed manner. How were reasonable men to account for +this manifest conflict between rigorous logic and more rigorous fact? +There was a prolonged and violent controversy upon the point--the +Reformers not seeing their way to agree amongst themselves--and tedious +as violent. Sermons were preached; books were written; and, when +argument was exhausted, unpleasant epithets were bandied about, much as +in the present day, in similar cases. The result was that two theories +were evolved, both extremely interesting as illustrations of the +hair-splitting, chop-logic tendency which, amidst all their +straightforwardness, was so strongly characteristic of the Elizabethans. +The first suggestion was, that although the devil could not, of his own +inherent power, create a body, he might get hold of a dead carcase and +temporarily restore animation, and so serve his turn. This belief was +held, amongst others, by the erudite King James,[1] and is pleasantly +satirized by sturdy old Ben Jonson in "The Devil is an Ass," where Satan +(the greater devil, who only appears in the first scene just to set the +storm a-brewing) says to Pug (Puck, the lesser devil, who does all the +mischief; or would have done it, had not man, in those latter times, got +to be rather beyond the devils in evil than otherwise), not without a +touch of regret at the waning of his power-- + + "You must get a body ready-made, Pug, + I can create you none;" + +and consequently Pug is advised to assume the body of a handsome +cutpurse that morning hung at Tyburn. + +[Footnote 1: Daemonologie, p. 56.] + +But the theory, though ingenious, was insufficient. The devil would +occasionally appear in the likeness of a living person; and how could +that be accounted for? Again, an evil spirit, with all his ingenuity, +would find it hard to discover the dead body of a griffin, or a harpy, +or of such eccentricity as was affected by the before-mentioned Balam; +and these and other similar forms were commonly favoured by the +inhabitants of the nether world. + +47. The second theory, therefore, became the more popular amongst the +learned, because it left no one point unexplained. The divines held that +although the power of the Creator had in no wise been delegated to the +devil, yet he was, in the course of providence, permitted to exercise a +certain supernatural influence over the minds of men, whereby he could +persuade them that they really saw a form that had no material objective +existence.[1] Here was a position incontrovertible, not on account of +the arguments by which it could be supported, but because it was +impossible to reason against it; and it slowly, but surely, took hold +upon the popular mind. Indeed, the elimination of the diabolic factor +leaves the modern sceptical belief that such apparitions are nothing +more than the result of disease, physical or mental. + +[Footnote 1: Dialogicall Discourses, by Deacon and Walker, 4th Dialogue. +Bullinger, p. 361. Parker Society.] + +48. But the semi-sceptical state of thought was in Shakspere's time +making its way only amongst the more educated portion of the nation. The +masses still clung to the old and venerated, if not venerable, belief +that devils could at any moment assume what form soever they might +please--not troubling themselves further to inquire into the method of +the operation. They could appear in the likeness of an ordinary human +being, as Harpax[1] and Mephistopheles[2] do, creating thereby the most +embarrassing complications in questions of identity; and if this belief +is borne in mind, the charge of being a devil, so freely made, in the +times of which we write, and before alluded to, against persons who +performed extraordinary feats of valour, or behaved in a manner +discreditable and deserving of general reprobation, loses much of its +barbarous grotesqueness. There was no doubt as to Coriolanus,[3] as has +been said; nor Shylock.[4] Even "the outward sainted Angelo is yet a +devil;"[5] and Prince Hal confesses that "there is a devil haunts him in +the likeness of an old fat man ... an old white-bearded Satan."[6] + +[Footnote 1: In The Virgin Martyr.] + +[Footnote 2: In Dr. Faustus.] + +[Footnote 3: Coriolanus, I. x. 16.] + +[Footnote 4: Merchant of Venice, III. i. 22.] + +[Footnote 5: Measure for Measure, III. i. 90.] + +[Footnote 6: I Hen. IV., II. iv. 491-509.] + +49. The devils had an inconvenient habit of appearing in the guise of an +ecclesiastic[1]--at least, so the churchmen were careful to insist, +especially when busying themselves about acts of temptation that would +least become the holy robe they had assumed. This was the ecclesiastical +method of accounting for certain stories, not very creditable to the +priesthood, that had too inconvenient a basis of evidence to be +dismissed as fabricatious. But the honest lay public seem to have +thought, with downright old Chaucer, that there was more in the matter +than the priests chose to admit. This feeling we, as usual, find +reflected in the dramatic literature of our period. In "The Troublesome +Raigne of King John," an old play upon the basis of which Shakspere +constructed his own "King John," we find this question dealt with in +some detail. In the elder play, the Bastard does "the shaking of bags of +hoarding abbots," _coram populo_, and thereby discloses a phase of +monastic life judiciously suppressed by Shakspere. Philip sets at +liberty much more than "imprisoned angels"--according to one account, +and that a monk's, imprisoned beings of quite another sort. "Faire +Alice, the nonne," having been discovered in the chest where the abbot's +wealth was supposed to be concealed, proposes to purchase pardon for the +offence by disclosing the secret hoard of a sister nun. Her offer being +accepted, a friar is ordered to force the box in which the treasure is +supposed to be secreted. On being questioned as to its contents, he +answers-- + + "Frier Laurence, my lord, now holy water help us! + Some witch or some divell is sent to delude us: + _Haud credo Laurentius_ that thou shouldst be pen'd thus + In the presse of a nun; we are all undone, + And brought to discredence, if thou be Frier Laurence."[2] + +Unfortunately it proves indubitably to be that good man; and he is +ordered to execution, not, however, without some hope of redemption by +money payment; for times are hard, and cash in hand not to be despised. + +[Footnote 1: See the story about Bishop Sylvanus.--Lecky, Rationalism in +Europe, i. 79.] + +[Footnote 2: Hazlitt, Shakspere Library, part ii. vol. i. p. 264.] + +It is amusing to notice, too, that when assuming the clerical garb, the +devil carefully considered the religious creed of the person to whom he +intended to make himself known. The Catholic accounts of him show him +generally assuming the form of a Protestant parson;[1] whilst to those +of the reformed creed he invariably appeared in the habit of a Catholic +priest. In the semblance of a friar the devil is reported (by a +Protestant) to have preached, upon a time, "a verie Catholic sermon;"[2] +so good, indeed, that a priest who was a listener could find no fault +with the doctrine--a stronger basis of fact than one would have imagined +for Shakspere's saying, "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." + +[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 2: Scot, p. 481.] + +50. It is not surprising that of human forms, that of a negro or Moor +should be considered a favourite one with evil spirits.[1] Iago makes +allusion to this when inciting Brabantio to search for his daughter.[2] +The power of coming in the likeness of humanity generally is referred to +somewhat cynically in "Timon of Athens,"[3] thus-- + +"_Varro's Servant._ What is a whoremaster, fool? + +"_Fool._ A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: +sometime 't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a +philosopher with two stones more than 's artificial one: he is very +often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and +down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in." + +[Footnote 1: Scot, p. 89.] + +[Footnote 2: Othello, I. i. 91.] + +[Footnote 3: II. ii. 113.] + +"All shapes that man goes up and down in" seem indeed to have been at +the devils' control. So entirely was this the case, that to Constance +even the fair Blanche was none other than the devil tempting Louis "in +likeness of a new uptrimmed bride;"[1] and perhaps not without a certain +prophetic feeling of the fitness of things, as it may possibly seem to +some of our more warlike politicians, evil spirits have been known to +appear as Russians.[2] + +[Footnote 1: King John, III. i. 209.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 139.] + +51. But all the "shapes that man goes up and down in" did not suffice. +The forms of the whole of the animal kingdom seem to have been at the +devils' disposal; and, not content with these, they seem to have sought +further for unlikely shapes to assume.[1] Poor Caliban complains that +Prospero's spirits + + "Lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark,"[2] + +just as Ariel[3] and Puck[4] (Will-o'-th'-wisp) mislead their victims; +and that + + "For every trifle are they set upon me: + Sometimes like apes, that mow and chatter at me, + And after bite me; then like hedgehogs, which + Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount + Their pricks at my footfall. Sometime am I + All wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues, + Do hiss me into madness." + +And doubtless the scene which follows this soliloquy, in which Caliban, +Trinculo, and Stephano mistake one another in turn for evil spirits, +fully flavoured with fun as it still remains, had far more point for the +audiences at the Globe--to whom a stray devil or two was quite in the +natural order of things under such circumstances--than it can possibly +possess for us. In this play, Ariel, Prospero's familiar, besides +appearing in his natural shape, and dividing into flames, and behaving +in such a manner as to cause young Ferdinand to leap into the sea, +crying, "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here!" assumes the forms +of a water-nymph,[5] a harpy,[6] and also the goddess Ceres;[7] while +the strange shapes, masquers, and even the hounds that hunt and worry +the would-be king and viceroys of the island, are Ariel's "meaner +fellows." + +[Footnote 1: For instance, an eye without a head.--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: The Tempest, II. ii. 10.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. I. ii. 198.] + +[Footnote 4: A Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 39; III. i. 111.] + +[Footnote 5: I. ii. 301-318.] + +[Footnote 6: III. iii. 53.] + +[Footnote 7: IV. i. 166.] + +52. Puck's favourite forms seem to have been more outlandish than +Ariel's, as might have been expected of that malicious little spirit. He +beguiles "the fat and bean-fed horse" by + + "Neighing in likeness of a filly foal: + And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, + In very likeness of a roasted crab; + And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, + And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. + The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, + Sometime for three-foot stool[1] mistaketh me; + Then slip I from her, and down topples she." + +And again: + + "Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, + A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; + And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, + Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn."[2] + +With regard to this last passage, it is worthy of note that in the year +1584, strange news came out of Somersetshire, entitled "A Dreadful +Discourse of the Dispossessing of one Margaret Cowper, at Ditchet, from +a Devil in the Likeness of a Headless Bear."[3] + +[Footnote 1: A Scotch witch, when leaving her bed to go to a sabbath, +used to put a three-foot stool in the vacant place; which, after charms +duly mumbled, assumed the appearance of a woman until her +return.--Pitcairn, iii. 617.] + +[Footnote 2: III. i. 111.] + +[Footnote 3: Hutchinson, p. 40.] + +53. In Heywood and Brome's "Witch of Edmonton," the devil appears in the +likeness of a black dog, and takes his part in the dialogue, as if his +presence were a matter of quite ordinary occurrence, not in any way +calling for special remark. However gross and absurd this may appear, it +must be remembered that this play is, in its minutest details, merely a +dramatization of the events duly proved in a court of law, to the +satisfaction of twelve Englishmen, in the year 1612.[1] The shape of a +fly, too, was a favourite one with the evil spirits; so much so that the +term "fly" became a common synonym for a familiar.[2] The word +"Beelzebub" was supposed to mean "the king of flies." At the execution +of Urban Grandier, the famous magician of London, in 1634, a large fly +was seen buzzing about the stake, and a priest promptly seizing the +opportunity of improving the occasion for the benefit of the onlookers, +declared that Beelzebub had come in his own proper person to carry off +Grandier's soul to hell. In 1664 occurred the celebrated witch-trials +which took place before Sir Matthew Hale. The accused were charged with +bewitching two children; and part of the evidence against them was that +flies and bees were seen to carry into the victims' mouths the nails and +pins which they afterwards vomited.[3] There is an allusion to this +belief in the fly-killing scene in "Titus Andronicus."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Potts, Discoveries. Edit. Cheetham Society.] + +[Footnote 2: Cf. B. Jonson's Alchemist.] + +[Footnote 3: A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts relating to +Witchcraft, 1838.] + +[Footnote 4: III. ii. 51, et seq.] + +54. But it was not invariably a repulsive or ridiculous form that was +assumed by these enemies of mankind. Their ingenuity would have been but +little worthy of commendation had they been content to appear as +ordinary human beings, or animals, or even in fancy costume. The Swiss +divine Bullinger, after a lengthy and elaborately learned argument as to +the particular day in the week of creation upon which it was most +probable that God called the angels into being, says, by way of +peroration, "Let us lead a holy and angel-like life in the sight of +God's holy angels. Let us watch, lest he that transfigureth and turneth +himself into an angel of light under a good show and likeness deceive +us."[1] They even went so far, according to Cranmer,[2] as to appear in +the likeness of Christ, in their desire to mislead mankind; for-- + + "When devils will the blackest sins put on, + They do suggest at first with heavenly shows."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Bullinger, Fourth Decade, 9th Sermon. Parker Society.] + +[Footnote 2: Cranmer, Confutation, p. 42. Parker Society.] + +[Footnote 3: Othello, II. iii. 357. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, IV. iii. +257; Comedy of Errors, IV. iii. 56.] + +55. But one of the most ordinary forms supposed at this period to be +assumed by devils was that of a dead friend of the object of the +visitation. Before the Reformation, the belief that the spirits of the +departed had power at will to revisit the scenes and companions of their +earthly life was almost universal. The reforming divines distinctly +denied the possibility of such a revisitation, and accounted for the +undoubted phenomena, as usual, by attributing them to the devil.[1] +James I. says that the devil, when appearing to men, frequently assumed +the form of a person newly dead, "to make them believe that it was some +good spirit that appeared to them, either to forewarn them of the death +of their friend, or else to discover unto them the will of the defunct, +or what was the way of his slauchter.... For he dare not so illude anie +that knoweth that neither can the spirit of the defunct returne to his +friend, nor yet an angell use such formes."[2] He further explains that +such devils follow mortals to obtain two ends: "the one is the tinsell +(loss) of their life by inducing them to such perrilous places at such +times as he either follows or possesses them. The other thing that he +preases to obtain is the tinsell of their soule."[3] + +[Footnote 1: See Hooper's Declaration of the Ten Commandments. Parker +Society. Hooper, 326.] + +[Footnote 2: Daemonologie, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 3: Cf. Hamlet, I. iv. 60-80; and post, sec. 58.] + +56. But the belief in the appearance of ghosts was too deeply rooted in +the popular mind to be extirpated, or even greatly affected, by a +dogmatic declaration. The masses went on believing as they always had +believed, and as their fathers had believed before them, in spite of the +Reformers, and to their no little discontent. Pilkington, Bishop of +Durham, in a letter to Archbishop Parker, dated 1564, complains that, +"among other things that be amiss here in your great cares, ye shall +understand that in Blackburn there is a fantastical (and as some say, +lunatic) young man, which says that he has spoken with one of his +neighbours that died four year since, or more. Divers times he says he +has seen him, and talked with him, and took with him the curate, the +schoolmaster, and other neighbours, who all affirm that they see him. +_These things be so common here_ that none in authority will gainsay it, +but rather believe and confirm it, that everybody believes it. If I had +known how to examine with authority, I would have done it."[1] Here is a +little glimpse at the practical troubles of a well-intentioned bishop of +the sixteenth century that is surely worth preserving. + +[Footnote 1: Parker Correspondence, 222. Parker Society.] + +57. There were thus two opposite schools of belief in this matter of the +supposed spirits of the departed:--the conservative, which held to the +old doctrine of ghosts; and the reforming, which denied the possibility +of ghosts, and held to the theory of devils. In the midst of this +disagreement of doctors it was difficult for a plain man to come to a +definite conclusion upon the question; and, in consequence, all who were +not content with quiet dogmatism were in a state of utter uncertainty +upon a point not entirely without importance in practical life as well +as in theory. This was probably the position in which the majority of +thoughtful men found themselves; and it is accurately reflected in three +of Shakspere's plays, which, for other and weightier reasons, are +grouped together in the same chronological division--"Julius Caesar," +"Macbeth," and "Hamlet." In the first-mentioned play, Brutus, who +afterwards confesses his belief that the apparition he saw at Sardis was +the ghost of Caesar,[1] when in the actual presence of the spirit, +says-- + + "Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil?"[2] + +The same doubt flashes across the mind of Macbeth on the second entrance +of Banquo's ghost--which is probably intended to be a devil appearing at +the instigation of the witches--when he says, with evident allusion to a +diabolic power before referred to-- + + "What man dare, I dare: + Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, + The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger, + Take any shape but that."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Julius Caesar, V. v. 17.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. IV. iii. 279.] + +[Footnote 3: Macbeth, III. iv. 100.] + +58. But it is in "Hamlet" that the undecided state of opinion upon this +subject is most clearly reflected; and hardly enough influence has been +allowed to the doubts arising from this conflict of belief, as urgent or +deterrent motives in the play, because this temporary condition of +thought has been lost sight of. It is exceedingly interesting to note +how frequently the characters who have to do with the apparition of the +late King Hamlet alternate between the theories that it is a ghost and +that it is a devil which they have seen. The whole subject has such an +important bearing upon any attempt to estimate the character of Hamlet, +that no excuse need be offered for once again traversing such +well-trodden ground. + +Horatio, it is true, is introduced to us in a state of determined +scepticism; but this lasts for a few seconds only, vanishing upon the +first entrance of the spectre, and never again appearing. His first +inclination seems to be to the belief that he is the victim of a +diabolical illusion; for he says-- + + "What art thou, that _usurp'st_ this time of night, + Together with that fair and warlike form + In which the majesty of buried Denmark + Did sometimes march?"[1] + +And Marcellus seems to be of the same opinion, for immediately before, +he exclaims-- + + "Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio;" + +having apparently the same idea as had Coachman Toby, in "The +Night-Walker," when he exclaims-- + + "Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, + And that will daunt the devil."[2] + +On the second appearance of the illusion, however, Horatio leans to the +opinion that it is really the ghost of the late king that he sees, +probably in consequence of the conversation that has taken place since +the former visitation; and he now appeals to the ghost for information +that may enable him to procure rest for his wandering soul. Again, +during his interview with Hamlet, when he discloses the secret of the +spectre's appearance, though very guarded in his language, Horatio +clearly intimates his conviction that he has seen the spirit of the late +king. + +[Footnote 1: I. i. 46.] + +[Footnote 2: II. i.] + +The same variation of opinion is visible in Hamlet himself; but, as +might be expected, with much more frequent alternations. When first he +hears Horatio's story, he seems to incline to the belief that it must be +the work of some diabolic agency: + + "If it assume my noble father's person, + I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, + And bid me hold my peace;"[1] + +although, characteristically, in almost the next line he exclaims-- + + "My father's spirit in arms! All is not well," etc. + +This, too, seems to be the dominant idea in his mind when he is first +brought face to face with the apparition and exclaims-- + + "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!-- + Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, + Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, + Be thine intents wicked or charitable, + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, + That I will speak to thee."[2] + +For it cannot be supposed that Hamlet imagined that a "goblin damned" +could actually be the spirit of his dead father; and, therefore, the +alternative in his mind must have been that he saw a devil assuming his +father's likeness--a form which the Evil One knew would most incite +Hamlet to intercourse. But even as he speaks, the other theory gradually +obtains ascendency in his mind, until it becomes strong enough to induce +him to follow the spirit. + +[Footnote 1: I. ii. 244.] + +[Footnote 2: I. iv. 39.] + +But whilst the devil-theory is gradually relaxing its hold upon Hamlet's +mind, it is fastening itself with ever-increasing force upon the minds +of his companions; and Horatio expresses their fears in words that are +worth comparing with those just quoted from James's "Daemonologie." +Hamlet responds to their entreaties not to follow the spectre thus-- + + "Why, what should be the fear? + I do not set my life at a pin's fee; + And, for my soul, what can it do to that, + Being a thing immortal as itself?" + +And Horatio answers-- + + "What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, + Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, + That beetles o'er his base into the sea, + And there assume some other horrible form, + Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, + And draw you into madness?" + +The idea that the devil assumed the form of a dead friend in order to +procure the "tinsell" of both body and soul of his victim is here +vividly before the minds of the speakers of these passages.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See ante, sec. 55.] + +The subsequent scene with the ghost convinces Hamlet that he is not the +victim of malign influences--as far as he is capable of conviction, for +his very first words when alone restate the doubt: + + "O all you host of heaven! O earth! _What else?_ And shall I couple + hell?"[1] + +and the enthusiasm with which he is inspired in consequence of this +interview is sufficient to support his certainty of conviction until the +time for decisive action again arrives. It is not until the idea of the +play-test occurs to him that his doubts are once more aroused; and then +they return with redoubled force:-- + + "The spirit that I have seen + May be the devil: and the devil hath power + To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps, + Out of my weakness and my melancholy, + (As he is very potent with such spirits,) + Abuses me to damn me."[2] + +And he again alludes to this in his speech to Horatio, just before the +entry of the king and his train to witness the performance of the +players.[3] + +[Footnote 1: I. v. 92.] + +[Footnote 2: II. ii. 627.] + +[Footnote 3: III. ii. 87.] + +59. This question was, in Shakspere's time, quite a legitimate element +of uncertainty in the complicated problem that presented itself for +solution to Hamlet's ever-analyzing mind; and this being so, an apparent +inconsistency in detail which has usually been charged upon Shakspere +with regard to this play, can be satisfactorily explained. Some critics +are never weary of exclaiming that Shakspere's genius was so vast and +uncontrollable that it must not be tested, or expected to be found +conformable to the rules of art that limit ordinary mortals; that there +are many discrepancies and errors in his plays that are to be condoned +upon that account; in fact, that he was a very careless and slovenly +workman. A favourite instance of this is taken from "Hamlet," where +Shakspere actually makes the chief character of the play talk of death +as "the bourne from whence no traveller returns" not long after he has +been engaged in a prolonged conversation with such a returned traveller. + +Now, no artist, however distinguished or however transcendent his +genius, is to be pardoned for insincere workmanship, and the greater the +man, the less his excuse. Errors arising from want of information (and +Shakspere commits these often) may be pardoned if the means for +correcting them be unattainable; but errors arising from mere +carelessness are not to be pardoned. Further, in many of these cases of +supposed contradiction there is an element of carelessness indeed; but +it lies at the door of the critic, not of the author; and this appears +to be true in the present instance. The dilemma, as it presented itself +to the contemporary mind, must be carefully kept in view. Either the +spirits of the departed could revisit this world, or they could not. If +they could not, then the apparitions mistaken for them must be devils +assuming their forms. Now, the tendency of Hamlet's mind, immediately +before the great soliloquy on suicide, is decidedly in favour of the +latter alternative. The last words that he has uttered, which are also +the last quoted here,[1] are those in which he declares most forcibly +that he believes the devil-theory possible, and consequently that the +dead do not return to this world; and his utterances in his soliloquy +are only an accentuate and outcome of this feeling of uncertainty. The +very root of his desire for death is that he cannot discard with any +feeling of certitude the Protestant doctrine that no traveller does +after death return from the invisible world, and that the so-called +ghosts are a diabolic deception. + +[Footnote 1: sec. 58, p. 59.] + +60. Another power possessed by the evil spirits, and one that excited +much attention and created an immense amount of strife during +Elizabethan times, was that of entering into the bodies of human beings, +or otherwise influencing them so as utterly to deprive them of all +self-control, and render them mere automata under the command of the +fiends. This was known as possession, or obsession. It was another of +the mediaeval beliefs against which the reformers steadily set their +faces; and all the resources of their casuistry were exhausted to expose +its absurdity. But their position in this respect was an extremely +delicate one. On one side of them zealous Catholics were exorcising +devils, who shrieked out their testimony to the eternal truth of the +Holy Catholic Church; whilst at the same time, on the other side, the +zealous Puritans of the extremer sort were casting out fiends, who bore +equally fervent testimony to the superior efficacy and purity of the +Protestant faith. The tendency of the more moderate members of the +party, therefore was towards a compromise similar to that arrived at +upon the question how the devils came by the forms in which they +appeared upon the earth. They could not admit that devils could actually +enter into and possess the body of a man in those latter days, although +during the earlier history of the Church such things had been permitted +by Divine Providence for some inscrutable but doubtless satisfactory +reason:--that was Catholicism. On the other hand, they could not for an +instant tolerate or even sanction the doctrine that devils had no power +whatever over humanity:--that was Atheism. But it was quite possible +that evil spirits, without actually entering into the body of a man, +might so infest, worry, and torment him, as to produce all the symptoms +indicative of possession. The doctrine of obsession replaced that of +possession; and, once adopted, was supported by a string of those +quaint, conceited arguments so peculiar to the time.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Dialogicall Discourses, by Deacon and Walker, 3rd +Dialogue.] + +61. But, as in all other cases, the refinements of the theologians had +little or no effect upon the world outside their controversies. To the +ordinary mind, if a man's eyes goggled, body swelled, and mouth foamed, +and it was admitted that these were the work of a devil, the question +whether the evil-doer were actually housed within the sufferer, or only +hovered in his immediate neighbourhood, seemed a question of such minor +importance as to be hardly worth discussing--a conclusion that the lay +mind is apt to come to upon other questions that appear portentous to +the divines--and the theory of possession, having the advantage in time +over that of obsession, was hard to dislodge. + +62. One of the chief causes of the persistency with which the old belief +was maintained was the utter ignorance of the medical men of the period +on the subject of mental disease. The doctors of the time were mere +children in knowledge of the science they professed; and to attribute a +disease, the symptoms of which they could not comprehend, to a power +outside their control by ordinary methods, was a safe method of +screening a reputation which might otherwise have suffered. "Canst thou +not minister to a mind diseased?" cries Macbeth to the doctor, in one of +those moments of yearning after the better life he regrets, but cannot +return to, which come over him now and again. No; the disease is beyond +his practice; and, although this passage has in it a deeper meaning than +the one attributed to it here, it well illustrates the position of the +medical man in such cases. Most doctors of the time were mere empirics; +dabbled more or less in alchemy; and, in the treatment of mental +disease, were little better than children. They had for co-practitioners +all who, by their credit with the populace for superior wisdom, found +themselves in a position to engage in a profitable employment. Priests, +preachers, schoolmasters--Dr. Pinches and Sir Topazes--became so +commonly exorcists, that the Church found it necessary to forbid the +casting out of spirits without a special license for that purpose.[1] +But as the Reformers only combated the doctrine of possession upon +strictly theological grounds, and did not go on to suggest any +substitute for the time-honoured practice of exorcism as a means for +getting rid of the admittedly obnoxious result of diabolic interference, +it is not altogether surprising that the method of treatment did not +immediately change. + +[Footnote 1: 72nd Canon.] + +63. Upon this subject a book called "Tryal of Witchcraft," by John +Cotta, "Doctor in Physike," published in 1616, is extremely instructive. +The writer is evidently in advance of his time in his opinions upon the +principal subject with which he professes to deal, and weighs the +evidence for and against the reality of witchcraft with extreme +precision and fairness. In the course of his argument he has to +distinguish the symptoms that show a person to have been bewitched, from +those that point to a demoniacal possession.[1] "Reason doth detect," +says he, "the sicke to be afflicted by the immediate supernaturall power +of the devil two wayes: the first way is by such things as are subject +and manifest to the learned physicion only; the second is by such things +as are subject and manifest to the vulgar view." The two signs by which +the "learned physicion" recognized diabolic intervention were: first, +the preternatural appearance of the disease from which the patient was +suffering; and, secondly, the inefficacy of the remedies applied. In +other words, if the leech encountered any disease the symptoms of which +were unknown to him, or if, through some unforeseen circumstances, the +drug he prescribed failed to operate in its accustomed manner, a case of +demoniacal possession was considered to be conclusively proved, and the +medical man was merged in the magician. + +[Footnote 1: Ch. 10.] + +64. The second class of cases, in which the diabolic agency is palpable +to the layman as well as the doctor, Cotta illustrates thus: "In the +time of their paroxysmes or fits, some diseased persons have been seene +to vomit crooked iron, coales, brimstone, nailes, needles, pinnes, lumps +of lead, waxe, hayre, strawe, and the like, in such quantities, figure, +fashion, and proportion as could never possiblie pass down, or arise up +thorow the natural narrownesse of the throate, or be contained in the +unproportionable small capacitie, naturall susceptibilitie, and position +of the stomake." Possessed persons, he says, were also clairvoyant, +telling what was being said and done at a far distance; and also spoke +languages which at ordinary times they did not understand, as their +successors, the modern spirit mediums, do. This gift of tongues was one +of the prominent features of the possession of Will Sommers and the +other persons exorcised by the Protestant preacher John Darrell, whose +performances as an exorcist created quite a domestic sensation in +England at the close of the sixteenth century.[1] The whole affair was +investigated by Dr. Harsnet, who had already acquired fame as an +iconoclast in these matters, as will presently be seen; but it would +have little more than an antiquarian interest now, were it not for the +fact that Ben Jonson made it the subject of his satire in one of his +most humorous plays, "The Devil is an Ass." In it he turns the +last-mentioned peculiarity to good account; for when Fitzdottrell, in +the fifth act, feigns madness, and quotes Aristophanes, and speaks in +Spanish and French, the judicious Sir Paul Eithersides comes to the +conclusion that "it is the devil by his several languages." + +[Footnote 1: A True Relation of the Grievious Handling of William +Sommers, etc. London: T. Harper, 1641 (? 1601). The Tryall of Maister +Darrell, 1599.] + +65. But more interesting, and more important for the present purpose, +are the cases of possession that were dealt with by Father Parsons and +his colleagues in 1585-6, and of which Dr. Harsnet gave such a highly +spiced and entertaining account in his "Declaration of Egregious Popish +Impostures," first published in the year 1603. It is from this work that +Shakspere took the names of the devils mentioned by Edgar, and other +references made by him in "King Lear;" and an outline of the relation of +the play to the book will furnish incidentally much matter illustrative +of the subject of possession. But before entering upon this outline, a +brief glance at the condition of affairs political and domestic, which +partially caused and nourished these extraordinary eccentricities, is +almost essential to a proper understanding of them. + +66. The year 1586 was probably one of the most critical years that +England has passed through since she was first a nation. Standing alone +amongst the European States, with even the Netherlanders growing cold +towards her on account of her ambiguous treatment of them, she had to +fight out the battle of her independence against odds to all appearances +irresistible. With Sixtus plotting her overthrow at Rome, Philip at +Madrid, Mendoza and the English traitors at Paris, and Mary of Scotland +at Chartley, while a third of her people were malcontent, and James the +Sixth was friend or enemy as it best suited his convenience, the outlook +was anything but reassuring for the brave men who held the helm in those +stormy times. But although England owed her deliverance chiefly to the +forethought and hardihood of her sons, it cannot be doubted that the +sheer imbecility of her foes contributed not a little to that result. To +both these conditions she owed the fact that the great Armada, the +embodiment of the foreign hatred and hostility, threatening to break +upon her shores like a huge wave, vanished like its spray. Medina +Sidonia, with his querulous complaints and general ineffectuality,[1] +was hardly a match for Drake and his sturdy companions; nor were the +leaders of the Babington conspiracy, the representatives and would-be +leaders of the corresponding internal convulsion, the infatuated +worshippers of the fair devil of Scotland, the men to cope for a moment +with the intellects of Walsingham and Burleigh. + +[Footnote 1: Froude, xii. p. 405.] + +67. The events which Harsnet investigated and wrote upon with +politico-theological animus formed an eddy in the main current of the +Babington conspiracy. For some years before that plot had taken definite +shape, seminary priests had been swarming into England from the +continent, and were sedulously engaged in preaching rebellion in the +rural districts, sheltered and protected by the more powerful of the +disaffected nobles and gentry--modern apostles, preparing the way before +the future regenerator of England, Cardinal Allen, the would-be Catholic +Archbishop of Canterbury. Among these was one Weston, who, in his +enthusiastic admiration for the martyr-traitor, Edmund Campion, had +adopted the alias of Edmonds. This Jesuit was gifted with the power of +casting out devils, and he exercised it in order to prove the divine +origin of the Holy Catholic faith, and, by implication, the duty of all +persons religiously inclined, to rebel against a sovereign who was +ruthlessly treading it into the dust. The performances which Harsnet +examined into took place chiefly in the house of Lord Vaux at Hackney, +and of one Peckham at Denham, in the end of the year 1585 and the +beginning of 1586. The possessed persons were Anthony Tyrell, another +Jesuit who rounded upon his friends in the time of their tribulation;[1] +Marwood, Antony Babington's private servant, who subsequently found it +convenient to leave the country, and was never examined upon the +subject; Trayford and Mainy, two young gentlemen, and Sara and Friswood +Williams, and Anne Smith, maid-servants. Richard Mainy, the most +edifying subject of them all, was seventeen only when the possession +seized him; he had only just returned to England from Rheims, and, when +passing through Paris, had come under the influence of Charles Paget and +Morgan; so his antecedents appeared somewhat open to suspicion.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The Fall of Anthony Tyrell, by Persoun. See The Troubles of +our Catholic Forefathers, by John Morris, p. 103.] + +[Footnote 2: He was examined by the Government as to his connection with +the Paris conspirators.--See State Papers, vol. clxxx. 16, 17.] + +68. With the truth or falsehood of the statements and deductions made by +Harsnet, we have little or no concern. Western did not pretend to deny +that he had the power of exorcism, or that he exercised it upon the +persons in question, but he did not admit the truth of any of the more +ridiculous stories which Harsnet so triumphantly brings forward to +convict him of intentional deceit; and his features, if the portrait in +Father Morris's book is an accurate representation of him, convey an +impression of feeble, unpractical piety that one is loth to associate +with a malicious impostor. In addition to this, one of the witnesses +against him, Tyrell, was a manifest knave and coward; another, Mainy, as +conspicuous a fool; while the rest were servant-maids--all of them +interested in exonerating themselves from the stigma of having been +adherents of a lost cause, at the expense of a ringleader who seemed to +have made himself too conspicuous to escape punishment. Furthermore, the +evidence of these witnesses was not taken until 1598 and 1602, twelve +and sixteen years after the events to which it related took place; and +when taken, was taken by Harsnet, a violent Protestant and almost +maniacal exorcist-hunter, as the miscellaneous collection of literature +evoked by his exposure of Parson Darrell's dealings with Will Sommers +and others will show. + +69. Among the many devils' names mentioned by Harsnet in his +"Declaration," and in the examinations of witnesses annexed to it, the +following have undoubtedly been repeated in "King Lear":--Fliberdigibet, +spelt in the play Flibbertigibbet; Hoberdidance called Hopdance and +Hobbididance; and Frateretto, who are called morris-dancers; Haberdicut, +who appears in "Lear" as Obidicut; Smolkin, one of Trayford's devils; +Modu, who possessed Mainy; and Maho, who possessed Sara Williams. These +two latter devils have in the play managed to exchange the final vowels +of their names, and appear as Modo and Mahu.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In addition to these, Killico has probably been corrupted +into Pillicock--a much more probable explanation of the word than either +of those suggested by Dyce in his glossary; and I have little doubt that +the ordinary reading of the line, "Pur! the cat is gray!" in Act III. +vi. 47, is incorrect; that Pur is not an interjection, but the +repetition of the name of another devil, Purre, who is mentioned by +Harsnet. The passage in question occurs only in the quartos, and +therefore the fact that there is no stop at all after the word "Pur" +cannot be relied upon as helping to prove the correctness of this +supposition. On the other hand, there is nothing in the texts to justify +the insertion of the note of exclamation.] + +70. A comparison of the passages in "King Lear" spoken by Edgar when +feigning madness, with those in Harsnet's book which seem to have +suggested them, will furnish as vivid a picture as it is possible to +give of the state of contemporary belief upon the subject of +possession. It is impossible not to notice that nearly all the allusions +in the play refer to the performance of the youth Richard Mainy. Even +Edgar's hypothetical account of his moral failings in the past seems to +have been an accurate reproduction of Mainy's conduct in some +particulars, as the quotation below will prove;[1] and there appears to +be so little necessity for these remarks of Edgar's, that it seems +almost possible that there may have been some point in these passages +that has since been lost. A careful search, however, has failed to +disclose any reason why Mainy should be held up to obloquy; and the +passages in question were evidently not the result of a direct reference +to the "Declaration." After his examination by Harsnet in 1602, Mainy +seems to have sunk into the insignificant position which he was so +calculated to adorn, and nothing more is heard of him; so the references +to him must be accidental merely. + +[Footnote 1: "He would needs have persuaded this examinate's sister to +have gone thence with him in the apparel of a youth, and to have been +his boy and waited upon him.... He urged this examinate divers times to +have yielded to his carnal desires, using very unfit tricks with her. +There was also a very proper woman, one Mistress Plater, with whom this +examinate perceived he had many allurements, showing great tokens of +extraordinary affection towards her."--Evidence of Sara Williams, +Harsnet, p. 190. Compare King Lear, Act iii. sc. iv. ll. 82-101; note +especially l. 84.] + +71. One curious little repetition in the play of a somewhat unimportant +incident recorded by Harsnet is to be found in the fourth scene of the +third act, where Edgar says-- + +"Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through +fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlpool, o'er bog and +quagmire; _that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his +pew_; set ratsbane by his porridge," etc.[1] + +[Footnote 1: l. 51, et seq.] + +The events referred to took place at Denham. A halter and some +knife-blades were found in a corridor of the house. "A great search was +made in the house to know how the said halter and knife-blades came +thither, but it could not in any wise be found out, as it was pretended, +till Master Mainy in his next fit said, as it was reported, that the +devil layd them in the gallery, that some of those that were possessed +might either hang themselves with the halter, or kill themselves with +the blades."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Harsnet, p. 218.] + +72. But the bulk of the references relating to the possession of Mainy +occur further on in the same scene:-- + +"_Fool._ This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. + +"_Edgar._ Take heed o' the foul fiend: obey thy parents; keep thy word +justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse;[1] set not thy +sweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. + +"_Lear._ What hast thou been? + +"_Edgar._ A serving-man, proud in heart and mind, that curled my hair, +wore my gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did +the act of darkness with her;[2] swore as many oaths as I spake words, +and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the +contriving of lust, and waked to do it; wine loved I deeply; dice +dearly; and in women out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of +ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, +dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the +rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to woman; keep thy foot out of +brothels, thy hand out of plackets,[3] thy pen from lenders' books, and +defy the foul fiend."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Cf. sec. 70, and note.] + +[Footnote 2: Cf. sec. 70, and note.] + +[Footnote 3: Placket probably here means pockets; not, as usual, the +slip in a petticoat. Tom was possessed by Mahu, the prince of stealing.] + +[Footnote 4: l. 82, et seq.] + +This must be read in conjunction with what Edgar says of himself +subsequently:-- + +"Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; +Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; +Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing; who since possesses +chamber-maids and waiting-women."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Act IV. i. 61.] + +The following are the chief parts of the account given by Harsnet of the +exorcism of Mainy by Weston--a most extraordinary transaction,--said to +be taken from Weston's own account of the matter. He was supposed to be +possessed by the devils who represented the seven deadly sins, and "by +instigation of the first of the seven, began to set his hands into his +side, curled his hair, and used such gestures as Maister Edmunds present +affirmed that that spirit was Pride.[1] Heerewith he began to curse and +to banne, saying, 'What a poxe do I heare? I will stay no longer among a +company of rascal priests, but goe to the court and brave it amongst my +fellowes, the noblemen there assembled.'[2] ... Then Maister Edmunds did +proceede againe with his exorcismes, and suddenly the sences of Mainy +were taken from him, his belly began to swell, and his eyes to stare, +and suddainly he cried out, 'Ten pounds in the hundred!' he called for a +scrivener to make a bond, swearing that he would not lend his money +without a pawne.... There could be no other talke had with this spirit +but money and usury, so as all the company deemed this devil to be the +author of Covetousnesse....[3] + +[Footnote 1: "A serving-man, proud of heart and mind, that curled my +hair," etc.--l. 87; cf. also l. 84. Curling the hair as a sign of +Mainy's possession is mentioned again, Harsnet, p. 57.] + +[Footnote 2: "That ... swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke +them in the sweet face of heaven."--l. 90.] + +[Footnote 3: "Keep ... thy pen out of lenders' books."--l. 100.] + +"Ere long Maister Edmunds beginneth againe his exorcismes, wherein he +had not proceeded farre, but up cometh another spirit singing most +filthy and baudy songs: every word almost that he spake was nothing but +ribaldry. They that were present with one voyce affirmed that devill to +be the author of Luxury.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in women +out-paramoured the Turk."--l. 93.] + +"Envy was described by disdainful looks and contemptuous speeches; +Wrath, by furious gestures, and talke as though he would have fought;[1] +Gluttony, by vomiting;[2] and Sloth,[3] by gasping and snorting, as +though he had been asleepe."[4] + +[Footnote 1: "Dog in madness, lion in prey."--l. 96.] + +[Footnote 2: "Wolf in greediness."--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 3: "Hog in sloth."--l. 95.] + +[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 278.] + +A sort of prayer-meeting was then held for the relief of the distressed +youth: "Whereupon the spirit of Pride departed in the forme of a +Peacocke; the spirit of Sloth in the likenesse of an Asse; the spirit of +Envy in the similitude of a Dog; the spirit of Gluttony in the forme of +a Wolfe."[1] + +[Footnote 1: The words, "Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in +greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey," are clearly an imperfect +reminiscence of this part of the transaction.] + +There is in another part of "King Lear" a further reference to the +incidents attendant upon these exorcisms Edgar says,[1] "The foul fiend +haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale." This seems to refer to +the following incident related by Friswood Williams:-- + +"There was also another strange thing happened at Denham about a bird. +Mistris Peckham had a nightingale, which she kept in a cage, wherein +Maister Dibdale took great delight, and would often be playing with it. +This nightingale was one night conveyed out of the cage, and being next +morning diligently sought for, could not be heard of, till Maister +Mainie's devil, in one of his fits (as it was pretended), said that the +wicked spirit which was in this examinate's sister[2] had taken the bird +out of the cage, and killed it in despite of Maister Dibdale."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Act III. sc. vi. l. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: Sara Williams.] + +[Footnote 3: Harsnet, p. 225.] + +73. The treatment to which, in consequence of his belief in possession, +unfortunate persons like Mainy and Sommers, who were probably only +suffering from some harmless form of mental disease, were subjected, was +hardly calculated to effect a cure. The most ignorant quack was +considered perfectly competent to deal with cases which, in reality, +require the most delicate and judicious management, combined with the +profoundest physiological, as well as psychological, knowledge. The +ordinary method of dealing with these lunatics was as simple as it was +irritating. Bonds and confinement in a darkened room were the specifics; +and the monotony of this treatment was relieved by occasional visits +from the sage who had charge of the case, to mumble a prayer or mutter +an exorcism. Another popular but unpleasant cure was by flagellation; so +that Romeo's + + "Not mad, but bound more than a madman is, + Shut up in prison, kept without my food, + Whipped and tormented,"[1] + +if an exaggerated description of his own mental condition is in itself +no inflated metaphor. + +[Footnote 1: I. ii. 55.] + +74. Shakspere, in "The Comedy of Errors," and indirectly also in +"Twelfth Night," has given us intentionally ridiculous illustrations of +scenes which he had not improbably witnessed, in the country at any +rate, and which bring vividly before us the absurdity of the methods of +diagnosis and treatment usually adopted:-- + + _Courtesan._ How say you now? is not your husband mad? + + _Adriana._ His incivility confirms no less. + Good doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer; + Establish him in his true sense again, + And I will please you what you will demand. + + _Luciana._ Alas! how fiery and how sharp he looks! + + _Courtesan._ Mark how he trembles in his extasy! + + _Pinch._ Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.[1] + + _Ant. E._ There is my hand, and let it feel your ear. + + _Pinch._ I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, + To yield possession to my holy prayers, + And to thy state of darkness his thee straight; + I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven. + + _Ant. E._ Peace, doting wizard, peace; I am not mad. + + _Pinch._ O that thou wert not, poor distressed soul![2] + +After some further business, Pinch pronounces his opinion: + + "Mistress, both man and master are possessed; + I know it by their pale and deadly looks: + They must be bound, and laid in some dark room."[3] + +But "good doctor Pinch" seems to have been mild even to feebleness in +his conjuration; many of his brethren in art had much more effective +formulae. It seems that devils were peculiarly sensitive to any +opprobrious epithets that chanced to be bestowed upon them. The skilful +exorcist took advantage of this weakness, and, if he could only manage +to keep up a flow of uncomplimentary remarks sufficiently long and +offensive, the unfortunate spirit became embarrassed, restless, +agitated, and finally took to flight. Here is a specimen of the +"nicknames" which had so potent an effect, if Harsnet is to be +credited:-- + +"Heare therefore, thou senceless false lewd spirit, maister of devils, +miserable creature, tempter of men, deceaver of bad angels, captaine of +heretiques, father of lyes, fatuous bestial ninnie, drunkard, infernal +theefe, wicked serpent, ravening woolfe, leane hunger-bitten impure sow, +seely beast, truculent beast, cruel beast, bloody beast, beast of all +blasts, the most bestiall acherontall spirit, smoakie spirit, Tartareus +spirit!"[4] Whether this objurgation terminates from loss of breath on +the part of the conjurer, or the precipitate departure of the spirit +addressed, it is impossible to say; it is difficult to imagine any +logical reason for its conclusion. + +[Footnote 1: The cessation of the pulse was one of the symptoms of +possession. See the case of Sommers, Tryal of Maister Darrell, 1599.] + +[Footnote 2: IV. iv. 48, 62.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 95.] + +[Footnote 4: Harsnet, p. 113.] + +75. Occasionally other, and sometimes more elaborate, methods of +exorcism than those mentioned by Romeo were adopted, especially when the +operation was conducted for the purpose of bringing into prominence some +great religious truth. The more evangelical of the operators adopted the +plan of lying on the top of their patients, "after the manner of Elias +and Pawle."[1] But the Catholic exorcists invented and carried to +perfection the greatest refinement in the art. The patient, seated in a +"holy chair," specially sanctified for the occasion, was compelled to +drink about a pint of a compound of sack and salad oil; after which +refreshment a pan of burning brimstone was held under his nose, until +his face was blackened by the smoke.[2] All this while the officiating +priest kept up his invocation of the fiends in the manner illustrated +above; and, under such circumstances, it is extremely doubtful whether +the most determined character would not be prepared to see somewhat +unusual phenomena for the sake of a short respite. + +[Footnote 1: The Tryall of Maister Darrell, 1599, p. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, p. 53.] + +76. Another remarkable method of exorcism was a process termed "firing +out" the fiend.[1] The holy flame of piety resident in the priest was so +terrible to the evil spirit, that the mere contact of the holy hand with +that part of the body of the afflicted person in which he was resident +was enough to make him shrink away into some more distant portion; so, +by a judicious application of the hand, the exorcist could drive the +devil into some limb, from which escape into the body was impossible, +and the evil spirit, driven to the extremity, was obliged to depart, +defeated and disgraced.[2] This influence could be exerted, however, +without actual corporal contact, as the following quaint extract from +Harsnet's book will show:-- + +"Some punie rash devil doth stay till the holy priest be come somewhat +neare, as into the chamber where the demoniacke doth abide, purposing, +as it seemes, to try a pluck with the priest; and then his hart sodainly +failing him (as Demas, when he saw his friend Chinias approach), cries +out that he is tormented with the presence of the priest, and so is +fierd out of his hold."[3] + +[Footnote 1: This expression occurs in Sonnet cxliv., and evidently with +the meaning here explained; only the bad angel is supposed to fire out +the good one.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, pp. 77, 96, 97.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 65.] + +77. The more violent or uncommon of the bodily diseases were, as the +quotation from Cotta's book shows[1], attributed to the same diabolic +source. In an era when the most profound ignorance prevailed with regard +to the simplest laws of health; when the commoner diseases were +considered as God's punishment for sin, and not attributable to natural +causes; when so eminent a divine as Bishop Hooper could declare that +"the air, the water, and the earth have no poison in themselves to hurt +their lord and master man,"[2] unless man first poisoned himself with +sin; and when, in consequence of this ignorance and this false +philosophy, and the inevitable neglect attendant upon them, those +fearful plagues known as "the Black Death" could, almost without notice, +sweep down upon a country, and decimate its inhabitants--it is not +wonderful that these terrible scourges were attributed to the +malevolence of the Evil One. + +[Footnote 1: See secs. 63, 64.] + +[Footnote 2: I Hooper, p. 308. Parker Society.] + +78. But it is curious to notice that, although possessing such terrible +powers over the bodies and minds of mortals, devils were not believed to +be potent enough to destroy the lives of the persons they persecuted +unless they could persuade their victims to renounce God. This theory +probably sprang out of the limitation imposed by the Almighty upon the +power of Satan during his temptation of Job, and the advice given to the +sufferer by his wife, "Curse God, and die." Hence, when evil spirits +began their assaults upon a man, one of their first endeavours was to +induce him to do some act that would be equivalent to such a +renunciation. Sometimes this was a bond assigning the victim's soul to +the Evil One in consideration of certain worldly advantages; sometimes a +formal denial of his baptism; sometimes a deed that drives away the +guardian angel from his side, and leaves the devil's influence +uncounteracted. In "The Witch of Edmonton,"[1] the first act that Mother +Sawyer demands her familiar to perform after she has struck her bargain, +is to kill her enemy Banks; and the fiend has reluctantly to declare +that he cannot do so unless by good fortune he could happen to catch him +cursing. Both Harpax[2] and Mephistophiles[3] suggest to their victims +that they have power to destroy their enemies, but neither of them is +able to exercise it. Faust can torment, but not kill, his would-be +murderers; and Springius and Hircius are powerless to take Dorothea's +life. In the latter case it is distinctly the protection of the guardian +angel that limits the diabolic power; so it is not unnatural that +Gratiano should think the cursing of his better angel from his side the +"most desperate turn" that poor old Brabantio could have done himself, +had he been living to hear of his daughter's cruel death.[4] It is next +to impossible for people in the present day to have any idea what a +consolation this belief in a good attendant spirit, specially appointed +to guard weak mortals through life, to ward off evils, and guide to +eternal safety, must have been in a time when, according to the current +belief, any person, however blameless, however holy, was liable at any +moment to be possessed by a devil, or harried and tortured by a witch. + +[Footnote 1: Act II. sc. i.] + +[Footnote 2: The Virgin Martyr, Act III. sc. iii.] + +[Footnote 3: Dr. Faustus, Act I. sc. iii.] + +[Footnote 4: Othello, Act V. sc. ii. 204.] + +79. This leads by a natural sequence to the consideration of another and +more insidious form of attack upon mankind adopted by the evil spirits. +Possession and obsession were methods of assault adopted against the +will of the afflicted person, and hardly to be avoided by him without +the supernatural intervention of the Church. The practice of witchcraft +and magic involved the absolute and voluntary barter of body and soul to +the Evil One, for the purpose of obtaining a few short years of +superhuman power, to be employed for the gratification of the culprit's +avarice, ambition, or desire for revenge. + +80. In the strange history of that most inexplicable mental disease, the +witchcraft epidemic, as it has been justly called by a high authority on +such matters,[1] we moderns are, by the nature of our education and +prejudices, completely incapacitated for sympathizing with either the +persecutors or their victims. We are at a loss to understand how +clear-sighted and upright men, like Sir Matthew Hale, could consent to +become parties to a relentless persecution to the death of poor helpless +beings whose chief crime, in most cases, was, that they had suffered +starvation both in body and in mind. We cannot understand it, because +none of us believe in the existence of evil spirits. None; for although +there are still a few persons who nominally hold to the ancient faith, +as they do to many other respectable but effete traditions, yet they +would be at a loss for a reason for the faith that is in them, should +they chance to be asked for one; and not one of them would be prepared +to make the smallest material sacrifice for the sake of it. It is true +that the existence of evil spirits recently received a tardy and +somewhat hesitating recognition in our ecclesiastical courts,[2] which +at first authoritatively declared that a denial of the existence of the +personality of the devil constituted a man a notorious evil liver, and +depraver of the Book of Common Prayer;[3] but this was promptly reversed +by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, under the auspices of +two Low Church law lords and two archbishops, with the very vague +proviso that "they do not mean to decide that those doctrines are +otherwise than inconsistent with the formularities of the Church of +England;"[4] yet the very contempt with which these portentous +declarations of Church law have been received shows how great has been +the fall of the once almost omnipotent minister of evil. The ancient +Satan does indeed exist in some few formularies, but in such a +washed-out and flimsy condition as to be the reverse of conspicuous. All +that remains of him and of his subordinate legions is the ineffectual +ghost of a departed creed, for the resuscitation of which no man will +move a finger. + +[Footnote 1: See Dr. Carpenter in _Frazer_ for November, 1877.] + +[Footnote 2: See Jenkins v. Cooke, Law Reports, Admiralty and +Ecclesiastical Cases, vol. iv. p. 463, et seq.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 499, Sir R. Phillimore.] + +[Footnote 4: Law Reports, I Probate Division, p. 102.] + +81. It is perfectly impossible for us, therefore, to comprehend, +although by an effort we may perhaps bring ourselves to imagine, the +horror and loathing with which good men, entirely believing in the +existence and omnipresence of countless legions of evil spirits, able +and anxious to perpetrate the mischiefs that it has been the object of +these pages in some part to describe, would regard those who, for their +own selfish gratification, deliberately surrendered their hopes of +eternal happiness in exchange for an alliance with the devils, which +would render these ten times more capable than before of working their +wicked wills. To men believing this, no punishment could seem too sudden +or too terrible for such offenders against religion and society, and no +means of possible detection too slight or far-fetched to be neglected; +indeed, it might reasonably appear to them better that many innocent +persons should perish, with the assurance of future reward for their +undeserved sufferings, than that a single guilty one should escape +undetected, and become the medium by which the devil might destroy more +souls. + +82. But the persecuted, far more than the persecutors, deserve our +sympathy, although they rarely obtain it. It is frequently asserted that +the absolute truth of a doctrine is the only support that will enable +its adherents successfully to weather the storms of persecution. Those +who assent to this proposition must be prepared to find a large amount +of truth in the beliefs known to us under the name of witchcraft, if the +position is to be successfully maintained; for never was any sect +persecuted more systematically, or with more relentlessness, than these +little-offending heretics. Protestants and Catholics, Anglicans and +Calvinists, so ready at all times to commit one another to the flames +and to the headsman, found in this matter common ground, upon which all +could heartily unite for the grand purpose of extirpating error. When, +out of the quiet of our own times, we look back upon the terrors of the +Tower, and the smoke and glare of Smithfield, we think with mingled pity +and admiration of those brave men and women who, in the sixteenth +century, enriched with their blood and ashes the soil from whence was to +spring our political and religious freedom. But no whit of admiration, +hardly a glimmer of pity, is even casually evinced for those poor +creatures who, neglected, despised, and abhorred, were, at the same +time, dying the same agonizing death, and passing through the torment of +the flames to that "something after death--the undiscovered country," +without the sweet assurance which sustained their better-remembered +fellow-sufferers, that beyond the martyr's cross was waiting the +martyr's crown. No such hope supported those who were condemned to die +for the crime of witchcraft: their anticipations of the future were as +dreary as their memories of the past, and no friendly voice was raised, +or hand stretched out, to encourage or console them during that last sad +journey. Their hope of mercy from man was small--strangulation before +the application of the fire, instead of the more lingering and painful +death at most;--their hope of mercy from Heaven, nothing; yet, under +these circumstances, the most auspicious perhaps that could be imagined +for the extirpation of a heretical belief, persecution failed to effect +its object. The more the Government burnt the witches, the more the +crime of witchcraft spread; and it was not until an attitude of +contemptuous toleration was adopted towards the culprits that the belief +died down, gradually but surely, not on account of the conclusiveness of +the arguments directed against it, but from its own inherent lack of +vitality.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Mr. Lecky's elaborate and interesting description of +the demise of the belief in the first chapter of his History of the Rise +of Rationalism in Europe.] + +83. The history and phenomena of witchcraft have been so admirably +treated by more than one modern investigator, as to render it +unnecessary to deal exhaustively with a subject which presents such a +vast amount of material for arrangement and comment. The scope of the +following remarks will therefore be limited to a consideration of such +features of the subject as appear to throw light upon the +supernaturalism in "Macbeth." This consideration will be carried out +with some minuteness, as certain modern critics, importing mythological +learning that is the outcome of comparatively recent investigation into +the interpretation of the text, have declared that the three sisters who +play such an important part in that drama are not witches at all, but +are, or are intimately allied to, the Norns or Fates of Scandinavian +paganism. It will be the object of the following pages to illustrate the +contemporary belief concerning witches and their powers, by showing that +nearly every characteristic point attributed to the sisters has its +counterpart in contemporary witch-lore; that some of the allusions, +indeed, bear so strong a resemblance to certain events that had +transpired not many years before "Macbeth" was written, that it is not +improbable that Shakspere was alluding to them in much the same +off-hand, cursory manner as he did to the Mainy incident when writing +"King Lear." + +84. The first critic whose comments upon this subject call for notice is +the eminent Gervinus. In evident ignorance of the history of witchcraft, +he says, "In the witches Shakspere has made use of the popular belief in +evil geniuses and in adverse persecutors of mankind, and has produced a +similar but darker race of beings, just as he made use of the belief in +fairies in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' This creation is less +attractive and complete, but not less masterly. The poet, in the text of +the play itself, calls these beings witches only derogatorily; they call +themselves weird sisters; the Fates bore this denomination, and the +sisters remind us indeed of the Northern Fates or Valkyries. They appear +wild and weather-beaten in exterior and attire, common in speech, +ignoble, half-human creatures, ugly as the Evil One, and in like manner +old, and of neither sex. They are guided by more powerful masters, their +work entirely springs from delight in evil, and they are wholly devoid +of human sympathies.... They are simply the embodiment of inward +temptation; they come in storm and vanish in air, like corporeal +impulses, which, originating in the blood, cast up bubbles of sin and +ambition in the soul; they are weird sisters only in the sense in which +men carry their own fates within their bosoms."[1] This criticism is so +entirely subjective and unsupported by evidence that it is difficult to +deal satisfactorily with it. It will be shown hereafter that this +description does not apply in the least to the Scandinavian Norns, +while, so far as it is true to Shakspere's text, it does not clash with +contemporary records of the appearance and actions of witches. + +[Footnote 1: Shakspere Commentaries, translated by F.E. Bunnert, p. +591.] + +85. The next writer to bring forward a view of this character was the +Rev. F.G. Fleay, the well-known Shakspere critic, whose ingenious +efforts in iconoclasm cause a curious alternation of feeling between +admiration and amazement. His argument is unfortunately mixed up with a +question of textual criticism; for he rejects certain scenes in the play +as the work of the inferior dramatist Middleton.[1] The question +relating to the text will only be noticed so far as it is inextricably +involved with the argument respecting the nature of the weird sisters. +Mr. Fleay's position is, shortly, this. He thinks that Shakspere's play +commenced with the entrance of Macbeth and Banquo in the third scene of +the first act, and that the weird sisters who subsequently take part in +that scene are Norns, not witches; and that in the first scene of the +fourth act, Shakspere discarded the Norns, and introduced three +entirely new characters, who were intended to be genuine witches. + +[Footnote 1: Of the witch scenes Mr. Fleay rejects Act I. sc. i., and +sc. iii. down to l. 37, and Act III. sc. v.] + +86. The evidence which can be produced in support of this theory, apart +from question of style and probability, is threefold. The first proof is +derived from a manuscript entitled "The Booke of Plaies and Notes +thereof, for Common Pollicie," written by a somewhat famous +magician-doctor, Simon Forman, who was implicated in the murder of Sir +Thomas Overbury. He says, "In 'Macbeth,' at the Globe, 1610, the 20th +April, Saturday, there was to be observed first how Macbeth and Banquo, +two noblemen of Scotland, riding through a wood, there stood before them +three women fairies, or nymphs, and saluted Macbeth, saying three times +unto him, 'Hail, Macbeth, King of Codor, for thou shalt be a king, but +thou shalt beget no kings,'" etc.[1] This, if Forman's account held +together decently in other respects, would be strong, although not +conclusive, evidence in favour of the theory; but the whole note is so +full of inconsistencies and misstatements, that it is not unfair to +conclude, either that the writer was not paying marvellous attention to +the entertainment he professed to describe, or that the player's copy +differed in many essential points from the present text. Not the least +conspicuous of these inconsistencies is the account of the sisters' +greeting of Macbeth just quoted. Subsequently Forman narrates that +Duncan created Macbeth Prince of Cumberland; and that "when Macbeth had +murdered the king, the blood on his hands could not be washed off by +any means, nor from his wife's hands, which handled the bloody daggers +in hiding them, by which means they became both much amazed and +affronted." Such a loose narration cannot be relied upon if the text in +question contains any evidence at all rebutting the conclusion that the +sisters are intended to be "women fairies, or nymphs." + +[Footnote 1: See Furness, Variorum, p. 384.] + +87. The second piece of evidence is the story of Macbeth as it is +narrated by Holinshed, from which Shakspere derived his material. In +that account we read that "It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho journied +toward Fores, where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie +togither without other companie, saue onlie themselues, passing thorough +the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund there met +them three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of +elder world, whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the +sight, the first of them spake and said; 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of +Glammis' (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by +the death of his father Sinell). The second of them said; 'Haile, +Makbeth, thane of Cawder.' But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that +heereafter shall be King of Scotland.' ... Afterwards the common opinion +was that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would +say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, indued +with knowledge of prophesie by their necromanticall science, because +everiething came to passe as they had spoken."[1] This is all that is +heard of these "goddesses of Destinie" in Holinshed's narrative. Macbeth +is warned to "beware Macduff"[2] by "certeine wizzards, in whose words +he put great confidence;" and the false promises were made to him by "a +certeine witch, whome he had in great trust, (who) had told him that he +should neuer be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till +the wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Holinshed, Scotland, p. 170, c. 2, l. 55.] + +[Footnote 2: Macbeth, IV. l. 71. Holinshed, p. 174, c. 2, l. 10.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. l. 13.] + +88. In this account we find that the supernatural communications adopted +by Shakspere were derived from three sources; and the contention is that +he has retained two of them--the "goddesses of Destinie" and the +witches; and the evidence of this retention is the third proof relied +on, namely, that the stage direction in the first folio, Act IV. sc. i., +is, "Enter Hecate and the _other_ three witches," when three characters +supposed to be witches are already upon the scene. Holinshed's narrative +makes it clear that the idea of the "goddesses of Destinie" was +distinctly suggested to Shakspere's mind, as well as that of the +witches, as the mediums of supernatural influence. The question is, did +he retain both, or did he reject one and retain the other? It can +scarcely be doubted that one such influence running through the play +would conduce to harmony and unity of idea; and as Shakspere, not a +servile follower of his source in any case, has interwoven in "Macbeth" +the totally distinct narrative of the murder of King Duffe,[1] it is +hardly to be supposed that he would scruple to blend these two +different sets of characters if any advantage were to be gained by so +doing. As to the stage direction in the first folio, it is difficult to +see what it would prove, even supposing that the folio were the most +scrupulous piece of editorial work that had ever been effected. It +presupposes that the "weird sisters" are on the stage as well as the +witches. But it is perfectly clear that the witches continue the +dialogue; so the other more powerful beings must be supposed to be +standing silent in the background--a suggestion so monstrous that it is +hardly necessary to refer to the slovenliness of the folio stage +directions to show how unsatisfactory an argument based upon one of them +must be. + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. p. 149. "A sort of witches dwelling in a towne of +Murreyland called Fores" (c. 2, l. 30) were prominent in this account.] + +89. The evidence of Forman and Holinshed has been stated fully, in order +that the reader may be in possession of all the materials that may be +necessary for forming an accurate judgment upon the point in question; +but it seems to be less relied upon than the supposition that the +appearance and powers of the beings in the admittedly genuine part of +the third scene of the first act are not those formerly attributed to +witches, and that Shakspere, having once decided to represent Norns, +would never have degraded them "to three old women, who are called by +Paddock and Graymalkin, sail in sieves, kill swine, serve Hecate, and +deal in all the common charms, illusions, and incantations of vulgar +witches. The three who 'look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, and +yet are on't;' they who can 'look into the seeds of time, and say which +grain will grow;' they who seem corporal, but melt into the air, like +bubbles of the earth; the weyward sisters, who make themselves air, and +have in them more than mortal knowledge, are not beings of this +stamp."[1] + +[Footnote 1: New Shakspere Society Transactions, vol. i. p.342; Fleay's +Shakspere Manual, p. 248.] + +90. Now, there is a great mass of contemporary evidence to show that +these supposed characteristics of the Norns are, in fact, some of the +chief attributes of the witches of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. If this be so--if it can be proved that the supposed +"goddesses of Destinie" of the play in reality possess no higher powers +than could be acquired by ordinary communication with evil spirits, then +no weight must be attached to the vague stage direction in the folio, +occurring as it does in a volume notorious for the extreme carelessness +with which it was produced; and it must be admitted that the "goddesses +of Destinie" of Holinshed were sacrificed for the sake of the witches. +If, in addition to this, it can be shown that there was a very +satisfactory reason why the witches should have been chosen as the +representatives of the evil influence instead of the Norns, the argument +will be as complete as it is possible to make it. + +91. But before proceeding to examine the contemporary evidence, it is +necessary, in order to obtain a complete conception of the mythological +view of the weird sisters, to notice a piece of criticism that is at +once an expansion of, and a variation upon, the theory just stated.[1] +It is suggested that the sisters of "Macbeth" are but three in number, +but that Shakspere drew upon Scandinavian mythology for a portion of the +material he used in constructing these characters, and that he derived +the rest from the traditions of contemporary witchcraft; in fact, that +the "sisters" are hybrids between Norns and witches. The supposed proof +of this is that each sister exercises the special function of one of the +Norns. "The third is the special prophetess, whilst the first takes +cognizance of the past, and the second of the present, in affairs +connected with humanity. These are the tasks of Urda, Verdandi, and +Skulda. The first begins by asking, 'When shall we three meet again?' +The second decides the time: 'When the battle's lost or won.' The third, +the future prophesies: 'That will be ere set of sun.' The first again +asks, 'Where?' The second decides: 'Upon the heath.' The third, the +future prophesies: 'There to meet with Macbeth.'" But their _role_ is +most clearly brought out in the famous "Hails":-- + + _1st. Urda._ [Past.] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of + Glamis! + + _2nd. Verdandi._ [Present.] All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane + of Cawdor! + + _3rd. Skulda._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shalt be king hereafter.[2] + +This sequence is supposed to be retained in other of the sisters' +speeches; but a perusal of these will soon show that it is only in the +second of the above quotations that it is recognizable with any +definiteness; and this, it must be remembered, is an almost verbal +transcript from Holinshed, and not an original conception of +Shakspere's, who might feel himself quite justified in changing the +characters of the speakers, while retaining their utterances. In +addition to this, the natural sequence is in many cases utterly and +unnecessarily violated; as, for instance, in Act I. sc. iii., where +Urda, who should be solely occupied with past matters, predicts, with +extreme minuteness, the results that are to follow from her projected +voyage to Aleppo, and that without any expression of resentment, but +rather with promise of assistance, from Skulda, whose province she is +thus invading. + +[Footnote 1: In a letter to _The Academy_, 8th February, 1879, signed +"Charlotte Carmichael."] + +[Footnote 2: I have taken the liberty of printing this quotation as it +stands in the text. The writer in _The Academy_ has effected a +rearrangement of the dialogue by importing what might be Macbeth's +replies to the three sisters from his speech beginning at l. 70, and +alternating them with the different "Hails," which, in addition, are not +correctly quoted--for what purpose it is difficult to see. It may be +added here that in a subsequent number of _The Academy_, a long letter +upon the same subject appeared from Mr. Karl Blind, which seems to prove +little except the author's erudition. He assumes the Teutonic origin of +the sisters throughout, and, consequently, adduces little evidence in +favour of the theory. One of his points is the derivation of the word +"weird" or "wayward," which, as will be shown subsequently, was applied +to witches. Another point is, that the witch scenes savour strongly of +the staff-rime of old German poetry. It is interesting to find two +upholders of the Norn-theory relying mainly for proof of their position +upon a scene (Act I. sc. i.) which Mr Fleay says that the very statement +of this theory (p. 249) must brand as spurious. The question of the +sisters' beards too, regarding which Mr. Blind brings somewhat +far-fetched evidence, is, I think, more satisfactorily settled by the +quotations in the text.] + +92. But this latter piece of criticism seems open to one grave +objection to which the former is not liable. Mr. Fleay separates the +portions of the play which are undoubtedly to be assigned to witches +from the parts he gives to his Norns, and attributes them to different +characters; the other mixes up the witch and Norn elements in one +confused mass. The earlier critic saw the absurdity of such a +supposition when he wrote: "Shakspere may have raised the wizard and +witches of the latter parts of Holinshed to the weird sisters of the +former parts, but the converse process is impossible."[1] Is it +conceivable that Shakspere, who, as most people admit, was a man of some +poetic feeling, being in possession of the beautiful Norn-legend--the +silent Fate-goddesses sitting at the foot of Igdrasil, the mysterious +tree of human existence, and watering its roots with water from the +sacred spring--could, ruthlessly and without cause, mar the charm of the +legend by the gratuitous introduction of the gross and primarily +unpoetical details incident to the practice of witchcraft? No man with a +glimmer of poetry in his soul will imagine it for a moment. The +separation of characters is more credible than this; but if that theory +can be shown to be unfounded, there is no improbability in supposing +that Shakspere, finding that the question of witchcraft was, in +consequence of events that had taken place not long before the time of +the production of "Macbeth," absorbing the attention of all men, from +king to peasant, should set himself to deal with such a popular subject, +and, by the magic of his art, so raise it out of its degradation into +the region of poetry, that men should wonder and say, "Can this be +witchcraft indeed?" + +[Footnote 1: Shakspere Manual, p. 249.] + +93. In comparing the evidence to be deduced from the contemporary +records of witchcraft with the sayings and doings of the sisters in +"Macbeth," those parts of the play will first be dealt with upon which +no doubt as to their genuineness has ever been cast, and which are +asserted to be solely applicable to Norns. If it can be shown that these +describe witches rather than Norns, the position that Shakspere +intentionally substituted witches for the "goddesses of Destinie" +mentioned in his authority is practically unassailable. First, then, it +is asserted that the description of the appearance of the sisters given +by Banquo applies to Norns rather than witches-- + + "They look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't." + +This question of applicability, however, must not be decided by the +consideration of a single sentence, but of the whole passage from which +it is extracted; and, whilst considering it, it should be carefully +borne in mind that it occurs immediately before those lines which are +chiefly relied upon as proving the identity of the sisters with Urda, +Verdandi, and Skulda. + +Banquo, on seeing the sisters, says-- + + "What are these, + So withered and so wild in their attire, + That look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't? Live you, or are you aught + That man may question? You seem to understand me, + By each at once her chappy finger laying + Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, + And yet your beards forbid me to interpret + That you are so." + +It is in the first moment of surprise that the sisters, appearing so +suddenly, seem to Banquo unlike the inhabitants of this earth. When he +recovers from the shock and is capable of deliberate criticism, he sees +chappy fingers, skinny lips--in fact, nothing to distinguish them from +poverty-stricken, ugly old women but their beards. A more accurate +poetical counterpart to the prose descriptions given by contemporary +writers of the appearance of the poor creatures who were charged with +the crime of witchcraft could hardly have been penned. Scot, for +instance, says, "They are women which commonly be old, lame, +bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles.... They are leane and +deformed, showing melancholie in their faces;"[1] and Harsnet describes +a witch as "an old weather-beaten crone, having her chin and knees +meeting for age, walking like a bow, leaning on a staff, hollow-eyed, +untoothed, furrowed, having her lips trembling with palsy, going +mumbling in the streets; one that hath forgotten her Pater-noster, yet +hath a shrewd tongue to call a drab a drab."[2] It must be remembered +that these accounts are by two sceptics, who saw nothing in the witches +but poor, degraded old women. In a description which assumes their +supernatural power such minute details would not be possible; yet there +is quite enough in Banquo's description to suggest neglect, squalor, and +misery. But if this were not so, there is one feature in the +description of the sisters that would settle the question once and for +ever. The beard was in Elizabethan times the recognized characteristic +of the witch. In one old play it is said, "The women that come to us for +disguises must wear beards, and that's to say a token of a witch;"[3] +and in another, "Some women have beards; marry, they are half +witches;"[4] and Sir Hugh Evans gives decisive testimony to the fact +when he says of the disguised Falstaff, "By yea and no, I think, the +'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I +spy a great peard under her muffler."[5] + +[Footnote 1: Discoverie, book i. ch. 3, p. 7.] + +[Footnote 2: Harsnet, Declaration, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 3: Honest Man's Fortune, II. i. Furness, Variorum, p. 30.] + +[Footnote 4: Dekker's Honest Whore, sc. x. l. 126.] + +[Footnote 5: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV. sc. ii.] + +94. Every item of Banquo's description indicates that he is speaking of +witches; nothing in it is incompatible with that supposition. Will it +apply with equal force to Norns? It can hardly be that these mysterious +mythical beings, who exercise an incomprehensible yet powerful influence +over human destiny, could be described with any propriety in terms so +revolting. A veil of wild, weird grandeur might be thrown around them; +but can it be supposed that Shakspere would degrade them by representing +them with chappy fingers, skinny lips, and beards? It is particularly to +be noticed, too, that although in this passage he is making an almost +verbal transcript from Holinshed, these details are interpolated without +the authority of the chronicle. Let it be supposed, for an instant, +that the text ran thus-- + + _Banquo._ ... What are these + So withered and so wild in their attire,[1] + That look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, + And yet are on't?[2] Live you, or are you ought + That man may question?[3] + + _Macbeth._ Speak if you can, what are you? + + _1st Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis![4] + + _2nd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Cawdor![5] + + _3rd Witch._ All hail, Macbeth! thou shall be king hereafter.[6] + +This is so accurate a dramatization of the parallel passage in +Holinshed, and so entire in itself, that there is some temptation to ask +whether it was not so written at first, and the interpolated lines +subsequently inserted by the author. Whether this be so or not, the +question must be put--Why, in such a passage, did Shakspere insert three +lines of most striking description of the appearance of witches? Can any +other reason be suggested than that he had made up his mind to replace +the "goddesses of Destinie" by the witches, and had determined that +there should be no possibility of any doubt arising about it? + +[Footnote 1: Three women in strange and wild apparel,] + +[Footnote 2: resembling creatures of elder world,] + +[Footnote 3: whome when they attentivelie beheld, woondering much at the +sight, the first of them spake and said;] + +[Footnote 4: 'All haile, Makbeth, thane of Glammis' (for he had latelie +entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father +Sinell).] + +[Footnote 5: The second of them said; 'Haile, Makbeth, thane of +Cawder.'] + +[Footnote 6: But the third said; 'All haile, Makbeth, that heereafter +shalt be king of Scotland.'] + +95. The next objection is, that the sisters exercise powers that witches +did not possess. They can "look into the seeds of time, and say which +grain will grow, and which will not." In other words, they foretell +future events, which witches could not do. But this is not the fact. The +recorded witch trials teem with charges of having prophesied what things +were about to happen; no charge is more common. The following, quoted by +Charles Knight in his biography of Shakspere, might almost have +suggested the simile in the last-mentioned lines. Johnnet Wischert is +"indicted for passing to the green growing corn in May, twenty-two years +since or thereby, sitting thereupon tymous in the morning before the +sun-rising, and being there found and demanded what she was doing, +thou[1] answered, I shall tell thee; I have been peeling the blades of +the corn. I find it will be a dear year, the blade of the corn grows +withersones [contrary to the course of the sun], and when it grows +sonegatis about [with the course of the sun] it will be good cheap +year."[2] The following is another apt illustration of the power, which +has been translated from the unwieldy Lowland Scotch account of the +trial of Bessie Roy in 1590. The Dittay charged her thus: "You are +indicted and accused that whereas, when you were dwelling with William +King in Barra, about twelve years ago, or thereabouts, and having gone +into the field to pluck lint with other women, in their presence made a +compass in the earth, and a hole in the midst thereof; and afterwards, +by thy conjurations thou causedst a great worm to come up first out of +the said hole, and creep over the compass; and next a little worm came +forth, which crept over also; and last [thou] causedst a great worm to +come forth, which could not pass over the compass, but fell down and +died. Which enchantment and witchcraft thou interpretedst in this form: +that the first great worm that crept over the compass was the goodman +William King, who should live; and the little worm was a child in the +goodwife's womb, who was unknown to any one to be with child, and that +the child should live; and, thirdly, the last great worm thou +interpretedst to be the goodwife, who should die: _which came to pass +after thy speaking_."[3] Surely there could hardly be plainer instances +of looking "into the seeds of time, and saying which grain will grow, +and which will not," than these. + +[Footnote 1: Sic.] + +[Footnote 2: p. 438.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, I. ii. 207. Cf. also Ibid. pp. 212, 213, and 231, +where the crime is described as "foreknowledge."] + +96. Perhaps this is the most convenient place for pointing out the full +meaning of the first scene of "Macbeth," and its necessary connection +with the rest of the play. It is, in fact, the fag-end of a witches' +sabbath, which, if fully represented, would bear a strong resemblance to +the scene at the commencement of the fourth act. But a long scene on +such a subject would be tedious and unmeaning at the commencement of the +play. The audience is therefore left to assume that the witches have +met, performed their conjurations, obtained from the evil spirits the +information concerning Macbeth's career that they desired to obtain, and +perhaps have been commanded by the fiends to perform the mission they +subsequently carry through. All that is needed for the dramatic effect +is a slight hint of probable diabolical interference, and that Macbeth +is to be the special object of it; and this is done in as artistic a +manner as is perhaps imaginable. In the first scene they obtain their +information; in the second they utter their prediction. Every minute +detail of these scenes is based upon the broad, recognized facts of +witchcraft. + +97. It is also suggested that the power of vanishing from the sight +possessed by the sisters--the power to make themselves air--was not +characteristic of witches. But this is another assertion that would not +have been made, had the authorities upon the subject been investigated +with only slight attention. No feature of the crime of witchcraft is +better attested than this; and the modern witch of story-books is still +represented as riding on a broomstick--a relic of the enchanted rod with +which the devil used to provide his worshippers, upon which to come to +his sabbaths.[1] One of the charges in the indictment against the +notorious Dr. Fian ran thus: "Fylit for suffering himself to be careit +to North Berwik kirk, as if he had bene souchand athoirt [whizzing +above] the eird."[2] Most effectual ointments were prepared for +effecting this method of locomotion, which have been recorded, and are +given below[3] as an illustration of the wild kind of recipes which +Shakspere rendered more grim in his caldron scene. The efficacy of these +ointments is well illustrated by a story narrated by Reginald Scot, +which unfortunately, on account of certain incidents, cannot be given in +his own terse words. The hero of it happened to be staying temporarily +with a friend, and on one occasion found her rubbing her limbs with a +certain preparation, and mumbling the while. After a time she vanished +out of his sight; and he, being curious to investigate the affair, +rubbed himself with the remaining ointment, and almost immediately he +found himself transported a long distance through the air, and +deposited right in the very midst of a witches' sabbath. Naturally +alarmed, he cried out, "'In the name of God, what make I heere?' and +upon those words the whole assemblie vanished awaie."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Scot, book iii. ch. iii. p. 43.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, I. ii. 210. Cf. also Ibid. p. 211. Scot, book +iii. ch. vii. p. 51.] + +[Footnote 3: "Sundrie receipts and ointments made and used for the +transportation of witches, and other miraculous effects. + +"Rx. The fat of yoong children, & seeth it with water in a brazen +vessell, reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the +bottome, which they laie up & keep untill occasion serveth to use it. +They put hereinto Eleoselinum, Aconitum, frondes populeas, & Soote." +This is given almost verbatim in Middleton's Witch. + +"Rx. Sium, Acarum Vulgare, Pentaphyllon, the bloud of a Flittermouse, +Solanum Somniferum, & oleum." + +It would seem that fern seed had the same virtue.--I Hen. IV. II. i.] + +[Footnote 4: Scot, book iii. ch. vi. p. 46.] + +98. The only vestige of a difficulty, therefore, that remains is the use +of the term "weird sisters" in describing the witches. It is perfectly +clear that Holinshed used these words as a sort of synonym for the +"goddesses of Destinie;" but with such a mass of evidence as has been +produced to show that Shakspere elected to introduce witches in the +place of the Norns, it surely would not be unwarrantable to suppose that +he might retain this term as a poetical and not unsuitable description +of the characters to whom it was applied. And this is the less +improbable as it can be shown that both words were at times applied to +witches. As the quotation given subsequently[1] proves, the Scotch +witches were in the habit of speaking of the frequenters of a particular +sabbath as "the sisters;" and in Heywood's "Witches of Lancashire," one +of the characters says about a certain act of supposed witchcraft, "I +remember that some three months since I crossed a wayward woman; one +that I now suspect."[2] + +[Footnote 1: sec. 107, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 2: Act V. sc. iii.] + +99. Here, then, in the very stronghold of the supposed proof of the +Norn-theory, it is possible to extract convincing evidence that the +sisters are intended to be merely witches. It is not surprising that +other portions of the play in which the sisters are mentioned should +confirm this view. Banquo, upon hearing the fulfilment of the prophecy +of the second witch, clearly expresses his opinion of the origin of the +"foreknowledge" he has received, in the exclamation, "What, can the +devil speak true?" For the devil most emphatically spoke through the +witches; but how could he in any sense be said to speak through Norns? +Again, Macbeth informs his wife that on his arrival at Forres, he made +inquiry into the amount of reliance that could be placed in the +utterances of the witches, "and learned by the perfectest report that +they had more in them than mortal knowledge."[1] This would be possible +enough if witches were the subjects of the investigation, for their +chief title to authority would rest upon the general opinion current in +the neighbourhood in which they dwelt; but how could such an inquiry be +carried out successfully in the case of Norns? It is noticeable, too, +that Macbeth knows exactly where to find the sisters when he wants them; +and when he says-- + + "More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, + By the worst means, the worst,"[2] + +he makes another clear allusion to the traffic of the witches with the +devil. After the events recorded in Act IV. sc. i., Macbeth speaks of +the prophecies upon which he relies as "the equivocation of the +fiend,"[3] and the prophets as "these juggling fiends;"[4] and with +reason--for he has seen and heard the very devils themselves, the +masters of the witches and sources of all their evil power. Every point +in the play that bears upon the subject at all tends to show that +Shakspere intentionally replaced the "goddesses of Destinie" by witches; +and that the supposed Norn origin of these characters is the result of a +somewhat too great eagerness to unfold a novel and startling theory. + +[Footnote 1: Act I. sc. v. l. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Fleay avoids the difficulty created by this passage, +which alludes to the witches as "the weird sisters," by supposing that +these lines were interpolated by Middleton--a method of criticism that +hardly needs comment. Act III. sc. iv. l. 134.] + +[Footnote 3: Act V. sc. v. l. 43.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. sc. viii. l. 19.] + +100. Assuming, therefore, that the witch-nature of the sisters is +conclusively proved, it now becomes necessary to support the assertion +previously made, that good reason can be shown why Shakspere should +have elected to represent witches rather than Norns. + +It is impossible to read "Macbeth" without noticing the prominence given +to the belief that witches had the power of creating storms and other +atmospheric disturbances, and that they delighted in so doing. The +sisters elect to meet in thunder, lightning, or rain. To them "fair is +foul, and foul is fair," as they "hover through the fog and filthy air." +The whole of the earlier part of the third scene of the first act is one +blast of tempest with its attendant devastation. They can loose and bind +the winds,[1] cause vessels to be tempest-tossed at sea, and mutilate +wrecked bodies.[2] They describe themselves as "posters of the sea and +land;"[3] the heath they meet upon is blasted;[4] and they vanish "as +breath into the wind."[5] Macbeth conjures them to answer his questions +thus:-- + + "Though you untie the winds, and let them fight + Against the churches; though the yesty waves + Confound and swallow navigation up; + Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down; + Though castles topple on their warders' heads; + Though palaces and pyramids do slope + Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure + Of nature's germens tumble all together, + Even till destruction sicken."[6] + +[Footnote 1: I. iii. 11, 12.] + +[Footnote 2: Act I. sc. iii. l. 28.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. l. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. l. 77.] + +[Footnote 5: Ibid. ll. 81, 82.] + +[Footnote 6: Act IV. sc. i. ll. 52-60.] + +101. Now, this command over the elements does not form at all a +prominent feature in the English records of witchcraft. A few isolated +charges of the kind may be found. In 1565, for instance, a witch was +burnt who confessed that she had caused all the tempests that had taken +place in that year. Scot, too, has a few short sentences upon this +subject, but does not give it the slightest prominence.[1] Nor in the +earlier Scotch trials recorded by Pitcairn does this charge appear +amongst the accusations against the witches. It is exceedingly curious +to notice the utter harmless nature of the charges brought against the +earlier culprits; and how, as time went on and the panic increased, they +gradually deepened in colour, until no act was too gross, too repulsive, +or too ridiculously impossible to be excluded from the indictment. The +following quotations from one of the earliest reported trials are given +because they illustrate most forcibly the condition of the poor women +who were supposed to be witches, and the real basis of fact upon which +the belief in the crime subsequently built itself. + +[Footnote 1: Book iii. ch. 13, p. 60.] + +102. Bessie Dunlop was tried for witchcraft in 1576. One of the +principal accusations against her was that she held intercourse with a +devil who appeared to her in the shape of a neighbour of hers, one Thom +Reed, who had recently died. Being asked how and where she met Thom +Reed, she said, "As she was gangand betwixt her own house and the yard +of Monkcastell, dryvand her ky to the pasture, and makand heavy sair +dule with herself, gretand[1] very fast for her cow that was dead, her +husband and child that wer lyand sick in the land ill, and she new +risen out of gissane,[2] the aforesaid Thom met her by the way, +healsit[3] her, and said, 'Gude day, Bessie,' and she said, 'God speed +you, guidman.' 'Sancta Marie,' said he, 'Bessie, why makes thow sa great +dule and sair greting for ony wardlie thing?' She answered 'Alas! have I +not great cause to make great dule, for our gear is trakit,[4] and my +husband is on the point of deid, and one babie of my own will not live, +and myself at ane weak point; have I not gude cause then to have ane +sair hart?' But Thom said, 'Bessie, thou hast crabit[5] God, and askit +some thing you suld not have done; and tharefore I counsell thee to mend +to Him, for I tell thee thy barne sall die and the seik cow, or you come +hame; and thy twa sheep shall die too; but thy husband shall mend, and +shall be as hale and fair as ever he was.' And then I was something +blyther, for he tauld me that my guidman would mend. Then Thom Reed went +away fra me in through the yard of Monkcastell, and I thought that he +gait in at ane narrower hole of the dyke nor anie erdlie man culd have +gone throw, and swa I was something fleit."[6] + +[Footnote 1: Weeping. I have only half translated this passage, for I +feared to spoil the sad simplicity of it.] + +[Footnote 2: Child-bed.] + +[Footnote 3: Saluted.] + +[Footnote 4: Dwindled away.] + +[Footnote 5: Displeased.] + +[Footnote 6: Frightened.] + +This was the first time that Thom appeared to her. On the third occasion +he asked her "if she would not trow[1] in him." She said "she would trow +in ony bodye did her gude." Then Thom promised her much wealth if she +would deny her christendom. She answered that "if she should be riven at +horsis taillis, she suld never do that, but promised to be leal and +trew to him in ony thing she could do," whereat he was angry. + +[Footnote 1: Trust.] + +On the fourth occasion, the poor woman fell further into sin, and +accompanied Thom to a fairy meeting. Thom asked her to join the party; +but she said "she saw na proffeit to gang thai kind of gaittis, unless +she kend wherefor." Thom offered the old inducement, wealth; but she +replied that "she dwelt with her awin husband and bairnis," and could +not leave them. And so Thom began to be very crabit with her, and said, +"if so she thought, she would get lytill gude of him." + +She was then demanded if she had ever asked any favour of Thom for +herself or any other person. She answered that "when sundrie persons +came to her to seek help for their beast, their cow, or ewe, or for any +barne that was tane away with ane evill blast of wind, or elf grippit, +she gait and speirit[1] at Thom what myght help them; and Thom would +pull ane herb and gif her out of his awin hand, and bade her scheir[2] +the same with ony other kind of herbis, and oppin the beistes mouth, and +put thame in, and the beist wald mend."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Inquired.] + +[Footnote 2: Chop.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, I. ii. 51, et seq.] + +It seems hardly possible to believe that a story like this, which is +half marred by the attempt to partially modernize its simple pathetic +language, and which would probably bring a tear to the eye, if not a +shilling from the pocket, of the most unsympathetic being of the present +day, should be considered sufficient three hundred years ago, to convict +the narrator of a crime worthy of death; yet so it was. This sad +picture of the breakdown of a poor woman's intellect in the unequal +struggle against poverty and sickness is only made visible to us by the +light of the flames that, mercifully to her perhaps, took poor Bessie +Dunlop away for ever from the sick husband, and weakly children, and the +"ky," and the humble hovel where they all dwelt together, and from the +daily, heart-rending, almost hopeless struggle to obtain enough food to +keep life in the bodies of this miserable family. The historian--who +makes it his chief anxiety to record, to the minutest and most +irrelevant details, the deeds, noble or ignoble, of those who have +managed to stamp their names upon the muster-roll of Fame--turns +carelessly or scornfully the page which contains such insignificant +matter as this; but those who believe + + "That not a worm is cloven in vain; + That not a moth with vain desire + Is shrivel'd in a fruitless fire, + Or but subserves another's gain," + +will hardly feel that poor Bessie's life and death were entirely without +their meaning. + +103. As the trials for witchcraft increase, however, the details grow +more and more revolting; and in the year 1590 we find a most +extraordinary batch of cases--extraordinary for the monstrosity of the +charges contained in them, and also for the fact that this feature, so +insisted upon in Macbeth, the raising of winds and storms, stands out in +extremely bold relief. The explanation of this is as follows. In the +year 1589, King James VI. brought his bride, Anne of Denmark, home to +Scotland. During the voyage an unusually violent storm raged, which +scattered the vessels composing the royal escort, and, it would appear, +caused the destruction of one of them. By a marvellous chance, the +king's ship was driven by a wind which blew directly contrary to that +which filled the sails of the other vessels;[1] and the king and queen +were both placed in extreme jeopardy. James, who seems to have been as +perfectly convinced of the reality of witchcraft as he was of his own +infallibility, at once came to the conclusion that the storm had been +raised by the aid of evil spirits, for the express purpose of getting +rid of so powerful an enemy of the Prince of Darkness as the righteous +king. The result was that a rigorous investigation was made into the +whole affair; a great number of persons were tried for attempting the +king's life by witchcraft; and that prince, undeterred by the apparent +impropriety of being judge in what was, in reality, his own cause, +presided at many of the trials, condescended to superintend the tortures +applied to the accused in order to extort a confession, and even went so +far in one case as to write a letter to the judges commanding a +condemnation. + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 218.] + +104. Under these circumstances, considering who the prosecutor was, and +who the judge, and the effectual methods at the service of the court for +extorting confessions,[1] it is not surprising that the king's surmises +were fully justified by the statements of the accused. It is impossible +to read these without having parts of the witch-scenes in "Macbeth" +ringing in the ears like an echo. John Fian, a young schoolmaster, and +leader of the gang, or "coven" as it was called, was charged with having +caused the leak in the king's ship, and with having raised the wind and +created a mist for the purpose of hindering his voyage.[2] On another +occasion he and several other witches entered into a ship, and caused it +to perish.[3] He was also able by witchcraft to open locks.[4] He +visited churchyards at night, and dismembered bodies for his charms; the +bodies of unbaptized infants being preferred.[5] + +[Footnote 1: The account of the tortures inflicted upon Fian are too +horrible for quotation.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, I. ii. 211.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 212. He confessed that Satan commanded him to chase +cats "purposlie to be cassin into the sea to raise windis for +destructioune of schippis." Macbeth, I. iii. 15-25.] + +[Footnote 4: "Fylit for opening of ane loke be his sorcerie in David +Seytounis moderis, be blawing in ane woman's hand, himself sittand att +the fyresyde."--See also the case of Bessie Roy, I. ii. 208. The English +method of opening locks was more complicated than the Scotch, as will +appear from the following quotation from Scot, book xii. ch. xiv. p. +246:-- + +"A charme to open locks. Take a peece of wax crossed in baptisme, and +doo but print certeine floures therein, and tie them in the hinder skirt +of your shirt; and when you would undoo the locke, blow thrice therein, +saieing, 'Arato hoc partico hoc maratarykin; I open this doore in thy +name that I am forced to breake, as thou brakest hell gates. In nomine +patris etc. Amen.'" Macbeth, IV. i. 46.] + +[Footnote 5: + + "Finger of birth-strangled babe, + Ditch-delivered by a drab." + +Macbeth, IV. i. 30.] + +Agnes Sampsoune confessed to the king that to compass his death she took +a black toad and hung it by the hind legs for three days, and collected +the venom that fell from it. She said that if she could have obtained a +piece of linen that the king had worn, she could have destroyed his +life with this venom; "causing him such extraordinarie paines as if he +had beene lying upon sharpe thornes or endis of needles."[1] She went +out to sea to a vessel called _The Grace of God_, and when she came away +the devil raised a wind, and the vessel was wrecked.[2] She delivered a +letter from Fian to another witch, which was to this effect: "Ye sall +warne the rest of the sisteris to raise the winde this day at ellewin +houris to stay the queenis cuming in Scotland."[3] + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 218. + + "Toad, that under cold stone + Days and nights has thirty-one + Sweltered venom sleeping got." + +Macbeth, IV. i. 6.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 235.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 236.] + +This is her confession as to the methods adopted for raising the storm. +"At the time when his Majestie was in Denmarke, shee being accompanied +by the parties before speciallie named, took a cat and christened it, +and afterwards bounde to each part of that cat the cheefest parts of a +dead man, and the severall joyntes of his bodie; and that in the night +following the said cat was conveyed into the middest of the sea by all +these witches, sayling in their riddles or cives,[1] as is afore said, +and so left the said cat right before the town of Leith in Scotland. +This done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath +not been seene, which tempest was the cause of the perishing of a +vessell coming over from the town of Brunt Ilande to the town of +Leith.... Againe, it is confessed that the said christened cat was the +cause that the kinges Majesties shippe at his coming forth of Denmarke +had a contrarie wind to the rest of his shippes...."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Macbeth, I. iii. 8.] + +[Footnote 2: Pitcairn, Reprint of Newes from Scotland, I. ii. 218. See +also Trial of Ewsame McCalgane, I. ii. 254.] + +105. It is worth a note that this art of going to sea in sieves, which +Shakspere has referred to in his drama, seems to have been peculiar to +this set of witches. English witches had the reputation of being able to +go upon the water in egg-shells and cockle-shells, but seem never to +have detected any peculiar advantages in the sieve. Not so these Scotch +witches. Agnes told the king that she, "with a great many other witches, +to the number of two hundreth, all together went to sea, each one in a +riddle or cive, and went into the same very substantially, with flaggons +of wine, making merrie, and drinking by the way in the same riddles or +cives, to the kirke of North Barrick in Lowthian, and that after they +landed they tooke hands on the lande and daunced a reill or short +daunce." They then opened the graves and took the fingers, toes, and +knees of the bodies to make charms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Pitcairn, I. ii. 217.] + +It can be easily understood that these trials created an intense +excitement in Scotland. The result was that a tract was printed, +containing a full account of all the principal incidents; and the fact +that this pamphlet was reprinted once, if not twice,[1] in London, +shows that interest in the affair spread south of the Border; and this +is confirmed by the publisher's prefatorial apology, in which he states +that the pamphlet was printed to prevent the public from being imposed +upon by unauthorized and extravagant statements of what had taken +place.[2] Under ordinary circumstances, events of this nature would form +a nine days' wonder, and then die a natural death; but in this +particular case the public interest continued for an abnormal time; for +eight years subsequent to the date of the trials, James published his +"Daemonologie"--a work founded to a great extent upon his experiences at +the trials of 1590. This was a sign to both England and Scotland that +the subject of witchcraft was still of engrossing interest to him; and +as he was then the fully recognized heir-apparent to the English crown, +the publication of such a work would not fail to induce a great amount +of attention to the subject dealt with. In 1603 he ascended the English +throne. His first parliament met on the 19th of March, 1604, and on the +27th of the same month a bill was brought into the House of Lords +dealing with the question of witchcraft. It was referred to a committee +of which twelve bishops were members; and this committee, after much +debating, came to the conclusion that the bill was imperfect. In +consequence of this a fresh one was drawn, and by the 9th of June a +statute had passed both Houses of Parliament, which enacted, among other +things, that "if any person shall practise or exercise any invocation or +conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit, or shall consult with, +entertain, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit,[3] or take up any +dead man, woman, or child out of his, her, or their grave ... or the +skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person to be employed or used +in any manner of witchcraft,[4] ... or shall ... practise ... any +witchcraft ... whereby any person shall be killed, wasted, pined, or +lamed in his or her body or any part thereof,[5] such offender shall +suffer the pains of death as felons, without benefit of clergy or +sanctuary." Hutchinson, in his "Essay on Witchcraft," published in 1720, +declares that this statute was framed expressly to meet the offences +exposed by the trials of 1590-1; but, although this cannot be +conclusively proved, yet it is not at all improbable that the hurry with +which the statute was passed into law immediately upon the accession of +James, would recall to the public mind the interest he had taken in +those trials in particular and the subject in general, and that +Shakspere producing, as nearly all the critics agree, his tragedy at +about this date, should draw upon his memory for the half-forgotten +details of those trials, and thus embody in "Macbeth" the allusions to +them that have been pointed out--much less accurately than he did in the +case of the Babington affair, because the facts had been far less +carefully recorded, and the time at which his attention had been called +to them far more remote.[6] + +[Footnote 1: One copy of this reprint bears the name of W. Wright, +another that of Thomas Nelson. The full title is-- + +"Newes from Scotland, + +"Declaring the damnable life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was +burned at Edenborough in Januarie last, 1591; which Doctor was Register +to the Deuill, that sundrie times preached at North Barricke kirke to a +number of notorious witches; with the true examinations of the said +Doctor and witches as they uttered them in the presence of the Scottish +king: Discouering how they pretended to bewitch and drowne his Majestie +in the sea, comming from Denmarke, with such other wonderfull matters, +as the like hath not bin heard at anie time. + +"Published according to the Scottish copie. + +"Printed for William Wright."] + +[Footnote 2: These events are referred to in an existing letter by the +notorious Thos. Phelippes to Thos. Barnes, Cal. State Papers (May 21, +1591), 1591-4, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 3: Such as Paddock, Graymalkin, and Harpier.] + +[Footnote 4: "Liver of blaspheming Jew," etc.--Macbeth, IV. i. 26.] + +[Footnote 5: + + "I will drain him dry as hay; + Sleep shall neither night nor day + Hang upon his pent-house lid; + He shall live a man forbid: + Weary se'nnights, nine times nine, + Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." + +Macbeth, I. iii. 18-23.] + +[Footnote 6: The excitement about the details of the witch trials would +culminate in 1592. Harsnet's book would be read by Shakspere in 1603.] + +106. There is one other mode of temptation which was adopted by the evil +spirits, implicated to a great extent with the traditions of witchcraft, +but nevertheless more suitably handled as a separate subject, which is +of so gross and revolting a nature that it should willingly be passed +over in silence, were it not for the fact that the belief in it was, as +Scot says, "so stronglie and universallie received" in the times of +Elizabeth and James. + +From the very earliest period of the Christian era the affection of one +sex for the other was considered to be under the special control of the +devil. Marriage was to be tolerated; but celibacy was the state most +conducive to the near intercourse with heaven that was so dearly sought +after. This opinion was doubtless generated by the tendency of the early +Christian leaders to hold up the events of the life rather than the +teachings of the sacred Founder of the sect as the one rule of conduct +to be received by His followers. To have been the recipients of the +stigmata was a far greater evidence of holiness and favour with Heaven +than the quiet and unnoted daily practice of those virtues upon which +Christ pronounced His blessing; and in less improbable matters they did +not scruple, in their enthusiasm, to attempt to establish a rule of life +in direct contradiction to the laws of that universe of which they +professed to believe Him to be the Creator. The futile attempt to +imitate His immaculate purity blinded their eyes to the fact that He +never taught or encouraged celibacy among His followers, and this +gradually led them to the strange conclusion that the passion which, +sublimed and brought under control, is the source of man's noblest and +holiest feelings, was a prompting proceeding from the author of all +evil. Imbued with this idea, religious enthusiasts of both sexes immured +themselves in convents; took oaths of perpetual celibacy; and even, in +certain isolated cases, sought to compromise with Heaven, and baffle the +tempter, by rendering a fall impossible--forgetting that the victory +over sin does not consist in immunity from temptation, but, being +tempted, not to fall. But no convent walls are so strong as to shut +great nature out; and even within these sacred precincts the ascetics +found that they were not free from the temptations of their arch-enemy. +In consequence of this, a belief sprang up, and spread from its original +source into the outer world, in a class of devils called incubi and +succubi, who roamed the earth with no other object than to tempt people +to abandon their purity of life. The cases of assault by incubi were +much more frequent than those by succubi, just as women were much more +affected by the dancing manias in the fifteenth century than +men;[1]--the reason, perhaps, being that they are much less capable of +resisting physical privation;--but, according to the belief of the +Middle Ages, there was no generic difference between the incubus and +succubus. Here was a belief that, when the witch fury sprang up, +attached itself as a matter of course as the phase of the crime; and it +was an almost universal charge against the accused that they offended in +this manner with their familiars, and hundreds of poor creatures +suffered death upon such an indictment. More details will be found in +the authorities upon this unpleasant subject.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 136.] + +[Footnote 2: Hutchinson, p. 52. The Witch of Edmonton, Act V. Scot, +Discoverie, book iv.] + +107. This intercourse did not, as a rule, result in offspring; but this +was not universally the case. All badly deformed or monstrous children +were suspected of having had such an undesirable parentage, and there +was a great tendency to believe that they ought to be destroyed. Luther +was a decided advocate of this course, deeming the destruction of a life +far preferable to the chance of having a devil in the family. In +Drayton's poem, "The Mooncalf," one of the gossips present at the birth +of the calf suggests that it ought to be buried alive as a monster.[1] +Caliban is a mooncalf,[2] and his origin is distinctly traced to a +source of this description. It is perfectly clear what was the one +thing that the foul witch Sycorax did which prevented her life from +being taken; and it would appear from this that the inhabitants of +Argier were far more merciful in this respect than their European +neighbours. Such a charge would have sent any woman to the stake in +Scotland, without the slightest hope of mercy, and the usual plea for +respite would only have been an additional reason for hastening the +execution of the sentence.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Ed. 1748, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 2: Tempest, II. ii. 111, 115.] + +[Footnote 3: Cf. Othello, I. i. 91. Titus Andronicus, IV. ii.] + +108. In the preceding pages an endeavour has been made to delineate the +most prominent features of a belief which the great Reformation was +destined first to foster into unnatural proportions and vitality, and in +the end to destroy. Up to the period of the Reformation, the creed of +the nation had been practically uniform, and one set of dogmas was +unhesitatingly accepted by the people as infallible, and therefore +hardly demanding critical consideration. The great upheaval of the +sixteenth century rent this quiescent uniformity into shreds; doctrines +until then considered as indisputable were brought within the pale of +discussion, and hence there was a great diversity of opinion, not only +between the supporters of the old and of the new faith, but between the +Reformers themselves. This was conspicuously the case with regard to the +belief in the devils and their works. The more timid of the Reformers +clung in a great measure to the Catholic opinions; a small band, under +the influence possibly of that knight-errant of freedom of thought, +Giordano Bruno, who exercised some considerable influence during his +visit to England by means of his Oxford lectures and disputations, +entirely denied the existence of evil spirits; but the great majority +gave in their adherence to a creed that was the mean between the +doctrines of the old faith and the new scepticism. Their strong common +sense compelled them to reject the puerilities advanced as serious +evidence by the Catholic Church; but they cast aside with equal +vehemence and more horror the doctrines of the Bruno school. "That there +are devils," says Bullinger, reduced apparently from argument to +invective, "the Sadducees in times past denied, and at this day also +some scarce religious, nay, rather Epicures, deny the same; who, unless +they repent, shall one day feel, to their exceeding great pain and +smart, both that there are devils, and that they are the tormentors and +executioners of all wicked men and Epicures."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Bullinger, Fourth Decade, 9th Sermon, p. 348, Parker +Society.] + +109. It must be remembered, too, that the emancipation from medievalism +was a very gradual process, not, as we are too prone to think it, a +revolution suddenly and completely effected. It was an evolution, not an +explosion. There is found, in consequence, a great divergence of +opinion, not only between the earliest and the later Reformers, but +between the statements of the same man at different periods of his +career. Tyndale, for instance, seems to have believed in the actual +possession of the human body by devils;[1] and this appears to have +been the opinion of the majority at the beginning of the Reformation, +for the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. contained the Catholic form of +exorcism for driving devils out of children, which was expunged upon +revision, the doctrine of obsession having in the mean time triumphed +over the older belief. It is necessary to bear these facts in mind +whilst considering any attempt to depict the general bearings of a +belief such as that in evil spirits; for many irreconcilable statements +are to be found among the authorities; and it is the duty of the writer +to sift out and describe those views which predominated, and these must +not be supposed to be proved inaccurate because a chance quotation can +be produced in contradiction. + +[Footnote 1: I Tyndale, p. 82. Parker Society.] + +110. There is great danger, in the attempt to bring under analysis any +phase of religious belief, that the method of treatment may appear +unsympathetic if not irreverent. The greatest effort has been made in +these pages to avoid this fault as far as possible; for, without doubt, +any form of religious dogma, however barbarous, however seemingly +ridiculous, if it has once been sincerely believed and trusted by any +portion of mankind, is entitled to reverent treatment. No body of great +and good men can at any time credit and take comfort from a lie pure and +simple; and if an extinct creed appears to lack that foundation of truth +which makes creeds tolerable, it is safer to assume that it had a +meaning and a truthfulness, to those who held it, that lapse of time +has tended to destroy, together with the creed itself, than to condemn +men wholesale as knaves and hypocrites. But the particular subject which +has here been dealt with will surely be considered to be specially +entitled to respect, when it is remembered that it was once an integral +portion of the belief of most of our best and bravest ancestors--of men +and women who dared to witness to their own sincerity amidst the fires +of persecution and in the solitude of exile. It has nearly all +disappeared now. The terrific hierarchy of fiends, which was so real, so +full of horror three hundred years ago[1], has gradually vanished away +before the advent of fuller knowledge and purer faith, and is now hardly +thought of, unless as a dead mediaeval myth. But let us deal tenderly +with it, remembering that the day may come when the beliefs that are +nearest to our hearts may be treated as open to contempt or ridicule, +and the dogmas to which we most passionately cling will, "like an +insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a wrack behind." + +[Footnote 1: Perhaps the following prayer, contained in Thomas Becon's +"Pomander," shows more clearly than the comments of any critic the +reality of the terror:-- + +"An infinite number of wicked angels there are, O Lord Christ, which +without ceasing seek my destruction. Against this exceeding great +multitude of evil spirits send Thou me Thy blessed and heavenly angels, +which may deliver me from then tyranny. Thou, O Lord, hast devoured +hell, and overcome the prince of darkness and all his ministers; yea, +and that not for Thyself, but for those that believe in Thee. Suffer me +not, therefore, to be overcome of Satan and of his servants, but rather +let me triumph over them, that I, through strong faith and help of the +blessed angels, having the victory of the hellish army, may with a +joyful heart say, Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy +victory?--and so for ever and ever magnify Thy Holy Name. Amen." Parker +Society, p. 84.] + + * * * * * + +111. Little attempt has hitherto been made, in the way of direct proof, +to show that fairies are really only a class of devils who exercise +their powers in a manner less terrible and revolting than that depicted +by theologians; and for this reason chiefly--that the proposition is +already more than half established when it has been shown that the +attributes and functions possessed by both fairy and devil are similar +in kind, although differing in degree. This has already been done to a +great extent in the preceding pages, where the various actions of Puck +and Ariel have been shown to differ in no essential respect from those +of the devils of the time; but before commencing to study this phase of +supernaturalism in Shakspere's works as a whole, and as indicative, to a +certain extent, of the development of his thought upon the relation of +man to the invisible world about and above him, it is necessary that +this identity should be admitted without a shadow of a doubt. + +112. It has been shown that fairies were probably the descendants of the +lesser local deities, as devils were of the more important of the +heathen gods that were overturned by the advancing wave of +Christianity, although in the course of time this distinction was +entirely obliterated and forgotten. It has also been shown, as before +mentioned, that many of the powers exercised by fairies were in their +essence similar to those exercised by devils, especially that of +appearing in divers shapes. These parallels could be carried out to an +almost unlimited extent; but a few proofs only need be cited to show +this identity. In the mediaeval romance of "King Orfeo" fairyland has +been substituted for the classical Hades.[1] King James, in his +"Daemonologie," adopts a fourfold classification of devils, one of which +he names "Phairie," and co-ordinates with the incubus.[2] The name of +the devil supposed to preside at the witches' sabbaths is sometimes +given as Hecat, Diana, Sybilla; sometimes Queen of Elfame,[3] or +Fairie.[4] Indeed, Shakspere's line in "The Comedy of Errors," had it +not been unnecessarily tampered with by the critics-- + + "A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough,"[5] + +would have conclusively proved this identity of character. + +[Footnote 1: Fairy Mythology of Shakspere, Hazlitt, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 2: Daemonologie, p. 69. An instance of a fairy incubus is +given in the "Life of Robin Goodfellow," Hazlitt's Fairy Mythology, p. +176.] + +[Footnote 3: Pitcairn, iii. p. 162.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. i. p. 162, and many other places.] + +[Footnote 5: Fairy has been altered to "fury," but compare Peele, Battle +of Alcazar: "Fiends, fairies, hags that fight in beds of steel."] + +113. The real distinction between these two classes of spirits depends +on the condition of national thought upon the subject of +supernaturalism in its largest sense. A belief which has little or no +foundation upon indisputable phenomena must be continually passing +through varying phases, and these phases will be regulated by the nature +of the subjects upon which the attention of the mass of the people is +most firmly concentrated. Hence, when a nation has but one religious +creed, and one that has for centuries been accepted by them, almost +without question or doubt, faith becomes stereotyped, and the mind +assumes an attitude of passive receptivity, undisturbed by doubts or +questionings. Under such conditions, a belief in evil spirits ever ready +and watching to tempt a man into heresy of belief or sinful act, and +thus to destroy both body and soul, although it may exist as a theoretic +portion of the accepted creed, cannot possibly become a vital doctrine +to be believed by the general public. It may exist as a subject for +learned dispute to while away the leisure hours of divines, but cannot +by any possibility obtain an influence over the thoughts and lives of +their charges. Mental disturbance on questions of doctrinal importance +being, for these reasons, out of the question, the attention of the +people is almost entirely riveted upon questions of material ease and +advantage. The little lets and hindrances of every-day life in +agricultural and domestic matters are the tribulations that appeal most +incessantly to the ineradicable sense of an invisible power adverse to +the interests of mankind, and consequently the class of evil spirits +believed in at such a time will be fairies rather than devils--malicious +little spirits, who blight the growing corn; stop the butter from +forming in the churn; pinch the sluttish housemaid black and blue; and +whose worst act is the exchange of the baby from its cot for a fairy +changeling;--beings of a nature most exasperating to thrifty housewife +and hard-handed farmer, but nevertheless not irrevocably prejudiced +against humanity, and easily to be pacified and reduced into a state of +fawning friendship by such little attentions as could be rendered +without difficulty by the poorest cotter. The whole fairy mythology is +perfumed with an honest, healthy, careless joy in life, and a freedom +from mental doubt. "I love true lovers, honest men, good fellowes, good +huswives, good meate, good drinke, and all things that good is, but +nothing that is ill," declares Robin Goodfellow;[1] and this jovial +materialism only reflects the state of mind of the folk who were not +unwilling to believe that this lively little spirit might be seen of +nights busying himself in their houses by the dying embers of the +deserted fire. + +[Footnote 1: Hazlitt, Fairy Mythology, p. 182.] + +114. Such seems to have been the condition of England immediately before +the period of the great Reformation. But with the progress of that +revolution of thought the condition changes. The one true and eternal +creed, as it had been deemed, is shattered for ever. Men who have +hitherto accepted their religious convictions in much the same way as +they had succeeded to their patrimonies are compelled by this tide of +opposition to think and study for themselves. Each man finds himself +left face to face with the great hereafter, and his relation to it. +Terrible doctrines are formulated, and press themselves with remorseless +vigour upon his understanding--original sin, justification by faith, +eternal damnation for even honest error of belief,--doctrines that throw +an atmosphere of solemnity, if not gloom, about national thought, in +which no fairy mythology can flourish. It is no longer questions of +material ease and gain that are of the chief concern; and consequently +the fairies and their doings, from their own triviality, fall far into +the background, and their place is occupied by a countless horde of +remorseless schemers, who are never ceasing in their efforts to drag +both body and soul to perdition. + +115. But it is in the towns, the centres of interchange of thought, of +learning, and of controversy, that this revolution first gathers power; +the sparsely populated country-sides are far more impervious to the new +ideas, and the country people cling far longer and more tenaciously to +the dying religion and its attendant beliefs. The rural districts were +but little affected by the Reformation for years after it had triumphed +in the towns, and consequently the beliefs of the inhabitants were +hardly touched by the struggle that was going on within so short a +distance. We find a Reginald Scot, indeed, complaining, half in joke, +half in sarcasm, that Robin Goodfellow has long disappeared from the +land;[1] but it is only from the towns that he has fled--towns in which +the spirit of the Cartwrights and the Latimers, the Barnhams and the +Delabers, is abroad. In the same Cambridge where Scot had been educated, +a young student had hanged himself because the shadow of the doctrine of +predestination was too terrible for him to live under;[2] and such a +place was surely no home for Puck and his merry band. But in the country +places, remote from the growl and trembling of this mental earthquake, +he still loved to lurk; and even at the very moment when Scot was +penning the denial of his existence, he was nestling amongst the woods +and flowers of Avonside, and, invisible, whispering in the ear of a +certain fair-haired youth there thoughts of no inconsiderable moment. +And long time after that--after the youth had become a man, and had +coined those thoughts into words that glitter still; after his monument +had been erected in the quiet Stratford churchyard--Puck revelled, +harmless and undisturbed, along many a country-side; nay, even to the +present day, in some old-world nooks, a faint whispering rumour of him +may still be heard. + +[Footnote 1: Scot, Introduction.] + +[Footnote 2: Foxe, iv. p. 694.] + +116. Now, perhaps one of the most distinctive marks of literary genius +is a certain receptivity of mind; a capability of receiving impressions +from all surrounding circumstance--of extracting from all sources, +whether from nature or man, consciously or unconsciously, the material +upon which it shall work. For this process to be perfectly accomplished, +an entire and enthusiastic sympathy with man and the current ideas of +the time is absolutely essential, and in proportion as this sympathy is +contracted and partial, so will the work produced be stunted and untrue; +and, on the other hand, the more universal and entire it is, the more +perfect and vital will be the art. Bearing this in mind, and also the +facts that Shakspere's early training was effected in a little country +village; that upon the verge of manhood, he came to London, where he +spent his prime in contact with the bustle and friction of busy town +life; and that the later years of his life were passed in the quiet +retirement of the home of his boyhood--there would be good ground for an +argument, _a priori_, even were there none of a more conclusive nature, +that his earlier works would be found impregnated with the country +fairy-myths with which his youth would come in contact; that the result +of the labours of his middle life would show that these earlier +reminiscenses had been gradually obliterated by the gloomier influence +of ideas that were the result of the struggle of opposed theories that +had not then ceased to rage in the towns, and that the diabolic element +and questions relating thereto would predominate; and that, finally, his +later works, written under the calmer influence of Stratford life, would +show a certain return to the fairy-lore of his earlier years. + +117. But fortunately we are not left to rely upon any such hypothetical +evidence in this matter, however probable it may appear. Although the +general reading public cannot be asked to accept as infallible any +chronological order of Shakspere's plays that dogmatically asserts a +particular sequence, or to investigate the somewhat dry and specialist +arguments upon which the conclusions are founded, yet there are certain +groupings into periods which are agreed upon as accurate by nearly all +critics, and which, without the slightest danger of error, may be +asserted to be correct. For instance, it is indisputable that "Love's +Labour's Lost," "The Comedy of Errors," "Romeo and Juliet," and "A +Midsummer Night's Dream" are amongst Shakspere's earliest works; that +the tragedies of "Julius Caesar," "Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and +"Lear" are the productions of his middle life, between 1600 and 1606; +and that "A Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest" are amongst the latest +plays which he wrote.[1] Here we have everything that is required to +prove the question in hand. At the commencement and at the end of his +writings--when a youth fresh from the influence of his country nurture +and education, and when a mature man, settling down into the old life +again after a long and victorious struggle with the world, with his +accumulated store of experience--we find plays which are perfectly +saturated with fairy-lore: "The Dream" and "The Tempest." These are the +poles of Shakspere's thought in this respect; and in the centre, +imbedded as it were between two layers of material that do not bear any +distinctive stamp of their own, but appear rather as a medium for +uniting the diverse strata, lie the great tragedies, produced while he +was in the very rush and swirl of town life, and reflecting accurately, +as we have seen, many of the doubts and speculations that were agitating +the minds of men who were ardently searching out truth. It is worth +noting too, in passing, that directly Shakspere steps out of his beaten +path to depict, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," the happy country life +and manners of his day, he at the same time returns to fairyland again, +and brings out the Windsor children trooping to pinch and plague the +town-bred, tainted Falstaff. + +[Footnote 1: For an elaborate and masterly investigation of the question +of the chronological order of the plays, which must be assumed here, see +Mr. Furnivall's Introduction to the Leopold Shakspere.] + +118. But this is not by any means all that this subject reveals to us +about Shakspere; if it were, the less said about it the better. To look +upon "The Tempest" as in its essence merely a return to "The Dream"--the +end as the beginning; to believe that his thoughts worked in a weary, +unending circle--that the Valley of the Shadow of Death only leads back +to the foot of the Hill Difficulty--is intolerable, and not more +intolerable than false. Although based upon similar material, the ideas +and tendencies of "The Tempest" upon supernaturalism are no more +identical with those of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" than the thoughts of +Berowne upon things in general are those of Hamlet, or Hamlet's those of +Prospero. But before it is possible to point out the nature of this +difference, and to show that the change is a natural growth of thought, +not a mere retrogression, a few explanatory remarks are necessary. + +There is no more insufficient and misleading view of Shakspere and his +work than that which until recently obtained almost universal credence, +and is even at the present time somewhat loudly asserted in some +quarters; namely, that he was a man of considerable genius, who wrote +and got acted some thirty plays more or less, simply for commercial +purposes and nothing more; made money thereby, and died leaving a will; +and that, beyond this, he and his works are, and must remain, an +inexplicable mystery. The critic who holds this view, and finds it +equally advantageous to commence a study of Shakspere's work by taking +"The Tempest" or "Love's Labour's Lost" as his text, is about as +judicious as the botanist who would enlarge upon the structure of the +seed-pod without first explaining the preliminary stages of plant +growth, or the architect who would dilate upon the most convenient +arrangement of chimney-pots before he had discussed the laws of +foundation. The plays may be studied separately, and studied so are +found beautiful; but taken in an approximate chronological order, like a +string of brilliant jewels, each one gains lustre from those that +precede and follow it. + +119. For no man ever wrote sincerely and earnestly, or indeed ever did +any one thing in such a spirit, without leaving some impress upon his +work of his mental condition whilst he was doing it; and no such man +ever continued his literary labours from the period of youth right +through his manhood, without leaving behind him, in more or less legible +character, a record of the ripening of his thought upon matters of +eternal importance, although they may not be of necessity directly +connected with the ostensible subject in hand. Insincere men may ape +sentiments they do not really believe in; but in the end they will +either be exposed and held up to ridicule, or their work will sink into +obscurity. Sincerity in the expression of genuine thought and feeling +alone can stand the test of time. And this is in reality no +contradiction to what has just been said as to the necessity of a +receptive condition of mind in the production of works of true genius. +This capacity of receiving the most delicate objective impressions is, +indeed, one essential; but without the cognate power to assimilate this +food, and evolve the result that these influences have produced +subjectively, it is, worse than useless. The two must co-exist and act +and react upon one another. Nor must we be induced to surrender these +principles, in the present particular case, on account of the usual fine +but vague talk about Shakspere's absolute self-annihilation in favour of +the characters that he depicts. It is said that Shakspere so identifies +himself with each person in his dramas, that it is impossible to detect +the great master and his thoughts behind this cunningly devised screen. +If this means that Shakespere has always a perfect comprehension of his +characters, is competent to measure out to each absolute and unerring +justice, and is capable of sympathy with even the most repulsive, it +will not be disputed for an instant. It is so true, that it is dangerous +to take a sentence out of the mouth of any one of his characters and say +for certain, "This Shakspere thought," although there are many +characters with whom every one must feel that Shakspere identified +himself for the time being rather than others. But if it is intended to +assert that Shakspere has so eliminated himself from his writings as to +make it impossible to trace anywhere the tendencies of his own thought +at the time when he was writing, it must be most emphatically denied for +the reasons just stated. Freedom from prejudice must be carefully +dissociated from lack of interest in the motive that underlies the +construction of each play. There is a tone or key-note in each drama +that indicates the author's mental condition at the time when it was +produced; and if several plays, following each other in brisk +succession, all have the same predominant tone, it seems to be past +question that Shakspere is incidentally and indirectly uttering his own +personal thought and experience. + +120. If it be granted, then, that it is possible to follow thus the +growth of Shakspere's thought through the medium of his successive +works, there is only one small point to be glanced at before attempting +to trace this growth in the matter of supernaturalism. + +The natural history of the evolution of opinion upon matters which, for +want of a more embracing and satisfactory word, we must be content to +call "religious," follows a uniform course in the minds of all men, +except those "duller than the fat weed that roots itself at ease on +Lethe's wharf," who never get beyond the primary stage. This course is +separable into three periods. The first is that in which a man accepts +unhesitatingly the doctrines which he has received from his spiritual +teachers--customary not intellectual, belief. This sits lightly on him; +entails no troublesome doubts and questionings; possesses, or appears to +possess, formulae to meet all possible emergencies, and consequently +brings with it a happiness that is genuine, though superficial. But this +customary belief rarely satisfies for long. Contact with the world +brings to light other and opposed theories: introspection and +independent investigation of the bases of the hereditary faith are +commenced; many doctrines that have been hitherto accepted as eternally +and indisputably true are found to rest upon but slight foundation, +apart from their title to respect on account of age; doubts follow as to +the claim to acceptance of the whole system that has been so easily and +unhesitatingly swallowed; and the period of scepticism, or no-belief, +with its attendant misery, commences--for although Dagon has been but +little honoured in the time of his strength, in his downfall he is much +regretted. Then comes that long, weary groping after some firm, reliable +basis of belief: but heaven and earth appear for the time to conspire +against the seeker; an intellectual flood has drowned out the old order +of things; not even a mountain peak appears in the wide waste of +desolation as assurance of ultimate rest; and in the dark, overhanging +firmament no arc of promise is to be seen. But this is a state of mind +which, from its very nature, cannot continue for ever: no man could +endure it. While it lasts the struggle must be continuous, but +somewhere through the cloud lies the sunshine and the land of peace--the +final period of intellectual belief. Out of the chaos comes order; ideas +that but recently appeared confused, incoherent, and meaningless assume +their true perspective. It is found that all the strands of the old +conventional faith have not been snapped in the turmoil; and these, +re-knit and strengthened with the new and full knowledge of experience +and investigation, form the cable that secures that strange holy +confidence of belief that can only be gained by a preliminary warfare +with doubt--a peace that truly passes all understanding to those who +have never battled for it,--as to its foundation, diverse to a miracle +in diverse minds, but still, a peace. + +121. If this be a true history of the course of development of every +mind that is capable of independent thought upon and investigation of +such high matters, it follows that Shakspere's soul must have +experienced a similar struggle--for he was a man of like passions with +ourselves; indeed, to so acute and sensitive a mind the struggle would +be, probably, more prolonged and more agonizing than to many; and it is +these three mental conditions--first, of unthinking acceptance of +generally received teaching; second, of profound and agitating +scepticism; and, thirdly, of belief founded upon reason and +experience--that may be naturally expected to be found impressed upon +his early, middle, and later works. + +122. It is impossible here to do more than indicate some of the +evidence that this supposition is correct, for to attempt to investigate +the question exhaustively would involve the minute consideration of a +majority of the plays. The period of Shakspere's customary or +conventional belief is illustrated in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and +to a certain extent also in the "Comedy of Errors." In the former play +we find him loyally accepting certain phases of the hereditary Stratford +belief in supernaturalism, throwing them into poetical form, and making +them beautiful. It has often before been observed, and it is well worthy +of observation, that of the three groups of characters in the play, the +country folk--a class whose manner and appearance had most vividly +reflected themselves upon the camera of Shakspere's mind--are by far the +most lifelike and distinct; the fairies, who had been the companions of +his childhood and youth in countless talks in the ingle and ballads in +the lanes, come second in prominence and finish; whilst the ostensible +heroes and heroines of the piece, the aristocrats of Athens, are +colourless and uninteresting as a dumb-show--the real shadows of the +play. This is exactly the ratio of impressionability that the three +classes would have for the mind of the youthful dramatist. The first is +a creation from life, the second from traditionary belief, the third +from hearsay. And when it has been said that the fairies are a creation +from traditionary belief, a full and accurate description of them has +been afforded. They are an embodiment of a popular superstition, and +nothing more. They do not conceal any thought of the poet who has +created them, nor are they used for any deeper purpose with regard to +the other persons of the drama than temporary and objectless annoyance. +Throughout the whole play runs a healthy, thoughtless, honest, almost +riotous happiness; no note of difficulty, no shadow of coming doubt +being perceptible. The pert and nimble spirit of mirth is fully +awakened; the worst tricks of the intermeddling spirits are mischievous +merely, and of only transitory influence, and "the summer still doth +tend upon their state," brightening this fairyland with its sunshine and +flowers. Man has absolutely no power to govern these supernatural +powers, and they have but unimportant influence over him. They can +affect his comfort, but they cannot control his fate. But all this is +merely an adapting and elaborating of ideas which had been handed down +from father to son for many generations. Shakspere's Puck is only the +Puck of a hundred ballads reproduced by the hand of a true poet; no +original thought upon the connection of the visible with the invisible +world is imported into the creation. All these facts tend to show that +when Shakspere wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream," that is, at the +beginning of his career as a dramatic author, he had not broken away +from the trammels of the beliefs in which he had been brought up, but +accepted them unhesitatingly and joyously. + +123. But there is a gradual toning down of this spirit of unbroken +content as time wears on. Putting aside the historical plays, in which +Shakspere was much more bound down by his subject-matter than in any +other species of drama, we find the comedies, in which his room for +expression of individual feeling was practically unlimited, gradually +losing their unalloyed hilarity, and deepening down into a sadness of +thought and expression that sometimes leaves a doubt whether the plays +should be classed as comedies at all. Shakspere has been more and more +in contact with the disputes and doubts of the educated men of his time, +and seeds have been silently sowing themselves in his heart, which are +soon to bring forth a plenteous harvest in the great tragedies of which +these semi-comedies, such as "All's Well that Ends Well" and "Measure +for Measure," are but the first-fruits. + +124. Thus, when next we find Shakspere dealing with questions relating +to supernaturalism, the tone is quite different from that taken in his +earlier work. He has reached the second period of his thought upon the +subject, and this has cast its attendant gloom upon his writings. That +he was actually battling with questions current in his time is +demonstrated by the way in which, in three consecutive plays, derived +from utterly diverse sources, the same question of ghost or devil is +agitated, as has before been pointed out. But it is not merely a point +of theological dogma which stamps these plays as the product of +Shakspere's period of scepticism, but a theory of the influence of +supernatural beings upon the whole course of human life. Man is still +incapable of influencing these unseen forces, or bending them to his +will; but they are now no longer harmless, or incapable of anything but +temporary or trivial evil. Puck might lead night wanderers into +mischance, and laugh mischievously at the bodily harm that he had caused +them; but Puck has now disappeared, and in his stead is found a +malignant spirit, who seeks to laugh his fiendish laughter over the soul +he has deceived into destruction. Questions arise thick and fast that +are easier put than answered. Can it be that evil influences have the +upper hand in this world? that, be a man never so honest, never so pure, +he may nevertheless become the sport of blind chance or ruthless +wickedness? May a Hamlet, patiently struggling after truth and duty, be +put upon and abused by the darker powers? May Macbeth, who would fain do +right, were not evil so ever present with him, be juggled with and led +to destruction by fiends? May an undistinguishing fate sweep away at +once the good with the evil--Hamlet with Laertes; Desdemona with Iago; +Cordelia with Edmund? And above the turmoil of this reign of terror, is +there no word uttered of a Supreme Good guiding and controlling the +unloosed ill--no word of encouragement, none of hope? If this be so +indeed, that man is but the puppet of malignant spirits, away with this +life. It is not worth the living; for what power has man against the +fiends? But at this point arises a further question to demand solution: +what shall be hereafter? If evil is supreme here, shall it not be so in +that undiscovered country,--that life to come? The dreams that may come +give him pause, and he either shuffles on, doubting, hesitating, and +incapable of decision, or he hurls himself wildly against his fate. In +either case his life becomes like to a tale + + "Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying--nothing!" + +125. It is strange to note, too, how the ebb of this wave of scepticism +upon questions relating to the immaterial world is only recoil that adds +force to a succeeding wave of cynicism with regard to the physical world +around. "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and "Othello" give place to "Lear," +"Troilus and Cressida," "Antony and Cleopatra," and "Timon." So true is +it that "unfaith in aught is want of faith in all," that in these later +plays it would seem that honour, honesty, and justice were virtues not +possessed by man or woman; or, if possessed, were only a curse to bring +down disgrace and destruction upon the possessor. Contrast the women of +these plays with those of the comedies immediately preceding the Hamlet +period. In the latter plays we find the heroines, by their sweet womanly +guidance and gentle but firm control, triumphantly bringing good out of +evil in spite of adverse circumstance. Beatrice, Rosalind, Viola, +Helena, and Isabella are all, not without a tinge of knight-errantry +that does not do the least violence to the conception of tender, +delicate womanhood, the good geniuses of the little worlds in which +their influence is made to be felt. Events must inevitably have gone +tragically but for their intervention. But with the advent of the second +period all this changes. At first the women, like Brutus' Portia, +Ophelia, Desdemona, however noble or sweet in character and well +meaning in motive, are incapable of grasping the guiding threads of the +events around them and controlling them for good. They have to give way +to characters of another kind, who bear the form without the nature of +women. Commencing with Lady Macbeth, the conception falls lower and +lower, through Goneril and Regan, Cressida, Cleopatra, until in the +climax of this utter despair, "Timon," there is no character that it +would not be a profanity to call by the name of woman. + +126. And just as womanly purity and innocence quail before unwomanly +self-assertion and voluptuousness, so manly loyalty and unselfishness +give way before unmanly treachery and self-seeking. It is true that the +bad men do not finally triumph, but they triumph over the good with whom +they happen to come in contact. In "King Lear," what man shows any +virtue who does not receive punishment for the same? Not Gloucester, +whose loyal devotion to his king obtains for him a punishment that is +only merciful in that it prevents him from further suffering the sight +of his beloved master's misery; not Kent, who, faithful in his +self-denying service through all manner of obloquy, is left at last with +a prayer that he may be allowed to follow Lear to the grave; and beyond +these two there is little good to be found. But "Lear" is not by any +means the climax. The utter despair of good in man or woman rises higher +in "Troilus and Cressida," and reaches its culminating point in "Timon," +a fragment only of which is Shakspere's. The pen fell from the tired +hand; the worn and distracted brain refused to fulfil the task of +depicting the depth to which the poet's estimate of mankind had fallen; +and we hardly know whether to rejoice or to regret that the clumsy hand +of an inferior writer has screened from our knowledge the full +disclosure of the utter and contemptuous cynicism and want of faith with +which, for the time being, Shakspere was infected. + +127. Before passing on to consider the plays of the third period as +evidence of Shakspere's final thought, it will be well to pause and +re-read with attention a summing-up of Shakspere's teaching as it has +been presented to us by one of the greatest and most earnest teachers of +morality of the present day. Every word that Mr. Ruskin writes is so +evidently from the depth of his own good heart, and every doctrine that +he enunciates so pure in theory and so true in practice, that a +difference with him upon the final teaching of Shakspere's work cannot +be too cautiously expressed. But the estimate of this which he has given +in the third Lecture of "Sesame and Lilies"[1] is so painful, if +regarded as Shakspere's latest and most mature opinion, that everybody, +even Mr. Ruskin himself, would be glad to modify its gloom with a few +rays of hope, if it were possible to do so. "What then," says Mr. +Ruskin, "is the message to us of our own poet and searcher of hearts, +after fifteen hundred years of Christian faith have been numbered over +the graves of men? Are his words more cheerful than the heathen's +(Homer)? is his hope more near, his trust more sure, his reading of +fate more happy? Ah no! He differs from the heathen poet chiefly in +this, that he recognizes for deliverance no gods nigh at hand, and that, +by petty chance, by momentary folly, by broken message, by fool's +tyranny, or traitor's snare, the strongest and most righteous are +brought to their ruin, and perish without word of hope. He, indeed, as +part of his rendering of character, ascribes the power and modesty of +habitual devotion to the gentle and the just. The death-bed of Katharine +is bright with visions of angels; and the great soldier-king, standing +by his few dead, acknowledges the presence of the hand that can save +alike by many or by few. But observe that from those who with deepest +spirit meditate, and with deepest passion mourn, there are no such words +as these; nor in their hearts are any such consolations. Instead of the +perpetual sense of the helpful presence of the Deity, which, through all +heathen tradition, is the source of heroic strength, in battle, in +exile, and in the valley of the shadow of death, we find only in the +great Christian poet the consciousness of a moral law, through which +'the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to +scourge us;' and of the resolved arbitration of the destinies, that +conclude into precision of doom what we feebly and blindly began; and +force us, when our indiscretion serves us, and our deepest plots do +pall, to the confession that 'there's a divinity that shapes our ends, +rough-hew them how we will.'"[2] + +[Footnote 1: 3rd edition, sec. 115.] + +[Footnote 2: Mr. Ruskin has analyzed "The Tempest," in "Munera +Pulveris," sec. 124, et seqq., but from another point of view.] + +128. Now, it is perfectly clear that this criticism was written with two +or three plays, all belonging to one period, very conspicuously before +the mind. Of the illustrative exceptions that are made to the general +rule, one is derived from a play which Shakspere wrote at a very early +date, and the other from a scene which he almost certainly never wrote +at all; the whole of the rest of the passage quoted is founded upon +"Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Othello," and "Lear"--that is, upon the earlier +productions of what we must call Shakspere's sceptical period. But these +plays represent an essentially transient state of thought. Shakspere was +to learn and to teach that those who most deeply meditate and most +passionately mourn are not the men of noblest or most influential +character--that such may command our sympathy, but hardly our respect or +admiration. Still less did Shakspere finally assert, although for a time +he believed, that a blind destiny concludes into precision what we +feebly and blindly begin. Far otherwise and nobler was his conception of +man and his mission, and the unseen powers and their influences, in the +third and final stage of his thought. + +129. Had Shakspere lived longer, he would doubtless have left us a +series of plays filled with the bright and reassuring tenderness and +confidence of this third period, as long and as brilliant in execution +as those of the second period. But as it is we are in possession of +quite enough material to enable us to form accurate conclusions upon the +state of his final thought. It is upon "The Tempest" that we must in +the main rely for an exposition of this; for though the other plays and +fragments fully exhibit the restoration of his faith in man and woman, +which was a necessary concurrence with his return from scepticism, yet +it is in "The Tempest" that he brings himself as nearly face to face as +dramatic possibilities would allow him with circumstances that admit of +the indirect expression of such thought. It is fortunate, too, for the +purpose of comparing Shakspere's earliest and latest opinions, that the +characters of "The Tempest" are divisible into the same groups as those +of "The Dream." The gross _canaille_ are represented, but now no longer +the most accurate in colour and most absorbing in interest of the +characters of the play, or unessential to the evolution of the plot. +They have a distinct importance in the movement of the piece, and +represent the unintelligent, material resistance to the work of +regeneration that Prospero seeks to carry out, and which must be +controlled by him, just as Sebastian and Antonio form the intelligent, +designing resistance. The spirit world is there too, but they, like the +former class, have no independent plot of their own, and no independent +operation against mankind; they only represent the invisible forces over +which Prospero must assert control if he would insure success for his +schemes. Ariel is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary of all +Shakspere's creations. He is, indeed, formed upon a basis half fairy, +half devil, because it was only through the current notions upon +demonology that Shakspere could speak his ideas. But he certainly is not +a fairy in the sense that Puck is a fairy; and he is very far indeed +from bearing even a slight resemblance to the familiars whom the +magicians of the time professed to call from the vasty deep. He is +indeed but air, as Prospero says--the embodiment of an idea, the +representative of those invisible forces which operate as factors in the +shaping of events which, ignored, may prove resistant or fatal, but, +properly controlled and guided, work for good.[1] Lastly, there are the +heroes and heroine of the play, now no longer shadows, but the centres +of interest and admiration, and assuming their due position and +prominence. + +[Footnote 1: It is difficult to accept Mr. Ruskin's view of Ariel as +"the spirit of generous and free-hearted service" (Mun. Pul. sec. 124); +he is throughout the play the more-than-half-unwilling agent of +Prospero.] + +130. It is probable, therefore, that it is not merely a student's fancy +that in Prospero's storm-girt, spirit-haunted island can be seen +Shakspere's final and matured image of the mighty world. If this be so, +how far more bright and hopeful it is than the verdict which Mr. Ruskin +finds Shakspere to have returned. Man is no longer "a pipe for fortune's +fingers to sound what stop she please." The evil elements still exist in +the world, and are numerous and formidable; but man, by nobleness of +life and word, by patience and self-mastery, can master them, bring them +into subjection, and make them tend to eventual good. Caliban, the +gross, sensual, earthly element--though somewhat raised--would run riot, +and is therefore compelled to menial service. The brute force of +Stephano and Trinculo is vanquished by mental superiority. Even the +supermundane spirits, now no longer thirsting for the destruction of +body and soul, are bound down to the work of carrying out the decrees of +truth and justice. Man is no longer the plaything, but the master of his +fate; and he, seeing now the possible triumph of good over evil, and his +duty to do his best in aid of this triumph, has no more fear of the +dreams--the something after death. Our little life is still rounded by a +sleep, but the thought which terrifies Hamlet has no power to affright +Prospero. The hereafter is still a mystery, it is true; he has tried to +see into it, and has found it impenetrable. But revelation has come like +an angel, with peace upon its wings, in another and an unexpected way. +Duty lies here, in and around him in this world. Here he can right +wrong, succour the weak, abase the proud, do something to make the world +better than he found it; and in the performance of this he finds a +holier calm than the vain strivings after the unknowable could ever +afford. Let him work while it is day, for "the night cometh, when no man +can work." + +131. It is not a piece of pure sentimentality that sees in Prospero a +type of Shakspere in his final stage of thought. It is a type altogether +as it should be; and it is pleasing to think of him, in the full +maturity of his manhood, wrapping his seer's cloak about him, and, while +waiting calmly the unfolding of the mystery which he has sought in vain +to solve, watching with noble benevolence the gradual working out of +truth, order, and justice. It is pleasing to think of him as speaking +to the world the great Christian doctrine so universally overlooked by +Christians, that the only remedy for sin demanded by eternal justice "is +nothing but heart's sorrow, and a clear life ensuing"--a speech which, +though uttered by Ariel, is spoken by Prospero, who himself beautifully +iterates part of the doctrine when he says-- + + "The rarer action is + In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, + The sole drift of my purpose doth extend + Not a frown further."[1] + +It is pleasant to dwell upon his sympathy with Ferdinand and +Miranda--for the love of man and woman is pure and holy in this +regenerate world: no more of Troilus and Cressida--upon his patient +waiting for the evolution of his schemes; upon his faith in their +ultimate success; and, above all, upon the majestic and unaffected +reverence that appears indirectly in every line--"reverence," to adapt +the words of the great teacher whose opinion about Shakspere has been +perhaps too rashly questioned, "for what is pure and bright in youth; +for what is true and tried in age; for all that is gracious among the +living, great among the dead, and marvellous in the Powers that cannot +die." + +[Footnote 1: V. l. 27.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY*** + + +******* This file should be named 12890.txt or 12890.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/9/12890 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/12890.zip b/old/12890.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da5ab4a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12890.zip |