Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 11

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin d.a.m.n'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from h.e.l.l, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee"-

for, as Mr. Spalding remarks, "it cannot be imagined that Hamlet imagined that a 'goblin d.a.m.ned' could actually be the spirit of his dead father; and, therefore, the alternative in his mind must be that he saw a devil a.s.suming his father's likeness-a form which the Evil One knew would most incite Hamlet to intercourse."

The same idea seems present in Horatio's mind:

"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 a.s.sume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness?"

Once more, in the next act (ii. 2), Hamlet again expresses his doubts:

"The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To a.s.sume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to d.a.m.n me."

In the Elizabethan times, too, no superst.i.tious belief exerted a more pernicious and baneful influence on the credulous and ignorant than the notion that evil spirits from time to time entered into human beings, and so completely gained a despotic control over them as to render them perfectly helpless. Harsnet, in his "Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures" (1603), has exposed this gross superst.i.tion; and a comparison of the pa.s.sages in "King Lear," spoken by Edgar when feigning madness, with those given by Harsnet, will show that Shakespeare has accurately given the contemporary belief on the subject. Mr. Spalding also considers that nearly all the allusions in "King Lear" refer to a youth known as Richard Mainey, a minute account of whose supposed possession has been given by Harsnet.

Persons so possessed were often bound and shut up in a dark room, occasionally being forced to submit to flagellation-a treatment not unlike that described in "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 2):

"Not mad, but bound more than a madman is; Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipp'd and tormented."

In the "Comedy of Errors" (iv. 4) we have an amusing scene, further ill.u.s.trative, probably, of the kind of treatment adopted in Shakespeare's day:

"_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 ecstasy!

_Pinch._ Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.

_Ant. E._ There is my hand, and let it feel your ear.

_Pinch._ I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man, To yield possession to my holy prayers, And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight: I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven."

Pinch further says:

"They must be bound, and laid in some dark room."

As Brand remarks,[84] there is no vulgar story of the devil's having appeared anywhere without a cloven foot. In graphic representations he is seldom or never pictured without one. In the following pa.s.sage, where Oth.e.l.lo is questioning whether Iago is a devil or not, he says (v. 2):

"I look down towards his feet;-but that's a fable.- If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee."

[84] "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 517-519.

Dr. Johnson gives this explanation: "I look towards his feet to see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven."

In Ma.s.singer's "Virgin Martyr" (iii. 3), Harpax, an evil spirit, following Theophilus in the shape of a secretary, speaks thus of the superst.i.tious Christian's description of his infernal enemy:

"I'll tell you what now of the devil: He's no such horrid creature; cloven-footed, Black, saucer-ey'd, his nostrils breathing fire, As these lying Christians make him."

GOOD AND EVIL DEMONS.

It was formerly commonly believed that not only kingdoms had their tutelary guardians, but that every person had his particular genius or good angel, to protect and admonish him by dreams, visions, etc.[85]

Hence, in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 3), the soothsayer, speaking of Caesar, says:

"O Antony, stay not by his side: Thy demon,-that's thy spirit which keeps thee,-is n.o.ble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar's is not; but, near him, thy angel Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd."

[85] Ibid. vol. i. pp. 365-367.

Thus Macbeth (iii. 1) speaks in a similar manner in reference to Banquo:

"There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and, under him, My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Caesar."

So, too, in "2 Henry IV." (i. 2), the Chief-justice says:

"You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel."

We may quote a further reference in "Julius Caesar" (iii. 2), where Antony says:

"For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel."

"In the Roman world," says Mr. Tylor, in his "Primitive Culture" (1873, vol. ii. p. 202), "each man had his 'genius natalis,' a.s.sociated with him from birth to death, influencing his action and his fate, standing represented by its proper image, as a _lar_ among the household G.o.ds and at weddings and joyous times, and especially on the anniversary of the birthday when genius and man began their united career, worship was paid with song and dance to the divine image, adorned with garlands, and propitiated with incense and libations of wine. The demon or genius was, as it were, the man's companion soul, a second spiritual Ego. The Egyptian astrologer warned Antonius to keep far from the young Octavius, 'For thy demon,' said he, 'is in fear of his.'"

The allusion by Lady Macbeth (i. 5), in the following pa.s.sage, is to the spirits of Revenge:

"Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, uns.e.x me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!"

In Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse" we find a description of these spirits and of their office. "The second kind of devils which he most employeth are those northern _Martii_, called the _Spirits of Revenge_, and the authors of ma.s.sacres and seed-men of mischief; for they have commission to incense men to rapine, sacrilege, theft, murder, wrath, fury, and all manner of cruelties; and they command certain of the southern spirits to wait upon them, as also great Arioch, that is termed the Spirit of Revenge." In another pa.s.sage we are further told how "the spirits of the aire will mixe themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clime where they raise any tempest, that suddenly great mortalitie shall ensue of the inhabitants." "Aerial spirits or devils," according to Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," "are such as keep quarter most part in the aire, cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings, tear oakes, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts," etc. Thus, in "King John"

(iii. 2), the b.a.s.t.a.r.d remarks:

"Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; Some airy devil hovers in the sky, And pours down mischief."

It was anciently supposed that all mines of gold, etc., were guarded by evil spirits. Thus Falstaff, in "2 Henry IV." (iv. 3), speaks of learning as "a mere h.o.a.rd of gold kept by a devil." This superst.i.tion still prevails, and has been made the subject of many a legend. Thus, it is believed by the peasantry living near Largo-Law, Scotland, that a rich mine of gold is concealed in the mountain. "A spectre once appeared there, supposed to be the guardian of the mine, who, being accosted by a neighboring shepherd, promised to tell him at a certain time and on certain conditions, where 'the gowd mine is in Largo-Law,' especially enjoining that the horn sounded for the housing of the cows at the adjoining farm of Balmain should not blow. Every precaution having been taken, the ghost was true to his tryst; but, unhappily, when he was about to divulge the desired secret, Tammie Norrie, the cowherd of Balmain, blew a blast, whereupon the ghost vanished, with the denunciation:

'Woe to the man that blew the horn, For out of the spot he shall ne'er be borne.'

The unlucky horn-blower was struck dead, and, as it was found impossible to remove the body, a cairn of stones was raised over it."[86]

[86] See Jones's "Credulities, Past and Present," 1880, p. 133.

Steevens considers that when Macbeth (iii. 2) says:

"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse,"

he refers to those demons who were supposed to remain in their several places of confinement all day, but at the close of it were released; such, indeed, as are mentioned in "The Tempest" (v. 1), as rejoicing "to hear the solemn curfew," because it announced the hour of their freedom.

Among other superst.i.tions we may quote one in the "Merchant of Venice"