Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 8

Familiar spirits[71] attending on magicians and witches were always impatient of confinement.[72] So in the "Tempest" (i. 2) we find an ill.u.s.tration of this notion in the following dialogue:

"_Prospero._ What is't thou canst demand?

_Ariel._ My liberty.

_Prospero._ Before the time be out? No more."

[71] Allusions to this superst.i.tion occur in "Love's Labour's Lost" (i. 2), "love is a familiar;" in "1 Henry VI." (iii. 2), "I think her old familiar is asleep;" and in "2 Henry VI." (iv.

7), "he has a familiar under his tongue."

[72] See Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," 1584, p. 85.

Lastly, the term "Aroint thee" ("Macbeth," i. 3), used by the first witch, occurs again in "King Lear" (iii. 4), "Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee." That _aroint_ is equivalent to "away," "begone," seems to be agreed, though its etymology is uncertain.[73] "Rynt thee" is used by milkmaids in Cheshire to a cow, when she has been milked, to bid her get out of the way. Ray, in his "Collection of North Country Words" (1768, p. 52), gives "Rynt ye, by your leave, stand handsomely, as rynt you witch, quoth Bessie Locket to her mother. Proverb, Chesh." Some connect it with the adverb "aroume," meaning "abroad," found in Chaucer's "House of Fame" (book ii. stanza 32):

"That I a-roume was in the field."

Other derivations are from the Latin _averrunco_: the Italian _rogna_, a cutaneous disease, etc.

[73] Sec Dyce's "Glossary," pp. 18, 19.

How thoroughly Shakespeare was acquainted with the system of witchcraft is evident from the preceding pages, in which we have noticed his allusions to most of the prominent forms of this species of superst.i.tion. Many other items of witch-lore, however, are referred to by him, mention of which is made in succeeding chapters.[74]

[74] "Notes to Macbeth" (Clark and Wright), pp. 81, 82.

CHAPTER III.

GHOSTS.

Few subjects have, from time immemorial, possessed a wider interest than ghosts, and the superst.i.tions a.s.sociated with them in this and other countries form an extensive collection in folk-lore literature. In Shakespeare's day, it would seem that the belief in ghosts was specially prevalent, and ghost tales were told by the firelight in nearly every household. The young, as Mr. Goadby, in his "England of Shakespeare,"

says (1881, p. 196), "were thus touched by the prevailing superst.i.tions in their most impressionable years. They looked for the incorporeal creatures of whom they had heard, and they were quick to invest any trick of moonbeam shadow with the attributes of the supernatural." A description of one of these tale-tellings is given in the "Winter's Tale" (ii. 1):

"_Her._ What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, now I am for you again: pray you, sit by us, And tell's a tale.

_Mam._ Merry or sad shall't be?

_Her._ As merry as you will.

_Mam._ A sad tale's best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins.

_Her._ Let's have that, good sir.

Come on, sit down: Come on, and do your best To fright me with your sprites: you're powerful at it.

_Mam._ There was a man,-

_Her._ Nay, come, sit down; then on.

_Mam._ Dwelt by a churchyard: I will tell it softly; Yond crickets shall not hear it.

_Her._ Come on, then, And give't me in mine ear."

The important part which Shakespeare has a.s.signed to the ghost in "Hamlet" has a special value, inasmuch as it ill.u.s.trates many of the old beliefs current in his day respecting their history and habits.

Thus, according to a popular notion, ghosts are generally supposed to a.s.sume the exact appearance by which they were usually known when in the material state, even to the smallest detail of their dress. So Horatio tells Hamlet how, when Marcellus and Bernardo were on their watch (i.

2),

"A figure like your father, Arm'd at point, exactly, cap-a-pe, Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them."

Further on, when the ghost appears again, Hamlet addresses it thus:

"What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous."

In the graphic description of Banquo's ghost in "Macbeth" (iii. 4), we have a further allusion to the same belief; one, indeed, which is retained at the present day with as much faith as in days of old.

Shakespeare has several allusions to the notion which prevailed in days gone by, of certain persons being able to exorcise or raise spirits.

Thus, in "Cymbeline" (iv. 2), Guiderius says over Fidele's grave:

"No exorciser harm thee."

In "Julius Caesar" (ii. 1), Ligarius says:

"Soul of Rome!

Brave son, derived from honourable loins!

Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible; Yea, get the better of them."

In "All's Well that Ends Well" (v. 3) the king says:

"Is there no exorcist Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?

Is't real that I see?"

This superst.i.tion, it may be added, has of late years gained additional notoriety since the so-called spiritualism has attracted the attention and support of the credulous. As learning was considered necessary for an exorcist, the schoolmaster was often employed. Thus, in the "Comedy of Errors" (iv. 4), the schoolmaster Pinch is introduced in this capacity.

Within, indeed, the last fifty years the pedagogue was still a reputed conjurer. In "Hamlet" (i. 1), Marcellus, alluding to the ghost, says:

"Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio."

And in "Much Ado About Nothing" (ii. 1), Bened.i.c.k says:

"I would to G.o.d some scholar would conjure her."

For the same reason exorcisms were usually practised by the clergy in Latin; and so Toby, in the "Night Walker" of Beaumont and Fletcher (ii.

1), says:

"Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil."

It was also necessary that spirits, when evoked, should be questioned quickly, as they were supposed to be impatient of being interrogated.