Preface

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ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY
ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY
AN ESS A Y
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 IMME- DIATELY 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.
Hontron CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1880
\TJie right of trattslation is resetved]
BF
GjSi
PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BECCLES.
TO
ROBERT BROWNING,
FRESIDENT OF THE
NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY.
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED.
^3
V
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 Demon- ology 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 sug- gesting 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.
1 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.
onsalia de futuro and Sponsalia de prcBsenti. Shakspere's marriage, ^^tudent'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, ^^^uthor's present object to illustrate the dead belief in Demon- ology, espmally as far as it concerns Shakspere. He thinks that this may perhaps bring us into closer contact with Shakspere's soul, ^o) 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 re- garding them. 15. (i.) Incapacity of mankind to accept monotheism. The Jews. 16. Roman Catholicism really polytheistic, although behevers won't admit it. Virgin Mary. Saints. Angels. Protestantism in the same conditigg^in a less degree. 17. Francis of Assisi. Gradually made into a god. ^^^(ii.) Manichaeism. Evil spirits as inevitable as good, ic^ (iii.) Tendency to treat the gods of hostile religions as devils. (20) In the Greek theology, balnove^. Platonism. /2iy Neo-Platonism. Makes the elder gods into daemons. 22. Judaism. R^ognizes 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,
X ANALYSIS.
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. (^'^. Conversion of Britons. Their gods get turned into fairies rather than devils. Deuce. Old Nick./2^ 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. Calf- hill and Martiall. 30. Catholics. Siege of Alkmaar. Unfortunate mistake of a Spanish prisoner. /^3jv' Conditions that tended to vivify the belief during Elizabethan era. 32. The new freedom. Want of rules of evidence. Arthur Racket 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^^^^ But the Elizabethans had strong common sense, nevertheless. Peopf^S^Jwrong 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 under- stand 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. ' Sh^ksppre''; rlpvil
40. Of the lesser. The horns, goggle eyes, and tail. Scplis 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, /^/^yhe common people stuck to the Catholic doctrine. ' Devils appear in'iflceness 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 ot-^, parsons. The devil quoting Scripture. ^'5orpther human shapes. /5i;_J Animals. Ariel. /S2^>Puck. 53. " The Witctiof Edmonton." The devilon 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. JajnesJ— and-his opinion.
/^The common people_bdievedjn_thej:hosts. Bishop Pilkington's troubles.
ANALYSIS. xi
57. The two theories. Illustrated in "Julius Caesar." "Macbeth." c;8. And. ^^K^ • LHamlet." qg. This explains an apparent inconsisten cy in " Hamlet."
''6g)Possession and obsession. Again the Catholics and Protestants differ. ' ~Si. But the common people believe in possession. 62. Ignorance on the subject of mental disease. The exorcists. 63. John Cotta on possession, j What the " learned physicion " knew. /c4.^^>Vhat was manifest to the vulgar ' view. Will Sommers. " The Devil i^'aVj" As^ " 65. Harsnet's " Declara^-/, tion," 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. 'J']. Bodily diseases the work of the devil. Bishop Hooper on hygiene. 78. But devils couldn't kill people unless they renounced God. ^^ 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. Hohnshed'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
Jigshown that they are. 91. A third piece of criticism. 92. Objections. / 93^) Contemporary descriptions of \vitches : Scot ; Harsnet. Witches' Deards. 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. (i^T) Why Shakspere chose witches. Command over elements. loi. 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. (loq; Sieve- sailing. Excitement south of the Border. TheJlDasmonoLogie. " Statute of James against witchcraft. 106. The origin of the incubus and succubus. f^^ Mooncalves. 108. Division of opinion amongst Reformers regarding oevils. Giordano Bruno. Bullinger's opinion about Sadducees and Epicures. 109. Emancipation a gradual process. Exorcism in Edward VI. 's. Prayer-
xii ANALYSIS.
book. no. 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.
Fairies and devils differ in degree, not in origin. ([^2^ Evidence, ause of difference. Folk, until disturbed by religious doubt, don't ieve in devils, but fairies. 114. Reformation shook people up, and made them think of hell and devils, (^f^ The change came in theUowns before the country. Fairies held on a long time in the country. /'^iip. Shaksgeje was early impressed with fairy lore. In middle life, came m contact with town thougMand devils ; and at the end of it returned to Stratford and fairydom. (^1.7/ This is reflected in his works. (JJ^L But there is progres- sion of thouglit to be observed in these stages, ((f^ Shakspere indirectly tells us his thoughts, if we will take the trouble tc>=?S&-n them. /^^ Three stages of thought that men go through o^j^ligiotts matters. Hereditary belief. Scepticism. Reasoned belief. ^2^^hakspere went through all this. CjigsIS/Illustrations. Hereditary belief. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Fairies chiefly _an adaptatipri nf^^rirrrprit tradition. 123. The dawn of doubt. 124. Scepticism. Evil spints-deminajit. No guiding good. 125. Corresponding lapse qf faith in other matters. Woman's purity. N^Jl Man's honour. (127!!] Mr. Ruskin's view of Shakspere's message. 128. Founded chiefiy^nHWays of sceptical period. Message
^^rd period entirely different. ^29!jReasoned belief. " The Tempest." Man can master evHof all foraTSn" he go about it in the~ngKrway: — is
fot the toy of fate. /^^^Prospero a type of Shakspere in this final stage of thought. How pfeiEant to think this I
ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY.
Cy 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, reli- gious, 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 interpre- tation, 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
B
2 ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY.
has had some experience in the study of an early " literature, occasionally finds some difficulty in prevent- ing 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 in- terest 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 in- comprehensible, 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
SOURCES OF ERROR. 3
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 exist- ence ; " — 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 illus- tration of the absurdities that attend upon the inter- pretation of the ideas of one generation by the practice
4 ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY.
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 un- necessary patient investigation.
In illustration of this difference, a play of Mas- singer's, " The Maid of Honour," may be advan- tageously cited, as the catastrophe turns upon this question of marriage contracts. Camiola, the heroine, having been precontracted by oath-^ 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."
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
* Act V. sc. I.
ILLUSTRATIONS. 5
of inability to interfere ; and he must be some- what taken aback to find this claim of Camiola ad- mitted as indisputable. The riddle becomes some- what 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 prcesenti : a promise of mar- riage 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 con- cerned.^ 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.
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 prcssenti, or matrimony. But such spousals could be converted into valid matrimony by the cohabitation of the parties ; and
^ Swinburne, A Treatise of Spousals, 1686, p. 236. In England the offspring were, nevertheless, illegitimate.
6 ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY.
this, instead of being looked upon as reprehensible, seems to have been treated as a laudable action, and to be by all means encouraged.^ In addition to this, completion of a contract for marriage defuturo con- firmed 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 Eng- land, 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 prcesenti or in futuro, being confirmed by oath, she can force upon him, and which will invalidate his proposed marriage with the duchess. Having estab- lished 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.
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 praise- worthy 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 cere- mony, which was not at all a necessary preliminary to a valid marriage, so far as the husband and wife were
^ Swinburne, p. 227.
KNOW A MAN'S COMPANY. 7
concerned, although it was essential to render issue of the marriage legitinaate.
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 him- self, 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.
8 ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY.
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 misunder- standing them. " I have read Chaucer, Shakspere, Milton," is the sublimely satirical expression con- stantly 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 con- sequence of this flippancy of reading, numberless writers, whose works have long been consigned to a well-merited oblivion, have of late years been dis- interred 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 pre- pared thoroughly to sift out and ascertain the true import of every allusion contained in this volume t " And if he cannot honestly answer "Yes," let him
FLIPPANCY AND PEDANTRY. 9
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 con- dition 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
lo ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOG Y.
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 Shak- spere during the whole of his life, but is now well- nigh forgotten or entirely misunderstod. 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.
lo. But it may be said that Shakspere, of all men, is able to speak for himself without aid or com- ment. His works appeal to all, young and old, in every time, every nation. It is true ; he can be under- stood. 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 under-
OBJECT IN VIEW. ii
Stood 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 vag;uely and dimly feel after. To under- stand these answers fully, the language in which they were delivered must be first thoroughly mastered.