Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

303

TEMPEST.

1611.

COLLINS, the poet, informed Warton that he had once met with a romance in which the principal character was a chemical necromancer who had bound a spirit, like Ariel, to obey his call and perform his services. His account that the story was printed in Italian, Spanish, French, and English, in 1588, has not led to its discovery. If such a tale preceded the composition of the Tempest, it may be inferred that Shakspeare, agreeably to his practice on other occasions, availed himself of as much of its contents as he found suitable to his purpose. Malone advanced the pretensions of the sixth tragical tale of George Turberville, and Greene's

comical history of Alphonsus, king of Arragon, to the honour of having originated a large portion of the plot; but the points of resemblance are extremely few and imperfect, and the other authority is the more natural course.

The use evidently made by Shakspeare, in his representation of the loss of the king's ship, of the printed accounts of the wreck of Sir George Somers in the Bermudas, in 1609, proves this play to have been written subsequent to that period.

Sir George Somers was admiral of the fleet that sailed from England in 1609 for the settlement of a colony in Virginia. The expedition itself was deeply interesting to the country; the separation of Somers from his squadron by a tremendous Tempest, the uncertainty which prevailed respecting his fate for upwards of a year, and his extraordinary shipwreck and adventures on a desert island, were circumstances of a character so romantic as intensely to excite public curiosity; and Shakspeare was thus led to affix a title to his drama, which, having direct reference to these events insured it immediate attention.

Previous to the wreck of Somers and his companions, the Bermudas (or, as Shakspeare calls them, the Bermoothes) were regarded as an

enchanted pile of rocks whose inhabitants were devils and witches: hence the enchantment of the island inhabited by Prospero; hence the assigning to him of the powers of a magician; and hence the supposition of its previous occupation by Sycorax, the witch.

How vivid and prevalent were the ideas of magic and supernatural influences, is fully attested by Shakspeare's production of a drama, of which the scene is laid in regions full of

"Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not,"

and of which the principal agents are a magician and his attendant spirit.

While the illiterate were fully aware of the powers of nature to produce good or bad effects, à knowledge of their actual properties was peculiar to the learned. An air of mystery was thus thrown over science, to which the grossness of ignorance attached the belief of supernatural interference. It was assumed, that latent qualities existed in waters, minerals, stones, herbs, and plants, their shape, colour, and size, a proper application of which, by the agency of the spiritual world, enabled the student to effect miraculous results. Such was the foundation for a VOL. II.

X

belief in the powers of a magician, who, by an additional refinement, was supposed to elicit by his art the aid of good spirits, and command the ministry of the bad. A question then arose whether magic was to be reprobated by one sweeping condemnation, or, whether it might not be admissible to draw a distinction between lawful and unlawful necromancy; distinguishing the work of good angels by the title of natural, or white magic, and the work of diabolical spirits by the adverse designation of the black art. But it was found very difficult to mark the boundary line of these branches of the science, and the practice of the black art was decidedly condemned as criminal, while the practice of the white art was pronounced dangerous in the extreme; for it was impossible to determine whether the agency of the devil was voluntary or com.. pulsory. If spontaneous, there was no doubt but that it was rendered to entrap the unwary artist into a wickedness whence there was no escape; for the powers of hell submit not themselves to servitude, except to obtain an absolute dominion over the soul of the necromancer.

To the philosopher the devil addressed himself by an appeal to his pride of science, his thirst for knowledge, and his love of power. By sug

gesting to him thoughts of vast mental superiority, he inspired him with pride in his own attainments, and contempt for his fellow creatures; and, while engaged in the investigation of remote and hidden things, the evil one insidiously tempted the student, by the display of miraculous effects which appeared to place all nature at his command. Even the professor of white magic, therefore, was the dupe of the powers he aspired to command; and though unenlisted in the cause of wickedness by palpable agreement, he really acted in co-operation with the great enemy of mankind.

Between the professors of the black art and the devil a formal contract was always supposed, either written with the magician's blood, or, being merely a verbal agreement, ratified by the devil touching the magician, though the touch did not always, as in the contract between the devil and the witch, leave a mark on his person. The contract was usually made for a term of years, during which time the devil bound himself to the service of the magician, who, at the expirtion of the period, resigned his soul to his seducer. But, at any time, the slightest deviation from, or omission in, the prescribed form of necromantic ceremonies, or error in the words

« AnteriorContinua »