Marcellus and Bernardo twice see, but yet learn nothing from the spectre. Horatio was a scholar, and, as such, his adjuration was particularly potent; in conformity with the principle that assigned an absolute power over the devil to the learned magician, and directed the exorcism of troubled spirits in the Latin language yet Horatio fails to elicit any information from the mysterious wanderer. The Ghost at length comes in contact with Hamlet himself; but the presence of others still operates as a bar against disclosure, and it is not till the prince is separated from his companions, and left with the apparition, that the portentous secret is revealed.

Nothing was more offensive to apparitions than the neglect to attach importance to their appearance. Inattention to their admonitions and injunctions was succeeded by discontented, angry, and, at length, infuriated and horrible visitations; threats to tear the person employed to pieces, and, sometimes, an actual infliction of blows. The dilatory and undecided Hamlet, ever reasoning instead of acting, makes small progress towards the punishment of his guilty uncle, and he, therefore, anxiously inquires on

"Thou art a scholar: speak to it, Horatio." Act I. sc. 1.

the re-appearance of his father's shade, whether

That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say!"*

and the Ghost solemnly admonishes Hamlet "not to forget," though the present visitation

was

"but to whet his almost blunted purpose." +

It is in perfect consistency with the belief that all spirits were not only naturally invisible, but that they possessed the power of making themselves visible under their assumed forms to such persons only as they pleased, that the queen sees not the apparition, while the form and voice of his father are perfectly palpable to Hamlet's senses. Being incorporeal, also, they experienced no difficulty in entering into, and passing from, any place they desired, without creating alarm or noise. The entrance of the Ghost into the royal palace, and the chamber of the queen, could only be effected by such a power; and a further illustration of the facility with

* Act III. sc. 4.

+ Ibid. + Ibid.

which spirits conveyed themselves from one spot to another, unobstructed by natural impediments, is afforded by the Ghost following under ground as Hamlet removed from place to place to administer the oath of secrecy to his friends. * Another consequence of the immateriality of spirits was their invulnerability, and of this Horatio speaks, in reproof of his own folly of sanctioning the proposition of Marcellus to "strike at it with his partizan."

"We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery."†

Darkness was an object on which superstition always fastened with avidity, and wherever the doctrine of the opposed principles of good and evil was admitted, the sun, or light, was recognised as the representative of the former, and night, or darkness, as an apt symbol of the latter. Regarding light as a good, and darkness as a bad presage, the Greeks did not hold it lawful to approach their altars till lustration had purified them from the defilements of the night, through which the infernal gods ranged free from all control; and, carrying the prac+ Act I. sc. 1.

* Act I. sc. 5.

tical application of these principles still further, white victims only were offered to the celestial gods, and black to the infernal; and the sacrificers themselves were clothed in white or black, according to their intentions.

It is not very difficult to perceive, that from these sources originated the doctrine, that spirits had permission to range the earth by night alone. If not actually under the influence of the devil, all orders of spirits were deemed evil, at the least, for all, more or less, partook of the crime that banished them from heaven. Hence the idea of darkness was connected with their name, and hence the hours of night were assigned for their operation. An instance of Shakspeare's notice of this superstition occurred in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but in mentioning it in this play, in connection with another piece of popular credulity, the poet has shown himself more attentive to the vulgar, than the philosophic view of the subject.

Ber. "It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons: I have heard
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill sounding throat
Awake the god of day! and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies

To his confine; and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.” *

All this is perfectly correct: the Ghost vanishes on the crowing of the cock, because the crowing of that animal, like the "glow-worm," showed the matin to be near."

"It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.” †

Such is, undoubtedly, the popular superstition; but, in point of reasoning, nothing can be more manifestly erroneous. Apparitions were not alarmed at the cock himself: they fled from his voice, because it indicated the approach of day, and not on account of any virtue inherent in the sound of his shrill-clarion: the holiness of the season sanctified Christmas, and bound spirits in their "confine," not the crowing of the cock! But that sound once acknowledged to be indicative of the flight of all spirits, the obtuseness of vulgar perceptions confounded the sign with the cause, and whenever spirits were supt Ibid.

Act I. sc. 1.