"to rend an oak, and peg him in his knotty entrails, till he had howl'd away twelve winters.” * Spirits, indeed, were deemed particularly sensible of pain, and peculiarly to dread the wound of a sword: conjurors, in consequence, often entered thus armed into their magic circles for the due enforcement of their authority. It was, however, the necromancer only who had power to injure spiritual beings; to other hands they were invulnerable, and of this privilege Ariel boasts, when Alonzo and Sebastian draw their swords for his destruction:

"You fools! I and my fellows

Are ministers of fate; the elements

Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
Kill the still closing waters, as diminish

One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow ministers
Are like invulnerable." +

Purely spiritual, they could appear corporeally only as apparitions, or under favour of the privilege of assuming various shapes at pleasure. The stage directions of the Tempest perpetually direct the entrance of Ariel "invisible;" he appears as a harpy, and a water-nymph, and

*Act I. sc. 2.

+ Act III. sc. 3.

"flames amazement" among the distracted crew of the king's ship.

Ariel's gambols, as a meteor, are in exact conformity with the attributes of an aërial spirit. Many extraordinary stories are on record in the marvellous narratives of voyages performed in the sixteenth century, respecting the appearance of supernatural lights upon masts, rigging, and other parts of vessels. Classical authority may be quoted in proof of the antiquity, if not as to the origin of the superstitions respecting them. Meteors were much observed by the Greeks, and, very naturally, with particular attention in naval affairs. When the storm was hushed which threatened the destruction of the Argonauts, it was observed that a flame had then appeared over the head of Castor and Pollux, and it was ever afterwards believed, that when two lights appeared together, they indicated favourable winds and prosperity; but when one meteor only flamed, or if two lights had first been visible, and were succeeded by a single appearance which drove them away, nothing but storms and shipwrecks were portended. Ariel divided, and burnt in many places; on the top-mast, the yards and bowsprit did he flame distinctly, then meet, and join."*

* Act I. sc. 2.

The power of different spiritual beings was confined to that portion of the elements in which their residence was fixed, and the magician was necessitated to use the agency of fiery, aërial, watery, or terrestrial spirits, according to the nature and situation of the bodies on which he wished to operate. Prospero exerts his art on all the supposed elements of nature, and, in strict propriety, he ought to have effected his wonders in each by the spirits peculiar to each. Such an arrangement, which would have been obviously inconvenient in a drama, by the introduction of a multiplicity of characters, Shakspeare has skilfully evaded, and finds more than an apology for his inaccuracy in the advantage obtained by it. The powers of Ariel are considerably extended, and, when not employed. as a principal himself, he is invariably made the agent for the conveyance of Prospero's commands to the other ministers of his will.

It was one of the serious charges against magic, as a power convertible to the worst of purposes, that the agency of spirits was frequently employed to inspire love. The instruments of evil are sanctified by the use to which

the hands of Prospero apply them.

He consigns

to Ariel the charge of raising the flame of at

They have chang'd eyes:- Delicate Ariel,

I'll set thee free for this!"

But mark the purposes of Prospero in producing these effects: it is by the union of Ferdinand and Miranda, that he ensures his own restoration to his dukedom, the devolution of hereditary rights to his child, and the restoration of his country to freedom, absolving Milan from disgraceful vassalage, the payment of tribute and homage to the court of Naples.

There is scarcely any history of a magician that might not be quoted as more or less illustrative of the Tempest, but none can with more propriety be referred to than "The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay," the work of Robert Green, mentioned already as a contem. porary of Shakspeare. Bacon, like Prospero, is represented as a master of his art, compelling the devil to pay him homage, and not receiving his services by virtue of any iniquitous contract.

Bacon, therefore, has recourse continually to his books, boasting that by their aid he can

"Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave
And dim fair Luna by a dark eclipse;
The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell,
Trembles, when Bacon bids him, or his friends,
Bow to the force of his Pentageron.
What art can work the frolic friar knows,
And therefore will I turn my magic books,
And strain out necromancy to the deep."
Having

"dived into hell,

And sought the darkest palaces of fiends,
That with his magic spells great Belcephon
Hath left his lodge and kneeled at his cell :"

that is, having subdued the world of spirits to implicit obedience to his commands, the friar exhibits many of those wonders of his art which so much astonish and delight in Prospero. In the presence of the King and Queen, Bacon waves his wand, and immediately appear a troop of dancers, and a masque of apes and antics; and, on another occasion, he introduces a procession of Russians, Polanders, Indians, and Armenians; and at the wedding of a poor gentleman raises a sumptuous banquet of delicacies. As Ferdinand in the presence of Prospero*, and Antonio and Sebastian when enraged against Arielt, are + Act III. sc. 3.

* Act I. sc. 2.