Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies | Page 2

be
shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been
sufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of
credulity was at its height, seems to have been that of the holy war, in
which the Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or
diabolical opposition, as they ascribed their success to the assistance of
their military saints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe
(_Suppl. to the Introduction to Don Quixote_) that the first accounts of
enchantments were brought into this part of the world by those who
returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is always some
distance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickedness: this
opinion had long existed, though perhaps the application of it had in no
foregoing age been so frequent, nor the reception so general.
Olympiodorus, in Photius's extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who
practised this kind of military magic, and having promised [Greek:
choris opliton kata barbaron energein] to perform great things against
the Barbarians without soldiers, was, at the instances of the empress
Placidia, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his
abilities. The empress shewed some kindness in her anger by cutting
him off at a time so convenient for his reputation.
But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be
found in St. Chrysostom's book de Sacerdotia, which exhibits a scene
of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he
supposes a spectator overlooking a field of battle attended by one that
points out all the various objects of horror, the engines of destruction,
and the arts of slaughter. [Greek: Deichnuto de eti para tois enantiois
kai petomenous hippous dia tinos magganeias, kai oplitas di' aeros
pheromenous, kai pasaen goaeteias dunomin kai idean.] _Let him then
proceed to shew him in the opposite armies horses flying by
enchantment, armed men transported through the air, and every power
and form of magic._ Whether St. Chrysostom believed that such
performances were really to be seen in a day of battle, or only
endeavoured to enliven his description, by adopting the notions of the
vulgar, it is equally certain, that such nations were in his time received,

and that therefore they were not imported from the Saracens in a later
age; the wars with the Saracens however gave occasion to their
propagation, not only as bigotry naturally discovers prodigies, but as
the scene of action was removed to a great distance.
The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though
day was gradually encreasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still
continued to hover in the twilight. In the time of queen Elizabeth was
the remarkable trial of the witches of Warbois, whose conviction is still
commemorated in an annual sermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign of
king James, in which this tragedy was written, many circumstances
concurred to propagate and confirm this opinion. The king, who was
much celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in England,
not only examined in person a woman accused of witchcraft, but had
given a very formal account of the practices and illusions of evil spirits,
the compacts of witches, the ceremonies used by them, the manner of
detecting them, and the justice of punishing them, in his dialogues of
Daemonologie, written in the Scottish dialect, and published at
Edinburgh. This book was, soon after his accession, reprinted at
London, and as the ready way to gain king James's favour was to flatter
his speculations, the system of Daemonologie was immediately
adopted by all who desired either to gain preferment or not to lose it.
Thus the doctrine of witchcraft was very powerfully inculcated; and as
the greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opinions
than that they are in fashion, it cannot be doubted but this persuasion
made a rapid progress, since vanity and credulity co-operated in its
favour. The infection soon reached the parliament, who, in the first year
of king James, made a law, by which it was enacted, chap. xii. "That if
any person shall use any invocation or conjuration of any evil or
wicked spirit; 2. or shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed
or reward any evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose; 3. or
take up any dead man, woman or child out of the grave,--or the skin,
bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed or used in any
manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; 4. or shall use,
practise or exercise any sort of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or
enchantment; 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wasted,
consumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the