Shakespeare and the Supernatural: A Brief Study of Folklore, Superstition, and Witchcraft in 'Macbeth,' 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Tempest,'

Margaret Lucy, William Jaggard

At the Shakespeare Press, Jaggard, 1905 - Folklore - 36 pages

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Page 30 - O, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass. Therefore my son i" the ooze is bedded ; and I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, And with him there lie mudded.

Page 19 - I have lived long enough : my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf ; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

Page 32 - Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on ; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

Page 16 - The sin that practice burns into the blood, And not the one dark hour which brings remorse, Will brand us, after, of whose fold we be : Or else were he, the holy king, whose hymns Are chanted in the minster, worse than all.

Page 9 - Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time ; But men may construe things after their fashion, Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.

Page 14 - Scotland ; this done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath not been seen; which tempest was the cause of the perishing of a boat or vessel coming...

Page 24 - Undoubtedly (to my thinking) most " fairy " myths arose from the contemplation of the mysterious habits of dwarf troglodyte races lingering on still in the crannies, caverns, forests, and mountains of Europe after the invasion of neolithic man.

Page 14 - Witches sailing in their riddles or cieves, as is aforesaid, and so left the said cat right before the town of Leith, in Scotland ; this done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath not been seen...

Page 39 - Shakespeare and announces, as approaching completion, "a bibliography of our national poet and playwright, including every known public or private issue of his plays, poems and collected works, and all known Shakespeariana in the English language whether manuscript or printed, embracing over fifteen thousand entries and references, with collations, copious notes, and a key to hundreds of anonyms and pseudonyms." From what he has done for Miss Lucy's book we may reasonably infer what he proposes to...

Page 30 - 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...

Bibliographic information

• Title: Shakespeare and the Supernatural: A Brief Study of Folklore, Superstition, and Witchcraft in 'Macbeth,' 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Tempest,'
• Authors: Margaret Lucy, William Jaggard
• Publisher: At the Shakespeare Press, Jaggard, 1905
• Original from: Harvard University
• Digitized: Feb 9, 2006
• Length: 36 pages