151-4 and at . . .
confine]
Johnson (ed. 1765, 1:17 n. 3) on
Tmp. 1.2.? (000) “Dost thou forget From what torment I did free thee?”: “That the Character and Conduct of
Prospero may be understood, something must be known of the System of Enchantment, which supplied all the Marvellous found in the Romances of the middle Ages. This System seems to be founded on the Opinion that the fallen Spirits, having different Degrees of Guilt, had different Habitations allotted them at their Expulsion, some being confined in Hell,
some (as
Hooker, who delivers the Opinion of our Poet’s Age, expresses it)
dispersed in air, some on Earth, some in Water, others in Caves, Dens, or Minerals under the Earth. Of these, some were more malignant and mischievous than others. The earthy spirits seem to have been thought the most depraved, and the aerial the least vitiated. Thus
Prospero observes of
Ariel: ‘—
Thou wast a Spirit too delicate To act her earthy
and abhorr’d Commands.’ Over these Spirits a Power might be obtained by certain Rites performed or Charms learned. This Power was called
The Black Art, or
Knowledge of Enchantment. The enchanter being (as King James observes in his
Demonology) one
who commands the Devil, whereas the Witch serves him. Those who thought best of this Art, the Existence of which was, I am afraid, believed very seriously, held, that certain Sounds and Characters had a physical Power over Spirits, and compelled their Agency; others who condemned the Practice, which in reality was surely never practised, were of Opinion, with more Reason, that the Power of Charms arose
only from Compact, and was no more than the Spirits voluntary allowed them for the Seduction of man. The Art was held by all, though not equally criminal, yet unlawful, and therefore
Causabon, speaking of one who had Commerce with Spirits, blames him, though he imagines him
one of the best Kind who dealt with them by way of Command. Thus
Prospero repents of his art in the last scene. . . . —Of these Trifles enough.”
check Tmp. 1.2 for note that is in v1773.
See n. 154