Part 46

Footnote 52:

For a curious specimen of this odium theologicum, see the “Censure” of the Sorbonne on Marmontel’s Belisarius.

Footnote 53:

This king is invoked in the first part of Shakspeare’s play of Henry the Sixth, after the following manner:—

“You speedy helpers that are substitutes Under the lordly monarch of the North— Appear!”

Footnote 54:

This description is taken from an ancient Latin poem, describing the lamentable vision of a devoted hermit, and supposed to have been written by St. Bernard, in the year 1238; a translation of which was printed for private distribution by William Yates, Esq. of Manchester.

Footnote 55:

Sir Thomas Brown, who thinks that this view may be confirmed by expositions of Holy Scripture, remarks, that, “whereas it is said, thou shalt not offer unto devils; (the original word is seghuirim), that is, rough and hairy goats, because in that shape the devil must have often appeared, as is expounded by the Rabin; as Tremellius hath also explained; and as the word Ascemah, the god of Emath, is by some conceived.”

Footnote 56:

See an interesting dissertation on this subject, in Douce’s Illustrations of Shakspeare, Vol. i. p. 382. It is also noticed in the Border Minstrelsy, Vol. ii. p. 197.

Footnote 57:

Dio of Syracuse was visited by one of the furies in person, whose appearance the soothsayers regarded as indicative of the death which occurred of his son, as well as his own dissolution.

Footnote 58:

Sir Walter Scott has supposed that this mythological account of the duergar bears a remote allusion to real history, having an ultimate reference to the oppressed Fins, who, before the arrival of the invaders, under the conduct of Odin, were the prior possessors of Scandinavia. The followers of this hero saw a people, who knew how to work the mines of the country better than they did; and, therefore, from a superstitious regard, transformed them into spirits of an unfavourable character, dwelling in the interior of rocks, and surrounded with immense riches.—Border Minstrelsy, v. ii. p. 179.

Footnote 59:

It is said that, in Orkney, they were often seen clad in complete armour.—Brand’s description of Orkney. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1701. p. 63.

Footnote 60:

In Germany, probably for similar reasons, the dwarfs have acquired the name of elves—a word, observes Mr. Douce, derived from the Teutonic of helfin, which etymologists have translated juvare.

Footnote 61:

Minstrelsy of the Scottish border, vol. ii. page 215.

Footnote 62:

Before dismissing this subject of fairies, I shall slightly advert to the strange blending which took place of Grecian and Teutonic fables. “We find,” says Sir Walter Scott, “the elves accordingly arrayed in the costume of Greece and Rome, and the fairy queen and her attendants transformed into Diana and her nymphs, and invested with their attributes and appropriate insignia.” Mercury was also named by Harsenet, in the year 1602, the prince of the fairies.

Footnote 63:

“He would chafe exceedingly,” says Scot, “if the maid or good wife of the house, having compassion of his nakedness, laid ani cloths for him besides his messe of white bread and milke, which was his standing fee. For in that case he saith, what have we here? Hempton hamten, here will I never more tread nor stampen.”

Footnote 64:

Bellus speaks with contempt of this petty instance of malevolence to the human race: “stones are thrown down from the air,” he remarks, “which do no harm, the devils having little strength, and being mere scarecrows.” So much for the origin of meteoric stones.

Footnote 65: