y water shall he
die." The Duke of Somerset was advised by the spirit to shun castles.
Having thus delivered itself, the evil spirit descended to the burning
lake. Farther on in the piece we are told of a witch that was
condemned to be burned at Smithfield.

Passing from _Henry the Sixth_, we come to _Antony and Cleopatra_, and
proceed to glean a few sentences bearing on superstition.

Charmian, addressing Alexas in a flattering manner, asked where was
the soothsayer he praised so much. The soothsayer, who was immediately
forthcoming, told those who listened to him that he knew "things" from
nature's book of secrecy. A banquet was prepared, at which Charmian
asked the soothsayer to give him good luck. "I make not, but foresee,"
was the response. Charmian, Alexas, and their companions seek to hear
their fortunes told, but the soothsayer did not choose to reveal
anything important at that time.

We shall take leave of Shakspeare by noticing, in a few sentences, the
ghost of Hamlet's father.

Bernardo, Marcellus, and Horatio were met at a late hour to talk over
a dreadful apparition that had disturbed the two former on the
previous night, when they were startled by the same apparition--a
ghost making its appearance. They observed it resembled the king who
was dead. Horatio charged it to speak, but it stalked away without
deigning a reply. It reappeared, but suddenly vanished on hearing the
cock crow. How long elapsed we are not informed; but on a certain
night, just after the clock had struck twelve, Hamlet, Horatio, and
Marcellus were engaged in earnest conversation when they were alarmed.
The first entreats the ghost to say wherefore it visited them. It
beckoned to Hamlet to follow it; and he did so, despite those who were
with him, and saw the spirit as well as he did. The ghost's tongue was
unloosed, and thus it spake: "Lend thy serious hearing to what I shall
unfold: My hour is almost come, when I must render up myself to
sulphurous and tormenting flames. I am thy father's spirit; and, for
the day, confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes, done in my
days of nature, are burnt and purged away. Were I not forbidden to
tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold that would
harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; make thy eyes start; and
make thy locks part like quills upon the fretful porcupine: but this
eternal blazon must not be. If ever thou didst love thy father,
revenge his foul and mo