e subject to its malignant influence. In "Hamlet"
(i. 1), Horatio says, in reference to the ghost:

"But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me."

Lodge, in his "Illustrations of British History" (iii. 48), tells us
that among the reasons for supposing the death of Ferdinand, Earl of
Derby (who died young, in 1594), to have been occasioned by witchcraft,
was the following: "On Friday there appeared a tall man, who twice
crossed him swiftly; and when the earl came to the place where he saw
this man, he fell sick."

Reginald Scot, in his "Discovery of Witchcraft" (1584), enumerates the
different kinds of spirits, and particularly notices white, black, gray,
and red spirits. So in "Macbeth" (iv. 1), "black spirits" are
mentioned--the charm song referred to (like the one in act iv.) being
found in Middleton's "Witch" (v. 2):

"Black spirits and white,
Red spirits and gray;
Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may."

A well-known superstition which still prevails in this and foreign
countries is that of the "spectre huntsman and his furious host." As
night-time approaches, it is supposed that this invisible personage
rides through the air with his yelping hounds; their weird sound being
thought to forbode misfortune of some kind. This popular piece of
folk-lore exists in the north of England under a variety of forms among
our peasantry, who tenaciously cling to the traditions which have been
handed down to them.[79] It has been suggested that Shakespeare had some
of these superstitions in view when he placed in the mouth of Macbeth
(i. 7), while contemplating the murder of Duncan, the following
metaphors:

"And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind!"

[79] See Hardwick's "Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore,"
1872, pp. 153-176.

Again, in "The Tempest" (iv. 1), Prospero and Ariel are represented as
setting on spirits, in the shape of hounds, to hunt Stephano and
Trinculo. This species of diabolical or spectral chase was formerly a
popular article of belief. As Drake aptly remarks,[80] "the hell-hounds
of Shakespeare appear to be sufficiently formidable, for, not merely
commissioned to hunt their victims, they are ordered, likewise, as
goblins," to--