"Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire."
[136] See Thoms's "Notelets on Shakespeare," p. 59.
Shakespeare, no doubt, here alludes to the will-o'-the wisp, an opinion shared by Mr. Joseph Ritson,[137] who says: "This Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, seems likewise to be the illusory candle-holder, so fatal to travellers, and who is more usually called 'Jack-a-lantern,'[138] or 'Will-with-a-wisp,' and 'Kit-with-the-candlestick.'" Milton, in "Paradise Lost" (book ix.), alludes to this deceptive gleam in the following lines:
"A wandering fire Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night Condenses, and the cold environs round, Kindled through agitation to a flame, Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends, Hovering and blazing with delusive light, Misleads th' amaz'd night-wanderer from his way To bogs and mires, and oft through pond and pool."[139]
[137] "Fairy Mythology," edited by Hazlitt, 1875, p. 40.
[138] Among the many other names given to this appearance may be mentioned the following: "Will-a-wisp," "Joan-in-the-wad," "Jacket-a-wad," "Peg-a-lantern," "Elf-fire," etc. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (5th series, vol. x. p. 499) says: "The wandering meteor of the moss or fell appears to have been personified as Jack, Gill, Joan, Will, or Robin, indifferently, according as the supposed spirit of the lamp seemed to the particular rustic mind to be a male or female apparition." In Worcestershire it is called "Hob-and-his-lanthorn," and "Hobany's" or "Hobnedy's Lanthorn."
[139] Mr. Ritson says that Milton "is frequently content to pilfer a happy expression from Shakespeare--on this occasion, 'night-wanderer.'" He elsewhere calls it "the friar's lantern."
This appearance has given rise to a most extensive folk-lore, and is embodied in many of the fairy legends and superstitions of this and other countries. Thus, in Germany, Jack-o'-lanterns are said to be the souls of unbaptized children, that have no rest in the grave, and must hover between heaven and earth. In many places they are called land-measurers, and are seen like figures of fire, running to and fro with a red-hot measuring rod. These are said to be persons who have falsely sworn away land, or fraudulently measured it, or removed landmarks.[140] In the neighborhood of Magdeburg, they are known as "Lüchtemannekens;" and to cause them to appear, it is sufficient to call out "Ninove, Ninove." In the South Altmark they are termed "Dickepôten;" and if a person only prays as soon as he sees one, he draws it to him; if he curses, it retires. In some parts, too, a popular name is "Huckepôten," and "Tuckbolde." The Jack-o'-lanterns of Denmark[141] are the spirits of unrighteous men, who, by a false glimmer, seek to mislead the traveller, and to decoy him into bogs and moors. The best safeguard against them, when they appear, is to turn one's cap inside out. A similar notion occurs in Devonshire with regard to the Pixies, who delight in leading astray such persons as they find abroad after nightfall; the only remedy to escape them being to turn some part of the dress. In Normandy these fires are called "Feux Follets," and they are believed to be cruel spirits, whom it is dangerous to encounter. Among the superstitions which prevail in connection with them, two, says Mr. Thoms,[142] are deserving of notice: "One is, that the _ignis fatuus_ is the spirit of some unhappy woman, who is destined to run _en furolle_, to expiate her intrigues with a minister of the church, and it is designated from that circumstance La Fourlore, or La Fourolle." Another opinion is, that Le Feu Follet is the soul of a priest, who has been condemned thus to expiate his broken vows of perpetual chastity; and it is very probable that it is to some similar belief existing in this country, at the time when he wrote, that Milton alludes in "L'Allegro," when he says: