[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--
"grind their joints With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews With aged cramps; and more pinch-spotted make them Than pard or cat o' mountain.
[80] "Shakespeare and His Times," vol. i. p. 378.
Shakespeare has several references to the old superstitious belief in the transmigration of souls, traces of which may still be found in the reverence paid to the robin, the wren, and other birds. Thus, in "The Merchant of Venice" (iv. 1), Gratiano says to Shylock:
"Thou almost makest me waver in my faith To hold opinion with Pythagoras That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, Infused itself in thee; for thy desires Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous."
Caliban, when remonstrating with the drunken Stephano and Trinculo, for delaying at the mouth of the cave of Prospero, instead of taking the magician's life ("Tempest," iv. 1), says:
"I will have none on't: we shall lose our time, And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes."
In "Hamlet" (iv. 5), in the scene where Ophelia, in her mental aberration, quotes snatches of old ballads, she says: "They say the owl was a baker's daughter! Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be."[81]
Again, in "Twelfth Night" (iv. 2), there is another reference in the amusing passage where the clown, under the pretence of his being "Sir Topas, the curate," questions Malvolio, when confined in a dark room, as a presumed lunatic:
"_Mal._ I am no more mad than you are: make the trial of it in any constant question.
_Clo._ What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl?