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And of thofe Demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whose power hath a true confent
With planet, or with element.

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95

Where tabernacle is fcriptural. Again, In OBIT. PRÆSUL. ELIENS.

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Spenfer calls the body the foul's " fleshly form." F. Q. iii. v. 23.
93. Or of thofe demons that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground:
Whofe power bath a true confent

With planet, or with element.] Undoubtedly thefe notions are from Plato's Timaeus and Phaedon, and the reveries of his old commentators: yet with fome reference to the Gothic fyftem of Demons, which is a mixture of Platonifm, fchool-divinity, and chriftian fuperftition. The doctrine of these spirits has been thus delivered. "There are fixe "kinds of Spirits between heaven and hell. The firit, who are those "that remained in the HIGHEST region of the AYRE, he calleth an"gels of FIRE, because they are neere vnto that region and perchance "within it. The second kind is from the MIDDLE region of the AYRE "downeward towards the earth. The third on the EARTH itselfe. "The fourth in the WATERS. The fifth in the caues or HOLLOW "VAUTES of the earth, &c." The SPANISH MANDEUILE of MYRACLES, &C. A tranflation from the Spanish, Lond. 1618. Disc. iii. p. 126. 4to. It is one of the vifions of Thomas Aquinas, that God permitted fome of the fallen angels, lefs guilty than the reft, in their defcent or precipitation from heaven, to remain in the air, fire, water, and earth, till the day of judgment. Drayton has the fame doctrine, POLYOLB. S. v. vol. ii. p. 757. Speaking of evil spirits.

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Some EARTHLY mixture take, as others which aspire
Them fubtler fhapes refume, of WATER, AIR, and FIRE;
Being thofe immortals long before the heav'n that fell,
Whofe deprivation thence determined their hell.

In conformity to this theory, Milton's Satan feated in "the middle region of thick air convokes his potentates or counsellors." PARAD. REG. B. ii. 121.

Princes, heaven's antient fons, ethereal thrones,
Demonian Spirits now, from th' element

Each

Sometime let gorgeous tragedy

In scepter'd pall come sweeping by,

Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd

Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath;
So may we hold our place, and those mild Seats
Without new troubles, &c.

And hence another paffage in the fame poem is to be interpreted. B. iv. 201. Where Satan means to prove the extent of his dominion, and his pretenfions to the name and power of a god.

Be not fo foon offended, fon of God,

Though fons of God both angels are and men,
If I, to try whether in higher fort

Than thefe thou bear'ft that title, have propos'd
What both from men and angels I receive,
TETRARCHS of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth
Nations befides from all the quarter'd winds,

God of this world invok'd, and god beneath, &c.

See alfo B. i. 39. 44. A Chorus in Andreino's drama, called ADAMO, written in 1617, confifts of Spirits of fire, air, water, and hell, or fubterraneous, being the exiled angels, "Choro di Spiriti ignei, aerei, "acquatici, ed infernali, &c." Thefe are the DEMONS to which Shakespeare alludes, HAML. A. i. S. i. Of the cock.

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Thefe Spirits were fuppofed to controul the elements in which they respectively refided; and, when formally invoked or commanded by a magician, to produce tempefts, conflagrations, floods, and earthquakes. For thus fays the SPANISH MANDEVILE, juft quoted. "Thofe which are in the middle region of the ayre, and those that are un"der them nearer the earth, are thofe, which fometimes out of the ordinary operation of nature doe moove the windes with greater "fury than they are accustomed; and do, out of season, congeele the "cloudes, caufing it to thunder, lighten, hayle, and to destroy the "graffe, corne, &c, &c. Witches and negromancers worke many "fuch like things by the help of thofe Spirits, &c." Ibid. p. 126. 127. Of this school was therefore Shakespeare's Profpero in the TEMPEST, A. iv. S. i. Who, by the help or agency of demons, affigned to various parts of nature, boasts to have

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Bedimm'd

The noontide fun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,

And

Presenting Thebes, or Pelops line,

Or the tale of Troy divine,

And 'twixt the green sea and the azure vault

Set roaring war to the dread-rattling thunder
Have I given fire, &c.—

100

And here perhaps Shakespeare's immediate fource was a paffage in
Boyardo's ORLANDO INAMORATO, " done into English heroicall verfe
"by R. T. Gentleman, 1598," 4to. B. i. ft. 50. Sign. C. 2. Angelica
binds the enchanter Malagigi, and feizes his book. [Orig. L.i.C.i.51.]
No fooner fhe fome wordes therein did found,
And open'd had fome damned leaves vnbleft;

But fprites of th' Ayre, Earth, Sea, came out of hand,
Crying alowde, what is't you vs command ?

Ariel is one of Profpero's agents. Burton fays, that the Spirits of FIRE, in form of fire-drakes and blazing-ftars," oftentimes fit on "fhipmafts, &c." MELANCH. P. i. §. 2. p. 30. edit. 1632. On this principle, and under the direction of her magician, Ariel, affuming a body of fire, works in the TEMPEST. A. i. S. iii.

Now in the wafte, the deck, in every cabin,

I FLAM'D amazement. Sometimes I'd divide,
And BURN in many places: on the top-maft,

The yards, and bolt-fprit, would I FLAME diftinctly.
Shakespeare affords other inftances. KING JOHN, A. iii. S. ii.

Some AIRY Devil hovers in the sky

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Had doctor Warburton attended to this particular fyftem of demonology, he would not have altered AIRY to fiery. In another place, he alludes to the demons under-ground, that is, to thofe of Satan's associates that were fentenced to live under the earth, FIRST P. HENR.VI. A. v. S. iv.

Now ye familiar Spirits, that are call'd,

Out of the powerful regions UNDER EARTH.

And just before, thefe fpirits were called

You fpeedy helpers, that are SUBSTITUTES
Under the lordly MONARCH of the NORTH.

That is, under Satan himself, who was condemned to the regions of the North.

The spirits which the necromancer Ifmeno invokes, to take poffeffion of the inchanted foreft, are fallen angels, who now controul the different elements which they inhabit. Taffo's GIER. LIB. C. xiii. 7.

Udite, Udite, o voi che de la ftella

Precipitar

Or what (through rare) of later age

Ennobled hath the buskin'd stage.

Precipitar giù i folgori tonanti;

Si voi che le tempefte e la procelle

Mouete, habitator de l'aria erranti, &c.

And in the eleventh ftanza, they are reprefented as reluctantly leaving their several elements to undertake this fervice, to which they are bound by their master Ifmeno. And the demons with which Imeno promifes to affift the Saracens, are fallen angels. C. ii. 4.

Gli angeli, chi dal cielo hebbero effiglio
Conftringero de la fatiche a parte, &c.

It is to a magic performed by the fame agency that Fletcher refers in the FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS, A. iv. S. i. vol. iii. p. 167.

O you great working Powers, of EARTH, and AIR,
WATER, and forming FIRE, why have ye lent

Your hidden virtue to fo ill intent?

And in the FAIR MAID of the INN, "Spirits of WATER in the like"nefs of frogs." A. iv. S. i. vol. ix. p. 401.

Michael Pfellus obferves, that these elementary demons are bent on mischief against men, "Tv aidos vπodúvtes nvvény," that is, "when "they have put on the helmet of hell." And he defcribes their different modes and powers of doing harm. ENEPT. AAIM, edit. Gaulmin. Parif. 1615. 12mo. pp. 46. 50. Hence their aptitude for the purposes of incantation.

I must add, that the notion of the fallen angels having a controul of the elements, feems to have fuggefted to Milton the idea in PARADISE LOST, that angels in an unfallen ftate had the fame fort of power. B. vi. 221.

Angels

On either fide, the leaft of whom would WIELD
Thefe ELEMENTS, and ARM him with the FORCE
Of all their REGIONS.

See alfo B. x. 660. iv. 940.

97. Sometimes let gorgeous Tragedy

In Scepter'd pall come freeping by.] By feepter'd pall, Doctor Newton underftands the PALLA HONESTA of Horace, ART. POET. 278.

Poft hunc perfonæ, PALLEQUE repertor HONESTÆ,

Æfchylus.

But Horace, I humbly apprehend, only means, that Efchylus introduced masks and better dreffes. PALLA HONESTA is fimply a decent

rabe.

But, O fad Virgin, that thy power

Might raise Mufæus from his bower,

robe. Milton means fomething more. By cloathing Tragedy in her SCEPTERED Pall, he intended fpecifically to point out REGAL STORIES the proper arguments of the higher drama. And this more expressly appears, from the fubjects immediately mentioned in the fubfequent couplet. Our author has alfo perfonified Tragedy, in the fame meaning, where he gives her a bloody fcepter, implying the diftreffes of kings, EL. i. 37.

Sive CRUENTATUM furiofa Tragedia SCEPTRUM
Quaffat, et effufis crinibus ora rotat.

He then illustrates or exemplifies his perfonification.
Seu mæret PELOPEA domus, feu nobilis ILI,
Seu luit inceftos AULA CREONTIs avos.

These four Latin verfes form the context now before us.
Sometimes let gorgeous Tragedy

In fcepter'd pall come fweeping by ;
Prefenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,

Or the Tale of Troy divine.

In PARADISE REGAINED, he particularifes the lofty grave tragedians of Athens. B. iv. 266. And these are they, who display the viciflitudes of human life by examples of GREAT MISFORTUNE,

HIGH actions and HIGH paffions best describing.

To fum up all of what our author has faid on this fubject in the TRACTATE OF EDUCATION, where he is speaking of heroic and tragic poetry, he recommends" Attic Tragedies of STATELIEST and "moft REGAL argument." Edit. 1673. p. 109. It may be further obferved, that Ovid, whom Milton in fome of his profe-pieces prefers to all the Roman poets befides, has also marked the true, at least original, province of tragedy, by giving her a Scepter. AMOR. L. iii. ii. 13.

Læva manus SCEPTRUM late REGALE tenebat.
Shakespeare has well expreffed the regal drama, in the Prologue to
HENRY THE EIGHTH, which he styles,

Sad, high, and working, full of STATE AND WOE,
Such NOBLE Scenes as draw the eye to flow.

And Sydney fays, that tragedy "openeth the greatest wounds, and "fheweth forth the vlcers that are couered with tissue." DEF. POES. P. 504. ARCAD. edit. 1598.

Í fear in this Note, I have been feebly, and perhaps unneceffarily, attempting to explain Horace's Art of Poetry, after Mr. Colman's

masterly

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