COMEDY OF ERRORS.

the Shrew, (where the same kind of versification found,) among our author's earliest productions; co bably at a time when he was imperceptibly infected vailing mode, and before he had completely learned boldly from the common track." MALONE.

*МАСВЕТН.] In order to make a true estimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it is always necessary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who should now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the assistance of supernatural agents, would be censured as transgressing the bounds of probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead of tragedies; but a survey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakspeare was in no danger of such censures, since he only turned the system that was then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from overburdening the credulity of his audience.

The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. The phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, seems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical opposition, as they ascribed their success to the assistance of the military saints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe (Supplement to the Introduction to Don Quixote) that the first accounts of enchantments were brought into this part of the world by those who returned from their eastern expeditions. But there is always some distance between the birth and maturity of folly as of wickedness: this opinion had long existed, though perhaps the application of it had in no foregoing age been so frequent, nor the reception so general. Olympiodorus, in Photius's Extracts, tells us of one Libanius, who practised this kind of military magic, and having promised χώρις ὀπλλῶν καλα βαρτάρων ενεργεῖν, to perform great things against the Barbarians without soldiers, was, at the instance of the empress Placida, put to death, when he was about to have given proofs of his abilities. The empress showed some kindness in her anger, by cutting him off at a time so convenient for his reputation.

But a more remarkable proof of the antiquity of this notion may be found in St. Chrysostom's book de Sacerdotio, which exhibits a scene of enchantments not exceeded by any romance of the middle age: he supposes a spectator overlooking a field of battle, attended by one that points out all the various objects of horror, the engines of destruction, and the arts of slaughter.

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Δεικνύτο δὲ ἔτι παρὰ τοῖς ἐναντίοις καὶ πετομένες ἵππος διά τινος μ καὶ ὁπλίτας δὲ ἀέρος φερομένες, καὶ πάσην γοητείας δύναμιν Let him then proceed to show him in the opposite armies hor by enchantment, armed men transported through the air, power and form of magic. Whether St. Chrysostom beli such performances were really to be seen in a day of b only endeavoured to enliven his description, by adop notions of the vulgar, it is equally certain, that such noti in his time received, and that therefore they were not from the Saracens in a later age; the wars with the however gave occasion to their propagation, not only as big turally discovers prodigies, but as the scene of action was to a great

great distance.

The Reformation did not immediately arrive at its m and though day was gradually increasing upon us, the go witchcraft still continued to hover in the twilight. In the Queen Elizabeth was the remarkable trial of the wit Warbois, whose conviction is still commemorated in an sermon at Huntingdon. But in the reign of King Jan which this tragedy was written, many circumstances concu propagate and confirm this opinion. The King, who wa celebrated for his knowledge, had, before his arrival in E not only examined in person a woman accused of wito but had given a very formal account of the practices and il of evil spirits, the compacts of witches, the ceremonies u them, the manner of detecting them, and the justice of p ing them, in his dialogues of Demonologie, written Scottish dialect, and published at Edinburgh. This book soon after his succession, reprinted at London; and as the way to gain King James's favour was to flatter his speculation system of Dæmonologie was immediately adopted by all wh sired either to gain preferment or not to lose it. Thus the trine of witchcraft was very powerfully inculcated; and a greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opi than that they are in fashion, it cannot be doubted but this suasion made a rapid progress, since vanity and credulity operated in its favour. The infection soon reached the parliam who, in the first year of King James, made a law, by whi was enacted, chap. xii. That " if any person shall use any i cation or conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit; 2. or shall sult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose; 3. or take up dead man, woman, or child, out of the grave, or the s bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed or use any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantme 5. whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wasted, c sumed, pined, or lamed in any part of the body; 6. That ev