OBSERVANCES OP SHAKSPEARE. 37 



deceit in so superstitious and ignorant an era. The same piercing 

 glance penetrated what was true and what was false, and though 

 he so often represents supernatural and strange creations, they are 

 strictly fictitious ; and while he advanced truth he repudiated error, 

 even where ignorance was excusable. In this respect our poet dif- 

 fered from the philosophers, Bacon and Boyle, whose faith therein 

 is frequently observable. In the magical play of The Tempest, 

 Shakspeare availed himself of the strange superstitions of his times, 

 and even borrowed the outline from the histories which travellers 

 had written. The scene is laid in one of the Bermuda Isles. The 

 following may be interesting to the reader : — In the year 1609, Sir 

 George Sommers voyaged to the Bermudas, and was shipwrecked, 

 the account of which was published by Silvester Jourdan, an eye- 

 witness. The pamphlet was styled, A Discovery of the Bermudas, 

 or Isle of Devils, &c. &c. Stowe, in his Annals, has this singular 

 passage, relating also to the same event : — " Sir George Sommers, 

 sitting at the stearne, seeing the ship desperate of relief, looking 

 every minute when the ship would sinke, hee espied land, which 

 according to his and Captain Newport's opinion, they judged it 

 should be the dreadfull coast of the Bermodes, which islands were 

 of all nations said and supposed to bee enchanted and inhabited with 

 witches and devills, &c. &c." The name of The Tempest, is even 

 supposed to have been borrowed from this recital " of the still- vext 

 Bermoothes." 



Thus, also, in Othello's account of the " anthropophagi, and men 

 whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders," it is given as an 

 exaggerated tale, and arose from the monstrous fables which hung 

 over the Indian shores, then recently discovered. We see how far 

 these tales were credited by Shakspeare, when he turns them to 

 ridicule. 



<* Sebastian. — Now I will believe 

 That there are unicorns ; that in Arabia 

 There is one tree, the phoenix' throne ; one phoenix 

 At this hour reigning there. 



Antonio. — I'll believe both; 

 And what does else want credit, come to me, 

 And I'll be sworn 'tis true : travellers ne'er did lie, 

 Though fools at home condemn them." 



Thus the poet takes as agency what is necessary to his play, but 

 merely as fiction. The Tempest is a dream or phantasy, in which 

 sublime truths and natural observances are interwoven with our 

 affections and superstitions. 



