RAVENS' FEATHERS. lOJ 



We read in the First Book of Kings, xvii. 4, that when 

 the prophet Elijah fled from the tyranny of King Ahab, 

 and concealed himself by the brook Cherith, God com- 

 manded the ravens to feed him there. The remembrance 

 of this passage may have been in our poet's mind when he 

 penned the following lines in the Winter's Tale.. Anti- 

 gonus, ordered by Leontes to expose the infant Perdita 

 to death, says, with a touch of pity : — 



" Come on, poor babe : 

 Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens 



To be thy nurses ! " 



Winter's Tale, Act ii. Sc. 3. 



As in the case of the owl, it appears that ravens' feathers 

 were employed by the witches of old in their incantations ; 

 for it was believed that the wings of this bird carried 

 contagion with them wherever they appeared. Marlowe, 

 in his Jew of Malta, speaks of — 



. " the sad presaging raven, that tolls 

 The sick man's passport in her hollow beak, 

 And in the shadow of the silent night 

 Doth shake contagion from her sable wings." 



Hence the curse which Shakespeare puts into the mouth 



of Caliban : — 



" As wicked dew as e'er my»mother brush'd 



With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, 



Drop on you both !" 



Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. 



