_Adriana._ His incivility confirms no less-- Good doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer; Establish him in his true sense again, And I will please you what you will demand.
_Luciana._ Alas, how fiery and how sharp he looks!
_Courtesan._ Mark how he trembles in his ecstasy!
_Pinch._ Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.
_Ant. E._ There is my hand, and let it feel your ear.
_Pinch._ I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man, To yield possession to my holy prayers, And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight: I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven."
"They must be bound, and laid in some dark room."
As Brand remarks,[84] there is no vulgar story of the devil's having appeared anywhere without a cloven foot. In graphic representations he is seldom or never pictured without one. In the following passage, where Othello is questioning whether Iago is a devil or not, he says (v. 2):
"I look down towards his feet;--but that's a fable.-- If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee."
[84] "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 517-519.
Dr. Johnson gives this explanation: "I look towards his feet to see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven."
In Massinger's "Virgin Martyr" (iii. 3), Harpax, an evil spirit, following Theophilus in the shape of a secretary, speaks thus of the superstitious Christian's description of his infernal enemy:
"I'll tell you what now of the devil: He's no such horrid creature; cloven-footed, Black, saucer-ey'd, his nostrils breathing fire, As these lying Christians make him."
It was formerly commonly believed that not only kingdoms had their tutelary guardians, but that every person had his particular genius or good angel, to protect and admonish him by dreams, visions, etc.[85] Hence, in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 3), the soothsayer, speaking of Cæsar, says:
"O Antony, stay not by his side: Thy demon,--that's thy spirit which keeps thee,--is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Cæsar's is not; but, near him, thy angel Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd."
Thus Macbeth (iii. 1) speaks in a similar manner in reference to Banquo:
"There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and, under him, My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Cæsar."