Frank Sidgwick

Name: The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' — Discovery of Witchcraft
Author: Frank Sidgwick

The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

Summary

“The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' — Discovery of Witchcraft”, published in 1908, is a work by Frank Sidgwick. It explores elements such as Robin Goodfellow, witch and ass.

Quotes from The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (Frank Sidgwick)

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ The ass, or young man—I cannot tell by which name I should term him—being many times repelled, and understanding their words that called him ass, considering that he could speak never a word and yet could understand everybody, he thought that he was bewitched by the woman at whose house he was. And therefore, when by no means he could get into the boat, but was driven to tarry and see her departure, being also beaten from place to place as an ass, he remembered the witch's words, and the words of his own fellows that called him ass, and returned to the witch's house ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ The Rabbins and, namely, Rabbi Abraham, writing upon the second of Genesis, do say that God made the fairies, bugs, Incubus, Robin Goodfellow, and other familiar or domestic spirits and devils on the Friday; and being prevented with the evening of the Sabbath, finished them not, but left them unperfect; and that therefore, that ever since they use to fly the holiness of the Sabbath, seeking dark holes in mountains and woods, wherein they hide themselves till the end of the Sabbath, and then come abroad to trouble and molest men. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ The Fairies do principally inhabit the mountains and caverns of the earth, whose nature is to make strange apparitions on the earth, in meadows or on mountains, being like men and women, soldiers, kings, and ladies, children and horsemen, clothed in green, to which purpose they do in the night steal hempen stalks from the fields where they grow, to convert them into horses, as the story goes.... ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ In the meantime many of the soldiers and mariners went to shore, to provide fresh victuals; among which number a certain Englishman, being a sturdy young fellow, went to a woman's house, a little way out of the city, and not far from the sea-side, to see whether she had any eggs to sell. Who, perceiving him to be a lusty young fellow, a stranger, and far from his country (so as, upon the loss of him, there would be the less miss or enquiry) , she considered with herself how to destroy him; and willed him to stay there awhile, whilst she went to fetch a few eggs for him. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ Know you this by the way, that heretofore Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin were as terrible, and also as credible to the people, as hags and witches be now: and in time to come a witch will be as much derided and contemned, and as plainly perceived, as the illusion and knavery of Robin Goodfellow. And in truth, they that maintain walking spirits with their transformation, &c, have no reason to deny Robin Goodfellow, upon whom there hath gone as many and as credible tales as upon witches ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ Such jocund and facetious spirits are said to sport themselves in the night by tumbling and fooling with servants and shepherds in country houses, pinching them black and blue, and leaving bread, butter, and cheese sometimes with them, which, if they refuse to eat, some mischief shall undoubtedly befall them by the means of these Fairies ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ Ovid affirmeth that they can raise and suppress lighting and thunder, rain and hail, clouds and winds, tempests and earthquakes. Others do write that they can pull down the moon and the stars.... They can also bring to pass, that, churn as long as you list, your butter will not come. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Frank Sidgwick, The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (1908)

“ They [our mothers' maids] have so fraid us with bull-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, fauns, sylens, Kit with the canstick [2] , tritons, centaurs, dwarfs, giants, imps, calkers, conjurors, nymphs, changelings, Incubus, Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the mare, the man in the oak, the hell-wain, the fire-drake, the puckle, Tom Thumb, hobgoblin, Tom tumbler, boneless, and other such beings, that we are afraid of our own shadows."
Book XIII, chap. xix. [To set an horse's or an ass's head on a man's neck and shoulders.] ”

Frank Sidgwick

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Quotes from The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream'… (Frank Sidgwick)

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