WITCHCRAFT
The art is old and new, for verily
All ages have been taught the matter.
ADDISON says that among all the poets who deal with fairies, witches, magicians, demons, and departed spirits, the English are much the best, "and among the English Shakspere has incomparably excelled all others. There is something so wild and yet so solemn in his speeches of his ghosts, fairies, witches, and the like imaginary persons, that we cannot forbear thinking them natural, ... and must confess, if there are such beings in the world, it looks highly probable that they would talk and act as he has represented them."
As Addison saw his fatal day thirty years before Goethe's natal star arose, he could not compare the prince of German poets with others; but if the ruling sentiment of modern critics may be accepted, Shakspere's ghosts and witches still maintain their superiority. These are "the secret, black, and midnight hags" that brewed the charm for Duncan's murder, and the familiar but ever awe-inspiring ghost of Hamlet's father:
I am thy father's spirit.
Doomed for a certain time to walk the night.
But the fancies of poets can give no help to him who deals with one of the darkest tragedies of
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