"Some say that, ever against that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad."
433. ~In fog or fire~, etc. Comp. _Il Pens._ 93, "those demons that are
found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different
orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in
his _Anat. of Mel._, quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds
of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and
subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc."
434. ~meagre hag~, lean witch. _Hag_ is from A.S. _haegtesse_, a
prophetess or witch. Comp. _Par. Lost_, ii. 662; _M. W. of W._ iv. 2.
188, "Come down, you witch, you _hag_." ~unlaid ghost~, unpacified or
wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of
spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see _Temp._
v. 1. 40; _King Lear_, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend
Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his
matin rings" (_L'Alleg._ 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. _couvre-feu_ = fire-cover),
the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a
signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished.
436. ~swart faery of the mine~. In Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ we read,
"Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm.
Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are
commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old
writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines
there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the
labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also _swarty_, _swarth_, and _swarthy_)
here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits
were called the _Svartalfar_, or black elves. Comp. _Lyc._ 138, "the
_swart_ star," where 'swart' = swart making.
438. ~Do ye believe~. _Ye_ is properly a second person plural, but (like
_you_) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, §
236.
439. ~old schools of Greece~. The brother now turns for his arguments from
the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of
Greece.