Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/413

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The Folklore of Shakespeare.
385

(1 Henry IV. ii. 4. 370). This was one of the four chief devils described by Scot (Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, Book 15, chap. 3). He was king of the east. The other three were Gorson, king of the south; Zimimar, king of the north; and Goap, king of the west. These, however, are not mentioned by Shakespeare. Scot gives the hours when these devils may be "restrained from dooing of hurt." He also gives a long list of important devils: "Marbas alias Barbas is a great President, and appeareth in the forme of a mighty lion." This devil is represented by Barbason in Henry V. (ii. 1. 57), where Nym says: "I am not Barbason, you cannot conjure me." Page also mentions him (Merry Wives, ii. 2. 311) when he cries out in anger, "Amaimon sounds well, Lucifer well, Barbason well, yet they are devils' additions, the names of fiends."

Cerberus, "a valiant marquesse."
Scot's Discoverie.

"Great Hercules is presented by this imp
Whose club kill'd Cerberus." L.L.L. v. 2. 593.

King Lear contains the names of many "foul fiends," and also of some who were not fiends at all, as Flibbertigibbet, who was a sprite and companion of the elves, and probably Hobbididance, whose name is like Hobgoblin. Most of these names occur in Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures, 1603. Edgar says:

"Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididance, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; and Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing!"
iv. I. 62.

"Peace, Smulkin ; peace, thou fiend!" iii. 4. 146.

" The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman : Modo he's call'd, and Mahu." iii. 4. 148.

"Frateretto calls me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness." iii. 6. 7.