Hark, (exclaims Ariel) they roar.
Prospero. Let them be hunted soundly."[378:A]
The punishments which our poet has assigned to sinners in the infernal regions, are most probably founded on the fictions of the monks, who, not content with the infliction of mere fire as a source of torment, condemn the damned to suffer the alternations of heat and cold; to experience the cravings of extreme hunger and thirst, and to be driven by whirlwinds through the immensity of space. In correspondence with these legendary horrors, are the descriptions attributed to Claudio in Measure for Measure, and to the Ghost in Hamlet:—
"Claudio. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot:
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside,
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,