This night who my husband shall be."
The credulity of the country was particularly directed at this period, including the close of the sixteenth century, and the beginning of the seventeenth century, towards the numerous relations of the existence of MONSTERS of various kinds; and Shakspeare, who more than any other poet, availed himself of the superstitious follies of his time, hath repeatedly both introduced, and satirized, these objects, as articles of, and exciters of the popular belief. His Caliban, a monster
of his own creation, and, poetically considered, one of the most striking products of his imagination, will be noticed at length in another place, and we shall here confine ourselves to his description of the monsters which, as objects of historical record, had lately become the theme of credulous wonder, and general speculation.
Othello, in his speech before the senators, familiarly alludes to
—— "the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders:"[385:A]
and Gonzaga, in the Tempest, exclaims:
"Who would believe that there were mountaineers,
Dewlapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them