and, in invoking the various elves, he speaks of those
"that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew;"[525:C]
a doctrine which is still more minutely expressed in other dramas of our poet. In Hamlet, for instance, we are told that, at "the crowing of the cock,"
"The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine;"[525:D]
and in King Lear, that the foul "fiend Flibbertigibbet begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock."[526:A]
One principal reason for the reluctancy expressed by Ariel and his associates was, that they were driven, by the irresistible control of the magician, to perform deeds often alien to their dispositions, and to which, if left to themselves, they were either partially or totally inadequate, and, indeed, for the most part utterly averse. We accordingly find Prospero, in his celebrated invocation to these various ministers of his art, addressing them in a tone of high authority; "by 'your' aid," he exclaims,
"(Weak masters though ye be) I have be-dimm'd
The noon-tide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,