Among other items of witch-lore mentioned by Shakespeare may be noticed the common belief in the intercourse between demons and witches, to which Prospero alludes in the “Tempest” (i. 2):
“Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!”
This notion is seriously refuted by Scot in his “Discovery of Witchcraft” (book iv.), where he shows it to be “flat knavery.”
The offspring of a witch was termed “Hag-seed,” and as such is spoken of by Prospero in the “Tempest” (i. 2).
Witches were also in the habit of saying their prayers backwards: a practice to which Hero refers in “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 1), where, speaking of Beatrice, she says:
“I never yet saw man,
How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward.”
Familiar spirits[71] attending on magicians and witches were always impatient of confinement.[72] So in the “Tempest” (i. 2) we find an illustration of this notion in the following dialogue:
“Prospero. What is’t thou canst demand?
Ariel.My liberty.
Prospero. Before the time be out? No more.”