The spirits or familiars attending on magicians were always impatient of confinement. Thus we are told that the spirit Balkin is wearied if the action wherein he is employed continue longer than an hour; and therefore the magician must be careful to dismiss him. The form of such a dismission may be seen in Scot's _Discovery of witchcraft_, edit. 1665, folio, p. 228. SCENE 2. Page 35. PRO. ... My _quaint_ Ariel. Quaint here means _brisk_, _spruce_, _dexterous_. From the French _cointe_. SCENE 2. Page 35. CAL. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholsome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on you, And blister you all o'er! The following passage in Batman _uppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum_, 1582, folio, will not only throw considerable light on these lines, but furnish at the same time grounds for a conjecture that Shakspeare was indebted to it, with a slight alteration, for the name of Caliban's mother Sycorax the witch. "The raven is called corvus of CORAX ... it is said that _ravens birdes_ be fed with _deaw_ of heaven all the time that they have no black _feathers_ by benefite of age." Lib. xii. c. 10. The same author will also account for the choice which is made, in the monster's speech, of the _South-west wind_. "This _Southern wind_ is hot and moyst.... _Southern winds_ corrupt and destroy; they heat and maketh men fall into sicknesse." Lib. xi. c. 3. It will be seen in the course of these notes that Shakspeare was extremely well acquainted with this work; and as it is likely hereafter to form an article in a Shakspearean library, it may be worth adding that in a private diary written at the time, the original price of the volume appears to have been eight shillings. SCENE 2. Page 36. PRO. ... _urchins_ Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee. Although _urchins_ sometimes means hedge-hogs, it is more probable that in this place they denote fairies or spirits, and that Mr. Malone is right in the explanation which he has given. The present writer's former note must therefore be cancelled, as should, according to his conception, such part of Mr. Steevens's as relates to the hedge-hog. The same term both in the next act, and in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, is used in a similar sense.