Note 502:B — Chapter XII
Reading edition
The idea of the witch, says Mr. Steevens, might have been caught from Dionyse Settle's Reporte of the Last Voyage of Captaine Frobisher, 12mo. bl. l. 1577. He is speaking of a woman found on one of the islands described:—"The old wretch, whome divers of our Saylers supposed to be a Divell, or a Witche, plucked off her buskins, to see if she were clouen footed, and for her ougly hewe and deformitie, we let her goe."—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 33. Steevens.
Eden tells us in his History of Travayle, 1577, that "the giantes, when they found themselves fettered, roared like bulls, and cried upon Setebos to help them."—Ibid. vol. iv. p. 43. note by Farmer.
Mr. Douce thinks that the name of Caliban's mother, Sycorax, was probably taken by Shakspeare from the following passage in Batman uppon Bartholome, 1582:—"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.—Illustrations, vol. i. p. 8.