ntry, one of the most
deep-rooted being palmistry, several allusions to which are made by
Shakespeare.

According to a popular belief current in years past, a trembling of the
body was supposed to be an indication of demoniacal possession. Thus, in
the "Comedy of Errors" (iv. 4) the Courtezan says of Antipholus of
Ephesus:

"Mark how he trembles in his ecstasy!"

and Pinch adds:

"I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man,
To yield possession to my holy prayers,
And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight;
I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven!"

In "The Tempest" (ii. 2), Caliban says to Stephano, "Thou dost me yet
but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I know it by thy trembling."

It was formerly supposed that our bodies consisted of the four
elements--fire, air, earth, and water, and that all diseases arose from
derangement in the due proportion of these elements. Thus, in Antony's
eulogium on Brutus, in "Julius Caesar" (v. 5), this theory is alluded to:

"His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'"

In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3) it is also noticed:

"_Sir Toby._ Do not our lives consist of the four elements?

_Sir Andrew._ 'Faith, so they say; but I think, it rather
consists of eating and drinking.

_Sir Toby._ Thou art a scholar; let us therefore eat and
drink. Marian, I say!--a stoop of wine!"

In "Antony and Cleopatra" (v. 2), Shakespeare makes the latter say:

"I am fire, and air, my other elements
I give to baser life."

This theory is the subject, too, of Sonnets xliv. and xlv., and is set
forth at large in its connection with physic in Sir Philip Sidney's
"Arcadia:"

"O elements, by whose (men say) contention,
Our bodies be in living power maintained,
Was this man's death the fruit of your dissension?
O physic's power, which (some say) hath restrained
Approach of death, alas, thou keepest meagerly,
When once one is for Atropos distrained.
Great be physicians' brags, but aide is beggarly
When rooted moisture fails, or groweth drie;
They leave off all, and say, death comes too eagerly.
They are but words therefore that men doe buy
Of any, since God Esculapius ceased."

This notion was substantially adopted by Galen, and embraced by the
physicians of the olden times.[898]

[898] See Bucknill's "