Page:The Twelve Nights (1831).djvu/25

 THE EVE OF WALPURGIS*. PART I.

—>— “Ces récits fabuleux Qu’aux lueurs de la lampe au vague effroi propices, Le soir près du foyer racontent les nourrices.”

a cold, dark, rainy, windy, dismal, diabolical night, (we hope the reader will accept the numerical force of our adjuncts in lieu of a poetical description,)—on such a night then, the streets of


 * The Eve of Walpurgis is celebrated in the annals of German superstition. According to popular tradition, on that night (from 30th of April to 1st of May) sorcerers and witches assemble to perform their infernal rites. The theatre of this ceremony has been placed by old legends on the summit of Mount Blockeberg, one of the Harz Mountains. B2