Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

airy “devil hovers in the sky—Some,” KING JOHN, iii. 2. 2. Here, in defence of the epithetairy, the commentators cite from Burton'sAnatomy of Melancholy, “Aerial spirits or devils are such as keep quarter most part in the aire, cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings, tear oakes, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones,” Part i., sect. 2, p. 46, ed. 1660 ; and from Nash's Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Diuell, “The spirits of the aire wil mix themselues with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clime where they raise any tempest, that suddenly great mortalitie shall ensue of the inhabitants,” Sig. H 3, ed. 1595. but see note.