Folk-lore of Shakespeare

149

Polwhele’s “Cornish Vocabulary.”

150

Cf. “Macbeth,” iii. 4, “O, these flaws and starts.”

151

See Harland and Wilkinson’s “Lancashire Folk-Lore,” 1867, pp. 116-121; “Notes and Queries,” 1st series, vol. viii. p. 224; “Penny Cyclopædia,” vol. vii. p. 206, article “Cirripeda.”

152

Nares’s “Glossary,” 1872, vol. i. p. 56.

153

See Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” 1871, pp. 246-257.

154

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” 1871, p. 252.

155

See “Philosophical Transactions” for 1835; Darwin’s “Monograph of the Cirrhipedia,” published by the Ray Society; a paper by Sir J. Emerson Tennent in “Notes and Queries,” 1st series, vol. viii. p. 223; Brand’s “Popular Antiquities,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 361, 362; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 14.

156

See Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” 2d edition, vol. i. p. 218; “Dialect of Leeds,” 1862, p. 329. In “Hamlet” (iii. 2), some modern editions read “ouzle;” the old editions all have weasel, which is now adopted.

157

Miss Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” 1854, vol. i. p. 94. See Nares’s “Glossary,” 1872, vol. i. p. 124; and “Richard III.,” i. 1.

158

Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 144; Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 187. The term finch, also, according to some, may mean either the bullfinch or goldfinch.

159

See Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” 2d edition, vol. ii. p. 58.

160

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 156; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. v. p. 115; Dyce’s “Glossary,” 1876, p. 77.

161

Mr. Dyce says that if Dr. Latham had been acquainted with the article “Chouette,” in Cotgrave, he would not probably have suggested that Shakespeare meant here the lapwing or pewit. Some consider the magpie is meant. See Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 83. Professor Newton would read “russet-patted,” or “red-legged,” thinking that Shakespeare meant the chough.

162

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 162; Singer’s “Notes to Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. v. p. 42.

163

Massinger’s Works, 1813, vol. i. p. 281.

164

“Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 86.

165

Miss Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” 1854, vol. i. p. 116.

166

“Coriolanus,” iv. 5; “Troilus and Cressida,” i. 2; “Much Ado About Nothing,” ii. 3; “Twelfth Night,” iii. 4; “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” v. 2, song; “1 Henry VI.” ii. 4.

167

Swainson’s “Weather-Lore,” 1873, p. 240.

168

Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, p. 48.

169

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 438.

170

See Ibid.

171

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 51-57; Hampson’s “Medii Œvi Kalendarium,” vol. i. p. 84.

172

1st series, vol. iii. p. 404.

173

“Medii Œvi Kalendarium,” vol. i. p. 85.

174

Roberts’s “Social History of Southern Counties of England,” 1856, p. 421; see “British Popular Customs,” 1876, p. 65.

175

Nares’s “Glossary,” 1872, vol. i. p. 203.

176

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. ix. p. 256; Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 112.

177

Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 85.

178

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 290.

179

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 171.

180

It is also an ale-house sign.

181

See Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 85.

182

See “Book of Days,” 1863, vol. i. p. 157.

183

In “King Lear” (iv. 6), where Edgar says:

“Yond tall anchoring bark,

Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoy

Almost too small for sight.”

the word “cock” is an abbreviation for cock-boat.

184

For superstitions associated with this bird, see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 218.

185

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 260.

186

See “Folk-Lore Record,” 1879, vol. i. p. 52; Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, pp. 25, 126, 277.

187

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 208.

188

Cf. “Henry IV.,” iv. 2.

189

Miss Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 161; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 393.

190

Cf. “Romeo and Juliet,” i. 5.

191

“A cuckold being called from the cuckoo, the note of that bird was supposed to prognosticate that destiny.” – Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 212.

192

Engel’s “Musical Myths and Facts,” 1876, vol. i. p. 9.

193

See Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-Lore,” 1863, p. 99; “English Folk-Lore,” 1879, pp. 55-62.

194

See Mary Howitt’s “Pictorial Calendar of the Seasons,” p. 155; Knight’s “Pictorial Shakespeare,” vol. i. pp. 225, 226.

195

Chambers’s “Book of Days,” vol. i. p. 531.

196

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 201.

197

“Asinaria,” v. 1.

198

Nares, in his “Glossary” (vol. i. p. 212), says: “Cuckold, perhaps, quasi cuckoo’d, i. e., one served; i. e., forced to bring up a brood that is not his own.”

199

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. ix. p. 294.

200

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” pp. 190, 191.

201

Sir W. Raleigh’s “History of the World,” bk. i. pt. i. ch. 6.

202

Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 329.

203

There is an allusion to the proverbial saying, “Brag is a good dog, but Hold-fast is a better.”

204

In the same scene we are told,

“A lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind.”

Cf. “Romeo and Juliet,” iii. 5; “Richard II.,” iii. 3.

205

Quoted by Harting, in “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 24.

206

Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-Lore,” pp. 75, 79.

207

Cf. “Antony and Cleopatra,” ii. 2: “This was but as a fly by an eagle.”

208

Josephus, “De Bello Judico,” iii. 5.

209

Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 33.

210

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 378.

211

“Execration against Vulcan,” 1640, p. 37.

212

Singer’s “Notes,” 1875, vol. i. p. 283.

213

See “Archæologia,” vol. iii. p. 33.

214

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 693. Some think that the bullfinch is meant.

215

Singer’s “Notes,” 1875, vol. v. p. 82; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 433.

216

Some doubt exists as to the derivation of gull. Nares says it is from the old French guiller. Tooke holds that gull, guile, wile, and guilt are all from the Anglo-Saxon “wiglian, gewiglian,” that by which any one is deceived. Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 267.

217

See D’Israeli’s “Curiosities of Literature,” vol. iii. p. 84.

218

See Thornbury’s “Shakespeare’s England,” vol. i. pp. 311-322.

219

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 394.

220

Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 269.

221

Aldis Wright’s “Notes to ‘The Tempest’,” 1875, pp. 120, 121.

222

See Dyce’s “Shakespeare,” vol. i. p. 245.

223

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 60-97, and “Book of Days,” 1863, vol. ii. pp. 211-213; Smith’s “Festivals, Games, and Amusements,” 1831, p. 174.

224

“A hawk full-fed was untractable, and refused the lure – the lure being a thing stuffed to look like the game the hawk was to pursue; its lure was to tempt him back after he had flown.”

225

In the same play (iv. 2) Hortensio describes Bianca as “this proud disdainful haggard.” See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 197; Cotgrave’s “French and English Dictionary,” sub. “Hagard;” and Latham’s “Falconry,” etc., 1658.

226

“To whistle off,” or dismiss by a whistle; a hawk seems to have been usually sent off in this way against the wind when sent in pursuit of prey.

227

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 77; see “Twelfth Night,” ii. 5.

228

The use of the word is not quite the same here, because the voyage was Hamlet’s “proper game,” which he abandons. “Notes to Hamlet,” Clark and Wright, 1876, p. 205.

229

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 456; Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 39; Tuberville’s “Booke of Falconrie,” 1611, p. 53.

230

Also in i. 2 we read:

“And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show’d like a rebel’s whore.”

Some read “quarry;” see “Notes to Macbeth.” Clark and Wright, p. 77. It denotes the square-headed bolt of a cross-bow; see Douce’s “Illustrations,” 1839, p. 227; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 206.

231

See Spenser’s “Fairy Queen,” book i. canto xi. l. 18:

“Low stooping with unwieldy sway.”

232

Ed. Dyce, 1857, p. 5.

233

See “3 Henry VI.” i. 1.

234

A quibble is perhaps intended between bate, the term of falconry, and abate, i. e., fall off, dwindle. “Bate is a term in falconry, to flutter the wings as preparing for flight, particularly at the sight of prey.” In ‘1 Henry IV.’ (iv. 1):

“‘All plumed like estridges, that with the wind Bated, like eagles having lately bathed.’”

– Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 60.

235

“Unmann’d” was applied to a hawk not tamed.

236

See Singer’s “Notes to Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. x. p. 86; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 448.

237

See passage in “Taming of the Shrew,” iv. 1, already referred to, p. 122.

238

Also in same play, i. 3.

239

Turbervile, in his “Booke of Falconrie,” 1575, gives some curious directions as “how to seele a hawke;” we may compare similar expressions in “Antony and Cleopatra,” iii. 13; v. 2.

240

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. pp. 777, 778; cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, “Philaster,” v. 1.

241

Imp, from Anglo-Saxon, impan, to graft. Turbervile has a whole chapter on “The way and manner how to ympe a hawke’s feather, howsoever it be broken or bruised.”

242

Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakspeare,” p. 72.

243

The reading of the folios here is stallion; but the word wing, and the falconer’s term checks, prove that the bird must be meant. See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 832.

244

See kestrel and sparrow-hawk.

245

“Notes to Hamlet,” Clark and Wright, 1876, p. 159.

246

Ray’s “Proverbs,” 1768, p. 196.

247

Quoted in “Notes to Hamlet,” by Clark and Wright, p. 159; see Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 416.

248

That is, made by art: the creature not of nature, but of painting; cf. “Taming of the Shrew,” iv. 3; “The Tempest,” ii. 2.

249

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 482.

250

Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 74.

251

“Notes,” vol. iii. pp. 357, 358.

252

“Description of England,” vol. i. p. 162.

253

“Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 88.

254

Sir Thomas Browne’s “Vulgar Errors,” bk. iii. chap. 10.

255

Also to the buzzard, which see, p. 100.

256

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. iv. p. 67.

257

“Glossary,” p. 243.

258

“Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 495; see Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” 2d edition, vol. ii. p. 482.

259

Ray’s “Proverbs,” 1768, p. 199.

260

Cf. “Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (iv. 1). “the morning lark;” “Romeo and Juliet” (iii. 5), “the lark, the herald of the morn.”

261

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 886; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 217.

262

Chambers’s “Popular Rhymes of Scotland,” 1870, p. 192.

263

See “English Folk-Lore,” p. 81.

264

Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” p. 127.

265

Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” vol. ii. p. 34; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, pp. 215, 216; see also Harland and Wilkinson’s “Lancashire Folk-Lore,” 1867, pp. 143, 145.

266

“Atmospherical Researches,” 1823, p. 262.

267

Sir Thomas Browne’s Works, 1852, vol. i. p. 378.

268

See “Book of Days,” vol. i. p. 515.

269

Southey’s “Commonplace Book.” 5th series. 1851, p. 305.

270

Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” bk. vi. ll. 455-676; “Titus Andronicus,” iv. 1.

271

Cf. “Lucrece,” ll. 1079, 1127.

272

See Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” 1856, vol. i. p. 30; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 620; also Pennant’s “British Zoology;” see Peele’s Play of the “Battle of Alcazar” (ii. 3), 1861, p. 28.

273

Called estridge in “1 Henry IV.” iv. 1.

274

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 365.

275

“Animal Kingdom,” 1829, vol. viii. p. 427.

276

See Sir Thomas Browne’s Works, 1852, vol. i. pp. 334-337.

277

“Æneid,” bk. iv. l. 462.

278

“Metamorphoses,” bk. v. l. 550; bk. vi. l. 432; bk. x. l. 453; bk. xv. l. 791.

279

“2 Henry VI.” iii. 2; iv. 1.

280

“Titus Andronicus,” ii. 3.

281

Cf. “Lucrece,” l. 165; see Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” vol. i. p. 122.

282

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 209.

283

The spelling of the folios is “howlets.” In Holland’s translation of Pliny (chap. xvii. book x.), we read “of owlls or howlets.” Cotgrave gives “Hulotte.”

284

Halliwell-Phillipps’s, “Handbook Index,” 1866, p. 354.

285

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 302.

286

See Singer’s “Notes to The Tempest,” 1875, vol. i. p. 82.

287

See Gentleman’s Magazine, November, 1804, pp. 1083, 1084. Grimm’s “Deutsche Mythologie.”

288

See Dasent’s “Tales of the Norse,” 1859, p. 230.

289

“Hudibras,” pt. i. ch. i.

290

In “Much Ado About Nothing” (i. 1), Benedick likens Beatrice to a “parrot-teacher,” from her talkative powers.

291

This is the reading adopted by Singer.

292

“Notes to Hamlet,” Clark and Wright, 1876, pp. 179, 180.

293

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 645; Singer’s “Notes,” vol. ix. p. 228.

294

Cf. “Troilus and Cressida,” iii. 3.