Folk-lore of Shakespeare

“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.

295

Cf. “Richard II.” i. 1.

296

Mr. Harting, in his “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” quotes an interesting correspondence from “Land and Water” (1869), on the subject.

297

See Sir Thomas Browne’s Works, 1852, vol. ii. pp. 1-4.

298

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 366, 367.

299

Cf. “The Tempest,” iii. 3; “All’s Well that Ends Well,” i. 1; “Antony and Cleopatra,” iii. 2; “Cymbeline,” i. 6.

300

Works, 1852, vol. i. pp. 277-284.

301

See Aldis Wright’s “Notes to The Tempest,” 1875, p. 129.

302

Daily Telegraph, January 31, 1880; see Southey’s “Commonplace Book,” 1849, 2d series, p. 447.

303

See Dove, pp. 114, 115.

304

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 704; Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 398; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 345; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vii. p. 264.

305

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 218.

306

Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 19, 97, 677; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 59, 60.

307

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 367.

308

Marsden’s “History of Sumatra,” 1811, p. 276.

309

Cf. “2 Henry VI.” iii. 2; “Troilus and Cressida,” v. 2.

310

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 211, 212.

311

“English Folk-lore,” 1878, p. 78.

312

See Hunt’s “Popular Romances of West of England,” 1881, p. 380.

313

Dyce’s “Glossary,” 1876, p. 288.

314

See Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” pp. 101, 102; Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” vol. ii. p. 581.

315

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 107.

316

Cf. “Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” ii. 2; “Twelfth Night,” v. 1.

317

“English Folk-Lore,” pp. 62-64; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 191; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 424; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 380.

318

Cf. Spenser’s “Epithalamium,” v. 8:

“The thrush replies, the mavis descant plays, The ouzell shrills, the ruddock warbles soft.”

319

Standard, January 26, 1877.

320

“English Folk-Lore,” p. 76.

321

Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, p. 122.

322

“Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 121.

323

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 36; the term “bully-rook” occurs several times in Shadwell’s “Sullen Lovers;” see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 58.

324

In Northamptonshire the word denotes an icicle, from its resemblance to the long bill of the bird so-called. – Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” 1854, vol. ii. p. 260.

325

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 653; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 320.

326

Derived from the French mouschet, of the same meaning.

327

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 593: Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 46. Turbervile tells us “the first name and terme that they bestowe on a falcon is an eyesse, and this name doth laste as long as she is an eyrie and for that she is taken from the eyrie.”

328

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 161.

329

Works, 1852, vol. i. p. 357.

330

“Musical Myths and Facts,” 1876, vol. i. p. 89.

331

“Instructions to Young Sportsmen,” 11th ed., p. 269.

332

See Baring-Gould’s “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” 1877, p. 561; Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” 1852, vol. iii. pp. 302-328.

333

Properly “tiercel gentle,” French, tiercelet; cf. “Troilus and Cressida,” iii. 2, “the falcon as the tercel.”

334

“Gentleman’s Recreation,” p. 19, quoted in Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 867.

335

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 508.

336

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 971.

337

See Willughby’s “Ornithology,” iii. section 1.

338

Minsheu’s “Guide into Tongues,” ed. 1617.

339

See Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” vol. ii. p. 178.

340

See page 165.

341

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 38.

342

“Glossary to Shakespeare,” 1876, p. 20.

343

“Asinico, a little ass,” Connelly’s “Spanish and English Dictionary,” Madrid, 4to.

344

“English Folk-Lore,” p. 115; cf. “Macbeth,” iii. 2.

345

Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, pp. 125, 126.

346

It has been speciously derived from the English word rear, in the sense of being able to raise itself in the air, but this is erroneous. Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 726.

347

Aldis Wright’s “Notes to A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” 1877, p. 101.

348

“Folk-Lore Record,” 1879, p. 201.

349

Jamieson’s “Scottish Dictionary,” 1879, vol. i p. 106.

350

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 189; Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” 1871, pp. 13, 14.

351

“Vulgar Errors,” 1852, vol. i. p. 247.

352

See Bartholomæus, “De Proprietate Rerum,” lib. xviii. c. 112; Aristotle, “History of Animals,” lib. vi. c. 31; Pliny’s “Natural History,” lib. viii. c. 54.

353

Steevens on this passage.

354

“Notes on Julius Cæsar,” 1878, p. 134.

355

“Notices Illustrative of the Drama and other Popular Amusements,” incidentally illustrating Shakespeare and his contemporaries, extracted from the MSS. of Leicester, by W. Kelly, 1865, p. 152.

356

No. 433. The document is given at length in Collier’s “Annals of the Stage,” vol. i. p. 35, note.

357

Kelly’s “Notices of Leicester,” p. 152.

358

Wright’s “Domestic Manners,” p. 304.

359

“Progresses and Processions,” vol. ii. p. 259.

360

About 1760 it was customary to have a bear baited at the election of the mayor. Corry, “History of Liverpool,” 1810, p. 93.

361

Edited by M. A. Thorns, 1853, p. 170.

362

For further information on this subject consult Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876; Kelly’s “Notices of Leicester,” pp. 152-159.

363

Chambers’s “Book of Days,” 1864, vol. ii. pp. 518, 519.

364

Hampson’s “Œvi Medii Kalendarium,” vol. i. p. 96.

365

See Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. xcviii. pp. 401, 402.

366

See “Book of Days,” vol. ii. pp. 517-519.

367

“Embossed” is a hunting term, properly applied to a deer when foaming at the mouth from fatigue, see p. 179; also Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 142; see Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 275.

368

Wright’s “Domestic Manners,” p. 304; see Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes;” Smith’s “Festivals, Games, and Amusements,” 1831, pp. 192-229.

369

“Book of Days,” vol. ii. p. 59.

370

Cf. “2 Henry IV.” ii. 2, “the town-bull.”

371

“Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” p. 267; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 7.

372

Malkin is a diminutive of “Mary;” “Maukin,” the same word, is still used in Scotland for a hare. “Notes to Macbeth,” by Clark and Wright, 1877, p. 75.

373

Sternberg’s “Dialect and Folk-Lore of Northamptonshire,” 1851, p. 148.

374

Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties” 1879, p. 206.

375

Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-Lore,” 1863, p. 238.

376

Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” 1851, vol. iii. p. 32.

377

Ibid., vol. ii. p. 32; vol. iii. pp. 26-236.

378

See Baring-Gould’s “Book of Werewolves,” 1869, p. 65.

379

Ibid., p. 66.

380

Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 70.

381

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 39; also Wright’s “Essays on the Superstitions of the Middle Ages,” 1846.

382

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. iii. p. 42.

383

Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 466.

384

From Tibert, Tib was also a common name for a cat.

385

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 41.

386

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 183.

387

A gibbe (an old male cat), Macou, Cotgrave’s “French and English Dictionary.”

388

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 360.

389

“Vulgar Errors,” bk. iii. p. 21, 1852; bk. i. p. 321, note.

390

Ovid (“Metamorphoses,” bk. xv. l. 411) speaks of its changes of color.

391

Cuvier’s “Animal Kingdom,” 1831, vol. ix. p. 226.

392

“Vulgar Errors,” bk. iii. p. 7.

393

See “Cymbeline,” ii. 4; “Winter’s Tale,” i. 2.

394

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p 173.

395

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 29; see “1 Henry IV.,” ii. 3, “of basilisks, of cannon, culverin.”

396

“Handbook Index to Shakespeare.”

397

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. x. p. 118.

398

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 66, 75, 79, 80, 113, 117.

399

See “As You Like It,” iv. 2; “All’s Well That Ends Well,” v. 2; “Macbeth,” iv. 3; “1 Henry IV.,” v. 4; “1 Henry VI.,” iv. 2; “2 Henry VI.,” v. 2; “Titus Andronicus,” iii. 1, etc.

400

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. viii. p. 421

401

Chappell’s “Popular Music of the Olden Time,” 2d ed. vol. i. p. 61; see Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 432; see, too, Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 440.

402

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 401.

403

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 65.

404

“De Proprietate Rerum,” lib. xviii. c. 30.

405

Cf. Vergil’s description of the wounded stag in “Æneid,” bk. vii.

406

Commentary on Bartholomæus’s “De Proprietate Rerum.”

407

The drops which fall from their eyes are not tears from the lachrymal glands, but an oily secretion from the inner angle of the eye close to the nose. – Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,” p. 217.