Folk-lore of Shakespeare

408

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 183.

409

These dogs were kept for baiting bears, when that amusement was in vogue, and “from their terrific howling they are occasionally introduced to heighten the horror of the picture.” Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 50.

410

See Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-Lore,” p. 109.

411

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

412

See “English Folk-Lore,” p. 101.

413

See Hardwick’s “Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,” p. 171.

414

“Myths and Mythmakers,” 1873, p. 36.

415

“Nares’s Glossary,” vol. i. p. 218.

416

For the various versions of this myth consult Baring-Gould’s “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” 1877, pp. 266-316.

417

Cf. “Troilus and Cressida,” v. 8; “Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” iii. 2.

418

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 363.

419

“Demonology and Devil-Lore,” 1880, vol. i. p. 383.

420

The dragon formerly constituted a part of the morris-dance.

421

Sir Thomas Browne’s Works, 1852, vol. i. pp. 220-232.

422

Edited by Simon Wilkin, 1852, vol. i. p. 226.

423

See Pliny’s “Natural History,” bk. viii.

424

Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” 1864, vol. ii. p. 367; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 331.

425

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ix. p. 75.

426

See Wright’s Notes to “The Tempest,” 1875, p. 94.

427

Conway’s “Demonology and Devil-Lore,” 1880, vol. i. p. 122.

428

Warburton on “Romeo and Juliet,” i. 4.

429

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 104.

430

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 106; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 830.

431

“Glossary,” p. 412.

432

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” p. 48.

433

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. vii. p. 277.

434

“Natural History,” bk. viii. c. 19.

435

“Arcana Microcosmi,” p. 151.

436

1852, vol. i. pp. 312-315.

437

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 577; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. v. p. 77.

438

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 331.

439

Forby’s “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” vol. ii. p. 222.

440

See Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” vol. i. p. 278.

441

Cf. “King Lear,” iv. 6.

442

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 673.

443

Ibid., vol. ii. p. 189.

444

See D’Israeli’s “Curiosities of Literature,” vol. iii. p. 78.

445

“The strange phrase and the superstition that arose out of it seem to have been produced by a mistranslation, by the English-speaking population of a considerable portion of Ireland, of two Celtic or Gaelic words, ran, to roar, to shriek, to bellow, to make a great noise on a wind instrument; and rann, to versify, to rhyme. It is well known that rats are scared by any great and persistent noise in the house which they infest. The Saxon English, as well as Saxon Irish, of Shakespeare’s time, confounding rann, a rhyme, with ran, a roar, fell into the error which led to the English phrase as used by Shakespeare.” —Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer, 1882, vol. ii. p. 9. “On Some Obscure Words and Celtic Phrases in Shakespeare,” by Charles Mackay.

446

See “English Folk-Lore,” 1878, p. 120.

447

See Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,” p. 922.

448

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 283.

449

Aconitum napellus, Wolf’s-bane or Monk’s-hood.

450

“Miseros fallunt aconita legentis” (Georgics, bk. ii. l. 152).

451

See Ellacombe’s “Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” 1878, pp. 7, 8.

452

Dr. Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” 1870, pp. 1, 2.

453

Phillips, “Flora Historica,” 1829, vol. ii. pp. 122, 128.

454

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” pp. 10, 11.

455

Phillips, “Flora Historica,” 1829, vol. i. p. 104.

456

Ellacombe’s “Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 13.

457

Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 15.

458

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 29; probably synonymous with the term “apple-Squire,” which formerly signified a pimp.

459

Forby, in his “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” says of this apple, “we retain the name, but whether we mean the same variety of fruit which was so called in Shakespeare’s time, it is not possible to ascertain.”

460

Ellacombe’s “Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 16; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 430; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 81; Coles’s “Latin and English Dictionary.” “A bitter-suete [apple] – Amari-mellum.”

461

See chapter xi., Customs connected with the Calendar.

462

See chapter on Customs connected with Birth and Baptism.

463

Edited by Dyce, 1861, p. 446. Many fanciful derivations for this word have been thought of, but it was no doubt named from its smoothness and softness, resembling the wool of lambs.

464

Dr. Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” 1870, p. 50.

465

Note on Jonson’s Works, vol. iv. p. 24.

466

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 242.

467

Quoted by Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 662.

468

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 16.

469

“Theatrum Botanicum,” 1640.

470

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” pp. 17, 37.

471

“Glossary,” pp. 65, 66.

472

See “Notes and Queries,” 2d series, bk. i. p. 420.

473

See Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, pp. 151, 152.

474

Napier’s “Folk-Lore of West of Scotland,” 1879, p. 124.

475

Dr. Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” p. 13.

476

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 45.

477

See “Richard III.,” i. 2; “Timon of Athens,” iii. 5.

478

See “2 Henry IV.,” iv. 5.

479

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 22.

480

Ellacombe’s “Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 23.

481

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 32.

482

See also Evelyn’s “Sylva,” 1776, p. 396.

483

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 150; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 63.

484

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 212.

485

“Shakespeare’s Garden,” p. 143.

486

See “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 4:

“Lawn as white as driven snow; Cyprus black as e’er was crow.”

Its transparency is alluded to in “Twelfth Night,” iii. 1:

“a cyprus, not a bosom, Hides my heart.”

487

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” 1872, p. 113.

488

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 56. See Mr. Gough’s “Introduction to Sepulchral Monuments,” p. lxvi.; also Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 221.

489

See Dr. Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” 1870, p. 63.

490

“Flower-Lore,” p. 35.

491

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 66.

492

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 302; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 159.

493

“Shakspere’s Garden,” p. 158.

494

Quoted in Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 303.

495

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. i. pp. 314-316.

496

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” pp. 302-308.

497

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 305.

498

See Gifford’s note on Jonson’s Works, vol. i. p. 52; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 161; Du Cange’s “Glossary;” Connelly’s “Spanish and English Dictionary,” 4to.

499

Edited by Dyce, 1857, p. 30.

500

Edited by Gifford and Dyce, vol. i. p. 231.

501

“Glossary,” p. 161.

502

See “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 3; “Henry V.,” v. 2; “1 Henry VI.,” i. 1.

503

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 73.

504

“Nares’s Glossary,” vol. i. p. 363.

505

“Shakespeare’s Garden,” p. 82; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 184.

506

Ellacombe’s “Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 204; Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” 1870, p. 111.

507

Cf. “All’s Well that Ends Well,” iv. 5; “Antony and Cleopatra,” iv. 2; “Romeo and Juliet,” ii. 3, where Friar Laurence says:

“In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will.”

508

“A Dissuasive from Popery,” pt. i. chap. ii. sec. 9; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 371.

509

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 464.

510

Batman’s “Upon Bartholomæus de Proprietate Rerum,” lib. xvii. chap. 87.

511

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 465.

512

See Hotten’s “History of Sign Boards.”

513

“Shakespeare,” vol. iii. p. 112.

514

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 482.

515

“Popular Names of British Plants,” 1879, p. 128.

516

Polygonum aviculare.

517

See “3 Henry VI.,” iv. 6; “Troilus and Cressida,” i. 3.

518

See “Henry V.,” iv. 1.

519

“Cambrian Biography,” 1803, p. 86; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. i. pp. 102-108.

520

See Dr. Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” 1870, p. 139.

521

Cf. “Taming of the Shrew,” i. 1.

522

Cf. what Egeus says (i. 1) when speaking of Lysander:

“This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child; Thou, thou Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes And interchanged love-tokens with my child.”

523

Dian’s bud is the bud of the Agnus castus, or chaste tree. “The virtue this herbe is, that he will kepe man and woman chaste.” “Macer’s Herbal,” 1527.

524

Cupid’s flower, another name for the pansy.

525

Notes to “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” 1877. Preface, p. xx.

526

“Natural History,” bk. xxv. chap. 94.

527

Phillips’s “Flora Historica,” 1829, vol. i. pp. 324, 325; see Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” 1869, vol. ii. p. 1777.

528

“Mystic Trees and Flowers,” by M. D. Conway; Fraser’s Magazine, 1870, vol. ii. p. 705.

529

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. v. p. 153.

530

See Sir Thomas Browne’s “Vulgar Errors,” 1852, vol. ii. p. 6.

531

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 386.

532

See page 15.

533

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 131.

534

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 612.

535

See “Windsor Guide,” p. 5.

536

See “Notes and Queries,” 3d series, vol. xii. p. 160.

537

See also “3 Henry VI.,” iv. 6; “Timon of Athens,” v. 4; “Antony and Cleopatra,” iv. 6; “2 Henry IV.,” iv. 4.

538

See “As You Like It,” iii. 2; “Timon of Athens,” v. 1; cf. “Henry VIII.,” iv. 2.

539

See “Archæological Journal,” vol. v. p. 301.

540

The cod was what we now call the pod.

541

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 99.

542

See “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” iii. 1.

543

“Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 677.

544

See Beaumont and Fletcher, “Elder Brother,” iv. 4; Massinger, “New Way to Pay Old Debts,” ii. 2; Ben Jonson, “Cynthia’s Revels,” ii. 1, etc.

545

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 173.

546

Ibid., p. 179.

547

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. ix. p. 227.

548

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

549

“Costume in England,” p. 238. At p. 579 the author gives several instances of the extravagances to which this fashion led.

550

Some gallants had their ears bored, and wore their mistresses’ silken shoe-strings in them. See Singer’s “Notes,” vol. iv. p. 257.

551

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 373.

552

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 13, 14.

553

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 194.

554

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 381.

555

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 319.

556

See p. 68.

557

“Plant-Lore of Shakespeare,” p. 248.

558

“Shakespeare,” vol. iv. p. 76.

559

“The old ballad on which Shakespeare formed this song is given in Percy’s ‘Reliques of Ancient Poetry’ (1794, vol. i. p. 208), from a copy in the Pepysian collection. A different version of it may be seen in Chappell’s ‘Popular Music of the Olden Time’ (2d edition, vol. i. p. 207). The original ditty is the lamentation of a lover for the inconstancy of his mistress.” – Dyce’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vii. p. 450.

560

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 105.

561

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 244.

562

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 255-266.

563

“Notes and Queries,” 5th series, vol. xii. p. 468.

564

Extract of a paper read by Rev. W. A. Harrison, New Shakespeare Society, 12th May. 1882.

565

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare;” Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 412; Beisly’s “Shakespeare’s Garden,” p. 4.

566

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. iv. p. 427. See a paper in the “Antiquary” (1882, vol. vi. p. 13), by Mr. George Black, on the yew in Shakespearian folk-lore.

567

“Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare,” 1841, p. 181.

568

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 190, 191.

569

See Patterson’s “Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare,” 1841, pp. 104, 105.

570

“Linnæan Transactions,” vol. xv. p. 407; cf. Virgil’s “Georgics,” iii. l. 148.

571

“Glossary,” 1876, p. 238.

572

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 973.

573

Cf. “Macbeth” (iii. 4):

“There the grown serpent lies: the worm, that’s fled, Hath nature that in time will venom breed.”

574

Worm is used for serpent or viper, in the Geneva version of the New Testament, in Acts xxvii. 4, 5.

575

See Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England,” 1871, p. 415; and Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 270.

576

Denham’s “Weather Proverbs,” 1842.

577

“Folk-Lore Record,” 1878, vol. i. p. 45.

578

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. iii. pp. 223, 287, 381.

579

See article on “Spider-Lore,” in Graphic, November 13, 1880.

580

“Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare,” 1841, p. 220.

581

See Croker’s “Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,” edited by T. Wright, 1862, p. 215.

582

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. ii. pp. 50-55; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” pp. 181-183.

583

See “Notes and Queries,” 6th series, vol. v. pp. 32, 173: also, Gilbert White’s “Natural History of Selborne,” letter xvii.

584

“Zoology,” 1766, vol. iii. p. 15.

585

Cf. “Hamlet,” iii. 4; here paddock is used for a toad.

586

Patterson’s “Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare,” 1841, p. 137.

587

Cf. “Titus Andronicus,” ii. 3; “Henry VIII.,” iii. 3.

588

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 482; also, Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 311; Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, pp. 168, 169.

589

Aldis Wright’s “Notes to King Lear,” 1877, p. 179.

590

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 381; cf. the word “Berlué, pur-blinded, made sand-blind,” Cotgrave’s “Fr. and Eng. Dict.”

591

Vol. ii. p. 765.

592

Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 93.

593

Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 258.

594

Cf., too, “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2):

“A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, That put Armado’s page out of his part.”

595

Dr. Prior’s “Popular Names of British Plants,” 1870, p. 185.

596

“The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” 1860, p. 78.

597

“The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” 1860, p. 65.

598

See Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” vol. i. p. 761.

599

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. pp. 660, 661; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 322.

600

Quoted in Singer’s “Shakespeare.”

601

Cf. “King John” (iii. 1), where Constance gives a catalogue of congenital defects.

602

“Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 150. See “Notes and Queries” for superstitions connected with drowning, 5th series, vol. ix. pp. 111, 218, 478, 516; vol. x. pp. 38, 276; vol. xi. pp. 119, 278.

603

Dr. Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 95.

604

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. iii. p. 225.

605

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vii. p. 347.

606

Wright’s “Notes to King Lear” (1877), p. 196.

607

“Worthies of England” (1662), p. 180.

608

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” pp. 384, 385; Wright’s “Notes to King Lear,” pp. 154, 155.

609

“Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 121.

610

See p. 73.

611

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare” (1866), p. 333.

612

“A Book of Musical Anecdote,” by F. Crowest (1878), vol. ii. pp. 251, 252.

613

See Beckett’s “Free and Impartial Enquiry into the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the King’s Evil,” 1722.

614

See “Notes and Queries,” 1861, 2d series, vol. xi. p. 71; Burns’s “History of Parish Registers,” 1862, pp. 179, 180; Pettigrew’s “Superstitions Connected with Medicine and Surgery,” 1844, pp. 117-154.

615

Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 235.

616

See Pettigrew’s “History of Mummies,” 1834; also Gannal, “Traité d’Embaumement,” 1838.

617

Rees’s “Encyclopædia,” 1829, vol. xxiv.

618

Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 332, calls it a balsamic liquid.

619

“Six Old Plays,” ed. Nichols, p. 256, quoted by Mr. Aldis Wright, in his “Notes to King Lear,” 1877, p. 170.

620

“Shakespeare,” vol. ix. p. 413.

621

Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 235.

622

“Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. iii. p. 284.

623

See Pettigrew’s “Medical Superstitions,” pp. 13, 14.

624

Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 136.

625

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. i. p. 65.

626

“Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 226.

627

Quoted in Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 671.

628

See p. 74.

629

Malone suggests that the hostess may mean “then he was lunatic.”

630

Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 150.

631

See “English Folk-Lore,” p. 156.

632

See Shortland’s “Traditions and Superstitions of the New-Zealanders,” 1856, p. 131.