Folk-lore of Shakespeare

633

Liber Secundus – “De Febribus,” p. 923, ed. 1595.

634

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 906.

635

See 4th series, vol. x. pp. 108, 150, 229, 282, 356.

636

See Dyce’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vii. p. 239.

637

“The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” 1860, pp. 1-64.

638

“The England of Shakespeare,” E. Goadby, 1881, p. 153.

639

“Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare,” 1875, p. 145; see Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. iii. pp. 347, 348.

640

See “British Popular Customs,” p. 473.

641

“Notes and Queries,” 6th series, vol. i. p. 129.

642

Cf. “As You Like It” (i. 2). Touchstone alludes to a “certain knight, that swore by his honour they were good pancakes.”

643

See Hone’s “Every Day Book,” 1836, vol. i. p. 258; “Book of Days,” vol. i. p. 239; see, also, Dekker’s “Seven Deadly Sins,” 1606, p. 35; “British Popular Customs,” pp. 62-91.

644

“Notes and Queries,” 1st series, vol. xii. p. 297.

645

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 443; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. i. p. 101. Taylor, the Water-Poet, has a tract entitled “Jack-a-Lent, his Beginning and Entertainment, with the mad Prankes of Gentlemen-Usher, Shrove Tuesday.”

646

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vi. p. 219.

647

“Notes and Queries,” 4th series, vol. v. p. 595.

648

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. i. p. 362; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 164: Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 94.

649

See Hone’s “Every Day Book,” vol. i. p. 318; “British Popular Customs,” pp. 110-113.

650

St. Patrick rids Ireland of snakes; see p. 257.

651

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1870, vol. ix. p. 168.

652

Cf. “Henry V.,” v. 2; “3 Henry VI.,” ii. 1, 2; “Taming of the Shrew,” ii. 1; “Richard II.,” i. 3.

653

Cited by Warton in a note on “Richard III.,” v. 3.

654

Hotten’s “History of Sign-boards,” 1866, 3d ed., p. 287.

655

Cf. “Twelfth Night” (iii. 4): “More matter for a May morning.”

656

“Book of Days,” vol. i. p. 575; see “British Popular Customs,” pp. 228-230, 249.

657

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. i. pp. 247-270; “Book of Days,” vol. i. pp. 630-633.

658

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 550.

659

See Drake’s “Shakespeare and his Times,” 1817, vol. i. p. 163.

660

“Encyclopædia of Antiquities,” 1843, vol. ii. p. 653.

661

See “British Popular Customs,” p. 278; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. i. p. 276.

662

According to the crusaders and the old romance writers a Saracen deity. See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ix. p. 214.

663

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 482.

664

“Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 25-28; see Warton’s “History of English Poetry,” vol. ii. p. 202.

665

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 154.

666

Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” 1864, vol. i. pp. 147, 148.

667

See “Book of Days,” vol. i. p. 712.

668

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. v. p. 206.

669

See Nichol’s “Collection of Poems,” 1780, vol. iii. p. 204.

670

See Knight’s “Life of Shakespeare,” 1845, p. 71; Howitt’s “Pictorial Calendar of the Seasons,” 1854, pp. 254-267.

671

“Polyolbion,” song 14; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 34; Timbs’s “A Garland for the Year,” pp. 74, 75.

672

Introduction to the “Leopold Shakespeare,” p. xci.

673

“Book of Days,” vol. i. p. 816; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. i. p. 314; Soane’s “Book of the Months.”

674

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. i. pp. 336, 337.

675

See “British Popular Customs,” pp. 347-351.

676

Douglas’s “Criterion,” p. 68, cited by Ritson; see Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 475.

677

This is, perhaps, a corrupt abbreviation of “By Jesus.” Some would read “By Cis,” and understand by it “St. Cicely.”

678

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 57; Morley’s “Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair,” 1859.

679

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 21.

680

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 47; Douce has given a representation of this instrument of torture from Millœus’s “Praxis Criminis Persequendi,” Paris, 1541.

681

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 95.

682

Cf. “1 Henry IV.” (i. 3):

“His chin, new reap’d, Show’d like a stubble-land at harvest-home.”

683

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 16-33.

684

See “British Popular Customs,” pp. 372, 373. In Lincolnshire this day is called “Hally-Loo Day.”

685

See Butler’s “Lives of the Saints.”

686

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 868; Brady’s “Clavis Calendaria.”

687

Nich. Harpsfield, “Hist. Eccl. Anglicana,” p. 86.

688

See “British Popular Customs,” p. 404.

689

Puling, or singing small, as Bailey explains the word.

690

See Swainson’s “Weather-Lore,” 1873, pp. 141-143.

691

See “British Popular Customs,” p. 409.

692

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 25; “The Church of Our Fathers,” by D. Rock, 1853, vol. iii. p. 215; Gent. Mag., 1777, vol. xliii. p. 158; see Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. pp. 601, 602; Brady’s “Clavis Calendaria.”

693

Drake’s “Shakespeare and his Times,” vol. i. p. 198.

694

See Sandy’s “Christmastide, its History, Festivities, and Carols;” also Athenæum, Dec. 20, 1856.

695

His blunder for comedy.

696

See “British Popular Customs,” 1876, pp. 459, 463; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 943; “Antiquarian Repertory,” vol. i. p. 218.

697

This was a deep draught to the health of any one, in which it was customary to empty the glass or vessel.

698

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 441-449.

699

See “British Popular Customs,” pp. 461, 469, 478, 480.

700

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. i. pp. 1-15.

701

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 383; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 44-46, 326.

702

See Napier’s “Folk-Lore of West of Scotland,” 1879, pp. 34-40; Keightley’s “Fairy Mythology;” Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 73, 74.

703

“Anecdotes and Traditions,” 1839, p. 3.

704

“Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. iv. p. 314.

705

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1859, pp. 299, 300; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 160; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 84, 85.

706

“Shakespeare and His Times,” 1817, vol. i. p. 220.

707

On entering into any contract, or plighting of troth, the clapping of the hands together set the seal, as in the “Winter’s Tale” (i. 2), where Leontes says:

“Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter I am yours forever.”

So, too, in “The Tempest” (iii. 1):

“Miranda.My husband, then? Ferdinand. Ay, with a heart as willing As bondage e’er of freedom: here’s my hand. Miranda. And mine, with my heart in’t.”

708

“The Stratford Shakespeare,” 1854, vol. i p. 70.

709

Knight’s “Stratford Shakespeare,” p. 73.

710

Cf. “King John” (ii. 2):

“King Philip.Young princes, close your hands. Austria. And your lips too; for, I am well assured, That I did so, when I was first assured.”

711

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 363; “Archæologia,” vol. xiv. p. 7; Jones’s “Finger Ring Lore,” 1877, pp. 313-318.

712

See Jeaffreson’s “Brides and Bridals,” 1873, vol. i. pp. 77, 78.

713

Sops in wine.

714

See “Brand’s Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 136, 139.

715

“Pop. Antiq.,” vol. ii. p. 140.

716

“Brides and Bridals,” 1873, vol. i. p. 252.

717

“Brides and Bridals,” vol. i. p. 177.

718

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 131-133.

719

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 203.

720

“Brides and Bridals,” vol. i. p. 98; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. ii. p. 175.

721

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” pp. 123, 124.

722

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 159.

723

See “Merry Wives of Windsor,” iv. 2.

724

See Potter’s “Antiquities of Greece;” Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. iii. p. 306.

725

See page 227.

726

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 563.

727

Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” 1873, vol. i. p. 145.

728

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1829, pp. 324-326.

729

“Annals of Worcester,” 1845.

730

Harland and Wilkinson’s “Lancashire Folk-Lore,” 1869, p. 268; see “English Folk-Lore,” 1878, pp. 99, 100; also “Notes and Queries,” 1st series, vol. iv. p. 133.

731

Cf. Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” v. 595-683.

732

See “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 82, 83.

733

Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 46.

734

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 246.

735

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. viii. p. 291.

736

“Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1880, p. 58.

737

Cf. “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 4.

738

The word in German is kranz, in other Teutonic dialects krants, krans, and crance– the latter being Lowland Scotch – and having cransies for plural. Clark and Wright’s “Hamlet,” 1876, p. 216.

739

“Pop. Antiq.” vol. ii. p. 303.

740

See Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” 1864, vol. i. p. 305.

741

“Shakespeare,” 1875, vol. ix. pp. 209, 210.

742

Notes on “Jonson’s Works,” vol. ix. p. 58.

743

“Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 43.

744

See “British Popular Customs,” p. 404; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 237, 246; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 439.

745

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 222.

746

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol ii. pp. 267-270.

747

“Primitive Culture,” vol. ii. p. 30.

748

“Primitive Culture,” 1873, vol. ii. p. 423.

749

Durandus, “De Officio Mortuorum,” lib. vii. chap. 35-39.

750

Dr. Johnson thought the words of the clown in “Hamlet” (v. 1), “make her grave straight,” meant, “make her grave from east to west, in a direct line parallel to the church.” This interpretation seems improbable, as the word straight in the sense of immediately occurs frequently in Shakespeare’s plays.

751

See Malone’s note, Variorum edition, xiv. 400.

752

Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 91.

753

Wordsworth’s “Shakespeare and the Bible,” 1880, p. 283.

754

See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 372.

755

See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 88.

756

See Sir Thomas Browne’s “Vulgar Errors.”

757

Jones’s “Precious Stones,” 1880, p. 62.

758

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 213.

759

A union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size.

760

See Jones’s “History and Mystery of Precious Stones,” p. 116.

761

“Glossary,” p. 465.

762

See C. W. King on “Precious Stones,” 1867, p. 267.

763

See Drake’s “Shakespeare and His Times,” vol. ii. pp. 178-181.

764

Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1870, vol. ii. p. 290.

765

“Glossary,” p. 84.

766

“Glossary,” p. 210.

767

From Gifford’s Note on Massinger’s Works, 1813, vol. i. p. 104.

768

See Jamieson’s “Scottish Dictionary,” 1879, vol. i. p. 122.

769

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 57.

770

Ibid. vol. i. p. 58.

771

“Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 143.

772

“Glossary,” pp. 29, 30.

773

See Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 156; Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 98. A simple mode of bat-fowling, by means of a large clap-net and a lantern, and called bird-batting, is alluded to in Fielding’s “Joseph Andrews” (bk. ii. chap. x.). Drake thinks that it is to a stratagem of this kind Shakespeare alludes when he paints Buckingham exclaiming (“Henry VIII.” i. 1):

“The net has fall’n upon me; I shall perish Under device and practice.”

774

Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 396.

775

A pip is a spot upon a card.

776

“Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 436.

777

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 405.

778

Rub is still a term at the game, expressive of the movement of the balls. Cf. “King Lear” (ii. 2), and “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iv. 1), where Boyet, speaking of the game, says: “I fear too much rubbing.”

779

Halliwell-Phillipps’ “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 43.

780

Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” vol. iii. p. 592.

781

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. ii. p. 409.

782

She means, “Do you intend to make a mockery of me among these companions?”

783

“Illustrations of Shakspeare,” p. 20.

784

Gifford’s note on Jonson’s Works, vol. ii. p. 3.

785

Ibid., vol. vii. p. 283.

786

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 35.

787

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 919.

788

A three-man beetle is a heavy implement, with three handles, used in driving piles, etc., which required three men to lift it.

789

A correspondent of “Notes and Queries,” 2d series, vol. vii. p. 277, suggests as a derivation the German schnapps, spirit, and drache, dragon, and that it is equivalent to spirit-fire.

790

Cf. “Winter’s Tale” (iii. 3): “But to make an end of the ship, – to see how the sea flap-dragoned it.”

791

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 131.

792

“Sports and Pastimes,” pp. 168, 169.

793

See “British Popular Customs,” 1876, pp. 78, 83, 87, 401.

794

“Shakespeare and his Times,” vol. ii. p. 170; see Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakspeare,” pp. 118, 435.

795

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 199.

796

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 420.

797

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” pp. 499, 500; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 397, 398.

798

“Anatomy of Melancholy;” Drake’s “Shakespeare and His Times,” vol. ii. p. 298.

799

Clark and Wright’s “Notes to Hamlet,” 1876, pp. 212, 213.

800

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” p. 365; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 522.

801

Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” 1854, vol. i. p. 198.

802

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 134.

803

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 144.

804

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 605.

805

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 368, 369.

806

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 429, 432.

807

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 606.

808

“Pictorial Shakespeare,” vol. ii. p. 145.

809

“Sports and Pastimes.”

810

Smith’s “Festivals, Games, and Amusements,” 1831, p. 320.

811

“Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 182.

812

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 713.

813

“Sports and Pastimes,” p. 141.

814

See Milner’s “History of Winchester,” vol. ii. p. 155.

815

According to Douce, “Illustrations of Shakespeare” (1839, p. 280), it was known as “slide-groat,” “slide-board,” “slide-thrift,” and “slip-thrift.” See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 16, 394, 398; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 791; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 441.

816

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, p. 491.

817

Quoted by Strutt, “Sports and Pastimes,” p. 166.

818

In “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2), the Princess speaks of “a set of wit well play’d;” upon which Mr. Singer (“Shakespeare,” vol. ii. p. 263) adds that “a set is a term at tennis for a game.”

819

Quoted by Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 449; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. p. 445.

820

“Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 896.

821

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 208.

822

“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 421.

823

Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 134.

824

See Chappell’s “Popular Music of the Olden Time,” 2d edition, vol. i. p. 368; Dyce’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 63.

825

Quoted by Nares from Sir John Davies on “Dancing.” Mr. Dyce, “Glossary,” p. 81, says that Nares wrongly confounded this with the “gallard.”

826

See Knight’s “Pictorial Shakespeare,” vol. ii. p. 375; Dyce’s “Glossary,” 1836, p. 152; “British Popular Customs,” 1876, pp. 276, 277. See also Chappell’s “Popular Music of the Olden Time,” 2d edition, vol. i. p. 235; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 292.

827

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 146.

828

“History of English Dramatic Poetry,” vol. iii. p. 380; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 229; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 450; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ix. pp. 198, 219.

829

“Hamlet:” iii. 2: “your only jig-maker.”

830

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 301; see Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 498.

831

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 510.

832

See Dyce, vol. iii. p. 412, note 121.

833

Roundel also meant a song. Mr. Dyce considers the dance is here meant.

834

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ii. p. 333.

835

See Knight’s “Pictorial Shakespeare,” vol. ii. p. 384; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. iv. p. 85; Boswell’s “Shakespeare,” vol. xiv. p. 371.

836

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 222.

837

See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 300, 301; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 193.

838

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ii. p. 269; Sir Christopher Hatton was famous for it.

839

Quoted in Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 476.

840

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Index to Shakespeare,” p. 36.

841

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 46.

842

Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his “Handbook Index to the Works of Shakespeare” (1866, p. 231), suggests this meaning.

843

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 397.

844

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 197.

845

Bilbo was also a rapier or sword; thus, in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (iii. 5), Falstaff says to Ford: “I suffered the pangs of three several deaths: first, an intolerable fright, to be detected … next, to be compassed, like a good bilbo … hilt to point,” etc.

846

“Shakespeare,” vol. vi. p. 485; see “Boswell’s Life of Johnson,” vol. ii. p. 6.