Folk-lore of Shakespeare

847

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 661; see Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 90, 91, 109; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. iii. p. 111.

848

It also meant a warlike engine, as in “Coriolanus,” v. 4: “When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading;” so, also, in “Troilus and Cressida,” ii. 3.

849

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 49; Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 56; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 104.

850

It is reprinted in Hawkins’s “English Drama,” 1773.

851

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” pp. 263. 264; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 423.

852

See “Book of Days,” vol. i. pp. 598, 599.

853

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 965.

854

“Callat,” an immodest woman, also applied to a scold. Cf. “Winter’s Tale,” ii. 3:

“A callat Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband, And now baits me.”

855

Skimmington was a burlesque ceremony in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” vol. ii. pp. 191, 192.

856

“Shakespeare Proverbs,” 1858.

857

Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 159.

858

Ibid. p. 94.

859

“Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers,” 1870, p. 341.

860

See Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” 1870, p. 157.

861

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 390, under Proverbs.

862

See Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” p. 91.

863

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 391.

864

See Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 326.

865

See Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 333; Kelly’s “Proverbs of all Nations,” 1870, p. 173.

866

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 391.

867

Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 86.

868

Ray gives another form: “Every man is either a fool or a physician after thirty years of age;” see Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” 1857, p. 27.

869

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 199.

870

See Green’s “Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers,” 1870, pp. 319, 323.

871

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 391.

872

Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” 1872, p. 52.

873

Ibid., 1870, pp. 175, 176.

874

See Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 100; Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” p. 187.

875

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 392.

876

See Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” 1870, pp. 196, 197.

877

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 392.

878

See page 394.

879

“Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 392.

880

Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” 1857, p. 409.

881

A shaft is an arrow for the longbow, a bolt is for the crossbow. Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” p. 155.

882

“But now consider the old proverbe to be true, yt saieth that marriage is destinie.” – Hall’s “Chronicles.”

883

See Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 116.

884

See Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” pp. 160, 251.

885

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 323.

886

Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 393.

887

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 333.

888

See page 332.

889

Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,” p. 860.

890

Ray’s “Proverbs” (Bohn’s Edition), 1857, p. 76.

891

Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” p. 80.

892

See page 385.

893

See Bohn’s “Handbook of Proverbs,” p. 115.

894

“Shakespeare and his Times,” vol. i. p. 216.

895

See Kelly’s “Proverbs of All Nations,” p. 49.

896

“Handbook Index to Shakespeare,” p. 395.

897

See Bucknill’s “Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 120.

898

Mr. Singer, in a note on this passage, says, “It was customary, in the East, for lovers to testify the violence of their passion by cutting themselves in the sight of their mistresses; and the fashion seems to have been adopted here as a mark of gallantry in Shakespeare’s time, when young men frequently stabbed their arms with daggers, and, mingling the blood with wine, drank it off to the healths of their mistresses.” – Vol. ii. p. 417.

899

“Illustrations of Shakspeare,” 1839, p. 156.

900

“Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare,” p. 124.

901

Cf. “Tempest,” v. 1:

“the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason.”

902

Clark and Wright’s “Notes to Macbeth,” 1877, p. 101.

903

Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. viii. p. 123.

904

“Vulgar Errors,” book v. chap. 23 (Bohn’s edition, 1852, vol. ii. p. 82).

905

Prynne attacked the fashion in his “Unloveliness of Love-locks.”

906

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” pp. 165, 166.

907

Ibid. p. 273.

908

See “Romeo and Juliet” (iii. 5), where Capulet says, “My fingers itch,” denoting anxiety.

909

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 44.

910

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 249; Jones’s “Credulities Past and Present,” pp. 529-531; “Notes and Queries,” 5th series, vol. viii. p. 201.

911

The following is from Holinshed, who copies Sir Thomas More: “In riding toward the Tower the same morning in which he (Hastings) was beheaded his horse twice or thrice stumbled with him, almost to the falling; which thing, albeit each man wot well daily happeneth to them to whome no such mischance is toward; yet hath it beene of an olde rite and custome observed as a token oftentimes notablie foregoing some great misfortune.”

912

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 127; Dyce’s “Glossary,” pp. 61, 230.

913

The quartos of 1602 read “a kane-coloured beard.”

914

See Jaques’s Description of the Seven Ages in “As You Like It,” (ii. 6).

915

“Parnassus Biceps,” 1656.

916

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 179.

917

“Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 871.

918

Ibid. vol. i. p. 402.

919

See page 218.

920

Cf. “Antony and Cleopatra” (i. 2):

“Soothsayer. You shall be more beloving, than belov’d. Charmian. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.”

921

“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 38, 39.

922

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 252-255.

923

See Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” 1871, p. 3.

924

“The Antiquary,” 1881, vol. iv. p. 193.

925

Ibid.

926

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 175.

927

“Handbook Index to the Works of Shakespeare,” 1866, p. 119.

928

See a note in Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 112.

929

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 518.

930

See “British Popular Customs,” pp. 494, 495.

931

See “Book of Days,” vol. ii. pp. 612-614.

932

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 565; see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 411-414.

933

“History of Sign-boards,” 1866, p. 226.

934

Wright’s “Notes to King Lear,” 1877, p. 133.

935

“Travels,” 1673, p. 105.

936

Cf. “King Lear,” iv. 2; “Troilus and Cressida,” v. 5; “All’s Well that End’s Well,” iv. 3.

937

Pettigrew’s “Medical Superstitions,” p. 48.

938

“French and English Dictionary;” see Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 316; Nares describes it as “a bandage, tied on for magical purposes, from περιάπτω;” see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 324-326; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, pp. 305-307.

939

“Medical Superstitions,” p. 55.

940

See, under Rat, a similar superstition noticed.

941

“Shakespeare and his Times,” p. 355.

942

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 127-141.

943

See p. 283.

944

See Malone’s “Variorum Shakespeare,” 1821, vol. ii. p. 90.

945

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vi. p. 167.

946

See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 765.

947

“Fairy Queen,” bk. iii. c. 2; see Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ix. p. 82.

948

Boisteau’s “Theatrum Mundi,” translated by John Alday (1574).

949

1849, vol. iii. pp. 60, 61.

950

See Hardwick’s “Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,” 1872, pp. 197, 224.

951

The addition in brackets is rejected by the editors of the Globe edition.

952

Cf. “Measure for Measure,” ii. 2, iii. 1; “Much Ado About Nothing,” v. 1; “Loves Labour’s Lost,” iii. 1.

953

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1879, vol. i. pp. 44-51; Jones’s “Credulities Past and Present,” pp. 493-507; Hampson’s “Œvi Medii Kalendarium,” vol. i. p. 210; see an article on “Day Fatality” in John Aubrey’s “Miscellanies.”

954

See Kelly’s “Notices Illustrative of the Drama and Other Amusements at Leicester,” 1865, pp. 116, 118.

955

Drake’s “Shakespeare and his Times,” p. 352.

956

“Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,” p. 81.

957

“Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 974.

958

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 229-231.

959

“Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1849, p. 57.

960

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 68.

961

See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 220-225; also, Harland and Wilkinson’s “Lancashire Folk-Lore,” 1867, p. 44.

962

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 379.

963

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” pp. 65, 66.

964

We may compare, too, what Coriolanus says (ii. 3): “I will, sir, flatter my sworn brother, the people.”

965

Cf. “Romeo and Juliet,” i. 1; “As You Like It,” v. 2.

966

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. viii. p. 204.

967

See Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 133.

968

See an article by Mr. Black, in Antiquary, 1881, vol. iii.

969

See Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties,” pp. 34, 35.

970

Gifford’s note on “Massinger’s Works,” 1813, vol. i. p. 170; see Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” pp. 269, 380.

971

See Dyce, vol. iv. p. 395.

972

Staunton’s “Shakespeare,” vol i. p. 257.

973

“Guide into Tongues,” 1607.

974

See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 343.

975

Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 402.

976

Ibid., vol. vi. p. 45.

977

Ibid., p. 43.

978

“Glossary,” p. 497; see Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 952.

979

“Encyclopædia Britannica,” 1879, vol. ix. p. 366; see Doran’s “History of Court Fools,” 1858.

980

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 350.

981

Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 371.

982

The verb “to gage,” or “to pledge,” occurs in “Merchant of Venice,” i. 1:

“but my chief care Is, to come fairly off from the great debts Wherein my time, something too prodigal, Hath left me gaged.”

983

“Pop. Antiq.,” vol. ii. p. 127.

984

“Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 858; see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 431.

985

A Welsh hook was a sort of bill, hooked at the end, and with a long handle. See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 497; and Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. ix. p. 168.

986

Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,” p. 782.

987

See Percy’s “Northumberland Household Book,” p. 49.

988

See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. vii. p. 350.

989

“Shakespeare,” 1864, vol. i. p. 61.

990

See page 312.