Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 109

_Halidom._ This exclamation was used, says Minsheu,[974] by old countrymen, by manner of swearing. In "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (iv. 2), the Hostess says: "By my halidom, I was fast asleep;" the probable derivation being _holy_, with the termination _dome._

[974] "Guide into Tongues," 1607.

_Hall! Hall!_ An exclamation formerly used, to make a clear s.p.a.ce in a crowd, for any particular purpose, was "_A hall, a hall_." So, in "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 5), Capulet says:

"Come, musicians, play.- A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls."

_Hay._ This is equivalent to "you have it," an exclamation in fencing, when a thrust or hit is received by the antagonist. In "Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 4), Mercutio speaks of "the punto reverso! the hay!"

_Hold._ To cry _hold!_ when persons were fighting, was an authoritative way of separating them, according to the old military law. So Macbeth, in his struggle with Macduff, says:

"And d.a.m.n'd be he that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'"

We may compare Lady Macbeth's words (i. 5):

"Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, 'Hold, hold!'"

"I' the name of me." A vulgar exclamation formerly in use. So in the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 2) it is used by the Clown.

"_O ho, O ho!_" This savage exclamation was, says Steevens, constantly appropriated by the writers of our ancient mysteries and moralities to the devil. In "The Tempest" (i. 2), Caliban, when rebuked by Prospero for seeking "to violate the honor of my child," replies:

"O ho, O ho! would it had been done!

Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else This isle with Calibans."

_Push._ An exclamation equivalent to _pish_.[975] It is used by Leonato in "Much Ado About Nothing" (v. 1):

"And made a push at chance and sufferance;"

and again, in "Timon of Athens" (iii. 6), where one of the lords says: "Push! did you see my cap?"

[975] See Dyce's "Glossary," p. 343.

_Rivo_ was an exclamation often used in Baccha.n.a.lian revels, but its origin is uncertain. It occurs in "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4): "'Rivo!' says the drunkard." Gifford suggests that it is "corrupted, perhaps, from the Spanish _rio_, which is figuratively used for a large quant.i.ty of liquor," a derivation, however, which Mr. Dyce does not think probable.

_Sneck-up._ This was an exclamation of contempt, equivalent to "go and hang yourself."[976] It is used by Sir Toby in "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3), in reply to Malvolio's rebuke: "We did keep time, sir, in our catches.

Sneck up!"

[976] Dyce's "Glossary," p. 402.

_So-ho._ This is the cry of sportsmen when the hare is found in her seat.

_Spy._ "I spy" is the usual exclamation at a well-known childish game called "Hie spy, hie!"[977]

[977] Ibid., vol. vi. p. 45.

_Tailor._ Johnson explains the following words of Puck in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1) thus:

"The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; Then slip I from her b.u.m, down topples she, And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough."

"The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He that slips beside his chair, falls as a tailor squats upon his board." Mr. Dyce,[978] however, adds, "it may be doubted if this explains the text."

[978] Ibid., p. 43.

_Tilly-vally._ An exclamation of contempt, the etymology of which is uncertain. According to Douce it is a hunting phrase borrowed from the French. Singer says it is equivalent to _fiddle-faddle_. It occurs in "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3), being used by Sir Toby: "Am not I consanguineous? am I not of her blood? Tilly-vally, lady!"

In "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), the Hostess corrupts it to _tilly-fally_: "Tilly-fally, Sir John, ne'er tell me: your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors."

As a further ill.u.s.tration of the use of this word, Singer quotes a conversation between Sir Thomas More and his wife, given in Roper's Life: "Is not this house, quoth he, as nigh heaven as my own? To whom she, after her accustomed homely fashion, not liking such talk, answered, Tylle-valle, Tylle-valle."

_Westward, ho._ This was one of the exclamations of the watermen who plied on the Thames, and is used by Viola in "Twelfth Night" (iii. 1).

Dyce[979] quotes from Peel's "Edward I." to ill.u.s.trate the use of this word:

"_Queen Elinor._ Ay, good woman, conduct me to the court, That there I may bewail my sinful life, And call to G.o.d to save my wretched soul.

[_A cry of 'Westward, ho!'_ Woman, what noise is this I hear?

_Potter's Wife._ An like your grace, it is the watermen that call for pa.s.sengers to go westward now."

[979] "Glossary," p. 497; see Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 952.

Dekker took the exclamation "Westward, ho!" for the t.i.tle of a comedy; and Jonson, Chapman, and Marston adopted that of "Eastward, ho!" for one jointly written by them a few years afterwards.

_Fools._ Mr. Douce, in his essay "On the Clowns and Fools of Shakespeare," has made a ninefold division of English fools, according to quality or place of employment, as the domestic fool, the city or corporation fool, the tavern fool, the fool of the mysteries and moralities. The last is generally called the "vice," and is the original of the stage clowns so common among the dramatists of the time of Elizabeth, and who embody so much of the wit of Shakespeare.

A very palpable distinction is that which distinguishes between such creatures as were chosen to excite to laughter from some deformity of mind or body, and such as were chosen for a certain alertness of mind and power of repartee-or, briefly, b.u.t.ts and wits. The dress of the regular court fool of the middle ages was not altogether a rigid uniform, but seems to have changed from time to time. The head was shaved, the coat was motley, and the breeches tight, with, generally, one leg different in color from the other. The head was covered with a garment resembling a monk's cowl, which fell over the breast and shoulders, and often bore a.s.ses' ears, and was crested with a c.o.xcomb, while bells hung from various parts of the attire. The fool's bauble was a short staff bearing a ridiculous head, to which was sometimes attached an inflated bladder, by which sham castigations were inflicted; a long petticoat was also occasionally worn, but seems to have belonged rather to the idiots than the wits. The fool's business was to amuse his master, to excite his laughter by sharp contrast, to prevent the over-oppression of state affairs, and, in harmony with a well-known physiological precept, by his liveliness at meals to a.s.sist his lord's digestion.[980]

[980] "Encyclopaedia Britannica," 1879, vol. ix. p. 366; see Doran's "History of Court Fools," 1858.

The custom of shaving and nicking the head of a fool is very old. There is a penalty of ten shillings, in one of Alfred's Ecclesiastical Laws, if one opprobriously shave a common man like a fool; and Malone cites a pa.s.sage from "The Choice of Change," etc., by S. R. Gent, 4to, 1598-"Three things used by monks, which provoke other men to laugh at their follies: 1. They are shaven and notched on the head like fooles."

In the "Comedy of Errors" (v. 1), the servant says:

"My master preaches patience to him, and the while His man with scissors nicks him like a fool."

_Forfeits._ In order to enforce some kind of regularity in barbers'

shops, which were once places of great resort for the idle, certain laws were usually made, the breaking of which was to be punished by forfeits.

Rules of this kind, however, were as often laughed at as obeyed. So, in "Measure for Measure" (v. 1):

"laws for all faults, But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, As much in mock as mark."

_Gambling._ It was once customary for a person when going abroad "to put out" a sum of money on condition of receiving good interest for it on his return home; if he never returned the deposit was forfeited. Hence such a one was called "a putter-out." It is to this practice that reference is made in the following pa.s.sage ("The Tempest," iii. 3):

"or that there were such men Whose heads stood in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s? which now we find Each putter-out of five for one will bring us Good warrant of."

Malone quotes from Moryson's "Itinerary" (1617, pt. i. p. 198): "This custom of giving out money upon these adventures was first used in court and n.o.blemen;" a practice which "banker-outs, stage-players, and men of base condition had drawn into contempt," by undertaking journeys merely for gain upon their return. In Ben Jonson's "Every Man Out of His Humour" (ii. 3) the custom is thus alluded to: "I do intend, this year of jubilee coming on, to travel; and because I will not altogether go upon expence, I am determined to put forth some five thousand pound, to be paid me _five for one_, upon the return of my wife, myself, and my dog, from the Turk's court at Constantinople. If all, or either of us, miscarry in the journey, 'tis gone; if we be successful, why then there will be five and twenty thousand pound to entertain time with."

_Garters._ It was the regular amorous etiquette in the reign of Elizabeth,[981] "for a man, professing himself deeply in love, to a.s.sume certain outward marks of negligence in his dress, as if too much occupied by his pa.s.sion to attend to such trifles, or driven by despondency to a forgetfulness of all outward appearance." His "garters, in particular, were not to be tied up." In "As You Like It" (iii. 2), this custom is described by Rosalind, who tells Orlando: "There is none of my uncle's marks upon you: he taught me how to know a man in love; ... your hose should be ungarter'd, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unb.u.t.toned, your shoe untied, and every thing about you demonstrating a careless desolation." Another fashion which seems to have been common among the beaux of Queen Elizabeth's reign, was that of wearing garters across about the knees, an allusion to which we find in "Twelfth Night"

(ii. 5), in the letter which Malvolio reads: "Remember who commended thy yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever cross-gartered." Douce quotes from the old comedy of "The Two Angrie Women of Abingdon" (1599), where a servingman is thus described: