Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 17

"sometime I'd divide And burn in many places; on the topmast, The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join."

It is called, by the French and Spaniards inhabiting the coasts of the Mediterranean, St. Helme's or St. Telme's fire; by the Italians, the fire of St. Peter and St. Nicholas. It is also known as the fire of St.

Helen, St. Herm, and St. Clare. Douce[129] tells us that whenever it appeared as a single flame it was supposed by the ancients to be Helena, the sister of Castor and Pollux, and in this state to bring ill luck, from the calamities which this lady is known to have caused in the Trojan war. When it came as a double flame it was called Castor and Pollux, and accounted a good omen. It has been described as a little blaze of fire, sometimes appearing by night on the tops of soldiers'

lances, or at sea on masts and sailyards, whirling and leaping in a moment from one place to another. According to some, it never appears but after a tempest, and is supposed to lead people to suicide by drowning. Shakespeare in all probability consulted Batman's "Golden Books of the Leaden G.o.ddes," who, speaking of Castor and Pollux, says: "They were figured like two lampes or cresset lightes-one on the toppe of a maste, the other on the stemme or foreshippe." He adds that if the first light appears in the stem or foreship and ascends upwards, it is a sign of good luck; if "either lights begin at the topmast, bowsprit," or foreship, and descends towards the sea, it is a sign of a tempest. In taking, therefore, the latter position, Ariel had fulfilled the commands of Prospero, and raised a storm.[130] Mr. Swainson, in his "Weather-Lore" (1873, p. 193), quotes the following, which is to the same purport:

"Last night I saw Saint Elmo's stars, With their glittering lanterns all at play, On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars, And I knew we should have foul weather that day."

[129] Ibid. p. 3.

[130] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 400.

Capell, in his "School of Shakespeare" (1779, iii. 7), has pointed out a pa.s.sage in Hakluyt's "Voyages" (1598, iii. 450), which strikingly ill.u.s.trates the speech of Ariel quoted above: "I do remember that in the great and boysterous storme of this foule weather, in the night, there came vpon the toppe of our maine yarde and maine maste, a certaine little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards called the Cuerpo-Santo, and said it was St. Elmo, whom they take to bee the aduocate of sailers.... This light continued aboord our ship about three houres, flying from maste to maste, and from top to top; and sometimes it would be in two or three places at once." This meteor was by some supposed to be a spirit; and by others "an exhalation of moyst vapours, that are ingendered by foul and tempestuous weather."[131] Mr. Thoms, in his "Notelets on Shakespeare" (1865, p.

59), says that, no doubt, Shakespeare had in mind the will-o'-the-wisp.[132]

[131] Purchas, "His Pilgrimes" (1625, pt. i. lib. iii. p. 133), quoted by Mr. Aldis Wright in his "Notes to The Tempest," 1875, p. 86.

[132] See Puck as Will-o'-the-Wisp; chapter on "Fairy-Lore."

_Fire-Drake_, which is jocularly used in "Henry VIII." (v. 4) for a man with a red face, was one of the popular terms for the will-o'-the-wisp,[133] and Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," says: "Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by fire-drakes, or ignes fatui, which lead men often in flumina et praecipitia." In Bullokar's "English Expositor" (1616), we have a quaint account of this phenomenon: "Fire-drake; a fire sometimes seen flying in the night like a dragon. Common people think it a spirit that keepeth some treasure hid, but philosophers affirme it to be a great unequal exhalation inflamed betweene two clouds, the one hot, the other cold, which is the reason that it also smoketh, the middle part whereof, according to the proportion of the hot cloud being greater than the rest, maketh it seem like a bellie, and both ends like unto a head and taill."[134] White, however, in his "Peripateticall Inst.i.tutions" (p. 156), calls the fiery-dragon or fire-drake, "a weaker kind of lightning. Its livid colors, and its falling without noise and slowly, demonstrate a great mixture of watery exhalation in it.... 'Tis sufficient for its shape, that it has some resemblance of a dragon, not the expresse figure."

[133] See "Notes and Queries," 5th series, vol. x. p. 499; Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 410; Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 309.

[134] A "fire-drake" appears to have been also an artificial firework, perhaps what is now called a serpent. Thus, in Middleton's "Your Five Gallants" (1607):

"But, like fire-drakes, Mounted a little, gave a crack and fell."

Among other allusions to the will-o'-the-wisp by Shakespeare, Mr.

Hunter[135] notices one in "King Lear" (iii. 4), where Gloster's torch being seen in the distance, the fool says, "Look, here comes a walking fire." Whereupon Edgar replies, "This is the foul fiend, Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew, and walks till the first c.o.c.k."

"From which," observes Mr. Hunter, "Flibbertigibbet seems to be a name for the will-o'-the-wisp. Hence the propriety of 'He _begins at curfew_, and walks till the crowing of the c.o.c.k,' that is, is seen in all the dark of the night." It appears that when Shakespeare wrote, "a walking fire" was a common name for the _ignis fatuus_, as we learn from the story of "How Robin Goodfellow lead a company of fellows out of their way:" "A company of young men, having been making merry with their sweethearts, were, at their coming home, to come over a heath; Robin Goodfellow, knowing of it, met them, and to make some pastime hee led them up and downe the heathe a whole night, so that they could not get out of it, for hee went before them in the shape of a _walking fire_, which they all saw and followed till the day did appeare; then Robin left them, and at his departure spake these words:

"'Get you home, you merry lads, Tell your mammies and your dads, And all those that newes desire How you saw a walking fire, Wenches, that doe smile and lispe, Use to call me w.i.l.l.y-wispe.'"

[135] "New Ill.u.s.trations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare," vol. ii. p. 272.

Another allusion to this subject occurs in "The Tempest" (iv. 1), where Stephano, after Ariel has led him and his drunken companions through "tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, p.r.i.c.king goss and thorns," and at last "left them i' the filthy mantled pool," reproaches Caliban in these words: "Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the Jack with us"-that is, to quote Dr.

Johnson's explanation of this pa.s.sage, "he has played Jack-with-a-lanthorn, has led us about like an _ignis fatuus_, by which travellers are decoyed into the mire."[136] Once more, when Puck, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (iii. 1), speaks of the various forms he a.s.sumes in order to "mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm,"

he says:

"Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire."

[136] See Thoms's "Notelets on Shakespeare," p. 59.

Shakespeare, no doubt, here alludes to the will-o'-the wisp, an opinion shared by Mr. Joseph Ritson,[137] who says: "This Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, seems likewise to be the illusory candle-holder, so fatal to travellers, and who is more usually called 'Jack-a-lantern,'[138] or 'Will-with-a-wisp,' and 'Kit-with-the-candlestick.'" Milton, in "Paradise Lost" (book ix.), alludes to this deceptive gleam in the following lines:

"A wandering fire Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night Condenses, and the cold environs round, Kindled through agitation to a flame, Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends, Hovering and blazing with delusive light, Misleads th' amaz'd night-wanderer from his way To bogs and mires, and oft through pond and pool."[139]

[137] "Fairy Mythology," edited by Hazlitt, 1875, p. 40.

[138] Among the many other names given to this appearance may be mentioned the following: "Will-a-wisp," "Joan-in-the-wad,"

"Jacket-a-wad," "Peg-a-lantern," "Elf-fire," etc. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (5th series, vol. x. p.

499) says: "The wandering meteor of the moss or fell appears to have been personified as Jack, Gill, Joan, Will, or Robin, indifferently, according as the supposed spirit of the lamp seemed to the particular rustic mind to be a male or female apparition." In Worcestershire it is called "Hob-and-his-lanthorn," and "Hobany's" or "Hobnedy's Lanthorn."

[139] Mr. Ritson says that Milton "is frequently content to pilfer a happy expression from Shakespeare-on this occasion, 'night-wanderer.'" He elsewhere calls it "the friar's lantern."

This appearance has given rise to a most extensive folk-lore, and is embodied in many of the fairy legends and superst.i.tions of this and other countries. Thus, in Germany, Jack-o'-lanterns are said to be the souls of unbaptized children, that have no rest in the grave, and must hover between heaven and earth. In many places they are called land-measurers, and are seen like figures of fire, running to and fro with a red-hot measuring rod. These are said to be persons who have falsely sworn away land, or fraudulently measured it, or removed landmarks.[140] In the neighborhood of Magdeburg, they are known as "Luchtemannekens;" and to cause them to appear, it is sufficient to call out "Ninove, Ninove." In the South Altmark they are termed "d.i.c.kepoten;" and if a person only prays as soon as he sees one, he draws it to him; if he curses, it retires. In some parts, too, a popular name is "Huckepoten," and "Tuckbolde." The Jack-o'-lanterns of Denmark[141] are the spirits of unrighteous men, who, by a false glimmer, seek to mislead the traveller, and to decoy him into bogs and moors. The best safeguard against them, when they appear, is to turn one's cap inside out. A similar notion occurs in Devonshire with regard to the Pixies, who delight in leading astray such persons as they find abroad after nightfall; the only remedy to escape them being to turn some part of the dress. In Normandy these fires are called "Feux Follets," and they are believed to be cruel spirits, whom it is dangerous to encounter. Among the superst.i.tions which prevail in connection with them, two, says Mr. Thoms,[142] are deserving of notice: "One is, that the _ignis fatuus_ is the spirit of some unhappy woman, who is destined to run _en furolle_, to expiate her intrigues with a minister of the church, and it is designated from that circ.u.mstance La Fourlore, or La Fourolle." Another opinion is, that Le Feu Follet is the soul of a priest, who has been condemned thus to expiate his broken vows of perpetual chast.i.ty; and it is very probable that it is to some similar belief existing in this country, at the time when he wrote, that Milton alludes in "L'Allegro," when he says:

"She was pinched and pulled, she said, And he by Friar's Lanthorn led."

[140] Thorpe, "Northern Mythology," 1852, vol. iii. pp. 85, 158, 220.

[141] "Notelets on Shakespeare," pp. 64, 65.

[142] Ibid.

In Brittany the "Porte-brandon" appears in the form of a child bearing a torch, which he turns like a burning wheel; and with this, we are told, he sets fire to the villages, which are suddenly, sometimes in the middle of the night, wrapped in flames.

The appearance of meteors Shakespeare ranks among omens, as in "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4), where Bardolph says: "My lord, do you see these meteors?

do you behold these exhalations? What think you they portend?" And in "King John" (iii. 4), Pandulph speaks of meteors as "prodigies and signs." The Welsh captain, in "Richard II." (ii. 4), says:

"'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.

The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd, And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven."

_Comet._ From the earliest times comets have been superst.i.tiously regarded, and ranked among omens. Thus Thucydides tells us that the Peloponnesian war was heralded by an abundance of earthquakes and comets; and Vergil, in speaking of the death of Caesar, declares that at no other time did comets and other supernatural prodigies appear in greater numbers. It is probably to this latter event that Shakespeare alludes in "Julius Caesar" (ii. 2), where he represents Calpurnia as saying:

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

Again, in "1 Henry VI." (i. 1), the play opens with the following words, uttered by the Duke of Bedford:

"Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!

Comets, importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, And with them scourge the bad revolting stars That have consented unto Henry's death!"

In "Taming of the Shrew" (iii. 2), too, Petruchio, when he makes his appearance on his wedding-day, says:

"Gentles, methinks you frown: And wherefore gaze this goodly company, As if they saw some wondrous monument, Some comet, or unusual prodigy?"

In "1 Henry IV." (iii. 2), the king, when telling his son how he had always avoided making himself "common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,"

adds:

"By being seldom seen, I could not stir But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at."

Arcite, in the "Two n.o.ble Kinsmen" (v. 1), when addressing the altar of Mars, says:

"Whose approach Comets forewarn."[143]

[143] See Proctor's "Myths of Astronomy;" Chambers's "Domestic Annals of Scotland," 1858, vol. ii. pp. 410-412; Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," pp. 364, 365.

_Dew._ Among the many virtues ascribed to dew was its supposed power over the complexion, a source of superst.i.tion which still finds many believers, especially on May morning. All dew, however, does not appear to have possessed this quality, some being of a deadly or malignant quality. Thus Ariel, in "The Tempest" (i. 2), speaks of the "deep brook"

in the harbor: