Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 21

"O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit"-

meaning, the poison triumphs over him, as a c.o.c.k over his beaten antagonist. Formerly, c.o.c.k-fighting entered into the occupations of the old and young.[175] Schools had their c.o.c.k-fights. Travellers agreed with coachmen that they were to wait a night if there was a c.o.c.k-fight in any town through which they pa.s.sed. When country gentlemen had sat long at table, and the conversation had turned upon the relative merits of their several birds, a c.o.c.k-fight often resulted, as the birds in question were brought for the purpose into the dining-room.

c.o.c.k-fighting was practised on Shrove Tuesday to a great extent, and in the time of Henry VII. seems to have been practised within the precincts of court. The earliest mention of this pastime in England is by Fitzstephens, in 1191. Happily, nowadays, c.o.c.k-fighting is, by law, a misdemeanor, and punishable by penalty. One of the popular terms for a c.o.c.k beaten in a fight was "a craven," to which we find a reference in the "Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1):

"No c.o.c.k of mine; you crow too like a craven."

[175] Roberts's "Social History of Southern Counties of England," 1856, p. 421; see "British Popular Customs," 1876, p. 65.

We may also compare the expression in "Henry V." (iv. 7): "He is a craven and a villain else." In the old appeal or wager of battle,[176]

in our common law, we are told, on the authority of Lord c.o.ke, that the party who confessed himself wrong, or refused to fight, was to p.r.o.nounce the word _cravent_, and judgment was at once given against him.

Singer[177] says the term may be satisfactorily traced from _crant_, _creant_, the old French word for an act of submission. It is so written in the old metrical romance of "Ywaine and Gawaine" (Ritson, i. 133):

"Or yelde the til us als creant."

[176] Nares's "Glossary," 1872, vol. i. p. 203.

[177] Singer's "Shakespeare," 1875, vol. ix. p. 256; Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 112.

And in "Richard Cur de Lion" (Weber, ii. 208):

"On knees he fel down, and cryde, creaunt."

It then became _cravant_, _cravent_, and at length _craven_.

In the time of Shakespeare the word _c.o.c.k_ was used as a vulgar corruption or purposed disguise of the name of G.o.d, an instance of which occurs in "Hamlet" (iv. 5): "By c.o.c.k, they are to blame." This irreverent alteration of the sacred name is found at least a dozen times[178] in Heywood's "Edward the Fourth," where one pa.s.sage is,

"_Herald._ Sweare on this booke, King Lewis, so help you G.o.d, You mean no otherwise then you have said.

_King Lewis._ So helpe me c.o.c.k as I dissemble not."

[178] Dyce's "Glossary to Shakespeare," p. 85.

We find, too, other allusions to the sacred name, as in "c.o.c.k's pa.s.sion," "c.o.c.k's body;" as in "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 1): "c.o.c.k's pa.s.sion, silence!" A not uncommon oath, too, in Shakespeare's time was "c.o.c.k and pie"-_c.o.c.k_ referring to G.o.d, and _pie_ being supposed to mean the service-book of the Romish Church; a meaning which, says Mr. Dyce, seems much more probable than Douce's[179] supposition that this oath was connected with the making of solemn vows by knights in the days of chivalry, during entertainments at which a roasted peac.o.c.k was served up. It is used by Justice Shallow ("2 Henry IV.," v. 1): "By c.o.c.k and pye, sir, you shall not away to-night." We may also compare the expression in the old play of "Soliman and Perseda" (1599): "By c.o.c.k and pye and mousefoot." Mr. Harting[180] says the "c.o.c.k and Pye" (_i. e._, magpie) was an ordinary ale-house sign, and may have thus become a subject for the vulgar to swear by.

[179] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 290.

[180] "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 171.

The phrase, "c.o.c.k-a-hoop"[181]-which occurs in "Romeo and Juliet" (i.

5),

"You'll make a mutiny among my guests!

You will set c.o.c.k-a-hoop! you'll be the man!"

-no doubt refers to a reckless person, who takes the c.o.c.k or tap out of a cask, and lays it on the top or hoop of the barrel, thus letting all the contents of the cask run out. Formerly, a quart pot was called a hoop, being formed of staves bound together with hoops like barrels.

There were generally three hoops to such a pot; hence, in "2 Henry VI."

(iv. 2), one of Jack Cade's popular reformations was to increase their number: "the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer." Some, however, consider the term c.o.c.k-a-hoop[182] refers to the boastful crowing of the c.o.c.k.

[181] It is also an ale-house sign.

[182] See Dyce's "Glossary to Shakespeare," p. 85.

In "King Lear" (iii. 2) Shakespeare speaks of the "cataracts and hurricanoes" as having

"drenched our steeples, drowned the c.o.c.ks!"

Vanes on the tops of steeples were in days gone by made in the form of a c.o.c.k-hence weatherc.o.c.ks-and put up, in papal times, to remind the clergy of watchfulness.[183] Apart, too, from symbolism, the large tail of the c.o.c.k was well adapted to turn with the wind.[184]

[183] See "Book of Days," 1863, vol. i. p. 157.

[184] In "King Lear" (iv. 6), where Edgar says:

"Yond tall anchoring bark, Diminish'd to her c.o.c.k; her c.o.c.k, a buoy Almost too small for sight."

the word "c.o.c.k" is an abbreviation for c.o.c.k-boat.

_Cormorant._ The proverbial voracity of this bird[185] gave rise to a man of large appet.i.te being likened to it, a sense in which Shakespeare employs the word, as in "Coriola.n.u.s" (i. 1): "the cormorant belly;" in "Love's Labour's Lost" (i. 1): "cormorant devouring Time;" and in "Troilus and Cressida" (ii. 2): "this cormorant war." "Although," says Mr. Harting,[186] "Shakespeare mentions the cormorant in several of his plays, he has nowhere alluded to the sport of using these birds, when trained, for fishing; a fact which is singular, since he often speaks of the then popular pastime of hawking, and he did not die until some years after James I. had made fishing with cormorants a fashionable amus.e.m.e.nt."

[185] For superst.i.tions a.s.sociated with this bird, see Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 218.

[186] "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 260.

_Crow._ This has from the earliest times been reckoned a bird of bad omen; and in "Julius Caesar" (v. 1), Ca.s.sius, on the eve of battle, predicted a defeat, because, to use his own words:

"crows and kites Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem A canopy most fatal, under which Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost."

Allusions to the same superst.i.tion occur in "Troilus and Cressida" (i.

2); "King John" (v. 2), etc. Vergil ("Bucolic," i. 18) mentions the croaking of the crow as a bad omen:

"Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix."

And Butler, in his "Hudibras" (part ii. canto 3), remarks:

"Is it not ominous in all countries, When crows and ravens croak upon trees."

Even children, nowadays, regard with no friendly feelings this bird of ill-omen;[187] and in the north of England there is a rhyme to the following effect:

"Crow, crow, get out of my sight, Or else I'll eat thy liver and lights."

[187] See "Folk-Lore Record," 1879, vol. i. p. 52; Henderson's "Folk-Lore of Northern Counties," 1879, pp. 25, 126, 277.

Among other allusions made by Shakespeare to the crow may be noticed the crow-keeper-a person employed to drive away crows from the fields. At present,[188] in all the midland counties, a boy set to drive away the birds is said to keep birds; hence, a stuffed figure, now called a _scarecrow_, was also called a crow-keeper, as in "King Lear" (iv. 6): "That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper."

[188] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 208.

One of Tusser's directions for September is:

"No sooner a-sowing, but out by-and-by, With mother or boy that alarum can cry: And let them be armed with a sling or a bow, To scare away pigeon, the rook, or the crow."