Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 30

_Peac.o.c.k._ This bird was as proverbially used for a proud, vain fool as the lapwing for a silly one. In this sense some would understand it in the much-disputed pa.s.sage in "Hamlet" (iii. 2):

"For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself; and now reigns here A very, very-peac.o.c.k."[292]

[292] This is the reading adopted by Singer.

The third and fourth folios read _pajock_,[293] the other editions have "paiock," "paiocke," or "pajocke," and in the later quartos the word was changed to "paic.o.c.k" and "pec.o.c.k," whence Pope printed peac.o.c.k.

[293] "Notes to Hamlet," Clark and Wright, 1876, pp. 179, 180.

Dyce says that in Scotland the peac.o.c.k is called the peajock. Some have proposed to read _paddock_, and in the last scene Hamlet bestows this opprobrious name upon the king. It has been also suggested to read _puttock_, a kite.[294] The peac.o.c.k has also been regarded as the emblem of pride and arrogance, as in "1 Henry VI." (iii. 3):[295]

"Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while, And, like a peac.o.c.k, sweep along his tail; We'll pull his plumes, and take away his train."

[294] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 645; Singer's "Notes," vol. ix. p. 228.

[295] Cf. "Troilus and Cressida," iii. 3.

_Pelican._ There are several allusions by Shakespeare to the pelican's piercing her own breast to feed her young. Thus, in "Hamlet" (iv. 5), Laertes says:

"To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms; And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood."

And in "King Lear," where the young pelicans are represented as piercing their mother's breast to drink her blood, an ill.u.s.tration of filial impiety (iii. 4), the king says:

"Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh?

Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters."[296]

[296] Cf. "Richard II." i. 1.

It is a common notion that the fable here alluded to is a cla.s.sical one, but this is an error. Shakespeare, says Mr. Harting, "was content to accept the story as he found it, and to apply it metaphorically as the occasion required." Mr. Houghton, in an interesting letter to "Land and Water"[297] on this subject, remarks that the Egyptians believed in a bird feeding its young with its blood, and this bird is none other than the vulture. He goes on to say that the fable of the pelican doubtless originated in the Patristic annotations on the Scriptures. The ecclesiastical Fathers transferred the Egyptian story from the vulture to the pelican, but magnified the story a hundredfold, for the blood of the parent was not only supposed to serve as food for the young, but was also able to reanimate the dead offspring. Augustine, commenting on Psalm cii. 6-"I am like a pelican of the wilderness"-remarks: "These birds [male pelicans] are said to kill their offspring by blows of their beaks, and then to bewail their death for the s.p.a.ce of three days. At length, however, it is said that the mother inflicts a severe wound on herself, pouring the flowing blood over the dead young ones, which instantly brings them to life." To the same effect write Eustathius, Isidorus, Epiphanius, and a host of other writers.[298]

[297] Mr. Harting, in his "Ornithology of Shakespeare," quotes an interesting correspondence from "Land and Water" (1869), on the subject.

[298] See Sir Thomas Browne's Works, 1852, vol. ii. pp. 1-4.

According to another idea[299] pelicans are hatched dead, but the c.o.c.k pelican then wounds his breast, and lets one drop of blood fall upon each, and this quickens them.

[299] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. pp. 366, 367.

_Pheasant._ This bird is only once alluded to, in "Winter's Tale" (iv.

4), where the Clown jokingly says to the Shepherd, "Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say, you have none."

_Phnix._ Many allusions are made to this fabulous bird, which is said to rise again from its own ashes. Thus, in "Henry VIII." (v. 4), Cranmer tells how

"when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phnix, Her ashes new create another heir, As great in admiration as herself."

Again, in "3 Henry VI." (i. 4), the Duke of York exclaims:

"My ashes, as the phnix, may bring forth A bird that will revenge upon you all."

Once more, in "1 Henry VI." (iv. 7), Sir William Lucy, speaking of Talbot and those slain with him, predicts that

"from their ashes shall be rear'd A phnix that shall make all France afeard."[300]

[300] Cf. "The Tempest," iii. 3; "All's Well that Ends Well,"

i. 1; "Antony and Cleopatra," iii. 2; "Cymbeline," i. 6.

Sir Thomas Browne[301] tells us that there is but one phnix in the world, "which after many hundred years burns herself, and from the ashes thereof ariseth up another." From the very earliest times there have been countless traditions respecting this wonderful bird. Thus, its longevity has been estimated from three hundred to fifteen hundred years; and among the various localities a.s.signed as its home are Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt, and India. In "The Phnix and Turtle," it is said,

"Let the bird of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree, Herald sad and trumpet be."

[301] Works, 1852, vol. i. pp. 277-284.

Pliny says of this bird, "Howbeit, I cannot tell what to make of him; and first of all, whether it be a tale or no, that there is never but one of them in the whole world, and the same not commonly seen."

Malone[302] quotes from Lyly's "Euphues and his England" (p. 312, ed.

Arber): "For as there is but one phnix in the world, so is there but one tree in Arabia wherein she buyldeth;" and Florio's "New Worlde of Wordes" (1598), "Rasin, a tree in Arabia, whereof there is but one found, and upon it the phnix sits."

[302] See Aldis Wright's "Notes to The Tempest," 1875, p. 129.

_Pigeon._ As carriers, these birds have been used from a very early date, and the Castle of the Birds, at Bagdad, takes its name from the pigeon-post which the old monks of the convent established. The building has crumbled into ruins long ago by the lapse of time, but the bird messengers of Bagdad became celebrated as far westward as Greece, and were a regular commercial inst.i.tution between the distant parts of Asia Minor, Arabia, and the East.[303] In ancient Egypt, also, the carrier breed was brought to great perfection, and, between the cities of the Nile and the Red Sea, the old traders used to send word of their caravans to each other by letters written on silk, and tied under the wings of trained doves. In "t.i.tus Andronicus" (iv. 3) t.i.tus, on seeing a clown enter with two pigeons, says:

"News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come.

Sirrah, what tidings? have you any letters?"

[303] _Daily Telegraph_, January 31, 1880; see Southey's "Commonplace Book," 1849, 2d series, p. 447.

From the same play we also learn that it was customary to give a pair of pigeons as a present. The Clown says to Saturninus (iv. 4), "I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here."[304]

[304] See _Dove_, pp. 114, 115.

In "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 3) the dove is used synonymously for pigeon, where the nurse is represented as

"Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall."

Mr. Darwin, in his "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication"

(vol. i. pp. 204, 205), has shown that from the very earliest times pigeons have been kept in a domesticated state. He says: "The earliest record of pigeons in a domesticated condition occurs in the fifth Egyptian dynasty, about 3000 B.C.; but Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, informs me that the pigeon appears in a bill of fare in the previous dynasty. Domestic pigeons are mentioned in Genesis, Leviticus, and Isaiah. Pliny informs us that the Romans gave immense prices for pigeons; 'nay, they are come to this pa.s.s that they can reckon up their pedigree and race.' In India, about the year 1600, pigeons were much valued by Akbar Khan; 20,000 birds were carried about with the court."

In most countries, too, the breeding and taming of pigeons has been a favorite recreation. The constancy of the pigeon has been proverbial from time immemorial, allusions to which occur in "Winter's Tale" (iv.

3), and in "As You Like It" (iii. 3).

_Quail._ The quail was thought to be an amorous bird, and hence was metaphorically used to denote people of a loose character.[305] In this sense it is generally understood in "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 1): "Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails."

Mr. Harting,[306] however, thinks that the pa.s.sage just quoted refers to the practice formerly prevalent of keeping quails, and making them fight like game-c.o.c.ks. The context of the pa.s.sage would seem to sanction the former meaning. Quail fighting[307] is spoken of in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 3), where Antony, speaking of the superiority of Caesar's fortunes to his own, says:

"if we draw lots, he speeds; His c.o.c.ks do win the battle still of mine, When it is all to nought; and his quails ever Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds."

[305] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 704; Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," 1866, p.

398; Dyce's "Glossary," p. 345; Singer's "Shakespeare," vol.

vii. p. 264.

[306] "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 218.