Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 40

[432] "Glossary," p. 412.

[433] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," p. 48.

Again, the forehorse of a team was generally gayly ornamented with tufts and ribbons and bells. Hence, in "All's Well That Ends Well" (ii. 1), Bertram complains that, bedizened like one of these animals, he will have to squire ladies at the court, instead of achieving honor in the wars-

"I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry, Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn But one to dance with."

A familiar name for a common horse was "Cut"-either from its being docked or gelded-a name occasionally applied to a man as a term of contempt. In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3), Sir Toby Belch says: "Send for money, knight; if thou hast her not i' the end, call me cut." In "1 Henry IV." (ii. 1), the first carrier says: "I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle." We may compare, too, what Falstaff says further on in the same play (ii. 4): "I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse." Hence, _call me cut_ is the same as _call me horse_-both expressions having been used.

In Shakespeare's day a _race_ of horses was the term for what is now called a stud. So in "Macbeth" (ii. 4), Rosse says:

"And Duncan's horses-a thing most strange and certain- Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turn'd wild in nature."

The words "minions of their race," according to Steevens, mean the favorite horses on the race-ground.

_Lion._ The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with examples of the lion's generosity. "Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus, in the pa.s.sage below, reasons not improperly ('Troilus and Cressida,' v. 3) that to spare against reason, by mere instinct and pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise man:"[434]

"Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Which better fits a lion than a man."

[434] Singer's "Shakespeare," 1875, vol. vii. p. 277.

It is recorded by Pliny[435] that "the lion alone of all wild animals is gentle to those that humble themselves before him, and will not touch any such upon their submission, but spareth what creature soever lieth prostrate before him." Hence Spenser's Una, attended by a lion; and Perceval's lion, in "Morte d'Arthur" (bk. xiv. c. 6). Bartholomaeus says the lion's "mercie is known by many and oft ensamples: for they spare them that lie on the ground." Shakespeare again alludes to this notion in "As You Like It" (iv. 3):

"for 'tis The royal disposition of that beast To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead."

[435] "Natural History," bk. viii. c. 19.

It was also supposed that the lion would not injure a royal prince.

Hence, in "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4) the Prince says: "You are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince; no, fie!"

The same notion is alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher in "The Mad Lover" (iv. 5):

"Fetch the Numidian lion I brought over; If she be sprung from royal blood, the lion He'll do you reverence, else-

He'll tear her all to pieces."

According to some commentators there is an allusion in "3 Henry VI." (i.

3) to the practice of confining lions and keeping them without food that they may devour criminals exposed to them:

"So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch That trembles under his devouring paws."

_Mole._ The eyes of the mole are so extremely minute, and so perfectly hid in its hair, that our ancestors considered it blind-a vulgar error, to which reference is made by Caliban in "The Tempest" (iv. 1):

"Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall."

And again by Pericles (i. 1):

"The blind mole casts Copp'd hills towards heaven."

Hence the expression "blind as a mole." Alexander Ross[436] absurdly speaks of the mole's eyes as only the "forms of eyes," given by nature "rather for ornament than for use; as wings are given to the ostrich, which never flies, and a long tail to the rat, which serves for no other purpose but to be catched sometimes by it." Sir Thomas Browne, however, in his "Vulgar Errors" (bk. iii. c. xviii.),[437] has, with his usual minuteness, disproved this idea, remarking "that they have eyes in their head is manifested unto any that wants them not in his own." A popular term for the mole was the "moldwarp" or "mouldiwarp,"[438] so called from the Anglo-Saxon, denoting turning the mould. Thus, in "1 Henry IV."

(iii. 1) Hotspur says:

"sometime he angers me With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant."

[436] "Arcana Microcosmi," p. 151.

[437] 1852, vol. i. pp. 312-315.

[438] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 577; Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. v. p. 77.

_Mouse._ This word was formerly used as a term of endearment, from either s.e.x to the other. In this sense it is used by Rosaline in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2):

"What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?"

and again in "Hamlet" (iii. 4).

Some doubt exists as to the exact meaning of "Mouse-hunt," by Lady Capulet, in "Romeo and Juliet" (iv. 4):

"Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time, But I will watch you from such watching now."

According to some, the expression implies "a hunter of gay women," mouse having been used in this signification.[439] Others are of opinion that the stoat[440] is meant, the smallest of the weasel tribe, and others again the polecat. Mr. Staunton[441] tells us that the mouse-hunt is the marten, an animal of the weasel tribe which prowls about for its prey at night, and is applied to any one of rakish propensities.

[439] Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare,"

1866, p. 331.

[440] Forby's "Vocabulary of East Anglia," vol. ii. p. 222.

[441] See Staunton's "Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 278.

Holinshed, in his "History of Scotland" (1577, p. 181), quotes from the laws of Kenneth II., King of Scotland: "If a sowe eate her pigges, let hyr be stoned to death and buried, that no man eate of hyr fleshe." This offence is probably alluded to by Shakespeare in "Macbeth" (iv. 1), where the witch says:

"Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten Her nine farrow."

_Polecat_, or _Fitchew_. This animal is supposed to be very amorous; and hence its name, Mr. Steevens says, was often applied to ladies of easy or no virtue. In "Oth.e.l.lo" (iv. 1) Ca.s.sio calls Bianca a "fitchew," and in "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 1) Thersites alludes to it.[442]

[442] Cf. "King Lear," iv. 6.

_Porcupine._ Another name for this animal was the porpentine, which spelling occurs in "Hamlet" (i. 5):

"Like quills upon the fretful porpentine."

And again, in "2 Henry VI." (iii. 1) York speaks of "a sharp-quill'd porpentine." Ajax, too, in "Troilus and Cressida" (ii. 1), applies the term to Thersites: "do not, porpentine." In the above pa.s.sages, however, and elsewhere, the word has been altered by editors to porcupine.

According to a popular error, the porcupine could dart his quills. They are easily detached, very sharp, and slightly barbed, and may easily stick to a person's legs, when he is not aware that he is near enough to touch them.[443]

[443] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 673.

_Rabbit._ In "2 Henry IV." (ii. 2) this animal is used as a term of reproach, a sense in which it was known in Shakespeare's day. The phrase "cony-catch," which occurs in "Taming of the Shrew" (v. 1)-"Take heed, Signior Baptista, lest you be cony-catched in this business"-implied the act of deceiving or cheating a simple person-the cony or rabbit being considered a foolish animal.[444] It has been shown, from Dekker's "English Villanies," that the system of cheating was carried to a great length in the early part of the seventeenth century, that a collective society of sharpers was called "a warren," and their dupes "rabbit-suckers," _i. e._, young rabbit or conies.[445] Shakespeare has once used the term to express harmless roguery, in the "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 1). When Grumio will not answer his fellow-servants, except in a jesting way, Curtis says to him: "Come, you are so full of cony-catching."