Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 61

"Be a wh.o.r.e still! they love thee not that use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their l.u.s.t.

Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves For tubs and baths: bring down rose-cheeked youth To the tub-fast, and the diet."

[635] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 906.

As beef, too, was usually salted down in a tub, the one process was jocularly compared to the other. So, in "Measure for Measure" (iii. 2), Pompey, when asked by Lucio about his mistress, replies, "Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub." Again, in "Henry V." (ii. 1), Pistol speaks of "the powdering-tub of infamy."

_Vinegar._ In Shakespeare's day this seems to have been termed "eisel"

(from A. S. _aisel_), being esteemed highly efficacious in preventing the communication of the plague and other contagious diseases. In this sense it has been used by Shakespeare in Sonnet cxi.:

"like a willing patient, I will drink Potions of eisel, 'gainst my strong infection."

In a MS. Herbal in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, occurs "acetorum, ance vynegre or aysel." The word occurs again in "Hamlet"

(v. 1), where Laertes is challenged by Hamlet:

"Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?"

The word woo't, in the northern counties, is the common contraction of _wouldst thou_, which is the reading of the old copies. In former years it was the fashion with gallants to do some extravagant feat, as a proof of their love, in honor of their mistresses, and, among others, the swallowing of some nauseous potion was one of the most frequent. Hence, in the above pa.s.sage, some bitter potion is evidently meant, which it was a penance to drink. Some are of opinion that _wormwood_ is alluded to; and Mr. Singer thinks it probable that "the propoma called absinthites, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use, may have been in the poet's mind, to drink up a quant.i.ty of which would be an extreme pa.s.s of amorous demonstration." It has been suggested by a correspondent of "Notes and Queries,"[636] that the reference in this pa.s.sage from "Hamlet" is to a Lake Esyl, which figures in Scandinavian legends. Messrs. Wright and Clark, however, in their "Notes to Hamlet"

(1876, p. 218), say that they have consulted Mr. Magnusson on this point, and he writes as follows: "No such lake as Esyl is known to Norse mythology and folk-lore." Steevens supposes it to be the river Yssell.[637]

[636] See 4th series, vol. x. pp. 108, 150, 229, 282, 356.

[637] See Dyce's "Shakespeare," vol. vii. p. 239.

_Water-casting._ The fanciful notion of recognizing diseases by the mere inspection of the urine was denounced years ago, by an old statute of the College of Physicians, as belonging to tricksters and impostors, and any member of the college was forbidden to give advice by this so-called "water-casting" without he also saw the patient. The statute of the college runs as follows: "Statuimus, et ordinamus, ut nemo, sive socius, sive candidatus, sive permissus consilii quidquam impertiat veteratoriis, et impostoribus, super urinarum nuda inspectione, nisi simul ad aegrum vocetur, ut ibidem, pro re natu, idonea medicamenta ab honesto aliquo pharmacopoea componenda praescribat." An allusion to this vulgar error occurs in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (ii. 1), where, after Speed has given to Valentine his amusing description of a lover, in which, among other signs, are "to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence," and "to fast, like one that takes diet," the following quibble takes place upon the within and the without of the symptoms:

"_Valentine._ Are all these things perceived in me?

_Speed._ They are all perceived without ye.

_Valentine._ Without me? they cannot.

_Speed._ Without you? nay, that's certain; for, without you were so simple, none else would: but you are so without these follies, that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the water in an urinal, that not an eye that sees you but is a physician to comment on your malady."

This singular pretence, says Dr. Bucknill,[638] is "alleged to have arisen, like the barber surgery, from the ecclesiastical interdicts upon the medical vocations of the clergy. Priests and monks, being unable to visit their former patients, are said first to have resorted to the expedient of divining the malady, and directing the treatment upon simple inspection of the urine. However this may be, the practice is of very ancient date." Numerous references to this piece of medical quackery occur in many of our old writers, most of whom condemn it in very strong terms. Thus Forestus, in his "Medical Politics," speaks of it as being, in his opinion, a practice altogether evil, and expresses an earnest desire that medical men would combine to repress it.

Shakespeare gives a further allusion to it in the pa.s.sage where he makes Macbeth (v. 3) say:

"If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo."

[638] "The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare," 1860, pp. 1-64.

And in "2 Henry IV" (i. 2) Falstaff asks the page, "What says the doctor to my water?" and, once more, in "Twelfth Night" (iii. 4), Fabian, alluding to Malvolio, says, "Carry his water to the wise woman."

It seems probable, too, that, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (ii. 3), the term "mock-water," employed by the host to the French Dr. Caius, refers to the mockery of judging of diseases by the water or urine-"mock-water," in this pa.s.sage, being equivalent to "you pretending water-doctor!"

CHAPTER XI.

CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH THE CALENDAR.

In years gone by the anniversaries connected with the calendar were kept up with an amount of enthusiasm and merry-making quite unknown at the present day. Thus, for instance, Shakespeare tells us, with regard to the May-day observance, that it was looked forward to so eagerly as to render it impossible to make the people sleep on this festive occasion.

During the present century the popular celebrations of the festivals have been gradually on the decline, and nearly every year marks the disuse of some local custom. Shakespeare has not omitted to give a good many scattered allusions to the old superst.i.tions and popular usages a.s.sociated with the festivals of the year, some of which still survive in our midst.

Alluding to the revels, there can be no doubt that Shakespeare was indebted to the revel-books for some of his plots. Thus, in "The Tempest" (iv. 1), Prospero remarks to Ferdinand and Miranda, after Iris, Ceres, and Juno have appeared, and the dance of the nymphs is over:

"You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort, As if you were dismay'd; be cheerful, sir.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind."

It has been inferred that Shakespeare was present at Kenilworth, in 1575, when Elizabeth was so grandly entertained there. Lakes and seas are represented in the masque. Triton, in the likeness of a mermaid, came towards the queen, says George Gascoigne, and "Arion appeared, sitting on a dolphin's back." In the dialogue in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream," between Oberon and Puck (ii. 1), there seems a direct allusion to this event:

"_Oberon._ My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song, And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music.

_Puck._ I remember."

Then, too, there were the "Children of the Revels," a company who performed at Blackfriars Theatre. In "Hamlet" (ii. 2), Shakespeare alludes to these "children-players."[639] Rosencrantz says, in the conversation preceding the entry of the players, in reply to Hamlet's inquiry whether the actors have suffered through the result of the late inhibition, evidently referring to the plague, "Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for 't; these are now the fashion; and so berattle the common stages-so they call them-that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither."

[639] "The England of Shakespeare," E. Goadby, 1881, p. 153.

_Twelfth-Day._ There can be no doubt that the t.i.tle of Shakespeare's play, "Twelfth Night," took its origin in the festivities a.s.sociated with this festival. The season has, from time immemorial, been one of merriment, "the more decided from being the proper close of the festivities of Christmas, when games of chance were traditionally rife, and the sport of sudden and casual elevation gave the tone of the time.

Of like tone is the play, and to this,"[640] says Mr. Lloyd, "it apparently owes its t.i.tle." The play, it appears, was probably originally acted at the barristers' feast at the Middle Temple, on February 2, 1601-2, as Manningham tells us in his "Diary" (Camden Society, 1868, ed. J. Bruce, p. 18). It is worthy of note that the festive doings of the Inns of Court, in days gone by, at Christmas-tide were conducted on the most extravagant scale.[641] In addition to the merry disports of the Lord of Misrule, there were various revels. The Christmas masque at Gray's Inn, in 1594, was on a magnificent scale.

[640] "Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare," 1875, p.

145; see Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. iii. pp. 347, 348.

[641] See "British Popular Customs," p. 473.

_St. Valentine's Day_ (Feb. 14). Whatever may be the historical origin of this festival, whether heathen or Christian, there can be no doubt of its antiquity. According to an old tradition, to which Chaucer refers, birds choose their mates on this day; and hence, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (iv. 1), Theseus asks:

"Good morrow, friends. St. Valentine is past: Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?"

From this notion, it has been suggested, arose the once popular practice of choosing valentines, and also the common belief that the first two single persons who meet in the morning of St. Valentine's day have a great chance of becoming wed to each other. This superst.i.tion is alluded to in Ophelia's song in "Hamlet" (iv. 5):

"To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your valentine."

There seems every probability that St. Valentine's day, with its many customs, has come down to us from the Romans, but was fathered upon St.

Valentine in the earlier ages of the Church in order to Christianize it.[642] In France St. Valentine's was a movable feast, celebrated on the first Sunday in Lent, which was called the _jour des brandons_, because the boys carried about lighted torches on that day.

[642] "Notes and Queries," 6th series, vol. i. p. 129.

_Shrove-Tuesday._ This day was formerly devoted to feasting and merriment of every kind, but whence originated the custom of eating pancakes is still a matter of uncertainty. The practice is alluded to in "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 2), where the clown speaks of "a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday."[643] In "Pericles" (ii. 1) they are termed "flap-jacks," a term used by Taylor, the Water-Poet, in his "Jack-a-Lent Workes" (1630, vol. i. p. 115): "Until at last by the skill of the cooke it is transformed into the form of a flap-jack, which in our translation is called a pancake." Shrovetide was, in times gone by, a season of such mirth that _shroving_, or _to shrove_, signified to be merry. Hence, in "2 Henry IV." (v. 3), Justice Silence says:

"Be merry, be merry, my wife has all; For women are shrews, both short and tall; 'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all, And welcome merry shrove-tide.

Be merry, be merry."

[643] Cf. "As You Like It" (i. 2). Touchstone alludes to a "certain knight, that swore by his honour they were good pancakes."