Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 68

This superst.i.tion, however, is not yet obsolete, but lingers on in many country places.

We may also compare a similar phrase made use of by Cleopatra ("Antony and Cleopatra," iii. 7), in answer to En.o.barbus:

"Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars,"

the word _forespeak_ having anciently had the meaning of charm or bewitch, like _forbid_ in "Macbeth" (i. 3):

"He shall live a man forbid."[703]

[703] See Napier's "Folk-Lore of West of Scotland," 1879, pp.

34-40; Keightley's "Fairy Mythology;" Brand's "Pop. Antiq.,"

1849, vol. iii. pp. 73, 74.

Among the numerous customs a.s.sociated with the birth of a child may be mentioned the practice of giving presents at the announcement of this important event. In "Henry VIII." (v. 1), on the old lady's making known to the king the happy tidings of the birth of a princess, he says to Lovell:

"Give her an hundred marks. I'll to the queen."

The old lady, however, resents what she considers a paltry sum:

"An hundred marks! By this light, I'll ha' more.

An ordinary groom is for such payment.

I will have more, or scold it out of him."

It was an ancient custom-one which is not quite out of use-for the sponsors at christenings to offer silver or gilt spoons as a present to the child. These were called "apostle spoons," because the extremity of the handle was formed into the figure of one or other of the apostles.

Such as were opulent and generous gave the whole twelve; those who were moderately rich or liberal escaped at the expense of the four evangelists, or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint, in honor of whom the child received its name. In "Henry VIII." (v. 2) it is in allusion to this custom that, when Cranmer professes to be unworthy of being a sponsor to the young princess, Shakespeare makes the king reply:

"Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons."

A story is related of Shakespeare promising spoons to one of Ben Jonson's children, in a collection of anecdotes ent.i.tled "Merry Pa.s.sages and Jests," compiled by Sir Nicholas L'Estrange (MSS. Harl. 6395): "Shakespeare was G.o.dfather to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christ'ning, being in a deepe study, Jonson came to cheere him up, and ask't him why he was so melancholy. 'No faith, Ben (sayes he), not I; but I have been considering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my G.o.dchild, and I have resolv'd at last.' 'I pr'y thee, what?' sayes he. 'I' faith, Ben, I'le e'en give him a douzen good Latin spoones, and thou shalt translate them.'" "Shakespeare," says Mr. Thoms,[704] "willing to show his wit, if not his wealth, gave a dozen spoons, not of silver, but of latten, a name formerly used to signify a mixed metal resembling bra.s.s, as being the most appropriate gift to the child of a father so learned." In Middleton's "Chaste Maid of Cheapside," 1620:

"_2 Gossip._ What has he given her? What is it, gossip?

_3 Gossip._ A fair, high-standing cup, and two great 'postle spoons, one of them gilt."

[704] "Anecdotes and Traditions," 1839, p. 3.

And Beaumont and Fletcher, in the "n.o.ble Gentleman" (v. 1):

"I'll be a gossip, Beaufort, I have an odd apostle spoon."

The gossip's feast, held in honor of those who were a.s.sociated in the festivities of a christening, was a very ancient English custom, and is frequently mentioned by dramatists of the Elizabethan age. The term gossip or G.o.dsip, a Saxon word signifying _cognata ex parte dei_, or G.o.dmother, is well defined by Richard Verstegan, in his "Rest.i.tution of Decayed Intelligence." He says: "Our Christian ancestors, understanding a spiritual affinity to grow between the parents and such as undertooke for the child at baptism, called each other by the name of _G.o.dsib_, which is as much as to say that they were _sib_ together, that is, of _kin_ together through G.o.d. And the childe, in like manner, called such his G.o.dfathers or G.o.dmothers."

As might be expected, it is often alluded to by Shakespeare. Thus, in the "Comedy of Errors" (v. 1), we read:

"_Abbess._ Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail Of you, my sons: and till this present hour My heavy burthen ne'er delivered.

The duke, my husband, and my children both, And you the calendars of their nativity, Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me; After so long grief, such festivity!

_Duke._ With all my heart I'll gossip at this feast."

And again, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1), the mischievous Puck says:

"sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab; And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale."

And, once more, we find Capulet, in "Romeo and Juliet" (iii. 5), saying to the Nurse:

"Peace, you mumbling fool!

Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl; For here we need it not."

Referring to entertainments at christenings, we find the following in the "Batchelor's Banquet," 1603 (attributed to Dekker): "What cost and trouble it will be to have all things fine against the Christening Day; what store of sugar, biskets, comphets, and caraways, marmalet, and marchpane, with all kinds of sweet-suckers and superfluous banqueting stuff, with a hundred other odd and needless trifles, which at that time must fill the pockets of dainty dames," by which it appears the ladies not only ate what they pleased, but pocketed likewise. Upon this and the falling-off of the custom of giving "apostle spoons" at the christening, we read in "Shipman's Gossip," 1666:

"Especially since gossips now Eat more at christenings than bestow.

Formerly when they us'd to troul Gilt bowls of sack, they gave the bowl; Two spoons at least; an use ill kept; 'Tis well now if our own be left."

Strype tells us that, in 1559, the son of Sir Thomas Chamberlayne was baptized at St. Benet's Church, Paul's Wharf, when "the Church was hung with cloth of arras, and after the christening were brought wafers, comfits, and divers banqueting dishes, and hypocras and Muscadine wine, to entertain the guests."

In "Henry VIII." (v. 4), the Porter says: "Do you look for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals?"

A term formerly in use for the name given at baptism was "Christendom,"

an allusion to which we find in "All's Well that Ends Well" (i. 1), where Helena says:

"with a world Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms That blinking Cupid gossips,"

the meaning evidently being, a number of pretty, fond, adopted appellations or Christian names to which blind Cupid stands G.o.dfather.

The expression is often used for baptism by old writers; and Singer[705]

quotes from "King John" (iv. 1):

"By my christendom, So I were out of prison, and kept sheep, I should be as merry as the day is long."

[705] "Shakespeare," 1875, vol. iv. p. 314.

Steevens observes that, in the Puritanical times, it was usual to christen children with the names of moral and religious virtues-a practice to which allusion seems to be made in "The Tempest" (ii. 1) by Antonio:

"Temperance was a delicate wench."

So Taylor, the Water-Poet, in his description of a strumpet, says:

"Though bad they be, they will not bate an ace, To be call'd Prudence, Temperance, Faith, or Grace."

In days gone by a "chrisom" or "christom child" was one who had recently been baptized, and died within the month of birth, the term having originated in the "face-cloth, or piece of linen, put upon the head of a child newly baptized." The word was formed from the chrism, that is, the anointing, which formed a part of baptism before the Reformation. Thus, in "Henry V." (ii. 3), the hostess, Mrs. Quickly, means "chrisom child"

in the following pa.s.sage, where she speaks of Falstaff's death: "'A made a finer end, and went away an it had been any christom child." In a beautiful pa.s.sage of Bishop Taylor's "Holy Dying" (chap. i. sec. 2), this custom is thus spoken of: "Every morning creeps out of a dark cloud, leaving behind it an ignorance and silence deep as midnight, and undiscerned as are the phantoms that made a chrisom child to smile."

Referring to the use of the chrisom-cloth in connection with baptism, it appears that, after the usual immersion in water, the priest made a cross on the child's head with oil, after which the chrisom was put on, the priest asking at the same time the infant's name, and saying, "Receive this white, pure, and holy vestment, which thou shalt wear before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest inherit eternal life. Amen." It was to be worn seven days; but after the Reformation, however, the use of oil was omitted, and the chrisom was worn by the child till the mother's churching, when it was returned to the church. If the child died before the churching, it was buried in the chrisom, and hence it may be that the child itself was called a chrisom or chrisomer.[706] Thus, it will be seen that Dame Quickly simply compares the manner of Falstaff's death to that of a young infant. In registers and bills of mortality we find infants alluded to under the term "Chrisoms." Burn, in his "History of Parish Registers" (1862, p.

127), gives the subjoined entry from a register of Westminster Abbey: "The Princess Ann's child a chrissome bu. in ye vault, Oct. 22, 1687."

[706] Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," 1859, pp. 299, 300; Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 160; see Brand's "Pop.

Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 84, 85.

In Graunt's "Bills of Mortality," cited in Johnson's Dictionary, we read: "When the convulsions were but were but few, the number of chrisoms and infants was greater." The "bearing-cloth" was the mantle which generally covered the child when it was carried to the font. It is noticed in the "Winter's Tale" (iii. 3), by the Shepherd, who, on the discovery of Perdita, says to the Clown: "Here's a sight for thee: look thee, a bearing-cloth for a squire's child! Look thee here; take up, take up, boy: open't." In Stow's "Chronicle" (1631, p. 1039), we are told that about this time it was not customary "for G.o.dfathers and G.o.dmothers generally to give plate at the baptisme of children, but only to give 'christening shirts,' with little bands and cuffs, wrought either with silk or blue thread. The best of them, for chief persons, were edged with a small lace of black silk and gold, the highest price of which, for great men's children, was seldom above a n.o.ble, and the common sort, two, three, or four, and six shillings a piece."