Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 97

Of course it is equivalent to the proverb, "When the night's darkest the day's nearest."

"When? can you tell?" ("Comedy of Errors," iii. 1). This proverbial query, often met with in old writers, and perhaps alluded to just before in this scene, when Dromio of Syracuse says: "Right, sir; I'll tell you when, an you'll tell me wherefore;" occurs again in "1 Henry IV." (ii.

1): "Ay, when? canst tell?"

"When two men ride the same horse one must ride behind." So in "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 5) Dogberry says: "An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind."[896] With this may be compared the Spanish adage, "He who rides behind does not saddle when he will."

[896] See Kelly's "Proverbs of All Nations," p. 49.

"While the gra.s.s grows, the steed starves." This is alluded to by Hamlet (iii. 2): "Ay, sir, but 'while the gra.s.s grows,' the proverb is something musty." See Dyce's "Glossary," p. 499.

"Who dares not stir by day must walk by night" ("King John," i. 1).

"Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to St. Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a queane, a knave, and a jade."

This proverb, often quoted by old writers, is alluded to in "2 Henry IV." (i. 2):

"_Falstaff._ Where's Bardolph?

_Page._ He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse.

_Falstaff._ I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived."

"Wit, whither wilt?" This was a proverbial expression not unfrequent in Shakespeare's day. It is used by Orlando in "As You Like It" (iv. 1): "A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say-'Wit, whither wilt?'"

"Will you take eggs for money?" This was a proverbial phrase, quoted by Leontes in the "Winter's Tale" (i. 2), for putting up with an affront, or being cajoled or imposed upon.

"Words are but wind, but blows unkind." In "Comedy of Errors" (iii. 1), Dromio of Ephesus uses the first part of this popular adage.

"Worth a Jew's eye." Launcelot, in the "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 5), says:

"There will come a Christian by, Will be worth a Jewess' eye."

According to tradition, the proverb arose from the custom of torturing Jews to extort money from them. It is simply, however, a corruption of the Italian _gioia_ (a jewel).

"You'll never be burned for a witch." This proverb, which was applied to a silly person, is probably referred to in "Antony and Cleopatra" (i. 2) by Charmian, when he says to the soothsayer:

"Out, fool; I forgive thee for a witch."

"Young ravens must have food" ("Merry Wives of Windsor," i. 3).[897] Ray has "Small birds must have meat."

[897] "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 395.

CHAPTER XX.

THE HUMAN BODY.

It would be difficult to enumerate the manifold forms of superst.i.tion which have, in most countries, in the course of past centuries, cl.u.s.tered round the human body. Many of these, too, may still be found scattered, here and there, throughout our own country, one of the most deep-rooted being palmistry, several allusions to which are made by Shakespeare.

According to a popular belief current in years past, a trembling of the body was supposed to be an indication of demoniacal possession. Thus, in the "Comedy of Errors" (iv. 4) the Courtezan says of Antipholus of Ephesus:

"Mark how he trembles in his ecstasy!"

and Pinch adds:

"I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man, To yield possession to my holy prayers, And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight; I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven!"

In "The Tempest" (ii. 2), Caliban says to Stephano, "Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, I know it by thy trembling."

It was formerly supposed that our bodies consisted of the four elements-fire, air, earth, and water, and that all diseases arose from derangement in the due proportion of these elements. Thus, in Antony's eulogium on Brutus, in "Julius Caesar" (v. 5), this theory is alluded to:

"His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'"

In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3) it is also noticed:

"_Sir Toby._ Do not our lives consist of the four elements?

_Sir Andrew._ 'Faith, so they say; but I think, it rather consists of eating and drinking.

_Sir Toby._ Thou art a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink. Marian, I say!-a stoop of wine!"

In "Antony and Cleopatra" (v. 2), Shakespeare makes the latter say:

"I am fire, and air, my other elements I give to baser life."

This theory is the subject, too, of Sonnets xliv. and xlv., and is set forth at large in its connection with physic in Sir Philip Sidney's "Arcadia:"

"O elements, by whose (men say) contention, Our bodies be in living power maintained, Was this man's death the fruit of your dissension?

O physic's power, which (some say) hath restrained Approach of death, alas, thou keepest meagerly, When once one is for Atropos distrained.

Great be physicians' brags, but aide is beggarly When rooted moisture fails, or groweth drie; They leave off all, and say, death comes too eagerly.

They are but words therefore that men doe buy Of any, since G.o.d Esculapius ceased."

This notion was substantially adopted by Galen, and embraced by the physicians of the olden times.[898]

[898] See Bucknill's "Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare," p. 120.

_Blood._ In old phraseology this word was popularly used for disposition or temperament. In "Timon of Athens" (iv. 2), Flavius says:

"Strange, unusual blood, When man's worst sin is, he does too much good!"

In the opening pa.s.sage of "Cymbeline" it occurs in the same sense:

"You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers Still seem as does the king,"

the meaning evidently being that "our dispositions no longer obey the influences of heaven; they are courtiers, and still seem to resemble the disposition the king is in."