Folk-lore of Shakespeare, Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer [e reader comics TXT] 📗
- Author: Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer
- Performer: -
Book online «Folk-lore of Shakespeare, Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer [e reader comics TXT] 📗». Author Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer
[272] Cf. “Lucrece,” ll. 1079, 1127.
[273] See Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” 1856, vol. i. p. 30; Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 620; also Pennant’s “British Zoology;” see Peele’s Play of the “Battle of Alcazar” (ii. 3), 1861, p. 28.
[274] Called estridge in “1 Henry IV.” iv. 1.
[275] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 365.
[276] “Animal Kingdom,” 1829, vol. viii. p. 427.
[277] See Sir Thomas Browne’s Works, 1852, vol. i. pp. 334-337.
[278] “Æneid,” bk. iv. l. 462.
[279] “Metamorphoses,” bk. v. l. 550; bk. vi. l. 432; bk. x. l. 453; bk. xv. l. 791.
[280] “2 Henry VI.” iii. 2; iv. 1.
[281] “Titus Andronicus,” ii. 3.
[282] Cf. “Lucrece,” l. 165; see Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” vol. i. p. 122.
[283] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 209.
[284] The spelling of the folios is “howlets.” In Holland’s translation of Pliny (chap. xvii. book x.), we read “of owlls or howlets.” Cotgrave gives “Hulotte.”
[285] Halliwell-Phillipps’s, “Handbook Index,” 1866, p. 354.
[286] See Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 302.
[287] See Singer’s “Notes to The Tempest,” 1875, vol. i. p. 82.
[288] See Gentleman’s Magazine, November, 1804, pp. 1083, 1084. Grimm’s “Deutsche Mythologie.”
[289] See Dasent’s “Tales of the Norse,” 1859, p. 230.
[290] “Hudibras,” pt. i. ch. i.
[291] In “Much Ado About Nothing” (i. 1), Benedick likens Beatrice to a “parrot-teacher,” from her talkative powers.
[292] This is the reading adopted by Singer.
[293] “Notes to Hamlet,” Clark and Wright, 1876, pp. 179, 180.
[294] See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 645; Singer’s “Notes,” vol. ix. p. 228.
[295] Cf. “Troilus and Cressida,” iii. 3.
[296] Cf. “Richard II.” i. 1.
[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.
[299] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 366, 367.
[300] Cf. “The Tempest,” iii. 3; “All’s Well that Ends Well,” i. 1; “Antony and Cleopatra,” iii. 2; “Cymbeline,” i. 6.
[301] Works, 1852, vol. i. pp. 277-284.
[302] See Aldis Wright’s “Notes to The Tempest,” 1875, p. 129.
[303] Daily Telegraph, January 31, 1880; see Southey’s “Commonplace Book,” 1849, 2d series, p. 447.
[304] See Dove, pp. 114, 115.
[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.
[307] Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” 1876, pp. 19, 97, 677; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 59, 60.
[308] Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 367.
[309] Marsden’s “History of Sumatra,” 1811, p. 276.
[310] Cf. “2 Henry VI.” iii. 2; “Troilus and Cressida,” v. 2.
[311] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 211, 212.
[312] “English Folk-lore,” 1878, p. 78.
[313] See Hunt’s “Popular Romances of West of England,” 1881, p. 380.
[314] Dyce’s “Glossary,” 1876, p. 288.
[315] See Harting’s “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” pp. 101, 102; Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” vol. ii. p. 581.
[316] “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 107.
[317] Cf. “Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” ii. 2; “Twelfth Night,” v. 1.
[318] “English Folk-Lore,” pp. 62-64; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 191; Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 424; Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 380.
[319] Cf. Spenser’s “Epithalamium,” v. 8:
The ouzell shrills, the ruddock warbles soft.”
[320] Standard, January 26, 1877.
[321] “English Folk-Lore,” p. 76.
[322] Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, p. 122.
[323] “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 121.
[324] “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 36; the term “bully-rook” occurs several times in Shadwell’s “Sullen Lovers;” see Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 58.
[325] In Northamptonshire the word denotes an icicle, from its resemblance to the long bill of the bird so-called.—Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” 1854, vol. ii. p. 260.
[326] See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 653; Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 320.
[327] Derived from the French mouschet, of the same meaning.
[328] Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 593: Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 46. Turbervile tells us “the first name and terme that they bestowe on a falcon is an eyesse, and this name doth laste as long as she is an eyrie and for that she is taken from the eyrie.”
[329] “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” 1839, p. 161.
[330] Works, 1852, vol. i. p. 357.
[331] “Musical Myths and Facts,” 1876, vol. i. p. 89.
[332] “Instructions to Young Sportsmen,” 11th ed., p. 269.
[333] See Baring-Gould’s “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” 1877, p. 561; Thorpe’s “Northern Mythology,” 1852, vol. iii. pp. 302-328.
[334] Properly “tiercel gentle,” French, tiercelet; cf. “Troilus and Cressida,” iii. 2, “the falcon as the tercel.”
[335] “Gentleman’s Recreation,” p. 19, quoted in Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 867.
[336] Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 508.
[337] Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 971.
[338] See Willughby’s “Ornithology,” iii. section 1.
[339] Minsheu’s “Guide into Tongues,” ed. 1617.
[340] See Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” vol. ii. p. 178.
CHAPTER VII. ANIMALS.As in the case of the birds considered in the previous chapter, Shakespeare has also interwoven throughout his plays an immense deal of curious folk-lore connected with animals. Not only does he allude with the accuracy of a naturalist to the peculiarities and habits of certain animals, but so true to nature is he in his graphic descriptions of them that it is evident his knowledge was in a great measure acquired from his own observation. It is interesting, also, to note how carefully he has, here and there, worked into his narrative some old proverb or superstition, thereby adding a freshness to the picture which has, if possible, imbued it with an additional lustre. In speaking of the dog, he has introduced many an old hunting custom, and his references to the tears of the deer are full of sweet pathos, as, for instance, where Hamlet says (iii. 2), “Let the stricken deer go weep.” It is not necessary, however, to add further illustrations, as these will be found in the following pages.
Ape. In addition to Shakespeare’s mention of this animal as a common term of contempt, there are several other allusions to it. There is the well-known phrase, “to lead apes in hell,” applied to old maids, mentioned in the “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1)—the meaning of this term not having been yet satisfactorily explained.[341] (It is further discussed in the chapter on Marriage.)
In “2 Henry IV.” (ii. 4), the word is used as a term of endearment, “Alas, poor ape, how thou sweat’st.”
Ass. Beyond the proverbial use of this much ill-treated animal to denote a silly, foolish person, Shakespeare has said little about it. In “Troilus and Cressida” (ii. 1), Thersites uses the word assinego, a Portuguese expression for a young ass, “Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinego may tutor thee.” It is used by Beaumont and Fletcher in the “Scornful Lady” (v. 4): “All this would be forsworn, and I again an assinego, as your sister left me.”[342] Dyce[343] would spell the word “asinico,” because it is so spelled in the old editions of Shakespeare, and is more in accordance with the Spanish word.[344] In “King Lear” (i. 4), the Fool alludes to Æsop’s celebrated fable of the old man and his ass: “thou borest thine ass on thy back o’er the dirt.”
Bat. The bat, immortalized by Shakespeare (“The Tempest,” v. 1) as the “delicate Ariel’s” steed—
—has generally been an object of superstitious dread, and proved to the poet and painter a fertile source of images of gloom and terror.[345] In Scotland[346] it is still connected with witchcraft, and if, while flying, it rise and then descend again earthwards, it is a sign that the witches’ hour is come—the hour in which they are supposed to have power over every human being who is not specially shielded from their influence. Thus, in “Macbeth” (iv. 1) the “wool of bat” forms an ingredient in the witches’ caldron. One of its popular names is “rere-mouse,” which occurs in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 2), where Titania says:
To make my small elves coats.”
This term is equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon, hrére-mús, from hreran, to stir, agitate, and so the same as the old name “flitter-mouse.”[347] The early copies spell the word reremise.[348] It occurs in the Wicliffite version of Leviticus xi. 19, and the plural in the form “reremees” or “rere-myis” is found in Isaiah ii. 20. At Polperro, Cornwall,[349] the village boys call it “airy-mouse,” and address it in the following rhyme:
And you shall have a crust of bread;
And when I brew, and when I bake,
You shall have a piece of my wedding-cake.”
In Scotland[350] it is known as the Backe or Bakie bird. An immense deal of folk-lore has clustered round this curious little animal.[351]
Bear. According to an old idea, the bear brings forth unformed lumps of animated flesh, and then licks them into shape—a vulgar error, referred to in “3 Henry VI.” (iii. 2), where Gloster, bemoaning his deformity, says of his mother:
Comments (0)