Folk-lore of Shakespeare, Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer [e reader comics TXT] 📗
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That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only.”
The “third ventricle is the cerebellum, by which the brain is connected with the spinal marrow and the rest of the body; the memory is posted in the cerebellum, like a warder or sentinel, to warn the reason against attack. Thus, when the memory is converted by intoxication into a mere fume,[902] then it fills the brain itself—the receipt or receptacle of reason, which thus becomes like an alembic, or cap of a still.”[903]
A popular nickname, in former times, for the skull, was “brain-pan;” to which Cade, in “2 Henry VI.” (iv. 10) refers: “many a time, but for a sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill.” The phrase “to beat out the brains” is used by Shakespeare metaphorically in the sense of defeat or destroy; just as nowadays we popularly speak of knocking a scheme on the head. In “Measure for Measure” (v. 1), the Duke, addressing Isabella, tells her:
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brain’d my purpose.”
The expression “to bear a brain,” which is used by the Nurse in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 3),
denoted “much mental capacity either of attention, ingenuity, or remembrance.”[904] Thus, in Marston’s “Dutch Courtezan” (1605), we read:
I that must beare a braine for all.”
The notion of the brain as the seat of the soul is mentioned by Prince Henry, who, referring to King John (v. 7), says:
Which some suppose the soul’s frail dwelling-house,
Doth, by the idle comments that it makes,
Foretell the ending of mortality.”
Ear. According to a well-known superstition, much credited in days gone by, and still extensively believed, a tingling of the right ear is considered lucky, being supposed to denote that a friend is speaking well of one, whereas a tingling of the left is said to imply the opposite. This notion, however, varies in different localities, as in some places it is the tingling of the left ear which denotes the friend, and the tingling of the right ear the enemy. In “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 1), Beatrice asks Ursula and Hero, who had been talking of her:
the reference, no doubt, being to this popular fancy. Sir Thomas Browne[905] ascribes the idea to the belief in guardian angels, who touch the right or left ear according as the conversation is favorable or not to the person.
In Shakespeare’s day it was customary for young gallants to wear a long lock of hair dangling by the ear, known as a “love-lock.” Hence, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 3), the Watch identifies one of his delinquents: “I know him; a’ wears a lock.”[906]
Again, further on (v. 1), Dogberry gives another allusion to this practice: “He wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it.”
An expression of endearment current in years gone by was “to bite the ear.” In “Romeo and Juliet” (ii. 4), Mercutio says:
a passage which is explained in Nares (“Glossary,” vol. i. p. 81) by the following one from Ben Jonson’s “Alchemist” (ii. 3):
“Mammon. Th’ hast witch’d me, rogue; take, go.
Face. Your jack, and all, sir.
Mammon. Slave, I could bite thine ear.... Away, thou dost not care for me!”
Gifford, in his notes on Jonson’s “Works” (vol. ii. p. 184), says the odd mode of expressing pleasure by biting the ear seems “to be taken from the practice of animals, who, in a playful mood, bite each other’s ears.”
While speaking of the ear, it may be noted that the so-called want of ear for music has been regarded as a sign of an austere disposition. Thus Cæsar says of Cassius (“Julius Cæsar,” i. 2):
Seldom he smiles.”
There is, too, the well-known passage in the “Merchant of Venice” (v. 1):
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.”
According to the Italian proverb: “Whom God loves not, that man loves not music.”[907]
Elbow. According to a popular belief, the itching of the elbow denoted an approaching change of some kind or other.[908] Thus, in “1 Henry IV.” (v. 1), the king speaks of
Which gape, and rub the elbow, at the news
Of hurlyburly innovation.”
With this idea we may compare similar ones connected with other parts of the body. Thus, in “Macbeth” (iv. 1), one of the witches exclaims:
Something wicked this way comes.”
Again, in “Troilus and Cressida” (ii. 1), Ajax says: “My fingers itch,”[909] and an itching palm was said to be an indication that the person would shortly receive money. Hence, it denoted a hand ready to receive bribes. Thus, in “Julius Cæsar” (iv. 3), Brutus says to Cassius:
Are much condemn’d to have an itching palm;
To sell and mart your offices for gold
To undeservers.”
So, in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (ii. 3), Shallow says: “If I see a sword out, my finger itches to make one.”
Again, in “Othello” (iv. 3), poor Desdemona says to Emilia:
Doth that bode weeping?”
Grose alludes to this superstition, and says: “When the right eye itches, the party affected will shortly cry; if the left, they will laugh.” The itching of the eye, as an omen, is spoken of by Theocritus, who says:
Eyes. A good deal of curious folk-lore has, at one time or another, clustered round the eye; and the well-known superstition known as the “evil eye” has already been described in the chapter on Birth and Baptism. Blueness above the eye was, in days gone by, considered a sign of love, and as such is alluded to by Rosalind in “As You Like It” (iii. 2), where she enumerates the marks of love to Orlando: “A lean cheek, which you have not; a blue eye, and sunken, which you have not.”
The term “baby in the eye” was sportively applied by our forefathers to the miniature reflection of himself which a person may see in the pupil of another’s eye. In “Timon of Athens” (i. 2), one of the lords says:
And, at that instant, like a babe sprung up,”
an allusion probably being made to this whimsical notion. It is often referred to by old writers, as, for instance, by Drayton, in his “Ideas:”
Upon your lips the scarlet drops are found,
And, in your eye, the boy that did the murder.”[910]
We may compare the expression, “to look babies in the eyes,” a common amusement of lovers in days gone by. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Loyal Subject” (iii. 2), Theodore asks:
In the young gallants’ eyes, and twirl their band-strings?”
And once more, to quote from Massinger’s “Renegado” (ii. 4), where Donusa says:
Or with an amorous touch presses your foot;
Looks babies in your eyes, plays with your locks,” etc.
Another old term for the eyes was “crystal,” which is used by Pistol to his wife, Mrs. Quickly, in “Henry V.” (ii. 3):
Go, clear thy crystals;”
that is, dry thine eyes.
In “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 2), the phrase is employed by Benvolio:
Herself pois’d with herself in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh’d
Your lady’s love against some other maid.”
It also occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Double Marriage” (v. 3), where Juliana exclaims:
An everlasting slumber crown those crystals.”
The expression “wall-eyed” denotes, says Dyce (“Glossary,” p. 486), “eyes with a white or pale-gray iris—glaring-eyed.” It is used by Lucius in “Titus Andronicus” (v. 1):
This growing image of thy fiend-like face?”
In “King John” (iv. 3), Salisbury speaks of “wall-eyed wrath.”
Brockett, in his “Glossary of North Country Words,” says: “In those parts of the north with which I am best acquainted, persons are said to be wall-eyed when the white of the eye is very large and to one side; on the borders ‘sic folks’ are considered lucky. The term is also occasionally applied to horses with similar eyes, though its wider general acceptation seems to be when the iris of the eye is white, or of a very pale color. A wall-eyed horse sees perfectly well.”
Face. A common expression “to play the hypocrite,” or feign, was “to face.” So, in “1 Henry VI.” (v. 3), Suffolk declares how:
That Suffolk doth not flatter, face, or feign.”
Hence the name of one of the characters in Ben Jonson’s “Alchemist.” So, in the “Taming of the Shrew” (ii. 1):
The phrase, also, “to face me down,” implied insisting upon anything in opposition. So, in the “Comedy of Errors” (iii. 1), Antipholus of Ephesus says:
He met me on the mart.”
Feet. Stumbling has from the earliest period been considered ominous.[911] Thus, Cicero mentions it among the superstitions of his day; and numerous instances of this unlucky act have been handed down from bygone times. We are told by Ovid how Myrrha, on her way to Cinyra’s chamber, stumbled thrice, but was not deterred by the omen from an unnatural and fatal crime; and Tibullus (lib. I., eleg. iii. 20), refers to it:
Offensum in porta signa dedisse pedem.”
This superstition is alluded to by Shakespeare, who, in “3 Henry VI.” (iv. 7), makes Gloster say:
Are well foretold that danger lurks within.”
In “Richard III.” (iii. 4), Hastings relates:[912]
And started when he look’d upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house.”
In the same way, stumbling at a grave has been regarded as equally unlucky; and in “Romeo and Juliet” (v. 3), Friar Laurence says:
Have my old feet stumbled at graves.”
Hair. From time immemorial there has been a strong antipathy
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