Folk-lore of Shakespeare, Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer [e reader comics TXT] 📗
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Look to my house. I am right loath to go:
There is some ill a brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money-bags to-night.”
In “Julius Cæsar,” dreaming of banquet is supposed to presage misfortune.
It was also supposed that malicious spirits took advantage of sleep to torment their victims;[944] hence Macbeth (ii. 1) exclaims:
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!”[945]
Duels. The death of the vanquished person was always considered a certain evidence of his guilt. Thus, in “2 Henry VI.” (ii. 3), King Henry, speaking of the death of Horner in the duel with Peter, says:[946]
For, by his death, we do perceive his guilt:
And God in justice hath reveal’d to us
The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,
Which he had thought to have murder’d wrongfully.—
Come, fellow, follow us for thy reward.”
We may also compare what Arcite says to Palamon in the “Two Noble Kinsmen” (iii. 6):
For none but such dare die in these just trials.”
Among the customs connected with duelling, it appears that, according to an old law, knights were to fight with the lance and the sword, as those of inferior rank fought with an ebon staff or baton, to the farther end of which was fixed a bag crammed hard with sand.[947] Thus Shakespeare, in “2 Henry VI.” (ii. 3), represents Horner entering “bearing his staff with a sand-bag fastened to it.” Butler, in his “Hudibras,” alludes to this custom:
As men with sand-bags did of old.”
Steevens adds that “a passage in St. Chrysostom very clearly proves the great antiquity of this practice.”
Fortune-tellers. A common method of fortune-tellers, in pretending to tell future events, was by means of a beryl or glass. In an extract from the “Penal Laws against Witches,” it is said, “they do answer either by voice, or else set before their eyes, in glasses, chrystal stones, etc., the pictures or images of the persons or things sought for.” It is to this kind of juggling prophecy that Angelo, in “Measure for Measure” (ii. 2), refers, when he tells how the law—
Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,
Either new, or by remissness new-conceiv’d.”
Again, Macbeth (iv. 1), when “a show of eight kings” is presented to him, exclaims, after witnessing the seventh:
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass,
Which shows me many more.”
Spenser[948] has given a circumstantial account of the glass which Merlin made for King Ryence. A mirror of the same kind was presented to Cambuscan, in the “Squier’s Tale” of Chaucer; and we are also told how “a certain philosopher did the like to Pompey, the which showed him in a glass the order of his enemies’ march.”[949] Brand, in his “Popular Antiquities,”[950] gives several interesting accounts of this method of fortune-telling; and quotes the following from Vallancey’s “Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis:” “In the Highlands of Scotland, a large chrystal, of a figure somewhat oval, was kept by the priests to work charms by; water poured upon it at this day is given to cattle against diseases; these stones are now preserved by the oldest and most superstitious in the country; they were once common in Ireland.”
Further allusions to fortune-tellers occur in “Comedy of Errors” (v. 1), and “Merry Wives of Windsor” (iv. 2).
It appears, too, that the trade of fortune-telling was, in Shakespeare’s day, as now, exercised by the wandering hordes of gypsies. In “Antony and Cleopatra” (iv. 12), the Roman complains that Cleopatra
Beguil’d me to the very heart of loss.”
Giants. The belief in giants and other monsters was much credited in olden times, and, “among the legends of nearly every race or tribe, few are more universal than those relating to giants or men of colossal size and superhuman power.”[951] That such stories were current in Shakespeare’s day, is attested by the fact that the poet makes Othello (i. 3), in his eloquent defence before the Senate of Venice, when explaining his method of courtship, allude to
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.”
In “The Tempest” (iii. 3), Gonzalo relates how—
Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp’d like bulls, whose throats had hanging at ’em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men,
Whose heads stood in their breasts?”
And after the appearance of Prospero’s magic repast, Sebastian says:
That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phœnix’ throne; one phœnix
At this hour reigning there.”
Among the numerous references to giants by Shakespeare, we may quote the following. In “2 Henry VI.” (ii. 3), Horner says: “Peter, have at thee with a downright blow [as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart].”[952]
Ascapart, according to the legend, was “ful thyrty fote longe,” and was conquered by Sir Bevis of Southampton.
In “Cymbeline” (iii 3), Belarius says:
Are arch’d so high, that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbans on, without
Good morrow to the sun.”
In the “Merry Wives of Windsor” (ii. 1), Mrs. Page says: “I had rather be a giantess, and lie under Mount Pelion.”[953]
Lucky Days. From the most remote period certain days have been supposed to be just as lucky as others are the reverse, a notion which is not confined to any one country. In Shakespeare’s day great attention was paid to this superstitious fancy, which is probably alluded to in the “Winter’s Tale” (iii. 3), where the Shepherd says to the Clown, “’Tis a lucky day, boy; and we’ll do good deeds on’t.”
In “King John” (iii. 1) Constance exclaims:
That it in golden letters should be set
Among the high tides in the calendar?
Nay, rather turn this day out of the week,
This day of shame, oppression, perjury:
Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child
Pray that their burthens may not fall this day,
Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross’d:
But on this day let seamen fear no wreck;
No bargains break that are not this day made:
This day, all things begun come to ill end,
Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change!”
Again, Macbeth (iv. 1) says:
Stand aye accursed in the calendar!”
In the old almanacs the days supposed to be favorable or unfavorable are enumerated, allusion to which occurs in Webster’s “Duchess of Malfy,” 1623:
To choose good days and shun the critical.”
At the present day this superstition still retains its hold on the popular mind, and in the transactions of life exerts an important influence.[954]
Magic. The system of magic, which holds such a prominent place in “The Tempest,” was formerly an article in the popular creed, and as such is frequently noticed by the writers of Shakespeare’s time. Thus, in describing Prospero, Shakespeare has given him several of the adjuncts, besides the costume, of the popular magician, much virtue being inherent in his very garments. So Prospero, when addressing his daughter (i. 2), says:
And pluck my magic garment from me.—So;
Lie there, my art.”
A similar importance is assigned to his staff, for he tells Ferdinand (i. 2):
And make thy weapon drop.”
And when he abjures the practice of magic, one of the requisites is “to break his staff,” and to (v. 1)
The more immediate instruments of power were books, by means of which spells were usually performed. Hence, in the old romances, the sorcerer is always furnished with a book, by reading certain parts of which he is enabled to summon to his aid what demons or spirits he has occasion to employ. When he is deprived of his book his power ceases. Malone quotes, in illustration of this notion, Caliban’s words in “The Tempest” (iii. 2):
First to possess his books; for without them
He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command.”
Prospero, too, declares (iii. 1):
For yet, ere supper time, must I perform
Much business appertaining.”
And on his relinquishing his art he says that:
I’ll drown my book.”
Those who practise nocturnal sorcery are styled, in “Troilus and Cressida” (iv. 2), “venomous wights.”
Merlin’s Prophecies. In Shakespeare’s day there was an extensive belief in strange and absurd prophecies, which were eagerly caught up and repeated by one person to another. This form of superstition is alluded to in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 1), where, after Owen Glendower has been descanting on the “omens and portents dire” which heralded his nativity, and Hotspur’s unbelieving and taunting replies to the chieftain’s assertions, the poet makes Hotspur, on Mortimer’s saying,
thus reply:
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies;
And of a dragon and a finless fish.”
In “King Lear” (iii. 2) the Fool says
When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors’ tutors;
No heretics burn’d, but wenches’ suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues.
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i’ the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;—
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion:
Then comes the time, who lives to see’t,
That going shall be us’d with feet.
This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time.”
This witty satire was probably against the prophecies attributed to Merlin, which were then prevalent among the people.[955]
Formerly, too, prophecies of apparent impossibilities were common in Scotland; such as the removal of one place to another. So in “Macbeth” (iv. 1), the apparition says:
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.”
Portents and Prodigies. In years gone the belief in supernatural occurrences was a common article of faith; and our ancestors made use of every opportunity to prove the truth of this superstitious belief. The most usual monitions of this kind
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