Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 110

"Hee's a fine neate fellow, A spruce slave, I warrant ye, he'ele have His cruell garters crosse about the knee."

[981] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 350.

In days gone by, when garters were worn in sight, the upper cla.s.ses wore very expensive ones, but the lower orders worsted galloon ones. Prince Henry calls Poins ("1 Henry IV.," ii. 4) a "caddis garter," meaning a man of mean rank.

_Gaudy Days._ Feast-days in the colleges of our universities are so called, as they were formerly at the inns-of-court. In "Antony and Cleopatra" (iii. 13), Antony says:

"come, Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more; Let's mock the midnight bell."

They were so called, says Blount, "from _gaudium_, because, to say truth, they are days of joy, as bringing good cheer to the hungry students."

_Glove._ As an article of dress the glove held a conspicuous place in many of our old customs and ceremonies. Thus, it was often worn in the hat as a favor, and as a mark to be challenged by an enemy, as is ill.u.s.trated by the following dialogue in "Henry V." (iv. 1):

"_King Henry._ Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel.

_Williams._ Here's my glove: give me another of thine.

_King Henry._ There.

_Williams._ This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come to me and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,' by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.

_King Henry._ If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

_Williams._ Thou darest as well be hanged."

Again, in "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 2), Diomedes, taking the glove from Cressida, says:

"To-morrow will I wear it on my helm, And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it."

And in "Richard II." (v. 3), Percy narrates how Prince Henry boasted that-

"he would unto the stews, And from the common'st creature pluck a glove, And wear it as a favour; and with that He would unhorse the l.u.s.tiest challenger."

The glove was also worn in the hat as the memorial of a friend, and in the "Merchant of Venice" (iv. 1), Portia, in her a.s.sumed character, asks Ba.s.sanio for his gloves, which she says she will wear for his sake:

"Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake."

When the fas.h.i.+on of thus wearing gloves declined, "it fell into the hands of c.o.xcombical and dissolute servants."[982] Thus Edgar, in "King Lear" (iii. 4), being asked by Lear what he had been, replies: "A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap."

[982] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 371.

To throw the glove, as the signal of a challenge, is alluded to by Troilus (iv. 4), who tells Cressida:

"For I will throw my glove to Death himself, That's there's no maculation in thy heart"

-the meaning being, says Johnson: "I will challenge Death himself in defence of thy fidelity."

The glove then thrown down was popularly called "a gage,"[983] from the French, signifying a pledge, and in "Richard II." (iv. 1), it is so termed by Aumerle:

"There is my gage, the manual seal of death, That marks thee out for h.e.l.l."

[983] The verb "to gage," or "to pledge," occurs in "Merchant of Venice," i. 1:

"but my chief care Is, to come fairly off from the great debts Wherein my time, something too prodigal, Hath left me gaged."

Cf. "1 Henry IV.," i. 3.

In the same play it is also called "honor's p.a.w.n." Thus Bolingbroke (i.

1) says to Mowbray:

"Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, Disclaiming here the kindred of the king; And lay aside my high blood's royalty, Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.

If guilty dread hath left thee so much strength As to take up mine honour's p.a.w.n, then stoop."

And further on (iv. 1), one of the lords employs the same phrase:

"There is my honour's p.a.w.n; Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st."

It is difficult to discover why the glove was recognized as the sign of defiance. Brand[984] suggests that the custom of dropping or sending the glove, "as the signal of a challenge, may have been derived from the circ.u.mstance of its being the cover of the hand, and therefore put for the hand itself. The giving of the hand is well known to intimate that the person who does so will not deceive, but stand to his agreement. _To shake hands upon it_ would not be very delicate in an agreement to fight, and, therefore, gloves may possibly have been deputed as subst.i.tutes."

[984] "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 127.

Again, the glove was often thrown down as a pledge, as in "Timon of Athens" (v. 4), where the senator says to Alcibiades:

"Throw thy glove, Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress, And not as our confusion."

Whereupon Alcibiades answers: "Then there's my glove." In "King Lear"

(v. 2), Albany thus speaks:

"Thou art arm'd, Gloster:-let the trumpet sound: If none appear to prove, upon thy person, Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, There is my pledge; [_Throwing down a glove_] I'll prove it on thy heart."

In "Troilus and Cressida" (iv. 5), Hector further alludes to this practice:

"Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove: She's well, but bade me not commend her to you."

Scented gloves were formerly given away as presents. In "Winter's Tale"

the custom is referred to by Mopsa, who says to the Clown (iv. 4): "Come, you promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves;" and Autolycus is introduced singing:

"Gloves as sweet as damask roses."

In "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 4), Hero says: "These gloves the count sent me; they are an excellent perfume." Trinity College, Oxford, not ungrateful to its founder and his spouse, has many entries, after the date of 1556, in the Bursar's books, "pro fumigatis chirothecis," for perfumed gloves.

_Kiss._ In years past, a kiss was the recognized fee of a lady's partner, and as such is noticed in "Henry VIII." (i. 4):

"I were unmannerly to take you out, And not to kiss you."

In "The Tempest" (i. 2) it is alluded to in Ariel's song:

"Come unto these yellow sands, And then take hands: Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd, The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there, And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear."