Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 13

A red sunrise is also unpropitious, and, according to a well-known rhyme:

"If red the sun begins his race, Be sure the rain will fall apace."

This old piece of weather-wisdom is mentioned by our Lord in St.

Matthew, xvi. 2, 3: "When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowring." Shakespeare, in his "Venus and Adonis," thus describes it:

"a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field, Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds."

Mr. Swainson[95] shows that this notion is common on the Continent.

Thus, at Milan the proverb runs, "If the morn be red, rain is at hand."

[95] "Weather-Lore," pp. 175, 176.

Shakespeare, in "Richard II." (ii. 4), alludes to another indication of rain:

"Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west, Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest."

A "watery sunset" is still considered by many a forerunner of wet. A red sunset, on the other hand, beautifully described in "Richard III." (v.

3)-

"The weary sun hath made a golden set."-

is universally regarded as a prognostication of fine weather, and we find countless proverbs ill.u.s.trative of this notion, one of the most popular being, "Sky red at night, is the sailor's delight."

From the earliest times an eclipse of the sun was looked upon as an omen of coming calamity; and was oftentimes the source of extraordinary alarm as well as the occasion of various superst.i.tious ceremonies. In 1597, during an eclipse of the sun, it is stated that, at Edinburgh, men and women thought the day of judgment was come.[96] Many women swooned, much crying was heard in the streets, and in fear some ran to the kirk to pray. Mr. Napier says he remembers "an eclipse about 1818, when about three parts of the sun was covered. The alarm in the village was very great, indoor work was suspended for the time, and in several families prayers were offered for protection, believing that it portended some awful calamity; but when it pa.s.sed off there was a general feeling of relief." In "King Lear" (i. 2), Gloucester remarks: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects; love cools, friends.h.i.+p falls off, brothers divide; in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father." Oth.e.l.lo, too (v. 2), in his agony and despair, exclaims:

"O heavy hour!

Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe Should yawn at alteration."

[96] Napier's "Folk-Lore of West of Scotland," 1879, p. 141.

Francis Bernier[97] says that, in France, in 1654, at an eclipse of the sun, "some bought drugs against the eclipse, others kept themselves close in the dark in their caves and their well-closed chambers, others cast themselves in great mult.i.tudes into the churches; those apprehending some malign and dangerous influence, and these believing that they were come to the last day, and that the eclipse would shake the foundations of nature."[98]

[97] Quoted in Southey's "Commonplace Book," 1849, 2d series, p. 462.

[98] See Tylor's "Primitive Culture," 1871, vol. i. pp. 261, 296, 297, 321.

In "3 Henry VI." (ii. 1), Shakespeare refers to a curious circ.u.mstance in which, on a certain occasion, the sun is reported to have appeared like three suns. Edward says, "do I see three suns?" to which Richard replies:

"Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun; Not separated with the racking clouds, But sever'd in a pale clear-s.h.i.+ning sky.

See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss, As if they vow'd some league inviolable: Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun, In this the heaven figures some event."[99]

[99] In "3 Henry VI." (ii. 1), Edward says:

"henceforward will I bear Upon my target three fair s.h.i.+ning suns."

This fact is mentioned both by Hall and Holinshed; the latter says: "At which tyme the sun (as some write) appeared to the Earl of March like _three sunnes_, and sodainely joyned altogether in one, upon whiche sight hee tooke such courage, that he fiercely setting on his enemyes put them to flight." We may note here that on Trinity Sunday three suns are supposed to be seen. In the "Memoires de l'Academie Celtique" (iii.

447), it is stated that "Le jour de la fete de la Trinite, quelques personne vont de grand matin dans la campagne, pour y voir levre trois soleils a la fois."

According to an old proverb, to quit a better for a worse situation was spoken of as to go "out of G.o.d's blessing into the warm sun," a reference to which we find in "King Lear" (ii. 2), where Kent says:

"Good king, that must approve the common saw, Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun."

Dr. Johnson thinks that Hamlet alludes to this saying (i. 2), for when the king says to him,

"How is it that the clouds still hang on you?"

he replies,

"Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun,"

_i. e._, out of G.o.d's blessing.

This expression, says Mr. Dyce,[100] is found in various authors from Heywood down to Swift. The former has:

"In your running from him to me, yee runne Out of G.o.d's blessing into the warme sunne;"

and the latter:

"_Lord Sparkish._ They say, marriages are made in heaven; but I doubt, when she was married, she had no friend there.

_Neverout._ Well, she's got out of G.o.d's blessing into the warm sun."[101]

[100] "Glossary to Shakespeare," p. 283.

[101] Ray gives the Latin equivalent "Ab equis ad asinos."

There seems to have been a prejudice from time immemorial against suns.h.i.+ne in March; and, according to a German saying, it were "better to be bitten by a snake than to feel the sun in March." Thus, in "1 Henry IV." (iv. 1), Hotspur says:

"worse than the sun in March, This praise doth nourish agues."

Shakespeare employs the word "sunburned" in the sense of uncomely, ill-favored. In "Much Ado" (ii. 1), Beatrice says, "I am sunburnt;" and in "Troilus and Cressida" (i. 3), aeneas remarks:

"The Grecian dames are sunburnt, and not worth The splinter of a lance."

_Moon._ Apart from his sundry allusions to the "pale-faced," "silver moon," Shakespeare has referred to many of the superst.i.tions a.s.sociated with it, several of which still linger on in country nooks. A widespread legend of great antiquity informs us that the moon is inhabited by a man,[102] with a bundle of sticks on his back, who has been exiled thither for many centuries, and who is so far off that he is beyond the reach of death. This tradition, which has given rise to many superst.i.tions, is still preserved under various forms in most countries; but it has not been decided who the culprit originally was, and how he came to be imprisoned in his lonely abode. Dante calls him Cain; Chaucer a.s.signs his exile as a punishment for theft, and gives him a thorn-bush to carry, while Shakespeare also loads him with the thorns, but by way of compensation gives him a dog for a companion. In "The Tempest" (ii.

2), Caliban asks Stephano whether he has "not dropped from heaven?" to which he answers, "Out o' the moon, I do a.s.sure thee: I was the man i'

the moon when time was." Whereupon Caliban says: "I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee: my mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog and thy bush." We may also compare the expression in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream"

(v. 1), where, in the directions for the performance of the play of "Pyramus and Thisbe," Moons.h.i.+ne is represented "with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn." And further on, in the same scene, describing himself, Moons.h.i.+ne says: "All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon;[103] this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog."

[102] Baring-Gould's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1877, p. 190.

[103] Cf. "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2): "Yet still she is the moon, and I the man."

Ordinarily,[104] however, his offence is stated to have been Sabbath-breaking-an idea derived from the Old Testament. Like the man mentioned in the Book of Numbers (xv. 32), he is caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath; and, as an example to mankind, he is condemned to stand forever in the moon, with his bundle on his back. Instead of a dog, one German version places him with a woman, whose crime was churning b.u.t.ter on Sunday. The Jews have a legend that Jacob is the moon, and they believe that his face is visible. Mr. Baring-Gould[105] says that the "idea of locating animals in the two great luminaries of heaven is very ancient, and is a relic of a primeval superst.i.tion of the Aryan race."

The natives of Ceylon, instead of a man, have placed a hare in the moon; and the Chinese represent the moon by "a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar."[106]

[104] Fiske, "Myths and Mythmakers," 1873, p. 27.