Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 62

It was a holiday and a day of license for apprentices, laboring persons, and others.[644]

[644] See Hone's "Every Day Book," 1836, vol. i. p. 258; "Book of Days," vol. i. p. 239; see, also, Dekker's "Seven Deadly Sins," 1606, p. 35; "British Popular Customs," pp. 62-91.

_Lent._ This season was at one time marked by a custom now fallen into disuse. A figure, made up of straw and cast-off clothes, was drawn or carried through the streets amid much noise and merriment; after which it was either burned, shot at, or thrown down a chimney. This image was called a "Jack-a-Lent," and was, according to some, intended to represent Judas Iscariot. It occurs twice in the "Merry Wives of Windsor;" once merely as a jocular appellation (iii. 3), where Mrs. Page says to Robin, "You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been true to us?" and once (v. 5) as a b.u.t.t, or object of satire and attack, Falstaff remarking, "How wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when 'tis upon ill employment!" It is alluded to by Ben Jonson in his "Tale of a Tub" (iv.

2):

"Thou cam'st but half a thing into the world, And wast made up of patches, parings, shreds; Thou, that when last thou wert put out of service, Travell'd to Hamstead Heath on an Ash Wednesday, Where thou didst stand six weeks the Jack of Lent, For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee, To make thee a purse."

Elderton, in a ballad called "Lenton Stuff," in a MS. in the Ashmolean Museum, thus concludes his account of Lent:[645]

"When Jakke a' Lent comes justlynge in, With the hedpeece of a herynge, And saythe, repent yowe of yower syn, For shame, syrs, leve yowre swerynge: And to Palme Sonday doethe he ryde, With sprots and herryngs by his syde, And makes an end of Lenton tyde!"[646]

[645] "Notes and Queries," 1st series, vol. xii. p. 297.

[646] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 443; Brand's "Pop.

Antiq.," 1849, vol. i. p. 101. Taylor, the Water-Poet, has a tract ent.i.tled "_Jack-a-Lent_, his Beginning and Entertainment, with the mad Prankes of Gentlemen-Usher, Shrove Tuesday."

In the reign of Elizabeth butchers were strictly enjoined not to sell fleshmeat in Lent, not with a religious view, but for the double purpose[647] of diminis.h.i.+ng the consumption of fleshmeat during that period, and so making it more plentiful during the rest of the year, and of encouraging the fisheries and augmenting the number of seamen.

Butchers, however, who had an interest at court frequently obtained a dispensation to kill a certain number of beasts a week during Lent; of which indulgence the wants of invalids, who could not subsist without animal food, was made the pretence. It is to this practice that Cade refers in "2 Henry VI." (iv. 3), where he tells d.i.c.k, the butcher of Ashford: "Therefore, thus will I reward thee,-the Lent shall be as long again as it is; and thou shalt have a license to kill for a hundred lacking one."

[647] Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. vi. p. 219.

In "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), Falstaff mentions an indictment against Hostess Quickly, "for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house, contrary to the law; for the which I think thou wilt howl." Whereupon she replies, "All victuallers do so: what's a joint of mutton or two in a whole Lent?"

The sparing fare in olden days, during Lent, is indirectly referred to by Rosencrantz in "Hamlet" (ii. 2): "To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive." We may compare, too, Maria's words in "Twelfth Night" (i. 5), where she speaks of a good lenten answer, _i. e._, short.

By a sc.r.a.p of proverbial rhyme quoted by Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet"

(ii. 4), and the speech introducing it, it appears that a stale hare might be used to make a pie in Lent; he says:

"No hare, sir: unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and h.o.a.r ere it be spent.

An old hare h.o.a.r, And an old hare h.o.a.r, Is very good meat in Lent," etc.

_Scambling days._ The days so called were Mondays and Sat.u.r.days in Lent, when no regular meals were provided, and our great families scambled.

There may possibly be an indirect allusion to this custom in "Henry V."

(v. 2), where Shakespeare makes King Henry say: "If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling." In the old household book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland there is a particular section appointing the order of service for these days, and so regulating the licentious contentions of them. We may, also, compare another pa.s.sage in the same play (i. 1), where the Archbishop of Canterbury speaks of "the scambling and unquiet time."

_Good Friday._ Beyond the bare allusion to this day, Shakespeare makes no reference to the many observances formerly a.s.sociated with it. In "King John" (i. 1) he makes Philip the b.a.s.t.a.r.d say to Lady Faulconbridge:

"Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son: Sir Robert might have eat his part in me Upon Good Friday, and ne'er broke his fast."

And, in "1 Henry IV." (i. 2), Poins inquires: "Jack, how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last, for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?"

_Easter._ According to a popular superst.i.tion, it is considered unlucky to omit wearing new clothes on Easter Day, to which Shakespeare no doubt alludes in "Romeo and Juliet" (iii. 1), when he makes Mercutio ask Benvolio whether he did "not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter." In East Yorks.h.i.+re, on Easter Eve, young folks go to the nearest market-town to buy some new article of dress or personal adornment to wear for the first time on Easter Day, as otherwise they believe that birds-notably rooks or "crakes"-will spoil their clothes.[648] In "Poor Robin's Almanac" we are told:

"At Easter let your clothes be new, Or else be sure you will it rue."

[648] "Notes and Queries," 4th series, vol. v. p. 595.

Some think that the custom of "clacking" at Easter-which is not quite obsolete in some counties-is incidentally alluded to in "Measure for Measure" (iii. 2) by Lucio: "his use was, to put a ducat in her clack-dish."[649] The clack or clap dish was a wooden dish with a movable cover, formerly carried by beggars, which they clacked and clattered to show that it was empty. In this they received the alms.

Lepers and other paupers deemed infectious originally used it, that the sound might give warning not to approach too near, and alms be given without touching the person.

[649] See Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 362; Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 164: Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol.

iii. p. 94.

A popular name for Easter Monday was Black Monday, so called, says Stow, because "in the 34th of Edward III. (1360), the 14th of April, and the morrow after Easter Day, King Edward, with his host, lay before the city of Paris; which day was full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter cold, that many men died on their horses' backs with the cold. Wherefore unto this day it hath been call'd the Blacke Monday." Thus, in the "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 5), Launcelot says, "it was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o'clock i' the morning."

_St. David's Day_ (March 1). This day is observed by the Welsh in honor of St. David, their patron saint, when, as a sign of their patriotism, they wear a leek. Much doubt exists as to the origin of this custom.

According to the Welsh, it is because St. David ordered his Britons to place leeks in their caps, that they might be distinguished from their Saxon foes. Shakespeare introduces the custom into his play of "Henry V." (iv. 7), where Fluellen, addressing the monarch, says:

"Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your majesty, and your great uncle Edward the Plack Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France.

_K. Henry._ They did, Fluellen.

_Flu._ Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable padge of the service; and I do pelieve, your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day."

It has been justly pointed out, however, that this allusion by Fluellen to the Welsh having worn the leek in battle under the Black Prince is not, as some writers suppose, wholly decisive of its having originated in the fields of Cressy, but rather shows that when Shakespeare wrote Welshmen wore leeks.[650] In the same play, too (iv. 1), the well-remembered Fluellen's enforcement of Pistol to eat the leek he had ridiculed further establishes the wearing as a usage. Pistol says:

"Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate Upon Saint Davy's day."

[650] See Hone's "Every Day Book," vol. i. p. 318; "British Popular Customs," pp. 110-113.

In days gone by this day was observed by royalty; and in 1695 we read how William III. wore a leek on St. David's Day, "presented to him by his sergeant, Porter, who hath as perquisites all the wearing apparel his majestie had on that day, even to his sword." It appears that formerly, among other customs, a Welshman was burned in effigy upon "St.

Tavy's Day," an allusion to which occurs in "Poor Robin's Almanack" for 1757:

"But it would make a stranger laugh, To see th' English hang poor Taff: A pair of breeches and a coat, Hat, shoes, and stockings, and what not, Are stuffed with hay, to represent The Cambrian hero thereby meant."

_St. Patrick's Day_ (March 17). Shakespeare, in "Hamlet" (i. 5), makes the Danish prince swear by St. Patrick, on which Warburton remarks that the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland.[651] As Mr.

Singer[652] observes, however, it is more probable that the poet seized the first popular imprecation that came to his mind, without regarding whether it suited the country or character of the person to whom he gave it. Some, again, have supposed that there is a reference here to St.

Patrick's purgatory, but this does not seem probable.

[651] St. Patrick rids Ireland of snakes; see p. 257.

[652] Singer's "Shakespeare," 1870, vol. ix. p. 168.

_St. George's Day_ (April 23). St. George, the guardian saint of England, is often alluded to by Shakespeare. His festival, which was formerly celebrated by feasts of cities and corporations, is now almost pa.s.sed over without notice. Thus, Bedford, in "1 Henry VI." (i. 1), speaks of keeping "our great Saint George's feast withal." "G.o.d and St.

George" was once a common battle-cry, several references to which occur in Shakespeare's plays. Thus, in "Henry V." (iii. 1), the king says to his soldiers:[653]

"Cry, G.o.d for Harry, England, and Saint George."

[653] Cf. "Henry V.," v. 2; "3 Henry VI.," ii. 1, 2; "Taming of the Shrew," ii. 1; "Richard II.," i. 3.

Again, in "1 Henry VI." (iv. 2), Talbot says:

"G.o.d and Saint George, Talbot and England's right, Prosper our colours in this dangerous fight!"

The following injunction, from an old act of war, concerning the use of St. George's name in onsets, is curious: "Item, that all souldiers entering into battaile, a.s.sault, skirmish, or other faction of armes, shall have for their common crye and word, _St. George, forward_, or, _Upon them, St. George_, whereby the souldier is much comforted, and the enemie dismaied, by calling to minde the ancient valour of England, with which that name has so often been victorious."[654]

[654] Cited by Warton in a note on "Richard III.," v. 3.