Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 67

[696] His blunder for comedy.

[697] See "British Popular Customs," 1876, pp. 459, 463; Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 943; "Antiquarian Repertory,"

vol. i. p. 218.

As we have noticed, too, in our chapter on Plants, a gilt nutmeg was formerly a common gift at Christmas, and on other festive occasions, to which an allusion is probably made in the same scene. Formerly, at this season, the head of the house a.s.sembled his family around a bowl of spiced ale, from which he drank their healths, then pa.s.sed it to the rest, that they might drink too. The word that pa.s.sed among them was the ancient Saxon phrase _wa.s.s hael_[698], _i. e._, to your health. Hence this came to be recognized as the wa.s.sail or wa.s.sel bowl; and was the accompaniment to festivity of every kind throughout the year. Thus Hamlet (i. 4) says:

"The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wa.s.sail."

[698] This was a deep draught to the health of any one, in which it was customary to empty the gla.s.s or vessel.

And in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2), Biron speaks of:

"wakes and wa.s.sails, meetings, markets, fairs."

In "Macbeth" (i. 7), it is used by Lady Macbeth in the sense of intemperance, who, speaking of Duncan's two chamberlains, says:

"Will I with wine and wa.s.sail so convince, That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only."

In "Antony and Cleopatra" (i. 4), Caesar advises Antony to live more temperately, and to leave his "lascivious wa.s.sails."[699]

[699] See Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," 1839, pp. 441-449.

In the same way, a "wa.s.sail candle" denoted a large candle lighted up at a festival, a reference to which occurs in "2 Henry IV." (i. 2):

"_Chief-Justice._ You are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

_Falstaff._ A wa.s.sail candle, my lord; all tallow."

A custom which formerly prevailed at Christmas, and has not yet died out, was for mummers to go from house to house, attired in grotesque attire, performing all kinds of odd antics.[700] Their performances, however, were not confined to this season. Thus, in "Coriola.n.u.s" (ii. 1) Menenius speaks of making "faces like mummers."

[700] See "British Popular Customs," pp. 461, 469, 478, 480.

_Cakes and Ale._ It was formerly customary on holidays and saints' days to make cakes in honor of the day. In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3), Sir Toby says: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" To which the Clown replies: "Yes, by Saint Anne; and ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too."

_Wakes._ In days gone by, the church wake was an important inst.i.tution, and was made the occasion for a thorough holiday. Each church, when consecrated, was dedicated to a saint, and on the anniversary of that day was kept the wake. In many places there was a second wake on the birthday of the saint. At such seasons, the floor of the church was strewed with rushes and flowers, and in the churchyard tents were erected, to supply cakes and ale for the use of the merrymakers on the following day, which was kept as a holiday. They are still kept up in many parishes, but in a very different manner.[701] In "King Lear" (iii.

6), Edgar says: "Come, march to wakes and fairs, and market towns." We may also compare "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2) and "Winter's Tale" (iv.

2). In "Hamlet" (i. 4) it is used in the sense of revel.

[701] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. i. pp. 1-15.

CHAPTER XII.

BIRTH AND BAPTISM.

As every period of human life has its peculiar rites and ceremonies, its customs and superst.i.tions, so has that ever all-eventful hour which heralds the birth of a fresh actor upon the world's great stage. From the cradle to the grave, through all the successive epochs of man's existence, we find a series of traditional beliefs and popular notions, which have been handed down to us from the far-distant past. Although, indeed, these have lost much of their meaning in the lapse of years, yet in many cases they are survivals of primitive culture, and embody the conceptions of the ancestors of the human race. Many of these have been recorded by Shakespeare, who, acting upon the great principle of presenting his audience with matters familiar to them, has given numerous ill.u.s.trations of the manners and superst.i.tions of his own country, as they existed in his day. Thus, in "Richard III." (iii. 1), when he represents the Duke of Gloster saying,

"So wise so young, they say, do never live long,"

he alludes to the old superst.i.tion, still deeply rooted in the minds of the lower orders, that a clever child never lives long. In Bright's "Treatise of Melancholy" (1586, p. 52), we read: "I have knowne children languis.h.i.+ng of the splene, obstructed and altered in temper, talke with gravity and wisdom surpa.s.sing those tender years, and their judgments carrying a marvellous imitation of the wisdome of the ancient, having after a sort attained that by disease, which others have by course of yeares; whereof I take it the proverb ariseth, that 'they be of shorte life who are of wit so pregnant.'" There are sundry superst.i.tious notions relating to the teething of children prevalent in our own and other countries. In "3 Henry VI." (v. 6), the Duke of Gloster, alluding to the peculiarities connected with his, birth, relates how

"The midwife wonder'd; and the women cried 'O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!'

And so I was; which plainly signified That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog."

It is still believed, for instance, in many places, that if a child's first tooth appears in the upper jaw it is an omen of its dying in infancy; and when the teeth come early it is regarded as an indication that there will soon be another baby. In Suss.e.x there is a dislike to throwing away the cast teeth of children, from a notion that, should they be found and gnawed by any animal, the child's new tooth would be exactly like the animal's that had bitten the old one. In Durham, when the first teeth come out the cavities must be filled with salt, and each tooth burned, while the following words are repeated:

"Fire, fire, burn bone, G.o.d send me my tooth again."

In the above pa.s.sage, then, Shakespeare simply makes the Duke of Gloster refer to that extensive folk-lore a.s.sociated with human birth, showing how careful an observer he was in noticing the whims and oddities of his countrymen.

Again, one of the foremost dangers supposed to hover round the new-born infant was the propensity of witches and fairies to steal the most beautiful and well-favored children, and to leave in their places such as were ugly and stupid. These were usually called "changelings."

Shakespeare alludes to this notion in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii.

1), where Puck says:

"Because that she, as her attendant, hath A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king; She never had so sweet a changeling."

And further on, in the same scene, Oberon says:

"I do but beg a little changeling boy, To be my henchman."

As a fairy is, in each case, the speaker, the changeling in this case denotes the child taken by them. So, too, in the "Winter's Tale" (iii.

3), in the pa.s.sage where the Shepherd relates: "it was told me, I should be rich by the fairies; this is some changeling:-open't." As the child here found was a beautiful one, the changeling must naturally mean the child stolen by the fairies, especially as the gold left with it is conjectured to be fairy gold. The usual signification, however, of the term _changeling_ is thus marked by Spenser ("Fairy Queen," I. x. 65).

"From thence a faery thee unweeting reft, There as thou slepst in tender swadling band, And her base elfin brood there for thee left: Such men do chaungelings call, so chaunged by faeries theft."

Occasionally fairies played pranks with new-born children by exchanging them. To this notion King Henry refers ("1 Henry IV." i. 1) when, speaking of Hotspur compared with his own profligate son, he exclaims:

"O that it could be prov'd That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd In cradle-clothes our children where they lay, And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!"

To induce the fairies to restore the stolen child, it was customary in Ireland either to put the one supposed of being a changeling on a hot shovel, or to torment it in some other way. It seems that, in Denmark, the mother heats the oven, and places the changeling on the peel, pretending to put it in, or whips it severely with a rod, or throws it into the water. In the Western Isles of Scotland idiots are supposed to be the fairies' changelings, and, in order to regain the lost child, parents have recourse to the following device. They place the changeling on the beach, below high-water mark, when the tide is out, and pay no heed to its screams, believing that the fairies, rather than suffer their offspring to be drowned by the rising water, will convey it away, and restore the child they had stolen. The sign that this has been done is the cessation of the child's screaming. The most effectual preservative, however, against fairy influence, is supposed to be baptism; and hence, among the superst.i.tious, this rite is performed as soon as possible.

A form of superst.i.tion very common in days gone by was the supposed influence of the "Evil eye," being designated by the terms "o'erlooked,"

"forelooked," or "eye-bitten," certain persons being thought to possess the power of inflicting injury by merely looking on those whom they wished to harm. Even the new-born child was not exempt from this danger, and various charms were practised to avert it. In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), Pistol says of Falstaff:

"Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd, even in thy birth."

This piece of folk-lore may be traced back to the time of the Romans, and, in the late Professor Conington's translation of the "Satires of Persius," it is thus spoken of: "Look here! a grandmother or a superst.i.tious aunt has taken baby from his cradle, and is charming his forehead against mischief by the joint action of her middle-finger and her purifying spittle; for she knows right well how to check the evil eye."[702] Is is again alluded to in the "Merchant of Venice" (iii. 2), where Portia, expressing to Ba.s.sanio her feelings of regard, declares:

"Beshrew your eyes, They have o'erlook'd me, and divided me; One half of me is yours, the other half yours;"

and in "t.i.tus Andronicus" (ii. 1), Aaron speaks of Tamora as:

"faster bound to Aaron's charming eyes Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus."

[702] See Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 383; Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. pp. 44-46, 326.