The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 37

The derivation of the word "caliver" is not quite clear, unless it be the same weapon as the "culverin," in which case it may be derived from the French _couleuvrin_, adder-like. In Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary, 1660, the word is spelled "calver," and translated "harquebuse." In Bailey's "Dictionarium Britannic.u.m," 1736, the caliver is described as "a small gun used at sea." In Worcester's "Dictionary of the English Language," 1859, "caliver" is said to be corrupted from _caliber_, and described as--1. a hand-gun or large pistol, an arquebuse; 2. a kind of light matchlock. In Scheler's "Dictionnaire d'Etymologie Francaise," 1862, we find--"couleuvre du L. _colubra_; It.

_colubro_; Prov. _colobre_; du L. masc. _coluber_, _bri_; D.

_couleuvreau_, _couleuvrine_, ou _coulevrine_, piece d'artillerie; cp.

les termes _serpentin_, et All. _feldschlange_."

From these various explanations, as well as from that given by Archdeacon Nares in his "Glossary," it would seem to have been a military rather than a sporting weapon. The best description which we have met with is that given by Sir S. D. Scott.[135] He says:--

"The Caliver was a kind of short musket or harquebus, fired by a matchlock, and from its lightness did not require a rest."

"'Put me a caliver in Wart's hands,' says Falstaff, reviewing his recruits, meaning thereby that Wart, who was a weak, undersized fellow, was not capable of managing a heavier weapon. It was sometimes called _arquebuse de calibre_, and was in fact an arquebus of specified bore, having derived its name from the corruption of calibre into caliver. 'I remember,' writes Edmund York, an officer who had served in the Netherlands, and was appointed by the Privy Council to report on the best mode of organizing the militia of London, in expectation of the Spanish invasion, 'when I was first brought up in Piemount, in the Countie of Brisack's Regiment of the old Bandes, we had our particular calibre of Harquebuze to our Regiment, both that for one bullett should serve all the harquebuses of our Regiment, as for that our Collonell would not be deceaved of his armes; of which worde Calibre, came first that unapt term we used to call a harquebuze a calliver, which is the height of the bullett, and not of the piece. Before the battell of Mountgunter (_Moncontour_, A.D. 1569) the Prynces of the Religion caused seven thousand harquebuzes to be made, all of one calibre, which were called _Harquebuze du calibre de Monsieur le Prince_. So as, I think, some man not understanding French brought hither the name of the height of the bullet of the piece; which worde calibre is yet contynued with our good cannoniers.'"[136]

A contemporary military writer, Sir John Smythe, gives his opinion that the term was derived from "the height of the bullet"--_i.e._ the bore.

He says, "The caliver is only a harquebuse; savinge, that it is of greater circuite, or bullet, than the other is of; wherefore the Frenchman doth call it a _piece de calibre_, which is as much as to saie, a piece of bigger circuite.[137] I would that all harquebuses throughout the field should be of one caliver and height, to the intent that every soldier on the lack of bullets might use his fellows'

bullets."

There are two specimens in the Tower Collection, of a caliver and a musket of the sixteenth century, from Penshurst Place, Kent. The length of the former (here figured) is 4 ft. 10 in., the latter 5 ft. 5 in.[138]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Notwithstanding the "bigger circuite," the musket was considered twice as efficient in its effects, and Sir Roger Williams corroborates the fact, admitting the advantage possessed by the caliver of being more rapidly discharged. "The calivers may say they will discharge two shot for one, but cannot denie that one musket-shot doth more hurt than two calivers' shot."[139]

In the _Lancas.h.i.+re Lieutenancy_ is preserved the price of the caliver and its appendages, and the equipment of the bearer, in 1574:--"Everie caliu his peece, flaxe & touche-box xiiij^s; his morion vij^s viij^d, sworde & dagger vij^s, his hose viij^s, his showes ij^s, his s.h.i.+rtt iiij^s, his dublett iiij^s, his coate xij^s iiij^d, money in his purse xxvj^s viij^d."

For some unexplained reason, the price of a caliver, which, with flask and touch-box, was charged only 14_s._ in 1574, in 1576 cost 24_s._:--

"Itm~ a calliu xxiiij^s."

In 1581, we find the charges for "A Shoot:--Caliu, flaxe, tuche box & scorier xvj;" and in a "Schedule of such rates of money as armor may be provided for at the Cyttie of Chester, for such souldiors as shall repaire thither out of the county of Lancaster," the caliver furnished with flask, and touch-box, laces and moulds, xiij^s vj^d.[140]

In 1620, a caliver, with bandoleers,[141] is valued at 14_s._ 10_d._[142] According to a pa.s.sage in Brantome,[143] it would appear that the Spaniards originated this improvement in fire-arms, "la facon et l'usage des belles harquebuzes de calibre;" and that it was introduced by Phillippe Strozzi into the French infantry, under Charles IX., but it was evidently not adopted by the English troops till several years afterwards.

It will readily be understood by all sportsmen, that with such a weapon as the "caliver," much practice and patience must have been requisite to bring it within range of the fowl, and use it with effect. The successful use of a modern punt-gun necessitates an amount of skill and judgment which those only who have tried it can really appreciate. How much greater must have been the difficulties of the wild-fowler of the sixteenth century, whose rude gun and inferior powder necessitated a much nearer approach to the birds! We can sympathize with Cardinal Beaufort, when he exclaimed--

"Believe me, cousin Gloster, Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly, We had had more sport."

_Henry VI._ Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

[Sidenote: THE STALE.]

The wild-fowler who could not succeed in "stalking" and shooting the birds in the way we have described, often employed another method of securing them, namely, by means of "a stale," as it was termed. This was a stuffed bird of the species the fowler wished to decoy, and which was set up in as natural a position as possible, either before a net or in the midst of several "springes." By imitating the call of the pa.s.sing birds, the fowler would draw their attention to the "stale," and as soon as they alighted near it either the net was pulled over them, or they were caught in the snares.

Beaumont and Fletcher speak of "stales to catch kites" (_Hum. Lieut._ iii. 2). Sometimes a live bird was pegged down instead of a stuffed one, and was doubtless much more effective, since "one bird caught, served _as a stale_ to bring in more."[144]

Shakespeare has employed the word "stale" in this its primary sense, in his _Comedy of Errors_ (Act ii. Sc. 1), in _The Tempest_ (Act iv. Sc.

1), and in the _Taming of the Shrew_ (Act iii. Sc. 1). But commentators do not seem to be agreed on its meaning. In Act i. Sc. 1, of the last-mentioned play, where it occurs again, it certainly admits of a different interpretation.

Instructions for making a "stale" will be found in "The Experienced Fowler" (London, 1704). At page 18 of this curious little volume, the author says:--"You may shoot a lark or some other bird, take out the entrails, stuff him with tow, and dry him in an oven, his wings set in a flying posture; and so you may be furnished at all times." This device was chiefly resorted to for taking the ruff and reeve, and other fen birds, which fetched good prices for the table. Now-a-days, the bird-catchers who take linnets, goldfinches, and other small songsters, almost invariably peg down live decoy birds with a foot or so of string to the legs, in the centre of a pair of clap-nets.

[Sidenote: WILD-GEESE.]

But to return to wild-fowl. Puck compares the frightened varlets who fled at the sight of Bottom with the a.s.s's head to "wild-geese that the creeping fowler eye."--_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act iii. Sc. 2.

"They flock together in consent, like so many wild-geese."--_Henry IV._ Part II. Act v. Sc. 1.

And Marcius, addressing the retreating Romans before Corioli, reproaches them as having no more courage than geese:--

"You souls of geese, That bear the shapes of men, how have you run From slaves that apes would beat!"

_Coriola.n.u.s_, Act i. Sc. 4.

The Fool in _King Lear_ reminds us of the old proverb--

"Winter's not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way."

_King Lear_, Act ii. Sc. 4.

It is not surprising that, to so common a bird, numerous allusions should be made in the Plays of Shakespeare, and, in addition to the pa.s.sages quoted in Chapter VII.,[145] many others might here be mentioned, were it not that the repet.i.tion might prove tedious.

[Sidenote: BARNACLES.]

It was anciently believed that the Bernacle Goose (_Anser bernicla_) was generated from the Bernacle or Barnacle (_Lepas anatifera_). Shakespeare has alluded to the metamorphosis in the following line:--

"And all be turned to barnacles."

_Tempest_, Act iv. Sc. 1.

It is strange that in matters concerning the marvellous, even men of education will take pains to deceive themselves, and, instead of investigating nature with a "learned spirit," give a license to ill-directed imagination, and credit absurdities. When such men are so credulous, how can we wonder at the superst.i.tions of the illiterate?

The first phase of the story in question is, that certain trees, resembling willows, more particularly in one of the Orkneys, Pomona, produced at the ends of their branches small swelled b.a.l.l.s, containing the embryo of a goose suspended by the bill, which, when ripe, fell off into the sea and took wing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BARNACLE GOOSE.]

So long ago as the twelfth century, the story was promulgated by Giraldus Cambrensis, in his "Topographia Hiberniae," and Munster, Saxo Grammaticus, Scaliger, Fulgosus, Bishop Leslie, and Olaus Magnus, all attested to the truth of this monstrous absurdity. Gesner, too, and Aldrovandus[146] may be also cited.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BARNACLE GOOSE TREE. _From Aldrovandus._]

A second phase or modification of the story is that given by Boece, the oldest Scottish historian: he denies that the geese (Scottice, Claiks) grow on trees by their bills, as some believe, but that, as his own researches and personal experience prove, they are first produced in the form of worms, in the substance of old trees or timber floating in the sea; for such a tree, cast on sh.o.r.e in 1480, was brought to the laird, who ordered it to be sawn asunder, when there appeared a mult.i.tude of worms, "throwing themselves out of sundry holes and bores of the tree; some of them were rude, as they were new-shapen; some had both head, feet, and wings, but they had no feathers; some of them were perfect-shapen fowls. At last the people, having this tree each day in more admiration, brought it to the kirk of St. Andrew's, beside the town of Tyre, where it yet remains to our days." Other instances he adduces by way of proof, and at length he comes to the conclusion, that the production of these geese from fruits is the erroneous opinion of the ignorant; it being ascertained that "they are produced only by the nature of the ocean sea, which is the cause and production of many wonderful things."

In this view he was supported by Turner and others: "When," says Turner, "at a certain time an old s.h.i.+p, or a plank, or a pine-mast rots in the sea, something like a little fungus at first makes its appearance, which at length puts on the manifest form of birds; afterwards these are clothed with feathers, and at last become living and flying fowl."

("Avium Praecip. Hist.," _Art._ "ANSER.") Turner, however, does not give up the goose-tree, but informs Gesner that it is a different bird from the brent or bernicle goose, which takes its origin from it. (Gesner, "De Avibus," iii. p. 107.) Pa.s.sing a host of other authorities, with their acc.u.mulated proofs, and the depositions of unimpeachable witnesses, we may come to Gerard, who, in 1597, published the following account in his "Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes":--

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BARNACLE GOOSE TREE. _From Gerard._]

"There is a small island in Lancas.h.i.+re, called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised s.h.i.+ps, some whereof have been cast thither by s.h.i.+pwracke, and also the trunks or bodies, with the branches, of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise; whereon is found a certaine spume, or froth, that in time breedeth unto certaine shels, in shape like those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour, wherein is contained a thing in forme like a lace of silke, finely woven as it were together, of a whitish colour; one ende whereof is fastened unto the inside of the sh.e.l.l, even as the fish of oisters and muskles are; the other ende is made fast unto the belly of a rude ma.s.se or lumpe, which in time cometh to the shape and forme of a bird: when it is perfectly formed the sh.e.l.l gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater, it openeth the sh.e.l.l by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only by the bill: in short s.p.a.ce after, it cometh to full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowle bigger than a mallard and lesser than a goose, having blacke legs and bill or beake, and feathers blacke and white, spotted in such manner as is our magge-pie, called in some places a pie-annet, which the people of Lancas.h.i.+re call by no other name than a tree-goose; which place aforesaide, and all those parts adjoining, do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for three-pence.

For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repaire unto me, and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of good witnesses."

Meyer, who wrote a treatise on this "bird without father or mother,"

states that he opened a hundred of the goose-bearing sh.e.l.ls, and in all of them found the rudiments of the bird completely formed.

Sir Robert Murray, in an account of the barnacle published in the "Philosophical Transactions," says that "these sh.e.l.ls are hung at the tree by a neck, longer than the sh.e.l.l, of a filmy substance, round and hollow, and creased not unlike the windpipe of a chicken, spreading out broadest where it is fastened to the tree, from which it seems to draw and convey the matter which serves for the growth and vegetation of the sh.e.l.l, and the little bird within it.