Produced by Richard Tonsing, Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE. [Illustration: _Published by T. Tegg Cheapside, Sept.Ê³ 1839._] ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE, AND OF ANCIENT MANNERS: WITH DISSERTATIONS ON THE CLOWNS AND FOOLS OF SHAKSPEARE; ON THE COLLECTION OF POPULAR TALES ENTITLED GESTA ROMANORUM; AND ON THE ENGLISH MORRIS DANCE. By FRANCIS DOUCE. THE ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD BY JACKSON. A NEW EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, CHEAPSIDE; R. GRIFFIN AND CO., GLASGOW; TEGG AND CO., DUBLIN; ALSO J. & S. A. TEGG, SYDNEY AND HOBART TOWN. 1839. PRINTED BY RICHARD KINDER, GREEN ARBOUR COURT, OLD BAILEY. PREFACE. The practice, and also the necessity of explaining the writings of Shakspeare, have already been so ably defended by former commentators, that no other apology on the part of those who may elect to persevere in this kind of labour seems to be necessary than with regard to the qualifications of the writer: but as no one in this case perhaps ever thought, or at least should think, himself incompetent to the task assumed of instructing or amusing others, it may be as well, on the present occasion, to waive altogether such a common-place intrusion on the reader's time. It is enough to state that accident had given birth to a considerable portion of the following pages, and that design supplied the rest. The late Mr. Steevens had already in a manner too careless for his own reputation, and abundantly too favourable to his friend, presented to public view such of the author's remarks as were solely put together for the private use and consideration of that able critic. The former wish of their compiler has, with the present opportunity, been accomplished; that is, some of them withdrawn, and others, it is hoped, rendered less exceptionable. The readers of Shakspeare may be properly divided into three classes. The first, as they travel through the text, appeal to each explanation of a word or passage as it occurs. The second read a large portion of the text, or perhaps the whole, uninterruptedly, and then consult the notes; and the third reject the illustrations altogether. Of these the second appear to be the most rational. The last, with all their affectation, are probably the least learned, but will undoubtedly remain so; and it may be justly remarked on this occasion, in the language of the writer who has best illustrated the principles of taste, that "the pride of science is always meek and humble compared with the pride of ignorance." He, who at this day can entirely comprehend the writings of Shakspeare without the aid of a comment, and frequently of laborious illustration, may be said to possess a degree of inspiration almost commensurate with that of the great bard himself. Mr. Steevens has indeed summed up every necessary argument in his assertion that "if Shakspeare is worth reading, he is worth explaining; and the researches used for so valuable and elegant a purpose, merit the thanks of genius and candour, not the satire of prejudice and ignorance." The indefatigable exertions of Messrs. Steevens, Malone, Tyrwhitt, and Mason, will ever be duly appreciated by the true and zealous admirers of Shakspeare's pages. If the name of a celebrated critic and moralist be not included on this occasion, it is because he was certainly unskilled in the knowledge of obsolete customs and expressions. His explanatory notes therefore are, generally speaking, the most controvertible of any; but no future editor will discharge his duty to the public who shall omit a single sentence of this writer's masterly preface, or of his sound and tasteful characters of the plays of Shakspeare. Of all the commentators Dr. Warburton was surely the worst. His sentiments indeed have been seldom exhibited in modern editions but for the purpose of confuting them. The wide dispersion of those materials which are essential to the illustration of inquiries like the present, will necessarily frustrate every endeavour at perfection; a circumstance that alone should teach every one discussing these difficult and obscure subjects, to speak of them with becoming diffidence. The present writer cannot flatter himself that he has uniformly paid a strict attention to this rule; the ardour of conjecture may have sometimes led him, in common with others, to forget the precepts he had himself laid down. It may be thought by some, and even with great justice, that several of the corrections are trifling and unimportant; but even these may perhaps be endured wherever it shall be manifest that their object, and it is hoped their effect, has been to remove error and establish truth; a matter undoubtedly of some consequence in the school of criticism. One design of this volume has been to augment the knowledge of our popular customs and antiquities, in which respect alone the writings of Shakspeare have suggested better hints, and furnished ampler materials than those of any one besides. Other digressions too have been introduced, as it was conceived that they might operate in diminishing that tedium which usually results from an attention to matters purely critical; and that whilst there was almost a certainty of supplying some amusement, there might even be a chance of conveying instruction. Sometimes there has been a necessity for stepping in between two contending critics; and for showing, as in the case of many other disputes, that both parties are in the wrong. Some excuse may seem necessary for obtruding on the reader so many passages from what Mr. Steevens has somewhere called "books too mean to be formally quoted." And yet the wisest among us may be often benefited by the meanest productions of human intellect, if, like medicinal poisons, they be administered with skill. It had escaped the recollection of the learned and accomplished commentator that he had himself condescended to examine a multitude of volumes of the above class, and even to use them with advantage to his readers in the course of his notes. With respect to what is often absurdly denominated _black letter_ learning, the taste which prevails in the present times for this sort of reading, wherever true scholarship and a laudable curiosity are found united, will afford the best reply to the hyper-criticisms and impotent sarcasms of those who, having from indolence or ignorance neglected to cultivate so rich a field of knowledge, exert the whole of their endeavours to depreciate its value. Are the earlier labours of our countrymen, and especially the copious stores of information that enriched the long and flourishing reign of Elizabeth, to be rejected because they are recorded in a particular typography? Others again have complained of the redundancy of the commentators, and of an affected display of learning to explain terms and illustrate matters of obvious and easy comprehension. This may sometimes have been the case; but it were easier to show that too little, and not too much, has been attempted on many of these occasions. An eminent critic has declared that "if every line of Shakspeare's plays were accompanied with a comment, every intelligent reader would be indebted to the industry of him who produced it." Shakspeare indeed is not more obscure than contemporary writers; but he is certainly much better worth illustrating. The above objectors, affectedly zealous to detect the errors of other men, but more frequently betraying their own self-sufficiency and over-weening importance, seem to forget that comments and illustrations are designed for the more ignorant class of readers, who are always the most numerous; and that very few possess the happiness and advantage of being wise or learned. It might be thought that in the following pages exemplifications of the senses of words have been sometimes unnecessarily introduced where others had already been given; but this has only been done where the new ones were deemed of greater force or utility than the others, or where they were supposed to be really and intrinsically curious. Some of the notes will require that the _whole_ of others which they advert to, should be examined in Mr. Steevens's edition; but these were not reprinted, as they would have occupied a space much too unreasonable. At the end of every play in which a fool or clown is introduced there will be found particular and discriminative notice of a character which some may regard as by no means unworthy of such attention. The Dissertations which accompany this work will, it is hoped, not be found misplaced nor altogether uninteresting. The subject of the first of them, though often introduced into former notes on the plays of Shakspeare and other dramatic writers, had been but partially and imperfectly illustrated. The _Gesta Romanorum_, to which _The Merchant of Venice_ has been so much indebted for the construction of its story, had, it is true, been already disserted on by Mr. Warton with his accustomed elegance; but it will be found that he had by no means exhausted the subject. The _morris dance_, so frequently alluded to in our old plays, seemed to require and deserve additional researches. This preface shall not be concluded without embracing the opportunity of submitting a very few hints to the consideration of all future editors of Shakspeare. It were much to be wished that the text of an author, and more especially that of our greatest dramatic writer, could be altered as seldom as possible by conjectural emendation, or only where it is manifestly erroneous from typographical causes. The readers of Dr. Bentley's notes on Milton will soon be convinced of the inexpediency of the former of these practices, and of what little importance are the conjectures of the mere scholar, when unaccompanied by skill and judgement to direct them. As the information on a particular subject has been hitherto frequently dispersed in separate notes, and consequently remains imperfect in each of them, would it not be more desirable to concentrate this scattered intelligence, or even to reduce it to a new form, to be referred to whenever necessary? Although the strict restitution of the old orthography is not meant to be insisted on, nor would indeed accommodate the generality of readers, there are many instances in which it should be stated in the notes; and such will occur to every skilful editor. Every word or passage that may be substituted in the text in the room of others to be found in any of the old editions should be printed in Italics, and assigned to its proper owner, with a reason for its preference to the originals. The mention of variations in the old copies must of course be left to an editor's discretion. No disparagement is meant to the memory or talents of one of the greatest of men, when a protest is here entered against "the text of Dr. Johnson." It is to be regretted that all editions of Shakspeare, as well as of other dramatic writers, have not marginal references to the acts and scenes of each play. Those of Bell and Stockdale are, in this respect, preeminently useful. The time and trouble that would be saved in consulting them would be very considerable. The Edition of Shakspeare used in the compilation of this volume, and to which the pages cited refer, is the last published by Mr. Steevens himself, in fifteen volumes 8vo, 1793; but in order to facilitate a reference to most other editions, the acts and scenes of the plays are specified. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE. THE TEMPEST. ACT I. SCENE 1. Page 9. ANT. We are _merely_ cheated of our lives---- Mr. Steevens has remarked that _merely_ in this place signifies _absolutely_. His interpretation is confirmed by the word _merus_ in Littelton's dictionary, where it is rendered _downright_. SCENE 2. Page 10. MIRA. ... a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some _noble creatures_ in her. There is a peculiar propriety in this expression that has escaped the notice it deserved. Miranda had as yet seen no other _man_ than her father. She had perceived, but indistinctly, some living creatures perish in the shipwreck; and she supposes they might be of her father's species. Thus she afterwards, when speaking of Ferdinand, calls him _noble_. SCENE 2. Page 11. MIRA. ... or _e'er_ It should the good ship, &c. This word should always be written _ere_, and not _ever_, nor contractedly _e'er_, with which it has no connection. It is pure Saxon, Ã¦ê. The corruption in Ecclesiastes cited in the note, is as old as the time of Henry the Eighth; but in Wicliffe we have properly "_er_ be to broke the silveren corde," and so it is given by Chaucer. SCENE 2. Page 20. PRO. Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast---- The present note is more particularly offered to the admirers of ancient romances, and to which class Shakspeare himself, no doubt, belonged. It is well known that the earliest English specimen of these singular and fascinating compositions is the _Geste of king Horn_, which has been faithfully published by the late Mr. Ritson, who has given some account of a French copy in the British Museum. He did not live to know that another manuscript of this interesting romance, in the same language, is still remaining in private hands, very different in substance and construction from the other. One might almost conclude that some English translation of it existed in Shakspeare's time, and that he had in the above passage imitated the following description of the boat in which Horn and his companions were put by king Rodmund at the suggestion of Browans, "Sire, fet il purnez un de vos vielz chalanz Metez icels valez ki jo vei ici estanz Kil naient avirum dunt aseient aidanz Sigle ne guvernad dunt il seint vaianz." l. 58. That is, "Sir, said he, take one of your old boats, put into it these varlets whom I see here; let them have no oars to help them, sail nor rudder to put them in motion." SCENE 2. Page 26. ARI. ... sometimes I'd _divide_ And burn in many places; on the top-mast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then _meet and join_---- This is a very elegant description of a meteor well known to sailors. It has been called by the several names of the fire of _Saint Helen_, _Saint Elm_, _Saint Herm_, _Saint Clare_, _Saint Peter_, and _Saint Nicholas_. Whenever it appeared as a single flame it was supposed by the ancients to be _Helena_, the sister of Castor and Pollux, and in this state to bring ill luck, from the calamities which this lady is known to have caused in the Trojan war. When it came double it was called Castor and Pollux, and accounted a good omen. It has been described as a little blaze of fire, sometimes appearing by night on the tops of soldiers' lances, or at sea on masts and sail-yards whirling and leaping in a moment from one place to another. Some have said, but erroneously, that it never appears but _after_ a tempest. It is also supposed to lead people to suicide by drowning. Further information on the subject may be collected from Plin. _Hist. nat._ 1. ii. c. 37. Seneca _QuÃ¦st. nat._ c. 1. Erasm. _Colloq. in naufragio._ Schotti. _Physica curiosa_, p. 1209. Menage _Dict. etym._ v. _Saint Telme._ Cotgrave _Dict._ v. _feu_, _furole_. Trevoux _Dict._ v. _furole_. _Lettres de_ Bergerac, p. 45. Eden's _Hist. of travayle_, fo. 432 b. 433 b. Camerarii _HorÃ¦ subsecivÃ¦_ iii. 53. Cambray _Voy. dans la Finisterre_ ii. 296. Swan's _Speculum mundi_ p. 89. Shakspeare seems to have consulted Stephen Batman's _Golden books of the leaden goddes_, who, speaking of Castor and Pollux, says "they were figured like two lampes or cresset lightes, one on the toppe of a maste, the other on the stemme or foreshippe." He adds that if the light first appears in the stem or foreship and ascends upwards, it is good luck; if _either lights begin at the top-mast, bowsprit_ or foreship, and descend towards the sea, _it is a sign of tempest_. In taking therefore the latter position, Ariel had fulfilled the commands of Prospero to raise a storm. SCENE 2. Page 28. ARI. From the still-vext _Bermoothes_---- _The voyage of Sir George Sommers_ to the Bermudas in the year 1609 has been already noticed with a view of ascertaining the _time_ in which _The tempest_ was written; but the important particulars of his _shipwreck_, from which it is exceedingly probable that the outline of a considerable part of this play was borrowed, has been unaccountably overlooked. Several contemporary narratives of the above event were published, which Shakspeare might have consulted; and the conversation of the time might have furnished, or at least suggested, some particulars that are not to be found in any of the printed accounts. In 1610 Silvester Jourdan, an eyewitness, published _A discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the_ ISLE OF DIVELS: _By Sir Thomas Gates, Sir Geo. Sommers, and Captayne Newport, with divers others._ Next followed Strachey's _Proceedings of the English colonie in Virginia_ 1612, 4to, and some other pamphlets of less moment. From these accounts it appears that the Bermudas had never been inhabited, but regarded as _under the influence of inchantment_; though an addition to a subsequent edition of Jourdan's work gravely states that they are _not inchanted_; that Sommers's ship had been _split_ between two rocks; that during his stay on the island several _conspiracies_ had taken place; and that a _sea-monster in shape like a man_ had been seen, who had been so called after the _monstrous tempests_ that often happened at Bermuda. In Stowe's Annals we have also an account of Sommers's shipwreck, in which this important passage occurs, "Sir George Sommers sitting at the stearne, seeing the ship desperate of reliefe, looking every minute when the ship would sinke, hee espied land, which according to his and Captaine Newport's opinion, they judged it should be that dreadfull coast of the _Bermodes_, which iland were of all nations said and supposed to bee _inchanted and inhabited with witches and devills_, which grew by reason of accustomed monstrous thunder, storm, and _tempest_, neere unto those ilands, also for that the whole coast is so wonderous dangerous of rockes, that few can approach them, but with unspeakable hazard of _ship-wrack_." Now if some of these circumstances in the shipwreck of Sir George Sommers be considered, it may possibly turn out that _they_ are "the particular and recent event which determined Shakspeare to call his play _The tempest_,"[1] instead of "the great tempest of 1612," which has already been supposed to have suggested its name, and which might have happened after its composition. If this be the fact the play was written between 1609 and 1614 when it was so illiberally and invidiously alluded to in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew-fair. SCENE 2. Page 30. PRO. What is't thou can'st demand? ARI. ... My liberty. PRO. Before the time be out? no more. The spirits or familiars attending on magicians were always impatient of confinement. Thus we are told that the spirit Balkin is wearied if the action wherein he is employed continue longer than an hour; and therefore the magician must be careful to dismiss him. The form of such a dismission may be seen in Scot's _Discovery of witchcraft_, edit. 1665, folio, p. 228. SCENE 2. Page 35. PRO. ... My _quaint_ Ariel. Quaint here means _brisk_, _spruce_, _dexterous_. From the French _cointe_. SCENE 2. Page 35. CAL. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather from unwholsome fen, Drop on you both! a south-west blow on you, And blister you all o'er! The following passage in Batman _uppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum_, 1582, folio, will not only throw considerable light on these lines, but furnish at the same time grounds for a conjecture that Shakspeare was indebted to it, with a slight alteration, for the name of Caliban's mother Sycorax the witch. "The raven is called corvus of CORAX ... it is said that _ravens birdes_ be fed with _deaw_ of heaven all the time that they have no black _feathers_ by benefite of age." Lib. xii. c. 10. The same author will also account for the choice which is made, in the monster's speech, of the _South-west wind_. "This _Southern wind_ is hot and moyst.... _Southern winds_ corrupt and destroy; they heat and maketh men fall into sicknesse." Lib. xi. c. 3. It will be seen in the course of these notes that Shakspeare was extremely well acquainted with this work; and as it is likely hereafter to form an article in a Shakspearean library, it may be worth adding that in a private diary written at the time, the original price of the volume appears to have been eight shillings. SCENE 2. Page 36. PRO. ... _urchins_ Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee. Although _urchins_ sometimes means hedge-hogs, it is more probable that in this place they denote fairies or spirits, and that Mr. Malone is right in the explanation which he has given. The present writer's former note must therefore be cancelled, as should, according to his conception, such part of Mr. Steevens's as relates to the hedge-hog. The same term both in the next act, and in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, is used in a similar sense. Mr. Steevens in a note on this word in the last mentioned play has observed that the _primitive_ sense of _urchin_ is a hedge-hog, whence it came, says he, to signify any thing dwarfish. There is however good reason for supposing it of Celtic origin. _Erch_ in Welsh, is _terrible_, and _urzen_, a _superior intelligence_. In the Bas Breton language _urcha_ signifies to _howl_. "_Urthinwad Elgin_," says Scot in his _Discovery of witchcraft_, p. 224, edit. 1665, "was a spirit in the days of King Solomon, came over with Julius CÃ¦sar, and remained many hundred years in Wales, where he got the above name." The _urchin_ or _irchin_, in the sense of a hedge-hog, is certainly derived from the Latin _ericeus_; and whoever is desirous of more information concerning the radical of _ericeus_ may be gratified by consulting Vossius's _Etymologicon_ v. _erinaceus_. With respect to the application of urchin to any thing dwarfish, for we still say a _little urchin_, this sense of the word seems to have originated rather from the circumstance of its having once signified a fairy, who is always supposed to be a diminutive being, than from the cause assigned by Mr. Steevens. It is true that in the ensuing act Caliban speaks of Prospero's _spirits_ as attacking him _in the shape of hedge-hogs_, for which another reason will be offered presently; and yet the word in question is only one out of many used by Shakspeare, which may be best disposed of by concluding that he designed they should be taken in both or either of their senses. In a very rare old collection of songs set to music by John Bennett, Edward Piers or Peirce, and Thomas Ravenscroft, composers in the time of Shakspeare, and entitled _Hunting_, _hawking_, _dauncing_, _drinking_, _enamoring_, 4to, no date, there are, the _fairies_ dance, the _elves_ dance, and the _urchins_ dance. This is the latter: "By the moone we sport and play, With the night begins our day; As we friske the dew doth fall, Trip it little _urchins_ all, Lightly as the little bee, Two by two, and three by three, And about goe wee, goe wee." SCENE 2. Page 40. CAL. It would control my dam's God _Setebos_. In Dr. Farmer's note it should have been added that the passage from Eden's _History of travayle_ was part of Magellan's _Voyage_; or in Mr. Tollet's, that Magellan was included in Eden's collection. SCENE 2. Page 42. ARI. Those are pearls, that were his eyes. We had already had this image in King Richard the third, where Clarence, describing his dream, says: "... in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems." SCENE 2. Page 44. MIRA ... What is't, a spirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, It carries a brave form. The incident of Miranda's surprise at the first sight of Ferdinand, and of her falling in love with him, might have been suggested by some lost translation of the 13th tale in the _Cento novelle antiche_, and which is in fact the subject of _father Philip's geese_, so admirably told by Boccaccio and Lafontaine. It seems to have been originally taken from the life of Saint Barlaam in _The golden legend_. ACT II. SCENE 1. Page 54. GON. How _lush_ and lusty the grass looks! _Lush_, as Mr. Malone observes, has not yet been rightly interpreted. It is, after all, an old word synonymous with _loose_. In the _Promptuarium parvulorum_ 1516, 4to, we find "_lushe or slacke, laxus_." The quotation from Golding, who renders _turget_ by this word, confirms the foregoing definition, and demonstrates that as applied to grass, it means _loose or swollen_, thereby expressing the state of that vegetable when, the fibres being relaxed, it expands to its fullest growth. SCENE 2. Page 76. CAL. Sometime like _apes_, that moe and chatter at me And after bite me; then like _hedge-hogs_, which Lie _tumbling_ in my barefoot way---- Shakspeare, who seems to have been well acquainted with Bishop Harsnet's _Declaration of Popish impostures_, has here recollected that part of the work where the author, speaking of the supposed possession of young girls, says, "they make anticke faces, _girn, mow and mop like an ape, tumble like a hedge-hogge_, &c." Another reason for the introduction of urchins or hedge-hogs into this speech is, that on the first discovery of the Bermudas, which, as has been already stated, gave rise in part to this play, they were supposed to be "haunted as all men know with _hogs_ and hobgoblings." See Dekkar's _Strange horserace_, &c. sign. f. 3. b. and Mr. Steevens's note in p. 28. SCENE 2. Page 77. TRIN. A strange fish! Were I in England now (as once I was) and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man; any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. This speech happily ridicules the mania that appears to have always existed among our countrymen for beholding strange sights, however trifling. A contemporary writer and professor of divinity has been no less severe. Speaking of the crocodile, he says, "Of late years there hath been brought into England, the cases or skinnes of such crocodiles to be seene, and much money given for the sight thereof; the policy of strangers laugh at our folly, either that we are too wealthy, or else that we know not how to bestow our money." Batman _uppon Bartholome_, fo. 359 b. SCENE 2. Page 82. STE. This _mooncalf_. The best account of this fabulous substance may be found in Drayton's poem with that title. SCENE 2. Page 83. STE. I was the _man in the moon_. This is a very old superstition founded, as Mr. Ritson has observed, on _Numbers_ xv. 32. See _Ancient songs_, p. 34. So far the tradition is still preserved among nurses and schoolboys; but how the culprit came to be imprisoned in the moon, has not yet been accounted for. It should seem that he had not merely gathered sticks on the sabbath, but that he had _stolen_ what he gathered, as appears from the following lines in Chaucer's _Testament of Creseid_, where the poet, describing the moon, informs us that she had "On her brest a chorle painted ful even, Bearing a bush of thorns on his backe, Which for his _theft_ might clime no ner the heven." We are to suppose that he was doomed to perpetual confinement in this planet, and precluded from every possibility of inhabiting the mansions of the just. With the Italians Cain appears to have been the offender, and he is alluded to in a very extraordinary manner by Dante in the twentieth canto of the _Inferno_, where the moon is described by the periphrasis _Caino e le spine_. One of the commentators on that poet says, that this alludes to the popular opinion of Cain loaded with the bundle of faggots, but how he procured them we are not informed. The Jews have some Talmudical story that Jacob is in the moon, and they believe that his face is visible. The natives of Ceylon, instead of a man, have placed a hare in the moon; and it is said to have got there in the following manner. Their great Deity Budha when a hermit on earth lost himself one day in a forest. After wandering about in great distress he met a hare, who thus addressed him: "It is in my power to extricate you from your difficulty; take the path on your right hand, and it will lead you out of the forest." "I am greatly obliged to you, Mr. Hare," said Budha, "but I am unfortunately very poor and very hungry, and have nothing to offer you in reward for your kindness." "If you are hungry," returned the hare, "I am again at your service; make a fire, kill me, roast me, and eat me." Budha made the fire, and the hare instantly jumped into it. Budha now exerted his miraculous powers, snatched the animal from the flames, and threw him into the moon, where he has ever since remained. This is from the information of a learned and intelligent French gentleman recently arrived from Ceylon, who adds that the Cingalese would often request of him to permit them to look for the hare through his telescope, and exclaim in raptures, that they saw it. It is remarkable that the Chinese represent the moon by a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. Their mythological moon Jut-ho is figured by a beautiful young woman with a double sphere behind her head, and a rabbit at her feet. The period of this animal's gestation is thirty days; may it not therefore typify the moon's revolution round the earth? SCENE 2. Page 86. CAL. Nor _scrape-trenchering_, nor wash-dish. _Scraping trenchers_ was likewise a scholastic employment at college, if we may believe the illiterate parson in the pleasant comedy of _Cornelianum dolium_, where speaking of his haughty treatment of the poor scholars whom he had distanced in getting possession of a fat living, he says, "Illi inquam, qui ut mihi narrÃ¢runt, quadras adipe illitas deglubere sunt coacti, quamdiu inter academicas ulnas manent, dapsili more Ã me nutriti sunt, saginati imÃ² &c." It was the office too of apprentices. In _The life of a satirical puppy called Nim_, 1657, 12mo, a citizen describes how long "he bore the water tankard, _scrap't trenchers_, and made clean shoes." ACT III. SCENE 1. Page 91. FER. This wooden slavery, than _I would_ suffer. The old copy reads _than to suffer_, which, however ungrammatical, is justly maintained by Mr. Malone to be Shakspeare's language, and ought therefore to be restored. Mr. Steevens objects on the score of _defective_ metre: but this is not the case; the metre, however rugged, is certainly _perfect_. SCENE 1. Page 92. MIRA. I am your wife, if you will marry me; If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow You may deny me; but I'll be your servant Whether you will or no. Mr. Malone has cited a very apposite passage from Catullus, but Shakspeare had probably on this occasion the pathetic old poem of _The nut-brown maid_ in his recollection. SCENE 2. Page 94. STE. Thy eyes are almost set in thy head. TRIN. Where should they be set else? he were a brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail. The curious reader may nevertheless be gratified with a ludicrous instance of _eyes set in the tail_, if he can procure a sight of the first cut in Caxton's edition of _Ãsop's fables_. In the mean time he is referred to the _genuine_ chap. xx. of Planudes's life of that fabulist, which is generally omitted in the modern editions. SCENE 2. Page 97. CAL. What a py'd ninny's this? thou scurvy patch! Dr. Johnson would transfer this speech to Stephano, on the ground that Caliban could know nothing of the costume of fools. This objection is fairly removed by Mr. Malone; besides which it may be remarked that at the end of the play Caliban specifically calls Trinculo a _fool_. The modern managers will perhaps be inclined for the future to dress this character in the proper habit. SCENE 2. Page 100. CAL. Will you _troll_ the catch---- _Troll_ is from the French _trÃ´ler_, to _lead_, _draw_, or _drag_, and this sense particularly applies to a catch, in which one part is sung after the other, one of the singers leading off. The term is _sometimes_ used as Mr. Steevens has explained it. Littelton renders _to troll along his words_, by _volubiliter loqui sive rotundÃ¨_. _Trolling_ for fish, is drawing the bait along in the water, to imitate the swimming of a real fish. SCENE 2. Page 104. SEB. ... in _Arabia_ There is one tree, the PhÅnix' throne, _one phÅnix_ At this hour reigning there. BartholomÃ¦us _De propriet. rerum_, speaking of _Arabia_, says, "there breedeth a birde that is called _PhÅnix_;" and from what has already been said of this book, it was probably one of Shakspeare's authorities on the occasion. SCENE 2. Page 106. GON. Who would believe that there were mountaineers, Dewlapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men, _Whose heads stood in their breasts?_ The "dewlapp'd mountaineers" are shown to have been borrowed from Maundeville's travels, and the same author doubtless supplied the other monsters. In the edition printed by Thomas Este, without date, is the following passage: "In another ile dwell men that have no heads, and their eyes are in their shoulders, _and their mouth is on their breast_." A cut however which occurs in this place is more to the purpose, and might have saved our poet the trouble of consulting the text, for it represents a complete head with eyes, nose, and mouth, placed on the breast and stomach. ACT IV. SCENE 1. Page 122. CER. Hail many-coloured messenger, that ne'er Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter; Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers; And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown My bosky acres---- An elegant expansion of these lines in Phaer's _Virgil. Ãn._ end of book 4. "Dame rainbow down therefore with safron wings of dropping showres. Whose face a thousand sundry hewes against the sunne devoures, From heaven descending came----" SCENE 1. Page 131. ARI. ... so I charm'd their ears, That calf-like, they my lowing follow'd through Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns Which enter'd their frail skins. Dr. Johnson has introduced a passage from Drayton's _Nymphidia_, as resembling the above description. It is still more like an incident in the well known story of the _friar and the boy_. "Jacke toke his pype and began to blowe Then the frere, as I trowe, Began to daunce soone; The breres scratched hym in the face And in many another place That the blode brast out, He daunced among thornes thycke In many places they dyde hym prycke, &c." SCENE 1. Page 136. CAL. And all be turn'd to _barnacles_, or apes. Mr. Collins's note, it is presumed, will not be thought worth retaining in any future edition. His account of the barnacle is extremely confused and imperfect. He makes Gerarde responsible for an opinion not his own; he substitutes the name of Holinshed for that of Harrison, whose statement is not so ridiculous as Mr. Collins would make it, and who might certainly have seen the feathers of the barnacles hanging out of the shells, as the _fish barnacle_ or _Lepas anatifera_ is undoubtedly furnished with a _feathered_ beard. The real absurdity was the credulity of Gerarde and Harrison in supposing that the barnacle goose was really produced from the shell of the fish. Dr. Bullein not only believed this himself, but bestows the epithets, _ignorant_ and _incredulous_ on those who did not; and in the same breath he maintains that crystal is nothing more than ice. See his _Bulwarke of defence_, &c. 1562, Folio, fo. 12. Caliban's barnacle is the _clakis_ or tree-goose. Every kind of information on the subject may be found in the _Physica curiosa_ of Gaspar Schot the Jesuit, who with great industry has collected from a multitude of authors whatever they had written concerning it. See lib. ix. c. 22. The works of Pennant and Bewick will supply every deficiency with respect to _rational_ knowledge. ACT V. SCENE 1. Page 140. PRO. Ye _elves_ of hills---- The different species of the fairy tribe are called in the Northern languages _Ã¦lfen_, _elfen_, and _alpen_, words of remote and uncertain etymology. The Greek Î¿Î»Î²Î¹Î¿Ï, _felix_, is not so plausible an original as the Teutonic _helfen_, _juvare_; because many of these supernatural beings were supposed to be of a mischievous nature, but all of them might very properly be invoked to assist mankind. Some of the northern nations regarded them as the souls of men who in this world had given themselves up to corporeal pleasures, and trespasses against human laws. It was conceived therefore that they were doomed to wander for a certain time about the earth, and to be bound in a kind of servitude to mortals. One of their occupations was that of protecting horses in the stable. See Olaus Magnus _de gentibus septentrionalibus_, lib. iii. cap. xi. It is probable that our fairy system is originally derived from the Fates, Fauns, Nymphs, Dryads, DeÃ¦ matres, &c., of the ancients, in like manner as other Pagan superstitions were corruptedly retained after the promulgation of Christianity. The general stock might have been augmented and improved by means of the crusades and other causes of intercourse with the nations of the East. SCENE 1. Page 141. PRO. ... you demy-puppets, that By moonshine do the _green-sour_ ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites---- _Green sour_, if the genuine reading, should be given, as in the first folio, without a hyphen; for such a _compound_ epithet will not elsewhere be easily discovered. Though a real or supposed acidity in this kind of grass will certainly warrant the use of _sour_, it is not improbable that Shakspeare might have written _greensward_, i. e. the green surface of the ground, from the Saxon ê Æ¿eaêêº, skin. SCENE 1. Page 158. PRO. His mother was a witch; and one so strong _That could control the moon_. So in a former scene, Gonzalo had said, "You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would _lift the moon out of her sphere_, &c." In Adlington's translation of _Apuleius_ 1596, 4to, a book well known to Shakspeare, a marginal note says, "Witches in old time were supposed to be of such power that they could pul downe _the moone by their inchauntment_." In Fleminge's _Virgil's Bucolics_ is this line, "Charms able are from heaven high to fetch the moone adowne;" and see Scot's _Discoverie of witchcraft_ 1584, 4to, pp. 174, 226, 227, 250. But all the above authorities are from the ancients, the system of modern witchcraft not affording any similar instances of its power. The Jesuit Delrio is willing to put up with any notice of this superstition among heathen writers, but is extremely indignant to find it mentioned by a Christian; contending that it exclusively belongs to the ancients. _Disquis. magic._ lib. ii. quÃ¦st. xi. The following classical references may not be unacceptable. The earliest on the list will be that in Aristophanes's _Clouds_, where Strepsiades proposes the hiring of a Thessalian witch to bring down the moon and shut her in a box that he might thus evade paying his debts by the month. "QuÃ¦ sidera excantata voce ThessalÃ¢ _Lunamque cÅlo deripit_." Horat. _epod._ v. "_Deripere lunam_ vocibus possum meis." Horat. _epod._ xvii. "Et jam _luna negat toties descendere cÅlo_." Propert. II. _el._ 28. "Cantus et _Ã© curru lunam deducere_ tentat Et faceret, si non Ã¦re repuisa sonent." Tibull. I. _el._ 8. and see _el._ 2. ... "_PhÅbeque serena_ Non aliter diris verborum obsessa venenis Palluit, et nigris, terrenisque ignibus arsit, Et patitur tantos _cantu depressa_ labores Donec suppositas propior despumet in herbas."[2] Lucan vi. "Mater erat Mycale; quam _deduxisse canendo_ SÃ¦pe reluctanti constabat _cornua lunÃ¦_." Ovid. _Metam._ I. xii. "Illa reluctantem _curru deducere lunam_ Nititur" Ovid. _epist._ vi. "Sic _te_ regentem frena nocturni Ã¦theris _Detrahere_ nunquam _Thessali cantus_ queant." Senec. _Hippolyt._ Act. 2. "Mulieres etiam lunam deducunt." Petron. Hadrianid. 468. In the same author the witch Enothea, describing her power, says, "_LunÃ¦ descendit imago, carminibus deducta meis._" p. 489. It is said that Menanda wrote a play called _the Thessalian_, in which were contained the several incantations used by witches to draw the moon from the heavens. So when the moon was eclipsed, the Romans supposed it was from the influence of magical charms; to counteract which, as well as those already enumerated, they had recourse to the sound of brazen implements of all kinds. Juvenal alludes to this practice when he describes his talkative woman. "... Jam nemo tubas, nemo Ã¦ra fatiget, Una laboranti _poterit succurrere lunÃ¦_." _Sat._ vi. 441. And see particularly Macrob. _Saturna._ l. v. c. 19. It is not improbable that the rattling of the sistrum by the priests of Isis, or the moon, may be in some way or other connected with this practice, or have even been its origin. In proportion to the advance of science, it will, no doubt, be found that the Greeks and Romans borrowed more than is commonly imagined from the nations of the East, where the present practice seems to have been universal. Thus the Chinese believe that during eclipses of the sun and moon these celestial bodies are attacked by a great serpent, to drive away which they strike their gongs or brazen drums; the Turks and even some of the American Indians entertain the same opinion. This is perhaps a solution of the common subject on Chinese porcelain, of a dragon pursuing a ball of fire, the symbol of the sun. The Hindoos suppose that a serpent, born from the head of a giant slain by Vishnu, is permitted by that deity to attack the sun. Krishna the Hindoo sun is sometimes represented combating this monster, whence the Greek story of Apollo and the serpent Python may have been derived. THE FOOL. The character of Trinculo, who in the _dramatis personÃ¦_ is called a _jester_, is not very well discriminated in the course of the play itself. As he is only associated with Caliban and the drunken butler, there was no opportunity of exhibiting him in the legitimate character of a professed fool; but at the conclusion of the play it appears that he was in the service of the king of Naples as well as Stephano. On this account therefore, and for the reasons already offered in page 20, he must be regarded as an allowed domestic buffoon, and should be habited on the stage in the usual manner. FOOTNOTES: [1] See Malone's _Shaksp._ vol. i. part i. p. 379. [2] The last line is a good comment on the "lunam despumari" of Apuleius speaking of the effects of magical mutterings. TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. ACT I. SCENE 1. Page 170. PRO. For I will be thy _beadsman_, Valentine. A beadsman is one who offers up prayers to heaven for the welfare of another. Many of the ancient petitions to great men were addressed to them by their "poor daily orators and beadsmen." _To count one's beads_, means, in the Romish church, to offer up as many prayers to God and the Virgin Mary as the priest or some voluntary penance or obligation shall have enjoined; and that no mistake may happen in the number, they are reckoned by means of certain balls strung in a kind of chaplet, and hence in the English language termed _beads_, from the Saxon beaêº, a prayer. There is much difference of opinion among ecclesiastical writers as to the origin of this practice. Some ascribe its invention to Peter the hermit in the eleventh century, others to Venerable Bede, misled probably by the affinity of the name. Monsieur Fleury more rationally conceives it to be not older than the eleventh century; but the probability is, that it was imported into Europe by the crusaders, who found it among the Mahometans. The latter use it wherever their religion has been planted, and there is even reason for supposing that it originated among the natives of Hindostan. These chaplets made of beads are called _rosaries_ when they are used in prayers to the Virgin. The term _bead_, as applied to the materials of which necklaces, &c. are made, seems therefore to have been borrowed from the chaplet of rosaries in question. SCENE 1. Page 171. PRO. Over the boots? Nay, _give me not the boots_. An allusion, as it is supposed, to the diabolical torture of the boot. Not a great while before this play was written, it had been inflicted in the presence of King James on one Dr. Fian, a supposed wizard, who was charged with raising the storms that the King encountered in his return from Denmark. In the very curious pamphlet which contains the account of this transaction it is stated that "hee was with all convenient speed, by commandement, convaied againe to the _torment of the bootes_, wherein he continued a long time, and did abide so many blowes in them, that his legges were crushte and beaten togeather as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so brused, that the bloud and marrowe spouted forth in great abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever." The unfortunate man was afterwards burned. But the above instrument of torture was not, as suggested in one of the notes on this occasion, "used only in Scotland;" it was known in France, and in all probability imported from that country. The following representation of it is copied from MillÃ¦us's _Praxis criminis persequendi_, Paris, 1541, folio. This instrument of torture continued to be used in Scotland so late as the end of the 17th century. See _A hind let loose_, 1687, 8vo, pp. 186, 198, in the frontispiece to which work there is an indistinct representation of the boot. It is said to have been imported from Russia by a Scotchman. See Maclaurin's _Arguments in remarkable cases_, 4to, p. xxxvii. [Illustration] SCENE 1. Page 171. VAL. ... To be In love, where scorn is bought with groans: coy looks, With heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth, With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; If lost, why then a grievous labour won; However, but a folly bought with wit, Or else a wit by folly vanquished. Thus explained by Dr. Johnson. "This love will end in a _foolish action_, to produce which you are long to spend your _wit_, or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love;" an explanation that is in part very questionable. The poet simply means that love itself is sometimes a foolish object dearly attained in exchange for reason; at others the human judgment subdued by folly. He is speaking of love abstractedly, and not alluding to that of Proteus. SCENE 1. Page 178. SPEED. I thank you, you have _testern'd_ me. Mr. Holt White's information from a passage in Latimer's sermons, that the tester was then worth _more_ than _six-pence_, is so far correct; but as an inference might be drawn from the quotation that it was actually worth _ten-pence_, it becomes necessary to state that at that time, viz. in 1550, the tester was worth _twelve-pence_. It is presumed that no accurate account of this piece of coin has been hitherto given; and therefore the following attempt, which has been attended with no small labour, may not be unacceptable. The term, variously written, _teston_, _tester_, _testern_, and, in _Twelfth night_, _testril_, is from the French _teston_, and so called from the king's head, which first appeared on this coin in the reign of Louis XII. A. D. 1513, though the Italians seem previously to have had a coin of the same denomination. In our own country the name was first applied to the English shilling (originally coined by Henry the Seventh) at the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth,
{'title': 'Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: by Francis Douce', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}