Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 108

_Color-Lore._ Green eyes have been praised by poets of nearly every land,[967] and, according to Armado, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (i. 2), "Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers."

[967] See Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. viii. p. 204.

In "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), Thisbe laments:

"Lovers, make moan: His eyes were green as leeks."

The Nurse, in her description of Romeo's rival ("Romeo and Juliet," iii.

5), says:

"An eagle, madam, Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath."

In the "Two n.o.ble Kinsmen" (v. 1), Emilia, praying to Diana, says:

"O vouchsafe, With that thy rare green eye-which never yet Beheld thing maculate-look on thy virgin."

The words of Armado have been variously explained as alluding to green eyes-Spanish writers being peculiarly enthusiastic in this praise-to the willow worn by unsuccessful lovers, and to their melancholy.[968] It has also been suggested[969] that, as green is the color most suggestive of freshness and spring-time, it may have been considered the most appropriate lover's badge. At the same time, however, it is curious that, as green has been regarded as an ominous color, it should be connected with lovers, for, as an old couplet remarks:

"Those dressed in blue Have lovers true; In green and white, Forsaken quite."[970]

[968] See Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 133.

[969] See an article by Mr. Black, in _Antiquary_, 1881, vol. iii.

[970] See Henderson's "Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties," pp.

34, 35.

In "Merchant of Venice" (iii. 2), "green-eyed jealousy," and in "Oth.e.l.lo" (iii. 3), its equivalent, "green-eyed monster," are expressions used by Shakespeare.

_Yellow_ is an epithet often, too, applied to jealousy, by the old writers. In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i. 3), Nym says he will possess Ford "with yellowness." In "Much Ado About Nothing" (ii. 1) Beatrice describes the Count as "civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion." In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 4), Viola tells the Duke how her father's daughter loved a man, but never told her love:

"She pin'd in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like patience on a monument."

_Dinner Customs._ In days gone by there was but one salt-cellar on the table, which was a large piece of plate, generally much ornamented. The tables being long, the salt was commonly placed about the middle, and served as a kind of boundary to the different quality of the guests invited. Those of distinction were ranked above; the s.p.a.ce below being a.s.signed to the dependants, inferior relations of the master of the house, etc.[971] Shakespeare would seem to allude to this custom in the "Winter's Tale" (i. 2), where Leontes says:

"lower messes, Perchance, are to this business purblind?"

[971] Gifford's note on "Ma.s.singer's Works," 1813, vol. i. p.

170; see Dyce's "Glossary to Shakespeare," pp. 269, 380.

Upon which pa.s.sage Steevens adds, "Leontes comprehends inferiority of understanding in the idea of inferiority of rank." Ben Jonson, speaking of the characteristics of an insolent c.o.xcomb, remarks: "His fas.h.i.+on is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt."

_Ordinary._ This was a public dinner, where each paid his share, an allusion to which custom is made by En.o.barbus, in "Antony and Cleopatra"

(ii. 2), who, speaking of Antony, says:

"Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast, And, for his ordinary, pays his heart For what his eyes eat only."

Again, in "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 3), Lafeu says: "I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel."

The "ordinary" also denoted the lounging-place of the men of the town, and the fantastic gallants who herded together. They were, says the author of "Curiosities of Literature" (vol. iii. p. 82), "the exchange for news, the echoing-places for all sorts of town talk; there they might hear of the last new play and poem, and the last fresh widow sighing for some knight to make her a lady; these resorts were attended also to save charges of housekeeping."

_Drinking Customs._ Shakespeare has given several allusions to the old customs a.s.sociated with drinking, which have always varied in different countries. At the present day many of the drinking customs still observed are very curious, especially those kept up at the universities and inns-of-court.

_Alms-drink_ was a phrase in use, says Warburton, among good fellows, to signify that liquor of another's share which his companion drank to ease him. So, in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 7) one of the servants says of Lepidus: "They have made him drink alms-drink."

_By-drinkings._ This was a phrase for drinkings between meals, and is used by the Hostess in "1 Henry IV." (iii. 3), who says to Falstaff: "You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet, and by-drinkings."

_Hooped Pots._ In olden times drinking-pots were made with hoops, so that, when two or more drank from the same tankard, no one should drink more than his share. There were generally three hoops to the pots: hence, in "2 Henry VI." (iv. 2), Cade says: "The three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops." In Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse" we read: "I believe hoopes on quart pots were invented that every man should take his hoope, and no more."

The phrases "to do a man right" and "to do him reason" were, in years gone by, the common expressions in pledging healths; he who drank a b.u.mper expected that a b.u.mper should be drunk to his toast. To this practice alludes the sc.r.a.p of a song which Silence sings in "2 Henry IV." (v. 3):

"Do me right, And dub me knight: Samingo."

He who drank, too, a b.u.mper on his knee to the health of his mistress was dubbed a knight for the evening. The word Samingo is either a corruption of, or an intended blunder for, San Domingo, but why this saint should be the patron of topers is uncertain.

_Rouse._ According to Gifford,[972] a _rouse_ was a large gla.s.s in which a health was given, the drinking of which, by the rest of the company, formed a carouse. Hamlet (i. 4) says:

"The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse."

[972] See Dyce, vol. iv. p. 395.

The word occurs again in the following act (1), where Polonius uses the phrase "o'ertook in's rouse;" and in the sense of a b.u.mper, or gla.s.s of liquor, in "Oth.e.l.lo" (ii. 3), "they have given me a rouse already."

_Sheer Ale._ This term, which is used in the "Taming of the Shrew"

(Induction, sc. 2), by Sly-"Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale"-according to some expositors, means "ale alone, nothing but ale," rather than "unmixed ale."

_Sneak-cup._ This phrase, which is used by Falstaff in "1 Henry IV."

(iii. 3)-"the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup"-was used to denote one who balked his gla.s.s.

_Earnest Money._ It was, in olden times, customary to ratify an agreement by a bent coin. In "Henry VIII." (ii. 3), the old lady remarks:

"Tis strange: a three-pence bow'd would hire me, Old as I am, to queen it."

There were, however, no threepences so early as the reign of Henry VIII.

_Exclamations._ "Charity, for the Lord's sake!" was the form of ejaculatory supplication used by imprisoned debtors to the pa.s.sers-by.

So, in Davies's "Epigrams" (1611):

"Good, gentle writers, 'for the Lord's sake, for the Lord's sake,'

Like Ludgate prisoner, lo, I, begging, make My mone."

In "Measure for Measure" (iv. 3), the phrase is alluded to by Pompey: "all great doers in our trade, and are now 'for the Lord's sake.'"

"Cry Budget." A watchword. Thus Slender says to Shallow, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 2); "We have a nay-word, how to know one another: I come to her in white, and cry 'mum;' she cries 'budget;' and by that we know one another."

"G.o.d save the mark." "Romeo and Juliet" (iii. 2). This exclamation has. .h.i.therto baffled the research of every commentator. It occurs again in "1 Henry IV." (i. 3); and in the "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 2) and in "Oth.e.l.lo" (i. 1), we have "G.o.d bless the mark." In the quarto, 1597, instead of "G.o.d save the mark" in the first pa.s.sage quoted, we have "G.o.d save the sample," an expression equally obscure.[973]

[973] Staunton's "Shakespeare," vol i. p. 257.