Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 16

"Your patron Mercury, in his mysterious character Holds all the marks of the other wanderers."

According to vulgar astrology, the planets, like the stars, were supposed to affect, more or less, the affairs of this world, a notion frequently referred to by old writers. In "Winter's Tale" (ii. 1), Hermione consoles herself in the thought-

"There's some ill planet reigns: I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favourable."

In "1 Henry VI." (i. 1), the Duke of Exeter asks:

"What! shall we curse the planets of mishap That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?"

Again, King Richard ("Richard III.," iv. 4):

"Be opposite all planets of good luck To my proceeding."

And once more, in "Hamlet" (i. 1), Marcellus, speaking of the season of our Saviour's birth, says, "then no planets strike."

That diseases, too, are dependent upon planetary influence is referred to in "Timon of Athens" (iv. 3):

"Be as a planetary plague, when Jove Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison In the sick air: let not thy sword skip one."

"Fiery Trigon" was a term in the old judicial astrology, when the three upper planets met in a fiery sign-a phenomenon which was supposed to indicate rage and contention. It is mentioned in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4):

"_P. Hen._ Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! what says the almanac to that?

_Poins._ And, look, whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not lisping to his master's old tables."

Dr. Nash, in his notes to Butler's "Hudibras," says: "The twelve signs in astrology are divided into four _trigons_ or triplicities, each denominated from the connatural element; so they are three fiery [signs], three airy, three watery, and three earthy:"

Fiery-Aries, Leo, Sagittarius.

Airy-Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.

Watery-Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.

Earthly-Taurus, Virgo, Capricornus.

Thus, when the three superior planets met in Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius, they formed a _fiery trigon_; when in Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces, a watery one.

_Charles's Wain_ was the old name for the seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major. The constellation was so named in honor of Charlemagne; or, according to some, it is a corruption of chorles or churl's, _i. e._, rustic's, wain. Chorl is frequently used for a countryman, in old books, from the Saxon ceorl. In "1 Henry IV." (ii.

1), the Carrier says, "Charles' wain is over the new chimney."

_Music of the spheres._ Pythagoras was the first who suggested this notion, so beautifully expressed by Shakespeare in the "Merchant of Venice" (v. 1):

"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins."

Plato says that a siren sits on each planet, who carols a most sweet song, agreeing to the motion of her own particular planet, but harmonizing with the other seven. Hence Milton, in his "Arcades," speaks of the "celestial Sirens' harmony, that sit upon the nine enfolded spheres."

_Stars._ An astrological doctrine, which has kept its place in modern popular philosophy, a.s.serts that mundane events are more or less influenced by the stars. That astronomers should have divided the sun's course into imaginary signs of the Zodiac, was enough, says Mr.

Tylor,[124] to originate astrological rules "that these celestial signs have an actual effect on real earthly rams, bulls, crabs, lions, virgins." Hence we are told that a child born under the sign of the Lion will be courageous; but one born under the Crab will not go forth well in life; one born under the Waterman is likely to be drowned, and so forth. Shakespeare frequently alludes to this piece of superst.i.tion, which, it must be remembered, was carried to a ridiculous height in his day. In "Julius Caesar" (i. 2), Ca.s.sius says:

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

[124] "Primitive Culture," vol. i. p. 131.

In the following pa.s.sage in "Twelfth Night" (i. 3):

"_Sir Tob._ Were we not born under Taurus?

_Sir And._ Taurus! that's sides and heart.

_Sir Tob._ No, sir; it is legs and thighs."

"Both the knights," says Mr. Douce ("Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p.

54), "are wrong in their astrology, according to the almanacs of the time, which make Taurus govern the neck and throat."

Beatrice, in "Much Ado about Nothing" (ii. 1), says: "there was a star danced, and under that was I born;" Kent, in "King Lear" (iv. 3), remarks,

"It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions;"

and once more, in "Pericles" (i. 1), King Antiochus, speaking of the charming qualities of his daughter, says:

"Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride, For the embracements even of Jove himself: At whose conception, till Lucina reign'd, Nature this dowry gave, to glad her presence, The senate-house of planets all did sit, To knit in her their best perfections."[125]

[125] Cf. "Richard III." (iv. 4); "1 Henry IV." (i. 1, iii. 1); "Antony and Cleopatra" (iii. 13); "The Tempest" (i. 2); "Hamlet" (i. 4); "Cymbeline" (v. 4); "Winter's Tale" (iii. 2); "Richard II." (iv. 1).

Throughout the East, says Mr. Tylor,[126] "astrology even now remains a science in full esteem. The condition of mediaeval Europe may still be perfectly realized by the traveller in Persia, where the Shah waits for days outside the walls of his capital till the constellations allow him to enter; and where, on the days appointed by the stars for letting blood, it literally flows in streams from the barbers' shops in the streets. Professor Wuttke declares that there are many districts in Germany where the child's horoscope is still regularly kept with the baptismal certificate in the family chest." Astrology is ridiculed in a masterly manner in "King Lear" (i. 2); and Warburton suggests that if the date of the first performance of "King Lear" were well considered, "it would be found that something or other had happened at that time which gave a more than ordinary run to this deceit, as these words seem to indicate-'I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses.'" Zouch,[127] speaking of Queen Mary's reign, tells us that "Judicial astrology was much in use long after this time. Its predictions were received with reverential awe: and even men of the most enlightened understandings were inclined to believe that the conjunctions and oppositions of the planets had no little influence in the affairs of the world."

[126] "Primitive Culture," vol. i. p. 131; see Brand's "Popular Antiquities," 1849, vol. iii. pp. 341-348.

[127] "Walton's Lives," 1796, p. 113, note.

The pretence, also, of predicting events, such as pestilence, from the aspect of the heavenly bodies-one form of medical astrology-is noticed in "Venus and Adonis:"

"Long may they kiss each other, for this cure!

O, never let their crimson liveries wear!

And as they last, their verdure still endure, To drive infection from the dangerous year!

That the star-gazers, having writ on death, May say, the plague is banish'd by thy breath!"

Heroes were in ancient times immortalized by being placed among the stars, a custom to which Bedford refers in "1 Henry VI." (i. 1):

"A far more glorious star thy soul will make Than Julius Caesar."

And, again, "Pericles" (v. 3) exclaims:

"Heavens make a star of him."

On a medal of Hadrian, the adopted son of Trajan and Plotina, the divinity of his parents is expressed by placing a star over their heads; and in like manner the medals of Faustina the Elder exhibit her on an eagle, her head surrounded with stars.[128]

[128] Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 397.

In "2 Henry IV." (iv. 3) a ludicrous term for the stars is, "cinders of the elements;" and in "Merchant of Venice" (v. 1) they are designated "candles of the night."

_Meteors._ An elegant description of a meteor well known to sailors is given by Ariel in "The Tempest" (i. 2):