Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 65

_Midsummer Eve_ appears to have been regarded as a period when the imagination ran riot, and many a curious superst.i.tion was a.s.sociated with this season. Thus, people gathered on this night the rose, St.

John's wort, vervain, trefoil, and rue, all of which were supposed to have magical properties. They set the orpine in clay upon pieces of slate or potsherd in their houses, calling it a "Midsummer man." As the stalk was found next morning to incline to the right or left, the anxious maiden knew whether her lover would prove true to her or not.

Young men sought, also, for pieces of coal, but, in reality, certain hard, black, dead roots, often found under the living mugwort, designing to place these under their pillows, that they might dream of themselves.[674] It was also supposed that any person fasting on Midsummer-eve, and sitting in the church-porch, would at midnight see the spirits of those persons of that parish who would die that year come and knock at the church-door, in the order and succession in which they would die. Midsummer was formerly thought to be a season productive of madness. Thus, Malvolio's strange conduct is described by Olivia in "Twelfth Night" (iii. 4) as "A very midsummer madness." And, hence, "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" is no inappropriate t.i.tle for "the series of wild incongruities of which the play consists."[675] The Low-Dutch have a proverb that, when men have pa.s.sed a troublesome night, and could not sleep, "they have pa.s.sed St. John Baptist's night"-that is, they have not taken any sleep, but watched all night. Heywood seems to allude to a similar notion when he says:

"As mad as a March hare: where madness compares, Are not midsummer hares as mad as March hares?"

[674] "Book of Days," vol. i. p. 816; see Brand's "Pop.

Antiq.," vol. i. p. 314; Soane's "Book of the Months."

[675] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. i. pp. 336, 337.

A proverbial phrase, too, to signify that a person was mad, was, "'Tis midsummer moon with you"-hot weather being supposed to affect the brain.

_Dog-days._ A popular superst.i.tion-in all probability derived from the Egyptians-referred to the rising and setting of Sirius, or the Dog-star, as infusing madness into the canine race. Consequently, the name of "Dog-days" was given by the Romans to the period between the 3d of July and 11th of August, to which Shakespeare alludes in "Henry VIII." (v.

3), "the dog-days now reign." It is obvious that the notion is utterly groundless, for not only does the star vary in its rising, but is later and later every year. According to the Roman belief, "at the rising of the Dog-star the seas boil, the wines ferment in the cellars, and standing waters are set in motion; the dogs, also, go mad, and the sturgeon is blasted." The term Dog-days is still a common phrase, and it is difficult to say whether it is from superst.i.tious adherence to old custom or from a belief of the injurious effect of heat upon the canine race that the magistrates, often unwisely, at this season of the year order them to be muzzled or tied up.

_Lammas-day_ (August 1). According to some antiquarians, Lammas is a corruption of loaf-ma.s.s, as our ancestors made an offering of bread from new wheat on this day. Others derive it from lamb-ma.s.s, because the tenants who held lands under the Cathedral Church of York were bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into the church at high ma.s.s.[676] It appears to have been a popular day in times past, and is mentioned in the following dialogue in "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 3), where the Nurse inquires:

"How long is it now To Lammas-tide?

_Lady Capulet._ A fortnight, and odd days.

_Nurse._ Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas-eve at night, shall she be fourteen?"

[676] See "British Popular Customs," pp. 347-351.

In Neale's "Essays on Liturgiology" (2d. ed., p. 526), the Welsh equivalent for Lammas-day is given as "dydd degwm wyn," lamb-t.i.thing day.

_St. Charity_ (August 1). This saint is found in the Martyrology on the 1st of August: "Romae pa.s.sio Sanctaram Virginum Fidei, Spei, et Charitatis, quae sub Hadriano principe martyriae coronam adeptae sunt."[677] She is alluded to by Ophelia, in her song in "Hamlet" (iv.

5):

"By Gis,[678] and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame!" etc.

[677] Douglas's "Criterion," p. 68, cited by Ritson; see Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 475.

[678] This is, perhaps, a corrupt abbreviation of "By Jesus."

Some would read "By Cis," and understand by it "St. Cicely."

In the "Faire Maide of Bristowe" (1605) we find a similar allusion:

"Now, by Saint Charity, if I were judge, A halter were the least should hamper him."

_St. Bartholomew's Day_ (August 24). The anniversary of this festival was formerly signalized by the holding of the great Smithfield Fair, the only real fair held within the city of London. One of the chief attractions of Bartholomew Fair were roasted pigs. They were sold "piping hot, in booths and on stalls, and ostentatiously displayed to excite the appet.i.te of pa.s.sengers." Hence, a "Bartholomew pig" became a popular subject of allusion. Falstaff, in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 4), in coaxing ridicule of his enormous figure, is playfully called, by his favorite Doll: "Thou wh.o.r.eson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig." Dr.

Johnson, however, thought that paste pigs were meant in this pa.s.sage; but this is improbable, as the true Bartholomew pigs were real roasted pigs, as may be seen from Ben Jonson's play of "Bartholomew Fair" (i.

6), where Ursula, the pig-woman, is an important personage.[679] Gay, too, speaks of the pig-dressers: "Like Bartholomew Fair pig-dressers, who look like the dams, as well as the cooks, of what they roasted." A further allusion to this season is found in "Henry V," (v. 2), where Burgundy tells how "maids, well-summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on."

[679] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 57; Morley's "Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair," 1859.

_Harvest Home._ The ceremonies which graced the ingathering of the harvest in bygone times have gradually disappeared, and at the present day only remnants of the old usages which once prevailed are still preserved. Shakespeare, who has chronicled so many of our old customs, and seems to have had a special delight in ill.u.s.trating his writings with these characteristics of our social life, has given several interesting allusions to the observances which, in his day, graced the harvest-field. Thus, in Warwicks.h.i.+re, the laborers, at their harvest-home, appointed a judge to try misdemeanors committed during harvest, and those who were sentenced to punishment were placed on a bench and beaten with a pair of boots. Hence the ceremony was called "giving them the boots." It has been suggested that this custom is alluded to in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (i. 1), where Shakespeare makes Proteus, parrying Valentine's raillery, say, "nay, give me not the boots."

In Northamptons.h.i.+re, when any one misconducted himself in the field during harvest, he was subjected to a mock-trial at the harvest-home feast, and condemned to be booted, a description of which we find in the introduction to Clare's "Village Minstrel:" "A long form is placed in the kitchen, upon which the boys who have worked well sit, as a terror and disgrace to the rest, in a bent posture, with their hands laid on each other's backs, forming a bridge for the 'hogs' (as the truant boys are called) to pa.s.s over; while a strong chap stands on each side with a boot-legging, soundly strapping them as they scuffle over the bridge, which is done as fast as their ingenuity can carry them." Some, however, think the allusion in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is to the diabolical torture of the boot. Not a great while before this play was written, it had been inflicted, says Douce,[680] 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. The unfortunate man was afterwards burned. This horrible torture, we are told,[681]

consisted in the leg and knee of the criminal being enclosed within a tight iron boot or case, wedges of iron being then driven in with a mallet between the knee and the iron boot. Sir Walter Scott, in "Old Mortality," has given a description of Macbriar undergoing this punishment. At a later period "the boot" signified, according to Nares,[682] an instrument for tightening the leg or hand, and was used as a cure for the gout, and called a "bootikins." The phrase "to give the boots" seems to have been a proverbial expression, signifying "Don't make a laughing-stock of me; don't play upon me."

[680] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 21.

[681] Dyce's "Glossary," p. 47; Douce has given a representation of this instrument of torture from Millus's "Praxis Criminis Persequendi," Paris, 1541.

[682] "Glossary," vol. i. p. 95.

In the "Merchant of Venice" (v. 1), where Lorenzo says:

"Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn: With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear, And draw her home with music,"

we have, doubtless, an allusion to the "Hock Cart" of the old harvest-home. This was the cart which carried the last corn away from the harvest-field,[683] and was generally profusely decorated, and accompanied by music, old and young shouting at the top of their voices a doggerel after the following fas.h.i.+on:

"We have ploughed, we have sowed, We have reaped, we have mowed, We have brought home every load, Hip, hip, hip! harvest home."[684]

[683] Cf. "1 Henry IV." (i. 3):

"His chin, new reap'd, Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home."

[684] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. pp. 16-33.

In "Poor Robin's Almanack" for August, 1676, we read:

"Hoacky is brought home with hallowing, Boys with plumb-cake the cart following."

_Holyrood Day_ (September 14). This festival,[685] called also Holy-Cross Day, was inst.i.tuted by the Romish Church, on account of the recovery of a large piece of the supposed cross by the Emperor Heraclius, after it had been taken away, on the plundering of Jerusalem, by Chosroes, king of Persia. Among the customs a.s.sociated with this day was one of going a-nutting, alluded to in the old play of "Grim, the Collier of Croydon" (ii. 1):

"To morrow is Holy-rood day, When all a-nutting take their way."

[685] See "British Popular Customs," pp. 372, 373. In Lincolns.h.i.+re this day is called "Hally-Loo Day."

Shakespeare mentions this festival in "1 Henry IV." (i. 1), where he represents the Earl of Westmoreland relating how,

"On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there, Young Harry Percy and brave Archibald, That ever-valiant and approved Scot, At Holmedon met."

_St. Lambert's Day_ (September 17). This saint, whose original name was Landebert, but contracted into Lambert, was a native of Maestricht, in the seventh century, and was a.s.sa.s.sinated early in the eighth.[686] His festival is alluded to in "Richard II." (i. 1), where the king says:

"Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day."

[686] See Butler's "Lives of the Saints."

_Michaelmas_ (September 29). In the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (i. 1), this festival is alluded to by Simple, who, in answer to Slender, whether he had "the Book of riddles" about him, replies: "Why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas,"-this doubtless being an intended blunder.

In "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4), Francis says: "Let me see-about Michaelmas next I shall be."

_St. Etheldreda_, or _Audry_, commemorated in the Romish Calendar on the 23d of June, but in the English Calendar on the 17th of October, was daughter of Annas, King of the East Angles. She founded the convent and church of Ely, on the spot where the cathedral was subsequently erected. Formerly, at Ely, a fair was annually held, called in her memory St. Audry's Fair, at which much cheap lace was sold to the poorer cla.s.ses, which at first went by the name of St. Audry's lace, but in time was corrupted into "tawdry lace." Shakespeare makes an allusion to this lace in the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4), where Mopsa says: "Come, you promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves;" although in his time the expression rather meant a rustic necklace.[687] An old English historian makes St. Audry die of a swelling in her throat, which she considered as a particular judgment for having been in her youth addicted to wearing fine necklaces.[688]

[687] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 868; Brady's "Clavis Calendaria."