Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 66

[688] Nich. Harpsfield, "Hist. Eccl. Anglicana," p. 86.

_St. Crispin's Day_ (October 25) has for centuries been a red-letter day in the calendar of the shoemakers, being the festival of their patron saint. According to tradition, the brothers Crispin and Crispinian, natives of Rome, having become converted to Christianity, travelled to Soissons, in France, in order to preach the gospel. Being desirous, however, of rendering themselves independent, they earned their daily bread by making shoes, with which, it is said, they furnished the poor, at an extremely low price. When the governor of the town discovered that they maintained the Christian faith, and also tried to make proselytes of the inhabitants, he ordered them to be beheaded. From this time the shoemakers have chosen them for their tutelary saints. Shakespeare has perpetuated the memory of this festival by the speech which he has given to Henry V. (iv. 3), before the battle of Agincourt:

"This day is call'd the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say, 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'"

St. Dennis has been adopted as the patron saint of France (October 9), in the same manner as the English have chosen St. George. The guardians.h.i.+p of the two countries is thus expressed in the chorus to the old ballad:

"St. George he was for England, St. Denis was for France, Singing, Honi soit qui mal y pense."

King Henry ("Henry V.," v. 2) says to Princess Katherine: "Shall not thou and I, between Saint Dennis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English," etc. In "1 Henry VI." (iii. 2), Charles says:

"Saint Dennis bless this happy stratagem, And once again we'll sleep secure in Rouen."

_Hallowmas_ (November 1) is one of the names for the feast of All-hallows, that is, All-Saints. Shakespeare alludes to a custom relative to this day, some traces of which are still to be found in Staffords.h.i.+re, Ches.h.i.+re, and other counties. The poor people go from parish to parish _a-souling_, as they term it, that is, begging, in a certain lamentable tone, for soul-cakes, at the same time singing a song which they call the souler's song. This practice is, no doubt, a remnant of the Popish ceremony of praying for departed souls, especially those of friends, on the ensuing day, November 2, the feast of All-Souls.[689]

The following is a specimen of the doggerel sung on these occasions:

"Soul! soul! for a soul-cake; Pray, good mistress, for a soul-cake.

One for Peter, and two for Paul, Three for them who made us all.

Soul! soul! for an apple or two: If you've got no apples, pears will do.

Up with your kettle, and down with your pan, Give me a good big one, and I'll be gone.

Soul! soul! for a soul-cake, etc.

An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, Is a very good thing to make us merry."

[689] See "British Popular Customs," p. 404.

In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (ii. 1), Speed thus speaks of this practice: "To watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling,[690]

like a beggar at Hallowmas."

[690] Puling, or singing small, as Bailey explains the word.

The season of Hallowmas, having been frequently mild, has been, from time immemorial, proverbially called "All-hallown summer," _i. e._, late summer. Thus, in "1 Henry IV." (i. 2), Prince Henry, likening Falstaff, with his old age and young pa.s.sions, to this November summer, addresses him: "Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, All-hallown summer."[691]

In some parts of Germany there is a proverb, "All-Saints' Day brings the second summer;" and in Sweden there is often about this time a continuance of warm, still weather, which is called "the All-Saints'

rest."

[691] See Swainson's "Weather-Lore," 1873, pp. 141-143.

There is another reference to this festival in "Richard II." (v. 1), where the king says of his wife:

"She came adorned hither like sweet May, Sent back like Hallowmas or short'st of day."

_All-Souls' Day_ (November 2)-which is set apart by the Roman Catholic Church for a solemn service for the repose of the dead-was formerly observed in this country, and among the many customs celebrated in its honor were ringing the pa.s.sing bell, making soul-cakes, blessing beans, etc.[692] In "Richard III." (v. 1), Buckingham, when led to execution, says:

"This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

_Sheriff._ It is, my lord.

_Buckingham._ Why, then, All-Souls' day is my body's doomsday."

[692] See "British Popular Customs," p. 409.

_Lord Mayor's Day_ (November 9). A custom which was in days gone by observed at the inauguration dinner was that of the Lord Mayor's fool leaping, clothes and all, into a large bowl of custard. It is alluded to in "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 5), by Lafeu: "You have made s.h.i.+ft to run into't, boots and spurs and all, like him that leaped into the custard." Ben Jonson, in his "Devil's an a.s.s" (i. 1), thus refers to it:

"He may, perchance, in tail of a sheriff's dinner, Skip with a rime o' the table, from new nothing, And take his almain leap into a custard, Shall make my lady mayoress and her sisters, Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders."

_St. Martin's Day_ (November 11). The mild weather about this time has given rise to numerous proverbs; one of the well-known ones being "St.

Martin's little summer," an allusion to which we find in "1 Henry VI."

(i. 2), where Joan of Arc says:

"Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days."

which Johnson paraphrases thus: "Expect prosperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun." As an ill.u.s.tration, too, of this pa.s.sage, we may quote from the _Times_, October 6, 1864: "It was one of those rare but lovely exceptions to a cold season, called in the Mediterranean St. Martin's summer."

A corruption of Martinmas is Martlemas. Falstaff is jocularly so called by Poins, in "2 Henry IV." (ii. 2), as being in the decline, as the year is at this season: "And how doth the martlemas, your master?"

This was the customary time for hanging up provisions to dry, which had been salted for winter use.

_St. Nicholas_ (December 6). This saint was deemed the patron of children in general, but more particularly of all schoolboys, among whom his festival used to be a very great holiday. Various reasons have been a.s.signed for his having been chosen as the patron of children-either because the legend makes him to have been a bishop while yet a boy, or from his having restored three young scholars to life who had been cruelly murdered,[693] or, again, on account of his early abstinence when a boy. In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (iii. 1) he is alluded to in this capacity:

"_Speed._ Come, fool, come; try me in thy paper.

_Launce._ There; and Saint Nicholas be thy speed."

[693] See Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 25; "The Church of Our Fathers," by D. Rock, 1853, vol. iii. p. 215; _Gent. Mag._, 1777, vol. xliii. p. 158; see Nares's "Glossary,"

vol. ii. pp. 601, 602; Brady's "Clavis Calendaria."

Nicholas's clerks was, and still is, a cant term for highwaymen and robbers; but though the expression is very common, its origin is a matter of uncertainty. In "1 Henry IV." (ii. 1) it is thus alluded to:

"_Gads.h.i.+ll._ Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas'

clerks, I'll give thee this neck.

_Chamberlain._ No. I'll none of it: I pr'thee, keep that for the hangman: for I know thou wors.h.i.+ppest Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may."

_Christmas._ Among the observances a.s.sociated with this season, to which Shakespeare alludes, we may mention the Christmas Carol, a reference to which is probably made in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 1), by t.i.tania:

"No night is now with hymn or carol blest."

Hamlet (ii. 2) quotes two lines from a popular ballad, ent.i.tled the "Song of Jephthah's Daughter," and adds: "The first row of the pious chanson will show you more."[694]

[694] Drake's "Shakespeare and his Times," vol. i. p. 198.

In days gone by, the custom of carol-singing was most popular, and Warton, in his "History of English Poetry," notices a license granted in 1562 to John Tysdale for printing "Certayne goodly carowles to be songe to the glory of G.o.d;" and again "Crestenmas Carowles auctorisshed by my lord of London."[695]

[695] See Sandy's "Christmastide, its History, Festivities, and Carols;" also _Athenaeum_, Dec. 20, 1856.

In the "Taming of the Shrew" (Ind., sc. 2) Sly asks whether "a comonty[696] is not a Christmas gambold." Formerly the sports and merry-makings at this season were on a most extensive scale, being presided over by the Lord of Misrule.[697] Again, in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2), Biron speaks of "a Christmas comedy."