Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 88

The engine, which sometimes meant the rack, is spoken of in "King Lear"

(i. 4):

"Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature From the fix'd place."[849]

[849] It also meant a warlike engine, as in "Coriola.n.u.s," v. 4: "When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading;" so, also, in "Troilus and Cressida," ii. 3.

So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Night Walker" (iv. 5):

"Their souls shot through with adders, torn on engines."

Once more, in "Measure for Measure" (ii. 1), where Escalus tells how

"Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none"

-a pa.s.sage which Mr. Dyce would thus read:

"Some run from brakes of vice."

It has been suggested that there is an allusion to "engines of torture,"

although, owing to the many significations of the word "brake," its meaning here has been much disputed.[850]

[850] See Dyce's "Glossary," p. 49; Halliwell-Phillipps's "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 56; Nares's "Glossary,"

vol. i. p. 104.

_Stocks._ This old-fas.h.i.+oned mode of punishment is the subject of frequent allusion by Shakespeare. Thus, Launce, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (iv. 4), says: "I have sat in the stocks for puddings he hath stolen." In "All's Well that Ends Well" (iv. 3), Bertram says: "Come, bring forth this counterfeit module, has deceived me, like a double-meaning prophesier." Whereupon one of the French lords adds: "Bring him forth: has sat i' the stocks all night, poor gallant knave."

Volumnia says of Coriola.n.u.s (v. 3):

"There's no man in the world More bound to's mother; yet here he lets me prate Like one i' the stocks."

Again, in the "Comedy of Errors" (iii. 1), Luce speaks of "a pair of stocks in the town," and in "King Lear" (ii. 2), Cornwall, referring to Kent, says:

"Fetch forth the stocks!- You stubborn ancient knave."

It would seem that formerly, in great houses, as in some colleges, there were movable stocks for the correction of the servants. Putting a person in the stocks, too, was an exhibition familiar to the ancient stage. In "Hick Scorner,"[851] printed in the reign of Henry VIII., Pity is placed in the stocks, and left there until he is freed "by Perseverance and Contemplacyon."

[851] It is reprinted in Hawkins's "English Drama," 1773.

_Strappado._ This was a military punishment, by which the unfortunate sufferer was cruelly tortured in the following way: a rope being fastened under his arms, he was drawn up by a pulley to the top of a high beam, and then suddenly let down with a jerk. The result usually was a dislocation of the shoulder-blade. In "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4), it is referred to by Falstaff, who tells Poins: "were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion." At Paris, says Douce,[852] "there was a spot called _l'estrapade_, in the Faubourg St. Jacques, where soldiers received this punishment. The machine, whence the place took its name, remained fixed like a perpetual gallows." The term is probably derived from the Italian _strappare_, to pull or draw with violence.

[852] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," pp. 263. 264; see Dyce's "Glossary," p. 423.

_Toss in a Sieve._ This punishment, according to Cotgrave, was inflicted "on such as committed gross absurdities." In "1 Henry VI." (i. 3), Gloster says to the Bishop of Winchester:

"I'll canva.s.s thee in thy broad cardinal's hat, If thou proceed in this thy insolence."

It is alluded to in Davenant's "Cruel Brother" (1630):

"I'll sift and winow him in an old hat."

_Wheel._ The punishment of the wheel was not known at Rome, but we read of Mettius Tuffetius being torn asunder by _quadrigae_ driven in opposite directions. As Shakespeare, remarks Malone, "has coupled this species of punishment with another that certainly was unknown to ancient Rome, it is highly probable that he was not apprised of the story of Mettius Tuffetius, and that in this, as in various other instances, the practice of his own times was in his thoughts, for in 1594 John Chastel had been thus executed in France for attempting to a.s.sa.s.sinate Henry IV."

Coriola.n.u.s (iii. 2) says:

"Let them pull all about mine ears, present me Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels."

_Whipping._ Three centuries ago this mode of punishment was carried to a cruel extent. By an act pa.s.sed in the 2d year of Henry VIII., vagrants were to be carried to some market-town, or other place, and there tied to the end of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips throughout such market-town, or other place, till the body should be b.l.o.o.d.y by reason of such whipping. The punishment was afterwards slightly mitigated, for, by a statute pa.s.sed in 39th of Elizabeth's reign, vagrants "were only to be stripped naked from the middle upwards, and whipped till the body should be b.l.o.o.d.y." The stocks were often so constructed as to serve both for stocks and whipping-posts.[853] Among the numerous references to this punishment by Shakespeare, we may quote "2 Henry IV." (v. 4), where the beadle says of Hostess Quickly: "The constables have delivered her over to me, and she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her." In the "Taming of the Shrew" (i. 1), Gremio says, speaking of Katharina, "I had as lief take her dowry with this condition,-to be whipped at the high-cross every morning," in allusion to what Hortensio had just said: "why, man, there be good fellows in the world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all faults, and money enough." In "2 Henry VI." (ii. 1), Gloster orders Simpc.o.x and his wife to

"be whipped through every market-town, Till they come to Berwick, from whence they came."

[853] See "Book of Days," vol. i. pp. 598, 599.

_Wisp._ This was a punishment for a scold.[854] It appears that "a wisp, or small twist of straw or hay, was often applied as a mark of opprobrium to an immodest woman, a scold, or similar offender; even, therefore, the showing it to a woman, was considered a grievous affront." In "3 Henry VI." (ii. 2) Edward says of Queen Margaret:

"A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns, To make this shameless callat[855] know herself."

[854] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 965.

[855] "Callat," an immodest woman, also applied to a scold. Cf.

"Winter's Tale," ii. 3:

"A callat Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband, And now baits me."

A wisp, adds Nares, seems to have been the badge of the scolding woman in the ceremony of Skimmington;[856] an allusion to which is given in a "Dialogue between John and Jone, striving who shall wear the breeches,"

in the "Pleasures of Poetry," cited by Malone:

"Good, gentle Jone, with-holde thy handes, This once let me entreat thee, And make me promise never more, That thou shalt mind to beat me.

For fear thou wear the wispe, good wife, And make our neighbours ride."

[856] Skimmington was a burlesque ceremony in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. pp.

191, 192.

In Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse" (1593) there is also an amusing allusion to it: "Why, thou errant b.u.t.ter-wh.o.r.e, thou cotquean and scrattop of scolds, wilt thou never leave afflicting a dead carca.s.se? continually read the rhetorick lecture of Ramme-alley? a wispe, a wispe, you kitchen-stuffe wrangler."

CHAPTER XIX.

PROVERBS.

In the present chapter are collected together the chief proverbs either quoted or alluded to by Shakespeare. Many of these are familiar to most readers, but have gained an additional interest by reason of their connection with the poet's writings. At the same time, it may be noted that very many of Shakespeare's pithy sayings have, since his day, pa.s.sed into proverbs, and have taken their place in this cla.s.s of literature. It is curious to notice, as Mrs. Cowden-Clarke remarks,[857]

how "Shakespeare has paraphrased some of our commonest proverbs in his own choice and elegant diction." Thus, "Make hay while the sun s.h.i.+nes"

becomes

"The sun s.h.i.+nes hot; and if we use delay, Cold biting winter mars our hoped-for hay,"