Folk-lore of Shakespeare - Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer (ereader iphone txt) 📗
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Look well or ill with him.”
Fenton, in his “Certain Secret Wonders of Nature” (1569), thus describes it: “The turkeys doth move when there is any evil prepared to him that weareth it.” There were numerous other magical properties ascribed to the turquoise. Thus, it was supposed to lose its color entirely at the death of its owner, but to recover it when placed upon the finger of a new and healthy possessor. It was also said that whoever wore a turquoise, so that either it or its setting touched the skin, might fall from any height, the stone attracting to itself the whole force of the blow. With the Germans, the turquoise is still the gem appropriated to the ring, the “gage d’amour,” presented by the lover on the acceptance of his suit, the permanence of its color being believed to depend upon the constancy of his affection.[763]
[753] Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 91.
[754] Wordsworth’s “Shakespeare and the Bible,” 1880, p. 283.
[755] See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 372.
[756] See Jones’s “Finger-Ring Lore,” 1877, p. 88.
[757] See Sir Thomas Browne’s “Vulgar Errors.”
[758] Jones’s “Precious Stones,” 1880, p. 62.
[759] See Singer’s “Shakespeare,” vol. x. p. 213.
[760] A union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size.
[761] See Jones’s “History and Mystery of Precious Stones,” p. 116.
[762] “Glossary,” p. 465.
[763] See C. W. King on “Precious Stones,” 1867, p. 267.
CHAPTER XVI. SPORTS AND PASTIMES.Very many of the old sports and pastimes in popular use in Shakespeare’s day have long ago not only been laid aside, but, in the course of years, have become entirely forgotten. This is to be regretted, as a great number of these capital diversions were admirably suited both for in and out of doors, the simplicity which marked them being one of their distinguishing charms. That Shakespeare, too, took an interest in these good old sources of recreation, may be gathered from the frequent reference which he has made to them; his mention of some childish game even serving occasionally as an illustration in a passage characterized by its force and vigor.
Archery. In Shakespeare’s day this was a very popular diversion, and the “Knights of Prince Arthur’s Round Table” was a society of archers instituted by Henry VIII., and encouraged in the reign of Elizabeth.[764] Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry II., notices it among the summer pastimes of the London youth; and the repeated statutes, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, enforcing the use of the bow, generally ordered the leisure time upon holidays to be passed in its exercise.[765] Shakespeare seems to have been intimately acquainted with the numerous terms connected with archery, many of which we find scattered throughout his plays. Thus, in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iv. 1), Maria uses the expression, “Wide o’ the bow hand,” a term which signified a good deal to the left of the mark.
The “clout” was the nail or pin of the target, and “from the passages,” says Dyce,[766] “which I happen to recollect in our early writers, I should say that the clout, or pin, stood in the centre of the inner circle of the butts, which circle, being painted white, was called the white; that, to ‘hit the white’ was a considerable feat, but that to ‘hit or cleave the clout or pin’ was a much greater one, though, no doubt, the expressions were occasionally used to signify the same thing, viz., to hit the mark.” In “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iv. 1), Costard says of Boyet:
and, in “2 Henry IV.” (iii. 2), Shallow says of old Double: “He would have clapped i’ the clout at twelve score”—that is, he would have hit the clout at twelve-score yards. And “King Lear” (iv. 6) employs the phrase “i’ the clout, i’ the clout: hewgh!”
In “Romeo and Juliet” (ii. 4), where Mercutio relates how Romeo is “shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft,” the metaphor, of course, is from archery.
The term “loose” was the technical one for the discharging of an arrow, and occurs in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2).
According to Capell,[767] the words of Bottom, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (i. 2), “hold, or cut bow-strings,” were a proverbial phrase, and alluded to archery. “When a party was made at butts, assurance of meeting was given in the words of that phrase, the sense of the person using them being that he would ‘hold’ or keep promise, or they might ‘cut his bow-strings,’ demolish him for an archer.” Whether, adds Dyce, “this be the true explanation of the phrase, I am unable to determine.”
All hid, all hid. Biron, in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (iv. 3), no doubt means the game well-known as hide-and-seek, “All hid, all hid; an old infant play.” The following note, however, in Cotgrave’s “French and English Dictionary,” has been adduced to show that he may possibly mean blind-man’s-buff: “Clignemasset. The childish play called Hodman-blind [i. e., blind-man’s-buff], Harrie-racket, or Are you all hid.”
Backgammon. The old name for this game was “Tables,” as in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2):
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice.”
An interesting history of this game will be found in Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes” (1876, pp. 419-421).
Barley-break. This game, called also the “Last Couple in Hell,” which is alluded to in the “Two Noble Kinsmen,” (iv. 3), was played by six people, three of each sex, who were coupled by lot.[768] A piece of ground was then chosen, and divided into three compartments, of which the middle one was called hell. It was the object of the couple condemned to this division to catch the others, who advanced from the two extremities; in which case a change of situation took place, and hell was filled by the couple who were excluded by preoccupation from the other places. This catching, however, was not so easy, as, by the rules of the game, the middle couple were not to separate before they had succeeded, while the others might break hands whenever they found themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the last couple were said “to be in hell,” and the game ended.
The game was frequently mentioned by old writers, and appears to have been very popular. From Herrick’s Poems, it is seen that the couples in their confinement occasionally solaced themselves by kisses:
To be tormented, or kept pris’ners here?
Alas, if kissing be of plagues the worst,
We’ll wish in hell we had been last and first.”
In Scotland it was called barla-breikis, and was, says Jamieson, “generally played by young people in a corn-yard, hence its name, barla-bracks, about the stacks.”[769] The term “hell,” says Nares,[770] “was indiscreet, and must have produced many profane allusions, besides familiarizing what ought always to preserve its due effect of awe upon the mind.” Both its names are alluded to in the following passage in Shirley’s “Bird in a Cage:”
I was in hell last; ’tis little less to be in a petticoat sometimes.”
Base. This was a rustic game, known also as “Prison base” or “Prison bars.” It is mentioned in “Cymbeline” (v. 3) by Posthumus:
The country base, than to commit such slaughter.”
And in “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2) by Lucetta:
The success of this pastime depended upon the agility of the candidates, and their skill in running. Early in the reign of Edward III. it is spoken of as a childish amusement, and was prohibited to be played in the avenues of the palace at Westminster during the session of Parliament, because of the interruption it occasioned to the members and others in passing to and fro as their business required. It was also played by men, and especially in Cheshire and other adjoining counties, where it seems to have been in high repute among all classes. Strutt thus describes the game:[772] “The performance of this pastime requires two parties of equal number, each of them having a base or home to themselves, at the distance of about twenty or thirty yards. The players then on either side, taking hold of hands, extend themselves in length, and opposite to each other, as far as they conveniently can, always remembering that one of them must touch the base. When any one of them quits the hand of his fellow and runs into the field, which is called giving the chase, he is immediately followed by one of his opponents. He is again followed by a second from the former side, and he by a second opponent, and so on alternately until as many are out as choose to run, every one pursuing the man he first followed, and no other; and if he overtake him near enough to touch him, his party claims one towards their game, and both return home. They then run forth again and again in like manner until the number is completed that decides the victory. This number is optional, and rarely exceeds twenty.”
The phrase to “bid the base,” means to run fast, challenging another to pursue. It occurs again in “Venus and Adonis:”
In Spenser’s “Fairy Queen” (bk. v. canto 8), we read:
They being chased that did others chase.”
Bat-fowling. This sport, which is noticed in “The Tempest” (ii. 1) by Sebastian, was common in days gone by. It is minutely described in Markham’s “Hunger’s Prevention” (1600), which is quoted by Dyce.[773] The term “bat-fowling,” however, had another signification, says Mr. Harting,[774] in Shakespeare’s day, and it may have been in this secondary sense that it is used in “The Tempest,” being a slang word for a particular mode of cheating. Bat-fowling was practised about dusk, when the rogue pretended to have dropped a ring or a jewel at the door of some well-furnished shop, and, going in, asked the apprentice of the house to light his candle to look for it. After some peering about the bat-fowler would drop the candle as if by accident. “Now, I pray you, good young man,” he would say, “do so much as light the candle again.” While the boy was away the rogue plundered the shop, and having stolen everything he could find stole himself away.
Billiards. Shakespeare is guilty of an anachronism in “Antony and Cleopatra” (ii. 5), where he makes Cleopatra say: “Let’s to billiards”—the game being unknown to the ancients. The modern manner of playing at billiards differs from that formerly in use. At the commencement of the last century,[775] the billiard-table was square, having only
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