Part 19

But let us now return from this digression to the subject of Hecate or Diana. Under the reign of Hadrian, Saint Taurinus is said to have converted the inhabitants of Evreux in Normandy to the Christian faith, but this was not accomplished until the Devil had been fairly expelled from Diana's temple in the above city. For this purpose, he was with great solemnity enjoined to appear in the presence of all the people, who, as heathens, were extremely terrified, especially as the evil spirit came forth under the form of an Ethiopian, dark as soot, with a long beard, and fire issuing from his mouth. An angel then tied his hands behind him and led him away. This dæmon is believed still to remain at Evreux, frequently appearing to the inhabitants, but is said to be perfectly harmless. He is called _Goblin_ by the common people, who believe that he is restrained from mischief by the merits of Saint Taurinus. The reason why he was not at once consigned to the infernal regions, is, that at the command of the holy bishop he assisted in destroying the idols of the city; but he is supposed to have received sufficient punishment in beholding those persons in a state of salvation, whom during his power he had insultingly regarded as his victims. See Ordericus Vitalis, p. 555. In England it appears that the common people not only feared Diana as a witch, but that they had on many occasions paid her reverential honours as a goddess. This is confirmed by the remains of such animals as were used in her sacrifices, and also by her own images found on rebuilding Saint Paul's cathedral. These have been particularly described in Dr. Woodward's letter to Sir Christopher Wren in the eighth volume of Leland's _Itinerary_; from which circumstance the doctor very plausibly inferred that a Roman temple of Diana had been formerly erected on this spot. There is preserved a most curious sermon by Saint Maximus bishop of Turin in the fifth century, replete with the superstitions that existed in his time relating to the worship of Diana; nor can it be controverted that she was equally reverenced in this country long after the introduction of Christianity, when we find from the testimony of Richard Sporling, a Monk of Westminster in 1450, and a diligent collector of ancient materials, that during the persecution of Diocletian the inhabitants of London sacrificed to Diana, whilst those of Thorney, now Westminster, were offering incense to Apollo. Sir William Dugdale records that a commutation grant was made in the reign of Edward I., by Sir William Le Baud, to the dean and canons of Saint Paul, of a doe in winter on the day of the saint's conversion, and of a fat buck in summer on that of his commemoration, to be offered at the high altar, and distributed among the canons. To this ceremony Erasmus has alluded in his book _De ratione concionandi_, when he describes the custom which the Londoners had of going in procession to St. Paul's cathedral with a deer's head fixed upon a spear, accompanied with men blowing hunting-horns. Mr. Strype likewise, in his _Ecclesiastical memorials_, vol. iii. p. 378, has preserved a notice of the custom as practised in Queen Mary's time, with this addition, that the priest of every parish in the city arrayed in his cope, and the bishop of London in his mitre, assisted on the occasion. Camden had likewise seen it when a boy, and had heard that the canons of the cathedral attended in their sacred vestments, wearing garlands of flowers on their heads. As to Mr. Selden's _witty conceit_ on the subject, which bishop Gibson inclines to adopt, it is enough to allude to it, being most certainly unworthy of a serious confutation.

Some of the above remarks have been offered as hints only for a more ample investigation of the fairy superstitions of the middle ages, _so far as they are connected with the religion of the ancient Romans_; a subject of intrinsic curiosity, and well deserving the attention of those who may feel interest in the history of the human mind.

ACT IV.

SCENE 1. Page 497.

1. WITCH. Thrice the _brinded cat_ hath mew'd.

Dr. Warburton has adduced classical authority for the connexion between Hecate and this animal, with a view to trace the reason why it was the agent and favourite of modern witches. It may be added, that among the Egyptians the cat was sacred to Isis or the Moon, their Hecate or Diana, and accordingly worshipped with great honour. Many cat idols are still preserved in the cabinets of the curious, and the sistrum or rattle used by the priests of Isis is generally ornamented with the figure of a cat with a crescent on its head. We know also that the Egyptians typified the Moon by this animal, as the Chinese and some of the people of India do now by the rabbit; but the cause is as likely to remain a mystery as their hieroglyphic mode of writing. Some of the ancients have amused themselves with guessing at the reason. They have supposed that the cat became fat or lean with the increase or wane of the Moon; that it usually brought forth as many young as there are days in a lunar period; and that the pupils of its eyes dilated or contracted according to the changes of the planet.

SCENE 1. Page 503.

3. WITCH. ... slips of yew.

The reason for introducing this tree is, that it was reckoned poisonous. See Batman _Uppon Bartholome_, 1. xvii. c. 161.

SCENE 1. Page 505.

MACB. Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches.

The influence of witches over the winds had been already discussed by Mr. Steevens in a former note on Act I. Scene 3, and it might be well supposed that their formidable power would be occasionally directed by these mischievous beings against _religious edifices_. It is therefore by no means improbable that in order to counteract this imaginary danger, the superstitious caution of our ancestors might have planted the yew-tree in their church-yards, preferring this tree not only on account of its vigour as an evergreen, but as independently connected, in some now forgotten manner, with the influence of evil powers. Accordingly in a statute made in the latter part of the reign of Edward I., to prevent rectors from cutting down trees in church-yards, we find the following passage: "verum arbores ipsæ, _propter ventorum impetus ne ecclesiis noceant_, sæpe plantantur." This is at least sufficient for the purpose of disproving what has been so often asserted respecting the plantation of yews in church-yards for the purpose of making bows; for although these weapons were sometimes made of English yew, the more common materials employed were elm and hazel, either on account of the comparative scarcity of English yew, or more probably from its inadequacy, in point of toughness, for constructing such bows as our robust and skilful archers were famed for using. Indeed modern experience has proved the truth of the latter supposition; and therefore, whenever yew was used for making the best sort of bows, it was of foreign growth: many of our ancient statutes very carefully provide for the importation of that commodity, which appears to have been chiefly Italian, with other merchandise.

SCENE 1. Page 506.

1. WITCH. ... grease that's sweaten From the murderer's gibbet.

Apuleius in describing the process used by the witch, Milo's wife, for transforming herself into a bird, says that "she cut the lumps of flesh of such as were hanged." See Adlington's translation, p. 49, edit. 1596, 4to, a book certainly used by Shakspeare on other occasions.

SCENE 3. Page 540.

ROSSE. ... to relate the manner, Were, on the _quarry_ of these murder'd deer, To add the death of you.

"_Quarry_," says Mr. Steevens, "is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means the game after it is killed." So far this is just, and serves _partly_ to explain the passage before us, as well as this in _Coriolanus_, Act I. Scene 1:

"And let me use my sword, I'd make a _quarry_ With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high As I could pitch my lance."

What follows respecting the etymology of the word may not appear quite so correct. Mr. Steevens cites the MS. _Mayster of game_, in which the old English term _querre_ is used for the _square_ spot wherein the dead game was deposited. It is simply the French _carré_, but not, as Mr. Steevens conceived, the origin of _quarry_. It is necessary to state that _quarry_ not only signified the game that was killed, but, in falconry, the bird that was pursued or sought after. The same term is used to express the flight of the hawk after its prey. In these senses it is probable that the word has been formed from the French _querir_, _to seek after_, and that the game sought after would be called in that language _querie_, whence our English _quarrie_, the old and correct orthography. The more modern French term in falconry for pursuing the game is _charrier_. See René François, _Essay des merveilles de nature_, 1626, 4to, p. 48.

It is conceived therefore that in both the passages in Shakspeare _quarry_ signifies the spot or _square_ in which the heaps of dead game were placed. Not so in the quotation from Massinger's _Guardian_; for there _quarry_ is evidently the bird pursued to death.

ACT V.

SCENE 5. Page 570.

MACB. The way to _dusty_ death.

Perhaps no quotation can be better calculated to show the propriety of this epithet than the following grand lines in _The vision of Pierce Plowman_, a work which Shakspeare might have seen:

"_Death_ came drivynge after, and all to _dust_ pashed Kynges and kaysers, knightes and popes."

Scriptural language and a passage in the burial service might have likewise suggested the epithet.

KING JOHN.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Page 19.

BAST. _Good den_, sir Richard.

SEE former note, p. 139.

SCENE 1. Page 26.

BAST. ... _Basilisco_ like.

This braggadocio character must have been very popular, as his oaths became proverbial. Thus in Fennor's _Compter's commonwealth_, 1617, 4to, we have, "three-pil'd, huge _Basilisco_ oaths that would have torn a roring-boyes eares in a thousand shatters."

ACT II.

SCENE 1. Page 39.

ELL. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps.

CONST. Now shame upon you, whether _she_ does, or no!

Mr. Ritson proposes to read, _whether_ he _does or no_! i. e. _whether he weeps or not_; and he adds that Constance, so far from admitting, expressly denies that she shames him. It may be answered, that this reading is _equally_ objectionable; for Constance admits also that her son wept. In either case there is ambiguity; but the words as they stand are infinitely more natural, and even defensible, according to common usage.

SCENE 1. Page 44.

K. JOHN. Have brought a _countercheck_ before your gates.

Mr. Steevens thinks this one of the _old_ terms used at chess, but none such occurs in any of the treatises on that game. It is presumed to be simply a military word. Thus the Bastard afterwards asks, "shall a silken wanton brave our fields and find no _check_?" and we still say, "the enemy has received a _check_."

SCENE 1. Page 47.

K. PHI. Command the rest to stand.--_God, and our right_!

An English motto is here improperly put into the mouth of a Frenchman. Richard the First is said to have originally used DIEU ET MON DROIT.

SCENE 2. Page 64.

K. PHI. ... Young princes close your hands

AUST. _And your lips too_; for, I am well assur'd, That I did so, when I was first assur'd.

The kiss was a part of the ceremony of affiancing. Thus in _Twelfth night_:

"A contract of eternal bond of love, Attested by the _holy close of lips_."

See the note in page 67.

ACT III.

SCENE 4. Page 107.

CONST. And _buss_ thee as thy wife.

In former times there was no vulgarity in this word, as the two first quotations by Mr Steevens demonstrate; but he is peculiarly unfortunate in his last example, which may without detriment be omitted in future editions. The singular vulgarity of Stanihurst's language cannot with propriety be used to exemplify the undegraded use of any word whatever.

No further proof of the justice of this remark is necessary than the mention of his "dandiprat cockney Cupido," or the "_blubbering_ Andromache," whom he describes as "stuttering and stammering to _fumble_ out an answer to her sweeting delicat Hector;" and numerous expressions of a similar nature occur in his eccentric translation of the pure and elegant Virgil. _To buss_ is either from the French _baiser_, or from some radical word common to both languages, and was formerly written _bass_. Thus Stanihurst, whom it may be allowable to quote on this occasion;

"That when Queen Dido shall col thee and smacklye _bebasse_ thee:"

And the duke of Orleans, in one of his love poems written in the time of King Henry the Fifth;

"Lend me your praty mouth madame I wis dere hart to _basse_ it swete."

SCENE 4. Page 115.

PAND. No natural exhalation in the sky, No _scape_ of nature, no distempered day, No common wind, no customed event, But they will pluck away his natural cause, And call them meteors, prodigies and signs, Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven.

The old copy reads _scope_ of nature. The alteration was made by Pope, and plausibly commented on by Warburton, who seems to have influenced Mr. Malone to adopt it. The speaker's design is to show that all the _common effects of nature_ which he mentions would be _perverted_ by the people; but an _escape_ of nature would be very _properly_ deemed _an abortive_. The original reading is therefore correct; nor could an apter word have been selected. Thus in _King Henry the Fourth, Part I._:

"And curbs himself even of his _natural scope_."

ACT IV.

SCENE 2. Page 128.

PEMB. If what in _rest_ you have, in right you hold.

Mr. Steevens would read _wrest_, which he explains to be _violence_. But surely "the murmuring lips of discontent" would not insinuate that John was an usurper; because the subsequent words, "in right you hold," would then be contradictory. One could not say, "if, being an usurper, you reign by right." The construction may therefore be more simple: "If the power you now possess in _quiet_ be held by right, why should your fears," &c. The explanation given by Mr. Malone might have sufficed.

SCENE 2. Page 137.

K. JOHN. It is the curse of kings to be attended By slaves that take their humours for a warrant To break within the bloody house of life.

Mr. Malone ingeniously conceives this to be a covert apology for Elizabeth's conduct to the queen of Scots; yet it may be doubted whether any such apology would be thought necessary during the life of Elizabeth. May it not rather allude to the death of the earl of Essex? If this conjecture be well founded, it will serve to ascertain the date of the composition of the play, and to show that Meres had mistaken the older piece for Shakspeare's.

SCENE 2. Page 139.

K. JOHN. Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, _As_ bid me tell my tale in express words.

_And_, and _or_, have been proposed instead of _as_, but without necessity. The words are elliptical in Shakspeare's manner, and only mean, "or turn'd _such_ an eye of doubt _as_ bid me," &c.

SCENE 3. Page 142.

SAL. Two long days journey lords, _or e'er_ we meet.

Dr. Percy has judiciously remarked that _ever_ or _e'er_ in this phrase is a useless augmentative, _or_ being of itself equivalent to _before_. The corruption is not much older than Shakspeare's time. In some of the editions of Cranmer's Bible, _Ecclesiastes_ xii. 6 is rendered, "_Or ever_ the silver lace be taken away, and _or ever_ the golden well be broken." In others the second _ever_ is omitted. Wicliffe's translation, an invaluable monument of our language, has it, "_er_ be to broke the silveren corde," &c. This is pure Saxon æꞃ or eꞃ; and so is our modern _ere_, often erroneously spelled _e'er_, as a supposed contraction of _ever_. Yet in Chaucer's time it had become _or_;

"For, par amour, I loved hir first _or_ thou."

Knight's tale, v. 1155.

though some copies, both manuscript and printed, read _er_ in this place as well as in others. Mr. Steevens seems properly to object to the orthography of _ore_.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 155.

BAST. Away then, with good courage; yet I know, Our party may well meet a _prouder_ foe.

Mr. Steevens has noticed Dr. Johnson's misconception of this passage; yet it may be doubted whether he has sufficiently simplified the meaning, which is, "yet I know that our party is fully competent to engage a more _valiant_ foe." _Prouder_ has in this place the signification of the old French word _preux_.

KING RICHARD II.

ACT III.

SCENE 2. Page 272.

K. RICH. That when the searching eye of heaven is hid Behind the globe, _and_ lights _the lower world_.

The slight but necessary emendation of _and_ for _that_ ascribed to Johnson, had already been made by Hanmer. _Lower world_ simply means _lower hemisphere_.

SCENE 2. Page 279.

K. RICH. Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own, but death.

This resembles Wolsey's speech;

"To the last penny 'tis the king's; my robe And my integrity to heav'n, is all I dare now call my own."

SCENE 2. Page 279.

K. RICH. And that small _model_ of the barren earth.

_Model_ or _module_, for they were the same in Shakspeare's time, seems to mean in this place, a _measure_, _portion_, or _quantity_.

SCENE 2. Page 280.

K. RICH. ... For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps death his court; and there the antick sits, Scoffing his state, and _grinning_ at his pomp.

Some part of this fine description might have been suggested from the seventh print in the _Imagines mortis_, a celebrated series of wooden cuts which have been improperly attributed to Holbein. It is probable that Shakspeare might have seen some spurious edition of this work; for the great scarcity of the original in this country in former times is apparent, when Hollar could not procure the use of it for his _copy_ of the dance of death. This note, which more properly belongs to the present place, had been inadvertently inserted in the first part of _Henry the Sixth_. See Act IV. Scene 7, in Mr. Steevens's edition.

SCENE 3. Page 283.

NORTH. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief Left I his _title_ out.

YORK. The time hath been, Would you have been so brief with him, he would Have been so brief with you, to shorten you, For _taking so the head_, your whole head's length.

"_To take the head_," says Dr. Johnson, "is to act without restraint; to take undue liberties." It is presumed it rather means to take away or omit the sovereign's _chief_ and usual _title_; a construction which considerably augments the play on words that is here intended.

KING HENRY IV.

PART I.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Page 357.

K. HEN. To be commenced in _stronds_ afar remote.

This antiquated word, signifying _shores_, seems to have been entitled to some notice by the editors, as it cannot be familiar to every reader. We have now, perhaps accidentally, restored the original Saxon ꞅꞇꞃanꝺ.

SCENE 1. Page 357.

K. HEN. No more the thirsty _Erinnys_ of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own childrens blood.

The original reads _entrance_, which is supported by Mr. Malone and also by Mr. Ritson, to whose authorities might be added the line in Spenser's _Shepherds calendar_;

"Quenching the _gasping furrowes thirst_ with rayne."

The present reading was ingeniously suggested by Mr. Mason, and has been adopted by Mr. Steevens, who, vigorously maintaining its propriety, throws the gauntlet of defiance to all adversaries: but let us not be appalled!

To the assertion that a just and striking personification is all that is wanted on this emergency, the answer is, that we have it already. _Soil_ is personified; they are _her_ lips, and _her_ children that are alluded to. With respect to _Erinnys_, notwithstanding the examples of typographical errors that are adduced, it is highly improbable that it should have been mistaken for _entrance_, a word which has three letters that are wanting in the other. Again, are the instances common, or rather do they exist at all, where the _capital letter_ of a proper name has been lost in a corruption? And, lastly, to turn in part Mr. Steevens's own words against himself, it is not probable that Shakspeare would have "opened his play with a speech, the fifth line of which is obscure enough to demand a series of comments thrice as long as the dialogue to which it is appended;" or, it may be added, which contained a name of such unfrequent occurrence, and certainly unintelligible to the greatest part of the audience.

It is often expected, though perhaps rather unreasonably, that where an opinion is controverted, a _better_ should be substituted; yet it does seem just that something at least, in value equal or nearly so, should be produced, and on this ground the following new reading is very diffidently offered:

"No more the thirsty _entrails_ of this soil."

In _Titus Andronicus_ we have the expression, "the ragged _entrails of this pit_." And in the _Third part of King Henry VI._,

"What, hath thy fiery heart so _parch'd_ thine _entrails_?"

Nothing that has been here advanced is calculated to maintain that the name of _Erinnys_ must have been obscure to Shakspeare. One or two quotations have been already given from authorities that might have supplied him, to which the following shall now be added:

"_Erinnis_ rage is growen so fel and fearce."

_Last part of the mirour for magistrates_, 1578, fo. 153.

"On me, ye swarth _Erinnyes_, fling the flames."

Turbervile's _Ovid's epistles_, sign. K. ij.

SCENE 2. Page 367.

FAL. ... not by Phœbus,--he, _that wandering knight so fair_.

Falstaff, with great propriety, according to vulgar astronomy, calls the sun _a wandering knight_, and by this expression evidently alludes to some hero of romance. Now though the _knight of the sun_ mentioned by Mr. Steevens, was doubtless a great wanderer, he was not more so than others of his profession; and therefore it is possible that Falstaff may refer to another person particularly known by the name of _the wandering knight_, and the hero of a spiritual romance translated in Shakspeare's time from the French by William Goodyeare, under the last-named title. It may be worth mentioning that in all probability John Bunyan used this work in the composition of his _Pilgrim's progress_.

SCENE 2. Page 376.

FAL. 'S blood, I am as melancholy as a _gib cat_.

Captain Grose in his _Dictionary of the vulgar tongue_ informs us that a _gib cat_ is so called from _Gilbert_, the northern name for a _he cat_; and this is corroborated by the manner in which Chaucer has used the word in question;

"I mean but gyle, and follow that, For right no more than _Gibbe our cat_ That awaiteth mice and rattes to killen."

_Rom. of the rose._

The original French has "dam _Thibert_ le chas," which proves that _Gib_ was a proper name in Chaucer's time, whatever change it may have since undergone in its feline application. We see too the reason why a _gib_ is a _male_ cat. The melancholy of this animal has been sufficiently explained. Another quality belonging to him is thus ironically mentioned in the anonymous play of _The politick whore_, 1680; "as _modest_ as a _gib-cat_ at midnight."

SCENE 2. Page 381.

POINS. What says sir John _Sack-and-sugar_?