Part 35

The custom of choosing _Valentines_ is of very long standing, and, like many others of a popular nature, is no more than a corruption of something similar that had prevailed in the times of paganism. It was the practice in ancient Rome, during a great part of the month of February, to celebrate the _Lupercalia_, which were feasts in honour of Pan and Juno, whence the latter deity was named _februata_, _februalis_, and _februlla_. On this occasion, amidst a variety of ceremonies, the names of young women were put into a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. The pastors of the early Christian church, who by every possible means endeavoured to eradicate the vestiges of Pagan superstitions, and chiefly by some commutation of their forms, substituted, in the present instance, the names of particular saints, instead of those of the women: and as the festival of the _Lupercalia_ had commenced about the middle of February, they appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's day for celebrating the new feast; because it occurred nearly at the same time. This is, in part, the opinion of a learned and rational compiler of the lives of the saints, the Reverend Alban Butler. It should seem, however, that it was utterly impossible to extirpate altogether any ceremony to which the common people had been much accustomed; a fact which it were easy to prove in tracing the origin of various other popular superstitions: and accordingly the outline of the ancient ceremonies was preserved, but modified by some adaptation to the Christian system. It is reasonable to suppose that the above practice of choosing mates would gradually become reciprocal in the sexes; and that all persons so chosen would be called _Valentines_, from the day on which the ceremony took place. There is another opinion on the origin of choosing _Valentines_, which has been formed on a tradition among the common people, that at the above season of the year birds choose their mates, a circumstance that is frequently alluded to by poets, and particularly by Chaucer; yet this seems to be a mere poetical idea, borrowed in all probability from the practice in question. Again, it has been supposed that the custom originated in the following manner: During carnival time, which usually happens about Saint Valentine's day, great numbers of knights assembled together in the various courts of Europe to entertain the ladies with feasts and tournaments, when each lady made choice of a knight who usually enlisted in her service for a whole year, during which period he bound himself to perform, at the instance of his mistress, whatever was consistent with propriety. One employment was the writing verses full of tenderness; not that it was requisite for the heart to be at all concerned in the matter. A little reflection, however, may serve to show that even this practice is only derivative from the older one.

It is presumed that the earliest specimens remaining of poetical _Valentines_ are those preserved in the works of Charles duke of Orleans, a prince of high accomplishments, and the father of Louis the Twelfth of France. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, and remained a captive in this country twenty-five years, during which time he wrote several thousand lines of poetry, a few of them in English. Many of these poems are written on Saint _Valentine's_ day, and in some of them his mistress is called his _Valentine_. In the Royal library of manuscripts, now in the British museum, there is a magnificent volume containing probably all that the duke wrote whilst in England. It belonged to King Henry the Seventh, for whom it had been copied from some older manuscript, and is beautifully illuminated. In one of the paintings the duke is represented in the White tower sitting at a writing table with guards attending him. In another part of it he is looking out of a window; and in a third he is going out of the tower to meet some person who has just alighted from his horse. At a distance is London bridge with the houses on it, and the curious chapel, all very distinct, and probably faithful copies. Besides the above work, this fine manuscript contains some compositions by the celebrated Eloisa, and other matters of less consequence.

In one of the duke's poems, he feigns that on Saint Valentine's day _Youth_ appears to him with an invitation to the temple of love. On the same day he devotes himself to the service of several ladies, according to what he states to have been the custom in England. The following extracts from some of his poems are given, as containing allusions to the subject immediately before us:

"A ce jour de Saint _Valentin_ Que chascun doit choisir son per, Amours demourrai-je non per Sans partir à vostre butin? A mon reveillier au matin Je n'y ay cessè de penser A ce jour de saint _Valentin_."

It appears from the following songs, that when Ash Wednesday happened to fall on Saint Valentine's day, the knights and their ladies assembled only in the afternoon, the morning being necessarily devoted to pious purposes.

"Saint _Valentin_ quant vous venez En caresme au commencement, Receu ne serez vrayement Ainsi que accoustumè avez

Saint _Valentin_ dit, veez me ça, Et apporte pers a choysir: Viegne qui y devra venir, C'est la coustume de pieça. Quand le jour des cendres, hola, Respond, auquel doit-on faillir? Saint _Valentin_ dit, veez me ça, Et apporte pers à choysir. Au fort au matin convendra En devotion se tenir, Et après disner à loysir, Choysisse qui choisir vouldra; Saint _Valentin_ dit, veez me ça, Et apporte pers à choysir."

Another French _Valentine_, composed by John Gower, is quoted by Mr. Warton in his _History of English poetry_, add. to vol. ii. p. 31, from a manuscript in the library of Lord Gower. In this the poet tells his mistress that in choosing her he had followed the example of the birds.

Madame Royale, the daughter of Henry the Fourth of France, built a palace near Turin which was called _the Valentine_, on account of the great veneration in which the saint was held in that country. At the first entertainment given there by the princess, who was naturally of a gallant disposition, she directed that the ladies should choose their lovers _for the year_ by lots. The only difference with respect to herself was, that she should be at liberty to fix on her own partner. At every ball during the year each lady received from her gallant a nosegay; and at every tournament the lady furnished his horse's trappings, the prize obtained being hers. From this circumstance Monsieur Menage, to whom we are indebted for the above information, infers that in Piedmont, the parties were called _Valentines_; but the learned writer was not aware of the circumstances already stated, nor of the antiquity of the custom in his own country. See Menage _Dict. étymologique_, art. _Valentin_.

In an old English ballad the lasses are directed to pray _cross-legged_ to Saint _Valentine_, for good luck. For the modern ceremonies on choosing, _Valentines_, the reader may consult Brand's _Popular antiquities_, and No. 56 of _The connoisseur_.

SCENE 5. Page 263.

OPH. Let in the maid, that out a maid, Never departed more.

In an Album that belonged in 1598 to a Dutch lady named Theodora Van Wassenaer, there is the following pretty French ballad addressed to her. The conclusion resembles the above lines in Ophelia's song:

"Au jardin de mon pere Un oranger il y a, Qui est si chargè d'orenges Je croy qu'il en rompra. Mignone tant je vous ayme, Mais vous ne m'aymez pas.

Elle demanda à son pere Quand on le cueillera, Ma fille, ma fille, Quand la saison viendra. Mignone, &c.

La saison est venue Le cueillerons nous pas? Elle prend une echelle, Un panier à son bras. Mignone, &c.

Elle cueillit les plus meures, Les verds elle y laissa; Elle les alloit porter vendre Au marcher de Damas. Mignone, &c.

En son chemin rencontroit Le fils d'un avocat; Que portez vous la belle Dans ce panier couvert? Mignone, &c.

Monsieur ce sont des orenges Ne vous en plait-il pas? Il en prend une couple, Dans son sein il les metta. Mignone, &c.

Venez vous en la belle, On vous les payera; _Elle y entra pucelle Grossette elle en sorta_. Mignone tant je vous ayme, Mais vous ne m'aymez pas."

SCENE 5. Page 263.

OPH. By _Gis_, and by Saint Charity.

The frequent occurrence of this adjuration sufficiently proves that Dr. Johnson's proposed change to _Cis_ is unnecessary; nor indeed would the name of Saint Cecilia be proper to swear by. Mr. Ritson's _Gislen_, an obscure _Irish_ saint, is equally out of the question. In the interlude of _Mary Magdelain_, she is made to say,

"Nay by Gis, twentie shillings I dare holde That there is not a gentlewoman in this land More propre than I in the waste, I dare be bolde."

In _Promos and Cassandra_, Dalia swears by _Gys_; and in _Gammer Gurton's needle_ and some other old plays, the same expression occurs. Mr. Ridley's conjecture that _Jesus_ is the corrupted word is the true one; but the corruption is not in the way that he has stated. The letters IHS would not be pronounced _Gis_, even by those who understood them as a Greek contraction.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 297.

2 CLO. ... therefore make her grave _straight_.

Dr. Johnson thought this meant "From East to West, in a direct line parallel to the church; not from North to South, athwart the regular line." The frequency of the above mode of expression in Shakspeare's plays sufficiently indicates that if he had alluded to the mode of burial contended for by Dr. Johnson, he would have adopted some other. It has occurred upwards of a hundred times already in the sense of _immediately_. Nor would it be easy to show that to make a grave _straight_, or in a direct line, was to make it East and West; or that it was the designation of Christian burial. The first clown rather adverts to the _place_ where the grave should be made than to its _form_. Suicides were buried on the North side of the church, in ground purposely _unconsecrated_.

Much of this scene has been imitated in the _Valiant Welshman_, by R. A. [q. Robert Armin] 1663. See Act IV.

SCENE 1. Page 299.

2. CLO. If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been bury'd out of Christian burial.

We have here a manifest satire on the partial verdicts of coroners' juries, where the suicide has been above the common condition of life. Judge Blackstone has hinted at them in his Commentaries. Nothing, however, but the partiality is reprehensible; the rest is an amiable tenderness towards the living, calculated to resist a law that justly deserves to be abhorred for a savage and impotent revenge so far as it regards the dead.

SCENE 1. Page 299.

1 CLO. Come; my _spade_. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers; they hold up _Adam's_ profession.

2 CLO. Was he a _gentleman_?

1 CLO. He was the first that ever bore arms.

This is undoubtedly in ridicule of heraldry. Gerard Leigh, one of the oldest writers on that subject, speaks of "Jesus Christ, a _gentleman_ of great linage, and king of the Jewes." And again, "For that it might be known that even anon after the creation of Adam, there was both _gentlenes_, and _ungentlenes_, you shall understand that the second man that was born was a _gentleman_, whose name was Abell. I say a gentleman both of vertue and of lignage, with whose sacrifice God was much pleased. His brother Cain was _ungentle_, for he offered God the worst of his fruites," &c.--_Accedence of armorie_, 1591, 4to, fo. 13. Another morsel of satire against the above science lurks in the very ancient proverbial saying,

"When Adam delv'd and Eve span, Where was then the gentleman?"

which is found in almost every European language. It was the text on which the rebel priest John Balle preached his sermon during the insurrection of Wat Tyler. Although the first clown afterwards explains why Adam bore arms, by means of a punning allusion to his digging with arms, there is still a concealed piece of wit with respect to the _spade_. Adam's spade is set down in some of the books of heraldry as _the most ancient form of escutcheons_: nor is it improbable that the lower part of this utensil suggested the well-known form of the old triangular shields; whilst from the spindle of Eve might have originated the lozenge-like escutcheon on which the arms of females are usually emblazoned.

SCENE 1. Page 308.

HAM. ... the age is grown so _picked_, that the toe of the peasant, &c.

Mr. Malone's note, in exclusion of the others, is sufficiently satisfactory. The fashion of wearing pointed shoes, to which Hamlet had been supposed to allude, had ceased long before the time of Shakspeare; nor is it probable that he would have transferred it to the age of Hamlet. We still say _a person treads close on the heels of another_, in the same signification as in the text.

SCENE 1. Page 310.

1 CLO. This same scull, sir, was _Yorick's_ scull, the king's jester.

The frequency of such names as _Eric_ and _Roric_ in the Danish history, might have suggested that of the jester in question, but in a manner that may not very easily be discovered. _Roric_ was the name of the king of Denmark contemporary with Hamlet, according to Saxo Grammaticus.

SCENE 1. Page 311.

HAM. Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.----

There is good reason for supposing that Shakspeare borrowed this thought from some print or picture that he had seen. There are several which represent a lady at her toilet, and an old man presenting a scull before the mirror. A print by Goltzius exhibits _Vanity_ as a lady sitting in her chamber with jewels, &c. before her, and surprised by the appearance of Death. In one of Henry the Eighth's wardrobe accounts, a picture at Westminster is thus described: "Item a table with the picture of a woman playing upon a lute, and an olde manne holding a glasse in th'one hande and a deadde mannes headde in th'other hande."--Harl. MS. No. 1419.

* * * * *

In a poem written by Anthony Scoloker, a printer, entitled _Daiphantus, or The passions of love, comicall to reade, but tragicall to act, as full of wit, as experience_, 1604, 4to, and recently quoted in p. 465, there are the following allusions to the play of _Hamlet_: In a quaint dedication he says, "It [the epistle] should be like the _never-too-well read Arcadia_, where the _prose_ and _verse_ (_matter_ and _words_) are like his _mistresses_ eyes, one still excelling another and without Corivall: or to come home to the vulgars element, like _friendly Shake-speare's tragedies_, where the _commedian_ rides, when the _tragedian_ stands on tiptoe: _Faith it should please all, like prince Hamlet_. But in sadnesse, then it were to be feared _he would runne mad_. In sooth I will not be moonesicke, to please: nor out of my wits though I displeased all."

"His breath he thinkes the smoke; his tongue a cole, Then calls for bottell ale; to quench his thirst. Runs to his Inke pot, drinkes, then stops the hole, And thus growes madder, then he was at first. Tasso he finds, by that of _Hamlet_, thinkes, Tearmes him a _mad-man_; than of his Inkhorne drinks.

"_Calls players fooles_, the foole he judgeth wisest, _Will learne them action_, out of Chaucers Pander: Proves of their poets bawdes even in the highest, Then drinkes a health; and sweares it is no slander, Puts off his cloathes; his shirt he onely weares, Much like _mad-Hamlet_; thus as passion teares."

FOOTNOTES:

[23] These two lines seem intended, in the original, as a kind of burden or chorus at the end of each stanza; but as they only intrude upon the measure, the translation were perhaps better without them.

[24] It was the custom at this time to serve up at entertainments peacock and pheasant pies, the forms of those elegant birds being externally preserved, and much pomp bestowed on their appearance. See what has been already said on this subject in p. 291.

[25] This is a stubborn fact against the opinion of those who maintain that wine was not made in England. See the controversy on this subject in _Archæologia_, vol. iii.

[26] The late Rev. Mr. Hole of Faringdon in Devonshire, whose loss is deplored by all who knew him, has left an essay on the character of Ulysses, which has been recently published by some kind and grateful friends. In this elegant morsel the learned author has noticed the anxiety which Homer's favourite heroes constantly manifest to give their enemies a prey to dogs, and thereby prevent the advantage of obtaining admission into the regions of happiness.

[27] sword.

[28] raps, blows.

[29] fury.

[30] they.

[31] very.

[32] malice.

[33] orient.

[34] falcon, or perhaps falchion.

[35] gorgeous.

[36] I am descended.

[37] renowned.

[38] herald.

[39] allow.

[40] burn on live coals.

[41] rave.

[42] mad.

[43] here upon, or perhaps _haro_!

OTHELLO.

ACT I.

SCENE 3. Page 422.

OTH. Wherein of antres vast and desarts _idle_.

Dr. Johnson has very properly taken notice of Mr. Pope's _inadvertency_ in substituting _wild_ for _idle_; but whether he is strictly right in regarding this word as "poetically beautiful," according to Shakspeare's use of it, may admit of some doubt. Perhaps in a modern writer it would be poetical, where designed to express _infertility_. It may be worth while to examine how it was originally used.

In Ælfric's version of Genesis, ch. i. ver. 1, the _inanis et vacua_ of the Vulgate is rendered ẏꝺel ⁊ æmꞇɩᵹ. Now it is conceived that _inanis_ never signified _infertile_, but _useless_, _unprofitable_; and such appears to be the meaning of _idle_. In two or three of the early Latin and English dictionaries, _inanis_ is rendered _idle_; and in this sense the latter word is used by Shakspeare in _Richard the third_, Act III.:

"You said that _idle weeds_ were fast in growth."

It is clear that in the last instance _infertility_ is out of the question: but _useless_ and _unprofitable_ well denote the poet's meaning, or rather that of the inventor of the proverb, which was afterwards corrupted into "_ill_ weeds," &c.

It is conceived therefore that Dr. Johnson is not accurate in his opinion, that _idle_ in the before-cited Saxon translation is an epithet expressive of the _infertility_ of the chaotic state. Wicliffe has not adopted this term; he has preferred _vain_: but in the first page of the English _Golden legend_, which contains a part of the first chapter of Genesis, we have--"the erth was _ydle_ and voyde." Here Caxton the translator must have followed the _Vulgate_, corroborating what is already stated on the construction of _idle_. The learned reader will not want to be informed why this term could not occur in any of the subsequent English versions of the Bible.

SCENE 3. Page 447.

IAGO. ... the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.

There is another phrase of this kind, viz. _to exchange Herb John for coloquintida_. It is used in Osborne's _Memoirs of James I._, and elsewhere. The pedantic Tomlinson, in his translation of Renodæus's _Dispensatory_, says, that many superstitious persons call mugwort Saint John's herb, "wherewith he circumcinged his loyns on holidays," p. 317. Shakspeare, who was extremely well acquainted with popular superstitions, might have recollected this circumstance, when, for reasons best known to himself, he chose to vary the phrase by substituting the _luscious locusts_ of the Baptist. Whether these were the fruit of the tree so called, or the well known insect, is not likely to be determined.

ACT III.

SCENE 4. Page 556.

DES. ... I had rather have lost my purse Full of _cruzadoes_.

The following account of this Portuguese coin is presumed to be more correct than that already given. The cruzado was not current, as it should seem, at Venice, though it certainly was in England in the time of Shakspeare, who has here indulged his usual practice of departing from national costume. It was of gold, and weighed two penny-weights six grains, or nine shillings English. The following varieties of it as to type, are given from an English almanac of the year 1586, whence also the weight has been taken. The sovereigns who struck this coin were Emanuel and his son John.

SCENE 4. Page 558.

OTH. ... The hearts, of old, gave hands; But now new heraldry is--hands, not hearts.

There cannot be a doubt that the text is right, and that there is a punning allusion to the _new heraldry of hands_ in the baronets' arms. The plain meaning is--_formerly the heart gave away the hand in marriage; but now, as in the new heraldry, we have hands only: no cordiality nor affection_. In _The tempest_, Ferdinand says to Miranda, "Here's my hand;" to which she answers, "And mine _with my heart in it_." In this latter instance, Shakspeare, not Miranda, might recollect the gemmel rings, some of which had engraven on them a hand with a heart in it.

ACT IV.

SCENE 2. Page 601.

OTH. The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets.

The same image occurs more delicately, but less strongly, in a beautiful "Song to a forsaken mistresse," written by an anonymous author, about the time of Charles the First, and published in Playford's _Select ayres_, 1659, folio. As most persons of taste already possess the whole of it in Mr Ellis's _Specimens of the early English poets_, it is unnecessary to give more in this place than the stanza in which the above image occurs:

"I do confess thou'rt sweet, yet find Thee such an unthrift of thy sweets; Thy favours are but _like the wind, Which kisseth every thing it meets_: And since thou can'st with more than one, Th'art worthy to be kiss'd by none."

SCENE 2. Page 635.

OTH. Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge Had stomach for them all.

The same sentiment occurs in the third part of _King Henry the Sixth_, where Clifford says,

"Had I thy brethren here, their lives and thine, Were not revenge sufficient for me."

SCENE 2. Page 653.

OTH. _Blow me about in winds!_ roast me in sulphur!

Again, in _Measure for measure_,

"To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendent world."

THE CLOWN.

He appears but twice in the play, and was certainly intended to be an allowed or domestic _fool_ in the service of Othello and Desdemona.

ADDITIONS TO THE NOTES.

Page 37. The _tune_ of the old ballad of _Green sleeves_ may be seen in Sir John Hawkins's _Hist. of musick_, vol. v. Append., and is still used in _The beggar's opera_, in the song of "Since laws were made for every degree."

Page 53. Cupid's _golden shaft_ is again mentioned in the _Midsummer night's dream_, Act I. Scene 1:

"HERM. by his _best_ arrow with the _golden_ head."