Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer (year 2 reading books .txt) đ
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To disproportion me in every part,
Like to a chaos, or an unlickâd bear-whelp,
That carries no impression like the dam.â
This erroneous notion, however, was long ago confuted by Sir Thomas Browne.[352] Alexander Ross, in his âArcana Microcosmi,â nevertheless affirms that bears bring forth their young deformed and misshapen, by reason of the thick membrane in which they are wrapped, that is covered over with a mucous matter. This, he says, the dam contracts in the winter-time, by lying in hollow caves without motion, so that to the eye the cub appears like an unformed lump. The above mucilage is afterwards licked away by the dam, and the membrane broken, whereby that which before seemed to be unformed appears now in its right shape. This, he contends, is all that the ancients meant.[353] Ovid (Metamorphoses, bk. xv. l. 379) thus describes this once popular fancy:
Sed male viva caro est: lambendo mater in artus
Fingit, et in formam, quantam capit ipsa, reducit.â
Bears, in days gone by, are reported to have been surprised by means of a mirror, which they would gaze on, affording their pursuers an opportunity of taking the surer aim. In âJulius CĂŠsarâ (ii. I), this practice is mentioned by Decius:
And bears with glasses.â[354]
Batman, âOn BartholomĂŠusâ (1582), speaking of the bear, says, âAnd when he is taken he is made blinde with a bright basin, and bound with chaynes, and compelled to playe.â This, however, says Mr. Aldis Wright,[355] probably refers to the actual blinding of the bear.
A favorite amusement with our ancestors was bear-baiting. As early as the reign of Henry II. the baiting of bears by dogs was a popular game in London,[356] while at a later period âa royal bear-wardâ was an officer regularly attached to the royal household. In â2 Henry VI.â (v. 1), this personage is alluded to by Clifford, who says:
And manacle the bear-ward in their chains,
If thou darâst bring them to the baiting place.â
And again, in âMuch Ado About Nothingâ (ii. 1), Beatrice says, âI will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his apes into hell.â The synonymous term, âbear-herd,â occurs in âTaming of the Shrewâ (Ind. scene 2), where Sly speaks of himself as âby transmutation a bear-herd;â and in â2 Henry IV.â (i. 2), Sir John Falstaff remarks how âtrue valor is turned bear-herd.â Among the Harleian MSS.[357] is preserved the original warrant of Richard III. appointing John Brown to this office, and which recites âthe diligent service he had done the kingâ as the ground for granting him the privilege of wandering about the country with his bears and apes, and receiving the âloving benevolence and favors of the people.â[358] In the time of Queen Elizabeth bear-baiting was still a favorite pastime, being considered a fashionable entertainment for ladies of the highest rank.[359] James I. encouraged this sport. Nichols[360] informs us that on one occasion the king, accompanied by his court, took the queen, the Princess Elizabeth, and the two young princes to the Tower to witness a fight between a lion and a bear, and by the kingâs command the bear (which had killed a child that had been negligently left in the bear-house) was afterwards âbaited to death upon a stage in the presence of many spectators.â Popular, says Mr. Kelly, as bear-baiting was in the metropolis and at court, it was equally so among all classes of the people.[361] It is on record that at Congleton, in Cheshire, âthe town-bear having died, the corporation in 1601 gave orders to sell their Bible, in order to purchase another, which was done, and the town no longer without a bear.â This event is kept up in a popular rhyme:
Sold the Bible to pay for a bear.â
The same legend attaches to Clifton, a village near Rugby:
Sold the Church Bible to buy a bear.â
In Pulleynâs âEtymological Compendium,â[362] we are told that âthis cruel amusement is of African origin, and was introduced into Europe by the Romans.â It is further alluded to by Shakespeare in âTwelfth Nightâ (i. 3), âdancing and bear-baiting;â and further on in the same play (ii. 5) Fabian says, âhe brought me out oâ favor with my lady about a bear-baiting here;â and Macbeth (v. 7) relates:
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.â[363]
And in âJulius CĂŠsarâ (iv. 1), Octavius says:
And bayâd about with many enemies.â
Boar. It appears that in former times boar-hunting was a favorite recreation; many allusions to which we find in old writers. Indeed, in the Middle Ages, the destruction of a wild boar ranked among the deeds of chivalry,[364] and âwon for a warrior almost as much renown as the slaying an enemy in the open field.â So dangerous, too, was boar-hunting considered, that Shakespeare represents Venus as dissuading Adonis from the perilous practice:
With javelinâs point a churlish swine to gore,
Whose tushes never sheathed he whetteth still,
Like to a mortal butcher, bent to kill.
*****
His brawny sides, with hairy bristles armâd,
Are better proof than thy spearâs point can enter;
His short thick neck cannot be easily harmâd;
Being ireful, on the lion he will venture.ââ
Such hunting expeditions were generally fatal to some of the dogs, and occasionally to one or more of the hunters. An old tradition of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire,[365] asserts that every burgess, at his admission to the freedom of the borough, anciently presented to the mayor a boarâs head, or an equivalent in money, when the animal could not be procured. The old seal of the mayor of Grimsby represents a boar hunt. The lord, too, of the adjacent manor of Bradley, was obliged by his tenure to keep a supply of these animals in his wood, for the entertainment of the mayor and burgesses.[366] A curious triennial custom called the âRhyne Toll,â is observed at Chetwode, a small village about five miles from Buckingham.[367] According to tradition, it originated in the destruction of an enormous wild boarâthe terror of the surrounding countyâby one of the lords of Chetwode; who, after fighting with it for four hours on a hot summerâs day, eventually killed it:
Wind well thy horn, good hunter;
And he fairly cut the boarâs head off quite,
For he was a jovial hunter.â
As a reward, it is said, the king âgranted to him and to his heirs forever, among other immunities and privileges, the full right to levy every year the Rhyne Toll.â This is still kept up, and consists of a yearly tax on all cattle found within the manor of Chetwode between the 30th of October and the 7th of November, inclusive. In âAntony and Cleopatraâ (iv. 13) Cleopatra alludes to the famous boar killed by Meleager,
Was never so embossâd.â[368]
Bull. Once upon a time there was scarcely a town or village of any magnitude which had not its bull-ring.[369] Indeed, it was not until the year 1835 that baiting was finally put down by an act of Parliament, âforbidding the keeping of any house, pit, or other place for baiting or fighting any bull, bear, dog, or other animal;â and, after an existence of at least seven centuries, this ceased to rank among the amusements of the English people.[370] This sport is alluded to in âMerry Wives of Windsorâ (v. 5), âRemember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa.â We may, too, compare the expressions in âTroilus and Cressidaâ (v. 7), âNow, bull, now, dog!... The bull has the game.â[371]
Cat. Few animals, in times past, have been more esteemed than the cat, or been honored with a wider folk-lore. Indeed, among the Egyptians this favored animal was held sacred to Isis, or the moon, and worshipped with great ceremony. In the mythology of all the Indo-European nations the cat holds a prominent place; and its connection with witches is well known. âThe picture of a witch,â says Mr. Henderson,[372] âis incomplete without her cat, by rights a black one.â In âMacbethâ (iv. 1) the first witch says:
it being a common superstition that the form most generally assumed by the familiar spirits of witches was the cat. Thus, in another passage of the same play (i. 1), the first witch says: âI come, Graymalkinââthe word otherwise spelled Grimalkin,[373] meaning a gray cat. Numerous stories are on record of witches having disguised themselves as cats, in order to carry out their fiendish designs. A woodman out working in the forest has his dinner every day stolen by a cat. Exasperated at the continued repetition of the theft, he lies in wait for the aggressor, and succeeds in cutting off her paw, when lo! on his return home he finds his wife minus a hand.[374] An honest Yorkshireman,[375] who bred pigs, often lost the young ones. On applying to a certain wise man of Stokesley, he was informed that they were bewitched by an old woman who lived near. The owner of the pigs, calling to mind that he had often seen a cat prowling about his yard, decided that this was the old woman in disguise. He watched for her, and, as soon as she made her appearance, flung at her a poker with all his might. The cat disappeared, and, curiously enough, the poor old woman in question that night fell and broke her leg. This was considered as conclusive that she was the witch that had simulated the form of a cat. This notion is very prevalent on the Continent. It is said that witch-cats have a great hankering after beer.[376] Witches are adepts in the art of brewing, and therefore fond of tasting what their neighbors brew. On these occasions they always masquerade as cats, and what they steal they consume on the spot. There was a countryman whose beer was all drunk up by night whenever he brewed, so that at last he resolved for once to sit up all night and watch. As he was standing by his brewing pan, a number of cats made their appearance, and calling to them, he said; âCome, puss, puss, come, warm you a bit.â So in a ring they all sat round the fire as if to warm themselves. After a time, he asked them âif the water was hot.â âJust on the boil,â said they; and as he spoke he dipped his long-handled pail in the wort,
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