Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer (year 2 reading books .txt) đ
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That stay his cure; their malady convinces
The great assay of art; but, at his touchâ
Such sanctity hath heaven given his handââ
They presently amend.
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures;
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and âtis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace.â
This reference, which has nothing to do with the progress of the drama, is introduced, obviously, in compliment to King James, who fancied himself endowed with the Confessorâs powers.[614] The poet found authority for the passage in Holinshed (vol. i. p. 279): âAs hath bin thought, he was enspired with the gift of prophecie, and also to haue hadde the gift of healing infirmities and diseases. Namely, he vsed to help those that were vexed with the disease, commonly called the kyngs euill, and left that vertue as it were a portion of inheritance vnto his successors the kyngs of this realme.â Edwardâs miraculous powers were believed in, we are told, by his contemporaries, or at least soon after his death, and were expressly recognized by Pope Alexander III., who canonized him. In Plotâs âOxfordshireâ (chap. x. sec. 125) there is an account, accompanied with a drawing, of the touch-piece supposed to have been given by this monarch. James I.âs practice of touching for the evil is frequently mentioned in Nicholsâs âProgresses.â Charles I., when at York, touched seventy persons in one day. Indeed, few are aware to what an extent this superstition once prevailed. In the course of twenty years, between 1660 and 1682, no less than 92,107 persons were touched for this disease. The first English monarch who refused to touch for the kingâs evil was William III., but the practice was resumed by Queen Anne, who officially announced, in the London Gazette, March 12, 1712, her royal intention to receive patients afflicted with the malady in question. It was probably about that time that Johnson was touched by her majesty, upon the recommendation of the celebrated physician Sir John Floyer, of Lichfield. King George I. put an end to this practice, which is said to have originated with Edward the Confessor, in 1058.[615] The custom was also observed by French kings; and on Easter Sunday, 1686, Louis XIV. is said to have touched 1600 persons.
Lethargy. This is frequently confounded by medical men of former times, and by Shakespeare himself, with apoplexy. The term occurs in the list of diseases quoted by Thersites in âTroilus and Cressidaâ (v. 1).[616]
Leprosy. This was, in years gone by, used to denote the lues venerea, as in âAntony and Cleopatraâ (iii. 8):
Whom leprosy oâertake!
****
Hoists sails and flies.â
Leech. The old medical term for a leech is a âblood-sucker,â and a knot would be an appropriate term for a number of clustering leeches. So, in âRichard III.â (iii. 3), Grey, being led to the block, says of Richardâs minions:
In â2 Henry VI.â (iii. 2) mention is made by Warwick of the âblood-sucker of sleeping men,â which, says Dr. Bucknill, appears to mean the vampire-bat.
Measles. This word originally signified leprosy, although in modern times used for a very different disorder. Its derivation is the old French word meseau, or mesel, a leper. Thus, Cotgrave has âMeseau, a meselled, scurvy, leaporous, lazarous person.â Distempered or scurvied hogs are still said to be measled. It is in this sense that it is used in âCoriolanusâ (iii. 1):
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words till their decay, against those measles,
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.â
Pleurisy. This denotes a plethora, or redundancy of blood, and was so used, probably, from an erroneous idea that the word was derived from plus pluris. It is employed by Shakespeare in âHamletâ (iv. 7):
Dies in his own too-much.â
In the âTwo Noble Kinsmenâ (v. 1) there is a similar phrase:
The earth when it is sick, and curâst the world
Oâ the plurisy of people.â
The word is frequently used by writers contemporary with Shakespeare. Thus, for instance, Massinger, in âThe Pictureâ (iv. 2), says:
By labour.â
Mummy. This was a preparation for magical purposes, made from dead bodies, and was used as a medicine both long before and long after Shakespeareâs day. Its virtues seem to have been chiefly imaginary, and even the traffic in it fraudulent.[617] The preparation of mummy is said to have been first brought into use in medicine by a Jewish physician, who wrote that flesh thus embalmed was good for the cure of divers diseases, and particularly bruises, to prevent the bloodâs gathering and coagulating. It has, however, long been known that no use whatever can be derived from it in medicine, and âthat all which is sold in the shops, whether brought from Venice or Lyons, or even directly from the Levant by Alexandria, is factitious, the work of certain Jews, who counterfeit it by drying carcasses in ovens, after having prepared them with powder of myrrh, caballine aloes, Jewish pitch, and other coarse or unwholesome drugs.â[618] Shakespeare speaks of this preparation. Thus Othello (iii. 4), referring to the handkerchief which he had given to Desdemona, relates how:
Conservâd of maidensâ hearts.â
And, in âMacbethâ (iv. 1), the âwitchesâ mummyâ forms one of the ingredients of the boiling caldron. Webster, in âThe White Devilâ (1857, p. 5), speaks of it:
Have swallowâd you like mummia, and, being sick,
With such unnatural and horrid physic,
Vomit you up iâ the kennel.â
Sir Thomas Browne, in his interesting âFragment on Mummies,â tells us that Francis I. always carried mummy[619] with him as a panacea against all disorders. Some used it for epilepsy, some for gout, some used it as a styptic. He further adds: âThe common opinion of the virtues of mummy bred great consumption thereof, and princes and great men contended for this strange panacea, wherein Jews dealt largely, manufacturing mummies from dead carcasses, and giving them the names of kings, while specifics were compounded from crosses and gibbets leavings.â
Nightmare. There are various charms practised, in this and other countries, for the prevention of nightmare, many of which are exceedingly quaint. In days gone by it appears that St. Vitalis, whose name has been corrupted into St. Withold, was invoked; and, by way of illustration, Theobald quotes from the old play of âKing Johnâ[620] the following:
Shakespeare, alluding to the nightmare, in his âKing Learâ (iii. 4), refers to the same saint, and gives us a curious old charm:
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight
And her troth plight,
And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!â
For what purpose, as Mr. Singer[621] has pointed out, the incubus is enjoined to âplight her troth,â will appear from a charm against the nightmare, in Reginald Scotâs âDiscovery of Witchcraft,â which occurs, with slight variation, in Fletcherâs âMonsieur Thomasâ (iv. 6):
He walks by day, so does he by night,
And when he had her found,
He her beat and her bound,
Until to him her troth she plight,
She would not stir from him that night.â
Paralysis. An old term for chronic paralysis was âcold palsies,â which is used by Thersites in âTroilus and Cressidaâ (v. 1).[622]
Philosopherâs Stone. This was supposed, by its touch, to convert base metal into gold. It is noticed by Shakespeare in âAntony and Cleopatraâ (i. 5):
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.â
The alchemists call the matter, whatever it may be, says Johnson, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine. Thus, Chapman, in his âShadow of Nightâ (1594): âO, then, thou great elixir of all treasures;â on which passage he has the following note: âThe philosopherâs stone, or philosophica medicina, is called the great elixir.â Another reference occurs in âTimon of Athensâ (ii. 2), where the Fool, in reply to the question of Varroâs Servant, âWhat is a whoremaster, fool?â answers, âA fool in good clothes, and something like thee. âTis a spirit: sometime ât appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher, with two stones moe thanâs artificial one,â etc.; a passage which Johnson explains as meaning âmore than the philosopherâs stone,â or twice the value of a philosopherâs stone; though, as Farmer observes, âGower has a chapter, in his âConfessio Amantis,â of the three stones that philosophers made.â Singer,[623] in his note on the philosopherâs stone, says that Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who lost considerable sums in seeking of it. Sir Richard Steele was one of the last eminent men who entertained hopes of being successful in this pursuit. His laboratory was at Poplar.[624]
Pimple. In the Midland Counties, a common name for a pimple, which, by rubbing, is made to smart, or rubbed to sense, is âa quat.â The word occurs in âOthelloâ (v. 1), where Roderigo is so called by Iago:
And he grows angry.â
âRoderigo being called a quat by the same mode of speech as a low fellow is now called a scab. It occurs in Langhamâs âGarden of Health,â p. 153: âThe leaves [of coleworts] laid to by themselves, or bruised with barley meale, are good for the inflammations, and soft swellings, burnings, impostumes, and cholerick sores or quats,â etc.
Plague. âTokens,â or âGodâs tokens,â were the terms for those spots on the body which denoted the infection of the plague. In âLoveâs Labourâs Lostâ (v. 2), Biron says:
and in âAntony and Cleopatraâ (iii. 10) there is another allusion:
Where death is sure.â
In âTroilus and Cressidaâ (ii. 3), Ulysses says of Achilles:
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