adapted for a youth like the Prince, who, at the date above mentioned, was fourteen years of age.

On looking at the curious specimens which are still treasured up as heirlooms, or in museums, one cannot help thinking that the person who pulled the trigger must have been in far greater danger than the bird at which he aimed.

CHAPTER VI.

T would hardly be supposed that the birds under

domestication could inspire much poetical feeling, or indeed that they could furnish the dramatist with much imagery. Those, however, who may entertain this view, on reading the works of Shakespeare, must admit that in his case at least they are mistaken. The Cock, the Peacock, the Turkey, the Pigeon, the Goose, the Duck and the Swan, are all noticed in their turn, and indeed, in the ordinary list of poultry, hardly a species has escaped mention. In the succeeding chapter, when treating of the game-birds, we shall notice the Pheasant, Partridge, and Quail, which are occasionally domesticated. For the present, it will be as well to confine our attention to the birds above mentioned.

"The early village cock" (Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3), "the trumpet to the morn" (Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 1), is often

noticed by Shakespeare. In the prologue to the fourth act of King Henry V

“The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,

And the third hour of drowsy morning name."

Steevens has shown that the popular notion of a phantom disappearing at cock-crow is of very ancient date. The conversation of Bernardo, Horatio, and Marcellus, on the subject of Hamlet's ghost, affords a good illustration of this:

"Bern. It was about to speak, when the cock crew!

*

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons.

I have heard,

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat.
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant * and erring spirit hies
To his confine and of the truth herein,
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long :

And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;

Note here the use of the word “extravagant' in its primary signification, implying, of the ghost, its wandering beyond its proper sphere.

COCK-CROW.

The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallow'd and so gracious is the time."

169

Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 1.

"Hark! hark! I hear the strain of strutting chanticleer cry cockadidle-dowe.-Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2.

Just as "cock-crow" denotes the early morning, so is "cock-shut-time" or "cock-close," expressive of the evening; although some consider that the latter phrase owes its origin to the practice of netting woodcocks at twilight, that is, shutting or enclosing them in a net.

The origin of the phrase "cock-a-hoop," which occurs in Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 5, is very doubtful: the passage is—

"You'll make a mutiny among my guests!

You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!"

Some commentators consider that this refers in some way to the boastful crowing of the cock, but we do not think that Shakespeare intended any allusion here to the game-fowl. We take it that the reference is to a cask of ale or wine, and that the phrase "to set cock-a-hoop" means to take the cock, or tap, out of the cask and set it on the hoop, thus letting all the contents escape. The man who would do such a reckless act, would be just the sort of man to whom Shakespeare refers.

Ꮓ

The ale-house sign of "The Cock and Hoop" represents a game-fowl standing upon a hoop, but we have little doubt that the original sign was a cask flowing, with the tap laid on the top. The modern version is no doubt a corruption, just as we have The Swan with Two Necks" for "The Swan with Two Nicks," i. e. marks on the bill to distinguish it; "The Devil and the Bag o' Nails" for "Pan and the Bacchanals;" "The Goat and Compasses " for the ancient motto "God encompasseth us;" &c., &c.*

The popular adjuration, "by cock and pye," which Shakespeare has put in the mouth of Justice Shallow, was once supposed to refer to the sacred name, and to the table of services, called "the pie;" but it is now thought to be what Hotspur termed a mere "protest of pepper gingerbread," as innocent as Slender's, "By these gloves," or, "By this hat." In "Soliman and Perseda" (1599,) it occurs coupled with "mousefoot ;"-" By cock and pye and mousefoot." Again, in "The Plaine Man's Pathway to Heaven," by Arthur Dent (1607), we have the following dialogue :

Ásunetus.—“ I know a man that will never swear but by cock or py, or mousefoot. I hope you will not say these be

"

* Apropos of ale-house signs, Shakespeare gives us the origin of The Bear and Ragged Staff." It is the crest of the Earls of Warwick.

Warwick.

"Now, by my father's badge, old Neville's crest,
The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff."

Henry VI. Part II. Act v. Sc. I.