Thomas Dyer - Folk-lore of Shakespeare

The phrase, “Cock-a-hoop” 180 180 It is also an ale-house sign. – which occurs in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 5),

– no doubt refers to a reckless person, who takes the cock or tap out of a cask, and lays it on the top or hoop of the barrel, thus letting all the contents of the cask run out. Formerly, a quart pot was called a hoop, being formed of staves bound together with hoops like barrels. There were generally three hoops to such a pot; hence, in “2 Henry VI.” (iv. 2), one of Jack Cade’s popular reformations was to increase their number: “the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.” Some, however, consider the term Cock-a-hoop 181 181 See Dyce’s “Glossary to Shakespeare,” p. 85. refers to the boastful crowing of the cock.

In “King Lear” (iii. 2) Shakespeare speaks of the “cataracts and hurricanoes” as having

Vanes on the tops of steeples were in days gone by made in the form of a cock – hence weathercocks – and put up, in papal times, to remind the clergy of watchfulness. 182 182 See “Book of Days,” 1863, vol. i. p. 157. Apart, too, from symbolism, the large tail of the cock was well adapted to turn with the wind. 183 183 In “King Lear” (iv. 6), where Edgar says: “Yond tall anchoring bark, Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight.” the word “cock” is an abbreviation for cock-boat.

Cormorant. The proverbial voracity of this bird 184 184 For superstitions associated with this bird, see Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 218. gave rise to a man of large appetite being likened to it, a sense in which Shakespeare employs the word, as in “Coriolanus” (i. 1): “the cormorant belly;” in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (i. 1): “cormorant devouring Time;” and in “Troilus and Cressida” (ii. 2): “this cormorant war.” “Although,” says Mr. Harting, 185 185 “Ornithology of Shakespeare,” p. 260. “Shakespeare mentions the cormorant in several of his plays, he has nowhere alluded to the sport of using these birds, when trained, for fishing; a fact which is singular, since he often speaks of the then popular pastime of hawking, and he did not die until some years after James I. had made fishing with cormorants a fashionable amusement.”

Crow. This has from the earliest times been reckoned a bird of bad omen; and in “Julius Cæsar” (v. 1), Cassius, on the eve of battle, predicted a defeat, because, to use his own words:

Allusions to the same superstition occur in “Troilus and Cressida” (i. 2); “King John” (v. 2), etc. Vergil (“Bucolic,” i. 18) mentions the croaking of the crow as a bad omen:

And Butler, in his “Hudibras” (part ii. canto 3), remarks:

Even children, nowadays, regard with no friendly feelings this bird of ill-omen; 186 186 See “Folk-Lore Record,” 1879, vol. i. p. 52; Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1879, pp. 25, 126, 277. and in the north of England there is a rhyme to the following effect:

Among other allusions made by Shakespeare to the crow may be noticed the crow-keeper – a person employed to drive away crows from the fields. At present, 187 187 Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 208. in all the midland counties, a boy set to drive away the birds is said to keep birds; hence, a stuffed figure, now called a scarecrow , was also called a crow-keeper, as in “King Lear” (iv. 6): “That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper.”

One of Tusser’s directions for September is:

In “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 4) a scarecrow seems meant:

Among further references to this practice is that in “1 Henry VI.” (i. 4), where Lord Talbot relates that, when a prisoner in France, he was publicly exhibited in the market-place:

And once more, in “Measure for Measure” (ii. 1):

The phrase “to pluck a crow” is to complain good-naturedly, but reproachfully, and to threaten retaliation. 189 189 Miss Baker’s “Northamptonshire Glossary,” vol. ii. p. 161; Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 393. It occurs in “Comedy of Errors” (iii. 1): “We’ll pluck a crow together.” Sometimes the word pull is substituted for pluck, as in Butler’s “Hudibras” (part ii. canto 2):

The crow has been regarded as the emblem of darkness, which has not escaped the notice of Shakespeare, who, in “Pericles” (iv. introd.), speaking of the white dove, says:

Cuckoo. Many superstitions have clustered round the cuckoo, and both in this country and abroad it is looked upon as a mysterious bird, being supposed to possess the gift of second-sight, a notion referred to in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (v. 2):

And again, in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (iii. 1), Bottom sings:

It is still a common idea that the cuckoo, if asked, will tell any one, by the repetition of its cries, how long he has to live. The country lasses in Sweden count the cuckoo’s call to ascertain how many years they have to remain unmarried, but they generally shut their ears and run away on hearing it a few times. 192 192 Engel’s “Musical Myths and Facts,” 1876, vol. i. p. 9. Among the Germans the notes of the cuckoo, when heard in spring for the first time, are considered a good omen. Cæsarius (1222) tells us of a convertite who was about to become a monk, but changed his mind on hearing the cuckoo’s call, and counting twenty-two repetitions of it. “Come,” said he, “I have certainly twenty-two years still to live, and why should I mortify myself during all that time? I will go back to the world, enjoy its delights for twenty years, and devote the remaining two to penitence.” 193 193 See Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-Lore,” 1863, p. 99; “English Folk-Lore,” 1879, pp. 55-62. In England the peasantry salute the cuckoo with the following invocation: