398 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"<« S. VII. May 14. '59. 



When Macduff" declares that he was cut from 

 his mother's womb, Macbeth replies, — 



" Accursed be the tongue that tells me so ! 

 For it hath cowed my better part of man : 

 And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 

 That palter with us in a double sense, 

 And keep the word of promise to our ear, 

 And break it to our hope ! " 



These prophecies were not invented by Shak- 

 speare, but were borrowed from Holinshed, fol- 

 lowing Hector Boethius. They likewise occur in 

 the metrical Chronicle of Wynton. The incident 

 of the moving wood is also introduced in the 

 Northern History of Olaus Magnus, vii. 20., where 

 the stratagem is attributed to Etacho, King of 

 Gothland : when Sigarus, King of Denmark, per- 

 ceives the approach of the branches, he exclaims, 

 " Eo sylvai'um accessu sibi extrema fata por- 

 tendi." 



The promontory of Ather, in the island of Ce- 

 phallenia, mentioned in the story cited in vol. iv. 

 p. 201., from Anna Comnena, may be identi- 

 fied with the harbour of Aterra at the north- 

 western extremity of the peninsula of Paliki in 

 that island. (See Leake's Travels in Northern 

 Greece, vol. iii. p. 67.) The existence of a large 

 city named Jerusalem, in the little island of 

 Ithaca, is manifestly a fable ; but there may have 

 been in Ithaca a monastery called Jerusalem — a 

 name by which religious houses in Greece are 

 sometimes distinguished. For these last remarks 

 the writer is indebted to Col. Leake. 



For a collection of the stories respecting Hesiod's 

 death, see Hesiod, Fragm., ed. Marckscheffel, pp. 

 22 — 32. The prophecy respecting Hannibal is 

 recited by Appian, Syr. 11., who states that there 

 was in Bithynia a river named Libyssus, and a 

 plain near it named Libyssa. See likewise Paus. 

 viii. 11. 6. ; Solinus, c. 42. L. 



THE SIGN TAURUS. 



(2"« S. vii. 339.) 



Mb. Bruck asks, in reference to the presumed 

 astrological effects of the sign Taurus hinted at in 

 Twelfth Night, "was Sir Andrew ignorant and Sir 

 Toby altogether in jest ?" I venture to suggest, 

 that if your esteemed correspondent will look into 

 that once so very popular, but now all but quite 

 forgotten ShepercTs Kalendar, he will find a satis- 

 factory answer to his question. For th6 better 

 part of two centuries, beginning from about a.d. 

 1497 — the year Wynkyn de Worde printed it — 

 this work, by its multifarious character, was a 

 kind of hand-book to be met with in almost every 

 house ; and its teaching must have consequently 

 spread itself very widely through the public mind. 

 No doubt, its wise saws and quaint sayings, in 

 everybody's mouth, were all well known to the 



so-called Shakspeare ; for I am one of the unbe- 

 lievers in all the length and breadth of the shadow 

 of that personage. 



The 22nd chapter of the Kalendar telleth 



" How Shepheards by calculation and speculation 

 know the xii. signes in their course raigning and domin- 

 ing over the xii. parts of man's body," &c. " Some 

 Shepheards say that man is a little world by himself, for 

 likenesses and similitudes that he hath of the great world, 

 which is the aggregation of the nine skies four elements, 

 and all things in them contained. First, a man hath 

 such a likenes in the first mobile, that is the soveraigne 

 skie, and principall parts of the great world. For like 

 as in his first mobile y« Zodiake is devided to xii. parts 

 and holdeth of the signes, every part of his signe as this 

 figure sheweth." 



This "figure" is a curious woodcut, in which 

 the twelve signs are put, each in its place, upon a 

 naked man, so as to exactly show the part or 

 member dominated : — 



" The first, that is Aries, governeth the head and face 

 of man. Taui-us, the neck and throate bole. . . . Aquaries 

 the legs, and from the knees to the heeles and ancles ; and 

 Pisces hath the feete in his dominion." 



While Sir Toby gets so much fun out of the 

 capering weakness of poor Sir Andrew, by lead- 

 ing him into the mistake about the effects of 

 Taurus upon the legs and thighs, instead of upon 

 the " neck and throate bole," this same merry- 

 making knight slips himself into a deeper blunder 

 than Sir Andrew, as he cries out " were we not 

 born under Taurus?" Astrology taught that 

 mankind was brought forth, not under Taurus, nor 

 any other sign of the Zodiac, but under one or 

 other of the seven planets : — 



" Heereafter followeth," says the Kalendar, "the na- 

 ture of the seaven Planets with the disposition .of the 

 saide Planets after the sayings of expert shepheards. He 

 that is borne under Satunie shalbe false, envious, and ful 

 of debate and ful of law, he shalbe cunning in currying 

 of Leather, and a great eater of bread and flesh. He 

 shal not love Sermons, ne to go to the church," &c. 

 " Next after the planet of colde Saturn is the noble planet 

 of Jupiter, which Jupiter is very pure and clear of nature, 

 and not very hot, but he is all vertuous, &c. The man 

 that is borne under him shall love cleanlinesse of body, 

 and will not use to speake of ribawdry and harlotry', he 

 shall ever love religion and vertuous living — and he 

 shall love to sing and to be honestly merry," &c. 



After going over the seven planets, with their 

 properties, the Kalendar gives us a chapter on 



" Phj'zonomy," which "is a science that Shepheards 

 have to know the natural inclination of man and woman, 

 good or evil, by divers Signes on them in beholding them 

 onh'. The which inclination we ought to follow if it be 

 good ; but if it be evill, by vertue and strength of under- 

 standing, we ought to eschew and avoide it, and with- 

 stande the saj'd evill inclinations, Shepheards use this 

 science none otherwise. The prudent, vertuous, and wise 

 man, may bee of all other as touching theyr maners; 

 otherwise then their signes shew in their raygn. Thus 

 the things demonstred, as to vice is not in a wiseman, 

 though the sign be so, as an Ale-stake, or a signe is 

 sometime hanged before a house, in the which oftentimes 

 is no Ale," &c. 



