Charles the First's reign, was famous for his being a Cuckold, as for his dexterity in carving: therefore what became a Proverb was used first as an Invocation, when any took upon him to carve.” In Flecknoe's Diarium (1656) we have these lines "On Doctor Cuckold. "Who so famous was of late, He was with finger pointed at: What cannot learning do, and single state? "Being married, he so famous grew, As he was pointed at with two : What cannot learning and a Wife now do?" Nevertheless, it is supposed that the word cuculus somehow gave rise to the name of cuckold. Though the cuckoo lays in nests not its own, the etymology may still hold; for lawyers tell us that the honours and disgrace of man and wife are reciprocal, the one partaking of all the other has. Thus the lubricity of the woman is thrown upon the man, and her dishonesty thought his dishonour; and he, being the head of the wife, and being thus abused by her, acquires the name of cuckold from cuckoo; which nestling of old was the type of a cowardly, idle and stupid fellow, and so became the appellation of those who neglected to dress and prune their vines in due season. In Heath's Paradoxical Assertions (1664), the question why cuckolds are said to wear horns is answered: Because other men with their two forefingers point and make horns at them; and the further inquiry as to why the abused husband is branded with that verbal reproach provokes the comment that, Plautus having wittily and more reasonably called the adulterer (and not him whose wife is adulterated) cuculum, or cuckold, on the ground that he begets children on other men's wives whom the credulous fathers take to be their own, the corrupter of female virtue should rather be called the cuckoo," for he sits and sings merrily whilst his eggs are hatched by his neighbours' hens." Douce, however, maintains that there cannot be the least doubt of the word cuculus having been a term of reproach with the ancients, in the sense of our "cuckold." Plautus so employs it more than once. In the Asinaria he makes a woman speak of her husband thus and again— Ac etiam cubat Cuculus, surgi, amator, i domum ; Cano capite te Cuculum uxor domum exlustris rapit. So also in the Pseudolus Quid fles, Cuculi? cannot possibly bear any other sense. Horace in his Magna compellans voce cucullum certainly used the word as it is explained by Pliny in the passage already cited, and the conclusion there drawn seems to be that which best reconciles the more modern sense of the term. It is moreover supported by a note in the Variorum Horace, taken from the Historia Mirabilium of Carystius, published in 1619, which runs thus Cuculum credi supposititios adsciscere pullos, quod enim sit timidus et defendendi impar, cum etiam a minimis velli avibus. Avis autem quæ pullos ipsius rapiunt suos eficere, eo quod cuculi, pullus sit elegans;-the application of this to our use of the word cuckold being that the husband, like that bird, timid and incapable of protecting his own honour, is called by its name, and so converted into an object of contempt and derision. So also an old glossary defines curruca to be avis quæ alienos pullos nutrit; and currucare-aliquem currucam facere ejus violando uxorem. Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language (1655) has the following spirited invective against the vice on which the foregoing popular sayings are founded "He that dares violate the husband's honour, The husband's curse stick to him, a tame cuckold. No conscience to reclaim her from a monster. And at one instant kill both name and honour. And find no earth that's base enough to bury him." Douce confesses the difficulty that attends the first examination of the subject, of accounting for the disgrace popularly devolved upon the man whose misfortunes would rather seem to merit commiseration. The actual chastisement of the husband, however, he observes, apparently was inflicted under the notion that he who neglects the proper government of his wife, vested in him by law, contributes thereby to the encouragement of a crime disgraceful to society, and becomes himself particeps criminis; deserving, in fact, the whole of the punishment from which the frailty of woman, supported by a tenderness towards the sex, seems to exempt her altogether. "The Romans were honourable," it is observed in the Athenian Oracle, "and yet Pompey, Cæsar, Augustus, Lucullus, Cato, and others had this fate, but not its infamy and scandal. For a vicious action ought to be only imputed to the author, and so ought the shame and dishonour which follow it. He only that consents and is pimp to his own cuckoldry is really infamous and base." Green's Quip for an upstart Courtier (1620) has a singular passage Questioning why these Women were so cholericke, he pointed to a Bush of Nettles: Marry, quoth he, they have severally watered this Bush, and the virtue of them is to force a Woman that has done so, to be as peevish for a whole day, and as waspish, as if she had been stung in the brow with a Hornet." Perhaps the origin of this wellknown superstitious observation must be referred to a curious method of detecting the loss of female honour noticed in Naturall and Artificiall Conclusions, by Thomas Hill (1650). Park, speaking of Kolor, a considerable town in Africa, near the entrance to which was a sort of masquerade habit hanging upon a tree, made of the bark of trees, which he was told belonged to Mumbo Jumbo, says: "This is a strange Bugbear, common in all the Mandingo Towns, and employed by the Pagan Natives in keeping the Women in subjection; for, as they are not restricted in the number of their Wives, every one marries as many as he can conveniently maintain, and it often happens that the Ladies disagree among themselves: family quarrels sometimes rise to such a height that the Voice of the Husband is disregarded in the tumult. Then the Interposition of Mumbo Jumbo is invoked, and is always decisive. This strange Minister of Justice, this sovereign Arbiter of domestic strife, disguised in his masquerade attire, and armed with the rod of public authority, announces his coming by loud and dismal screams in the adjacent Woods. He begins as soon as it is dark to enter the Town, and proceeds to a place where all the Inhabitants are assembled to meet him. "The appearance of Mumbo Jumbo, it may be supposed, is unpleasing to the African Ladies; but they dare not refuse to appear when summoned, and the Ceremony commences with dancing and singing, which continues till Midnight, when Mumbo seizes on the Offender. The unfortunate Victim, being stripped naked, is tied to a post, and severely scourged with Mumbo's rod, amidst the shouts and derision of the whole assembly and it is remarkable that the rest of the women are very clamorous and outrageous in their abuse of their unfortunate Sister, until daylight puts an end to this disgusting revelry." THE CUSTOMS AT DEATHS. THE PASSING BELL, CALLED ALSO THE SOUL BELL. "Make me a straine speake groaning like a BELL, Marston. HE following clause in the Advertisements for due Order, &c., published in the 7th year of Elizabeth, is much to our purpose: "Item, that when anye Christian Bodie is in passing, that the Bell be tolled, and that the Curate be speciallie called for to comforte the sicke person; and after the time of his passinge, to ringe no more but one shorte peale; and one before the Buriall, and another short peale after the Buriall." * In Catholic times, here, it was customary to toll the passing bell at all hours of the night as well as by day, as an extract from the churchwarden's accounts for the parish of Wolchurch (a MS. in the Harleian Library, No. 2252), of the date of 1526, proves: "Item. the Clerke to have for tollynge of the passynge Belle, for Manne, Womanne, or Childes, if it be in the day, iiijd. Item. if it be in the Night, for the same, viijd." In Stubbe's Anatomie of Abuses (1585), the dreadful end of a swearer in Lincolnshire is thus referred to: "At the last, the people * "His gowned Brothers follow him, and bring him to his long home. A short peale closeth up his Funeral Pile," says a Hospital Man in Whimzies: or a new Cast of Characters (1631). perceiving his ende to approche, caused the Bell to tolle; who hearing the Bell toll for him rushed up in his Bed very vehemently." A passage in Shakespeare's Henry IV. proves that the Poet's observation of Nature was not more accurate than his attention to the manners and customs of his time "And his Tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen Bell Remember'd knolling a departing Friend." In these quotations the word "passing" evidently signifies the same as "departing," that is, passing from life to death; so that from the very name we may gather that it was the intention in tolling a passing bell to pray for the person dying, and who was not yet dead. Douce inclines to think that the passing-bell was originally intended to drive away any demon that might seek to take possession of the soul of the deceased. In the cuts to those Hora which contain the service of the dead, several devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of the dying man, to whom the priest is administering extreme unction. Referring to the Scholiast on Theocritus (Idyll. ii. ver. 36), he adds: "It is to be hoped that this ridiculous custom will never be revived, which has most probably been the Cause of sending many a good Soul to the other world before its time: nor can the practice of tolling Bells for the dead be defended upon any principle of Common Sense, Prayers for the Dead being contrary to the Articles of our Religion." Cassalion (De Vet Sac. Christ. Rit.) has this taunt against the Protestants: "Though the English now deny that Prayers are of any service to the dead, yet I could meet with no other account of this Ceremony than that it was a Custom of the old Church of England, i. e. the Church of Rome." Cassalion should have consulted Durandus. Among the many objections of the Brownists, it is laid to the charge of the Church of England that though we deny the doctrine of Purgatory and teach the contrary, yet our practice well accords with it, as evidenced by our ringing of hallowed bells for the soul. Bishop Hall's apology, however, renders a correct explanation. "We call them," he says, "SOUL BELLS, for that they signify the departure of the Soul, not for that they help the passage of the Soul." Wheatley, in his Illustration of the Liturgy, apologises for our retention of this ceremony: Our Church in imitation of the Saints in former ages, calls on the Minister and others, who are at hand, to assist their Brother in his last extremity. In order to this she directs that, when any one is passing out of this Life, a Bell should be tolled; which is called thence the Passing Bell." Among Articles to be enquired of within the Archdeaconry of Yorke, by the Church Wardens and Sworne-Men, A.D. 163-(any year till 1640) one is: "Whether doth your Clark or Sexton, when any one is passing out of this Life, neglect to toll a Bell, having notice thereof : or, the party being dead, doth he suffer any more ringing than one short Peale, and, before his Burial one, and after the same another?" Inquiry is also directed to be made, “whether at the death of any there be any superstitious ringing?" "The Passing Bell," says Grose," was antiently rung for two purposes: one to bespeak the Prayers of all good Christians, for a Soul just departing; the other, to drive away the evil Spirits who stood at the Bed's foot, and about the House, ready to seize their prey, or at least to molest and terrify the Soul in its passage: but by the ringing of that Bell (for Durandus informs us Evil Spirits are much afraid of Bells), they were kept aloof; and the Soul, like a hunted Hare, gained the start, or had what is by Sportsmen called Law. Hence, perhaps, exclusive of the additional Labour, was occasioned the high price demanded for tolling the greatest Bell of the Church; for that, being louder, the Evil Spirits must go farther off to be clear of its sound, by which the poor Soul got so much more the start of them: besides, being heard farther off, it would likewise procure the dying man a greater number of Prayers. This dislike of Spirits to Bells is mentioned in the Golden Legend by Wynkyn de Worde."* Bourne supposes that from the proverb mentioned by Bede, "Lord have mercy upon the Soul!" as St Oswald exclaimed when he fell to the earth, has been derived the present national saying— "When the Bell begins to toll, Lord have mercy on the Soul;" and he tells us that it was a custom with several religious families at Newcastle-upon-Tyne to use prayers, as for a soul departing, at the tolling of the passing bell. To this effect is the couplet in Ray's Collection of old English Proverbs— "When thou dost hear a Toll or Knell, Then think upon THY Passing Bell." In Heywood's Rape of Lucrece (1630) Valerius says: "Nay if he be dying, as, I could wish he were, I'le ring out his funerall peale, and this it is 'Come list and harke, Departing Soule. And was not that The wild Woolfe howle The same writer considers the custom to be as old as the use of bells themselves in Christian churches, i.e., about the seventh century, and to have originated in the Romish idea of the efficacy of prayers for Grose records another remarkable superstition to the effect that it is impossible for a person to die, whilst resting on a pillow stuffed with the feathers of a dove; but that he will struggle with death in the most exquisite vorture. "The pillows of dying persons are therefore frequently taken away, when they appear in great agonies, lest they may have Pigeon's feathers in them." |