A fantastic article by Robert Tracy from 1963 on The Owl and the Baker's Daughter:
http://www.houseofideas.com/mscornelius/resources/hamlet/hamlet_vol_35__imagery_277101-.pdf
Friday, June 28, 2013
"By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon,"
Ophelia refers to pilgrims of "The
Way of St. James" who wore a hat with a scallop shell:
Pilgrims walk the Camino for various
reasons. Some to seek penance, others enlightenment, and still others for a
sense of adventure, yet all progress toward the Cathedral in Santiago where it
is believed the remains of the apostle St. James are held. Most pilgrims choose
to carry a scallop shell with them to symbolize their journey in honor of St.
James. According to legend, scallop shells are said the have covered St. James’
body after it was found on the shores of the Galician coast. Another, perhaps
more useful symbol is a walking stick to aid a weary pilgrim on his or her
journey.
A film was made
about the route starring Martin Sheen. More info
here; http://theway-themovie.com/camino.php
Compare
to a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh (date unknown: poem is attributed to him.)
As
you came from the holy land
Of
Walsingham,
Met
you not with my true love
By
the way as you came?
“How
shall I know your true love,
That
have met many one,
I
went to the holy land,
That
have come, that have gone?”
She
is neither white, nor brown,
But
as the heavens fair;
There
is none hath a form so divine
In
the earth, or the air.
“Such
a one did I meet, good sir,
Such
an angelic face,
Who
like a queen, like a nymph, did appear
By
her gait, by her grace.”
She
hath left me here all alone,
All
alone, as unknown,
Who
sometimes did me lead with herself,
And
me loved as her own.
“What’s
the cause that she leaves you alone,
And
a new way doth take,
Who
loved you once as her own,
And
her joy did you make?”
I
have lov’d her all my youth;
But
now old, as you see,
Love
likes not the falling fruit
From
the withered tree.
Know
that Love is a careless child,
And
forgets promise past;
He
is blind, he is deaf when he list,
And
in faith never fast.
His
desire is a dureless content,
And
a trustless joy:
He
is won with a world of despair,
And
is lost with a toy.
Of
womenkind such indeed is the love,
Or
the word love abus’d,
Under
which many childish desires
And
conceits are excus’d.
But
true love is a durable fire,
In
the mind ever burning,
Never
sick, never old, never dead,
From
itself never turning.
While the grass grows...
In Act 3 Scene 2, Hamlet says "'While the grass grows...' the proverb is something musty."
The actual proverb is:
While the grass grows, the seed starves.
http://www.special-dictionary.com/proverbs/keywords/grass/
It's # 4 on the list.
The actual proverb is:
While the grass grows, the seed starves.
http://www.special-dictionary.com/proverbs/keywords/grass/
It's # 4 on the list.
Old Jepthah
Jepthah asked God to bring him victory over his enemies, the Ammonites. In return, he vowed that "whoever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD's, and I will offer him up as a burnt offering. (Judges 11:30-31) When he returns home victorious, his only child, a virgin daughter, runs out of the house to meet him.
"And when he saw her, he rent his clothes, and said, 'Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low and you have become the cause of great trouble for me, for I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow."(11:35)
His daughter tells him that he must do whatever he has promised to God, but first she asks, " 'Let me alone two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.'
The Lament of Jepthah's Daughter, George Elgar Hicks, 1871
"And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had made. She had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year." (11: 37-40)
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