----I've heard
Schoolmen affirm, man's body is compos'd
Of _the four elements_.
In Shakespeare (_Twel. N._ ii, 3), Sir Toby Belch inquires, "Does not our
life consist of _the four elements_?" and Brutus is commended for
possessing these elements properly blended, in which the perfection of a
man's nature was supposed to consist:--
His life was gentle; and the _elements_
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, This _was a man_.
_Jul. Cæs._ v, 5.
On the other hand, the ill mixing of these elements was supposed to be
accompanied with a corresponding derangement of the intellectual faculties.
Thus, in one of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, a madman is
addressed:--
I prithee, thou _four elements_ ill brew'd
Torment none but thyself: Away, I say,
Thou beast of passion.
_B. and Fl. Nice Valour_, act i, p. 312.
The more mythic form of this legend gives _eight things_ to the formation
of the body, instead of four. Our earliest notice of this legend in England
occurs in the prose Anglo-Saxon Dialogue between Saturn and Solomon
(Thorpe's Analecta, p. 95):--"Saga me þæt andworc þe Adám wæs of-ge-worht
se ærusta man? Ic þe secge of viii punda ge-wihte. Saga me hwæt hatton
þage? Ic þe secge þæt æroste wæs fóldan pund, of ðam him wæs flesc
ge-worht; oðer wæs fyres pund, þanon him wæs þæt blód reád and hát; þridde
wæs windes pund, þanon him wæs seo æðung ge-seald; feorðe wæs wolcnes pund,
þanon him wæs his módes unstaðelfæstnes ge-seald; fifte wæs gyfe pund,
þanon him wæs ge-seald se fat and geðang; syxste wæs blostnena pund, þanon
him wæs eagena myssenlicnys ge-seald; seofoðe wæs deawes pund, þanon him
becom swat; eahtothe wæs sealtes pund, þanon him wæron þa tearas
sealte."--_Tell me the matter of which Adam the first man was made? I tell
thee, of eight pound-weights. Tell me their names? I tell thee, the first
was a pound of earth, of which his flesh was made; the second was a pound
of fire, from which his blood was red and hot; the third was a pound of
wind, of which breath was given him; the fourth was a pound of cloud,
whereof was given him his instability of mood; the fifth was a pound of
..., whereof was given him fat and sinew; the sixth was a pound of flowers,
whereof was given him diversity of eyes; the seventh was a pound of dew,
whereof he had sweat; the eighth was a pound of salt, whereof he had salt
tears._ This legend was still prevalent in England as late as the fifteenth
century, when we find it among the curious collection of questions (closely
resembling those of Saturn and Solomon just quoted) entitled "Questions
bitwene the Maister of Oxinford and his Scoler" (Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i,
p. 230),--"_C._ Whereof was Adam made? _M._ Of viij. thingis: the first of
erthe, the second of fire, the iij^{de} of wynde, the iiij^{th} of clowdys,
the v^{th} of aire wherethorough he speketh and thinketh, the vj^{th} of
dewe wherby he sweteth, the vij^{th} of flowres, wherof Adam hath his ien,
the viij^{th} is salte wherof Adam hath salt teres." A similar account is
given in an extract from an old Friesic manuscript communicated to the
Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum, by Dr. James Grimm,--"God scôp thene
êresta meneska, thet was Adam, fon achta wendem; that bênete fon tha stêne,
thet flâsk fon there erthe, thet blôd fon tha wetere, tha herta fon tha
winde, thene togta (l. thochta) fon tha wolken, the(ne) suêt fon tha dawe,
tha lokkar fon tha gerse, tha âgene fon there sunna, and tha blêrem on
thene helga ôm."--_God created the first man, who was Adam, of eight
elements: the bone from the stone, the flesh from the earth, the blood from
the water, the heart from the wind, the thought from the cloud, the sweat
from the dew, the hair from the grass, the eyes from the sun._
5169. _a proud prikere of Fraunce._ A proud rider of France. Until the
fifteenth century there appears to have been a strong prejudice among the
lower orders against horsemen: their name was connected with oppressors and
foreigners. Horses appear to have been comparatively little used for riding
among the Anglo-Saxons until they were introduced by the Norman favourites
of Edward the Confessor, in whose reign we read that the Anglo-Saxon
soldiers in Herefordshire were defeated by the Welsh owing to their
awkwardness on horseback, having been unadvisedly mounted by their Norman
commander. The Anglo-Norman barons of the three following centuries, with
their numerous household of knights and attendants who plundered and
oppressed the peasantry and middle classes of society, kept alive the
prejudice alluded to, and we trace it in several popular songs. In a song
of the reign of Edward I (Political Songs, p. 240), we find the following
lines:--
Whil God wes on erthe
And wondrede wyde,
Whet wes the resoun
Why he nolde ryde?
For he nolde no grom
To go by ys syde,
Ne grucchyng of no gedelyng
To chaule ne to chyde.
Spedeth ou to spewen,
Ase me doth to spelle;
The fend ou afretie
With fleis ant with felle!
Herkneth hideward, horsmen,
A tidyng ich ou telle,
That ye shulen hongen,
Ant herbarewen in helle!
5276. Epist. ad. Philippens. iii, 19.
5283. Epist. Joan. iv, 16.
5289. Matth. xxv, 12; Psal. lxxx, 13. Et dimisi eos secundum desideria
cordis eorum, ibunt in adventionibus suis.
5305. _the four doctours._ The four doctors _par excellence_ of the western
church were, I believe, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome.
5354. Ecclesiast. i, 16.
5363. Epist. Jacob. ii, 10. Quicunque autem totam legem servaverit,
offendat autem in uno, factus est omnium reus.
5412. _as Caym was on Eve._ See further on l. 5549. According to a very
curious legend, which was popular in the middle ages, Cain was born during
the period of penitence and fasting to which our first parents were
condemned for their breach of obedience.
5415. Psa. vii, 15. Concepit dolorem et peperit iniquitatem.