(Vol. vi., pp. 53. 112.)
It will be remembered that when Mr. Webster, one of the greatest of
American statesmen, was on his death-bed, in October last, he requested his
son to read to him that far-famed "Elegy" of Gray:
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."
The editor of the _Boston Journal_, after referring to this circumstance,
which he says has caused an unexampled demand for the works of Gray in the
United States, goes on to give the result of his researches in many old
English works, respecting the origin and meaning of the word _curfew_,
which I trust will interest not only your correspondents who have written
on the subject, but also many of your readers. I glean from the clever
article now before me the following brief notices, which I have not yet met
with in "N. & Q."
In King Alfred's time the curfew was rung at eight o'clock, and called the
"cover fire bell," because the inhabitants, on hearing its peals, were
obliged to cover their fires, and go to bed. Thomson evidently refers, in
the following lines, to this tyrannical law, which was abolished in England
about the year 1100:
"The shiv'ring wretches at the curfew sound,
Dejected sunk into their sordid beds,
And through the mournful gloom of ancient time,
Mused sad, or dreamt of better."
On the people finding that they could put out their fires and go to bed
when they pleased, it would appear, from being recorded in many places,
that the time of ringing the curfew bell was first changed from eight to
nine o'clock, then from nine to ten, and afterwards to the early hours of
the morning. Thus we find in _Romeo and Juliet_:
"The curfew bell hath rung:
'Tis _three o'clock_."
In Shakspeare's works frequent mention is made of the curfew. In the
_Tempest_ he gives the following:
"You whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms--that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew."
In _Measure for Measure_:
"_Duke._ Who call'd here of late?
_Provost._ None since the curfew rung."
In _King Lear_:
"This is the foul fiend Flibertigibbet;
He begins at curfew, and walks to the first cock."
This old English custom of ringing the curfew bell was carried by the
Puritan fathers to New England; and where is the Bostonian of middle age
who does not well recollect the ringing of the church bell at nine o'clock,
which was the willing signal for labourers to retire to bed, and for
shopmen to close their shops?
Before closing this Note, may I be allowed to inform MR. SANSOM, that
_Charlestown_ is in Massachusetts, and only separated from Boston by
Charles River, which runs between the two cities. The place to which he
refers is _Charleston_, and in South Carolina.