So universal was Shakspeare's knowledge even of the arcana of other
men's pursuits, that his commentators, in their anxiety to reduce his
attainments to an ordinary standard, have attributed to him a sort of
ubiquitous apprenticeship to all manner of trades and callings,--now a
butcher,--now an attorney's clerk,--now a schoolmaster,--and anon a
holder of horses at the theatre door, where doubtless he acquired that
farrier-knowledge so profusely lavished upon Petruchio's charger in _The
Taming of the Shrew_. Dr. Farmer, amongst other atrocities which have
earned for him an unenviable immortality in connexion with Shakspeare's
name, had the incredible folly to recognise, in the splendid image--
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,"
an allusion to _skewer making_! in which the rough-hewing was
Shakspeare's, while his more skilful sire _shaped the ends_! Even Dr.
Johnson cried "shop" at that passage of _The Winter's Tale_ where
Perdita, fearing lest Florizel's father might discover him "obscured
with a swain's wearing," exclaims--
"How would he look to see his work so noble
Vilely bound up."
Whereupon the great critic utters this sapient apothegm, "It is
impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession"--meaning of
course Shakspeare's profession of _book making_!
It is therefore surprising that none of them should have discovered a
trace of Shakspeare in the occupation of _ship-boy_; since in no calling
has he shown a more accurate knowledge of technicalities; and his
seamanship has satisfied the strictest professional criticism. It is to
this circumstance my attention is more especially directed at present by
a singular blunder which I have observed in one of the illustrations to
Knight's _Illustrated Shakspeare_.
The artist, W. Dicks, professes to illustrate AEgeon's description of his
shipwreck, taking for his text these lines in the first scene of the
_Comedy of Errors_:
"We were encounter'd by a mighty rock,
Which being violently borne upon
Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst."
But if he had studied the context he would have perceived that the
"helpful ship" was not a goodly argosy, as he has depicted it, but "a
small spare mast, such as seafaring men provide for storms."
Now, it must not be said that the inadvertence is Shakspeare's, because
the term _helpful_, indicative of sudden resource, and these lines
immediately following--
"So, that in this unjust divorce of us
Fortune had left to both of us alike
What to delight in--what to sorrow for"--
prove that Shakspeare never for a moment lost sight of the circumstances
he was describing.
I was endeavouring to discover what particular nautical technicality
might justify this application of _ship_ in the sense of _raft_ or
_float_, when I recollected that sailors call the little float by which
the log-line is held stationary in the water, by the term _log-ship_;
and, by a rather singular coincidence, the origin of this very word
_log-ship_ is made the subject of comment in a recent number of "NOTES
AND QUERIES" (p. 254.), by a West Indian correspondent, A. L., who
thinks the term log-_chip_.
His story, however, if it be not altogether the offspring of his own
ingenuity, appears quite unsupported by evidence; nor, even if
authenticated, would it be conclusive of the inference he draws from it.
For, surely, the same origin might be attributed to _log_ itself, with
equal, or even with greater probability. The very nature of log is, not
only to float, but to remain sluggish or stationary in the water: and as
it might not be convenient to provide a fresh log (or chip) for every
occasion, there would be a clear advantage in tying a string to it, for
the purpose of hauling it inboard again, to serve another turn.
Moreover, I must remind A. L. that sailors do not say, "Heave the
_chip_," but "Heave the _log_."
This same passage in the _Comedy of Errors_ suggests another
consideration; which is, that Shakspeare appears to have used _league_
and _mile_ synonymously. When AEgeon's "helpful ship" was "splitted in
the midst," it was "ere the ships" (approaching to his rescue) "could
meet by thrice five leagues;" so that each ship must have been at least
five leagues distant when discovered. Now Shakspeare was too good a
sailor to suppose that a ship could be visible to a man on the surface
of the water a distance of _fifteen_ miles; but at _one-third_ of that
distance it might be so. Therefore it would be necessary to take
_league_ as synonymous with _mile_ in this instance, even if it were not
corroborated by the necessity for a similar understanding in other
places.
But wherever Shakspeare uses the word _league_, its equivalence with
_mile_ is not only consistent with the sense, but, in some cases,
absolutely necessary to it.
Thus, in the opening scene of the _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Lysander
appoints to meet Hermia "in the wood, a _league_ without the town," but,
in the next scene, Quince appoints the same place for the rehearsal,
calling it "the palace wood, a _mile_ without the town."
Again, in the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, when Silvia escapes with
Eglamour, the latter reassures her by reminding her that they will be
safe if they can "gain the forest, not three leagues off," which would
be but poor comfort if by three leagues the lady was to understand nine
miles.
By the way, this forest is described in all the "stage directions," upon
what authority I cannot guess, as "a forest near Mantua;" whereas all
the circumstances concur to place it in the immediate vicinity of Milan.
There is nothing to warrant the supposition that any of the characters
had journeyed far from Milan when they were seized upon by the outlaws;
and it is to the Duke of Milan that the outlaws apply for pardon for
misdeeds done in his territories.