This 1884 essay collection by T. F. Thiselton-Dyer explores the folklore and popular beliefs woven into Shakespeare’s plays. Chapters cover fairies, witches, ghosts, birds, plants, calendar customs and folk medicine, placing them in Elizabethan social life. It is rewarding for readers interested in how folk tradition shaped literature.
For teachers and schools: paste the code into your site or blog.
Cover illustration generated by AI.
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
FOLK-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE BY THE Rev. T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A. Oxon. AUTHOR OF “BRITISH POPULAR CUSTOMS, PAST AND PRESENT,” ETC. NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1884 PREFACE. It would be difficult to overestimate the value which must be attached to the plays of Shakespeare in connection with the social life of the Elizabethan age. Possessed of a rich treasury of knowledge of a most varied kind, much of which he may be said to have picked up almost intuitively, he embellished his writings with a choice store of illustrations descriptive of the period in which he lived. Apart, too, from his copious references to the manners and customs of the time, he seems to have had not only a wide knowledge of many technical subjects, but also an intimate acquaintance with the folk-lore of bygone days. How far this was the case may be gathered from the following pages, in which are collected and grouped together, as far as arrangement would permit, the various subjects relating to this interesting and popular branch of our domestic history. It only remains for me to add
that the edition of the poet’s plays made use of is the “Globe,” published by Messrs. Macmillan. T. F. Thiselton Dyer. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE. I. Fairies 1 II. Witches 25 III. Ghosts 43 IV. Demonology and Devil-Lore 52 V. Natural Phenomena 62 VI. Birds 97 VII. Animals 161 VIII. Plants 201 IX. Insects and Reptiles 250 X. Folk-Medicine 264 XI. Customs Connected with the Calendar 296 XII. Birth and Baptism 332 XIII. Marriage 342 XIV. Death and Burial 362 XV. Rings and Precious Stones 386 XVI. Sports and Pastimes 394 XVII. Dances 424 XVIII. Punishments 433 XIX. Proverbs 444 XX. Human Body 475 XXI. Fishes 497 XXII. Sundry Superstitions 505
Readnara
