Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/425

 The Folklore of Shakespeai'e. 397

Januajy.

Perdita refers to "blasts of January" "that blow you through and through " ( W infers Tale, iv. 4. in).

" Leonato. You will never run mad, niece. Beatrice. No, not till a hot January."

Much Ado, i. I. 94.

I. Falstaff alludes with satiric touch to the once vast system of presentations on New Year's day when he says " I'll have my brains ta'en out and buttered, and give them to a dog for a New Year's gift " {Merry Wives, iii. 5).

6. Tzvelfth NigJit was the title Shakespeare gave to one of his plays, but it has nothing more to do with the festival than its original presentation on that anniversary. Pepys saw the comedy on Twelfth Night, 1663, but he thought it was " a silly play and not related at all to name or day."

February.

" Don Pedro. Good morrow. Benedick. Why, what's the matter That you have such a February face. So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?"

Much Ado, V. 4. 41.

14. Allusions to St. Valentine's day will be found both in Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream.

The reason for choosing St. Valentine as the patron of lovers has not come down to us, further than by assuming that the date marked the period for the mating of birds. The supposition that, being famous for the virtues of love and charity, he was properly chosen to take charge of lovers appears a somewhat weak one.

Ophelia sings :

" To-morrow is St. Valentine's day. Ail in the morning betime. And I a maid at your window

To be your valentine." Hamlet, iv. 5.