VALUE OF SHAKSPEARE'S LEAGUE.—MEANING OF SHIP.—LOG-SHIP.
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 Ægeon'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 Ægeon'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.
A. E. B.
Leeds.