You will set cock-a-hoop! you’ll be the man!”
Some commentators consider that this refers in some way to the boastful crowing of the cock, but we do not think that Shakespeare intended any allusion here to the game-fowl. We take it that the reference is to a cask of ale or wine, and that the phrase “to set cock-a-hoop” means to take the cock, or tap, out of the cask and set it on the hoop, thus letting all the contents escape. The man who would do such a reckless act, would be just the sort of man to whom Shakespeare refers.
The ale-house sign of “The Cock and Hoop” represents a game-fowl standing upon a hoop, but we have little doubt that the original sign was a cask flowing, with the tap laid on the top. The modern version is no doubt a corruption, just as we have “The Swan with Two Necks” for “The Swan with Two Nicks,” i.e. marks on the bill to distinguish it; “The Devil and the Bag o’ Nails” for “Pan and the Bacchanals;” “The Goat and Compasses” for the ancient motto “God encompasseth us;” &c., &c.[91]
COCK AND PYE.
The popular adjuration, “by cock and pye,” which Shakespeare has put in the mouth of Justice Shallow, was once supposed to refer to the sacred name, and to the table of services, called “the pie;” but it is now thought to be what Hotspur termed a mere “protest of pepper gingerbread,” as innocent as Slender’s, “By these gloves,” or, “By this hat.” In “Soliman and Perseda” (1599),
it occurs coupled with “mousefoot;”—“By cock and pye and mousefoot.” Again, in “The Plaine Man’s Pathway to Heaven,” by Arthur Dent (1607), we have the following dialogue:—
Asunetus.—“I know a man that will never swear but by cock or py, or mousefoot. I hope you will not say these be oaths. For he is as honest a man as ever brake bread. You shall not hear an oath come out of his mouth.”
Theologus.—“I do not think he is so honest a man as you make him. For it is no small sin to swear by creatures.”
The Cock and Pye (i.e. Magpie) was an ordinary ale-house sign, and may thus have become a subject for the vulgar to swear by. Douce, however, ascribes to it a less ignoble origin, and his interpretation is too ingenious to be passed over in silence:—“It will no doubt be recollected that in the days of ancient chivalry it was the practice to make solemn vows or engagements for the performance of some considerable enterprise. This ceremony was usually performed during some grand feast or entertainment, at which a roasted peacock or pheasant being served up by ladies in a dish of gold or silver, was thus presented to each knight, who then made the particular vow which he had chosen with great solemnity. When this custom had fallen into disuse, the peacock nevertheless continued to be a favourite dish, and was introduced on the table in a pie, the head, with gilded beak, being proudly elevated above the crust, and the splendid tail expanded. Other birds of less value were introduced in the same manner, and the recollection of the old peacock vows might occasion the less serious, or even burlesque, imitation of swearing not only by the bird
itself, but also by the pye; and hence, probably, the oath ‘by cock and pye,’ for the use of which no very old authority can be found.”
Shallow. “By cock and pye, sir, you shall not away to-night.”—Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 1.