Soul! soul! for an apple or two:
If you’ve got no apples, pears will do.
Up with your kettle, and down with your pan,
Give me a good big one, and I’ll be gone.
Soul! soul! for a soul-cake, etc.
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry,
Is a very good thing to make us merry.”
In the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (ii. 1), Speed thus speaks of this practice: “To watch, like one that fears robbing; to speak puling,[690] like a beggar at Hallowmas.”
The season of Hallowmas, having been frequently mild, has been, from time immemorial, proverbially called “All-hallown summer,” i. e., late summer. Thus, in “1 Henry IV.” (i. 2), Prince Henry, likening Falstaff, with his old age and young passions, to this November summer, addresses him: “Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, All-hallown summer.”[691] In some parts of Germany there is a proverb, “All-Saints’ Day brings the second summer;” and in Sweden there is often about this time a continuance of warm, still weather, which is called “the All-Saints’ rest.”
There is another reference to this festival in “Richard II.” (v. 1), where the king says of his wife:
“She came adorned hither like sweet May,
Sent back like Hallowmas or short’st of day.”
All-Souls’ Day (November 2)—which is set apart by the Roman Catholic Church for a solemn service for the repose of the dead—was formerly observed in this country, and among the many customs celebrated in its honor were ringing the passing bell, making soul-cakes, blessing beans, etc.[692] In “Richard III.” (v. 1), Buckingham, when led to execution, says:
“This is All-Souls’ day, fellows, is it not?
Sheriff. It is, my lord.
Buckingham. Why, then, All-Souls’ day is my body’s doomsday.”