FOLK-LORE
OF
SHAKESPEARE

PREFACE.

It would be difficult to overestimate the value whichmust be attached to the plays of Shakespeare in connectionwith the social life of the Elizabethan age. Possessed of arich treasury of knowledge of a most varied kind, much ofwhich he may be said to have picked up almost intuitively,he embellished his writings with a choice store of illustrationsdescriptive of the period in which he lived. Apart,too, from his copious references to the manners and customsof the time, he seems to have had not only a wideknowledge of many technical subjects, but also an intimateacquaintance with the folk-lore of bygone days. Howfar this was the case may be gathered from the followingpages, in which are collected and grouped together, as faras arrangement would permit, the various subjects relatingto this interesting and popular branch of our domestic history.It only remains for me to add that the edition ofthe poet’s plays made use of is the “Globe,” published byMessrs. Macmillan.

T. F. Thiselton Dyer.

CONTENTS.[vii]