Leontes. It shall be possible: Swear by this sword, Thou wilt perform my bidding.

Winter's Tale, Act ii. Sc. 3.

He glad of life, and will eke to wreake

The guilt on him which did this mischiefe breed,
Swore by his sword, that neither day nor weeke

He would surceasse, but him whereso he were would

seeke.

The Faerie Queene, Book vi. Canto 7.

By sanglamort my sword, whose deadly dent
The blood hath of so many thousands shedd,
I sweare ere long shall dearely it repent,

Be he twixt heuen and earth shall hide his hedd,
But soone he shall be found, and shortly doen be dead.
The Faerie Queene, Book iii. Canto 10.

So can they both themselves full eath perswade
To faire accordaunce, and both faults to shade,
Either embracing other lovingly,

And swearing faith to either on his blade;
Never thenceforth to nourish enmity,

But either others cause to maintaine mutually.

The Faerie Queene, Book ii. Canto 8.

Bard. Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm. Fal. No, I'll be sworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a Death's-head or a memento mori: I never see thy face, but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy face; my oath should be 'By this fire, that's God's angel:' but thou art altogether given over; and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter darkness.

1 Henry IV., Act iii. Sc. 3.

You may read in Lucian, in that sweet dialogue which is entitled Toxaris, or of friendship, that the common oath of the Scythians was by the sword, and by the fire; for that they accounted those two special Devine Powers, which should work vengeance on the perjurers. So do the Irish at this day, when they go to battle, say certain prayers or charms to their swords, making a cross therewith upon the earth, and thrusting the points of their blades into the ground, thinking thereby to have the better success in fight. Also they use commonly to swear by their swords.—SPENSER, A View of the State of Ireland.

It seems to have been usual for men before the Christian era to swear by or upon their swords, but amongst Christians this custom may have originated in the form of the Cross the sword presents where the guard crosses the blade, which I may now represent by the common sign of reference in books shaped like a straight sword thus,-†. I have somewhere read that the blades of swords had formerly the sign of the Cross upon them, and I remember a stanza in Spenser's 'Faerie Queene' which may support this statement:

The wretched man, that all this time did dwell
In dread of death, his heasts did gladly heare,
And promist to performe his precept well,
And whatsoever else he would requere.
So suffring him to rise, he made him sweare
By his owne sword, and by the crosse thereon,
To take Briana for his loving fere

Withouten doure or composition,

But to release his former foule condition.

Book vi. Canto 1.

But it may be considered doubtful whether reference is made here to the form of the Cross impressed on the blade, or to the form of the Cross a sword presents where the guard crosses the blade.

Salisbury. Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought

to-day;

By the mass, so did we all.

2 Henry VI., Act v. Sc. 3.

Salisbury probably plays upon the words mass and all, using them in connection with each other. (See Part I. p. 44.)

Ulysses. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes :

Those scraps are good deeds past: which are devour'd
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon

As done.

Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3.

But tell me, lady, wherefore doe you beare
This bottle thus before you with such toile,

And eeke this wallet at your backe arreare,

That for these carles to carry much more comely were.

There in this bottle, sayd the sory mayd,

I put the tears of my contrition,

Till to the brim I have it full defrayd:

SPENSER.

And in this bag, which I behinde me don,
I put repentaunce for things past and gon.
Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne,
That all which I put in fals out anon,

And is behinde me trodden downe of Scorne,

9

Who mocketh all my paine, and laughs the more I

mourn.

The Faerie Queene, Book vi. Canto 8.

It is probable that the passage I have quoted from 'Troilus and Cressida' was suggested by these stanzas in the 'Faerie Queene,' which contain the same idea similarly expressed.

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune-often the surfeit of our own behaviour-we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star.

Lear, Act i. Sc. 2.

Right true but faulty men use oftentimes

To attribute their folly unto fate,

And lay on heaven the guilt of their owne crimes. The Faerie Queene, Book v. Canto 4.

Eudox. But if that country of Ireland, whence you lately came, be of so goodly and commodious a soil, as you

report, I wonder that no course is taken for the turning thereof to good uses, and reducing the nation to better government and civility.

Iren. Marry, so there have been divers good plots devised, and wise counsels cast already about reformation of that realm; but they say it is the fatal destiny of that land, that no purposes whatsoever which are meant for her good, will prosper or take good effect: which, whether it proceed from the very genius of the soil or influence of the stars, or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of her reformation, or that He reserveth her in this unquiet state still, for some secret scourge, which shall by her come unto England, it is hard to be known, but yet much to be feared.

Eudox. Surely I suppose this but a vain conceit of simple men, which judge things by their effects, and not by their causes; for I would rather think the cause of this evil which hangeth upon that country to proceed rather of the unsoundness of the counsels and plots which you say have been oftentimes laid for the reformation, or of faintness in following and effecting the same, than of any such fatal course appointed of God as you misdeem: but it is the manner of men, that, when they are fallen into any absurdity, or their actions succeed not as they would, they are always ready to impute the blame thereof unto the heavens, so to excuse their own follies and imperfections.-SPENSER, A View of the State of Ireland.

Say. Justice with favour have I always done; Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never. 2 Henry VI., Act iv. Sc. 7.

When that a man is indicted at the king's suit, the ing intendeth nothing but Justice with favour, and that