The Shakespeare Code

[Note: It’s best to read: How Coleridge got ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ right AND wrong!

….and: How John Dover Wilson got ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ NEARLY right! (Part One) first.]

AN ADVANCE WARNING FROM TRIXIE THE CAT!!!

The following Post, by Code Chief Agent, Stewart Trotter……

Click HERE to read the script.

…….is……(how shall I put it?)

…….a tad scholarly….

……BUT it IS short…….

……and Your Cat will liven it up with Osbert Lancaster’s designs for the 1953 Old Vic production of the play…..

Here, for a start, is his backcloth of Florence….

Yes! They had backcloths in those grim Post War days to cheer everyone up!

Now over to Stewart…..

‘Bye now!

Thanks a lot for that – Trixie the Cat!!!

Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code……

There are at least…..

….NINE WORDS AND PHRASES….

…… which are used in All’s Well that Ends Well ….

……WHICH DO NOT APPEAR IN ANY OTHER PLAY OR POEM BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE!!!

However, they DO appear ONCE, TWICE and even THREE times…..

….. in the works of A. N. OTHER WRITER…..

FIRST WORD: ‘linsey-wolsey’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, The Second Lord…….

….. says to the other Lords:

But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again?

( ‘linsey-woolsey’ is a mixture of flax and wool)

Shakespeare NEVER uses ‘linsey-wolsey’ anywhere else…..

…..but A. N. OTHER WRITER uses it THREE TIMES!!!

Example 1.

A man that will entertain them must not pollute his body with any gross carnal copulation or inordinate beastly desires, but love pure beauty, pure virtue, and not have his affections linsey-wolsey, intermingled with lust and things worthy of liking.

Example 2.

Neither are these parts severally distinguished in his order of handling, but like a Dutch stewed-pot, jumbled together, jumbled together and linsey-wolsey woven one within another.

Example 3.

I had as lieve have no sun, as have it shine faintly, no fire as a smothering fire of small coals, no clothes, rather than wear linsey-wolsey.

SECOND WORD: ‘custard’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, the grizzled old truth-speaking courtier, Lafeu, insults the corrupt captain Parolles…..

……by saying to him:

You have made shift to run into ‘t, boots and spurs
and all, like him that leaped into the custard.

Shakespeare NEVER uses ‘custard’ anywhere else….

But A. N. OTHER WRITER uses it THREE TIMES!!

Example 1:

…..to provide him of strange birds, China mustard and odd patterns to make custards by…

Example 2:

She might have piled off the scale like the skin of a custard….

Example 3:

…..the houses here are not such flat custard crowns at the top as they are.

THIRD WORD: ‘fore-horse’

In All’s Well that Ends Well,  the ‘doughy youth’ Bertram…….

……frustrated that he is too young to go to war…….

…..says to his captain, Parolles, and the courtiers at the French court:

I shall stay here the fore-horse to a smock

Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry

Till honour be bought up and no sword won

But one to dance with! By heaven I’ll steal away…

( ‘Forehorse’ is the leading horse of a team).

Shakespeare NEVER uses ‘fore-horse’ anywhere else…..

…..but A. N. OTHER WRITER uses it TWICE!!!

Example 1:

….and wear a feather of her rain-beaten face for a fore-horse.

Example 2:

…but in verity did nothing else but gather a flaunting, unsavoury fore-horse nosegay out of his well-furnished garland.

FOURTH WORD: ‘ames-ace’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, the apothecary’s daughter, Helena…..

……cures a life-threatening fistula on the King of France…..

As a reward she has asked the King to give her the courtier of her choice to be her husband…..

….and the Old Courtier Lafeu says….

I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace
for my life.

(Ames-ace was the lowest possible throw at dice.)

Shakespeare NEVER uses ‘ames-ace’ anywhere else….

..but A. N. OTHER WRITER uses it TWICE!!!

Example 1:

But as you love good-fellowship and ames ace

Example 2:

Have at you for ames ace and the dice.

FIFTH PHRASE: ‘jades’ tricks’

In All’s Well that Ends Well,  Lavache, the ‘shrewd and unhappy’ Clown…..

 

…..says to Lafeu:

If I put any tricks upon ’em, [horses] sir, they shall be
jades’ tricks..

Shakespeare NEVER uses the phrase ‘jades’ tricks’ anywhere else….

But A. N. OTHER WRITER does ONCE!:

….jades’ tricks which are their own right by the law of nature.

SIXTH PHRASE: ‘swine-drunk’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, the treacherous Parolles says of his master, Bertram:

…he will lie, sir, with such volubility, that you would think truth were a fool: drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine-drunk

Shakespeare NEVER uses the phrase ‘swine-drunk’ anywhere else…

But A. N. OTHER WRITER does ONCE!!!:

The third is swine-drunk, heavy, lumpish and sleepy

SEVENTH PHRASE: ‘blazing star’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, Lavache says to the old Countess:

An we might have a good woman born but one every blazing star, or at an earthquake, t’would mend the lottery well.

Shakespeare NEVER uses the phrase ‘blazing star’ again…

But A. N. OTHER WRITER does ONCE!:

The blazing star, the earthquake, the dearth and famine some few years since, may nothing affright us.

EIGHTH WORD: ‘chape’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, the First Lord says to Bertram:

You’re deceived, my lord: this is Monsieur Parolles, the gallant militarist, that was his own phrase, that had the whole theoric of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practise in the chape of his dagger.

( ‘Chape’ = the tip of a scabbard)

Shakespeare NEVER uses the word ‘chape’ anywhere else…

But A. N. OTHER WRITER does ONCE!!!:

A swapping ale-dagger at his back, containing by estimation some two or three pounds of iron in the hilts and chape

NINTH PHRASE: ‘the Devil drives’

In All’s Well that Ends Well, Lavache banters with the old Countess:

My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the Devil drives.

Shakespeare NEVER uses the idea that the Devil is a driver anywhere else.

But A.N. OTHER WRITER does ONCE!!!:

Fie, fie, the Devil a driver in Westminster Hall? It can never be.

So who exactly is this  A.N. OTHER WRITER?……

A writer who seems more ‘Shakespearean’ than Shakespeare himself….?

To find out, click: HERE!