SHAKESPEARE AND BRICKLAYING

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 15

SHAKESPEARE AND BRICKLAYING

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The following letter from tiie Literary Supplement of "The Times" was recently reprinted on this page c f "The Press" : Shakespeare Emendations. Sir,— "When the wind is southerly," S ays Hamlet (II.2), "I know a hawk from a handsaw." Many commentators v 3 jr that, we ought to read hernshaw (a Von) for handsaw. I suggest that they are missing one of the richest of Shakespeare's puns, and are weakening the meaning of the Prince. If Hamlet really said. "I am not mad—l know a hawk from a heron," he argued feebly; for to know a quick bird from a slow is proof of good eyesight, nothing else. A subtler reading is needed. A student of Shakespeare m Dublin who is a craftsman proposed a solution which I would like to submit to scholars. A mason uses a board with a handle under it to carry his mortar. Irish masons call this tool a hawk. I do not know whether the term is used in England, but I have confirmed its use in different parts of. Ireland; where, as the world knows, an Elizabethan vocabulary survives. Now, suppose that Hamlet declares that he can distinguish a mortar board, using the Elizabethan name for that tool, from a Jaw that is just the sort of broad distinction that may have been a popular cavin" "He is wise enough to know a mason's tool from a carpenters—a hawk from a handsaw." Then, however in characteristic manner. HamlVt mays a trick on the slow wits of Ik Nearer. He puns on the word hawk and says that he can recognise tJvEs tool when the wind is southerly. Wis iest resembles that of the scholar in Elia when he met a .porter who was carrying a hare: "Prithee triend. t- Uiat thv own hare, or a wig? lb ls it not typical that Hamlet should prove his sanity by a sally which his Hi nearer may take as fresh proof of madness' He is laughing in nis SSS? sleeve All this is lost if we SSutate a corruption and insist that fi U sawbeem i endedtoJi S haw._

This letter is a literary Rem , , every word of it should be written in gold. Shakespeare s works, to a builder or an architect, arc treasure trove, a rich mine, and a well that never runs dry. lo discover at this stage that he knew what a bricklayer's hawk was amazes me, beyond expression What every plasterer, mason,_ and bricklayer knows as a hawk is an indispensable part of his kit. It consists, as the Irish craftsman explains, of a piece of wood with a handle under it. The plasterer's hawk is used for heavy work, spreading mixing, etc.; and he is most careful of its construction. He takes a piece of clear pine, about twelve inches square and an inch thick, fixes a handle to a narrower and thinner piece of wood, and dovetails this into the larger piece. Ihe bricklayer is not, as a rule, so particular. He asks a friendly carpenter to cut him off a piece of timber, about six inches by six, and fixes a round piece in the centre for a handle. This with a small trowel (for pointing work) is all that he requires. Everyone knows what an axe, a trowel, a spade, or a saw is. They are factory made, priced, displayed, and advertised. Not so with a hawk. Not one person in hundreds ever heard of it. The Irishman does not know whether the term is used in England. Well. 1 never heard it called anything else, h New Zealand. Australia, or South Africa. It is also known by that name in America. The tracing of the thing back would prove that there was a method in Hamlet's madness. My father was a South of England man. He worked in London 60 years ago. He always called this tool a hawk. From Jonson's Lips ?

It opens up a bigger question than Hamlet's sanity. It has been said that Shakespeare was a lawyer, because he wrote of law ; that he was a druggist, a goldsmith, a farrier, a sailor, because there is not a trade under the sun. with the technicalities of which he does not seem familiar. I am not suggesting that Shakespeare was a bricklayer. But that he consorted with "hard doers" in London taverns is beyond question. English bricklayers were noted topers. The following is culled from a "Life of Ben Jonson " : Much of his time was spent at the Apollo, and Mermaid taverns, feasting, and being feasted, by the gay literary circle of his time, drinking and engaging in wit combats —in his earlier days with Shakespeare, whose brilliant and delicate wit was too much for the more laboured humour of Jonson. Jonson was, at one time, a bricklayer and he was Shakespeare's pal. I think that the clever Irish student goes a little astray when he thinks that the phrase "I know a hawk from a handsaw" was once

a popular saying. It was simply the jargon of bricklayers, the oddity of which would most certainly strike Shakespeare. Once explained, he would fix it indelibly in his mind, to be spoken later on—by whom ? By a prince! Why, it beats the band! Hamlet, then, was only "spoofing." But far more important still, another bomb is exploded that blows the whole Bacon hypothesis sky high. Bacon would know as much about a bricklayer's hawk as a cow knows about a holiday. I have known quite a number of bricklayers who, like, myself, were jond of Shakespeare, j Some of them could recite and act wonderfully well. On one occasion, one of toy men went to see Oscar Asche play "Othello." The next day, he was Ve ry glum and kept repeating, " The Pity of it, the pity of it! " I became auite alarmed, thinking, perhaps, that he would emulate Othello and wsembowel himself with his trowel. 1 asked him to forget the murder, to wink of some bright soots in the P'?y. He answered, "There is no bright spots. The whole thing was ? a s black as Hell." And I think he w as right. Thtt is tragedy. On the other hand, I once had a young merman working for me. His favourite line was. " Exeunt, chased ? y a bear." This comic touch tickled hl «i to dentli. Shakespeare Living. S° m e are styled Shakespeare -ranks; there is no such person. x he philosophy of Shakespeare is "ie life blood of the English. Carpe says that in time England will 2? w but a small fraction of the that Kings and Parlia- ! S 1 -* will go; that Shakespeare 1 L e the ""owned King that will 1 *«P them together, a thousand I s to come. His name fills the I u° ricl - The Kaiser, when lie drew I ,;« sword and declared war, said, I u* 0 , be - or not to be." The British 1 TiF Placarded the country : 1 ,„5 me the four corners of the oarth I nfl we shall shod: them." Take

our private thoughts: what is the great force that is governing them ? Kead any book of power and merit. ln ninety-nine per cent, of them, you will find a line, somewhere or other, referring to Shakespeare or his works. In Africa, I was shown the farmhouse where Olive I bchreiner wrote her classic, "Life on |an African Farm." She wrote of a I poor, forsaken, dying girl, asking that all her books but one be thrown out of the window. Stanley took three years crossing the Dark Continent. The expedition was in a bad way, struggling on. The chiefs-noticed Stanley taking notes, and demanded that the "magic" be destroyed. Stanley as a blind brought out his dearest possession, an old copy of Shakespeare, and burnt that to appease them. The debt that barristers, lecturers, journalists, and other professional men owe to Shakespeare cannot be measured nor repaid. Having heard, who will ever forget Alf 'Hanlan, the great Shakespearean of Dunedin, Dleading to a jury for a man's * life? MiDonnelly also knows his lines. At the lively meeting of the Canterbury Jockey Club he said : "There is not a provincial club that has sucn a poor opinion of itself as to do us reverence." Look where you will. On the Memorial Arch—"Rosemary, that's for remembrance." Every conceivable topic, from bodyline bowling to a game of cards, people sum up in the language of Shakespeare. Someone remarked that our Parliament was argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a jest forever. I did not intend, when I started this essay, to mention politics, but what I will write is relevant, and I speak right on. The situation of our counilry to-day can be likened to the predicament uf Antonio. He is in need of urgent help; his plight is desperate, at the mercy of the Jew. Portia sends her fool of a husband away post haste, with a bag of gold. She follows later, with the brains. Shakespeare had illimitable faith in women. The gentle lady of Lyttelton, she starts well. How soft her plea for justice ! Why take thousands of pounds a year from us poor women and give nothing in return? Imagine Shakespeare handling a character such as Mrs McCombs. The world would listen to a speech that would be acclaimed | to the mountain tops, that would j echo for ages down the corridors of time.

Living with Shakespeare. I return to the bricklayers and finish. The earthquake, plus the slump, has silenced the ring of the trowel in this land; but better times are corning. The young bricklayer that follows on will go to a trade that will severely tax his patience, endurance, and skill. He should enrich his mind, by the study of Shakespeare and other great writers. Then in time, as he works in the fresh air, amid changing scenes and genial companions, his toil will become a pleasure. He will taste to the full the joys of life. Later en, when he has developed into a master builder, he will meet and fraternise with all sorts and conditions of men, from the peer to the peasant. He will acquire a general knowledge which falls to the lot of few, limited only by his own perspicacity. This is my message. A good start is everything; work well and conscientiously; take a nride in your construction. Be able to say at the end of the day, "Hang out our banners on the outward walls. This castle's strength will laugh a seige to scorn. At night when you take your sweetheart for a walk (all brickla vers are ardent lovers), you can whisper, in her ear :

How sweet the moon beams sleep j upon this bank ! | Sit, Muriel. Look how the floor of; heaven , , - ~ , S Is thick inlaid with patmes of bright gold. ~,,!, There's not the smallest orb that thou , behokiesl, , . I But in his motion like an annel sm<is. | Such harmony is in immortal soul-: But whilst this muddy vesture of decay . _.. Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it. In her up-to-date vernacular she may twit vou : "Horace, to-night you have them bad!" Gently reprove her saying, "Those lines were written bv the greatest genius that ever lived, the noblest Roman of them all. 'His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him, that nature might stand up, And say to all the world: This was a man." ' "