"If thou couldst, doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease, And purge it to a sound and pristine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo."
[638] "The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare," 1860, pp. 1-64.
And in "2 Henry IV" (i. 2) Falstaff asks the page, "What says the doctor to my water?" and, once more, in "Twelfth Night" (iii. 4), Fabian, alluding to Malvolio, says, "Carry his water to the wise woman."
It seems probable, too, that, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" (ii. 3), the term "mock-water," employed by the host to the French Dr. Caius, refers to the mockery of judging of diseases by the water or urine--"mock-water," in this passage, being equivalent to "you pretending water-doctor!"
In years gone by the anniversaries connected with the calendar were kept up with an amount of enthusiasm and merry-making quite unknown at the present day. Thus, for instance, Shakespeare tells us, with regard to the May-day observance, that it was looked forward to so eagerly as to render it impossible to make the people sleep on this festive occasion. During the present century the popular celebrations of the festivals have been gradually on the decline, and nearly every year marks the disuse of some local custom. Shakespeare has not omitted to give a good many scattered allusions to the old superstitions and popular usages associated with the festivals of the year, some of which still survive in our midst.
Alluding to the revels, there can be no doubt that Shakespeare was indebted to the revel-books for some of his plots. Thus, in "The Tempest" (iv. 1), Prospero remarks to Ferdinand and Miranda, after Iris, Ceres, and Juno have appeared, and the dance of the nymphs is over:
"You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort, As if you were dismay'd; be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind."
It has been inferred that Shakespeare was present at Kenilworth, in 1575, when Elizabeth was so grandly entertained there. Lakes and seas are represented in the masque. Triton, in the likeness of a mermaid, came towards the queen, says George Gascoigne, and "Arion appeared, sitting on a dolphin's back." In the dialogue in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream," between Oberon and Puck (ii. 1), there seems a direct allusion to this event: