Sayings for Easter
Sir: There are further possible reasons for suggesting that John Casey ('In Such a Night', 14 April) is correct in surmising that Shakespeare was familiar with the Roman Easter liturgy. In Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 7, words spoken by the curiously unhistorical Lord Say, on being captured and brought before Jack Cade, echo the Good Friday Reproaches or Improperia. Say says, 'Tell me: wherein have I offended most?/ Have I affected wealth or honour? Speak.' The verse of the Reproaches has, 'Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavite? Responde mihi."My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me.'
The seventh lesser Reproach has, 'Ego propter to Chananaeorum reges percussi: et to percussisti arundine caput meum."For thee I struck kings of the Chananites: and thou hast struck my head with a reed.' Cade taunts Say with, 'Tut, when struckest thou one blow in the field?' Say replies that he often used his power as a great man to strike dead enemies at a distance, with a previous line speaking of 'foreign kings' and 'For your behoof . . . In reply, Cade orders Say to be given a 'box o'th'ear'.
The bitter-sweetness of the offer of vinegar to the thirsting Christ on the Cross is suggested by Cade's offer to Say of a 'hempen caudle', an invalid's potion meant ironically as a hangman's rope.
Thomas Merriam
35 Richmond Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire
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