Chapter XCVI: Act III: SCENE 1. Page 561

YORK. Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me;
Because that I am little, like an _ape_,
He thinks that you should _bear me on your shoulders_.

Mr. M. Mason contends that this is simply an allusion to Richard's deformity, and is not inclined to admit the propriety of Dr. Johnson's supposition that York means to call his uncle a _bear_. From a quotation given by the former gentleman, it is clear that Shakspeare, when alluding to Richard's deformity, mentions his _back_; and it is therefore probable that he would have used the same term in the present instance, had he adverted to the duke's shape. For this reason Dr. Johnson's opinion seems preferable; yet something more might have been intended. The practice of keeping apes or domestic monkeys was formerly much more common than at present. Many old prints and paintings corroborate this observation,[17] and in some the monkey appears chained to a large globe or roller of wood, which, whilst it permitted the animal to shift his situation, prevented him from making his escape. It is almost unnecessary to add that the monkey, as the intimate companion of the domestic fool, would often get upon his shoulders. There is a fine picture, by Holbein, of Henry the Eighth and some of his family, which by favour of his majesty now decorates the meeting room of the Society of Antiquaries. In it is an admirable portrait of Will Somers, the king's fool, with a monkey clinging to his neck, and apparently occupied in rendering his friend William a very essential piece of service, wherein this animal is remarkably dexterous, the fool reclining his head in a manner that indicates his sense of the obligation. York may therefore mean to call his uncle a fool, and this, after all, may be the _scorn_ that Buckingham afterwards refers to.

Every one is acquainted with the propensity of the monkey to climbing upon other animals. Gervase Markham in his _Cavalerice_, a treatise on horsemanship, already referred to, devotes a chapter to inform his readers "how a horse may be taught to doe any tricke done by _Bankes_ his curtall," in which he says, "I will shew you by the example of two or three trickes, how you shall make your horse to doe any other action as well as any dog or _ape_ whatsoever, except it be _leaping upon your shoulders_." The curious reader may find more illustration of the subject in the specimen of Dr. Boucher's _Supplement to Johnson's dictionary_, article _ape_; but the learned and ingenious author was certainly mistaken in supposing that fools carried the _representations of apes on their shoulders_, and probably in what he says concerning the origin of the phrase of putting an _ape_ in a man's hood.

ACT IV.

SCENE 2. Page 621.

K. RICH. Because that like a _Jack_, thou keep'st the _stroke_.

At Horsham church, in Sussex, there was a figure dressed in scarlet and gold, that struck the quarters. He was called _Jack o' the clock-house_. The French term for this kind of automaton is _jaquemar_, the etymology of which is very fanciful and uncertain.