Shakespeare and Sea Shells

“References to creatures of the deep and to various fish are of a general kind. It is only of the crab, dolphin, oyster and whale that some fuller knowledge is shown, and even that is not of an unfamiliar sort. Cod, dogfish, eel, herring, bach, minnow, mackerel, mussel, pilchard, salmon, shrimp, sprat and tench come in, but sometimes only as terms of opprobrium.” A.F. Falconer, “Shakespeare and the Sea” (Constable, 1964).

The following are the mentions of marine molluscs which occur in Shakespeare. The quotations are taken from the First Folio.

Oyster

Falstaff:

I will not lend thee a penny.

Pistol:

Why, then the world’s mine Oyster,
Which I, with sword will open.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 2, scene 2.

“Pistol replies that if Falstaff will lend him nothing he will have to use his sword to extract money from an unwilling – and rotten – world; he is adapting the proverbial ‘open an oyster with a dagger’, where the dagger implies keeping one’s distance because of the smell.” The Merry Wives of Windsor, edited by H.J. Oliver, p.50 (The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen, 1971).

Benedick:

May I be so conuerted, and see with these eyes?
I cannot tell, I thinke not: I will not bee sworne, but loue may
transforme me toan oyster, but Ile take my oath on it, till he
have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a foole.

Much Ado about Nothing, act 2, scene 3.

Touchstone:

Rich honestie dwels like a miser sir, in a poore house, as your Pearle in your foule oyster.

As You Like It, act 5, scene 4.

Alexas:

Say the firme Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an Oyster; at whose foote
To mend the petty present, I will peece
Her opulent Throne, with Kingdomes. All the East,
(Say thou) shall call her Mistris.

Antony and Cleopatra, act 1, scene 5.

Tranio:

He is my father, sir, and sooth to say,
In count’nance somewhat doth resemble you.

Bianca:

As much as an apple doth an oyster, and all one.

The Taming of the Shrew, act 4, scene 2.

Mussel

Falstaff:

There was (mine Host) an old-fat-woman even now with me, but she’s gone.

Simple:

Pray you Sir, was’t not the Wise-woman of’ Brainford?

Falstaff:

I marry was it (Mussel-shell) what would you with her?

The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 4, scene 5.

“Johnson explained, reasonably enough, that Simple is so christened because he is standing with his mouth open; Hart, objecting – in a rather literal way – that this image would apply only to the whole mussel, with two shells, preferred to think that the reference was to ‘an empty worthless object’. New Cambridge’s suggestion of a further possible pun on ‘muzzle’ piles one hypothesis on another.” (Oliver, 1971, p.123). References: Samuel Johnson, “The Plays of William Shakespeare” (1765); H.C. Hart, The Merry Wives of Windsor (The Arden Shakespeare, 1904); Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch & John Dover Wilson, The Merry Wives of Windsor (The New Shakespeare, Cambridge, 1921).

COCKLE

Ophelia:

How should I your true love know from another one?
By his Cockle hat and staffe and his Sandal Shoone.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 4, scene 5.

The reference is really to the scallop shell, emblem of St. James of Compostella, worn by pilgrims to his shrine on their hat.

A. E. Ellis

The above has been extracted from Conchologists' Newsletter No. 67, p.105, dated December 1978