Jemima Blackburn did care for crows, and perhaps she also knew that early in his career Robert Greene had described Shakespeare himself as an “upstart crow”.The first rule of leaving the life of crime: don’t go back.Įliot Reed has a secret. In her modest preface to Crows of Shakespeare she suggests that the book “may interest those who care for Crows, and induce young people to read Shakespeare”. In spite of living largely in rural Scotland, Shakespeare remained in her mind. In 1848 she came to the Midlands, visiting Warwick, Stratford and Leamington, and it seems likely that she visited Shakespeare’s Birthplace.
She saw Fanny Kemble act, saw Charles Kean play Macbeth on tour, and met him. She knew some of the most important literary figures of the day, corresponding with Ruskin and Thackeray, and co-writing an account of travels to Iceland with Anthony Trollope.
During a visit to London she went to both the theatre and opera which sparked her interest in fairy tales and legends. As a child I was told it was unlucky to see a single magpie, and taught to count them using the rhyme one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told.īlackburn’s watercolour of Charles Kean, at the National Portrait Gallery NPG2772(33a) It may be because of their habit of scavenging from dead bodies, or their distinctive calls, particularly the deep “pruk, pruk” of the raven or the cacophony of a rook colony. From Aesop in 6th century BC Greece up to Ted Hughes’ malevolent Crow, they have been renowned as messengers, mischief-makers, and bringers of bad luck, even death. The crow or corvid family have been associated with doom-laden myths and legends for centuries, making Hallowe’en a particularly suitable time to be thinking about them. Thy damnable faces, and begin! Come, the croaking raven doth
Lady Macbeth chillingly predicts the King’s murder:Īnd at the beginning of the play scene in Hamlet, the prince links the idea of revenge with the same birds: When Shakespeare wanted to conjure up a sense of foreboding he often used the image of the birds of the crow family: crows, magpies, ravens and rooks.
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