DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0045
35
arose the Italian expression far la fica; which was done by put-
ting the thumb between the middle and fore fingers, as it appears
in many priapic ornaments now extant; or by putting the finger or
the thumb into the corner of the mouth, and drawing it down ; of
which there is a representation in a small priapic figure of exquisite
sculpture engraved among the antiquities of Herculaneum.*
46. The key, which is still worn, with the priapic hand, as an
amulet, by the women of Italy, appears to have been an emblem
of similar meaning, as the equivocal use of the name of it, in the
language of that country, implies. Of the same kind, too, ap-
pears to have been the cross in the form of the letter r, attached
to a circle, which many of the figures of ./Egyptian deities both
male and female carry in the left hand, and by which the Syrians,
Phoenicians, and other inhabitants of Asia, represented the planet
Venus, worshipped by them as the natural emblem or image of
that goddess.a The cross in this form is sometimes observable on
coins ; and several of them were found in a temple of Serapis,
demolished at the general destruction of those edifices by the
emperor Theodosius ; and were said, by the Christian antiquaries
of that time, to signify the future life.3 In solemn sacrifices all
the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood of the
victims •4 and it occurs on many Runic monuments found in
Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age long anterior to the^
approach of Christianity to those countries ; and, probably, to its
1 Bronzi, tab. xciv. >
It is to these obscene gestures that the expressions of figging and biting
the thumb, which Shakspeare probably took from translations of Italian
hovels, seem to allude; see 1 Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.; and Romeo and Juliet,
act i. sc. 1. Another old writer, who probably understood Italian, calls thy
latter giving the fico ; and, according to its ancient meaning, it might very
naturally be employed as a silent reproach of effeminacy.
* Procli Paraphr. Ptolem. lib. ii. p. 97. See also Mich. .Ang. Pe la
Chausse, Part ii. No. xxxvi. fol. 62. and Jablonski Panth. /Egypt, lib. ii.
c. vii. s. 6.
3 Soidas in v. ravpos.
4 Shefler. Lapponic. e x. p. 112.
arose the Italian expression far la fica; which was done by put-
ting the thumb between the middle and fore fingers, as it appears
in many priapic ornaments now extant; or by putting the finger or
the thumb into the corner of the mouth, and drawing it down ; of
which there is a representation in a small priapic figure of exquisite
sculpture engraved among the antiquities of Herculaneum.*
46. The key, which is still worn, with the priapic hand, as an
amulet, by the women of Italy, appears to have been an emblem
of similar meaning, as the equivocal use of the name of it, in the
language of that country, implies. Of the same kind, too, ap-
pears to have been the cross in the form of the letter r, attached
to a circle, which many of the figures of ./Egyptian deities both
male and female carry in the left hand, and by which the Syrians,
Phoenicians, and other inhabitants of Asia, represented the planet
Venus, worshipped by them as the natural emblem or image of
that goddess.a The cross in this form is sometimes observable on
coins ; and several of them were found in a temple of Serapis,
demolished at the general destruction of those edifices by the
emperor Theodosius ; and were said, by the Christian antiquaries
of that time, to signify the future life.3 In solemn sacrifices all
the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood of the
victims •4 and it occurs on many Runic monuments found in
Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age long anterior to the^
approach of Christianity to those countries ; and, probably, to its
1 Bronzi, tab. xciv. >
It is to these obscene gestures that the expressions of figging and biting
the thumb, which Shakspeare probably took from translations of Italian
hovels, seem to allude; see 1 Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.; and Romeo and Juliet,
act i. sc. 1. Another old writer, who probably understood Italian, calls thy
latter giving the fico ; and, according to its ancient meaning, it might very
naturally be employed as a silent reproach of effeminacy.
* Procli Paraphr. Ptolem. lib. ii. p. 97. See also Mich. .Ang. Pe la
Chausse, Part ii. No. xxxvi. fol. 62. and Jablonski Panth. /Egypt, lib. ii.
c. vii. s. 6.
3 Soidas in v. ravpos.
4 Shefler. Lapponic. e x. p. 112.