THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
ALL the Quotations in this book are taken from the 
 text of Johnson and Stevens, and the " Handy Volume" 
 edition of Shakespeare. 
 
 1877. , 
 
NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 BEING SELECTIONS OF 
 
 FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND ANIMALS 
 
 ARRANGED BY 
 
 BESSIE MAYOU 
 
 One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 EDWIN SLATER 
 
 (BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER TO H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES) 
 
 16 ST. ANN'S SQUARE, MANCHESTER 
 A 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
DEDICATED BY PERMISSION 
 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 THE BARONESS BURDETT- COUTTS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN publishing the present work, I feel that some 
 short explanation is necessary. I was first led 
 to take up the Natural History of Shakespeare 
 from a short paragraph I saw in the " Garden " 
 a few years ago, and was struck with the very 
 large number of flowers, fruits, vegetables, etc., 
 mentioned ; as we must remember Shakespeare's 
 object was not to write of trees and plants, but 
 to use them as illustrations, and also that, three 
 centuries ago, very little was known of botany, 
 more especially of English wild flowers. With 
 regard to the Animal Kingdom, it is merely a 
 continuation of the former, as I had no idea of 
 ever completing my work when I commenced it 
 two years ago. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In conclusion, let me say that love, not pre- 
 sumption, prompted me throughout, and let 
 Shakespeare speak for me 
 
 " He that of greatest works is Finisher, 
 Oft does them by the weakest minister." 
 
 BESSIE MAYOU. 
 CHEETHAM HILL. 
 
GARDEN FLOWERS. 
 
 Here's a few flowers. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 ROSE. 
 
 Oberon. Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, 
 With sweet musk roses, and with eglantine : 
 
 Titania. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
 While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, 
 And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head, 
 And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. 
 
 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Don John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge 
 than a rose in his grace ; 
 
 . MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Duke. ... let thy love be younger than thyself, 
 Or thy affection cannot hold the bent : 
 For women are as roses ; whose fair flower, 
 Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 B 
 
2 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Biron. At Christmas I no more desire a rose, 
 Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows ; 
 
 Princess. Will they return ? 
 Boyet. They will, they will, 
 
 And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows : 
 Therefore, change favours ; and, when they repair, 
 Blow like sweet roses in this summer air. 
 
 Princess. How blow ? how blow ? speak to be 
 
 understood. 
 
 Boyet. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud : 
 Dismask'd their damask sweet commixture shown, 
 Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act i. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Touchstone. He that sweetest rose will find, 
 Must find love's prick and Rosalind. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Petrucio. I'll say, she looks as clear 
 
 As morning roses newly wash'd with dew ; 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Constance. ... at thy birth, dear boy, 
 Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee great : 
 Of Nature's gifts thou rnay'st with lilies boast, 
 And with the half-blown rose. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Queen. But soft, but see, or rather do not see, 
 My fair rose wither ; yet look up ; behold ; 
 That you in pity may dissolve to dew, 
 And wash him fresh again with true-love tears. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act v. Scene i. 
 
GARDEN FLOWERS. 
 
 Hostess. Your colour, I warrant you, is as red as 
 any rose. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Plantagenet. Let him that is a true-born gentleman, 
 And stands upon the honour of his birth, 
 If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, 
 From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. 
 
 Somerset. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer 
 But dare maintain the party of the truth, 
 Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. 
 
 Warwick. I love no colours ; and, without all colour 
 Of base insinuating flattery, 
 I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet. 
 
 Suffolk. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset ; 
 And say withal, I think he held the right. 
 
 Vernon. Stay, lords and gentlemen ; and pluck no 
 
 more, 
 
 Till you conclude that he upon whose side 
 The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree, 
 Shall yield the other in the right opinion. 
 
 Somerset. Good master Vernon, it is well objected : 
 If I have fewest I subscribe in silence. 
 
 Plantagenet. And I. 
 
 Vernon. Then, for the truth and plainness of the 
 
 case, 
 
 I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here, 
 Giving my verdict on the white rose side. 
 
 Somerset. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off, 
 Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red, 
 And fall on my side so, against your will. 
 
 Vernon. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, 
 Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt, 
 And keep me on the side where still I am. 
 
4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Somerset. Well, well, come on ; Avho else ? 
 Lawyer (to Somerset}. Unless my study and my 
 
 books be false, 
 
 The argument you held was wrong in you ; 
 In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too. 
 
 Plantagenet. Now, Somerset, where is your argu- 
 ment ? 
 
 Somerset. Here, in my scabbard ; meditating that 
 Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red. 
 
 Plantagenet. Meantime, your cheeks do counterfeit 
 
 our roses ; 
 
 For pale they look with fear, as witnessing 
 The truth on our side. 
 
 Somerset. No, Plantagenet, 
 
 'Tis not for fear, but anger, that thy cheeks 
 Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our roses ; 
 And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error. 
 
 Plantagenet. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset ? 
 Somerset. Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet ? 
 Plantagenet. Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain 
 
 his truth ; 
 
 Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood. 
 Somerset. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding 
 
 roses, 
 
 That shall maintain what I have said is true, 
 Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen. 
 
 Plantagenet. Now, by this maiden blossom in my 
 
 hand, 
 I scorn thee and thy faction, peevish boy. 
 
 Warwick. Meantime, in signal of my love to thee, 
 
 Will I upon thy party wear this rose ; 
 And here I prophesy, This brawl to-day, 
 Grown to this faction in the Temple garden, 
 
GARDEN FLOWERS. 
 
 Shall send, between the red rose and the white, 
 A thousand souls to death and deadly night. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 York. Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose, 
 With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act i. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. The red rose and the white are on 
 
 his face, 
 The fatal colours of our striving houses : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 Richmond. And then, as we have ta'en the sacra- 
 ment, 
 We will unite the white rose and the red ; 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Antony. . . . tell him, he wears the rose 
 Of youth upon him ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene ii. 
 
 Othello. . . . When I have pluck'd thy rose, 
 I cannot give it vital growth again, 
 
 It needs must wither ; 
 
 OTHELLO, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Juliet. What's in a name ? that which we call a rose, 
 By any other name would smell as sweet ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 There will I make thee a bed of roses, 
 With a thousand fragrant posies, 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, xviii. 
 
6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud ; 
 
 SONNET XXXV. 
 
 The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 
 For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 
 The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 
 As the perfumed tincture of the roses, 
 Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly 
 When summer's breath their masked buds 
 
 discloses ; 
 
 But, for their virtue only is their show, 
 They live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade ; 
 Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so ; 
 Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made : 
 
 SONNET LIV. 
 
 LILY. 
 
 Princess. . . . by my maiden honour, yet as 
 
 pure 
 As the unsullied lily, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Constance. Of Nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies 
 boast, 
 
 Salisbury. To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
 
 Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iii. Scene i ; Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Queen Katherine. like the lily, 
 
 That once was mistress of the field and flourish'd, 
 I'll hang my head and perish. 
 
GARDEN FLOWERS. 
 
 Cranmer. A most unspotted lily shall she pass 
 To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her. 
 
 KING HENRY VIII. , Act iii. Scene i ; Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Perdita. . . . lilies of all kinds, 
 The flower-de-luce being one ! 
 
 WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Troilus. . . . give me swift transportance to 
 
 those fields 
 Where I may wallow in the lily beds 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Guiderius. O sweetest, fairest lily ! 
 
 My brother wears thee not the one-half so well, 
 As when thou grew'st thyself. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Titus. . . . fresh tears 
 Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew 
 Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. 
 
 SONNET XCIV. 
 
 Nor did I wonder at the lily's white, 
 
 SONNET XCVIII. 
 
 The lily I condemned for thy hand, 
 
 SONNET XCIX. 
 
 CARNATION. 
 
 Perdita. . . . the year growing ancient, 
 Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth 
 Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o' the season 
 Are our carnations, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 MARIGOLD. 
 
 Perdita. The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun, 
 And with him rises weeping ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Marina. ... I will rob Tellus of her weed, 
 To strew thy green with flowers ; the yellows, blues, 
 The purple violets, and marigolds, 
 Shall as a chaplet hang upon thy grave, 
 While summer days do last. 
 
 PERICLES, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheathed their light, 
 And canopied in darkness sweetly lay, 
 Till they might open to. adorn the day. 
 
 THE RAPE OF LUCRECE. 
 
 Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread 
 But as the marigold at the sun's eye ; 
 
 SONNET XXV. 
 
 COLUMBINE. 
 
 Longueville. That columbine. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Ophelia. There's fennel for you, and columbines : 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 PANSY. 
 
 Ophelia. . . . there is pansies, 
 that's for thoughts. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
GARDEN FLOWERS. 
 
 LAVENDER. 
 
 Perdita. . . . Here's flowers for you ; 
 Hot lavender, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 PINK. 
 
 Mercutio. ... I am the very pink of courtesy. 
 Romeo. Pink for flower. 
 Mercutio. Right. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 GILLYVORS (WALLFLOWER). 
 
 Perdita. . . . the fairest flowers o' the season, 
 Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyvors, 
 Which some call nature's bastards : of that kind 
 Our rustic garden's barren ; and I care not 
 To get slips of them. 
 
 Polixenes. Then make your garden rich in gillyvors, 
 And do not call them bastards. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 HOLY THISTLE. 
 
 Beatrice. By my troth, I am sick. 
 
 Margaret. Get you some of this distilled Carduus 
 Benedictus, and lay it to your heart ; it is the only 
 thing for a qualm. 
 
io NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Hero. There thou prick'st her with a thistle. 
 
 Beatrice. Benedictus ! why Benedictus ? you have 
 some moral in this Benedictus. 
 
 Margaret. Moral ! no, by my troth, I have no 
 moral meaning ; I meant, plain holy-thistle. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white 
 Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 VIOLET. 
 
 Oberon. I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, 
 Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Duke. That strain again ! it had a dying fall : 
 Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south 
 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
 Stealing and giving odour ! 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Perdita. . . . violets, dim, 
 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 
 Or Cytherea's breath ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Duchess. Welcome, my son : who are the violets now 
 That strew the green lap of the new-come spring ? 
 KING RICHARD II., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
12 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 King Henry. ... I think the king is but a 
 man, as I am ; the violet smells to him as it doth to 
 me ; 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Salisbury. To throw a perfume on the violet, 
 
 Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Laertes. A violet in the youth of primy nature, 
 Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, 
 
 Ophelia. I would give you some violets ; but they 
 withered all, when my father died : 
 
 Laertes. Lay her i' the earth ; 
 
 And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
 May violets spring ! 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 3 ; Act iv. Scene 5 ; Act v. Scene I. 
 
 Belarius. They are as gentle 
 
 As zephyrs, blowing below the violet, 
 Not wagging his sweet head : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 When I behold the violet past prime, 
 
 SONNET XII. 
 
 The forward violet thus did I chide : 
 
 Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that 
 
 smells, 
 If not from my love's breath ? 
 
 SONNET XCIX. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 13 
 
 DAFFODIL. 
 
 When daffodils begin to peer, 
 With heigh ! the doxy over the dale, 
 Why then comes in the sweet o' the year ; 
 For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. 
 
 Perdita. . . . daffodils, 
 That come before the swallow dares, and take 
 The winds of March with beauty ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2 and Scene 3. 
 
 PRIMROSE, f 
 
 Perdita. . . . pale primroses, 
 That die unmarried, ere they can behold 
 Bright Phoebus in his strength, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Hermia. And in the wood, where often you and I 
 Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie, 
 
 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Arviragus. . . . thou shalt not lack 
 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Q. Margaret. Look pale as primrose 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Porter. I had thought to have let in some of all 
 professions, that go the primrose way to the everlast- 
 ing bonfire. 
 
 MACBETH, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
14 NA 7 URAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 OX-LIP. 
 
 Oberon. Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Perdita. . . . bold ox-lips, and 
 The crown imperial ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 DAISY. 
 
 Ophelia. There's a daisy : 
 
 Queen. Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long- 
 purples, 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5 and Scene 7. 
 
 When daisies pied, and violets blue, 
 
 Do paint the meadows 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Lucius. ... let us 
 Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can, 
 And make him with our pikes and partisans 
 A grave. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Without the bed her other fair hand was, 
 On the green coverlet ; whose perfect white 
 Show'd like an April daisy on the grass, 
 
 THE RAPE OF LUCRECE. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 15 
 
 LADY-SMOCKS. 
 
 Lady-smocks all silver white, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 WOODBINE AND EGLANTINE. 
 
 Oberon. Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, 
 With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine : 
 
 Titania. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my 
 arms. 
 
 So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 
 Gently entwist ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Ursula. The pleasantest angling is to see the fish 
 Cut with her golden oars the silver stream, 
 And greedily devour the treacherous bait : 
 So angle we for Beatrice ; who even now 
 Is couched in the woodbine coverture : 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Arviragus. The leaf of eglantine, whom not to 
 
 slander, 
 Out-sweeten'd not thy breath : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 HONEYSUCKLE. 
 Hero. . . . bid her steal into the pleached bower, 
 
1 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, 
 Forbid the sun to enter ; 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Hostess. O thou honeysuckle villain ! 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 COWSLIP. 
 
 Ariel. In a cowslip's bell I lie : 
 There I couch when owls do cry. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Fairy. ... I serve the fairy queen, 
 To dew her orbs upon the green : 
 The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; 
 In their gold coats spots you see ; 
 Those be rubies, fairy favours, 
 In those freckles live their savours : 
 I must go seek some dew-drops here, 
 And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 
 
 Thisbe. These yellow cowslip cheeks, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. 
 Scene i ; Act. v. Scene 2. 
 
 Burgundy. The even mead, that erst brought 
 
 sweetly forth 
 The freckled cowslip, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Queen. The violets, cowslips, and the primroses, 
 Bear to my closet. 
 
WILD FLOWERS. 17 
 
 Jachimo. On her left breast 
 
 A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops 
 1' the bottom of a cowslip. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 5 ; Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 HARE-BELL. 
 
 Arviragus. The azured hare-bell, like thy veins ; 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 LOVE-IN-IDLENESS. 
 
 Oberon. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell ; 
 It fell upon a little western flower, 
 Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 
 And maidens call it love-in-idleness. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 FERN. 
 
 Gads hill. ... we have the receipt of fern-seed, 
 we walk invisible. 
 
 Chamberlain. Nay, I think rather you are more 
 beholden to the night than to fern-seed, for your 
 walking invisible. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
WEEDS. 
 
 Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted ; 
 Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 NETTLE. 
 
 Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, 
 Antonio. He'd sow't with nettle seed. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 Sir Toby. How now, my nettle of India ? 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 King Richard. Yield stinging nettles to mine 
 enemies : 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Hotspur. . , . out of this nettle, danger, we pluck 
 this flower, safety. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Pandarus. ... he will weep you, 
 an 'twere a man born in April. 
 
 Cressida. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere 
 a nettle against May. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
WEEDS. 19 
 
 lago. Our bodies are our gardens ; to the which 
 our wills are gardeners : so that if we will plant net- 
 tles, . . . why, the power and corrigible autho- 
 rity of this lies in our wills. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Menenius. We call a nettle but a nettle ; 
 And the faults of fools but folly. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 COCKLE. 
 
 Biron. Allons! Aliens! Sow'd cockle reap'd no 
 corn ; 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Coriolanus. I say again, 
 
 In soothing them we nourish 'gainst our senate 
 The cockle of rebellion, 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 DARNEL. 
 
 Burgundy. . . . her fallow leas 
 The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory, 
 Doth root upon ; 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 La Pucelle. Good morrow, gallants ! want ye corn 
 
 for bread ? 
 
 I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast, 
 Before he'll buy again at such a rate : 
 'Twas full of darnel : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
20 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Cordelia. Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow 
 
 In our sustaining corn. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 FUMITORY. 
 
 Cordelia. Crown'd with rank fumiter, and furrow 
 weeds, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Burgundy. . . . rank fumitory, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 HARLOCK. HEMLOCK. 
 
 Cordelia. . . . harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo 
 flowers, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 $d Witch. Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark ; 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 DOCK. 
 
 Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, 
 Antonio. He'd sow't with nettle seed. 
 Sebastian. Or docks, or mallows. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Burgundy. . .' . and nothing teems 
 But hateful docks, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 THISTLE. 
 
 Bottom. Monsieur Cobweb ; good monsieur, get 
 
WEEDS. 
 
 your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped 
 humble-bee on the top of a thistle ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Burgundy. . . . rough thistles, kecksies, burs, 
 Losing both beauty and utility : 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 RUSHES. 
 
 Dromio, S. A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Rosalind. There is none of my uncle's marks upon 
 you : he taught me how to know a man in love ; in 
 which cage of rushes, I am sure, you are not prisoner. 
 
 lean upon a rush, 
 
 The cicatrice and capable impressure 
 Thy palm some moment keeps : 
 
 As .You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scenes 2 and 5. 
 
 Grumio. Where's the cook ? is supper ready, the 
 house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs swept ; 
 
 Katharine. And be it moon, or sun, or what you 
 
 please : 
 
 And if you please to call it a rush candle, 
 Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scenes I and 5. 
 
 Bastard. ... a rush will be a beam 
 To hang thee on ; 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 ist Groom. 'More rushes, more rushes. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act v. Scene 5. 
 
22 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Eros. He's walking in the garden thus : and 
 
 spurns 
 The rush that lies before him ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Marcius. He that depends 
 
 Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead. 
 And hews down oaks with rushes. 
 
 isf Senator. . . . our gates, 
 Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with rushes : 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scenes I and 4. 
 
 Romeo. ... let wantons, light of heart, 
 Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 BURS. 
 
 Lucio. ... I am a kind of bur, 
 I shall stick. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Lysander. Hang off, thou cat, thou bur : 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Rosalind. O, how full of briers is this working-day 
 world ! 
 
 Celia. They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee 
 in holiday foolery; if we walk not in the trodden 
 paths, our very petticoats will catch them. 
 
 Rosalind. I could shake them off my coat ; these 
 burs are in my heart. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
WEEDS. 23 
 
 Pandarus. . . . they are burs, I can tell you ; 
 they'll stick where they are thrown. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 PLANTAIN. 
 
 Costard. O sir, plantain, a plain plantain ; 
 
 no V envoy , no V envoy, no salve, sir, but a plantain ! 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Romeo. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. 
 
 Benvolio. For what, I pray thee ? 
 
 Romeo. For your broken shin. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 CUCKOO FLOWERS. 
 
 And cuckoo buds of yellow hue, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Cordelia. . . . cuckoo flowers, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 Burgundy. . . . green clover, 
 
 Wanting the scythe, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Tamora. I will enchant the old Andronicus, 
 With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous 
 Than baits to fish, or honey stalks to sheep ; 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
TREES. 
 
 When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, 
 And they did make no noise. 
 
 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 OAK. 
 
 Prospero. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, 
 And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till 
 Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. 
 
 Prospero. ... to the dread rattling thunder 
 Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak 
 With his own bolt : 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2 ; Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne 
 
 the hunter, 
 
 Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest, 
 Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight, 
 Walk round about an oak, 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Benedict. O, she misused me past the endurance of 
 
TREES. 25 
 
 a block : an oak, but with one green leaf on it, would 
 have answered her; 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Oliver. Under an old oak, whose boughs were 
 
 moss'd with age, 
 
 And high top bald with dry antiquity, 
 A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair, 
 Lay sleeping on his back : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Pauline. . . . and will not 
 
 once remove 
 
 The root of his opinion, which is rotten, 
 As ever oak, or stone, was sound. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Messenger. But Hercules himself must yield to 
 
 odds ; 
 
 And many strokes, though with a little axe, 
 Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Casca. O Cicero, 
 
 I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 
 Have rived the knotty oaks ; 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Nestor. . . . but when the splitting wind 
 Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, 
 
 TROILUS and CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 lago. She that so young could give out such a 
 
 seeming, 
 To seal her father's eyes up, close as oak, 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
26 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Volumnia. To a cruel war I sent him ; from 
 whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. 
 
 Volumnia. ... he comes the third time home 
 with the oaken garland. 
 
 2d Guard. The worthy fellow is our general : he is 
 the rock, the oak not to be wind-shaken. 
 
 Volumnia. And yet to charge thy sulphur with a 
 
 bolt 
 That should but rive an oak. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 3 ; Act ii. Scene i. ; 
 Act v. Scenes 2 and 3. 
 
 Thnon. That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves 
 Do on the oak, 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Those thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like osiers 
 
 bow'd. 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, v. 
 
 CEDAR. 
 
 Prospero. . . . and by the spurs pluck' d up 
 The pine and cedar : 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Actv. Scene i. 
 
 Dumain. As upright as the cedar. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Warwick. (As on a mountain-top the cedar shows, 
 That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm,) 
 
 KING HENRY VI. , Part II. Act v. Scene i. 
 
TREES. 27 
 
 Gloucester. Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, 
 And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act. i. Scene 3. 
 
 Cranmer. ... he shall flourish, 
 And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 
 
 To all the plains about him : 
 
 KING HENRY VIII. , Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Coriolanus. . . . then let the mutinous winds 
 Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun ; 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Soothsayer. . . . when from a stately cedar 
 shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many 
 years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock, 
 and freshly grow ; 
 
 Soothsayer. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline, 
 Personates thee : and thy lopp'd branches point 
 Thy two sons forth : who, by Belarius stolen, 
 For many years thought dead, are now revived, 
 To the majestic cedar join'd ; whose issue 
 Promises Britain peace and plenty. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Who doth the world so gloriously behold, 
 The cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot, 
 But low shrubs wither at the cedar's root. 
 
 RAPE OF LUCRECE. 
 
28 NA TURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 ELM. 
 
 Adriana. Come, , I will fasten on this sleeve of 
 
 thine : 
 Thou art an elm, my husband, I, a vine ; 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Titania the female ivy so 
 
 Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Poins. Answer, thou dead elm, answer. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 SYCAMORE. 
 
 Boyet. Under the cool shade of a sycamore, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Desdemona. The poor soul sat sighing by a syca- 
 more tree, 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Benvolio. . . . underneath the grove of syca- 
 more, 
 That westward rooteth from this city's side, 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 YEW. 
 
 Clown. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
TREES. 29 
 
 Scroop. Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their 
 
 bows 
 Of double-fatal yew against thy state ; 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Paris. Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along, 
 Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground ; 
 So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread 
 
 But thou shalt hear it : 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Tamora. But straight they told me they would 
 
 bind me here, 
 Unto the body of a dismal yew, 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 3</ Witch. Gall of goat, and slips of yew, 
 Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 CYPRESS. 
 
 Clown. Come away, come away, death, 
 And in sad cypress let me be laid ; 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Gremio. In ivory coffers I have stuff d rny crowns ; 
 In cypress chests my arras counterpoints, 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Suffolk. Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress 
 trees ! 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
30 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 An fid ins. I am attended at the cypress grove : 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 10. 
 
 PINE. 
 
 Prospero. . . . she did confine thee, 
 By help of her more potent ministers, 
 And in her most immitigable rage, 
 Into a cloven pine ; within which rift 
 Imprison' d, thou didst painfully remain 
 A dozen years ; 
 
 Prospero. ... it was mine art, 
 When I arrived, and heard thee, that made gape 
 The pine, and let thee out. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 \st Lord. Behind the tuft of pines I met them ; 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Suffolk. Thus droops this lofty pine, and hangs his 
 sprays ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Antony. . . . and this pine is bark'd, 
 That overtopp'd them all. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iv. Scene 10. 
 
 Agamemnon. . . . checks and disasters 
 Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd ; 
 As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, 
 Infect the sound pine, 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
TREES. 31 
 
 Bclarius. . . . and yet as rough, 
 Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind, 
 That by the top doth take the mountain pine 
 And make him stoop to the vale. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 ASPEN. 
 
 Hostess. . . . feel, masters, how I shake ; look 
 
 you, I warrant you. 
 Doll. So you do, hostess. 
 Hostess. Do I ? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an 
 
 aspen leaf: 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Marcus. Oh ! had the monster seen those lily 
 
 hands 
 Tremble like aspen-leaves upon a lute, 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 BOX. 
 
 Maria. Get ye all three into the box-tree : 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 WILLOW. 
 
 Benedict. Come, will you go with me ? 
 Claudia. Whither? 
 
 Benedict. Even to the next willow, about your own 
 business, count. 
 
32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Benedict. ... I offered him my company to 
 a willow-tree, either to make him a garland, as being 
 forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy 
 to be whipped. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Lorenzo. In such a night, 
 
 Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 
 Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love 
 To come again to Carthage. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Bona. Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower 
 
 shortly, 
 I'll wear the willow garland for his sake. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Desdemona. Sing willow, willow, willow ; 
 Sing all a green willow must be my garland. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 
 That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 7. 
 
 PALM. 
 
 Rosalind. . . . look here, what I found on 
 
 a palm-tree : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Cassius. Ye gods, it doth amaze me, 
 
 A man of such a feeble temper should 
 So get the start of the majestic world, 
 And bear the palm alone. 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
TREES. 33 
 
 Hamlet. As love between them as the palm should 
 flourish ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 BAY. 
 
 Captain. The bay-trees in our country are all 
 wither'd, 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 The Vision. Enter, solemnly tripping, one after 
 another, six Personages, clad in white robes, wearing 
 on their heads garlands of bays, and golden vizors on 
 their faces ; branches of bays or palm in their hands. 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 OLIVE. 
 
 Rosalind. ... if you will know my house, 
 'Tis at the tuft of olives, here hard by : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Oliver. Pray you, if you know 
 
 Where, in the purlieus of this forest, stands 
 A sheep-cote, fenced about with olive trees ? 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Westmoreland. There is not now a rebel's sword 
 
 unsheathed, 
 But peace puts forth her olive everywhere. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Cczsar. The time of universal peace is near : - 
 
 D 
 
34 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Prove this a prosperous day, the three-nook'd world 
 Shall bear the olive freely. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 Incertainties now crown themselves assured, 
 And peace proclaims olives of endless age. 
 
 SONNET CVIL 
 
 MYRTLE. 
 
 Isabella. Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous 
 
 bolt, 
 
 Splitt'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, 
 Than the soft myrtle : 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Euphronius. ... as petty to liis ends, 
 As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf 
 To his grand sea. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene 10. 
 
 she hasteth to a myrtle grove, 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 
 Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. 
 
 Sitting in a pleasant shade 
 Which a grove of myrtles made, 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, xx. and xxi. 
 
 HAZEL. 
 
 Petnicio. Kate, like the hazel-twig, 
 
 Is straight, and slender ; 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
TREES. 35 
 
 LAUREL. 
 
 Clarence. No, Warwick, thou art worthy of the 
 
 sway, 
 
 To whom the heavens, in thy nativity, 
 Adjudged an olive branch and laurel crown, 
 As likely to be bless'd in peace, and war; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 Ulyss. How could communities, 
 
 Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, 
 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 
 The primogenitive and due of birth, 
 Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 
 But by degree, stand in authentic place? 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Titus. Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel 
 boughs, 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 ELDER. 
 
 Arviragus. Grow, patience; 
 
 And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine 
 His perishing root with the increasing vine ! 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Saturninus. Look for thy reward 
 
 Among the nettles at the elder tree, 
 
 This is the pit, and this the elder tree : 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
36 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 POMEGRANATE. 
 
 Juliet. . . . it is not yet near day : 
 It was the nightingale, and not the lark, 
 That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear ; 
 Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree : 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 CRAB. 
 
 Suffolk. . . . and noble stock 
 Was graft with crab-tree slip ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Porter. Fetch me 
 
 a dozen crab-tree staves, and strong ones ; 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Mcnenius. We have some old crab-trees here at 
 
 home that will not 
 Be grafted to your relish. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 HOLLY. 
 
 Amiens. Heigh ho ! sing, heigh ho ! unto the green 
 holly : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 7. 
 
 MISTLETOE. 
 
 Tamora. The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and 
 
 lean, 
 O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
TREES. 37 
 
 VINE. 
 
 Ceres. Vines with clustering bunches growing ; 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Mortimer. And pithless arms, like to a wither'd vine 
 That droops his sapless branches to the ground : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 Cranmer. In her days every man shall eat in 
 
 safety, 
 Under his own vine, 
 
 KING HENRY VIII. , Act v. Scene 5, 
 
 Timon. Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough- 
 torn leas ; 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Lear. Now, our joy, 
 
 Although our last, not least ; to whose young love 
 The vines of France and milk of Burgundy 
 Strive to be interess'd ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 IVY. 
 
 Prospero. ... he was 
 The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, 
 And suck'd my verdure out on't. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Shepherd. . . . browzing of ivy. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
38 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Adriana. Usurping ivy, brier, or idle moss ; 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 A belt of straw and ivy buds, 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, xviii. 
 
 HAWTHORN. 
 
 Helena. . . . when hawthorn buds appear, 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene, i. 
 
 Rosalind. . . . hangs odes upon hawthorns, 
 . . all, forsooth, deifying the name of Rosalind : 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 King Henry. Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter 
 
 shade 
 
 To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, 
 Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy 
 To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery? 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 Edgar. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold 
 wind : 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 OSIERS. 
 
 Nathaniel. Those thoughts to me were oaks, to 
 thee like osiers bow'd. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Celia. The rank of osiers, by the murmuring 
 stream, 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
TREES. 39 
 
 BRAMBLES. 
 
 elegies on brambles ; 
 As You LIKE IT. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 HIPS. BRIERS. GOSS. 
 
 Ariel. ... so I charm'd their ears, 
 That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through 
 Sooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns, 
 Which enter'd their frail shins : 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Rosalind. O, how full of briers is this working-day 
 world ! 
 
 As You LIKE It, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Helena. . . . the time will bring on summer 
 When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns, 
 And be as sweet as sharp. 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Timon. The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips : 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 LING. HEATH. FURZE. BROOM. 
 
 Gonzalo. Now would I give a thousand furlongs 
 of sea for an acre of barren ground ; ling, heath, 
 broom, furze, anything. The wills above be done ! 
 but I would fain die a dry death. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act i. Scene i. 
 
FRUITS. 
 
 . . . you shall see mine orchard, where in an arbour, we will eat a last 
 year's pippin of my own graffing, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 STRAWBERRY. 
 
 Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle ; 
 And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 
 Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Gloucester. My lord of Ely, when I was last in 
 
 Holborn, 
 
 I saw good strawberries in your garden there ; 
 I do beseech you send for some of them. 
 
 Ely. Where is my lord the duke of Gloster ? 
 I have sent for these strawberries. 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 lago. Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief, 
 Spotted with strawberries, in your wife's hand ? 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
FRUITS. 41 
 
 APRICOTS. 
 
 Titania. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman ; 
 Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes ; 
 Feed him with apricocks, and dewberries ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Gardener. Go, bind thou up yon' dangling apricocks, 
 Which, like unruly children, make their sire 
 Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight : 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 GRAPES. 
 
 Titania. Feed him 
 
 With purple grapes, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Touchstone. The heathen philosopher, when he had 
 a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he 
 put it into his mouth ; meaning thereby, that grapes 
 were made to eat, and lips to open. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Lafeu. O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox ? 
 Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if 
 My royal fox could reach them : 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Come, thou monarch of the vine, 
 Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne : 
 In thy vats our cares be drown'd ; 
 With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd : 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act ii. Scene 7. 
 
42 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 lago. . . . the wine she drinks is made of 
 grapes : 
 
 OTHELLO, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Menenius. The tartness of his face sours ripe 
 grapes. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Even as poor birds, deceived with painted grapes, 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLUMS. 
 
 Cardinal. What, art thou lame ? 
 Simpcox. Ay, 
 
 Suffolk. How cam'st thou so ? 
 Simpcox. A fall off of a tree. 
 
 Wife. A plum-tree, master. 
 
 Gloucester. 'Mass, thou lov'dst plums well, that 
 wouldst venture so. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Constance. . . . go to it' grandam, child ; 
 Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will 
 Give it a plum, 
 
 KING JOHN, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 The mellow plum doth fall, the green sticks fast, 
 Or being early pluck'd is sour to taste. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree, 
 And falls, through wind, before the fall should be. 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, viii. 
 
FRUITS. 43 
 
 DAMSONS. 
 
 Simpcox. Alas, good master, my wife desired some 
 
 damsons, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 FIGS. 
 
 Titania. Feed him with .... 
 . . . . green figs, 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Constance. . '. . . a fig : 
 
 KING JOHN, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Charmian. ... I love long life better than figs. 
 
 Guard. Here is a rural fellow 
 That will not be denied your highness' presence ; 
 He brings you figs. 
 
 Dolabella. Who was last with them 1 
 ist Guard. A simple countryman, that brought her 
 figs. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act i. Scene 2 ; 
 Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 PEARS. 
 
 Falstaff. I warrant, they would whip me with their 
 fine wits, till I were as crest-fallen as a dried pear. 
 MERRY WIVES OF -WINDSOR, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 Parolks. 'tis a withered pear ; 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELI, Act i. Scene i. 
 
44 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 APPLES. 
 
 Sebastian. I think he will carry this island home in 
 his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. 
 
 Antonio. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, 
 bring forth more islands. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Evans. ... I will make an end of my dinner; 
 there's pippins and cheese to come. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Malvolio. Not yet old enough for a man, nor 
 young enough for a boy ; as a squash is before 'tis a 
 peascod, or a codling when 'tis almost an apple : 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Antonio. An evil soul producing holy witness 
 Is like a villain with a smiling cheek ; 
 A goodly apple rotten at the heart ; 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Tranio. He is my father, sir ; and, sooth to say, 
 In countenance somewhat doth resemble you. 
 
 Biondello (aside). As much as an apple doth an 
 oyster, 
 
 Pdrucio. What ! up and down, carved like an 
 apple-tart ? 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scenes 2 and 3. 
 
 \st Drawer. What hast thou brought there? apple- 
 Johns? thou know'st sir John cannot endure an 
 apple-John. 
 
 2d Drawer. Thou sayest true. The prince once 
 
FRUITS. 45 
 
 set a dish of apple-Johns beiore him, and told him 
 there were five more sir Johns : 
 
 Davy. There is a dish of leather-coats for you. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4 ; 
 Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Orleans. Foolish curs ! that run winking into the 
 mouth of a Russian bear, and have their heads 
 crushed like rotten apples : 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 Porter. These are the youths that thunder at a 
 playhouse, and fight for bitten apples : 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Fool. Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee 
 kindly ; for though she's as like this as a crab's like 
 an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow, 
 
 SONNET XCIII. 
 
 QUINCE. 
 
 Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the 
 pastry. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Beatrice. The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor 
 merry, nor well : but civil count ; civil as an orange, 
 and something of that jealous complexion. 
 
46 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Claudia. Give not this rotten orange .to your friend ; 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Menenius. . . . you wear out a good whole- 
 some forenoon, in hearing a cause between an orange 
 v wife and a fosset-seller ; 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 LEMON. 
 
 Biron. A lemon. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 CHERRIES. 
 
 Demetrius. O, how ripe in show 
 
 Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow ! 
 
 Helena. So we grew together, 
 
 Like to a double cherry. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Constance. A cherry, 
 
 KING JOHN, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Lady. . . . 'tis as like you 
 .As cherry is to cherry. 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Gower. and with her neeld composes 
 
 Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry ; 
 That even her art sisters the natural roses ; 
 Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry : 
 
 PERICLES, Act v. 
 
FRUITS. 47 
 
 ripe red cherries ; 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 GOOSEBERRY. 
 
 Fahtaff. . . . not worth a gooseberry. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 MULBERRY. 
 
 Titania. Feed him with 
 
 mulberries ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Volumnia correcting thy stout heart, 
 
 Now humble, as the ripest mulberry 
 That will not hold the handling : 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 When he was by, the birds such pleasure took, 
 That some would sing, some other in their bills 
 Would bring him mulberries, 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 MEDLARS. 
 
 Touchstone. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit. 
 
 Rosalind. I'll graff it with you, and then I shall 
 graff it with a medlar : then it will be the earliest 
 fruit in the country : for you'll be rotten ere you be 
 half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar. 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
48 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEA RE. 
 
 Apemantus. There's a medlar for thee, eat it. 
 Timon. On what I hate I feed not. 
 Apemantus. Dost hate a medlar ? 
 Timon. Ay, though it look like thee. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Mercutio. Now will he sit under a medlar tree, 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 BLACKBERRY. 
 
 Falstaff. ... if reasons were as plenty as 
 blackberries I would give no man a reason upon 
 compulsion, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Ther sites. . . . that stale old mouse- 
 eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, 
 Ulysses, is not proved worth a blackberry. 
 
 TRIOLUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 CRAB. 
 
 When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Petrucio. Nay, come, Kate, come ; you must not 
 
 look so sour. 
 
 Katharine. It is my fashion, when I see a crab. 
 Petrucio. Why, here's no crab ; and therefore look 
 
 not sour. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
FRUITS. 49 
 
 Fool. She will taste as like this as a crab does to a 
 crab. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 BILBERRY. 
 
 Pistol. Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou 
 
 leap : 
 
 Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept, 
 There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry ; 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 DEWBERRY. 
 
 Titania. Feed him with . . . dewberries ; 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 NUTS. 
 
 Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, 
 Such a nut is Rosalind. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Thersites. Hector shall have a great catch if he 
 knock out either of your brains ; 'a were as good 
 crack a fusty nut with no kernel. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Hamlet. . . . such officers do the king best 
 service in the end : he keeps them, like an ape doth 
 nuts, in the corner of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be 
 last swallowed : 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 E 
 
50 NA TURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Mcrcutio. Thou wilt quarrel with a man 
 
 for cracking nuts, 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act in. Scene i. 
 
 WALNUT. 
 
 Ford. . . . A s jealous as Ford, that searched a 
 hollow walnut 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Haberdasher. Here is the cap your worship did 
 
 bespeak. 
 
 Petrudo. Why, this was moulded on a porringer ; 
 A velvet dish ; ... 
 Why. 'tis a cockle, or a walnut-shell, 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 HAZEL-NUT. 
 
 Petrudo. ... as brown in hue, 
 As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than the kernels. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Mercutio. Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 CHESTNUT. 
 
 Petrudo. And do you tell me of a woman's tongue, 
 That gives not half so great a blow to th' ear 
 As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire ? 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
FRUITS. 51 
 
 ist Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, 
 And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd : 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 PRUNES. 
 
 Slender. ... I bruised my shin the other day 
 with playing at sword and dagger with a master of 
 fence, three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes ; 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Pompey. . . . you being then, if you be re- 
 membered, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes. 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Clown. . . . four pound of primes, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Doll. He a captain ! . He lives 
 
 upon mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 DATES. 
 
 Clown. . . . Dates, none ; that's out of my 
 note : 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 CURRANTS. 
 
 Clown. . . . Three pound of sugar ; five pound 
 of currants ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
52 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 RAISINS. 
 
 Clown. . . . four pound of prunes, and as 
 many of raisins tf the sun. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 ACORN. 
 
 Prospero. . . . wither'd roots, and husks 
 Wherein the acorn cradled. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Puck. ... all their elves, for fear, 
 Creep into acorn-cups, and hide them there. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Celia. ... I found him under a tree, like a 
 dropped acorn. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 BERRIES. 
 
 Caliban. When thou earnest first, 
 
 Thou strok'dst me, and mad'st much of me ; would'st 
 
 give me 
 Water with berries in't ; 
 
 Caliban. I'll show thee the best springs ; I'll pluck 
 thee berries ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2 ; Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
FRUITS. 
 
 53 
 
 ist Bandit. We cannot live on grass, on berries, 
 
 water, 
 As beasts, and birds, and fishes. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Ccesar. . . . thy palate then did deign 
 The roughest berry on the rudest hedge ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
VEGETABLES. 
 
 GuideriTis, But his neat cookery ! He cut our roots in characters ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 POTATO. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . Let the sky rain potatoes ; 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 CABBAGE. 
 
 Evans. Pauca verba, sir John, goot worts. 
 Falstaff. Good worts ! good cabbage. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 TURNIPS. 
 
 Anne. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth, 
 And bowl'd to death with turnips. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 RADISH. 
 
 Prince Henry. What, fought ye with them all ? 
 Falstaff. All ? I know not what ye call all ; but 
 
VEGETABLES. 55 
 
 if I fought not with fifty of them I am a bunch of 
 radish : 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 PARSLEY. 
 
 Biondello. ... I knew a wench married in 
 an afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to 
 stuff a rabbit ; 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 PEASCOD. 
 
 Touchstone. ... I remember, when I was in 
 love, I broke my sword upon a stone, and bid him 
 take that for coming a'night to Jane Smile : . . 
 and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of 
 her ; from whom I took two cods, and, giving her 
 them again, said, with weeping tears, Wear these for my 
 sake. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Malvolio. ... as a squash is before 'tis a 
 peascod, 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Hostess. Well, fare thee well : I have known thee 
 these twenty-nine years, come peascod time ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Fool (pointing to Lear]. That's a sheal'd peascod. 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
56 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 LETTUCE. 
 
 lago. ... if we will plant nettles, or sow 
 lettuce ; 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 MUSHROOM. 
 
 Prospero. . . . and you, whose pastime 
 Is to make midnight mushrooms ; 
 
 TEMPEST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 SAMPHIRE. 
 
 Edgar. . . . half way down 
 Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 ONION. 
 
 Bottom. And, most dear actors, 
 
 eat no onions, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scenes. 
 
 Lord. And if the boy have not a woman's gift, 
 To rain a shower of commanded tears, 
 An onion will do well for such a shift ; 
 Which in a napkin being close convey'd 
 Shall in despite enforce a watery eye. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW (Induction), Scene i. 
 
 Lafeu. Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep anon : 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Enobarbus. and, indeed, the tears live in 
 
 an onion that should water this sorrow. 
 
VEGETABLES. 57 
 
 Enobarbus. Look, they weep ; 
 
 And I, an ass, am onion-eyed ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act. i. Scene 2 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 GARLIC. 
 
 Bottom. And, most dear actors, eat no onions, 
 Nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Dorcas. Mopsa must be your mistress : marry, 
 
 garlic, 
 To mend her kissing with. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3 . 
 
 Hotspur. I had rather live 
 
 With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, 
 Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene r. 
 
 Menenius. You have made good work, 
 
 You, and your apron-men ; you that stood so much 
 Upon the voice of occupation, and 
 The breath of garlic-eaters ! 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 LEEK. 
 
 Thisbe. His eyes were green as leeks, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Pistol. Knowest thou Fluellen ? 
 King Henry. Yes. 
 
 Pistol. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate, 
 Upon Saint Davy's day. 
 
58 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Fluellen. ... if your majesties is remembered 
 of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden 
 where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Mon- 
 mouth caps ; which, your majesty know, to this hour 
 is an honourable padge of the service ; and, I do 
 believe, your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek 
 upon Saint Tavy's.day. 
 
 Fluellen. . . . he is come to me, and prings 
 me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me 
 eat my leek : but I will be so pold as to 
 
 wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then 
 I will tell him a little piece of my desires. 
 
 Pistol. ... I am qualmish at the smell of leek. 
 
 Fluellen. I peseech you ... to eat, look you, 
 this leek ; ... if you can mock a leek, you can 
 eat a leek. 
 
 I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, . . 
 
 Pistol. Must I bite ? 
 
 Fluellen. Yes, certainly 
 
 Pistol. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge ; 
 I eat and eat I swear. 
 
 Fluellen. Eat, I pray you : will you have some 
 more sauce to your leek ? there is not enough leek 
 to swear by. 
 
 When you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, I 
 pray you, mock at 'em ; that is all. 
 Pistol. Good. 
 Fluellen. Ay, leeks is goot : 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iv. Scenes I and 7 ; 
 Act v. Scene I. 
 
HERBS. 
 
 Friar. O mickle is the powerful grace, that lies 
 In plan ts, herbs, stones, and their true qualities : 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 MINT. 
 
 Dumain. That mint. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Pcrdita. Here's flowers for you ; 
 
 mints, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 SAVORY. 
 
 Perdita savory, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 MARJORAM. 
 
 Perdita marjoram; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
60 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Lafeu. ... we may pick a thousand sallets, 
 ere we light on such another herb. 
 
 Clown. Indeed, sir, she was the sweet marjoram 
 of the sallet, or, rather, the herb of grace. 
 
 Lafeu. They are not sallet-herbs, you knave, they 
 are nose-herbs. 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 King Lear. Give the word. 
 
 Edgar. Sweet marjoram. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair : 
 
 SONNET XCIX. 
 
 RUE. 
 
 Perdita. Reverend sirs, 
 
 For you there's . . . rue ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Gardener. . . . here, in this place, 
 I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace : 
 Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, 
 In the remembrance of a weeping queen. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 Ophelia. there's rue for you ; and 
 here's some for me : we may call it herb-grace o' 
 Sundays : oh, you must wear your rue with a differ- 
 ence. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
HERBS. 6 1 
 
 ROSEMARY. 
 
 Perdita. For you there's rosemary, and rue ; these 
 
 keep 
 Seeming, and savour, all the winter long : 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Ophelia. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance ; 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 Nurse. . . . Doth not rosemary and Romeo 
 begin both with a letter ? 
 
 Friar. Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary 
 On this fair corse ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 4 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 Edgar. . . . sprigs of rosemary ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 FENNEL. 
 
 Doll. Why doth the prince love him so then ? 
 
 Falstaff. Because their legs are both of a bigness : 
 and he plays at quoits well; and eats conger and 
 fennel ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Ophelia. There's fennel for you, 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
62 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 HYSSOP AND THYME. 
 
 lago. . . . Our bodies are our gardens ; to 
 the which our wills are gardeners : so that if we will 
 plant nettles, or sow lettuce ; set hyssop, and weed 
 up thyme ; supply it with one gender of herbs, or dis- 
 tract it with many ; either to have it sterile with idle- 
 ness, or manured with industry ; why, the power and 
 corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Oberon. I know a bank where the wild thyme 
 
 blows, 
 
 MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 BALM. 
 
 Anne. The several chairs of order look you scour 
 With juice of balm, and every precious flower : 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 BURNET. 
 
 Burgundy. The freckled cowslip, burnet, and 
 
 green clover, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
SPICES AND MEDICINES. 
 
 Clown. I must go buy spices. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 NUTMEG. 
 
 Armado. The armipotent Mars, of lances the 
 alnnghty, 
 
 Gave Hector a gift, 
 
 Dumain. A gilt nutmeg. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Clown. . . . nutmegs, seven ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Orleans. He's of the colour of the nutmeg. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 CLOVE. 
 
 Longaville. Stuck with cloves. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 GINGER. 
 
 Dauphin. And of the heat of the ginger. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
64 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Costard. An I had but one penny in the world, thou 
 shouldst have it to buy gingerbread : 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene I. 
 
 Cloivn. . . . a race or two of ginger ; but that 
 I may beg ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 2d Carrier. I have a gammon of bacon, and two 
 razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing 
 Cross. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 MACE. 
 
 Clown. . . . mace, dates, none ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 SAFFRON. 
 
 Clown. I must have saffron, to colour the warden 
 pies; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 PEPPERCORN. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . An I have not forgotten what 
 the inside of a church is made of, I am a pepper- 
 corn, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
SPICES AND MEDICINES. 65 
 
 PEPPER. 
 
 Ford. ... he cannot creep into a halfpenny 
 purse, nor into a pepper box ; 
 
 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Sir Andrew. Here's the challenge, read it : I war- 
 rant there's vinegar and pepper in't. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 MUSTARD. 
 
 Bottom. . . . Your name, I beseech you, sir ? 
 
 Mustard. Mustard-seed. 
 
 Bottom. Good master Mustard-seed, I know your 
 patience well : that same cowardly, giant like ox-beef 
 hath devoured many a gentleman of your house : I 
 promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water 
 ere now. I desire you more acquaintance, good 
 master Mustard-seed. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Touchstone. ... by mine honour ; . . 
 
 Rosalind. Where learned you that oath, fool ? 
 
 Touchstone. Of a certain knight, that swore by his 
 honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his 
 honour the mustard was naught ; now, I'll stand to it, 
 the pancakes were naught, and the mustard was good ; 
 and yet was not the knight forsworn. 
 
 Celia. How prove you that, in the great heap of 
 your knowledge ? 
 
 Rosalind. Ay, marry ; now unmuzzle your wisdom. 
 F 
 
66 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Touchstone. Stand you both forth now : stroke your 
 chins, and swear by your beards that I am a knave. 
 
 Celia. By our beards, if we had them, thou art. 
 
 Touchstone. By my knavery, if I had it, then I 
 were : but if you swear by that that is not, you are 
 not forsworn : no more was this knight, swearing by his 
 honour, for he never had any ; or if he had, he had 
 sworn it away before ever he saw those pancakes or 
 that mustard. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Grumio. . . . What say you to a piece of 
 
 beef and mustard ? 
 
 Katharine. A dish that I do love to feed upon. 
 Grumio. Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. 
 Katharine. Why, then the beef, and let the mustard 
 
 rest. 
 Grumio. Nay, then I will not ; you shall have the 
 
 mustard, 
 Or else you get no beef of Grumio. 
 
 Katharine. Then both, or one, or anything thou 
 
 wilt. 
 
 Grumio. Why, then the mustard without the beef. 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Falstaff. . .' . his wit is as thick as Tewks- 
 bury mustard ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 RHUBARB AND SENNA. 
 
 Macbeth. What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative 
 
 drug, 
 Would scour these English hence ? 
 
 MACBETH, Actv. Scene 3. 
 
SPICES AND MEDICINES. 67 
 
 POPPY AND MANDRAGORA. 
 
 I ago. Not poppy, nor mandragora, 
 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 
 Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 
 Which thou ow'dst yesterday. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Cleopatra. . . . Give me to drink mandra- 
 gora. 
 
 Charmian. Why, madam ? 
 
 Cleopatra. That I might sleep out this great gap of 
 time 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 HEBENON. 
 
 Ghost. Sleeping within mine orchard, 
 
 My custom always in the afternoon, 
 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, 
 With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, 
 And in the porches of mine ears did pour 
 The leperous distilment ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 GUM. 
 
 Othello. ... of one, whose subdued eyes, 
 Albeit unused to the melting mood, 
 Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 
 Their med'cinable gum. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Poet. .... 
 
 Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes 
 From whence 'tis nourish'd : 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Hamlet. . . . plum tree gum ; . . . 
 
 HAMLET, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 CAMOMILE. 
 
 Falstaff. ... for though the camomile, the 
 more it is trodden the faster it grows, yet youth, the 
 more it is wasted the sooner it wears. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 ACONITUM. 
 
 King Henry. ... as strong 
 As aconitum, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 COLOQUINTIDA. LOCUSTS. 
 
 lago. . . . the food that to him now is as 
 luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter 
 as coloquintida. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
GRAI N. 
 
 You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary, 
 Come hither from the furrow, and be merry ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i 
 
 CORN. 
 
 Gonzalo. No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil : 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Duke. Come, let us go : 
 
 Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 King Richard. . . . my tender - hearted 
 
 cousin ! 
 
 We'll make foul weather with despised tears ; 
 Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the summer corn, 
 And make a dearth in this revolting land. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 La Pucelle. Talk like the vulgar sort of market- 
 men 
 That come to gather money for their corn. 
 
yo NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Guard (within}. Qtii est la ? 
 Pucelle. Paisans, pauvres gens de France : 
 Poor market-folks, that come to sell their corn. 
 
 Pucelle. Good morrow, gallants ! want ye corn for 
 bread ? 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Duchess. Why droops my lord, like over-ripen'd 
 
 corn, 
 Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load ? 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Cr aniner (kneeling). I humbly thank your high- 
 ness ; 
 
 And am right glad to catch this good occasion 
 Most thoroughly to be winnow'd, where my chaff 
 And corn shall fly asunder : 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act v. Scene i. 
 
 ist Citizen. . . . we'll have corn at our own 
 price. 
 
 Marcius. . . . What's their seeking ? 
 Menenius. For corn at their own rates ; whereof, 
 
 they say, 
 The city is well stored. 
 
 Marcius. ..... 
 
 They said they were an-hungry ; sighed forth pro- 
 verbs, 
 
 That hunger broke stone walls ; 
 
 That meat was made for mouths ; that the gods sent 
 
 not 
 Corn for the rich men only : 
 
GRAIN. 71 
 
 ist Citizen. ... we stood up about the corn, 
 
 Brutus The people cry you mock'd 
 
 them ; and, of late, 
 When corn was given them gratis, you repined ; 
 
 Coriolanus. Tell me of corn ! 
 
 This was my speech, and I will speak 't again ; 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene i. ; Act ii. Scene 3 ; 
 Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Pericles. And these our ships 
 
 Are stored with corn to make your needy bread, 
 And give them life, whom hunger starved half-dead. 
 
 PERICLES, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Macbeth. Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees 
 blown down ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas of 
 wheat, 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Helena. When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds 
 appear. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Davy. . . . shall we sow the head-land with 
 
 wheat ? 
 Shallow. With red wheat, Davy. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act v. Scene i. 
 
72 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Pompey. ... I must 
 Rid all the sea of pirates ; then, to send 
 Measures of wheat to Rome : 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act ii. Scene 6. 
 
 Pandarus. ...... 
 
 He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs 
 tarry the grinding. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Hamlet. ...... 
 
 As peace should still her wheaten garland wear, 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Edgar. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet : he 
 begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock ; he 
 . . . mildews the white wheat, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 
 of ... barley, 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 OATS. 
 
 Iris. . ., ... oats, . . . 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Titania. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to 
 eat. 
 
 Bottom. Truly, a peck of provender : I could 
 munch your good dry oats. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
GRAIN. 73 
 
 Petrucio. Grumio, my horse. 
 
 Grumio. Ay, sir, they be ready ; the oats have eaten 
 the horses. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 zd Carrier. . . . this house is turned upside 
 down since Robin ostler died. 
 
 \st Carrier. Poor fellow ! never joyed since the 
 price of oats rose ; it was the death of him. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 Officer. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats ; 
 KING LEAR, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 RYE. 
 
 Iris. . . . rye, . . . your rye straw hats 
 put on, 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 VETCHES. 
 
 Ins, . . . vetches, . . . 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 PEAS. 
 
 Iris. . . . . pease ; 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Bottom. I had rather have a handful, or two, of 
 dried peas. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
74 NA TURAL HIST OR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Biron. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas, 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 BEANS. 
 
 2d Carrier. Peas and beans are as dank here as a 
 dog, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 Sir Toby. Then hads't thou had an excellent head 
 of hair. 
 
 . . it hangs like flax on a distaff; 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 $d Servant. . . . I'll fetch some flax, and 
 
 whites of eggs, 
 To apply to his bleeding face. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 RICE. 
 
 Clown. . . . rice. What will this sister of 
 mine do with rice ? 
 
 WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 HEMP. 
 
 Hostess. Good people, bring a rescue. Thou wilt 
 not ? thou wilt not ? do, do, thou rogue ! do, thou 
 hemp-seed ! 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
BIRDS. 
 
 T amor a. The birds chant melody on every bush ; 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Actjii. Scene 3. 
 
 OSTRICH. 
 
 Cade. . . . I'll make thee eat iron like an 
 ostrich, and swallow my sword like a great pin, ere 
 thou and I part. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene 10. 
 
 Enobarbus. ... To be furious, 
 Is to be frighted out of fear : and in that mood, 
 The dove will peck the estridge ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene n. 
 
 PEACOCK. 
 
 Iris. . . . her peacocks fly amain : 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Dromto S. Fly pride, says the peacock : 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
76 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Williams. . . . you may as well go about to 
 turn the sun to ice, with fanning in his face with a 
 peacock's feather. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 La Pucelle. Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while, 
 And like a peacock sweep along his tail ; 
 We'll pull his plumes, and take away his train, 
 If Dauphin and the rest will be but ruled. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Ther sites. Why, he stalks up and down like a 
 peacock, a stride, and a stand: 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 PARROT. 
 
 Dromio E. Mistress, respice finem, respect your 
 end ; or rather the prophecy, like the parrot, Beware 
 the ropers end. 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Benedict. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. 
 Beatrice. A bird of my tongue is better than a 
 beast of yours. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Rosalind. ... I will be more jealous of thee 
 than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen ; more 
 clamorous than a parrot against rain ; 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Salarino. Nature hath framed strange fellows in 
 her time : 
 
BIRDS. 77 
 
 Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, 
 And laugh, like parrots, at a bagpiper : 
 
 Lorenzo. I think, the best grace of wit will shortly 
 turn into silence ; and discourse grow commendable 
 in none only but parrots. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene i ; 
 Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Prince Henry. That ever this fellow should have 
 fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a 
 woman ! 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part i. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 EAGLE. 
 
 Bast. . . . know, the gallant monarch is in 
 
 arms ; 
 
 And, like an eagle o'er his aiery, towers, 
 To souse annoyance that comes near his nest. 
 KING JOHN, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 York. Yet looks he like a king ; behold, his eye, 
 As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth 
 Controlling majesty : 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 3. 
 \ 
 
 Falstaff. . . . when I was about thy years, 
 Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 King Henry. Poor queen ! how love to me, and to 
 
 her son, 
 Hath made her break out into terms of rage ! 
 
;S NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Revenged may she be on that hateful duke ; 
 Whose haughty spirit, winged with desire, 
 Will cost my crown, and, like an empty eagle, 
 Tire on the flesh of me and of my son ! 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Cassms. Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 
 Two mighty eagles fell ; and there they perch'd, 
 Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands, 
 Who to Philippi here consorted us ; 
 This morning are they fled away, and gone ; 
 And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites, 
 Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us, 
 As we were sickly prey ; 
 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Mecanas. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a 
 breakfast, and but twelve persons there : is this true ? 
 
 Enobarbus. This was but as a fly by an eagle : we 
 had much more monstrous matter of feasts, which 
 worthily deserved noting. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Coriolanus. If you have writ your annals true, 'tis 
 
 there, 
 
 That like an eagle in a dove-cote, I 
 Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli : 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act v. Scene 6. 
 
 Poet. ... no levelled malice 
 Infects one comma in the course I hold ; 
 But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, 
 Leaving no track behind. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act i. Scene i. 
 
BIRDS. 79 
 
 Nurse. ... an eagle, madam, 
 Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye, 
 As Paris hath. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Cleon. Thou art like the harpy, 
 
 Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face, 
 Seize with thine eagle's talons. 
 
 PERICLES, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Soothsayer. I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, 
 
 wing'd 
 
 From the spungy south to this part of the west, 
 There vanish'd in the sunbeams : which portends, 
 .(Unless my sins abuse my divination), 
 Success to the Roman host. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 VULTURE. 
 
 Pistol. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also ! 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Lear. O Regan, she hath tied 
 
 Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here, 
 
 [Points to his heart. 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 FALCON. 
 
 Petrucio. My falcon now is sharp, and passing 
 empty : 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
So NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Isabella. . . . This outward-sainted deputy, 
 Whose settled visage and deliberate word 
 Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth emmew, 
 As falcon doth the fowl, 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Bolingbroke. As confident as is the falcon's flight 
 Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act. i. Scene 3. 
 
 King Henry. But what a point, my lord, your falcon 
 made, 
 
 And what a pitch she flew above the rest ! 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Pandarus. The falcon as the tercel, for all the 
 ducks i' the river : 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act. iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Old Man. . . . On Tuesday last, 
 A falcon, towering in her pride of place, 
 Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. 
 
 MACBETH, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 HAWK. 
 
 Page. ... I do invite you to-morrow morn- 
 ing to my house to breakfast : after, we'll a-birding 
 together j I have a fine hawk for the bush. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Lord. Dost thou love hawking ? thou hast hawks 
 
 will soar 
 Above the morning lark : 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Induction, Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 8 1 
 
 Dauphin. . . . le cheval volant, the Pegasus, 
 qui a les narines de feu ! When I bestride him I 
 soar, I am a hawk : 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 Warwick. Between two hawks, which flies the 
 higher pitch, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Suffolk. No marvel, an it like your majesty, 
 My lord protector's hawks do tower so well ; 
 They know their master loves to be aloft, 
 And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, 
 
 Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their 
 
 horse ; 
 
 SONNET XCI. 
 
 HAGGARD (AN UNTAMED HAWK). 
 
 Hero. ..... 
 
 No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful ; 
 I know, her spirits are as coy and wild 
 As haggards of the rock. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Viola. This fellow is wise enough to play the fool ; 
 And to do that well craves a kind of wit : 
 He must observe their mood on whom he jests, 
 The quality of persons, and the time ; 
 And, like the haggard, check at every feather 
 That comes before his eye. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act iii. Scene i. 
 G 
 
82 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Petrudo. Another way I have to man my haggard, 
 To make her come, and know her keeper's call, 
 
 Hortensio. I will be married to a wealthy widow 
 Ere three days pass ; which hath as long loved me, 
 As I have loved this proud disdainful haggard : 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scenes i and 2. 
 
 Othello. . . . If I do prove her haggard, 
 Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, 
 I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind, 
 To prey at fortune. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 STANNYEL (THE COMMON STONE HAWK). 
 
 Sir Toby. And with what wing the stannyel checks 
 at it ! 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 EYAS (A YOUNG HAWK). 
 
 Rosencrantz. . . . but there is, sir, an aiery 
 of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of 
 question, 
 
 HAMLET, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 EYAS-MUSKET. 
 
 Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin. 
 Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket ? what news 
 with you ? 
 
 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
BIRDS. 83 
 
 COYSTRIL (A COWARD HAWK). 
 
 Sir Toby. . . . He's a coward and a coystril, 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 PUTTOCK (A KITE). 
 
 Imogen. ... I chose an eagle, 
 And did avoid a puttock. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 OWL. 
 
 Ariel. There I couch when owls do cry. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 King Richard. For night-owls shriek, where mount- 
 ing larks should sing. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act. iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Warwick. Our soldiers' like the night-owPs lazy 
 
 flight, 
 
 Or like a lazy thresher with a flail 
 Fell gently down, as if they struck their friends. 
 
 King Henry. The owl shriek' d at thy birth, an 
 evil sign ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene 6. 
 
 Ajax. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenor 
 of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
84 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Ophelia. . . . They say, the owl was a baker's 
 daughter. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 Arviragus. The night to the owl, and morn to the 
 lark, less welcome. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 6. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. It was the owl that shriek'd, the 
 
 fatal bellman 
 Which gives the stern'st good night. 
 
 MACBETH, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 CHOUGH. 
 
 Puck. Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, 
 Rising and cawing at the gun's report, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Edgar. . . . How fearful 
 And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low ! 
 The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air, 
 Show scarce so gross as beetles ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 CROW. 
 
 Demetrius. That pure congealed white, high 
 
 Taurus' snow, 
 
 Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow, 
 When thou hold'st up thy hand : 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 85 
 
 Paulina, The casting forth to crows thy baby 
 daughter, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Iden cut off thy most ungracious 
 
 head ; 
 
 Which I will bear in triumph to the king, 
 Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene 10. 
 
 Troilus. . . . the busy day, 
 Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows, 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 id Captain. A leg of Rome shall not return to 
 
 tell 
 What crows have peck'd them here : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act v. Scene iii. 
 
 Coriolanus. . . . thus we debase 
 The nature of our seats, and make the rabble 
 Call our cares, fears : which will in time 
 Break ope the locks o' the senate, and bring in 
 The crows to peck the eagles. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Macbeth. . . . Light thickens ; and the crow 
 Makes wing to the rooky wood ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 And thou, treble-dated crow, 
 That thy sable gender mak'st 
 With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st, 
 'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go. 
 
 PHCENIX AND THE TURTLE. 
 
86 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 RAVEN. 
 
 Caliban. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd 
 With raven's feather from unwholesome fen, 
 Drop on you both ! 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Pistol. Young ravens must have food. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Hotspur. . . . sometime he angers me, 
 With telling me of .... 
 
 A clip-wing'd griffin, and a moulten raven, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. What, doth my lord of Suffolk comfort 
 
 me? 
 
 Came he right now to sing a raven's note, 
 Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 King Henry. The raven rook'd her on the chimney's 
 top, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act v. Scene 6. 
 
 Thersites. ... I would croak like a raven ; 
 I would bode, I would bode. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Juliet. For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night 
 Whiter than new snow on a raven's back. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 87 
 
 lachimo. Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, 
 
 that dawning 
 May bare the raven's eye ! 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Othello. . . . O, it comes o'er my memory, 
 As doth the raven o'er the infected house, 
 
 Boding to all, 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. . . . The raven himself is 
 
 hoarse 
 
 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
 Under my battlements. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 MAGPIE. 
 
 King Henry. And chattering pies in dismal dis- 
 cords sung. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act v. Scene 6. 
 
 ROOK. 
 
 Macbeth. . . . they say, blood will have 
 
 blood ; 
 Stones have been known to move, and trees to 
 
 speak ; 
 
 Augurs, and understood relations, have 
 By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought 
 
 forth 
 The secret'st man of blood. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
88 A?ATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 KITE. 
 
 Antigonus. . . . Come on, poor babe : 
 Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens 
 To be thy nurses ! 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Hastings. More pity that the eagle should be 
 
 mew'd, 
 While kites and buzzards prey at liberty. 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Antony. . . . Ay, you kite ! 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene n. 
 
 $d Servant. Where dwellest thou ? 
 
 Coriolanus. Under the canopy. 
 
 $d Servant. Under the canopy ? 
 
 Coriolanus. Ay. 
 
 2)d Servant. Where's that ? 
 
 Coriolanus. I' the city of kites and crows. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 Macbeth. ...... 
 
 If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send 
 Those that we bury, back, our monuments 
 Shall be the maws of kites. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 DAW. 
 
 Warwick. But in these nice sharp quillets of the 
 
 law, 
 Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
BIRDS. 89 
 
 Pandarus. . . . Ne'er look, ne'er look ; the 
 eagles are gone ; crows and daws, crows and daws ! 
 I had rather be such a man as Troilus, than Aga- 
 memnon and all Greece. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 lago. ... I will wear my heart upon my 
 
 sleeve 
 For daws to peck at. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 $d Servant. . . . Then thou dwellest with 
 
 daws too ? 
 Coriolanus. No, I serve not thy master. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 STARLING. 
 
 Hotspur. . . . I'll have a starling shall be 
 
 taught to speak 
 Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 JAY. 
 
 Caliban. I pr'ythee let me bring thee where crabs 
 
 grow, 
 
 And I with my long nails will dig thee pig nuts ; 
 Show thee a jay's nest, 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Mrs. Ford. Well teach him to know turtles from 
 jays. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
90 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Petrudo. What, is the jay more precious than the 
 
 lark, 
 Because his feathers are more beautiful ? 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 PHEASANT. 
 
 Clown. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant ; 
 say, you have none. 
 
 Shepherd. None, sir ; I have no pheasant, cock 
 nor hen. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 PARTRIDGE. 
 
 Beatrice. . . . he'll but break a comparison 
 or two on me ; which, peradventure, not marked, or 
 not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy; and 
 then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool will 
 eat no supper that night. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Warwick. Who finds the partridge in the puttock's 
 
 nest, 
 
 But may imagine how the bird was dead, 
 Although the kite soar with unblooded beak ? 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 QUAIL. 
 
 Thersites. Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow 
 enough, and one that loves quails ; 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene i. 
 
BIRDS. 91 
 
 WOODCOCK. 
 
 Claudia. Shall I not find a woodcock too 1 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Fabian. Now is the woodcock near the gin. 
 
 Clown. . . . thou shalt hold the opinion of 
 Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits ; and fear to 
 kill a woodcock, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy 
 grandam. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 5 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Grumio. O this woodcock ! what an ass it is ! 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 isf Lord. Go, tell the count Rousillon, and my 
 
 brother, 
 We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him 
 
 muffled 
 Till we do hear from them. 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Biron. ... I have my wish ; 
 Dumain transform'd : four woodcocks in a dish ! 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Clifford. ... so strives the woodcock with 
 the gin. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Polonius. . . . springes to catch woodcocks. 
 
92 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Osric. How is't, Laertes ? 
 
 Laertes. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, 
 
 Osric ; 
 I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 3 ; Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 PIGEON. 
 
 Celia. ....... 
 
 Here comes monsieur le Beau. 
 
 Rosalind. With his mouth full of news. 
 Celia. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed 
 their young. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Salarino. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly 
 To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont 
 To keep obliged faith unforfeited. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act ii. Scene 6. 
 
 Shallow. . . . But for William cook ; are 
 there no young pigeons ? 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act v. Scene i. 
 
 DOVE. 
 
 Bottom. ... I will aggravate my voice so, 
 that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove ; 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Gobbo. I have here a dish of doves, that I would 
 bestow upon your worship ; 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 93 
 
 Petrucio. For she's not forward, but modest as the 
 dove ; 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. Our kinsman Gloster is as innocent 
 From meaning treason to our royal person, 
 As is the sucking lamb, or harmless dove : 
 
 Queen Margaret. Seems he a dove? his feathers 
 
 are but borrowed, 
 For he's disposed as the hateful raven : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Paris. He eats nothing but doves, 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Romeo. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, 
 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Fair was the morn, when the fair queen of love, 
 
 Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove, 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, vii. 
 
 NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 Valentine. Except I be by Silvia in the night, 
 There is no music in the nightingale ; 
 
 Valentine. Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, 
 And to the nightingale's complaining notes 
 Tune my distresses, and record my woes. 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act iii. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene 4. 
 
94 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Bottom. ... I will roar you an't were any 
 nightingale. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Portia. ... I think, 
 The nightingale, if she should sing by day, 
 When every goose is cackling, would be thought 
 No better a musician than the wren. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Lord. Wilt thou have music ? hark ! Apollo plays, 
 And twenty caged nightingales do sing : 
 
 Petrucio. Say, that she rail ; why, then I'll tell her 
 
 plain 
 She sings as sweetly as a nightingale : 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Ind., Scene 2 ; 
 Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 Juliet. Wilt thou be gone ? it is not yet near day : 
 It was the nightingale, and not the lark, 
 That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear ; 
 Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree : 
 Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Edgar. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the 
 voice of a nightingale. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 6. 
 
 As it fell upon a day, 
 
 In the merry month of May, 
 
 Sitting in a pleasant shade 
 
 Which a grove of myrtles made, 
 
 Beasts did leap, and birds did sing, 
 
 Trees did grow, and plants did spring : 
 
BIRDS. 95 
 
 Everything did banish moan, 
 Save the nightingale alone : 
 She, poor bird, as all forlorn, 
 Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn, 
 And there sung the dolefulPst ditty, 
 That to hear it was great pity : 
 " Fie, fie, fie," now would she cry, 
 "Tereu, Tereu!" by-and-by : 
 That to hear her so complain, 
 Scarce I could from tears refrain ; 
 For her griefs so lively shown, 
 Made me think upon mine own. 
 
 PASSIONATE PILGRIM, xix. 
 
 LARK. 
 
 Helena. Your eyes are load-stars ; and your tongue's 
 
 sweet air 
 More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, 
 And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Portia. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark, 
 When neither is attended ; 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Autolycus. The lark that tirra-lirra chants, 
 
 WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Dauphin. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, 
 from the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, 
 vary deserved praise on my palfrey : 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
96 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Old Lady. With your theme, I could 
 
 O'ermount the lark. 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Romeo. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, 
 
 Juliet. It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away ; 
 It is the lark that sings so out of tune, 
 Straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps. 
 Some say the lark makes sweet division ; 
 This doth not so, for she divideth us : 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Edgar. From the dread summit of this chalky 
 
 bourn : 
 
 Look up a-height ; the shrill-gorged lark so far 
 Cannot be seen or heard : 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 Hark ! hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings, 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Lo ! here the gentle lark, weary of rest, 
 From his moist cabinet mounts up on high, 
 And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast 
 The sun ariseth in his majesty ; 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Like to the lark at break of day arising 
 From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate ; 
 
 SONNET XXIX. 
 
 ROBIN. 
 
 Speed. ... to relish a love-song, like a robin- 
 redbreast ; 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
BIRDS. 97 
 
 Aiviragus. With fairest flowers, 
 
 Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
 I'll sweeten thy sad grave : thou shalt not lack 
 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor 
 The azured hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor 
 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
 Out-sweeten'd not thy breath : the ruddock would 
 With charitable bill, (O bill, sore-shaming 
 Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie 
 Without a monument !) bring thee all this ; 
 Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, 
 To winter-ground thy corse. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 THROSTLE. THRUSH. 
 
 Bottom. The throstle with his note so true, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Portia. . . . if a throstle sing he falls straight 
 a capering ; 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Autolycus. With heigh ! with heigh ! the thrush 
 
 and the jay : 
 
 Are summer songs for me and my aunts, 
 While we lie tumbling in the hay. 
 
 WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 OUSEL-COCK. 
 
 Bottom. The ousel-cock, so black of hue, 
 
 With orange-tawny bill, 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 H 
 
1 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Silence. Alas ! a black ouzel, cousin Shallow. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 CUCKOO. 
 
 Pistol. Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo 
 birds do sing. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Bottom. ...... 
 
 The plain-song cuckoo gray, 
 Whose note full many a man doth mark, 
 
 And dares not answer, nay 
 
 for indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird ? 
 who would give a bird the lie, though he cry cuckoo 
 never so ? 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Lorenzo. That is the voice, 
 
 Or I am much deceived, of Portia. 
 
 Portia. He knows me, as the blind man knows the 
 
 cuckoo, 
 By the bad voice. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. So, when he had occasion to be seen 
 He was but as the cuckoo is in June, 
 Heard, not regarded ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Pompey. . . . the cuckoo builds not for 
 himself, 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Act ii. Scene 6. 
 
BIRDS. 99 
 
 LAPWING. 
 
 Adriana. Far from her nest the lapwing cries, 
 away ; 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Hero. For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, 
 
 runs 
 Close by the ground, 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Horatio. This lapwing runs away with the shell on 
 his head. 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 FINCH. 
 
 Bottom. The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 SWALLOW. 
 
 Perdita daffodils, 
 
 That come before the swallow dares, 
 
 WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . Do you think me a swallow, 
 an arrow or a bullet ? 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Richmond. True hope is swift, and flies with swal- 
 low's wings, 
 
 Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. 
 KING RICHARD III., Act v. Scene 2. 
 
TOO NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Scams. Swallows have built 
 
 In Cleopatra's sails their nests : 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iv. Scene 10. 
 
 2d Lord. The swallow follows not summer 
 More willing than we your lordship. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iii. Scene 6. 
 
 Titus. And I have horse will follow where the 
 
 game 
 Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 MARTLET. 
 
 Banquo. This guest of summer, 
 
 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
 Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
 Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird 
 Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle : 
 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
 
 The air is delicate. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 6. 
 
 HEDGE SPARROW. 
 
 Fool. The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, 
 That it had its head bit off by its young. 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 SPARROW. 
 Ceres. Tell me, heavenly bow, 
 
BIRDS. 10 1 
 
 If Venus, or her son, as thou dost know, 
 Do now attend the queen ? . . , 
 
 Iris. ....... 
 
 Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, 
 Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows, 
 And be a boy right out. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Lucio. . . . sparrows must not build in his 
 house-eaves, 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Adam. . . . He that doth the ravens feed, 
 Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
 Be comfort to my age ! 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Prince Henry. He that rides at high speed, and 
 with his pistol kills a sparrow flying. 
 Falstaff. You have hit it. 
 Prince Henry. So did he never the sparrow. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Hamlet. . . . there's a special providence in 
 the fall of a sparrow. 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Thersites. ... I will buy nine sparrows for a 
 penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part 
 of a sparrow. 
 
 Pandarus. . . . she fetches her breath 
 as short as a new-ta'en sparrow. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
102 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Duncan. Dismay'd not this 
 
 Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? 
 
 Soldier. Yes ; 
 
 As sparrows, eagles ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 WREN. 
 
 Bottom. The wren with little quill ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Sir Toby. Look where the youngest wren of nine 
 comes. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 King Henry. . . . thinks he that the chirping 
 
 of a wren, 
 
 By crying comfort from a hollow breast, 
 Can chase away the first-conceived sound ? 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Gloucester. . . . the world is grown so bad 
 That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch : 
 KING RICHARD III., Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Dionyza. Be one of those that think 
 
 The pretty wrens of Tharsus will fly hence, 
 And open this to Pericles. 
 
 PERICLES, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Lady Macduff. . . . the poor wren, 
 The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 
 Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 103 
 
 SWAN. CYGNET. 
 
 Celia. ... if she be a traitor, 
 Why so am I ; we still have slept together, 
 Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together ; 
 And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, 
 Still we went coupled, and inseparable. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Portia. ....... 
 
 Let music sound, while he doth make his choice ; 
 Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, 
 Fading in music : 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Prince Henry. I am the cygnet to this pale faint 
 
 swan, 
 Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death ; 
 
 KING JOHN, Act v. Scene 7. 
 
 Suffolk. So doth the swan her downy cygnets save, 
 Keeping them prisoner underneath her wings. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Antony. ... the swan's down feather 
 That stands upon the swell at full of tide, 
 And neither way inclines. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Emilia. ... I will play the swan, 
 And die in music ; 
 
 OTHELLO, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
104 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHA KESPEARE. 
 
 Benvolio. Compare her face with some that I shall 
 
 show, 
 And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Imogen. I' the world's volume 
 
 Our Britain seems as of it, but not in it ; 
 In a great pool, a swan's nest. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 Aaron. For all the water in the ocean 
 Can never turn the swan's black legs to white, 
 Although she lave them hourly in the flood : 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Let the priest in surplice white, 
 That defunctive music can, 
 Be the death-divining swan, 
 Lest the requiem lack his right. 
 
 THE PHCENIX AND THE TURTLE. 
 
 OSPREY. 
 
 Aufidius. I think he'll be to Rome, 
 
 As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it 
 By sovereignty of nature. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iv. Scene 7. 
 
 HANDSAW (A HERON). 
 
 Hamlet. . . . when the wind is southerly I 
 know a hawk from a handsaw. 
 
 HAMLET, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 105 
 
 PELICAN. 
 
 Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's son, 
 For that I was his father Edward's son ; 
 That blood already, like the pelican, 
 Hast thou tapp'd out, 
 
 KING RffcHARD II., Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 Laertes. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my 
 
 arms ; 
 
 And, like the kind life-rendering pelican, 
 Repast them with my blood. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 GULL. 
 
 Worcester. And being fed by us, you used us so 
 As that ungentle gull the cuckoo's bird 
 Useth the sparrow ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Senator. . . . I do fear, 
 When every feather sticks in his own wing, 
 Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, 
 Which flashes now a phoenix. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 SCAMEL (SEA-MELL). 
 
 Caliban. . . . I'll bring thee 
 To clust'ring filberds, and sometimes I'll get thee 
 Young scamels from the rock. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
io5 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 MALLET. MALLARD. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . there is no more conceit in him 
 than is in a mallet. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Scarus. Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doting 
 mallard, 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene 8. 
 
 WILD DUCK. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . there's no more valour in that 
 Poins than in a wild duck. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . such as fear the report of a 
 caliver worse than a struck fowl, or a hurt wild duck. 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 2 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 DIVE-DAPPER. 
 
 Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave, 
 Who, being look'd on, ducks as quickly in ; 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 WILD-FOWL. 
 
 Clown. What is the opinion of Pythagoras con- 
 cerning wild-fowl ? 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
BIRDS. 107 
 
 Bottom. ... a lion among ladies, is a most 
 dreadful thing : for there is not a more fearful wild- 
 fowl than your lion, living ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 WILD GOOSE. 
 
 Puck. . . . when they him spy, 
 As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Jaqucs. ... if he be free, 
 Why then, my taxing like a wild goose flies, 
 Unclaimed of any man. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 7. 
 
 Falstaff. A king's son ! If I do not beat thee out 
 of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all 
 thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll 
 never wear hair on my face more. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 GOOSfi. 
 
 Launce. ... I have stood on the pillory for 
 geese he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for't : 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Slender. . . . Pray you, uncle, tell mistress 
 Anne the jest, how my father stole two geese out of a 
 pen, good uncle. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
loS NA TURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Biron. The spring is near, when green geese are 
 a-breeding. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Mercutio. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose 
 chase, I am done ; for thou hast more of the wild- 
 goose in one of thy wits, than, I am sure, I have in 
 my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose ? 
 
 Romeo. Thou wast never with me for anything, 
 when thou wast not there for the goose. 
 
 Mercutio. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest. 
 
 Romeo. Nay, good goose, bite not. 
 
 Mercutio. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting ; it is 
 a most sharp sauce. 
 
 Romeo. And is it not well served in to a sweet 
 goose ? 
 
 Mercutio. O, here's a wit of cheverel that stretches 
 from an inch narrow to an ell broad ! 
 
 Romeo. I stretch it out for that word broad : 
 which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a 
 broad goose. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 GOSLING. 
 
 Coriolanus. . . . I'll never 
 Be such a gosling to obey instinct ; 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 DUCK. 
 
 Stephana. . . . swear then how thou escapedst. 
 
BIRDS. 109 
 
 Trinculo. Swam ashore, man, like a duck ; I can 
 swim like a duck, I'll be sworn. 
 
 Stephana. Here, kiss the book. Though thou 
 canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose. 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Cower. . . . the grizzled north 
 Disgorges such a tempest forth, 
 That, as a duck for life that dives, 
 So up and down the poor ship drives. 
 
 PERICLES, Act 3. 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 Fabian. . . . Contemplation makes a rare 
 turkey-cock of him ; 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 ist Carrier. The turkeys in my pannier are quite 
 starved. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Gower. Why, here he comes, swelling like a 
 turkey-cock. 
 
 Fluellan. Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his 
 turkey-cocks. Got pless yoif, ancient Pistol ! 
 
 KING, HENRY V., Act v. Scene I. 
 
 COCK. 
 
 Ariel. Hark, hark ! I hear 
 
 The strain of strutting chanticleer 
 Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
I io NA TURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Speed. . . . You were wont, when you laughed, 
 to crow like a cock ; 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Oberon. And look thou meet me ere the first cock 
 crow. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Jacques. When I did hear 
 
 The motley fool thus moral on the time, 
 My lungs began to crow like chanticleer, 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 7. 
 
 Katharine. What is your crest ? A coxcomb ? 
 Petrucio. A combless cock, so Kate will be my 
 
 hen. 
 
 Katharine. No cock of mine, you crow too like a 
 craven. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Horatio. ... I have heard, 
 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 
 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
 Awake the god of day ; and, at his warning, 
 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 
 The extravagant and erring spirit hies 
 To his confine : 
 
 Marcellus. ...... 
 
 Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Porter. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second 
 cock : 
 
 MACBETH, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
BIRDS. 
 
 HEN. 
 
 Falstaff. How now, dame Partlet the hen ? 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Shallow. . . . Some pigeons, Davy ; a 
 couple of short-legged hens ; a joint of mutton ; and 
 any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook. 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Volumnia. . . . Thou hast never in thy life 
 Show'd thy dear mother any courtesy ; 
 When she, (poor hen !) fond of no second brood, 
 Has cluck'd thee to the wars, and safely home, 
 Loaden with honour. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 CHICKEN. 
 
 Prospero. . . . My Ariel ; chick, 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act v. Scene I. 
 
 York 
 
 Say as you think, and speak it from your souls, 
 W r ere't not all one, an empty eagle were set 
 To guard the chicken from a hungry kite, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Pandarus. Troilns ? why, he esteems her no more 
 than I esteem an addle egg. 
 
 Cressida. If you love an addle egg as well as you 
 love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell. 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
112 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 All Servants. Gramercies, good fool : how does 
 your mistress ? 
 
 Fool. She's e'en setting on water to scald 
 Such chickens as you are. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Posthumus. . . . forthwith, they fly 
 Chickens, the way which they stoop' d eagles ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Macduff. 
 
 What, all my pretty chickens, 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 FOWL. 
 
 Dromio ....1 pray thee, let me in. 
 Dromio S. (within). Ay, when fowls have no 
 
 feathers, and fish have no fin. 
 
 Ant. E. Well, I'll break in : go, borrow me a 
 
 crow. 
 
 Dromio E. A crow without feather ; master, mean 
 you so? 
 
 For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a 
 feather : 
 
 If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow to- 
 gether. 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Isabella. . . . Even for our kitchens 
 We kill the fowl of season : 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Cardinal. Believe me, cousin Gloster, 
 
BIRDS. 113 
 
 Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly, 
 We had had more sport. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II., Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Gloster. Why, what a peevish fool was that of 
 
 Crete, 
 
 That taught his son the office of a fowl ; 
 And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd ! 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act v. Scene 6. 
 
 lachimo. . . . you know, strange fowl light 
 upon neighbouring ponds. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Marcus. . . . like a flight of fowl 
 Scatter' d by winds 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
ANIMALS. 
 
 Nathaniel. ... he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a 
 book ; he hath not eat paper, as it were ; he hath not drunk ink ... he 
 is only an animal only sensible in the duller parts ; 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 Puck. I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, 
 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 
 Neighing in likeness of a filly foal : 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Benedict. I would my horse had the speed of your 
 tongue ; and so good a continuer : 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Orlando. . . . His horses are bred better ; 
 for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they 
 are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly 
 hired : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Portia. Ay, that's a colt, indeed, for he doth nothing 
 but talk of his horse ; 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
ANIMALS. 115 
 
 Dion. . . . Go, fresh horses ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Curtis. ... I pray thee, news ? 
 
 Grumio. First, know, my horse is tired j my 
 master and mistress fallen out. 
 
 Curtis. How? 
 
 Grumio. Out of their saddles into the dirt. And 
 thereby hangs a tale. 
 
 Curtis. Let's ha't, good Grumio. 
 
 Grumio. Lend thine ear. 
 
 Now I begin : Imprimis, we came down 
 a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress : 
 
 Curtis. Both of one horse ? 
 
 Grumio. What's that to thee ? 
 
 Curtis. Why, a horse. 
 
 Grumio. Tell thou the tale : but hadst thou not 
 crossed me, thou shouldst have heard how her horse 
 fell, and she under her horse ; thou shouldst have 
 heard, in how miry a place : how she was bemoiled ; 
 how he left her with the horse upon her ; how he 
 beat me because her horse stumbled ; how she waded 
 through the dirt to pluck him off me ; how he swore ; 
 how she prayed, that never prayed before ; how I 
 cried ; how the horses ran away ; how her bridle was 
 burst ; how I lost my crupper ; with many things of 
 worthy memory, which now shall die in oblivion, and 
 thou return unexperienced to thy grave. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Ross. To horse, to horse ! urge doubts to them 
 that fear. 
 
1 16 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Willoughby. Hold out my horse, and I will first be 
 there. 
 
 Groom. O, how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld, 
 In London streets that coronation day, 
 When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary ! 
 That horse that thou so often hast bestrid ; 
 That horse that I so carefully have dress'd !. 
 
 King Richard. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, 
 
 gentle friend, 
 How went he under him ? 
 
 Groom. So proudly as if he had disdain'd the 
 ground. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Hotspur. Hath Butler brought those horses from 
 
 the sheriff? 
 
 Servant. One horse, my lord, he brought even now. 
 Hotspur. What horse ? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not ? 
 Servant. It is, my lord. 
 Hotspur. That roan shall be my throne. 
 Well, I will back him straight : 
 
 Esperance ! 
 Bid Butler lead him forth into the park. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 North. Now, Travers, what good tidings come 
 
 with you ? 
 Travers. My lord, sir John Umfrevile turn ? d me 
 
 back 
 
 With joyful tidings ; and, being better horsed, 
 Out-rode me. After him came, spurring hard, 
 A gentleman almost forspent with speed, 
 
ANIMALS. 117 
 
 That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse : 
 
 He ask'd the way to Chester ; and of him 
 
 I did demand what news from Shrewsbury. 
 
 He told me, that rebellion had ill luck, 
 
 And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold : 
 
 With that, he gave his able horse the head, 
 
 And, bending forward, struck his armed heels 
 
 Against the panting sides of his poor jade 
 
 Up to the rowel-head ; and starting so, 
 
 He seem'd in running to devour the way, 
 
 Staying no longer question. 
 
 North. Why should the gentleman that rode by 
 
 Travers 
 Give then such instances of loss ? 
 
 Lord Bardolph. Who, he ? 
 
 He was some hilding fellow, that had stolen 
 The horse he rode on ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Dauphin he is, indeed, 
 
 a horse \ and all other jades you may call beasts. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 Warwick. Between two horses, which doth bear 
 him best, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 York 
 
 . . . as fast as horse can carry them ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 York 
 
 Unless the adage must be verified, 
 
 That beggars, mounted, run their horse to death. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
1 1 8 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Gloucester. But yet I run before my horse to 
 market : 
 
 King Richard. A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom 
 for a horse ! 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act i. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Norfolk. . . . anger is like 
 A full-hot horse ; who being allow'd his way, 
 Self-mettle tires him. 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Calfhurnia. The noise of battle hurtled in the air, 
 Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan ; 
 
 ' JULIUS C^SAR, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Antony. That which is now a horse, even with a 
 
 thought 
 
 The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct, 
 As water is in water. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iv. Scene 12. 
 
 Ther sites. ... I think thy horse will sooner 
 con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without 
 book. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Martins. Yonder comes news : a wager they have 
 
 met. 
 
 Lartius. My horse to yours, no. 
 Martius. 'Tis done. 
 
 Lartius. Agreed. 
 
 Martins. Say, has our general met the enemy ? 
 Messenger. They lie in view ; but have not spoke 
 
 as yet. 
 
ANIMALS. 119 
 
 Lartius. So, the good horse is mine. 
 
 Maraus. I'll buy him of you. 
 
 Lartius. No, I'll nor sell nor give him : lend you 
 
 him I will, 
 For half a hundred years. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 2d Servant. May it please your honour, the lord 
 
 Lucius, 
 
 Out of his free love, hath presented to you 
 Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Hamlet. . . . six Barbary horses against six 
 French swords, 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Me^cutio. This is that very Mab 
 
 That plats the manes of horses in the night ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws 
 the horse ? 
 
 Lear. It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe a troop 
 of horse with felt : 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 4 ; Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 Macbeth. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot ; 
 And so I do commend you to their backs. 
 Farewell. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
120 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 DOG. 
 
 Ariel. Hark, hark ! 
 
 Bowgh-wowgh. 
 The watch-dogs bark : 
 
 Bowgh-wowgh. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Launce. I think Crab my dog be the sourest- 
 
 natured dog that lives : my mother weeping, my father 
 wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat 
 wringing her hands, and all our house in a great per- 
 plexity, yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one 
 tear : he is a stone, a very pebble-stone, and has no 
 more pity in him than a dog : 
 
 Launce. She hath more qualities than a 
 
 water-spaniel which is much in a bare Christian. 
 
 Launce. When a man's servant shall play the cur 
 with him, look you, it goes hard : one that I brought 
 up of a puppy ; one that I saved from drowning, 
 when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters 
 went to it ! 
 
 Proteus. Where have you been these two days 
 loitering ? 
 
 Launce. Marry, sir, I carried mistress Silvia the 
 dog you bade me. 
 
 Proteus. And what says she to my little jewel? 
 
 Launce. Marry, she says, your dog was a cur ; and 
 tells you, currish thanks is good enough for such a 
 present. 
 
ANIMALS. 
 
 Proteus. But she received my dog? 
 
 Launce. No, indeed did she not : here have I 
 brought him back again. 
 
 Proteus. What, didst thou offer her this from me ? 
 
 Launce. Ay, sir ; the other squirrel was stolen from 
 me by the hangman boys in the market-place : and 
 then I offered her mine own ; who is a dog as big as 
 ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater. 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act ii. Scene 3 ; 
 Act iii. Scene I ; Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Slender. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? 
 
 Slender. Why do your dogs bark so? be there 
 bears i' the town ? 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Theseus. Go one of you, find out the forester ; 
 For now our observation is perform'd ; 
 And since we have the vaward of the day, 
 My love shall hear the music of my hounds. 
 Uncouple in the western valley ; let them go : 
 Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. 
 We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, 
 And mark the musical confusion 
 Of hounds and echo in conjunction. 
 
 Hippolyta. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 
 When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 
 With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear 
 Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, 
 The skies, the fountains, every region near 
 Seem'd all one mutual cry : I never heard 
 So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 
 
 Theseus. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan 
 kind 
 
122 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 
 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 
 Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls ; 
 Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 
 Each under each. A cry more tuneable 
 Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, 
 In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly : 
 Judge, when you hear. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Beatrice. ... I had rather hear my dog bark 
 at a crow, than a man swear he loves me 
 
 Benedict (aside). An he had been a dog that should 
 have howled thus, they would have hanged him : 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act i. Scene i ; 
 Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Clown. Do not desire to see this letter. 
 Fabian. This is, to give a dog, and in recompense 
 desire my dog again. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Celia. Why, cousin ; why, Rosalind ; Cupid have 
 mercy ! not a word ? 
 
 Rosalind. Not one to throw at a dog. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Gratiano. . . . I am sir Oracle, 
 And when I ope my lips let no dog bark ! 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Lord. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my 
 
 hounds : 
 Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss'd ; 
 
ANIMALS. 123 
 
 And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach. 
 Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good 
 At the hedge corner, in the coldest fault ? 
 I would not lose the dog for twenty pound. 
 
 ist Huntsman. Why, Belman is as good as he, my 
 
 lord; 
 
 He cried upon it at the merest loss, 
 And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent. 
 Trust me, I take him for the better dog. 
 
 Lord. Thou art a fool ; if Echo were as fleet, 
 I would esteem him worth a dozen such. 
 But sup them well, and look unto them all ; 
 To-morrow I intend to hunt again. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Ind., Scene i. 
 
 Arthur. And, like a dog that is compelled to fight, 
 Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . you may stroke him as gently 
 as a puppy greyhound : 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Rambures. That island of England breeds very 
 valiant creatures ; their mastiffs are of umnatchable 
 courage. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 Talbot. They call'd us, for our fierceness, English 
 dogs; 
 
 Wat wick. Between two dogs, which hath the 
 deeper mouth, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 5 ; 
 Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
1 24 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Bolingbroke. The time when screech-owls cry, and 
 ban-dogs howl, 
 
 Gloster. A staff is quickly found to beat a dog. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act i. Scene 4 ; 
 Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Richard. ...... 
 
 Or as a bear, encompass'd round with dogs ; 
 Who having pinch J d a few, and made them cry 
 The rest stand all aloof, and bark at him. 
 
 KING HENRY VI. , Part III. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. To me you cannot reach, you play 
 
 the spaniel, 
 
 And think with wagging of your tongue to win me ; 
 KING HENRY VIII. , Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Brutus. And, gentle friends, 
 
 Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully ; 
 Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, 
 Not hew him as a carcase fit for hounds : 
 
 Brutus. I had 'rather be a dog, and bay the moon, 
 Than such a Roman. 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR, Act ii. Scene I ; Act iv. Scene iii. 
 
 Nestor. Two curs shall tame each other : pride 
 
 alone 
 Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. 
 
 Thersites. . '. . he will spend his mouth, and 
 promise, like Brabler the hound ; 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 3 ; 
 Act v. Scene i. 
 
ANIMALS. 125 
 
 Othello. Thou hadst better have been born a dog 
 Than answer my waked wrath. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Marrius. They said they were an-hungry ; sigh'd 
 
 forth proverbs, 
 
 That hunger broke stone walls ; that dogs must eat ; 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene I. 
 
 $d Servant. . . . has sent your honour two 
 brace of greyhounds. 
 
 Timon. I am Misanthropes, and hate mankind. 
 For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, 
 That I might love thee something. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act i. Scene 2 ; 
 Act iv. , Scene 3. 
 
 Fool. Truth's a dog must to kennel ; 
 
 Lear. The little dogs and all, 
 Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me. 
 
 Edgar. Tom will throw his head at them : 
 
 Avaunt, you curs ! 
 Be thy mouth or black or white, 
 Tooth that poisons if it bite ; 
 Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, 
 Hound or spaniel, brach or lym ; 
 Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail ; 
 Tom will make him weep and wail : 
 For, with throwing thus my head, 
 Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. 
 
 Lear. . . . Thou hast seen a farmer's dog 
 bark at a beggar ? 
 
126 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Gloster. Ay, sir. 
 
 Lear. And the creature run from the cur ? There 
 thou might'st behold the great image of authority : a 
 dog's obey'd in office. 
 
 Cornelia. . . . Mine enemy's dog, 
 Though he had bit me, should have stood that night 
 Against my fire. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 4 ; Act iii. Scene 6 ; 
 Act iv. Scenes 6 and 7. 
 
 Cornelius She doth think she has 
 
 Strange lingering poisons : 
 . . . Those she has 
 Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile : 
 Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats and 
 dogs; 
 
 Cornelius. The queen, sir, very oft importuned 
 
 me 
 
 To temper poisons for her ; still pretending 
 The satisfaction of her knowledge only 
 In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs 
 Of no esteem : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 5 ; Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 \st Murderer. We are men, my liege. 
 
 Macbeth. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
 As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
 Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped 
 All by the name of dogs : 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
ANIMALS. 127 
 
 ASS. 
 
 Adriana. There's none but asses will be bridled so. 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Bottom. ... I must to the barber's, mon- 
 sieur ; for, methinks, I am marvellous hairy about the 
 face ; and I arn such a tender ass, if my hair do but 
 tickle me I must scratch. 
 
 Titania. My Oberon ! what visions have I seen ! 
 Methought I was enamour'd of an ass. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Conrade. Away ! you are an ass, you are an ass. 
 
 Dogberry. Dost thou not suspect my place ? Dost 
 thou not suspect my years ? O that he were here to 
 write me down, an ass ! but, masters, remember, that 
 I am an ass ; though it be not written down, yet for- 
 get not that I am an ass. . . . O, that I had 
 been writ down an ass ! 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Katharine. Asses were made to bear, and so are 
 you. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Bastard. It lies as sightly on the back of him, 
 As great Alcides shows upon an ass : 
 But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back ; 
 Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
128 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 King Richard. I was not made a horse ; 
 
 And yet I bear a burden like an ass, 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Antony. And though we lay these honours on this 
 
 man, 
 
 To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads, 
 He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold, 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR, Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 lago. The Moor is of a free and open nature, 
 That thinks men honest that but seem to be so ; 
 And will as tenderly be led by the nose, as asses are. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Menemius. . . . your beards deserve not so 
 honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or 
 to be entombed in an ass's pack saddle. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 id Lord. Away, unpeaceable dog, or I'll spurn 
 
 thee hence. 
 Apcmantus. I will fly, like a dog, the heels of the 
 
 ass. 
 
 Timon. ... if thou wert the fox, the lion 
 would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert 
 accused by the ass : if thou wert the ass, thy dulness 
 would torment thee ; 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act i. Scene i ; 
 Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Polonius. The actors are come hither, my lord. 
 
 Hamlet. Buz, buz ! 
 
 Polonius. Upon mine honour, 
 
 Hamlet. Then came each actor on his ass, 
 
 HAMLET, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
ANIMALS. 129 
 
 Cloten. . . . 'Would there had been some 
 
 hurt done ! 
 
 2d Lord (aside). I wish not so ; unless it had been 
 the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 MULE. 
 
 Parolles. . . . Tongue, I must put you into a 
 butter-woman's mouth, and buy myself another of 
 Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils. 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Alenqon. Either they must be dieted like mules, 
 And have their provender tied to their mouths, 
 Or piteous they will look, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Griffith. He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, 
 He could not sit his mule. 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Soldier. . . . the messenger 
 Came on my guard ; and at thy tent is now 
 Unloading of his mules. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 Brutus. . . . For an end, 
 We must suggest the people in what hatred 
 He still hath held them ; that, to his power, he would 
 Have made them mules, 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 K 
 
130 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 BULL, BULLOCK. 
 
 Sebastian. Whiles we stood here securing your 
 
 repose, 
 
 Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing 
 Like bulls, 
 
 Gonzalo. Dew-lapp'd like bulls, 
 
 TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene I ; Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Don Pedro. " In time the savage bull doth bear 
 the yoke." 
 
 Benedict. The savage bull may ; but if ever the 
 sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns 
 and set them in my forehead : 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Prince Henry. From a god to a bull ? a heavy 
 declension ! it was Jove's case. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Claudio. I wish him joy of her. 
 Benedict. Why, that's spoken like an honest drover ; 
 so they sell bullocks. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Shallow. . . . How a good yoke of bullocks 
 at Stamford fair? 
 
 Silence. Truly, cousin, I was not there. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
ANIMALS. 131 
 
 OX. 
 
 Falstaff. I do begin to perceive that I am made an 
 ass. 
 
 Ford. Ay, and an ox too ; 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Touchstone. As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse 
 his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath his 
 desires ; 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Suffolk. So worthless peasants bargain for their 
 
 wives, 
 As market-men for oxen, sheep, or horse. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 George. Then is sin struck down like an ox, and 
 iniquity's throat cut like a calf. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Thersites. There's Ulysses and old Nestor, whose 
 wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on their 
 toes, yoke you like draught oxen, and make you 
 plough up the war. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 COW. 
 
 Beatrice. . . . it is said, God sends a curst cow 
 short horns : but to a cow too curst he sends none. 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
132 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Touchstone. ... I remember the kissing of 
 her batlet, and the cow's dugs that her pretty chopped 
 hands had milked : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Scams. The brize upon her, like a cow in June, 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene 8. 
 
 HEIFER. 
 
 Leontes. . . . Come, captain, 
 We must be neat ; not neat, but cleanly, captain : 
 And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf 
 Are all call'd neat. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Warwick. Who finds the heifer dead, and bleeding 
 
 fresh, 
 
 And sees fast by a butcher with an axe, 
 But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter ? 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 CALF. 
 
 Holof ernes. ... he clepeth a calf, cauf; 
 
 half, hauf ; 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Austria. King Philip, listen to the cardinal. 
 Bastard. And hang a calfs-skin on his recreant 
 limbs. 
 
ANIMALS. 133 
 
 Austria. Do so, king Philip ; hang no more in 
 doubt. 
 
 Bastard. Hang nothing but a calf s-skin, most 
 sweet lout. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. And as the butcher takes away the 
 
 calf, 
 
 And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays, 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Hamlet. And what did you enact ? . 
 
 Polonius. I did enact Julius Caesar : I was killed i' 
 the Capitol : Brutus killed me. 
 
 Hamlet. It was a brute part of him, to kill so 
 capital a calf there. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 RAM. 
 
 Florizel. . . . Jupiter 
 
 Became a bull, and bellow'd ; the green Neptune 
 A ram, and bleated ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 SHEEP. 
 
 Iris. Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling 
 sheep, 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Speed. Sir Proteus, save you ! Saw you my master ? 
 Proteus. But now he parted hence, to embark for 
 Milan. 
 
134 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Speed. Twenty to one then he's shipp'd already; 
 and I have play'd the sheep in losing him. 
 
 Proteus. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, 
 an if the shepherd be a while away. 
 
 Speed. You conclude that my master is a shepherd 
 then, and I a sheep ? 
 
 Proteus. I do. 
 
 Speed. Why then my horns are his horns, whether 
 I wake or sleep. 
 
 Proteus. A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep. 
 
 Speed. This proves me still a sheep. 
 
 Proteus. True ; and thy master a shepherd. 
 
 Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. 
 
 Proteus. It shall go hard but I'll prove it by 
 another. 
 
 Speed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the 
 sheep the shepherd ; but I seek my master, and my 
 master seeks not me : therefore, I am no sheep. 
 
 Proteus. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd, 
 the shepherd for food follows not the sheep ; thou 
 or wages followest thy master, thy master for wages 
 follows not thee ; therefore thou art a sheep. 
 
 Speed. Such another proof will make me cry baa. 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Benedict. Now, Divine air ! now is his soul ra- 
 vished ! Is it not strange that sheep's guts should 
 hale souls out of men's bodies? Well, a horn for 
 my money, when all's done. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Armado (to Holof ernes). Monsieur, are you not 
 
 lettered ? 
 
 Moth. Yes, yes ; he teaches boys the horn-book ; 
 What is a, b, spelt backward, with a horn on his head ? 
 
ANIMALS. 135 
 
 Holofernes. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added 
 Moth. Ba, most silly sheep, with a horn. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Shepherd. . . . Would any but these boiled 
 brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this 
 weather? They have scared away two of my best 
 sheep ; which, I fear, the wolf will sooner find than 
 the master ; if anywhere I have them, 'tis by the sea- 
 side, browsing of ivy. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Shallow. How a score of ewes now ? 
 
 Silence. Thereafter as they be : a score of good 
 ewes may be worth ten pounds. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Talbot. Sheep run not half so treacherous from the 
 wolf, 
 
 As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Cade. They fell before thee like sheep. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Thersites. ... I had rather be a tick in a 
 sheep, than such a valiant ignorance. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 LAMB. 
 
 Julia. Alas, poor Proteus ! thou hast entertain'd 
 A fox, to be the shepherd of thy lambs : 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
136 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Messenger. . . . he hath borne himself beyond 
 the promise of his age; doing, in the figure of a 
 lamb, the feats of a lion : 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Duke. . . . my thoughts are ripe in mischief : 
 I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, 
 To spite a raven's heart within a dove. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Gremio. . . . she's a lamb, a dove, 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Arthur. Nay, hear me, Hubert ! drive these men 
 
 away, 
 And I will sit as quiet as a lamb ; 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 York. In peace, was never gentle lamb more mild, 
 KING RICHARD II., Act. ii. Scene i. 
 
 King Henry. Our kinsman Gloster is as innocent 
 From meaning treason to our royal person, 
 As is the sucking lamb, or harmless dove : 
 Queen Margaret. .... 
 Is he a lamb ? his skin is surely lent him, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 * 
 King Henry. And when the lion fawns upon the 
 
 lamb, 
 The lamb will never cease to follow him. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act iv. Scene 8. 
 
ANIMALS. 137 
 
 GOAT. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . Am I ridden with a Welsh goat 
 
 too? 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Touchstone. Come apace, good Audrey; I will fetch 
 up your goats, Audrey : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Shy lock. A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, 
 Is not so estimable, profitable neither, 
 As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Glendower. The goats ran from the mountains, and 
 
 the herds 
 Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields. 
 
 Vernon. Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young 
 bulls. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene I ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Fluellen. . . . this leek ; . . . 
 
 . . I would desire you to eat it. 
 Pistol. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats. 
 Fluellen. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] 
 KING HENRY V., Actv. Scene i. 
 
 Arviragits. . . . what thing is it, that I never 
 Did see man die? scarce ever look'd on blood, 
 But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison ? 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
138 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Aaron. I'll make you feed on berries, and on roots, 
 And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat, 
 And cabin in a cave, and bring you up 
 To be a warrior, and command a camp. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 PIG. 
 
 Dromio E. The capon burns, the pig falls from the 
 spit; 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Shylock. Some men there are love not a gaping pig ; 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Mercutio. O, then, I see, queen Mab has been 
 with you. 
 
 Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, 
 And then dreams he of smelling out a suit : 
 And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, 
 Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep, 
 Then dreams he of another benefice : 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Aaron. Weke, weke ! so cries a pig prepared to the 
 spit. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 HOG. 
 
 Launcelot. . . . this making of Christians will 
 raise the price of hogs ; if we grow all to be pork- 
 
ANIMALS. 139 
 
 eaters we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals 
 for money. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 r. . . . hog in sloth, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 SOW. 
 
 Dauphin. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears 
 
 his own hair. 
 Constable. I could make as true a boast as that, if 
 
 I had a sow to my mistress. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 BOAR. 
 
 Petrucio. Have I not heard the sea, pufFd up with 
 
 winds, 
 Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat ? 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Hastings. To fly the boar, before the boar pursues, 
 Were to incense the boar to follow us, 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 ... to-morrow he intends 
 To hunt the boar with certain of his friends. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 STAG. 
 
 Falstaff. For me, I am here a Windsor stag ; 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
HO NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 \st Lord. To the which place a poor sequester'd 
 
 stag, 
 
 That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt, 
 Did come to languish ; 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 Talbot. . . . moody-mad and desperate stags, 
 Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel, 
 And make the cowards stand aloof at bay : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Ccesar. Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture 
 
 sheets, 
 The barks of trees thou browsed'st ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Lavinia. Jove shield your husband from his hounds 
 
 to-day ; 
 'Tis pity they should take him for a stag. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 HIND. 
 
 Touchstone. If a hart do lack a hind, 
 
 Let him seek out Rosalind. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 i 
 
 DEER. 
 Mrs. Ford. ... art thou there, my deer ? 
 
 I will never take you for my love again, 
 but I will always count you my deer. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
ANIMALS. 141 
 
 Holof ernes. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extem- 
 poral epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to 
 humour the ignorant, I. have called the deer the prin- 
 cess killed, a pricket. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Duke S. And did you leave him in this contem- 
 plation ? 
 
 2d Lord. We did, my lord, weeping and comment- 
 ing upon the sobbing deer. 
 
 As You LIKE It, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Talbot. A little herd of England's timorous deer, 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 ist Keeper. Under this thick-grown brake we'll 
 
 shroud ourselves ; 
 
 For through this laund anon the deer will come ; 
 And in this covert will we make our stand, 
 Culling the principal of all the deer. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Antony. How like a deer, stricken by many 
 
 princes, 
 
 Dost thou here lie ! 
 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Cloten. Tis gold 
 
 Which buys admittance ; oft it doth ; yea, and makes 
 Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up 
 Their deer to the stand o' the stealer ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
142 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Rosse. Your castle is surprised ; your wife, and 
 
 babes, 
 
 Savagely slaughter'd : to relate the manner, 
 Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer, 
 To add the death of you. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 BUCK. 
 
 Pandarus. Love, love, nothing but love, still more ! 
 For, oh, love's bow 
 Shoots buck and doe : 
 The shaft confounds, 
 Not that it wounds, 
 But tickles still the sore. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 DOE. 
 
 Demetrius. What, hast not thou full often struck 
 
 a doe, 
 And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose ? 
 
 Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound ; 
 But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground. 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scenes I and 2. 
 
 FAWN. 
 
 Orlando. Then, but forbear your food a little while, 
 Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn, 
 And give it food. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 7. 
 
ANIMALS. 143 
 
 HART. 
 
 Posthu. The swiftest harts have posted you by 
 land : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 ROE. 
 
 Princess. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land. 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 \st Servant. Say, thou wilt course ; thy greyhounds 
 
 are as swift 
 As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Ind., Scene 2. 
 
 FOX. 
 
 Ford. . . . Here, here, here be my keys : 
 ascend my chambers, search, seek, find out : I'll 
 warrant we'll unkennel the fox. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Pompey. 'Twas never merry world since, of two 
 usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser 
 allowed by order of law a furred gown to keep him 
 warm ; and furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to 
 signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands 
 for the facing. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Lysander. This lion is a very fox for his valour. 
 Theseus. True ; and a goose for his discretion. 
 
144 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Demetrius. Not so, my lord ; for his valour cannot 
 carry his discretion ; and the fox carries the goose. 
 
 Theseus. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry 
 his valour ; for the goose carries not the fox. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Moth. The fox, the ape, and the humble bee, 
 Were still at odds, being but three : 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Falstaff. There's no more faith in thee than in a 
 stewed prune ; nor no more truth in thee than in a 
 drawn fox; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Falstaff. To wake a wolf is as bad as to smell a 
 fox. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Suffolk. The fox barks not when he would steal 
 the lamb. 
 
 . . were't not madness then, 
 To make the fox surveyor of the fold ? 
 
 No ; let him die, in that he is a fox, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Gloster (aside). But when the fox hath once got 
 
 in his nose, 
 He'll soon find means to make the body follow. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act iv. Scene 7. 
 
 Cressida. . . . when they have said, as false 
 As air, as water, as wind, as sandy earth, 
 
ANIMALS. 145 
 
 As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, 
 Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son ; 
 Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, 
 As false as Cressid. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act in. Scene 2. 
 
 Marcius. . . . He that trusts to you, 
 Where he should find you lions finds you hares ; 
 Where foxes, geese : 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene I. 
 
 Timon. ... If thou wert the lion, the fox 
 would beguile thee ; if thou wert the lamb, the fox 
 would eat thee : if thou wert the fox, the lion would 
 suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused 
 by the ass : 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Fool. A fox, when one has caught her, 
 And such a daughter, 
 Should sure to the slaughter, 
 If my cap would buy a halter ; 
 So the fool follows after. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Or at the fox, which lives by subtlety, 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 HARE. 
 
 Prince Henry. What say'st thou to a hare, . . . ? 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Cressida. . . . They that have the voice of 
 lions, and the act of hares, are they not monsters ? 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 L 
 
146 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Aufidius. If I fly, Marcius, 
 
 Halloo me like a hare. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 8. 
 
 Soldier. . . . the hare, the lion. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 But if thou needs will hunt, be ruled by me ; 
 Uncouple at the timorous flying hare, 
 
 " And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare, 
 Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles, 
 How he outruns the wind, and with what care 
 He cranks and crosses, with a thousand doubles : 
 The many musits through the which he goes 
 Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes. 
 
 " Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep, 
 To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell, 
 And sometime where earth-delving conies keep, 
 To stop the loud pursuers in their yell ; 
 
 And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer : 
 Danger deviseth shifts ; wit waits on fear : 
 
 " For there his smell with others being mingled, 
 The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt, 
 Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled 
 With much ado the cold fault cleanly out ; 
 
 Then do they spend their mouths : Echo replies, 
 As if another chase were in the skies. 
 
 " By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill, 
 Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear, 
 
ANIMALS. 147 
 
 To hearken if his foes pursue him still ; 
 
 Anon their loud alarms he doth hear ; 
 And now his grief may be compared well 
 To one sore sick that hears the passing-bell. 
 
 "Then shalt.thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch 
 Turn, and return, indenting with the way ; 
 Each envious brier his weary legs doth scratch, 
 Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay : 
 For misery is trodden on by many, 
 And being low never relieved by any. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 RABBIT. 
 
 Moth. ... a rabbit on a spit ; 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Biondello. . . . she went to the garden for 
 parsley to stuff a rabbit ; 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . hang me up by the heels for a 
 rabbit sucker, or a poulter's hare. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 CONEY. 
 
 Orlando. Are you native of this place ? 
 Rosalind. As the coney, that you see dwell where 
 she is kindled. 
 
 As You *LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
1 48 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Northumberland. So doth the coney struggle in the 
 net. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 $d Servant. . . . they will out of their bur- 
 rows, like conies after rain, 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 SQUIRREL. 
 
 Titania. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 
 The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Mercutio. Her chariot is an empty hazel nut, 
 Made by the joiner squirrel, 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 MOLE. 
 
 Caliban. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole 
 
 may not 
 Hear a foot fall : 
 
 . THE TEMPEST, Activ. Scene i. 
 
 Autolycus. ... I will bring these two moles, 
 these blind ones, aboard him : 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Hamlet. Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the 
 ground so fast? 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
ANIMALS. 149 
 
 Pericles, The blind mole casts 
 
 Copp'd hills toward heaven, to tell, the earth is 
 
 throng'd 
 By man's oppression ; 
 
 PERICLES, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 WEASEL. 
 
 Jaques. I can suck melancholy out of 
 
 a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 Lady. Out, you mad-headed ape ! 
 A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen 
 As you are toss'd with. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Westmoreland. For once the eagle England being 
 
 in prey, 
 
 To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 
 Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs ; 
 KING HENRY V., Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Hamlet. Methinks, it is like a weasel. 
 Polonins. It is backed like a weasel. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Pisanio. As quarrellous as the weasel ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 FERRET. 
 
 Brutus. . . . such ferret and such fiery eyes, 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
150 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 HEDGEHOG. 
 
 Caliban. . . . then like hedgehogs, which 
 Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount 
 Their pricks at my footfall ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 ist Fairy. ...... 
 
 Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen ; 
 
 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Gloster. I grant ye. 
 
 Anne. Dost grant me, hedgehog ? 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 zd Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whined. 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 CAT. 
 
 Antonio. They'll take suggestion as a cat laps 
 milk ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Claud. What ! courage, man ! What though care 
 killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill 
 
 care. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Touchstone. If the cat will after kind, 
 So, be sure, will Rosalind. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
ANIMALS. 151 
 
 Glendower. ... at my birth, 
 The frame and huge foundation of the earth 
 Shaked like a coward. 
 
 Hotspur. Why, so it would have done at the same 
 season, if your mother's cat had but kittened, though 
 yourself had never been born. 
 
 Hotspur. ... a ramping cat, 
 
 Fal staff. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal 
 
 cream. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene I ; 
 Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Ther sites. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a 
 
 fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, a puttock, or a her- 
 ring without a roe, I would not care : but to be 
 Menelaus, I would conspire against destiny. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 lago. Come, be a man. Drown thyself? 
 
 drown cats and blind puppies. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Martius. The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat as they 
 
 did budge 
 From rascals worse than they. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 6. 
 
 Hamlet. Let Hercules himself do what he may, 
 The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Benvolio. Why, what is Tybalt? 
 Mercutio. More than prince of cats, I can tell you. 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
152 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Gower. The cat, with eyne of burning coal, 
 Now couches from the mouse's hole ; 
 
 PERICLES, Act iii. 
 
 Edgar. Pur ! the cat is gray. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 6. 
 
 Lady M. Letting / dare not wait upon / would, 
 Like the poor cat i' the adage. 
 
 \st Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 7 ; Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Shy lock. Some, that are mad if they behold a cat ; 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Hotspur. I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 RAT. 
 
 Prospero. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark ; 
 Bore us some leagues to sea ; where they prepared 
 A rotten carcase of a boat, not rigg'd, 
 Nor tackle, sail, nor mast ; the very rats 
 Instinctively have quit it ; 
 
 TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Shallow. I have seen the time with my 
 
 long sword I would have made you four tall fellows 
 skip like rats. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Claudio. Our natures do pursue 
 
ANIMALS. 153 
 
 (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane) 
 A thirsty evil ; and when we drink, we die. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Rosalind. I was never so be-rhymed 
 
 since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat, which 
 I can hardly remember. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Shylock. What if my house be troubled with a rat, 
 And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats 
 To have it baned ? 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Menenius. Rome and her rats are at the point of 
 
 battle, 
 The one side must have bale. 
 
 Martins. The Volsces have much corn ; take these 
 
 rats thither 
 To gnaw their garners. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene I. 
 
 Queen. Behind the arras hearing something stir, 
 He whips his rapier out, and cries, A rat ! a rat ! 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Mercutio. Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk? 
 Tybalt. What wouldst thou have with me ? 
 Mercutio. Good king of cats, nothing, but one of 
 your nine lives ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Kent. Such smiling rogues as these, 
 
 Like rats, oft bite the holy cords a-twain 
 Which are too intrinse t' unloose : 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
154 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Cornelius. . . . If Pisanio 
 Have, said she, given his mistress that confection 
 Which I gave him for cordial, she is served 
 As I would serve a rat. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 ist Witch. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master 
 
 o' the Tiger : 
 
 But in a sieve I'll thither sail, 
 And, like a rat without a tail, 
 I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 MOUSE. 
 
 Lucio. He to give fear to use and liberty, 
 Which have, for long, run by the hideous law. 
 As mice by lions 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Lion. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 
 The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, 
 
 Puck. . . . not a mouse 
 Shall disturb this hallow'd house : 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act v. Scenes i and 2. 
 
 Falstaff. Thou wilt be as valiant as the 
 
 wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Westmoreland. Playing the mouse, in absence of 
 
 the cat, 
 To spoil and havoc more than she can eat. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act i. Scene 2. 
 
ANIMALS. 155 
 
 Alen$on. . . . piteous they will look, like 
 drowned mice. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Bernardo. Have you had quiet guard ? 
 Francisco. Not a mouse stirring. 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Mercutio. What, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to 
 scratch a man to death ! 
 
 Romeo. . . . heaven is here, 
 Where Juliet lives ; and every cat, and dog, 
 And little mouse, every unworthy thing, 
 Live here in heaven, and may look on her, 
 But Romeo may not. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iii. Scenes i and 3. 
 
 Edgar. But mice, and rats, and such small deer, 
 Have been Tom's food for seven long year. 
 
 Edgar. The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, 
 Appear like mice ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 4 ; Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 ELEPHANT. 
 
 Decius. . . , he loves to hear 
 That unicorns may be betrayed with trees, 
 And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, 
 Lions with toils, and men with flatterers : 
 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
1 56 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Alexander. They say he is a very man per se, 
 And stands alone. 
 
 Cressida. So do all men ; unless they are drunk, 
 sick, or have no legs. 
 
 Alexander. This man, lady, hath robbed many 
 beasts of their particular additions ; he is as valiant as 
 the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant : 
 
 Ulysses. The elephant hath joints, but none for 
 courtesy : 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 2 ; 
 Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 CAMEL. 
 
 King Richard. It is as hard to come, as for a camel 
 To thread the postern of a needle's eye. 
 
 KING RICHARD II. , Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Cressida. There is among the Greeks, Achilles ; a 
 better man than Troilus. 
 
 Pandarus. Achilles ? a drayman, a porter, a very 
 camel. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Brutus. . . . holding them, 
 In human action and capacity, 
 Of no more soul, nor fitness for the world, 
 Than camels in their war ; 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Hamlet. Do you see that cloud, that's almost in 
 shape like a camel ? 
 
ANIMALS. 157 
 
 Polonius. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel in- 
 deed. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 LION. 
 
 Antonio. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear ; 
 To make an earthquake ! sure, it was the roar 
 Of a whole herd of lions. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Duke. Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, 
 That goes not out to prey. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Quince. . . . Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's 
 part : and, I hope, here is a play fitted. 
 
 Snug. Have you the lion's part written ? pray you, 
 if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. 
 
 Quince. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing 
 but roaring. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Holofernes. You have put me out of countenance. 
 Biron. False ; we have given thee faces. 
 Holofernes. But you have out-faced them all. 
 Biron. An thou wert a lion, we would do so. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Prince Morocco. Yea, mock the lion when he roars 
 for prey, 
 
 Jessica. In such a night, 
 
 Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew ; 
 
158 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 And saw the lion's shadow ere himself, 
 And ran dismay'd away. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene I. 
 
 Petrucio. Have I not in my time heard lions roar ? 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Bast. He that perforce robs lions of their hearts, 
 May easily win a woman's. 
 
 King Philip. Richard, that robb'd the lion of his 
 
 heart, 
 And fought the holy wars in Palestine, 
 
 Bast. You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, 
 Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard. 
 
 Bast. Talks as familiarly of roaring lions, 
 As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs ! 
 
 KING JOHN, Act i. Scene i ; Act ii. 
 Scenes i and 2. 
 
 King Richard. . . . lions make leopards 
 tame. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Falstaff. I shall think the better of 
 
 myself, and thee, during my life ; I for a valiant lion, 
 and thou for a true prince. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 King Henry. The man that once did sell the lion's 
 
 skin 
 While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iv. Scene 3. ' 
 
ANIMALS. 159 
 
 Talbot. Hark, countrymen ! either renew the fight, 
 Or tear the lions out of England's coat ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Queen Margaret. Small curs are not regarded when 
 
 they grin ; 
 But great men tremble when the lion roars ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Richard. Methought, he bore him in the thickest 
 
 troop 
 As doth a lion in a herd of neat : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Wolsey. He parted frowning from me, as if ruin 
 Leap'd from his eyes : so looks the chafed lion 
 Upon the daring huntsman that has gall'd him ; 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Casca. Against the Capitol I met a lion, 
 Who glared upon me, and went surly by 
 Without annoying me : 
 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Enobarbus (aside). 'Tis better playing with a lion's 
 
 whelp, 
 Than with an old one dying. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene n. 
 
 Patroclus. ...... 
 
 And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane, 
 Be shook to airy air. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Hamlet. My fate cries out, 
 
 And makes each petty artery in this body 
 As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
160 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Gent. This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear 
 
 would couch, 
 
 The lion and the belly-pinched wolf 
 Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, 
 And bids what will take all. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Posthumus. ... to grin like lions 
 Upon the pikes o' the hunters. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Lavinia. Yet have I heard, oh could I find it 
 
 now ! 
 
 The lion, moved with pity, did endure 
 To have his princely paws pared all away. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 " To see his face the lion walk'd along 
 Behind some hedge, because he would not fear him ; 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, 
 
 SONNET XIX. 
 
 LIONESS. 
 
 Oliver. ..... 
 
 A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, 
 Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch, 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Bast. . . . (To Austria) Sirrah, were I at 
 
 home, 
 At your den, sirrah, with your lioness, 
 
ANIMALS. 161 
 
 I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide, 
 And make a monster of you. 
 
 KING JOHN, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Calphurnia. A lioness hath whelped in the streets ; 
 JULIUS C^SAR, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 TIGER. 
 
 Proteus. For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' 
 
 sinews ; 
 
 Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones, 
 Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans 
 Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Helena. . . . the mild hind 
 Makes speed to catch the tiger : bootless speed ! 
 When cowardice pursues, and valour flies. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 York. O, tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide ! 
 
 But you are more inhuman, more inexorable, 
 O, ten times more, than tigers of Hyrcania. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Nestor. The herd hath more annoyance by the 
 
 brize 
 Than by the tiger ; 
 
 Troilus. . . . when we vow to weep seas, live 
 in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers ; 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 3 ; 
 
 Act iii. Scene 2. 
 M 
 
1 62 NATURAL HISTORY OF SPIAKESPEARE. 
 
 Menenius. . . . there is no more mercy in 
 him than there is milk in a male tiger ; 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Timon. . . . tigers, dragons, wolves, and 
 bears ; 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Romeo. The time and my intents are savage-wild ; 
 More fierce, and more inexorable far, 
 Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Albany. What have you done ? 
 
 Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd ? 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Lavinia. When did the tiger's young ones teach 
 the dam? 
 
 TITUS A^IDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 To recreate himself, when he hath sung, 
 
 The tiger would be tame, and gently hear him ; 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, 
 
 SONNET XIX. 
 
 LEOPARD, LIBBARD, PARD. 
 
 Prospero. . . . and more pinch-spotted make 
 
 them, 
 Than pard or cat o' mountain. 
 
 TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
ANIMALS. 163 
 
 Oberon. What thou seest, when thou dost wake, 
 Do it for thy true-love take ; 
 Love and languish for his sake ; 
 Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 
 Pard, or boar with bristled hair, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Costard. I Pompey am, 
 
 Boyet. With libbard's head on knee. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Talbot. Sheep run not half so treacherous from the 
 
 wolf, 
 
 Or horse, or oxen, from the leopard, 
 As you fly from your oft-subdued slaves. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Timon. . . . wert thou a horse, thou wouldst 
 be seized by the leopard : wert thou a leopard, thou 
 wert german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred 
 were jurors on thy life : all thy safety were remotion ; 
 and thy defence, absence. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 PANTHER. 
 
 Titus. To-morrow, an it please your majesty 
 To hunt the panther and the hart with me, 
 With horn and hound, we'll give your grace bon-jour. 
 
 Marcus. I have dogs, my lord, 
 
 Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase, 
 
i6 4 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Aaron. ...... 
 
 Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit, 
 Where I espied the panther fast asleep. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act i. Scene 2 \ 
 Act ii. Scenes 2 and 4. 
 
 HYENA. 
 
 Rosalind. ... I will laugh like a hyen, and 
 that when thou art inclined to sleep. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 RHINOCEROS. 
 
 Macbeth. What man dare, I dare : 
 Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, 
 The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 UNICORN. 
 
 Sebastian. Now I will believe 
 
 That there are unicorns ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Decius. ... he loves to hear 
 That unicorns may be betray'd with trees, 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Timon. . . . wert thou the unicorn, pride and 
 wrath would confound thee, 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
ANIMALS. 165 
 
 BEAR. 
 
 Dromio S. As from a bear a man would run for 
 
 life, 
 So fly I from her that would be my wife. 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Slender. . . . Why do your dogs bark so ? be 
 there bears i' the town ? 
 
 Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of. 
 
 Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon 
 quarrel at it, as any man in England. You are afraid, 
 if you see the bear loose, are you not ? 
 
 Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. 
 
 Slender. That's meat and drink to me, now : I 
 have seen Sackerson loose twenty times ; and have 
 taken him by the chain : but, I warrant you, the 
 women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it 
 passed : but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em ; 
 they are very ill-favoured rough things. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Oberon. The next thing then she waking looks upon, 
 Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, 
 
 She shall pursue it with the soul of love. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Claudia. . . . Hero and Margaret have by 
 this played their parts with Beatrice ; and then the 
 two bears will not bite one another when they meet. 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
1 66 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Prince of Morocco. Pluck the young sucking cubs 
 from the she-bear, 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Clown. . . . And then for the land-service, 
 to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone ; how 
 he cried to me for help, and said his name was 
 Antigonus, a nobleman. .... how the poor 
 gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him, 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Orleans. Foolish curs ! that run winking into the 
 mouth of a Russian bear, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 York. Call hither to the stake my two brave bears, 
 That, with the very shaking of their chains, 
 They may astonish these fell lurking curs ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Antony. Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish : 
 A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion, 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iv. Scene 12. 
 
 Alexander. . . . churlish as the bear, 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Othello. ^ O, she will sing the savageness 
 
 out of a bear ! 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Brutus. He's a lamb, indeed, that baes like a bear. 
 Menenius. He's a bear, indeed, that lives like a 
 lamb. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
ANIMALS. 167 
 
 Timon. . . . wert thou a bear, thou wouldst 
 be killed by the horse ; 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act ivi Scene 3. 
 
 Juliet. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, 
 From off the battlements of yonder tower ; 
 . . . . chain me with roaring bears ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Fool. . . . Horses are tied by the heads ; 
 dogs and bears by the neck ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 WOLF. 
 
 Don Pedro. Good morrow, masters ; put your 
 
 torches out : 
 
 The wolves have prey'd : and look, the gentle day, 
 Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about 
 Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 Gratiano. Thou almost mak'st me waver in my 
 
 faith, 
 
 To hold opinion with Pythagoras, 
 That souls of animals infuse themselves 
 Into the trunks of men : thy currish spirit 
 Governed a wolf, 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Antigonus. -^Come on, poor babe : 
 
 Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens 
 To be thy nurses ! Wolves and bears, they say, 
 Casting their savageness aside, have done 
 Like offices of pity. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
1 68 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Chief -Justice. . . . since all is well, keep it 
 so : wake not a sleeping wolf. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Constable. . . . they will eat like wolves, 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
 Shepherd. I wish some ravenous wolf had eaten 
 thee! 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 Gloster. Ah, thus king Henry throws away his 
 
 crutch, 
 
 Before his legs be firm to bear his body : 
 Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side, 
 And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first. 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Richard. Nay, Warwick, single out some other 
 
 chase ; 
 For I myself will hunt this wolf to death. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth. Wilt thou, O God, fly from such 
 
 gentle lambs, 
 And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Buckingham. This holy fox, 
 
 Or wolf, or both (for he is equal ravenous 
 As he is subtle ; and as prone to mischief, 
 As able to perform it : his mind and place 
 Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally,) 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act i. Scene i. 
 
ANIMALS. 169 
 
 Cassius. And why should Caesar be a tyrant, then ? 
 Poor man ! I know he would not be a wolf, 
 But that he sees the Romans are but sheep : 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Ulysses. And appetite, an universal wolf, 
 So doubly seconded with will and power, 
 Must make, perforce, an universal prey, 
 And, last, eat up himself. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Sicinius. Nature teaches beasts to know their 
 
 friends. 
 
 Menenius. Pray you, who does the wolf love ? 
 Sicinius. The lamb. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Lear. To be a comrade with the wolf and owl, 
 
 Fool. He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a 
 wolf, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 4 ; Act iii. Scene 6. 
 
 Arviragus. . . . subtle as the fox, for prey ; 
 Like warlike as the wolf, for what we eat : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Macbeth. . . . and wither'd murder, 
 Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, 
 Whose howl's his watch, 
 
 MACBETH, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 If he had spoke, the wolf would leave his prey, 
 And never fright the silly lamb that day. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
1 70 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 PORCUPINE. 
 
 York. In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade 
 Oppose himself against a troop of kerns ; 
 And fought so long, till that his thighs with darts 
 Were almost like a sharp-quill' d porcupine : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not ; 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Ghost. . . . But that I am forbid 
 To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
 I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word 
 Would harrow up thy soul ; freeze thy young blood ; 
 Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ; 
 Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 
 And each particular hair to stand an end, 
 Like quills upon the fretful porcupine ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 MONKEY. 
 
 Oberon. On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Rosalind. . . . more giddy in my desires than 
 a monkey : 
 
 As You LIKE IT. Act ir. Scene i. ,' 
 
 Tubal. One of them showed me a ring, that he had 
 of your daughter for a monkey. 
 
ANIMALS, 171 
 
 Shylock. Out upon her ! Thou torturest me, Tubal : 
 it was my turquoise : I had it of Leah, when I was a 
 bachelor : I would not have given it for a wilderness 
 of monkeys. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Fool. . . . Horses are tied by the heads ; 
 . . . . monkeys by the loins ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Imogen. What makes your admiration ? 
 
 Jachimo (aside). It cannot be i' the eye ; for apes 
 
 and monkeys, 
 
 'Twixt two such shes, would chatter this way and 
 Contemn with mows the other : 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 6. 
 
 APE. 
 
 Caliban. Sometimes like apes, that moe and chat- 
 ter at me, 
 And after, bite me ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Isabel. . . . but man, proud man ! 
 Dress'd in a little brief authority, 
 Most ignorant of what he's most assured, 
 His glassy essence, like an angry ape, 
 Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, 
 As make the angels weep : 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Beatrice. ... so deliver I up my apes, and 
 away to saint Peter : 
 
172 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Don Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he 
 goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit ! 
 
 Claud. He is then a giant to an ape : but then is 
 an ape a doctor to such a man. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene i ; 
 Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Jaques. Well then, if ever I thank any man I'll 
 thank you : but that they call compliments is like the 
 encounter of two dog-apes ; 
 
 Rosalind. . . . more new-fangled than an ape ; 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 5 ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Lady. What is it carries you away ? 
 
 Hotspur. Why, my horse, my love, my horse. 
 Lady. Out, you mad-headed ape ! 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 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. 
 KING RICHARD III., Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Antony. You show'd your teeth like apes, 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Marcius. You souls of geese 
 
 That bear the shapes of men, how have you run 
 From slaves that apes would beat ! 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Hamlet. . . . and, like the famous ape, 
 To try conclusions, in the basket creep, 
 And break your own neck down. 
 
ANIMALS. 173 
 
 Hamlet. ... he keeps them, like an ape 
 doth nuts, in the corner of his jaw ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 4 ; Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 BABOON. 
 
 Falstaff. ... I have grated upon my good 
 friends for three reprieves for you and your coach- 
 fellow, Nym ; or else you had looked through the 
 grate, like a geminy of baboons. 
 
 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Doll. They say Poins hath a good wit. 
 Falstaff. He a good wit ? hang him, baboon ! 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 lago. Ere I would say I would drown 
 
 myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change 
 my humanity with a baboon. 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 2d Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
 Then the charm is firm and good. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 MARMOZET. 
 
 Caliban. . . and instruct thee how to snare the 
 nimble marmozet ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
174 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 POLECAT, MUSKCAT, FITCHEW. 
 
 Evans. What is fair, William ? 
 
 William. Pulcher. 
 
 Quickly. Polecats ! there are fairer things than 
 polecats, sure. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Clown. Here is a pur of fortune's, sir, or of for- 
 tune's cat, (but not a musk-cat,) that has fallen into 
 the unclean fish-pond of her displeasure, and as he 
 says, is muddied withal : 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Thersites. To be ... a fitchew, .... 
 I would not care : 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 OTTER. 
 
 Hostess. Say, what beast, thou knave thou ? 
 Falstaff. What beast ? why, an otter ! 
 Prince Henry. An otter, sir John ! why an otter ? 
 Falstaff. Why ? she's neither fish nor flesh ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
FISH. 
 
 3<s? Fisher. I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. 
 ist Fisher. Why, as men do a-land ; the great ones eat up 
 the little ones. 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 SALMON. 
 
 Fluellen. There is a river in Macedon ; 
 
 and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth : it 
 is called Wye, at Monmouth ; but it is out of my 
 prains what is the name of the other river ; but 'tis 
 all one, 'tis alike as my ringers is to my fingers, and 
 there is salmons in both. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act iv. Scene 7. 
 
 TROUT. 
 
 Maria. . . . here comes the trout that must 
 be caught with tickling. 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 COD. 
 
 lago. She that in wisdom never was so frail, 
 To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail ; 
 
 OTHELLO, Act ii. Scene I. 
 
1 76 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHA KESPEARE. 
 
 MACKEREL. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . you may buy land now as 
 cheap as stinking mackerel. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 HERRING. 
 
 Cams. By gar, de herring is no dead so as I vill 
 kill him. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Sir Toby. ... a plague o' these pickle 
 herrings ! 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Falstaff. Go thy ways, old Jack ; die 
 
 when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not 
 forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten 
 herring. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Cade. We John Cade, so termed of our supposed 
 father, 
 
 Dick (aside). Or rather, of stealing a cade of 
 herrings. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Thersites. To be . . . a herring 
 
 without a roe, I would not care : 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene i. 
 
FISH. 177 
 
 Benvolio. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. 
 Mercutio. Without his roe, like a dried herring : 
 O, flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified ! 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 PILCHARD. 
 
 Clown. . . . fools are as like husbands as 
 pilchards are to herrings, 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 GURNET. 
 
 Falstaff. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers I am 
 a soused gurnet. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 CONGER. 
 
 Doll. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang 
 yourself ! 
 
 Falstaff. 
 
 . . . . eats conger and fennel ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 POOR JOHN. 
 
 Gregory. T is well thou art not fish; if thou had'st, 
 thou had'st been poor John. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 N 
 
178 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Trinculo. What have we here ? A man 
 
 or a fish ? Dead or alive ? A fish : he smells like 
 a fish ; a very ancient and fish-like smell ; a kind of, 
 not of the newest, Poor-John. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 EEL. 
 
 Moth. I will praise an eel with the same praise. 
 Armado. What ? that an eel is ingenious ? 
 Moth. That an eel is quick. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Petrucio. Or is the adder better than the eel, 
 Because his painted skin contents the eye ? 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Bast. My arms such eel-skins stuff'd, 
 
 KING JOHN, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Fahtaff. . . . you might have trussed him, 
 and all his apparel, into an eel-skin ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the 
 eels, when she put 'em i' the paste alive ; she knapp'd 
 7 em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, Down, 
 wantons, down : 'twas her brother that, in pure kind- 
 ness to his horse, butter'd his hay. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 PIKE. DACE. 
 Falstaff. I the young dace be a bait for the old 
 
FISH. 179 
 
 pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but I may 
 snap at him. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 GUDGEON. 
 
 Gratiano. . . . fish not with this melancholy 
 
 bait, 
 For this fool-gudgeon, this opinion. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 TENCH. 
 
 2d Carrier. I think, this is the most villanous house 
 in all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench. 
 
 i st Carrier. Like a tench ? by the mass, there is 
 ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than 
 I have been since the first cock. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 CARP. 
 
 Clown. . . . pray you, sir, use the carp as you 
 may; 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 ANCHOVY. 
 
 Poins. Item, Anchovies and sack after supper, 25. 6d. 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
i8o NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 OYSTER. 
 
 Falstaff. I will not lend thee a penny. 
 Pistol. Why, then the world's mine oyster, 
 Which I with sword will open. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Benedick. ... I will not be sworn but love 
 may transform me to an oyster ; but I'll take my oath 
 on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall 
 never make me such a fool. 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Touchstone. . . . Rich honesty dwells like a 
 miser, sir, in a poor house ; as your pearl in your 
 foul oyster. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act v. Scene 4. 
 
 King Richard. Off goes his bonnet to an oyster- 
 wench ; 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act. i. Scene 4. 
 
 Alexas. Good friend, quoth he, 
 
 Say, The firm Roman to great Egypt sends 
 This treasure of an oyster ; 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell ? 
 
 Lear. No. 
 
 Fool. Nor I neither ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
FISH. 181 
 
 CRAB. 
 
 Hamlet. ... for you yourself, sir, should be 
 old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. 
 
 HAMLET, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 PRAWNS. 
 
 Hostess. Did not goodwife Keech, the 
 
 butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip 
 Quickly ? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar ; 
 telling us she had a good dish of prawns ; whereby 
 thou didst desire to eat some ; 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 SHRIMP. 
 
 Holof ernes. Great Hercules is presented by this imp. 
 Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canus ; 
 And, when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp, 
 Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus : 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Countess. Is this the scourge of France ? 
 Is this the Talbot, so much fear'd abroad, 
 
 Alas ! this is a child, a silly dwarf : 
 
 It cannot be this weak and writhled shrimp 
 
 Should strike such terror to his enemies. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
1 82 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 MUSSEL. 
 
 Prospero. Sea-water shalt thou drink, thy food shall 
 
 be 
 The fresh-brook mussels, 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Simple. Pray you, sir, was't not the wise woman of 
 
 Brentford ? 
 Falstaff. Ay, marry, was it, mussel-shell : 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 COCKLE. 
 
 Petrudo. Why, 'tis a cockle, or a walnut-shell, 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Gower. Thus time we waste, and longest leagues 
 
 make short, 
 Sail seas in cockles, have, an wish but for't ; 
 
 PERICLES, Act iv. GOWER. 
 
 BARNACLE. 
 
 Caliban. ... we shall lose our time, 
 And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes 
 With foreheads villanous low. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 WHALE. 
 
 Biron. To show his teeth as white as whale's bone 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
FISH. 183 
 
 Nestor. And there they fly, or die, like scaled sculls 
 Before the belching whale ; 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Hamlet. Or, like a whale ? 
 Polonius. Very like a whale. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 ist Fisher. I can compare our rich misers 
 
 to nothing so fitly as to a whale ; 'a plays and tumbles, 
 driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours 
 them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard 
 on o' the land, who never leave gaping, till they've 
 swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells, 
 and all. 
 
 Pericles. . . . nor have I time 
 To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight 
 Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze ; 
 Where, for a monument upon thy bones, 
 And aye-remaining lamps, the belching whale 
 And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse, 
 Lying with simple shells. 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. Scene i ; Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 SHARK. 
 
 $d Witch. . . . maw, and gulf, 
 Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 PORPUS. 
 
 Fisher. Nay, master, said not I as much, when 
 
1 84 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 I saw the porpus how he bounced and tumbled ? 
 they say, they are half fish, half flesh ; a plague on 
 them ! they ne'er come but I look to be washed. 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 DOLPHIN. DOGFISH. 
 
 Talbot. Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish, 
 Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels, 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 MINNOW. 
 
 Coriolanus. ..... 
 
 Hear you this Triton of the minnows ? 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
REPTILES. 
 
 Tamora. The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun ; 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 CROCODILE. 
 
 Queen Margaret. Free lords, cold snow melts with 
 
 the sun's hot beams. 
 Henry my lord is cold in great affairs, 
 Too full of foolish pity : and Gloster's show 
 Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile 
 With sorrow snares relenting passengers ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Lepidus. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of 
 your mud by the operation of your sun : so is your 
 crocodile. 
 
 Antony. They are so. 
 
 Lepidus. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ? 
 
 Antony. It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as 
 broad as it hath breadth : it is just so high as it is, 
 and moves with its own organs : it lives by that which 
 
1 86 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHA KESPEARE. 
 
 nourisheth it : and the elements once out of it, it 
 transmigrates. 
 
 Lepidus. What colour is it of ? 
 
 Antony. Of its own colour too. 
 
 Lepidus. 'Tis a strange serpent. 
 
 Antony. 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act ii. Scene 7. 
 
 Othello. If that the earth could teem with woman's 
 
 tears, 
 Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile : 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Hamlet. Woul't drink up Esil ? eat a crocodile ? 
 
 HAMLET, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 TORTOISE. 
 
 Prospero. Come forth, I say ; there's other business 
 
 for thee : 
 Come, thou tortoise ! 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Romeo. ...... 
 
 And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 ALLIGATOR. 
 
 Romeo. An alligator sturT'd and other skins 
 Of ill-shaped fishes ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act v. Scene i. 
 
REPTILES. 187 
 
 CAMELEON. 
 
 Speed. Why muse you, sir ? 'tis dinner-time. 
 
 Valentine. I have dined. 
 
 Speed. Ay, but hearken, sir ; though the cameleon 
 Love can feed on the air, I am one that am nourished 
 by my victuals, and would fain have meat. 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Gloster. I can add colours to the cameleon ; 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? 
 Hamlet. Excellent, i' faith ; of the cameleon's dish : 
 I eat the air, promise-crammed : 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 LIZARD. 
 
 Suffolk. Their softest touch as smart as lizards' 
 stings ! 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Queen Margaret. Mark'd by the destinies to be 
 
 avoided, 
 As venom toads, or lizards' dreadful stings. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 2d Witch. Lizard's leg, and owlet' s wing, 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
1 88 NA TURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 BAT. REREMOUSE. 
 
 Ariel. On the bat's back I do fly 
 After summer merrily. 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Titania. Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern 
 
 wings, 
 To make my small elves coats ; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Macbeth. ... ere the bat hath flown 
 His cloister'd flight ; 
 
 2d Witch. Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 2 ; Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 TOAD. 
 
 Caliban. All the charms 
 
 Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you ! 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2. 
 
 Duke S. Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ; 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 King Richard. ..... 
 
 And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way; 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
REPTILES. 
 
 Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth. O, thou didst prophesy the time 
 
 would come 
 
 That I should wish for thee to help me curse 
 That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad. 
 
 Duchess. Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother 
 
 Clarence ? 
 And little Ned Plantagenet, his son ? 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act i. Scene 2 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Othello 
 
 Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Nurse. . . . but she, good soul, had as lieve 
 see a toad, a very toad, as see him. 
 
 Juliet. Some say, the lark and loathed toad change 
 
 eyes ; 
 O, now I would they had changed voices too ! 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act ii. Scene 4 ; 
 Act iii. Scene 5. 
 
 Guiderius. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name, 
 I cannot tremble at it ; were't toad, or adder, spider, 
 'T would move me sooner. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 ist Witch. Toad, that under cold stone, 
 Days and nights hast thirty-one. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
190 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 PADDOCK. 
 
 Hamlet. 'Twere good you let him know : 
 
 For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, 
 Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, 
 Such dear concernings hide ? 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 FROG. 
 
 Edgar. Poor Tom ; that eats the swimming frog, 
 the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt, and the water ; 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 2d Witch. Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 SERPENT. 
 
 Lysander. . . . vile thing, let loose ; 
 Or I will shake thee from me, like a serpent. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Antonio. ... I loved my niece ; 
 And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains ; 
 That dare as well answer a man, indeed, 
 As I dare take a serpent by the tongue : 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Act v. Scene r. 
 
 Countess. When I said, a mother, 
 
 Methought you saw a serpent : 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
REPTILES. 191 
 
 King John. He is a very serpent in my way ; 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 King Henry. Their touch affrights me as a ser- 
 pent's sting. ....... 
 
 Salisbury. Were there a serpent seen, with forked 
 
 tongue, 
 
 That slily glided towards your majesty, 
 It were but necessary you were waked ; 
 Lest, being suffer' d in that harmful slumber, 
 The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal : 
 And therefore do they cry, though you forbid, 
 That they will guard you, whether you will or no, 
 From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is ; 
 With whose envenomed and fatal sting, 
 Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth, 
 They say, is shamefully bereft of life. 
 
 Suffolk. Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss ; 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Clifford. Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal 
 
 sting ? 
 Not he that sets his foot upon her back. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Brutus. And therefore think him as a serpent's 
 
 . e gg> 
 
 Which, hatch'd, would as his kind grow mischievous ; 
 And kill him in the shell. 
 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Cleopatra. He's speaking now, 
 
 Or murmuring, Where's my serpent of old Nile ? 
 For so he calls me : 
 
192 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Cleopatra. ... if knife, drugs, serpents, have 
 edge, sting, or operation, I am safe : 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act i. Scene 5 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 13. 
 
 Thersites. I will no more trust him 
 
 when he leers, than I will a serpent when he hisses : 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Emilia. If any wretch have put this in your head, 
 Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse ! 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Aufidins. Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor 
 More than thy fame, and envy : 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 8. 
 
 Ghost. Tis given out, that, sleeping in mine 
 
 orchard, 
 A serpent stung me ; 
 
 . . . but know, thou noble youth, 
 The serpent that did sting thy father's life, 
 Now wears his crown. 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Lear. . . . sharper than a serpent's tooth 
 
 it is 
 To have a thankless child. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. . . . bear welcome in your eye, 
 Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent 
 
 flower, 
 But be the serpent under it. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
REPTILES. 193 
 
 ADDER. 
 
 Caliban. . . . sometime am I 
 All wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues, 
 Do hiss me into madness : 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Hermia. . . . O, brave touch ! 
 Could not a worm, an adder, do so much ? 
 An adder did it : for with doubler tongue 
 Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 King Richard. And when they from thy bosom 
 
 pluck a flower, 
 
 Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder, 
 Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch 
 Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies. 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Queen Margaret. What ! art thou, like the adder, 
 waxen deaf? 
 
 KING HENRY VI. , Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 York. She wolf of France, but worse than wolves of 
 
 France, 
 
 Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth ! 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Anne. More direful hap betide that hated wretch, 
 That makes us wretched by the death of thee, 
 Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads, 
 Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives ! 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act i. Scene 2. 
 O 
 
194 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Brutus. It is the bright day that brings forth the 
 adder ; 
 
 JULIUS CESAR, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Hector. ... for pleasure, and revenge, 
 Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice 
 Of any true decision. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Hamlet. There's letters seal'd : and my two school- 
 fellows, 
 
 Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd, 
 They bear the mandate ; 
 
 HAMLET, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 Edmund. To both these sisters have I sworn my 
 
 love ; 
 
 Each jealous of the other, as the stung 
 Are of the adder. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act v. Scene I. 
 
 2d Witch. Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 SNAKE. 
 
 Oberon. And there the snake throws her enamell'd 
 skin, 
 
 ist Fairy. You spotted snakes, with double 
 tongue, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. 
 Scenes I and 2. 
 
 Moth. ... if any of the audience hiss, you 
 
REPTILES. 195 
 
 may cry, Well done, Hercules ! now thou crushest the 
 snake ! that is the way to make an offence gracious ; 
 though few have the grace to do it. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 Rosalind. I see, love hath made thee 
 
 a tame snake, . . . 
 
 Oliver. A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with 
 
 hair, 
 
 Lay sleeping on his back : about his neck 
 A green and gilded snake had wreathed itself, 
 Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach' d 
 The opening of his mouth; but suddenly 
 Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself, 
 And with indented glides did 'slip away 
 Into a bush : 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 King Richard. Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, 
 that sting my heart ! 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Queen Margaret. Or as the snake, roll'd in a flower- 
 ing bank, 
 With shining checker'd slough, 
 
 York. I fear me you but warm the starved snake, 
 Who, cherish'd in your breasts, will sting your hearts. 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Cleopatra. Thou shouldst come like a Fury crown'd 
 with snakes, 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
196 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Macbeth. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it ; 
 
 2d Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 2 ; Act iv. Scene i . 
 
 SCORPION. 
 
 Queen Margaret. Seek not a scorpion's nest, 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Cornelius. Your daughter, whom she bore in hand 
 
 to love 
 
 With such integrity, she did confess 
 Was as a scorpion to her sight ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
 Macbeth. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear 
 wife ! 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 VIPER. 
 
 Pistol. O viper vile ! 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Pandarus. Why, they are vipers : 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Lodovico. Where is that viper? 
 
 OTHELLO, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
REPTILES. 197 
 
 NEWT. 
 
 Timon. The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd 
 worm, 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 BLIND-WORM. 
 
 \st Fairy. Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong : 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 WORM. 
 
 Rosalind. . . . men have died from time to 
 time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love. 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Katharine. Come, come, you fro ward and unable 
 worms ! 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Constance. And ring these fingers with thy house- 
 hold worms j 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 King Richard. Let's talk of graves, of worms, and 
 epitaphs ; 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Exeter. 'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim, 
 Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days, 
 KING HENRY V., Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
198 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 King Henry. Civil dissension is a viperous worm 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Clifford. The smallest worm will turn being trod- 
 den on ; 
 And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part HI. Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Katharine. When I shall dwell with worms, and 
 
 my. poor name 
 Banish'd the kingdom ! 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Othello. The worms were hallow'd that did breed 
 the silk ; 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? 
 
 Hamlet. At supper. 
 
 King. At supper ? Where ? 
 
 Hamlet. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : 
 a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at 
 him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet : we 
 fat all creatures else, to fat us ; and we fat ourselves 
 for maggots : your fat king, and your lean beggar, is 
 but variable service ; two dishes but to one table ; 
 that's the end. 
 
 King. Alas, alas ! 
 
 Hamlet. A man may fish with the worm that hath 
 eat of a king ; and eat of the fish that hath fed of 
 that worm. 
 
 HAMLET, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Romeo. , . . here, here will I remain 
 With worms 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
REPTILES. 199 
 
 Lear. Thou owest the worm no silk, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 Pisanio. No, 'tis slander, 
 
 Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue 
 Outvenoms all the worms of Nile ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 Macbeth. There the grown serpent lies ; the worm, 
 
 that's fled, 
 Hath nature that in time will venom breed ; 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 4. 
 
 ASP. 
 
 Cleopatra. Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus 
 
 there, 
 
 That kills and pains not ? 
 Clown. Truly, I have him : 
 
 Cleopatra. Have I the aspic in my lips ? 
 
 ist Guard. This is an aspic's trail : and these fig- 
 leaves 
 
 Have slime upon them, such as the aspic leaves 
 Upon the caves of Nile. 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act v. Scene 2. 
 
 Othello. Yield up, O love, thy crown, and hearted 
 
 throne, 
 
 To tyrannous hate ! swell, bosom, with thy fraught, 
 For 'tis of aspics' tongues ! 
 
 OTHELLO, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
200 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 SNAIL. 
 
 Luciana. . . . thou snail, 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 u/ Fairy. Worm, nor snail, do no offence. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Biron. Love's feeling is more soft, and sensible, 
 Than are the tender horns of cockled snails, 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Jaques. ...... 
 
 Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel, 
 And shining morning face, creeping like snail 
 Unwillingly to school : 
 
 Rosalind. Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more 
 in my sight ; I had as lief be wooed of a snail. 
 
 Orlando. Of a snail ? 
 
 Rosalind. Ay, of a snail ; for though he comes 
 slowly, he carries his house on his head ; a better 
 jointure, I think, than you make a woman : besides, 
 he brings his destiny with him. 
 
 Orlando. What's that ? 
 
 Rosalind. Why, horns ; 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act ii. Scene 7 ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Nestor. And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for 
 shame. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
REPTILES. 
 
 Fool. ... I can tell why a snail has a house. 
 
 Lear. Why? 
 
 Fool. Why, to put his head in ; not to give it 
 away to his daughters, and leave his horns without 
 a case. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 SLUG. 
 
 Ludana. . . . thou slug, 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Prince. . . . what a slug is Hastings ! 
 
 KING RICHARD III., Act iii. Scene i. 
 
INSECTS. 
 
 Mercutio. O, then, I see, Queen Mab hath been with you. 
 
 Drawn with a team of little atomies 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 BEE. 
 
 Prospero. . . . thou shalt be pinch' d 
 As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging 
 Than bees that made them. 
 
 Ariel. Where the bee sucks, there suck I ; 
 
 THE TEMPEST, Act i. Scene 2 ; Act v. Scene I. 
 
 King Henry. When, like the bee, culling from every 
 
 flower 
 
 The virtuous sweets ; 
 
 Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey, 
 We bring it to the hive ; and, like the bees, 
 Are murder'd for our pains. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act iv. Scene 4. 
 
 Canterbury. ... for so work the honey-bees ; 
 Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach 
 The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act i. Scene 2. 
 
INSECTS. 203 
 
 Talbot. So bees with smoke, and doves with 
 
 noisome stench, 
 Are from their hives and houses driven away. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part I. Act i. Scene 5. 
 
 Warwick. The commons, like an angry hive of 
 
 bees, 
 
 That want their leader, scatter up and down, 
 And care not who they sting in his revenge. 
 
 Cade. Some say the bee stings ; but I say 't is the 
 bee's wax, for I did but seal once to a thing, and I 
 was never mine own man since. 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2 ; 
 Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Cassius. . . . they rob the Hybla bees, 
 And leave them honeyless. 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR, Act v. Scene I. 
 
 $d Fisher. We would purge the land of these 
 drones, that rob the bee of her honey. 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Imogen. . . Good wax, thy leave : bless'd be 
 You bees that make these locks of counsel ! 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 HUMBLE BEE. 
 
 Titania. The honey-bags steal from the humble- 
 bees, 
 And, for night-tapers, crop their waxen thighs, 
 
204 NATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Bottom. Monsieur Cobweb ; good monsieur, get 
 your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped 
 humble-bee on the top of a thistle ; and, good mon- 
 sieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself 
 too much in the action, monsieur ; and, good mon- 
 sieur, have a care the honey-bag break not ; I would 
 be loth to have you overflown with a honey-bag, 
 signior. 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i ; 
 Act iv. Scene I. 
 
 Armado. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, 
 Were still at odds, being but three. 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Lafeu. . . . red-tailed humble-bee 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act iv. Scene 5. 
 
 Pandarus. Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, 
 Till he hath lost his honey and his sting : 
 And being once subdued in armed tail, 
 Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act v. Scene u. 
 
 DRONE. 
 
 Luciana. Dromio, thou drone, 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Shylock. . . . drones hive not- with me, 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act ii. Scene 5. 
 
 Canterbury. The lazy yawning drone. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act i. Scene 2. 
 
INSECTS. 205 
 
 Suffolk. Drones suck not eagles' blood, but rob 
 bee-hives : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Gower. Good Helicane hath stay'd at home, 
 Not to eat honey, like a drone, 
 From other's labours ; 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. GOWER. 
 
 WASP. 
 
 Autolycus. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive ; 
 then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a 
 wasps' nest ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Petrucio. Come, come, you wasp ; i' faith, you are 
 
 too angry. 
 
 Katharine. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. 
 Petrucio. My remedy is then, to pluck it out. 
 Katharine. Ay, if the fool could find out where it 
 
 lies. 
 Petrucio. Who knows not where a wasp does wear 
 
 his sting? 
 In his tail. 
 
 Katharine. In his tongue. 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Suffolk. There be more wasps that buzz about his 
 
 nose, 
 Will make this sting the sooner. 
 
 KING HENRY VIII., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
206 NA TURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 ANT. 
 
 Hotspur. . . . sometime he angers me, 
 With telling me of the moldvvarp and the ant, 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach 
 thee there's no labouring i' the winter. 
 
 KING LEAR, Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 BUTTERFLY. 
 
 Titania. And pluck the wings from painted butter- 
 flies, 
 To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes : 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Achilles. ... for men, like butterflies, 
 Show not their mealy wings but to the summer ; 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Valeria. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly ; 
 and when he caught it, he let it go again ; and after 
 it again ; and over and over he comes, and up again ; 
 catched it again : or whether his fall enraged him, or 
 how \ was, he did so set his teeth, and tear it ; O, I 
 warrant, how he mammocked it ! 
 
 Cominius. . . . with no less confidence 
 Than boys pursuing summer butterflies, 
 
 Meneniiis. There is difference between a grub and 
 a butterfly ; yet your butterfly was a grub. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 3 ; Act iv. Scene 6 ; 
 Act v. Scene 4. 
 
INSECTS. 207 
 
 Lear. So we'll live, 
 
 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh 
 At gilded butterflies, 
 
 KING LEAR, Act v. Scene 3. 
 
 MOTH. 
 
 Portia. Thus hath the candle singed the moth. 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act ii. Scene 9. 
 
 Desdemona. A moth of peace, 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 Valeria. You would be another Penelope : yet, 
 they say, all the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence 
 did but fill Ithaca full of moths. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 GRASSHOPPER. 
 
 Mercutio. ...... 
 
 Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs, 
 The cover of the wings of grasshoppers ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 GLOW-WORM. 
 
 Evans. And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns 
 
 be, 
 To guide our measure round about the tree. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act v. Scene 5. 
 
2o8 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Titania. ..... 
 
 And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act iii. Scene I. 
 
 Ghost. The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, 
 And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire : 
 
 HAMLET, Act L Scene 5. 
 
 Pericles. . . . like a glow-worm in the night, 
 The which hath fire in darkness, none in light ; 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 His eyes like glow-worms shine when he doth fret : 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 SPIDER. 
 
 Duke. To draw with idle spiders' strings 
 Most ponderous and substantial things : 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 \st Fairy. Weaving spiders, come not here : 
 Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence : 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Bassanio. Here in her hairs 
 
 The painter plays the spider ; and hath woven 
 A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men, 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Leontes. . . . There may be in the cup 
 A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart, 
 And yet partake no venom ; 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
INSECTS. 209 
 
 Bast. . . . the smallest thread 
 That ever spider twisted 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 King Richard. But let thy spiders, that suck up 
 
 thy venom, 
 And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way ; 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Thersites. ... it will not in circumvention 
 deliver a fly from a spider, without drawing the massy 
 irons, and cutting the web. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 Mercutio. Her traces of the smallest spider's web ; 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 GNAT. 
 
 Ant. S. When the sun shines let foolish gnats 
 
 make sport, 
 But creep in crannies when he hides his beams. 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Biron. O me, with what strict patience have I sat, 
 To see a king transformed to a gnat ! 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Bassanio. Faster than gnats in cobwebs. 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act iii. Scene 2. . 
 
 Hubert. Come, boy, prepare yourself. 
 
 Arthur. Is there no remedy ? 
 Hubert. None, but to lose your eyes. 
 
 p 
 
210 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Arthur. O heaven ! that there were but a mote 
 
 in yours, 
 
 A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair, 
 Any annoyance in that precious sense ! 
 
 KING JOHN, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Clifford. And whither fly the gnats but to the sun ? 
 KING HENRY VI., Part III. Act ii. Scene 6. 
 
 Cleopatra. . . . the flies and gnats of Nile 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act iii. Scene n. 
 
 Mercutio. Her waggoner a small gray-coated gnat, 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4. 
 
 Simonides. . . . like to gnats, 
 Which make a sound, but kill'd are wonderd at. 
 
 PERICLES, Act ii. Scene 3. - 
 
 Imogen. I would have broke mine eye-strings ; 
 
 crack' d them, but 
 To look upon him ;..... 
 
 Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from 
 The smallness of a gnat to air ; 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act i. Scene 3. 
 
 CRICKET. 
 
 Mamilius. I will tell it softly ; 
 
 Yon crickets shall not hear it. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Petrudo. . . . thou winter-cricket thou : 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
INSECTS. 
 
 Prince Henry. Shall we be merry ? 
 
 Poins. As merry as crickets, my lad. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene 4. 
 
 Mercittio. Her whip of cricket's bone ; 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene iv. 
 
 Gower. And crickets sing at the oven's mouth, 
 
 PERICLES, Act iii. GOWER. , 
 
 Jachimo. The crickets sing, and man's o'erlabour'd 
 
 sense 
 Repairs itself by rest. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Lady Macbeth. I heard the owl scream, and the 
 crickets cry. 
 
 MACBETH, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 BEETLE. 
 
 Isabel. . . . the poor beetle that we tread upon, 
 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
 As when a giant dies. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 ist Fairy. Beetles black, approach not near; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Edgar. The crows, and choughs, that wing the 
 
 midway air, 
 Show scarce so gross as beetles ; 
 
 KING LEAR, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
212 A T ATURAL HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Belarws. And often, to our comfort, shall we find 
 The sharded beetle in a safer hold 
 Than is the full-wing' d eagle. 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iii. Scene 3. 
 
 Macbeth. . . . ere, to black Hecate's summons, 
 The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, 
 Hath rung night's yawning peal, 
 There shall be done a deed of dreadful note. 
 
 MACBETH, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 FLY. 
 
 Orlando. I would not have my right Rosalind of 
 this mind ; for, I protest, her frown might kill me. 
 Rosalind. By this hand, it will not kill a fly. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Autolycus. ... in the hottest day prognosti- 
 cation proclaims, shall he be set against a brick wall, 
 the sun looking with a southward eye upon him, where 
 he is to behold him with flies blown to death. 
 
 A WINTER'S TALE, Act iv. Scene 3. 
 
 Falstaff. . . . for thy walls, a pretty slight 
 drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German 
 hunting in water work, is worth a thousand of these 
 bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene i. 
 
 Clifford. The common people swarm like summer 
 flies: 
 
 KING HENRY VI. , Act ii. Scene 6. 
 
INSECTS. 213 
 
 lago. And though he in a fertile climate dwell, 
 Plague him with flies : 
 
 OTHELLO, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Cominius. ...... 
 
 Or butchers killing flies. 
 
 CORIOLANUS, Act iv. Scene 6. 
 
 Marina. I never kilPd a mouse, nor hurt a fly : 
 I trod upon a worm against my will, 
 But I wept for it. 
 
 PERICLES, Act iv. Scene i. 
 
 Flavius. . . . one cloud of winter showers, 
 These flies are couch'd. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 Arviragus. . . . smiling, as some fly had 
 tickled slumber, 
 
 CYMBELINE, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Titus. What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy 
 knife ? 
 
 Marcus. At that that I have kill'd, my lord ; a fly. 
 
 Titus. Out on thee, murderer ! thou kill'st my 
 heart ; 
 
 Marcus. Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly. 
 
 Titus. But how, if that fly had a father and 
 
 mother ? 
 
 How would he hang his slender gilded wings, 
 And buzz lamenting doings in the air ! 
 Poor harmless fly ! 
 That, with his pretty buzzing melody, 
 
2 14 NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Came here to make us merry ; and thou hast kill'd 
 him. 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 Lady Macduff. Sirrah, your father's dead ; 
 And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 
 Son. As birds do, mother. 
 Lady Macduff. What, with worms and flies ? 
 
 MACBETH, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 FLEA. 
 
 Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he shall die a 
 flea's death. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 Petrudo. Thou flea, 
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 2d Carrier. I think this is the most villanous 
 house in all London road for fleas : 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part I. Act ii. Scene I. 
 
 Boy. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick 
 upon Bardolph's nose ; 
 
 Orleans. that's a valiant flea, that dare eat 
 
 his breakfast on the lip of a lion. 
 
 KING HENRY V., Act ii. Scene 3 ; 
 Act iii. Scene 7. 
 
INSECTS. 215 
 
 CATERPILLAR. CANKER. 
 
 Proteus. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud 
 The eating canker dwells, so eating love 
 Inhabits in the finest wits of all. 
 
 Valentine. And writers say, as the most forward 
 
 bud 
 
 Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, 
 Even so by love the young and tender wit 
 Is turn'd to folly ; 
 
 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Act i. Scene i. 
 
 Titania. Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose 
 buds; 
 
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 is/ Servant. . . . the whole land, 
 Is full of weeds ; .... 
 
 her wholesome herbs 
 Swarming with caterpillars ? 
 
 KING RICHARD II., Act. iii. Scene 4. 
 
 Poms. O, that this good blossom could be kept 
 from cankers ! 
 
 KING HENRY IV., Part II. Act ii. Scene 2. 
 
 York. Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, 
 And caterpillars eat my leaves away : 
 
 KING HENRY VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene i. 
 
 Lysimachus. ... a courtesy, 
 Which if we should deny, the most just gods 
 
2 1 6 NA TURAL HISTOR Y OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 For every graff would send a caterpillar, 
 And so inflict our province. 
 
 PERICLES, Act v. Scene i. 
 
 GRUB. 
 
 Mercutlo. Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, 
 Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, 
 Time out o' mind the fairies' coach-makers. 
 
 Friar. Tell me, good my friend, 
 
 What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light 
 To grubs and eyeless skulls ? 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, Act i. Scene 4 : 
 Act v. Scene 3. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ACONITUM, 68. 
 Acorn, 52. 
 Adder, 193. 
 Alligator, 186. 
 Anchovy, 179. 
 Ant, 206. 
 Ape, 171. 
 Apples, 44. 
 Apricot, 41. 
 Asp, 199. 
 Aspen, 31. 
 Ass, 127. 
 
 BABOON, 173. 
 Balm, 62. 
 Barley, 72. 
 Barnacle, 182. 
 Bat, 1 88. 
 Bay, 33. 
 Beans, 74. 
 Bear, 165. 
 Bee, 202. 
 Beetle, 211. 
 Berries, 52. 
 Bilberry, 49. 
 Blackberry, 48. 
 Blind worm, 197. 
 Boar, 139. 
 Box, 31. 
 
 Brambles, 39. 
 Briers, 39. 
 Broom, 39. 
 Buck, 142. 
 Bull, 130. 
 Bullock, 130. 
 Bur, 22. 
 Burnet, 62. 
 Butterfly, 206. 
 
 CABBAGE, 54. 
 Calf, 132. 
 Camel, 156. 
 Cameleon, 187. 
 Camomile, 68. 
 Canker, 215. 
 Carnation, 7. 
 Carp, 179. 
 Cat, 150. 
 Caterpillar, 215. 
 Cedar, 26. 
 Cherry, 46. 
 Chestnut, 50. 
 Chicken, in. 
 Chough, 84. 
 Clove, 63. 
 Clover, 23. 
 Cock, 109. 
 Cockle, 19. 
 
 Cockle, 182. 
 Cod, 175. 
 Coloquintida, 68. 
 Columbine, 8. 
 Coney, 147. 
 Conger, 177. 
 Corn, 69. 
 Cow, 131. 
 Cowslip, 1 6. 
 Coystril, 83. 
 Crab, 48. 
 Crab, 181. 
 Crab tree, 36. 
 Cricket, 210. 
 Crocodile, 185. 
 Crow, 84. 
 Cuckoo, 98. 
 Cuckoo-flowers, 23. 
 Currants, 51. 
 Cygnet, 103. 
 Cypress, 29. 
 
 DACE, 178. 
 Daffodil, 13. 
 Daisy, 14. 
 Damson, 43. 
 Darnel, 19. 
 Dates, 51. 
 Daw, 88. 
 
218 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Deer, 140. 
 
 Glow-worm, 207. 
 
 Horse, 114. 
 
 Dewberry, 49. 
 
 Gnat, 209. 
 
 Humble Bee, 203. 
 
 Dive-dapper, 106. 
 
 Goat, 137. 
 
 Hyssop, 62. 
 
 Dock, 20. 
 
 Goose, 107. 
 
 Hyena, 164. 
 
 Doe, 142. 
 
 Gooseberry, 47. 
 
 
 Dog, 1 20. 
 
 Gosling, 1 08. 
 
 J- VY > 37- 
 
 Dog-fish, 184. 
 
 Goss, 39. 
 
 JAY, 89. 
 
 Dolphin, 184. 
 
 Grapes, 41. 
 
 KITE 88. 
 
 Dove, 92. 
 
 Grasshopper, 207. 
 
 
 Drone, 204. 
 
 Grub, 216. 
 
 LADYSMOCK, 15. 
 
 Duck, 1 08. 
 
 Gudgeon, 179. 
 
 Lamb, 135. 
 
 
 Guinea-hen, 173. 
 
 Lapwing, 99. 
 
 EAGLE, 77. 
 
 Gull, 105. 
 
 Lark, 95. 
 
 Eel, 178. 
 
 Gum, 67. 
 
 Laurel, 35. 
 
 Eglantine, 15. 
 
 Gurnet, 177. 
 
 Lavender, 9. 
 
 Elder, 35. 
 
 
 Leek, 57. 
 
 Elephant, 155. 
 
 HAGGARD, 81. 
 
 Lemon, 46. 
 
 Elm, 28. 
 
 Handsaw, 104. 
 
 Leopard, 162. 
 
 Eyas, 82. 
 
 Hare, 145. 
 
 Lettuce, 56. 
 
 Eyas-musket, 82. 
 
 Harebell, 17. 
 
 Libbard, 162. 
 
 
 Harlock, 20. 
 
 Lily, 6. 
 
 FALCON, 79 
 
 Hart, 143. 
 
 Ling, 39- 
 
 Fawn, 142. 
 
 Hawk, 80. 
 
 Lion, 157. 
 
 Fennel, 61. 
 
 Hawthorn, 38. 
 
 Lioness, 160. 
 
 Fern, 17. 
 
 Hazel, 34. 
 
 Lizard, 187. 
 
 Ferret, 149. 
 
 Hazel-nut, 50. 
 
 Locusts, 68. 
 
 Fig, 43- 
 
 Heath, 39. 
 
 Love-in-idleness, 
 
 Filberd, 105. 
 
 Hebenon, 67. 
 
 17- 
 
 Finch, 99. 
 
 Hedgehog, 150. 
 
 
 Fitchew, 174. 
 
 Hedge sparrow, 
 
 MACE, 64. 
 
 Flax, 74. 
 
 100. 
 
 Mackerel, 176. 
 
 Flea, 214. 
 
 Heifer, 132. 
 
 Magpie, 87. 
 
 Fly, 212. 
 
 Hemlock, 20, 
 
 Mallard, 1 06. 
 
 Fowl, 112. 
 
 Hemp, 74. 
 
 Mallet, 1 06. 
 
 Fox, 143. 
 
 Hen, in. 
 
 Mandragora, 67. 
 
 Frog, 190. 
 
 Herring, 176. 
 
 Marigold, 8. 
 
 Fumitory, 20. 
 
 Hind, 140. 
 
 Marjoram, 59. 
 
 Furze, 39. 
 
 Hips, 39. 
 
 Marmozet, 173. 
 
 
 Hog, 138. 
 
 Martlet, 100. 
 
 GARLIC, 57. 
 
 Holy thistle, 9. 
 
 Medlar, 47. 
 
 Gillivor, 9. 
 
 Holly, 36. 
 
 Minnow, 184. 
 
 Ginger, 63. 
 
 Honeysuckle, 15. 
 
 Mint, 59. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 219 
 
 Mistletoe, 36. 
 
 Partridge, 90. 
 
 Robin, 96. 
 
 Mole, 148. 
 
 Peacock, 75. 
 
 Roe, 143. 
 
 Monkey, 170. 
 
 Pears, 43. 
 
 Rook, 87. 
 
 Moth, 207. 
 
 Peas, 73. 
 
 Rose, i. 
 
 Mouse, 154. 
 
 Peascod, 55. 
 
 Rue, 60. 
 
 Mulberry, 47. 
 
 Pelican, 105. 
 
 Rush, 21. 
 
 Mule, 129. 
 
 Pepper, 65. 
 
 Rosemary, 61. 
 
 Mushroom, 56. 
 
 Peppercorn, 64. 
 
 Rye, 73. 
 
 Muskcat, 174. 
 
 Pheasant, 90. 
 
 
 Mussel, 182. 
 
 Pig, 138- 
 
 SAFFRON, 64. 
 
 Mustard, 65. 
 
 Pigeon, 92. 
 
 Salmon, 175. 
 
 Myrtle, 34. 
 
 Pike, 178. 
 
 Samphire, 56. 
 
 
 Pilchard, 177. 
 
 Savoiy, 59. 
 
 NETTLE, 18. 
 
 Pine, 30. 
 
 Scamel, 105. 
 
 Newt, 197. 
 
 Pink, 9. 
 
 Scorpion, 196. 
 
 Nightingale, 93. 
 Nutmeg, 63. 
 Nuts. 4.Q. 
 
 Plantain, 23. 
 Plum, 42. 
 Polecat, 174. 
 
 Senna, 66. 
 Serpent, 190. 
 Shark, 183. 
 
 * ****) *vy* 
 
 Pomegranate, 36. 
 
 Sheep, 133. 
 
 
 Poor John, 177. 
 
 Shrimp, 181. 
 
 OAK, 24* 
 
 Oats, 72. 
 
 Poppy, 67. 
 Porcupine, 170. 
 
 Slug, 201. 
 Snail, 200. 
 
 Olive, 33. 
 Onion, 56. 
 Orange, 45. 
 Osiers, 38. 
 Osprey, 104. 
 Ostrich, 75. 
 Otter 1*74. 
 
 Porpus, 183. 
 Potato, 54. 
 Prawns, 181. 
 Primrose, 13. 
 Prunes, 51. 
 Puttock, 83. 
 
 Snake, 194. 
 Sow, 139. 
 Sparrow, 100. 
 Spider, 208. 
 Squirrel, 148. 
 Stag, 139. 
 
 Ousel-cock, 97. 
 Owl, 83. 
 Ox 1 3 1 
 
 QUAIL, 90. 
 Quince, 45. 
 
 Stannyel, 82. 
 Starling, 89. 
 Strawberry, 40. 
 
 Oxlip, 14. 
 Oyster, 180. 
 
 RABBIT, 147. 
 Radish, 54. 
 
 Swallow, 99. 
 Swan, 103. 
 Sycamore, 28. 
 
 
 Raisins, 52. 
 
 
 PADDOCK, 190. 
 
 Ram, 133. 
 
 TENCH, 179. 
 
 Palm, 32. 
 
 Rat, 152. 
 
 Thistle, 20. 
 
 Pansy, 8. 
 
 Raven, 86. 
 
 Throstle, 97. 
 
 Panther, 163. 
 
 Reremouse, 188. 
 
 Thrush, 97. 
 
 Pard, 162. 
 
 Rhinoceros, 164. 
 
 Thyme, 62. 
 
 Parrot, 76. 
 
 Rhubarb, 66. 
 
 Tiger, 161. 
 
 Parsley, 55. 
 
 Rice, 74. 
 
 Toad, 1 88. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Tortoise, 186. 
 
 Viper, 196. 
 
 Wild fowl, 1 06. 
 
 Trout, 175. 
 
 Vulture, 79. 
 
 Wild goose, 107. 
 
 Turkey, 109. 
 
 
 Willow, 31. 
 
 Turnip, 54. 
 
 WALLFLOWER, 9. 
 
 Wolf, 167. 
 
 
 Walnut, 50. 
 
 Woodbine, 15. 
 
 UNICORN, 164. 
 
 Wasp, 205. 
 
 Woodcock, 91. 
 
 
 Weasel, 149. 
 
 Worm, 197. 
 
 VETCHES, 73. 
 
 Whale, 182. 
 
 Wren, 102. 
 
 Vine, 37. 
 
 Wheat, 71. 
 
 
 Violet, ii. 
 
 Wild duck, 1 06. 
 
 YEW, 28. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by EDWIN SLATER, Manchester. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 NOV29J9654 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 REC'D 
 
 
 mw&=&& 
 
 
 DE PT. 
 
 
 _____ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 88&Sftg iwS^gSt* 
 
11394