1. Such words are there enclosed in brackets [].

2. Amongst the entries in the Council Book of the Corporation of Stratford, during the period that John Shakespeare, the Poet’s father, was a member of the Municipal body (he filled the office of Chamberlain in 1573), the name occurs one hundred and sixty-six times under fourteen different modes of spelling.

3. “An Inquiry into the Authenticity of various Pictures and Prints, which, from the decease of the Poet to our own times, have been offered to the public as Portraits of Shakespeare.” By James Boaden. London, 1824.

4. “An Inquiry into the History, Authenticity, and Characteristics of the Shakespeare Portraits.” By Abraham Wivell. London, 1827.

5. The Stratford Portrait was doubtless painted from the bust, and probably about the time of the Garrick Jubilee, 1769.

6. Boaden adds: “Let it be remembered in aid of this inference that tradition has invariably assigned to him, as an actor, characters in the decline of life, and that one of his relatives is reported to have seen him in the part of old Adam, the faithful follower of Orlando, in that enchanting pastoral comedy As You Like It.” Op. cit., p. 22.

7. “Life Portraits of William Shakespeare,” by J. Hain Friswell. London, 1864.

8. We have, unfortunately, no proof that Joseph Taylor, the player, ever painted portraits. There was a contemporary, however, named John Taylor, who was an artist, and it is possible that these two have been confounded.

Boaden refers the picture to Burbage, “who is known to have handled the pencil.” Op. cit., p. 49.

9. Taylor was thirty-three when Shakespeare died in 1616, and survived him thirty-seven years.

10. This will, it appears, is not to be found (Wivell, Op. cit., p. 49), but it matters little, if we are assured that Davenant possessed the picture.

11. These passages will be found duly criticised in Chapter II.

12. In the following passage from The Tempest, Shakespeare, À propos of fish, gives one of many proofs of his knowledge of human nature. Trinculo comes upon the strange form of Caliban lying flat on the sands:—“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. A strange fish! Were I in England now (as once I was), and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man: any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian!”—Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 2.

13. The author of “The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, 1496,” makes the following quaint remarks on the superiority of “Fysshynge” over “Huntynge”:—“For huntynge, as to myn entent, is too laboryous, for the hunter must alwaye renne and followe his houndes: traueyllynge and swetynge full sore. He blowyth tyll his lyppes blyster. And when he weenyth it be an hare, full oft it is an hegge hogge. Thus he chasyth and wote not what.”

14. The subject of Bird-catching will be fully discussed in a subsequent chapter.

15. Letter from Rowland White to Sir Robert Sidney, dated 12th Sept. 1600.

16. Nichols’ “Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of Queen Elizabeth,” vol. iii. p. 90. (1788–1805.)

17. “A forester is an officer of the forest sworn to preserve the vert and venison therein, and to attend the wild beasts within his bailiwick, and to watch and endeavour to keep them safe, by day and night. He is likewise to apprehend all offenders in vert and venison, and to present them to the Courts of the Forest, to the end they may be punished according to their offences.”—The Gentleman’s Recreation. 1686.

18. “We say the deer is ‘broken up,’ the fox and hare are ‘cased.’”—The Gentleman’s Recreation. 1686.

From this ancient practice, too, is derived the phrase, “to eat humble pie,” more correctly written “umble pie.” This was a venison pasty, made of the umbles (heart, liver, and lungs), and always given to inferiors, and placed low down on the table when the squire feasted publicly in the hall.

19. “The coney is called the first year ‘a rabbet,’ and afterwards ‘an old coney.’ He is a beast of the warren, and not a beast of venery.”—The Gentleman’s Recreation. 1686.

20. Brock is the old name for badger, and we still find the word occurring in many names of places, possibly thereby indicating localities where the badger was formerly common. Of these may be mentioned, Brockhurst in Shropshire, Brockenhurst in Kent, Brockenborough in Wiltshire, Brockford in Suffolk, Brockhall in Northampton, Brockhampton in Oxford, Dorset, Gloucester, and Herefordshire, Brockham Green in Surrey, Brockholes in Lancashire and Yorkshire, Brock-le-bank in Cumberland, Brocklesby in Lincolnshire, Brockley in Somersetshire, Brockley in Suffolk, Brockley Hill in Kent, Brockley Hill in Hertfordshire, Brockmoor in Staffordshire, Brockworth in Gloucestershire.

21. See also Winter’s Tale, Act iv. Sc. 3.

22. In the Midland Counties, the bat is often called leathern-wings. Compare the high German “leder-maus.”

23.

24. “Rere-mouse” from the old English “hrere-mus,” literally a raw mouse. The adjective “rere” is still used in Wiltshire for “raw.” The bat is also known as the “rennie-mouse” or “reiny-mouse,” although Miss Gurney, in her “Glossary of Norfolk Words,” gives “ranny” for the shrew-mouse. The old name of “flittermouse,” “fluttermouse,” or “fliddermouse,” from the high German, “fledermaus,” does not appear in Shakespeare’s works.

25. “The Natural History of the Insects mentioned in Shakspeare’s Plays,” by Robert Patterson, 12mo. Lond. 1841.

26. Mudie, “Feathered Tribes of the British Islands,” i. p. 82.

27. “De Bello Judico,” iii. 5.

28. Xenophon, “CyropÆdia,” vii.

29. “Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” June, 1864.

30. Colquhoun, “The Moor and the Loch,” p. 330. And this is not an isolated instance. See Newton, “Ootheca Wolleyana,” Part I. p. 11.

31. Pennant, “British Zoology.”

32. Yarrell, “History of British Birds.”

33. “Rural Sports,” vol. i. p. 246.

34. “Dissertations,” vol. i. p. 173.

35. See Pennant’s “Arctic Zoology,” ii. p. 195; Sir J. Malcolm’s “Sketches of Persia;” Johnston’s “Sketches of Indian Field Sports;” Atkinson’s “Travels in Oriental and Western Siberia,” and Burton’s “Falconry in the Valley of the Indus.”

36. Folio, 1676. Part ii. p. 169.

37. “Memoirs of Stephen Grellet,” i. p. 459.

38. See “The Naturalist” for May, 1837.

39. “Tour in Sutherland,” vol. i. p. 113.

40. “The Great Sahara,” p. 392.

41. “Tour in Sutherland,” vol. i. p. 121.

42. The name, no doubt, of a favourite falcon.

43. Tardif, “Treatise on Falconry.”

44. No doubt a corruption of “erne,” a name which is still given to the sea eagle (Aquila albicilla).

45. See his “Faerie Queene,” Book III. Canto 4.

46. This scarce volume, of which we are fortunate enough to possess a copy, contains the work of the Emperor Frederic II., “De arte venandi cum avibus;” Albertus Magnus, “De Falconibus;” as also a digest of Hubner’s work. “Sur le vol des oiseaux de proie,” and other ancient and rare works on Falconry.

47. Salvin and Brodrick, “Falconry in the British Islands,” pp. 38, 39.

48. To “cry on” anything was a familiar expression formerly. In Othello (Act v. Sc. 1), we read—

And in Richard III. (Act v. Sc. 3), Richmond says:—

To “cry havoc” appears to have been a signal for indiscriminate slaughter. The expression, “Cry havoc, kings!” occurs in King John, Act ii. Sc. 2; and again in Julius CÆsar, Act iii. Sc. 1:—

In Coriolanus (Act iii. Sc. 1), Menenius says—

49. Salvin and Brodrick, “Falconry in the British Islands.”

50. His “bow,” that is, his “yoke.” Some editions read “low;” an evident mistake.

51. Compare, ante, pp. 57–59, “I’d whistle her off,” &c.

52. Compare, ante, p. 52, “A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place,” &c.

53. It will be observed that, in these pages, falconry is treated as a thing of the past, as indeed it is a sport now almost obsolete, and but few comparatively are acquainted with its technicalities.

54. The weapon of this name, the most important of small fire-arms, is said to have borrowed its title from this the most useful of small hawks, in the same way that other arms—as the falcon, falconet, and saker—have derived their names from larger and more formidable birds of prey. Against this view it is asserted that the musket was invented in the fifteenth century by the Muscovites, and owes its name to its inventors. See Bescherelle, “Dict. Nat.,” and “The Target: a Treatise upon the Art Military,” 1756.

55. December 30th, 1865.

56. Victor Fatio, “Les Campagnols du Bassin du LÉman.” Bale, GÉnÈve, et Paris. 1867. P. 16.

57. “Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners.” 1807.

58. “The Moor and the Loch.”

59. “The Zoologist” for 1863, p. 8,765.

60. “Essays on Natural History,” 1st Series, p. 14.

61. Stanley’s “Familiar History of Birds,” p. 179.

62. An excellent dissertation on the organ of voice in the raven will be found in the second volume of Yarrell’s “British Birds,” 3rd ed. p. 72.

63. Willughby’s “Ornithology,” folio, 1678. Book I. p. 25.

64. Stanley’s “Familiar History of Birds,” p. 188.

65. Compare, “A cyprus, not a bosom, hides my heart.” Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 1.

66. “To fear,” that is, “to frighten.”

67. According to Steevens, this is not merely a poetical supposition. “It is observed,” he says, “of the nightingale that, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together;” and Russell, in his “Account of Aleppo,” tells us “the nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the day-time.”

68. “Ovid. Metamorph.” Book vi. Fab. 6.

69. These lines, although included in most editions of Shakespeare’s Poems, are said to have been written by Richard Barnefield, and published in 1598 in a volume entitled “Poems in Divers Humors.” (See Ellis’s “Specimens of the Early English Poets,” vol. ii. p. 356, and F.T. Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language,” p. 21.) The “Passionate Pilgrim” was not published until 1599.

70. “Sir Thomas Browne’s Works” (Wilkin’s ed.), Vol. II. p. 537.

71. Not only does the nightingale sing by day, but she is by no means the only bird which sings at night. We have frequently listened with delight to the wood lark, skylark, thrush, sedge-warbler and grasshopper-warbler long after sunset, and we have heard the cuckoo and corncrake at midnight.

72. The “recorder” is mentioned in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act v. Sc. 1, and in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2.

73. Bechstein “Ornithologisches Taschenbuch.”

74. Shelley.

75. “The ruddock warbles soft.”—Spenser’s Epithalamium, I. 82.

76. Instead of “winter-ground” in the last line, Mr. Collier’s annotator reads “winter-guard;” but “to winter-ground” appears to have been a technical term for protecting a plant from the frost by laying straw or hay over it.

77. See ante, p. 129.

78. “The English of Shakespeare,” by G.L. Craik.

79. That is, the young cuckoo. The expression occurs again in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 1:—

80. “Epigrams (Black Letter), 1587.”

81. “Musurgia Universalis.” 1650. p. 30.

82. Pied, that is parti-coloured, of different hues. So in The Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3:—

And in The Tempest, Caliban, alluding to the parti-coloured dress which Trinculo, as a jester, wore, says:—

Milton, in “L’allegro,” speaks of “meadows trim with daisies pied.”

83. “Lady-smocks” (Cardamine pratensis), a common meadow plant appearing early in the spring, and bearing white flowers. Sir J.E. Smith says they cover the meadows as with linen bleaching, whence the name of “ladysmocks” is supposed to come. Some authors say it first flowers about Ladytide, or the Feast of the Annunciation, hence its name.

84. Botanists are not agreed as to the particular plant intended by “cuckoo-buds.” Miller, in his “Gardener’s Dictionary,” says the flower here alluded to is the Ranunculus bulbosus. One commentator on this passage has mistaken the Lychnis flos cuculi, or “cuckoo-flower” for “cuckoo-buds.” Another writer says, “cuckoo-flower” must be wrong, and believes “cowslip-buds” the true reading, but this is clearly a mistake. Walley, the editor of Ben Jonson’s Works, proposes to read “crocus-buds,” which is likewise incorrect. Sidney Beisley, the author of “Shakespeare’s Garden,” thinks that Shakespeare referred to the lesser celandine, or pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria), as this flower appears early in Spring, and is in bloom at the same time as the other flowers named in the song.

85. See Chambers’s “Book of Days,” i. 531.

86. The “cresset-light” was a large lanthorn placed upon a long pole, and carried upon men’s shoulders. (See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” Introduction.)

87. Thornbury, “Shakespeare’s England,” vol. i. p. 339.

88. Sir S.D. Scott, “The British Army: its Origin, Progress, and Equipment,” vol. ii. pp. 80, 81.

89. “The British Army: its Origin, Progress, and Equipment.” London, 1868, vol. ii. pp. 284–286.

90. Note here the use of the word “extravagant” in its primary signification, implying, of the ghost, its wandering beyond its proper sphere.

91. Apropos of ale-house signs, Shakespeare gives us the origin of “The Bear and Ragged Staff.” It is the crest of the Earls of Warwick.

92. “The Compleat Gamester,” 1709.

93. “The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,” i. 235.

94. Id. i. 236, 237.

95. See also Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 1, and Tempest, Act iv. Sc. 1.

96. Darwin, “Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,” i. 290.

97. Pro. Zool. Soc. April 24th, 1860.

98. Darwin, op. cit.

99. Baker’s “Chronicle.”

100. It is observable, however, that in “The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII.” turkies are not once mentioned amongst the fowls to be provided for the table.

101. “Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal,” vol. xxix. p. 38.

102. Pp. 390, 391.

103. In the ruined temple of Medineet Haboo is a representation of the coronation of the famous warrior, King Rameses III. (B.C. 1297). “The conquering hero, among the clamours of the populace, and shouts of his victorious army, is depicted proceeding to the temple to offer his grateful thanks to the gods; and whilst certain priests in their gorgeous robes are casting incense about, and offering up sacrifices at many a smoking altar, others are employed in letting off carrier-pigeons to announce the glad tidings to every quarter of the globe.”—Leith Adams, Notes of a Naturalist in the Nile Valley and Malta, p. 27.

104. A good description of these whistles, by Mr. Tegetmeier, with illustrations, will be found in the Field of the 12th March, 1870.

105. Darwin, “Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,” i. pp. 204, 205.

106. Hunter “On the Animal Economy,” p. 194.

107. “Illustrations of British Ornithology.”

108. “Ornithological Dictionary,” Preface, 1st edition.

109. “Pigeons: their Structure, Varieties, Habits, and Management.” By W.B. Tegetmeier, F.Z.S. London, 1868.

110. “Glossary,” 4to. Lond. 1822.

111. Sir W. Raleigh, “History of the World,” Book I. Part i. c. 6.

112. See ante, p. 143.

113. Translated from the French by Sir Thos. Mallory, Knt., and first printed by Caxton, A.D. 1481.

114. See “Chambers’s Dictionary,” last ed., article “Chase;” also Holt White’s note to this passage in the “Variorum Shakespeare.”

115. Wood’s “Buffon,” xix. p. 511, note.

116. This, it will be observed, differs materially from Col. Hawker’s observation.

117. “Essays on Natural History,” second series, p. 128.

118. See end of Chapter V.

119. See “The Ibis,” 1869. p. 358.

120. As a copy of the “Northumberland Household Book” is not readily accessible, we give the following interesting extract, showing the price, at that date, of various birds for the table:—

• Capons at iid. a pece leyn (lean).
• Chickeyns at ½d. a pece.
• Hennys at iid. a pece.
• Swannys (no price stated).
• Geysse iiid. or iiiid. at the moste.
• Pluvers id. or i½d. at moste.
• Cranys xvid. a pece.
• Hearonsewys (i.e. Heronshaws or Herons) xiid. a pece.
• Mallardes iid. a pece.
• Teylles id. a pece.
• Woodcokes id. or i½d. at the moste.
• Wypes (i.e. Lapwings) id. a pece.
• Seegulles id. or i½d. at the moste.
• Styntes after vi. a id.
• Quaylles iid. a pece at moste.
• Snypes after iii. a id.
• Perttryges at iid. a pece.
• Redeshankes i½d.
• Bytters (i.e. Bitterns) xiid.
• Fesauntes xiid
• Reys (i.e. Ruffs and Reeves) iid. a pece.
• Sholardes vid. a pece.
• Kyrlewes xiid. a pece.
• Pacokes xiid. a pece.
• See-Pyes (no price).
• Wegions at i½d. the pece.
• Knottes id. a pece.
• Dottrells id. a pece.
• Bustardes (no price).
• Ternes after iiii. a id.
• Great byrdes after iiii. a id.
• Small byrdes after xii. for iid.
• Larkys after xii. for iid.

121. “Extracts from the Household and Privy Purse Accounts of the L’estranges of Hunstanton, 1519–1578.” (Trans. Roy. Soc. Antiq. 1833.)

122. “The Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, 1536–1544.” (Edited by Sir F. Madden, 1831.)

123. Some interesting remarks on pheasant and partridge-hawking will be found in Freeman and Salvin’s “Falconry; its Claims, History, and Practice,” pp. 233, 235.

124. Vide Julius Pollux, “De ludis,” lib. ix.

125. “Musurgia Universalis,” 1650, p. 30.

126. In Sweden the bird is known as wipa to this day.

127. The fine was 8d. for every egg. See 3 & 4 Ed. VI. c. 7, and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 11.

128. “Falconry; its History, Claims, and Practice,” by G.E. Freeman and F.H. Salvin. London, 1859.

129. Leland states, that at the feast given on the inthronisation of George Neville, Archbishop of York, in the reign of Edward IV., no less than “400 Heronshawes” were served up!

130. Every Man Out of his Humour, Act iii. Sc. 3.

131. Thornbury, “Shakespeare’s England,” vol. i. pp. 169, 170.

132. Thornbury, “Shakespeare’s England,” i. p. 21; see also p. 33.

133. “The Gentleman’s Recreation.” 1595.

134. See pp. 164, 165.

135. “The British Army: its Origin, Progress, and Equipment,” vol. ii. p. 286.

136. See the Report in Maitland’s “Hist. of London,” p. 594.

137. “An Answer to the Opinion of Captain Barwicke.” (Harl. MSS., No. 4,685.)

138. Their numbers, in Mr. Hewitt’s official Tower Catalogue, are 12/10 and 12/11.

139. “Brief Discourse of War, 1590.”

140. Peck’s “Desid. Cur.”

141. Bandoleers consisted of a belt of leather worn over the left shoulder, on which were suspended little metal, wooden, leather, or horn cylinders, each containing one charge. Examples are preserved in the Tower of London.

142. Harl. MSS., No. 5,109.

143. BrantÔme, “Œuvres,” tom. vii. pp. 425–429.

144. Sidney, “Arcadia,” ii. p. 169.

145. See ante, p. 197.

146. Aldrovandi Opera Omina: Ornithologia. 3 vols. BononiÆ. 1599.

147. “Philosophical Transactions,” l.c.

148. The doctrine of Pythagoras is again alluded to by Gratiano, who says:—

149. In China, at the present day, an allied species, Ph. sinensis, is reared and trained to fish.

150. This diary is amongst the additional MSS. in the British Museum. It is bound in soft parchment, and entered in the catalogue as “Wurmser, H.J.: Travels with Louis, Count (?) of Wurtemberg, 20,001.”

151. The presence of the King at Thetford at this date, as on other occasions, is recorded in the “Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First,” as published in four volumes by John Nichols, F.S.A., in 1828.

152. The above extracts were communicated by Mr. Salvin to Mr. Frank Buckland’s journal, Land and Water, in 1867, in a series of articles on “Cormorant Fishing.”

Some interesting chapters on the subject will be found at the end of Freeman and Salvin’s “Falconry; its Claims, History, and Practice.” 8vo, 1859.

153. Sidney Bere, in Land and Water, April 20, 1867.

154. In “Chambers’s Journal” for 1859, will be found an interesting article upon the subject, entitled “The King and his Cormorants.”

155. Mr. Salvin, to whom we have before referred, and Mr. E.C. Newcome, of Feltwell Hall, Norfolk, still keep and use trained cormorants; as, through the kindness of the former, we have had pleasant opportunities of attesting.

156. Geck—a laughing-stock. According to Capel, from the Italian ghezzo. Dr. Jamieson, however, derives it from the Teutonic geck, jocus.

157. See also Othello, Act v. Sc. 2, and Timon of Athens, Act ii. Sc. 1.

158. See D’Israeli’s “Curiosities of Literature,” iii. p. 84.

159. Thornbury, “Shakespeare’s England,” vol. i. pp. 311, 312. Doubtless compiled from Greene’s “Art of Coney Catching,” 1591, and Decker’s “English Villanies,” 1631.

160. Compare “Redbreast-teacher,” Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

161. To this day the bird is still called “Martin-pÉcheur” by the French.

162. “Arondell,” no doubt the old French, or a corruption of “Hirondelle.”

163. One would suppose that such a foreign substance as a “swallow-stone” in the eye would be much more inconvenient than the eyelash which it was destined to remove.

164. Curious, if true. Dr. Lebour does not say that he ever found such stones himself, nor does he vouch for their having been found by others in the nests. We have examined a great number of swallows’ nests without being able to discover anything of the kind.

165. Pliny makes mention of a “swallow-stone,” but says nothing about its being found in the nest. On the contrary, he says it is found in the stomach of the bird! “In ventre hirundinum pullus lapilli candido aut rubenti colore, qui ‘chelidonii’ vocantur, magicis narrati artibus reperiuntur.”

166. The substance of the above remarks was contributed by the author in an article published in The Zoologist for 1867, p. 744.

167. “The Birds of India,” iii. p. 610.

168. Some editions read—

But we have adopted the above reading in preference for three reasons: 1. Considering the rudimentary nature of the ostrich’s wing, Shakespeare would not have been so incorrect as to describe them as “winging the wind;” 2. The word “bated,” if intended to refer to eagles, and not to ostriches, would have been more correctly “bating;” 3. The expression, “to bate with the wind,” is well understood in the language of falconry, with which Shakespeare was familiar.

169. CinquiÈme sÉries, tom. viii. pp. 285–293.

170. Ibis, 1868, pp. 363–370.

171. “Oiseaux Fossiles de la France,” p. 230.

172. “Synopsis,” iii. p. 577 (1785).

173. “Suppl. Orn. Dict.” (1813).

174. “Hist. Brit. An.” p. 118 (1828).

175. “Works:” Wilkin’s ed. vol. iv. p. 318.