Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

  • Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    hairy, and forgetteth soon wildness. And some be pleasing in face with merry movings and playings, and resteth but little. And some be unlike to that other nigh in all manner points, for in the face is a long beard, and have a broad tail. That kind of Apes is next to man's shape, and be diverse and distinguished by tails, and labour wonderly and busily to do all thing that they see: and so oft they shoe themselves v^^ith shoes that hunters leave in certain places slyly, and be so taken the sooner ; for while they would fasten the thong of the shoe, and would put the shoes on their feet, as they see the hunters do. they be oft taken with hunters ere they may unlace the shoes, and be delivered of them. The Ape is tamed and chastised by violence with beating and with chains, and is refrained with a clog, so that he may not run about freely at his own will, to abate his fierceness and outrage. And the Ape eateth all manner of meats and unclean things, and therefore he seeketh and looketh worms in men's heads, and throweth them into his mouth, and eateth them. The lion loveth Ape's flesh, for by eating thereof he recovereth when he is sore sick. Bartholofnew (^Berthelet), bk. xviii. § 96. The Ape ever killeth that young one which he loveth most with embracing it too fervently. Greene's Thieves Falling Out, etc. I'll teach you To come aloft and do tricks like an ape. [V. Massinger, The Bondman, iii. 3, for various tricks taught to the ape.] [Katharina, in The Taming of the Shrew (ii. i, 34)— I must dance barefoot on her wedding-day, And for your love to her lead Apes in hell— alludes to the old proverb : Such as die maids do all lead Apes in hell— Compare Douce's note on this passage.] If you wish to frighten any man while asleep, put the skin of an Ape under his head. Albertus Magnus, Of the Wonders of the World.