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.

    300/376 (page 288)
    To keep beasts safe that the blind mouse called a Shrew do not bite them : Enclose the same mouse quick in chalk, which when it is hard, hang the same about the neck of the beast that you would keep safe from biting ; and it is most certain, that he shall not be touched nor bitten. Luptoti, Notable Things, bk. vii. § 52. If a Shrew, I take it to be the blind mouse, doth chance to go over any part of any beast, that part of the beast will after be lame. This I know to be true. Ibid., bk. X. § II. Shrimp. ii. King Henry AT., ii. 3, 23. [Addressed to a salmon] one That for the calmest and fresh time o' the year Dost live in shallow rivers, rank'st thyself With silly smelts and Shrimps. Webster, Duchess of Malfi, iii. 5. You shall eat nothing but Shrimp porridge for a fort- night. Brome, Sparagus Garden, ii, 3. Silk. So often as I consider that some ten thousands of Silk- worms, labouring continually night and day, can hardly make three ounces of silk,—so often do I condemn the excessive profusion and luxuriousness of men in such costly things, who defile with dirt silks and velvets, that were formerly the ornaments of kings, and make no more reckoning of them now than of an old tattered cloak, as if they were ashamed to esteem better of an honourable thing than of a base, and were wholly bent upon waste. Amongst the English a silken habit is so much loved and valued, that they despise their own wool, which compared with silk is not contemptible, and is the most profitable and the greatest merchandise of the kingdom. But time will make them forego this wantonness, when they shall observe that their moneys are treasured up in Italy at that time, when they stand in need of it for their public or private affairs. Dr. Thos. Mouffet, Theatre of Insects, p. 1033. I I