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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    [Onions and Violets were conserved or pickled together in alternate layers (Dawson, Good Huswife's Jewel, 1596).] Violet is for faithfulness Which in me shall abide ; Hoping likewise that from your heart You will not let it slide. A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584), quoted by Malone. Viper. I am no viper, yet I feed On mother's flesh which did me breed. Pericles, i. i, 64. Viper is a manner kind of serpents that is full veno- mous, and hath that name for he bringeth forth brood by strength ; for when her womb draweth to the time of whelping, the whelps abideth not convenable time nor kind passing, but gnaweth and fretteth the sides of their mother, and they come so into this world with strength and with the death of the mother. The male doth his mouth into the mouth of the female, and she waxeth wode in liking, and biteth off the head of the male, and so both father and mother are slain. Of this serpent be m.ade pasties [lozenges], of the which is made treacle, that is remedy against venom. And this adder Viper sustaineth and may- bear hunger long time in a strong winter ; and cometh to the den under earth, and casteth first away his venom, and doth sleep there until springing-time come again. And when the pores of the earth open, then by heat of the sun this serpent Viper awaketh and cometh out of his den, and for his sight is appaired [impaired] by the long abiding under the earth, he seeketh the root of fennel or the herb of it, and washeth his dim eyes with the juice thereof to recover his sight which he hath lost. And Tyriis is a manner serpent that hight Viper also, and great serpents flee this serpent Tyrus^ though he be little ; and all his body is rough, and when he biteth any thing, all that is about the thing rotteth anon. And among all serpents the kind of Viper is worst, and when he would gender, he wooeth a manner lamprey, and cometh to the brink of the water, that he troweth that lamprey is in,