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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    of Bears. And no beast hath so great sleight to do evil deeds as the Bear. And the Bear eateth crabs and ants for medicine, and eateth flesh for great strength, and is an un- patient beast and wrathful, and will be avenged on all those that him toucheth. If another touch him, anon he leaveth the first, and reseth on the second, and reseth on the third ; and when he is taken, he is made blind with a bright basin \j:f. quotation from Julius Caesar] and is bound with chains, and compelled to play : and tamed with beating, and is an unsteadfast beast and unstable, and un- easy, and goeth therefore all day about the stake to which he is strongly tied. He licketh and sucketh his own feet, and hath liking in the juice thereof. He can wonderly stie [climb] upon trees unto the highest tops of them [and robs wild bees of their honey]. And the hunter taketh heed thereof, and pitcheth full sharp hooks and stakes about the foot of the tree, and hangeth craftily a right heavy hammer or a wedge tofore the open way to the honey, and then the Bear cometh, and is an hungered, and the log that hangeth there on high letteth him, and he putteth away the wedge dispiteously, but after the removing, the wedge falleth again and hitteth him on the ear, and he hath indignation thereof; and putteth away the wedge dis- piteously and right fiercely, and then the wedge falleth and smiteth him harder than it did before, and he striveth so long with the wedge, until his feeble head doth fail by oft smiting of the wedge, and then he falleth down upon the pricks and stakes, and slayeth himself in that wise. Bears licketh not drink, as beasts do with sawy teeth ; and sucketh not neither swalloweth, as beasts do that have con- tinual teeth, as sheep and men ; but biteth the water and swalloweth it. Bartholomew {Berthelet), bk, xviii. §§ 112-3. Beast. V. Animal. Bee. Like the bee, culling from every flower The virtuous sweets, Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honev, We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees, Are murdered for our pains. ii. King Henry IV., iv. 5, 75-81.