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

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.

56/376 (page 44)

$Brocks that gather meat with the female against winter, and layeth it up in his den, and when cold winter cometh, the male dreadeth lest store of meat should fail, and refraineth the female, and withdraweth her meat and sufFereth her not to eat her fill, and she feigneth peace, as it were following the male's will, and cometh in on that other side of the den, and openeth her jaws, and eateth and devoureth and wasteth the meat that is gathered, unwitting the male. These beasts hate the fox, and fight oft-times with him, but when the fox seeth that he may not for roughness and for hardness of the skin grieve him, he teigneth him as though he were sick and overcome, and fleeth away, and while the Brock goeth out to get his prey, the fox cometh into his den, and defileth his chamber with urine and other uncleanness. And the Brock is squeamish of such foul things, and forsaketh his house that is so defiled, and getteth needfully another dwelling-place. Barthohmew {Berthelet), bk. xviii. § 103. The Brock has short legs, and not equal on the two sides, but shorter on the left side, so that planting the feet of the right side in the ruts made by wheels, it runs valiantly, and escapes its pursuers. The fat of the Badger grows when the moon waxes, and decreases as it wanes, so that if it be killed on the last day of the old moon none is found. This is strange, that though this part of the beast is medicinal, yet its bite is often very serious and fatal ; and the reason of this is that it lives on wasps, and animals which creep on the ground, and are venomous, and therefore they infect its teeth. Its brain boiled with oil cures all pains. Hortus S^uiitath, part ii. ch. cxlii. [Sir Toby probably calls Malvolio Brock in allusion to the habit described by Bartholomew of this animal in strutting (puffing) out its skin, so the word conveys a vivid and ludicrous idea of Malvolio's gait.] We have Badgers in our sandy and light grounds, where woods, furzes, broom and plenty of shrubs are to shrowd them in, when they be from their burrows. Foxes and Badgers are rather preserved by gentlemen to hunt and$