Shakspeare a Naturalist, 311 



and one pathetic, notices of the antlered race, whose habits 

 he had studied in the park at Charlecote, near Stratford. 



The object of the present paper will be, to show what a 

 wonderful acquaintance Shakspeare possessed with the objects 

 of nature, far beyond any dramatist or poetic writer of his age ; 

 how accurate and just bis descriptions of the habits and 

 appearance of these objects are ; and to give an account of 

 the fabulous animals, and fanciful suppositions regarding those 

 that actually exist. By this latter division of the subject will 

 be exhibited the popular notions upon natural history, of the 

 days of our author ; for, when he relates any of those super- 

 stitious ideas, we may rely, I think, upon their being those 

 entertained by the people of his day, since his small acquaint- 

 ance with the classical and other writings of Rome and Greece, 

 precludes the chance of his having drawn them from those 

 sources : nevertheless, he mentions many animals of this class, 

 with which his school reading, and the translations of the 

 writers of antiquity then existing, must have supplied him. To 

 illustrate these divisions will be my aim, by passages confirm- 

 atory or explanatory, drawn from ancient and modern authors. 



Before entering upon the more systematic part of this essay, 

 it will not be uninteresting to observe with what comparisons 

 he portrays the beauty, excellence, and general character of 

 the fairest part of the creation, and of her lord and master. 

 If his female is beautiful, he gives her " doves' eyes," and 

 ** roses in her cheeks," with lips like " kissing cherries," and 

 face of " lily tincture." She is " straight as a wand;" her 

 fingers are white as fralk, and soft as Jlowers ; her embraces 

 like the encircling of woodbine and honeysuckle ; and her supe- 

 riority over her fellows is compared to a " snowy dove trooping 

 with crows,'* Her voice is melodious, 



" More tunable, than lark to shepherd's ear 

 When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear." 



If she be angry, which I have heard the sex sometimes is, 

 she is like a " fountain troubled ; " if she be deceitful, her tears 

 prove crocodiles. After all, when time and beauty is over, 

 from her " fair and unpolluted flesh" the *' violets spring." 



If he describes the dignity of man, it is thus, in a passage 

 which needs no comment : — " What a piece of work is 

 man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form 

 and moving, how express and admirable ! in action, how like 

 an angel ! in apprehension, how like a god ! the beauty of 

 the world ! the paragon of animals !" If he describes him 

 angry, he is like an " empty eagle" or a " lion wanting prey ;" 

 if still and imperturbable, his visage 



" Does cream and mantle like a standing pool;" 

 X 4- 



