S24 Origines ZoologiccUy 



WOLF. 



Ravenous, and of insatiable voracity ; the most abject 

 poverty is represented by him who has nothing to keep the 

 wolf from the door. So inauspicious was his appearance 

 considered, that he, upon whom a wolf first fixed his eyes, was 

 said to lose his voice suddenly : and, upon any abrupt pause 

 in a discourse, it was said there was a wolf in the story, lupus 

 est infabula. This originated from one Lycus, which in the 

 Greek language means a wolf; of whom, during his absence, 

 many extravagant tales were related, which, by his sudden 

 appearance, were immediately refuted and put to silence. 



So utterly worthless was this animal considered, that a 

 price was always set upon his head : and, in the ancient law, 

 an excommunicated person was said cap^d gerere lupinum ; 

 and it was thought meritorious to destroy him, as a wretch 

 thrust from the most common offices of social benevolence 

 and humanity. 



One who has a ravenous or canine appetite is said to have 

 a wolf in his belly. And a furious kind of insanity, in which 

 the unhappy object went howling about, and believed him- 

 self, and was believed by others, to be turned into a wolf, or 

 some other beast, was called lycanthropy. This might give 

 occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny, " That some men 



" That island of England breeds very valiant creatures, their mastiffs are 

 of unmatchable courage." {Henry V., act 3. sc. 9.) 



" A dog, and bay the moon." Julius CcEsar, act 4. sc. 3. 



** Oft have I seen a hot overweening cur 



Run back and bite, because he was withheld ; 

 Who being suffer'd with the bear's fell paw, 

 Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs, and cried." 



Henry VI., Part ii., act 5. sc. I. 

 The above description of the hound is highl}^ picturesque. The obse- 

 quiousness of the spaniel is proverbial. For the following observation 

 upon the British mastiff's celebrity, I am indebted to Dr. Fleming, Brit. 

 An.y p. 11. " The Roman emperors held the British dogs of this kind in 

 high estimation for combats in the amphitheatre, and, according to Strabo, 

 they were trained by the Gauls for battle." Every one who ever possessed 

 a dog, knows that they " bay the moon," and that most piteously, sitting 

 upon their haunches when the moon shines clear and frosty. To the 

 former part of the last quotation, Ben Jonson has some lines of similar 

 purport, which may confirm the truth of the remark : — 



" The eager, but the generous greyhound. 

 Who ne'er so little from his game withheld. 

 Turns head, and leaps up at his holder's throat." 



Every Man in his Humour. 



The conflict of dogs with bears, Shakespeare may have seen at the Paris 

 Garden, and frequently, 1 dare say, the very occurrence he here so graphi- 

 cally notices. — S. H.] [I have known a dog, and not a young one, that 

 standing, in moonlight nights, on the shadow side of trees in an orchard, 

 would bark at their stems for a long time together. — J. D.] 



