26 SHAKESPEARE'S [BASILISK. 



is venomous and deadly. With hissing he slayeth, or he 

 biteth or stingeth. And he presseth not his body with much 

 bowing, but his course of way is forthright, and goeth in 

 mean [the middle]. He dryeth and burneth leaves and herbs, 

 not only with touch, but also by hissing and blast he 

 rotteth and corrupteth all thing about him. And he is of 

 so great venom and perilous, that he slayeth and wasteth 

 him that nigheth him by the length of a spear, without 

 tarrying ; and yet the weasel taketh and overcometh him. 

 And though the Cockatrice be venomous without remedy 

 while he is alive, yet he loseth all the malice when he is 

 burnt to ashes. Bartholomew (Berthelet\ bk. xviii. 8. 



ITS head is very pointed, its eyes red, its colour inclining 

 to black and yellow ; it has a tail like a viper, but the rest 

 of its body is like a cock. The Basilisk is sometimes 

 gendered from a cock ; for towards the end of summer a 

 cock lays an egg from which the Basilisk is hatched. But 

 many things must concur to this gendering, for it lays the 

 egg in much warm dung, and there sits on it. And 

 those who have seen its creation say that there is no shell 

 to the egg, but a very strong skin which can resist the 

 hardest blows. Also the opinion of some is that a viper 

 or toad sits on that cock's egg but this is doubtful. 



Hortus Sanitatis, part iii. (" Of Birds ") ch. xiii. 



BASLE was built in the year 382, having the name of 

 a Basilisk slain by a knight covered with crystal. 



Fynes Moryson's " Itinerary," part i. ch. ii. p. 27. 



EVEN as a lion is afraid of a cock, so is the Basilisk, 

 for he is not only afraid at his sight, but almost dead 

 when he heareth him crow. It is a question whether the 

 Cockatrice die by the sight of himself. Once our nation 

 was full of Cockatrices, and a certain man did destroy 

 them by going up and down in glass, whereby their own 

 shapes were reflected upon their own faces, and so they died. 

 But this fable is not worth refuting, for it is more likely 

 that the man should first have died by the corruption of 

 the air from the Cockatrices. 



Topsell, "History of Serpents," pp. 679, 68 1. 



