BROCK.] NATURAL HISTORY. 43 



Briar. V. Rose. 



TIMON OF ATHENS, iv. 3, 422. 



THE root of the Briar-bush is a singular remedy found 

 out by oracle against the biting of a mad dog. The fruit 

 when it is ripe maketh most pleasant meats and banqueting 

 dishes, as tarts and such like ; the making whereof I commit 

 to the cunning cook, and teeth to eat them in the rich 

 man's mouth. Gerard's "Herbal," bk. iii. ch. iii. 



Brimstone. V. Sulphur. 



To put fire in your heart, and brimstone in your liver. 



TWELFTH NIGHT, iii. 2, 21-2. 



IF you would have any beast or any part of the same 

 (of what colour soever he be) to be turned into white, 

 shave off the hairs, and smoke the same that is shaven 

 with the fume of Brimstone, and white hairs will grow 

 there. You may prove the same in flowers. 



Lupton's "Notable Things," bk. vi. I. 



Brock [Badger]. 



TWELFTH NIGHT, ii. 5, 114.. 



THE Brock is a beast of the quantity of a fox, and his 

 skin is full hairy and rough. In such beasts is wit and 

 flight, and holdeth in the breath, and blowing ; [and] 

 stretcheth the skin so holding their breathings, when they 

 be hunted and chased with hunters' dogs, and so they find 

 sleight and manner, by such strutting out of the skin, to 

 eschew and put off the biting of those hounds that so do 

 pursue and follow to noy them, and also for to slay them, 

 and in like wise put they off the smitings of the hunters. 

 These beasts know when tempest shall fall, and maketh 

 them therefore dens under 'earth with diverse enterings, and 

 when the Northern wind bloweth, he stoppeth the north 

 entering with his rough tail, and letteth stand open the 

 south entering, and againwards. There is a manner kind of 



