90 SHAKESPEARE'S [DORMOUSE. 



that cutteth the tender wombs of crocodiles, and slayeth 

 them. Dolphins know by the smell if a dead man that is 

 on the sea ate ever of Dolphin's kind ; and if the dead 

 man hath eaten thereof, he eateth him anon ; and if he 

 did not, he keepeth and defendeth him from eating and 

 biting of other fish, and shoveth him and bringeth him to 

 the cliff with his own wroting [cum rostris suis (^Bartholo- 

 mew) so wroting is rooting with the snout, as a pig does]. 



Bartholomew (Bertbelet], bk. xiii. 29. 



THE Dolphin is called the brother of man, because he is 

 in some degree like to man in his ways. They sleep on 

 the water, so that they may be heard to snore. They live 

 to 140 years. The Dolphin alone among fish has no gall. 

 When a Dolphin dies, the other Dolphins come together 

 and surround him, and bear him down to the depths, and 

 bury him, lest other fish should eat him. Small Dolphins 

 are always together like flocks of sheep ; and they have 

 two big Dolphins as guards. Dolphins have their eyes on 

 their backs, and their mouths on the opposite side, and 

 therefore they are not good at catching their prey, because 

 of the want of agreement of the mouth and the eyes ; 

 therefore they turn their mouths towards the heaven, and 

 their backs and eyes towards the earth, so as to follow their 

 prey. They are said to have helped sailors when their 

 ship was about to be wrecked. They are supposed also to 

 weep when they are caught. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iv. ch. xxvii. 



Dormouse. 



TWELFTH NIGHT, iii. 2, 20. 



GLIRES [/'.*., Dormice] be little beasts, as it were great 

 mice, and have that name (glires) for sleep makes them 

 fat. They love their fellows that they know, and strive 

 and fight against other. And they love their father and 

 mother with great mildness and pity, and feed and serve 

 them in their age. Bartholomew (Bertbeki), bk. xviii. 57. 



THE soles of the feet anointed with the fat of a Dor- 

 mouse doth procure sleep. 



Lupton, '-A Thousand Notable Things," bk. Ji. 16. 



