120 SHAKESPEARE'S [FOX. 



voureth him. The Fox halteth alway ; for the right legs 

 be shorter than the left legs ; his skin is right hairy, rough, 

 and hot ; his tail is great and rough ; and when an hound 

 weeneth to take him by the tail, he taketh his mouth full 

 of hair, and stoppeth it. The Fox doth fight with the 

 brock for dens, and defileth the brock's den with his urine 

 and with his dirt, and hath so the mastery over him with 

 fraud and deceit, and not by strength. The hart is friend 

 to a Fox, and fighteth therefor with the brock, and helpeth 

 the Fox. The Fox is a stinking beast and corrupt, and 

 doth corrupt oft the place that they dwell in continually, 

 and maketh them to be barren. His biting is somedeal 

 venomous. And when hounds do pursue him, he draweth 

 in his tail between his legs, and when he seeth he may not 

 scape, he [micturates] in his tail that is full hairy and 

 rough, and swappeth his tail full of [urine] in the hounds' 

 faces that pursue him. And the stench of the [urine] is 

 full grievous to the hounds, and therefore the hounds spare 

 him somewhat. The Fox feigneth himself tame in time of 

 need ; but by night he waiteth his time, and doeth shrewd 

 deeds. And although he be right guileful in himself and 

 malicious ; yet he is -good and profitable in use of medicine. 

 For if a man have upon him a Fox-tongue in a ring or in 

 a bracelet, he shall not be blind, as witches mean. 



Bartholomew (Berthelet}, bk. xviii. 114. 



You may take Foxes with this oil following : Anoint 

 the soles of your shoes, with a piece of fat swine's flesh 

 as broad as your hand, newly toasted or a little broiled at 

 the fire, when you go out of the wood homeward. And 

 in every of your steps, cast a piece of the liver of a swine 

 roasted, and dipped in honey, and draw after your back 

 the dead carcase of a cat, and when the Fox following thee 

 comes near unto the steps, be sure to have a man nigh thee 

 with bow and shafts to shoot at him : or by some other 

 means to hit him. Mizaldus had this of an expert hunter. 

 Lupton, "A Thousand Notable Things," bk. vi. 21. 



FOXES being sod or cut in pieces, and then given to 

 hens or geese among their meat, it makes them safe from 

 being hurt of any Foxes after, for the space of two months 

 (Mizaldus). /^ bk. vii. 44. 



