160 SHAKESPEARE'S [HORSE. 



and to drink troublous and thick water, and if the water 

 be clear, the horse stampeth and stirreth it with his foot 

 to make it thick. Bartholomew (Bertbelet], bk. xviii. 39. 



I KNEW two [scholars] hired for ten groats apiece to say 

 service on Sunday, and that's no more than a post Horse 

 from hence [i.e., from Rochester] to Canterbury [ = 26 

 miles]. Lilly, "Mother Bombie," iv. i. 



[BuT in the time of the plague (1625) Horse-hire was 

 dear :] " Coach-men ride a cock-horse and are so full of 

 jadish tricks that you cannot be jolted six miles from 

 London under 30 or 40 shillings." 



Dekker, " A Rod for Run-aways (Epistle to the Reader]. 



[Horse-feed cost sixpence a day in Middleton's time 

 ("Phoenix," i. 4, 35).] 



[Ten pounds was a great price for a Horse (cf. Dekker's 

 " Seven Deadly Sins"); and from the same author's "Bellman 

 of London " we find that sales of Horses were registered in a 

 toll-book. In the same tract is an account of " Horse-priggers " 

 and " Horse-coursers," of whose tricks more is said in " Lan- 

 thorn and Candlelight," as well as of the cheating of hostlers, 

 and of the sale of Horses at Smithfield. 



In Ruggles " Ignoramus " (First Prologue) a list of the 

 favourite Race-Horses in 1614-15 is given. 



Sir Thos. Browne devotes a whole chapter of his " Vulgar 

 Errors " to a refutation of the fallacies that Horses have no 

 gall, and that, if they have gall, it is venomous.] 



IT is said that if Horses be shod with that iron, where- 

 with one hath been before killed, it makes the same 

 Horses very lively and quick. And if of the same you 

 make a bit or a snaffle, that Horse that hath it in his 

 mouth will be made tame and easy to be handled, yea, 

 though he be never so wild, stubborn, or given to biting. 

 Lupton, "A Thousand Notable Things," bk. vii. 97. 



IN the heart of Horses there is found a bone most like 

 unto a dog's tooth ; it is said that this doth drive away 

 all grief or sorrow from a man's heart, and that a tooth 

 being pulled from the cheeks or jaw - bones of a dead 



