SHREW-MOUSE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 287 



name and behalf of those whom they would hurt and mis- 

 chief, according to the practice of pricking the images of 

 any person in wax, used in the witchcraft of these days.] 



Holland's P/iny, bk. xxviii. ch. iii. and note. 



Sherris. 



ii. KING HENRY IV., iv. 3, no, etc. 



[Wine of Xeres.] 



V. Sack. 



Shough. 



MACBETH, iii. I, 94. 

 [A kind of rough-haired dog.] 



Shrew[-mouse]. 



[Shreiv is only used by Shakespeare of woman. The word 

 has the same meaning (v. infra)] 



A SHREW-MOUSE quasi shrewd mouse, which by biting 

 cattle so venometh them that they die, whereof came our 

 English " I beshrew thee," when we wish ill. 



Minshetts Dictionary, s.v. 



IT is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle and tame, 

 but being touched, it biteth deep, and poisoneth deadly. 

 They annoy vines, and are seldom taken, except in cold ; 

 t-hay frequent ox-dung. If they fall into a cart-road, they 

 die and cannot get forth again. They go very slowly, 

 they are fraudulent, and take their prey by deceit. Many 

 times they gnaw the ox's hoofs in the .stable. They love 

 the rotten flesh of a raven. The Shrew being cut and 

 applied in the manner of a plaister doth effectually cure 

 her own bites. The dust of a cart-rut [in which a Shrew 

 has died] being taken and sprinkled into the wounds made 

 by her poisonous teeth is a very excellent and present 

 remedy for the curing of the same. If horses or any 

 other labouring creature do feed in that pasture or grass 

 in which a Shrew shall put forth her venom or poison in, 

 they will presently die. 



Topsell, "Four-footed Beasts," pp. 415-20. 



