372 The Dog Book 



is good enough for such a present." A more frequent quotation is that 

 from "Macbeth," iii., i: "As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, 

 curs, shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves are clepped all by the name of 

 dogs." In "King Lear," iii, 6, we have in another list of dogs "bobtail 

 tyke," cur not being named. Another quotation from "King Lear" is: 

 "Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?" "Ay, sir." "And 

 the creature ran from the cur." There is also a very open use of the term 

 in that passage wherein so many hounds are named: 



"Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds: 

 Trash [take care of] Merriman, the poor cur is embossed" [tired out]. 



Then there is the application of the name to a bear dog: 



"Oft have I seen a hot o'erweening cur 

 Run back and bite, because he was withheld; 

 Who, being suffered with the bear's fell paw, 

 Hath clapped his tail between his legs and cried." 



Other poets of the Shakespearian period gave even a wider meaning 

 to the name than he did. Turberville, who died about 1594, wrote respecting 

 hart hunting: 



"Ah, rueful remedy so that I (as it were) 



Even tear my life out of the teeths of hounds, which make me fear, 

 And from those cruel curs and brain-sick bawling tykes, 

 Which do foot out to follow me both over hedge and dykes." 



From Drayton, 1563-1631, we have in his "Dancing Dog": 



"Then Ball, my cut-tailed cur, and I begin to play. 

 He o'er my sheep-hook leaps, now th'one, now th'other way, 

 Then on his hinder feet he doth himself advance, 

 I tune, and to my note my lively dog will dance." 



Cuttail is not infrequently used as the name of a dog. In the "Shep- 

 herd's Sirena" it occurs thus: "Whistles Cuttail from his play." And 

 Drayton affords another quotation in "The Mooncalf": 



"They bring 



Mastiffs and mongrels, all that in a string 

 Could be got out, or could lug a hog, 

 Ball, Eatall, Cuttail, Blackfoot bitch and dog." 



In the "Farewell to Whitefoot," by Drayton, we again have the double 

 mention of cur and cuttail : 



"He called his dog (that sometimes had the praise) 

 Whitefoot, well known to all that keep the plain, 

 That many a wolf had worried in his days, 

 A better cur there never followed swain; 

 Which, though as he his master's sorrows knew, 

 Wagged his cut tail, his wretched plight to rue." 



