HORSES IN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS 181 



horse races to be "the disport of great men, and 

 good in themselves, though many gentlemen by- 

 such means gallop quite out of their fortunes." 



Shakespeare himself, though rather fond of 

 horses, was hardly less opposed to the practice 

 of heavy betting. His description of a thorough- 

 bred's points is good : 



" Round-hoof d, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, 

 Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostrils wide, 

 High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing strong, 

 Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide." 



It would take long, also it is unnecessary, to 

 describe at length all the horses of which Shake- 

 speare speaks in his plays. According to a 

 recent writer, Oliver's steed, Ferrant d'Espagne, 

 or "Spanish traveller," has been "bastardised." 

 What the writer means is, I think, that the horse 

 has been introduced into works of fiction without 

 acknowledgment. 



Such certainly is the case, and so greatly has 

 the animal been distorted in some instances that 

 only with difficulty is it recognisable. 



In Shakespeare's time — that is to say during the 

 latter half of the sixteenth and in the beginning 

 of the seventeenth centuries — the barbary horse 

 clearly was highly esteemed, for it is referred to 

 frequently in books and memoirs which bear upon 

 that period. 



Shakespeare speaks several times of roan horses 



