20 INTRODUCTION. 



" Marcus. Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly. 

 Tilns. But how if that fly had a father and mother ? 

 How would he hang his slender gilded wings. 

 And buzz lamenting doings in the air ! 

 Poor harmless fly ! 



That, with his pretty buzzing melody, 

 Came here to make us merry ! and thou hast 

 kill'd him." 



Titus Andronicus, Act iii. Sc. 2. 



This is but one of the many lessons taught us by 

 Shakespeare in his allusions to the animal world, and the 

 kindly spirit which characterizes all his dealings with 

 animals is frequently exemplified throughout the Plays ; 

 perhaps nowhere so clearly as in Measure for Measure, 

 Act iii. Sc. i, where we are told 



" The sense of death is most in apprehension ; 

 And the poor beetle that we tread upon, 

 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies." 



Probably enough has been said to show the reader that 

 Shakespeare's knowledge of natural history was by no 

 means slight, and if it be thought to have been only 

 general, it was, at all events, accurate. The use which he 

 has made of this knowledge, throughout his works, in 

 depicting virtue and vice in their true colours, in pointing 

 out lessons of industry, patience, and mercy, and in 



