ITS COMRADES. 97 



" No, rather, I abjure all roofs, and choose 



To be a comrade with the wolf and owl, 

 Necessity's sharp pinch." 



King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4. 



Mr. Collier, taking into consideration the last line, 

 reads : 



" To be a comrade with the wolf, and howl 

 Necessity's sharp pinch." 



And this seems more likely to be the correct reading. 

 Albeit, in support of the former version, the following 

 passage in Lucrece has been adduced : 



" No noise but owls' and wolves' death-boding cries." 



It is not to be supposed that Shakespeare was always 

 a firm believer in the popular notions respecting animals 

 and birds to which he has made allusion. In many cases 

 he had a particular motive in introducing such notions, 

 although possibly aware of their erroneous nature, and he 

 evidently adopted them only to impart an air of reality to 

 the scenes which he depicted, and to bring them home 

 more forcibly to the impressionable minds of his auditors, 

 to whom such " folks-lore " would be familiar. This is 

 notably the case as regards the owl, and no one can read 

 the first scene in the second act of Macbeth, or the 

 fourth scene in the first act of Henry VI. (Part II.), 



o 



