88 SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE 



was a crook-kneed animal, but I do not 

 believe this either. The idea possibly arose 

 from the representation of some animal 

 deformed by ''rickets," for that this can 

 occur with stray specimens of any breed is 

 to my mind as certain as that the dachs- 

 hund's formation is not so produced. This 

 is one of the oriorlnal varieties of the eenus 

 canis, in proof of which statement, Assyrian 

 sculptures and Egyptian paintings can be 

 adduced. 



The passage which to my mind proves 

 that Shakespeare knew a good deal about 

 hunting is the following one from the 

 Taming of the Shrew, which could 

 undeniably only have been written by a 

 hunting man and a " houndman " — 



" Lord. Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good 

 At the hedge corner in the coldest fault ? 



