SHAKESPEARE ON OWLS 21 



lump," as Shakespeare calls him, crook-backed 

 Richard of Gloucester, was about to stab, in his 

 prison cell, the poor old dethroned father, as he 

 had already stabbed, in the field, his stripling son, 

 the ill-fated king turned fiercely upon the murderer, 

 like the aged Priam upon Neoptolemus, and bursting 

 into prophecy, in the light of coming death, warned 

 him that the evil omens which had ushered him into 

 the world, would accompany him to the end. 



" The owl shrieked at thy birth an evil sign ; 

 The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time ; 

 Dogs howled, and hideous tempests shook down trees." 



Perhaps the peculiar shape of the white owl's 

 face heart-shaped when he is awake, elongated 

 and thinner when he is asleep, and only becoming 

 round, like other owls, after he is dead marked 

 him out for special suspicion and dislike. He 

 perished almost as much for his supposed virtues as 

 for his supposed vices. Different parts of his body 

 were believed to possess different magical powers ; 

 and, strangely enough, the very same organ was 

 supposed to possess different powers at different 

 times. His heart, if carried into battle, acted as a 

 charm, inspiring valour and averting danger ; while, 

 if laid on the left breast of a sleeping woman, it 



