238 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



educated in those days knew of zoology in all its 

 aspects, and that these aspects covered a far 

 wider area than, with the present expansion of 

 knowledge, we can now contemplate under this 

 single science, is shown by the title-page to Top- 

 sell's magnificent quarto volume : 



"The History of Foure-Footed Beastes. De- 

 scribing the true and lively figure of every Beast, 

 with a discourse of their severall Names, Con- 

 ditions, Kindes, Vertues (both naturall and medi- 

 cinall), Countries of their breed, their love and 

 hate to Mankinde, and the -wonderful worke of 

 God in their Creation, Preservation, and Destruc- 

 tion. Necessary for all Divines and Students, 

 because the story of every Beast is amplified with 

 Narrations out of Scriptures, Fathers, Phyloso- 

 phers, Physitians, and Poets : wherein are de- 

 clared divers Hyerogliphicks, Emblems, Epigrams, 

 and other good Histories, collected out of all the 

 Volumes of Conradus Gesner, and all other Writers 

 to this present day. By Edward Topsell. London, 

 Printed by William Jaggard, 1607." 



If now we leave the general consideration of 

 the knowledge of the science of zoology accessible 

 in Shakespeare's time, and turn to the acquaint- 



