ZOOLOGY IN TIME OF SHAKESPEARE 249 



Pliny's unicorn, or monoceras, was an animal 

 all compact of the stag, the elephant, the boar 

 and the horse. It had a deep " lowing voice/' 

 and it is not surprising to learn that it " cannot 

 be taken alive." Its single horn, two cubits in 

 length, projected from the centre of its forehead. 

 The unicorn was introduced into the royal arms 

 when James VI. of Scotland became James I. 

 of Great Britain and Ireland ; but long before 

 this time the traditional fight between the lion 

 and the unicorn was mentioned by Spenser in 

 his " Faerie Queene " : 



" Like as the lyon, whose imperial poure 

 A proud rebellious unicorn defyes." 



Shakespeare refers both to the unicorn and 

 to the phoenix with an evident note of scepticism 

 in " The Tempest," III. iii. : 



" Now I will believe 



That there are unicorns that in Arabia 

 There is one tree, the phoenix' throne ; one phoenix 

 At this hour reigning there." 



Pliny also placed the phoenix in Arabia still 

 the most unexplored country in the world but 

 c< was not sure that its existence is not a fable." 

 According to the same authority the phoenix 



