ZOOLOGY IN TIME OF SHAKESPEARE 253 



" Sometimes he angers me 

 With telling me of ... 

 A dipt- winged griffin." 



(i "Henry IV.," III. i. 152.) 



The creatures which aroused most interest 

 in Tudor times were those who could, even in a 

 distant manner, mimic or be referred to man. 

 The human being was the type, the lord of crea- 

 tion, the standard to which other animals must 

 in structure and function conform. Hence mon- 

 keys, and in particular the anthropoid apes, had 

 a paramount attraction. Seals and manatees 

 (= mermaids) owed their popularity to the same 

 effort to refer the marine mammals to the stand- 

 ards of our poor humanity. As Trinculo says in 

 " The Tempest " : 



" Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this 

 fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece 

 of silver ; there would this monster make a man ; any strange 

 beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit 

 to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead 

 Indian." (" The Tempest," II. ii. 29.) 



Other animals of a dangerous and savage dis- 

 position such as bears and lions also proved 

 when behind stout bars stimulating to the public, 

 who probably tormented these unhappy carnivora 

 to the limit of their endurance. Bear-baiting was 



