THE MAMMALS OF SHAKSPEARE. 247 
northern provincial name of “ brock,” and then only as an epithet. 
In the amusing play Twelfth Night (Act ii., Scene 5), Malvolio, 
reading a letter purposely dropped for his perusal, puts on airs, 
and places such a construction on the contents of the letter as to 
annoy Sir Toby Belch, who exclaims, but not loud enough for 
Malvolio to hear him, “ Marry, hang thee, brock /” 
Tue Brown Bear, Ursus arctos. 
Hither this species or U. isabellinus would probably be the bear 
with which Shakspeare would be most familiar. Bear-baiting 
seems to have been a very popular amusement about that period 
and for many years subsequently. If I remember rightly, there 
was a “bear garden” situated somewhere on the south side of the 
Thames, not far from the south end of one of the bridges— 
Southwark, I think. Ihave seen it marked in old maps of London. 
Some account of “ bear gardens” may be found in Strutt’s ‘ Sports 
and Pastimes.” 
In the Merry Wives of Windsor (Act i., Scene 1), Slender asks 
of Anne Page— 
“Why do your dogs bark so? Be there bears i’ the town ? 
Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of. 
SLENDER. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any 
man in England. You are afraid if you see the bear loose, are you not ? 
Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. 
Stenper. That's meat and drink to me now. I have seen Sackerson * 
loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain; but, I warrant you, 
the women have cried and shriek’d at it, that it passed ; but women, indeed, 
cannot abide ‘em: they are very ill-favoured rough things.” 
Again, in Twelfth Night (Act i., Scene 3), Sir Andrew Ague- 
cheek, in lamenting his lack of education, exclaims— 
“ What is pourquoi? do, or not do? I would I had bestowed that time 
in the tongues, that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting.” 
Shakspeare mentions bears upwards of fifty times. The fol- 
lowing spirited description may probably be intended for “a find” 
with a Syrian bear, Ursus isabellinus :— 
“ Hrpronyra. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 
When in a wood of Crete they bay’d the bear 
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear 
* The name of a celebrated fighting bear. 
