30 SHAKESPEARE’S [ BEAR. 
Tuer gendering is in the beginning of winter, and 
gender not as other fourfooted beasts do, but they gender 
both lying, and then they depart asunder each from other, 
and go.in dens either by themself, and whelpeth therein 
the xxx day, and the whelps be not more than five, and 
be white and evil shapen. For the whelp is a piece of 
flesh little more than a mouse, having neither eyes nor 
hair, and having claws somedeal bourging [#.e., burgeoning], 
and so this lump she licketh, and shapeth a whelp with 
licking. And so men shall see no where beasts more selder 
gender nor whelp than Bears, and therefore the males hide 
them and lurk forty days, and the females array their 
houses four months with boughs, fruit and branches, and 
covereth it, for to keep out the rain with nesh twigs and 
branches. The first forty days of these days they sleep so 
fast, that they may not be awaked with wounds, and that 
time they fast mightily. And the grease of a Bear helpeth 
against the falling of the hair. And after these days, she 
sitteth up and liveth by sucking of her feet, and beclippeth 
the cold whelps, and holdeth them fast to her breast : 
And heateth and comforteth them, and lieth grovelling 
upon them, as birds do. And it is wonder to tell a thing that 
Theophrastus saith and telleth, that Bear’s flesh sod that time 
vanisheth if it be laid up, and is no token of meat found in 
the almery [cupboard, larder], but a little quantity of humour: 
and hath that time small drops of blood about the heart, 
and no manner of blood in the other deal of the body. 
And in springing time the males go forth and be fat, and 
the cause thereof is unknown, namely for that time they 
be not fatted with meat neither with sleep, but only seven 
days. And when she goeth out of her den, she seeketh an 
herb, and eateth it to make lax her womb, that is then 
hard and bound. Then her eyes be dimmed, and therefore 
namely they labour to get them honey-combs, for the 
mouth should be wounded with stinging of bees and bleed; 
and so relieve the heaviness and sore ache of their eyes. 
His head is full feeble, that is most strong in the lion, and 
therefore sometime he falleth down headlong upon the 
rocks, and falleth upon gravel and dieth soon. And as 
men say, the Bear’s brain is venomous, and therefore when 
they be slain, their heads be burnt in open places, for men 
should not taste of the brain, and fall into woodness 
