120 SHAKESPEARE’S [ Fox. 
voureth him. The Fox halteth alway; for the right legs 
be shorter than the left legs; his skin is right hairy, rough, 
and hot ; his tail is great and rough; and when an hound 
weeneth to take him by the tail, he taketh his mouth full 
of hair, and stoppeth it. The Fox doth fight with the 
brock for dens, and defileth the brock’s den with his urine 
and with his dirt, and hath so the mastery over him with 
fraud and deceit, and not by strength. The hart is friend 
to a Fox, and fighteth therefor with the brock, and helpeth 
the Fox. The Fox is a stinking beast and corrupt, and 
doth corrupt oft the place that they dwell in continually, 
and maketh them to be barren. His biting is somedeal 
venomous. And when hounds do pursue him, he draweth 
in his tail between his legs, and when he seeth he may not 
scape, he [micturates] in his tail that is full hairy and 
rough, and swappeth his tail full of [urine] in the hounds’ 
faces that pursue him. And the stench of the [urine] 1s 
full grievous to the hounds, and therefore the hounds spare 
him somewhat. The Fox feigneth himself tame in time of 
need; but by night he waiteth his time, and doeth shrewd 
deeds. And although he be right guileful in himself and 
malicious ; yet he is good and profitable in use of medicine. 
For if a man have upon him a Fox-tongue in a ring or in 
a bracelet, he shall not be blind, as witches mean. 
Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xviii. § 114. 
You may take Foxes with this oil following: Anoint 
the soles of your shoes, with a piece of fat swine’s flesh 
as broad as your hand, newly toasted or a little broiled at 
the fire, when you go out of the wood homeward. And 
in every of your steps, cast a piece of the liver of a swine 
roasted, and dipped in honey, and draw after your back 
the dead carcase of a cat, and when the Fox following thee 
comes near unto the steps, be sure to have a man nigh thee 
with bow and shafts to shoot at him: or by some other 
means to hit him. Mizaldus had this of an expert hunter. 
Lupton, “A Thousand Notable Things,” bk. vi. § 21. 
Foxes being sod or cut in pieces, and then given to 
hens or geese among their meat, it makes them safe from 
being hurt of any Foxes after, for the space of two months 
(Mizaldus). Ibid., bk. vii. § 44. 
