350 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Then, the keeper assisting, we, in a measure, sufficiently marked, to the 

 observation of the herd, the deer required, and who with the rest of the 

 half-dozen had rejoined them, we followed him up ; and it being evident 

 that he was the one wanted, the herd assisted in driving him out of their 

 company, beating him off with their horns, with their " forked heads," and 

 thus separated from the herd, the hound was let loose, and in a few minutes 

 he was caught. I have entered into this description with reference to the 

 well-known passage in 'As You Like It' to explain fully my objection to 

 the universal acceptance of arrows as the means by which the round 

 haunches were gored. Shakespeare was a great observer of nature as well 

 as of men, and, according to tradition, was once charged with deer stealing. 

 He had therefore probably learned something of the habits of deer, and 

 observed the want of sympathy with a hunted animal which is engendered 

 of timidity and the law of self-preservation. This explains the cause of the 

 hunted deer being expelled, and in turning round to go out of the herd the 

 blows of the "forked heads" would fall on the back or haunch. The 

 deer's want of sympathy would be natural, Duke Frederick's unnatural; 

 and Jacques, moralising on this, seems to say : — " The Duke, your brother, 

 has gored your haunches in turning you out of house and home, and yet 

 you go hunting the poor dappled fools, turning them out and disturbing 

 them in their own confines, and excite them to be unkind to the hunted 

 one, as the Duke has been to you. So you have not learnt the sweet use 

 of adversity, and in that kind you out-Herod Herod." And now for the 

 question of arrows. All the Shakespearian commentators whom I have 

 noticed (Wood, Harness, Chalmers, Dyce, and Aldis Wright) read " forked 

 heads" as meaning "arrows"; yet, curiously to add, every friend whom 

 I have asked to read the passage in ' As You Like It,' act ii. sc. 1, 

 has said off-hand that the " forked heads " must be the antlers. On my 

 telling them, however, that no commentator takes that view, they have 

 yielded to the generally expressed opinion. But can the "arrows" be a 

 correct view ? The hunter, to kill the deer, would aim behind the shoulder — 

 the left, if possible — in the hope of piercing the heart ; for this purpose he 

 might use the barbed arrow. I think the hunter would use the smooth- 

 pointed, which would penetrate much more easily and certainly. Now what 

 says Prof. Aldis Wright, in the Clarendon Press edition of ' As You Like 

 It,' p. 10 (I condense the note) : — " With forked heads, for distinction of 

 arrow-heads, see note to ' King Lear,' i. I. 135. A forked arrow was not, 

 as Stevens says, a barbed arrow, but just the contrary. Commodus used 

 forked heads of the shape of a new moon, wherewith he would smite the 

 head of a bird and never miss." This may be true of the Ostrich, as a bird 

 named by another writer ; the moon-shaped arrow would thus clip the neck, 

 but it could not have penetrated the body. It would be an accident if the 

 hunter hit the haunch. The Duke says, " let us hiU"\ he does not wish 



