30 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time. 
mediaeval physicians to various animals have no rightful 
place in natural history, yet the account of the medicinal 
virtues of the cat, as recorded by Topsell, is too grotesque 
to be omitted. He writes— 
“ For the pain and blindness in the eye, by reason of any shins, 
webs, or nails, this is an approved medicine : take the head of a black 
cat, which hath not a spot of another colour in it, and burn it to 
powder in an earthen pot, leaded or glazed within; then take this 
powder and, through a quill, blow it thrice a day into thy eye; and if 
in the night any heat do thereby annoy thee, take two leaves of an 
oke, wet in cold water, and bind them to the eye, and so shall all pain 
flie away, and blindness depart, although it hath oppressed thee a 
whole year: and this medicine is approved by many physicians both 
elder and later.” (Page 83.) 
The Lynx has a wide range. It is met with in Asia, 
Africa, and America. The European lynx is 
an animal of Northern origin. It is mentioned 
under the name of lyserne, by Doctor Giles Fletcher, in 
his account of Russia in 1588 ( Purchas , vol. iii. p. 417). 
In a description of the device of a pageant borne before 
Woolstone Dixi, Lord Mayor of London, 1585, a speech 
is given that is “ spoken by him that rid on a luzarne, 
before the pageant, apparelled like a More. 
“ ‘From where the sun dooth settle in his wayn 
And yoakes his horses to his fiery carte, 
And in his way gives life to Ceres corne, 
Even from the parching zone, behold, I come, 
A straunger, straungely mounted, as you see, 
Seated upon a lusty luzern’s back; 
And offer to your honour, good my lord, 
This emblem thus in showe significant/ ” 
(Earleian Miscellany , vol. x. p. 351.) 
The lynx is here called a tropical animal. The name 
luzarne, or lozarde , is derived by Minsheu from the 
French “ loup cervier.” Olaus Magnus (. History of 
Scandinavia, p. 182) has a short account of the lynx :— 
“In the northern woods the lynxes are not so commonly bred as 
