40 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time. 
CHAPTER III. 
While Shakspeare has admiration to bestow on the 
“ awless lion ” and the “ princely eagle,” he has in no 
one instance mentioned with appreciation the 
moral qualities of the dog. Sporting dogs he 
certainly describes with spirit, if not affection; but “ to 
snarl, and bite, and play the dog,” appears to him the 
normal condition of the domestic animal. The poet must 
have been singularly unfortunate in his experience of the 
canine race, for his allusions are almost all of an un¬ 
favourable nature. Sir Henry Holland, in his Recollections 
of Past Life (p. 254), tells us that Lord Nugent, the 
greatest Shakspearian scholar of his day, declared that 
no passage was to be found in Shakspeare, “ commend¬ 
ing, directly or indirectly, the moral qualities of the dog.” 
A bet of a guinea was made, which Sir Henry, after a 
year’s search, paid. This was before the publication of 
Mrs. Cowden Clarke’s concordance. The only passage 
which could have had a chance of winning the wager is 
the speech of Timon :— 
u Tim. Who, without those means thou talk’st of, didst thou ever 
know beloved ? 
Ajoem. Myself. 
Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog.” 
(Timon of Athens, iv. 3, 113.) 
