o t t 
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PREFACE. 
The object of the following compilation is to bring 
together in an accessible form waifs and strays of in¬ 
formation, collected from various sources, relating to 
medieval natural history, so far as animal life is con¬ 
cerned. Descriptions, more or less accurate, of the birds 
and quadrupeds known in r the Middle Ages are to be 
found in the writings of Gesner, Belon, Aldrovandus, and 
other naturalists. A knowledge of the state of natural 
science during the period in which our great dramatist 
lived may be gained, not only from the writings of 
naturalists and antiquaries, but from similes, allusions, 
and anecdotes introduced into the plays, poems, and 
general literature of England during the latter half of the 
sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. 
The chief works already published on this branch of 
Shakspearian literature are The Insects mentioned in Shah- 
spear e’s Plays , by Robert Patterson, 1848, a series of 
letters on entomology with a sprinkling of quotations 
from Shakspeare to add to the interest; a Natural 
History of Shakespeare , by Bessie Mayou, 1877, in which 
passages relating to flowers, fruits and animals are 
quoted without comment; and The Ornithology of Shahe- 
speare, by Edmund Harting, 1871, a very valuable work. 
I have endeavoured to keep the book as much on a 
chronological level as possible, chiefly referring to ancient 
