104 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time . 
CHAPTER VI. 
However little Shakspeare cared for dogs he always 
writes as if he loved horses. The enthusiastic 
praises heaped upon his horse by the Dauphin, 
though spoken by a foreigner, are evidently genuine. So 
is the grief of the poor groom of Bichard’s stable at the 
degradation of “ Roan Barbary.” 
“ Groom. 0, how it yearn’d my heart when I beheld 
In London streets, that coronation day, 
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary, 
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid, 
That horse that I so carefully have dress’d! 
Rich. Rode he on Barbary ? Tell me, gentle friend. 
How went he under him ? 
Groom. So proudly as if he disdain’d the ground. 
Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! 
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; 
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. 
Would he not stumble ? Would he not fall down, 
Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck 
Of that proud man that did usurp his back ? ” 
{Richard II ., v. 5, 76.) 
The description of the courser of Adonis is almost too 
familiar to quote. The striking resemblance the lines 
bear to a passage in Du Bartas may, however, be worth 
noting :— 
