434 
The Animcd-Lore of Slutkspeares Time . 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
“ Of the legged kind of fishes,” writes Harrison, " we have not manie, 
Lobster ne ither have I seene anie more of this sort than the 
polypus, called in English the Lobstar, crafish, or crevis, 
and the crab.” 
Harrison here uses the word polypus in its literal signifi¬ 
cation of many-feet. 
Hares, in his Glossary, takes notice of the strange 
word that Sylvester coins in his translation of Du Bartas, 
and adds that, though an explanation is wisely given, 
the omission of this peculiar verb would have been still 
better:— 
“ Thou makest rivers the most deafly-deep 
To lobstarize (back to their source to creep).” 
{Divine Weehes and Workes, p. 184.) 
Pliny observes that lobsters— 
“ so long as they are secure of any fear and danger, go directly 
straight, letting down their horns at length along their sides; . . . but 
if they be in any fear, up go their homes straight, and then they 
creep byas and go sidelong.” {Nat. Hist., book ix. ch. 30.) 
Du Bartas (p. 43) writes :— 
“ And lobsters floated fearless all the while 
Among the polyps prone to theft and guile ” 
Shakspeare has no mention of the lobster. 
