Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: / with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.

by Francis Douce

ACT IV.

Scene 1. Page 130.

Ros. I will laugh like a hyen, and that when thou art inclined to
sleep.

"He commeth to houses by night, and feineth mannes voyce as he maye," &c.—Bartholomæus De propriet. rer. lib. xviii. c. 61. De Hiena.

Scene 3. Page 142.

Oli ... for 'tis
The royal disposition of that beast,
To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead.

This property of the lion, whether true or false, was acknowledged by our forefathers. Thus in "The choise of change containing the divinitie, philosophie, and poetrie," &c., 1585, 4to, a work evidently constructed on the model of the Welsh triads, we find the following passage: "three things shew that there is a great clemencie in lions; they will not hurt them that lie groveling," &c. Bartholomæus says, "their mercie is known by many and oft ensamples: for they spare them that lye on the ground." Shakspeare again alludes to the lion's generosity in Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Scene 3:

"Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you
Which better fits a lion than a man."