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."
ACT V.
Scene 2. Page 152.
Ros. By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I say I am a
magician.
Of the two constructions of this speech, that by Mr. Steevens seems deserving of the preference; but the grounds on which it stands require examination. A statute against witchcraft was made in the first year of king James. Now if, as Dr. Warburton conceives, it is to this that Rosalind alludes, the play must have been written after 1603. Mr. Malone, whose opinion is supported by very solid reasons, thinks it was written in 1600; and therefore to reconcile the explanation given by Mr. Steevens, we must suppose that the foregoing allusion is to some prior statutes of Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, which punished those who practised witchcraft with death.