“Stephano. Here; swear then how thou escapest.
Trinculo. Swam ashore, man, like a duck; I can swim like a duck, I’ll be sworn.”—Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 2.
THE STALKING-HORSE.
An ancient device for getting within shot of wild-fowl was “the stalking-horse.” Hence the allusion—
“Stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits.”
Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii. Sc. 3.
And again—
“He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.”—As You Like It, Act v. Sc. 4.
Gervase Markham tells us[133] that “sometime it so happeneth that the fowl are so shie there is no getting a shoot at them without ‘a stalking-horse,’ which must be some old jade trained up for that purpose, who will gently, and as you will have him, walk up and down in the water which way you please, plodding and eating on the grass that grows therein. You must shelter yourself and gun behind his fore-shoulder, bending your body down low by his side, and keeping his body still full
between you and the fowl. Being within shot, take your level from before the fore part of the horse, shooting as it were between the horse’s neck and the water.… Now to supply the want of a stalking-horse, which will take up a great deal of time to instruct and make fit for this exercise, you may make one of any piece of old canvass, which you must shape into the form of an horse, with the head bending downwards, as if he grazed. You may stuff it with any light matter; and do not forget to paint it of the color of an horse, of which the brown is the best.… It must be made so portable that you may bear it with ease in one hand, moving it so as it may seem to graze as you go.”
Sometimes the stalking-horse was made in shape of an ox; sometimes in the form of a stag; and sometimes to represent a tree, shrub, or bush. In every case it had a spike at the bottom, to stick into the ground while the fowler took his aim.