Page:Elizabethan People.djvu/173

 fast, they ought equally to be drafted." Mr. Madden continues in his own words: "However the trash may have been applied, it clearly appears, from Beckford's words, to have consisted of a long strap, kept by the huntsman, according to Markham, with collars, liams, and other articles of the same kind. When the hound was running, this long strap, dragged along the ground, handicapped the overtopping hound." Shakespeare further alludes to the subject in The Tempest.

It is interesting to note further how the sport of hunting flavours the language of Shakespeare. To give a complete list of references would fill many pages; but the following, chosen at random, are sufficient to illustrate the point:

That instant was I turned into a hart;

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er since pursue me."

"Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart;

Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,

Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe.

O world, thou wast the forest to this hart;

And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.

How like a deer, strucken by many princes,

Dost thou here lie."