Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/346

 282

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. OCT. s, 1904.

The best known was Morocco (or Marocco] a bay horse, fourteen years old, belonging to a Scotchman named Banks, who publicly exhibited him in Shakespeare's time. Sir Kenelm Digby says, " Morocco would restore a glove to its owner after Banks had whis pered the man's name in his ear, would tel the just number of pence in any piece o: silver coin newly showed him," &c. ; and Sir Walter Raleigh, in his * History of the World, writes that Banks " would have shamed al the inchanters of the world : for whosoever was most famous among them could never master or instruct any beast as he did." The immortal William alludes to him in ' Love's Labour 's Lost.' Moth, wishing to prove how simple is a certain problem in arith- metic, says, "The dancing horse will tell you." Morocco, we learn, added to his in- tellectual attainments other lighter accom- plishments, and, shod with silver, danced "the Canaries," a fashionable dance of the time. In 1600 Banks made his horse override the vane of St. Paul's Cathedral amidst thousands of spectators. Whilst this was going on a serving-man came to his master, who was inside the cathedral, and urged him to come out and see the sight. " Away, you fool ! " was the answer. " Why need I go so far to see a horse on the top when I can see so many asses at the bottom 1 " An old pam- phlet, published in 1595, called ' Maroccus exstaticus, or Bankes Bay Horse in a Traunce,' &c., has a woodcut representing the animal standing on its hind legs, with dice at its feet.. The exhibition took place generally in the yard of the "Bell-Savage " Inn in Fleet Street ; but Banks also gave performances elsewhere. In another old book of the day, called * Tarlton's Jests,' the following story is told :

with Morocco, Tarlton (who was the favourite clown of Queen Elizabeth's time) came in and placed himself amongst the admiring spectators, upon which Banks, instantly turning to his horse, said, 'Signior' which was the way he generally ad- dressed him ' go fetch me the veriest fool in the company,' upon which Morocco with his mouth draws Tarlton out. Tarlton with merry words said nothing but ' God a mercy, horse ! ' Ever after it was a by- word through London, ' God a mercy, horse ! ' and is to this day."
 * Once when Banks was at the ' Crosse Keyes '

Banks took Morocco to Scotland in 1596, and in a MS. in the Advocates' Library, written by Patrick Anderson, the author

" This man [Banks] would borrow from 20 to 30 of the spectators a piece of gold or silver, put all in a bag, and shuffle them together; thereafter he would bid the horse give every gentleman his own piece of money again."

He also took him, in 1601, to France, when he had exhibitions at the " Golden Lion" in the Rue St. Jacques, and there is an account of him in the notes to a French translation of Apuleius's 'Golden Ass,' printed in 1602. In France the poor animal only just escaped being burnt alive as an emissary of the devil. The astute Scotchman saved Morocco's life by making him select a man out of the crowd who had a cross on his hat, and pay homage to the sacred emblem, bowing and kneeling before him. Many accounts say that ultimately this sad fate did really over- take him, and that both Banks and his horse were burnt as magicians at Rome. Ben Jonson evidently believed this, as he says in his * Epigrams ' :

But 'mongst these Tiberts, who do you think there

was?

Did Banks the Juggler, our Pythagoras, Grave tutor to the Learned Horse ; both which, Being beyond sea, burned for one witch, Their spirits transmigrated to a cat.

Later investigations tend to prove, how- ever, that Banks was still living and a. lourishing vintner in Cheapside in King Charles I.'s reign, and we trust that Morocco was also spared to die a natural death. It s, however, incontestable that several clever lorses met with a sad end. The performing lorse of that arch-impostor Edward Kelly, the assistant of Dr. Dee, the celebrated astrologer of Queen Elizabeth's time, was solemnly burnt alive at Prague by order of the Emperor Rudolph ; and as late as 1707 an English horse, whose master had taught him to play at cards, met with the same fate at Lisbon. Another case, even later in the eighteenth century, is quoted by James Granger, who says in his 'Biographical listory of England ' :

In my remembrance a horse which had been aught to tell the spots upon cards, the hour of the [ay, &c., by significant tokens, was together with his owner put into the Inquisition as if they had toth dealt with the devil, but the supposed human riminal soon convinced the Inquisition that he /as an honest Juggler, and that his horse was as nnocent as any beast in Spain."

Perhaps the same result would be attained E poor dear Hans and his owner were sub- ected to an Inquisition !

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield, Reading.

HIGH PEAK WORDS.

(See ante, p. 201.)

BEFORE much progress can be made in the tudy of a dialect one has to get used to the renunciation. The letter I is omitted finally,, nd softened mediately. One day I was