as though he would fain run, and cannot be suffered."[1]
The limit of the present work precludes a more detailed reference to the art of horsemanship and of farriery, arts, however, that were so intimately associated with the daily life of the Elizabethans that references to them are found continually in the dramatic literature of the time. The reader who would follow the matter further will find a chapter titled "The Horse in Shakespeare" in Mr. Madden's The Diary of Master William Silence, where are gathered together all the poet's allusions to the horse. The best source, however, is the contemporary treatises. Blundeville, so frequently quoted above, wrote The Four Chiefest Offices of Horsemanship. Gervase Markham wrote several works upon the subject, namely: A Discourse of Horsemanship; How to Chuse, Ride, etc., a Horse; Cavelerice, or the English Horseman; A Cure for all the Deseases of Horses; and Masterpiece, a treatise on farriery.
Let us end this brief note on an interesting subject with a quotation from one of the best descriptive writers of the Elizabethan time—William Harrison: "Our horses, moreover, are high,
- ↑ The spur, bit, saddle, and the riding-rod, as the whip was called, were then in use in a manner similar to the practice of to-day, save that the kinds of bit were more numerous.
