northern provincial name of "brock," and theh only as an epithet. In the amusing play Twelfth Night (Act ii., Scene 5), Malvolio, reading a letter purposely dropped for his perusal, puts on airs, and places such a construction on the contents of the letter as to annoy Sir Toby Belch, who exclaims, but not loud enough for Malvolio to hear him, " Marry, hang thee, brock!"
The Brown Bear, Ursus arctos.
Either this species or U. isabellinus would probably be the bear with which Shakspeare would be most familiar. Bear-baiting seems to have been a very popular amusement about that period and for many years subsequently. If I remember rightly, there was a "bear garden" situated somewhere on the south side of the Thames, not far from the south end of one of the bridges — Southwark, I think. I have seen it marked in old maps of London. Some account of " bear gardens" may be found in Strutt's ' Sports and Pastimes."
In the Merry Wives of Windsor (Act i., Scene 1), Slender asks of Anne Page —
"Why do your dogs bark so ? Be there bears i' the town ?
Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of.
Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid if you see the bear loose, are you not ?
Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.
Slender. That's meat and drink to me now. I have seen Sackerson * loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain ; but, I warrant you, the women have cried and shriek'd at it, that it passed ; but women, indeed, cannot abide em : they are very ill-favoured rough things."
Again, in Twelfth Night (Act i., Scene 3), Sir Andrew Ague- cheek, in lamenting his lack of education, exclaims —
"What is pourquoi? do, or not do ? I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues, that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting."
Shakspeare mentions bears upwards of fifty times. The fol- lowing spirited description may probably be intended for "a find" with a Syrian bear, Ursus isabellinus:—
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear
