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Shakespeare & Beyond

Hares, conies, and rabbits: The hunted and the melancholy

picture of a cony
picture of a cony
A picture of a cony

Edward Topsell. The historie of foure-footed beastes. 1607. Folger Shakespeare Library. STC 24123 Copy 2.

When, in Henry IV, Part II, Bardolph calls his page a “whoreson upright rabbit,” he’s not exactly thinking of the animal we now know as rabbits. (2.2.84) In Shakespeare’s day, “rabbit” referred specifically to the young of conies (the European rabbit); it was a word like puppy or kitten. Adult rabbits were always called conies, and were clearly understood to be different than hares, their larger, leggier cousins.

Neither hares nor conies are native to England, although ecologists now consider them naturalized. Instead, both animals were brought to England as a source of food: hares by the Romans, perhaps 2,000 years ago, and conies by the Normans in the 12th century.

In Shakespeare’s day, both animals were hunted for food and sport. In his 1576 hunting manual, The Noble Art of Venerie, George Gascoigne describes how to hunt conies with ferrets: “He that would take Conies muste hunte with two or three Spaniels or curres made for the purpose,” which “will drive them into theyr Burrowes.” Then the hunter is instructed to set “pursenettes upon all the holes, or as many of them as you can finde,” and put a muzzled ferret down one of the holes to cause the rabbits to bolt into the nets. However, Gascoigne cautions that he considers “ferrettyng one of the coldest and unpleasantest chases that can be followed.”

Comments

I was wondering if you could provide me the full reference (paage number) for the Ludovic Rowzee quotation?

Niall Kennedy — June 4, 2020