e, as meet playfellows for mincing mistresses to
bear in their bosoms, to keep company withal in their chambers, to succour
with sleep in bed, and nourish with meat at board, to lie in their laps,
and lick their lips as they lie (like young Dianas) in their waggons and
coaches. And good reason it should be so, for coarseness with fineness
hath no fellowship, but featness with neatness hath neighbourhood enough.
That plausible proverb therefore versified sometime upon a tyrant--namely,
that he loved his sow better than his son--may well be applied to some of
this kind of people, who delight more in their dogs, that are deprived of
all possibility of reason, than they do in children that are capable of
wisdom and judgment. Yea, they oft feed them of the best where the poor
man's child at their doors can hardly come by the worst. But the former
abuse peradventure reigneth where there hath been long want of issue, else
where barrenness is the best blossom of beauty: or, finally, where poor
men's children for want of their own issue are not ready to be had. It is
thought of some that it is very wholesome for a weak stomach to bear such
a dog in the bosom, as it is for him that hath the palsy to feel the daily
smell and savour of a fox. But how truly this is affirmed let the learned
judge: only it shall suffice for Doctor Caius to have said thus much of
spaniels and dogs of the gentle kind.

Dogs of the homely kind are either shepherd's curs or mastiffs. The first
are so common that it needeth me not to speak of them. Their use also is
so well known in keeping the herd together (either when they grass or go
before the shepherd) that it should be but in vain to spend any time about
them. Wherefore I will leave this cur unto his own kind, and go in hand
with the mastiff, tie dog, or band dog, so called because many of them are
tied up in chains and strong bonds in the daytime, for doing hurt abroad,
which is a huge dog, stubborn, ugly, eager, burthenous of body (and
therefore of but little swiftness), terrible and fearful to behold, and
oftentimes more fierce and fell than any Archadian or Corsican cur. Our
Englishmen, to the extent that these dogs may be more cruel and fierce,
assist nature with some art, use, and custom. For although this kind of
dog be capable of courage, violent, valiant, stout, and bold: yet will
they increase these their stomachs by teaching them to bait the bear, the
bull, the lion, and other such like cru