ason 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 cruel and bloody beasts (either
brought over or kept up at home for the same purpose), without any
collar to defend their throats, and oftentimes there too they train
them up in fighting and wrestling with a man (having for the safeguard
of his life either a pikestaff, club, sword, privy co