ence, in "All's Well That Ends Well" (ii. 1),
Bertram complains that, bedizened like one of these animals, he will
have to squire ladies at the court, instead of achieving honor in the
wars--

"I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn
But one to dance with."

A familiar name for a common horse was "Cut"--either from its being
docked or gelded--a name occasionally applied to a man as a term of
contempt. In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3), Sir Toby Belch says: "Send for
money, knight; if thou hast her not i' the end, call me cut." In "1
Henry IV." (ii. 1), the first carrier says: "I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's
saddle." We may compare, too, what Falstaff says further on in the same
play (ii. 4): "I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my
face, call me horse." Hence, _call me cut_ is the same as _call me
horse_--both expressions having been used.

In Shakespeare's day a _race_ of horses was the term for what is now
called a stud. So in "Macbeth" (ii. 4), Rosse says:

"And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain--
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature."

The words "minions of their race," according to Steevens, mean the
favorite horses on the race-ground.

_Lion._ The traditions and stories of the darker ages abounded with
examples of the lion's generosity. "Upon the supposition that these acts
of clemency were true, Troilus, in the passage below, reasons not
improperly ('Troilus and Cressida,' v. 3) that to spare against reason,
by mere instinct and pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise
man:"[434]

"Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you,
Which better fits a lion than a man."

[434] Singer's "Shakespeare," 1875, vol. vii. p. 277.

It is recorded by Pliny[435] that "the lion alone of all wild animals is
gentle to those that humble themselves before him, and will not touch
any such upon their submission, but spareth what creature soever lieth
prostrate before him." Hence Spenser's Una, attended by a lion; and
Perceval's lion, in "Morte d'Arthur" (bk. xiv. c. 6). Bartholomaeus says
the lion's "mercie is known by many and oft ensamples: for they spare
them that lie on the ground." Shakespeare again alludes to this notion
in "As You Like It" (iv. 3):

"for 'tis
The royal disposition of that beas