man, he would have been horn-mad."

Madness in cattle was supposed to arise from a distemper in the
internal substance of their horns, and furious or mad cattle had their
horns bound with straw.

_King's Evil._ This was a common name in years gone by for scrofula,
because the sovereigns of England were supposed to possess the power of
curing it, "without other medicine, save only by handling and prayer."
This custom of "touching for the king's evil" is alluded to in "Macbeth"
(iv. 3), where the following dialogue is introduced:

"_Malcolm._ Comes the king forth, I pray you?

_Doctor._ Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls
That stay his cure; their malady convinces
The great assay of art; but, at his touch--
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand----
They presently amend.

_Malcolm._ I thank you, doctor.

_Macduff._ What's the disease he means?

_Malcolm._ 'Tis call'd the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures;
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace."

This reference, which has nothing to do with the progress of the drama,
is introduced, obviously, in compliment to King James, who fancied
himself endowed with the Confessor's powers.[614] The poet found
authority for the passage in Holinshed (vol. i. p. 279): "As hath bin
thought, he was enspired with the gift of prophecie, and also to haue
hadde the gift of healing infirmities and diseases. Namely, he vsed to
help those that were vexed with the disease, commonly called the kyngs
euill, and left that vertue as it were a portion of inheritance vnto his
successors the kyngs of this realme." Edward's miraculous powers were
believed in, we are told, by his contemporaries, or at least soon after
his death, and were expressly recognized by Pope Alexander III., who
canonized him. In Plot's "Oxfordshire" (chap. x. sec. 125) there is an
account, accom