species—to which I am able to refer. I am also indebted to Mr. Halting for many valuable hints on local provincial names, &c.
The words attributed to Caius Lucius in praise of noble Caesar are truly applicable, although in a different sense, to Shakspeare —
"Whose remembrance yet
Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever."
Cymbeline. Act iii., Scene 1.
The Monkey, Semnopithecus or Colobus.
Although Shakspeare several times alludes to Monkeys, no particular species is sufficiently characterized for identification; they may, however, doubtless be referred to the Old World family Semnopithecidae, which comprises the long-tailed Monkeys without cheek-pouches. The two genera of this family have a wide geographical distribution, being found in one sub-region of the Palaearctic; two ditto of the Eihiopian; and in all the sub-regions of the Oriental, as defined by Mr. A.R. Wallace.
"On meddling Monkey, or on busy Ape."
Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii., Scene 2.
Monkeys were even in those days kept as pets by ladies; vide Merchant of Venice, Act iii., Scene 1 —
Tubal. "One of them showed me a ring, that he had of your daughter for a Monkey."
Shylock had a turquoise which he had of Leah when he was a bachelor, and would not have given " for a wilderness of Monkeys." Merchant of Venice, Act iii., Scene 1.
In As You Like It, Act iv., Scene 1, where Orlando wishes to marry Rosalind, and promises to be constant to her "for ever and a day," Rosalind replies: —
"Say a day, without the ever. No, no, Orlando; men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, hut the sky changes when they are wives. I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen; more clamorous than a parrot against rain; more new-fangled than an Ape: more giddy in my desires than a Monkey."
