The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry : I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder."
In a notice of the quadrupeds mentioned by Shakspeare, some allusion should be made to the marine Mammalia. Whales are often mentioned; sometimes as the "huge leviathans" (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act in., Scene 2), but it will be sufficient to give a couple of quotations and identify the species referred to as—
The Greenland Whale, Balæna mysticetus.
The following apt simile occurs in Pericles (Act ii., Scene 1):—
"3rd Fisherman. ***Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.
1st Fisherman. Why, as men do a-land — the great ones eat up the little ones. I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale: a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful: such whales have I heard on o' the land, who never leave gaping, till they've swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells, and all."
Of course poor Falstaff could not escape the opprobrious epithet of "whale." Mrs. Ford asks —
"What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in
his belly, ashore at Windsor?"
Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii., Scene 1.
The Dolphin, Delphinus delphis.
We often find the mythical "mermaid" associated with such friends as the seals and dolphins; so Shakspeare says, through Oberon—
"My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember'st
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's hack,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea- maid's music."
Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii., Scene 2.
