wits."

According to a curious fancy, eating beef was supposed to impair the
intellect, to which notion Shakespeare has several allusions. Thus, in
"Twelfth Night" (i. 3), Sir Andrew says: "Methinks sometimes I have no
more wit than a Christian, or an ordinary man has: but I am a great
eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit." In "Troilus and
Cressida" (ii. 1), Thersites says to Ajax: "The plague of Greece upon
thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord!"

CHAPTER XXI.

FISHES.

Although it has been suggested that Shakespeare found but little
recreation in fishing,[924] rather considering, as he makes Ursula say,
in "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 1):

"The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait,"

and that it would be difficult to illustrate a work on angling with
quotations from his writings, the Rev. H. N. Ellacombe, in his
interesting papers[925] on "Shakespeare as an Angler," has not only
shown the strong probability that he was a lover of this sport, but
further adds, that "he may be claimed as the first English poet that
wrote of angling with any freedom; and there can be little doubt that he
would not have done so if the subject had not been very familiar to
him--so familiar, that he could scarcely write without dropping the
little hints and unconscious expressions which prove that the subject
was not only familiar, but full of pleasant memories to him." His
allusions, however, to the folk-lore associated with fishes are very
few; but the two or three popular notions and proverbial sayings which
he has quoted in connection with them help to embellish this part of our
subject.

[924] See Harting's "Ornithology of Shakespeare," 1871, p. 3.

[925] "The Antiquary," 1881, vol. iv. p. 193.

_Carp._ This fish was, proverbially, the most cunning of fishes, and so
"Polonius's comparison of his own worldly-wise deceit to the craft
required for catching a carp" is most apt ("Hamlet," ii. 1):[926]

"See you now;
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth."

[926] Ibid.

This notion is founded on fact, the brain of the carp being six times as
large as the average brain of other fishes.

_Cockle._ The badge of a pilgrim was, formerly, a cockle-shell, which
was worn usually in the front of the hat. "The habit," we are told,[927]
"being sacred, this served as a protection, and