"The Unicorn is an untameable Beast by Nature, as may be gathered from the Words of _Job, chap. 39_, '_Will the Unicorn serve thee, or will he tarry by thy Crib? Can'st thou bind the Unicorn with his Band to labour in the Furrow, or will he plough the Valleys after thee?'_"
Topsell dilates at great length on the Unicorn. He agrees with Spenser and Guillim, and says:--"These Beasts are very swift, and their legges have no Articles (_joints_). They keep for the most part in the desarts, and live solitary in the tops of the Mountaines. There was nothing more horrible than the voice or braying of it, for the voice is strain'd above measure. It fighteth both with the mouth and with the heeles, with the mouth biting like a Lyon, and with the heeles kicking like a Horse.... He feereth not Iron nor any yron Instrument (as _Isodorus_ writeth) and that which is most strange of all other, it fighteth with his owne kind, yea even with the females unto death, except when it burneth in lust for procreation: but unto straunger Beasts, with whome he hath no affinity in nature, he is more sotiable and familiar, delighting in their company when they come willing unto him, never rising against them; but, proud of their dependence and retinue, keepeth with them all quarters of league and truce; but with his female, when once his flesh is tickled with lust, he groweth tame, gregall, and loving, and so continueth till she is filled and great with young, and then returneth to his former hostility."
There was a curious legend of the Unicorn, that it would, by its keen scent, find out a maiden, and run to her, laying its head in her lap. This is often used as an emblem of the Virgin Mary, to denote her purity. The following is from the Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, and, as its old French is easily read, I have not translated it:--
"Monoceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste, Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad façun; Par Pucele est prise; or vez en quel guize. Quant hom le volt cacer et prendre et enginner, Si vent hom al forest ù sis riparis est; Là met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele, Et par odurement Monosceros la sent; Dunc vent à la Pucele, et si baiset la mamele, En sein devant se dort, issi veut à sa mort; Li hom suivent atant ki l'ocit en dormant U trestont vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent. Grant chose signifie."...