"Congleton rare, Congleton rare, Sold the Bible to pay for a bear."
[357] No. 433. The document is given at length in Collier's "Annals of the Stage," vol. i. p. 35, note.
[358] Kelly's "Notices of Leicester," p. 152.
[359] Wright's "Domestic Manners," p. 304.
[360] "Progresses and Processions," vol. ii. p. 259.
[361] About 1760 it was customary to have a bear baited at the election of the mayor. Corry, "History of Liverpool," 1810, p. 93.
The same legend attaches to Clifton, a village near Rugby:
"Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, in Warwickshire, Sold the Church Bible to buy a bear."
In Pulleyn's "Etymological Compendium,"[362] we are told that "this cruel amusement is of African origin, and was introduced into Europe by the Romans." It is further alluded to by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night" (i. 3), "dancing and bear-baiting;" and further on in the same play (ii. 5) Fabian says, "he brought me out o' favor with my lady about a bear-baiting here;" and Macbeth (v. 7) relates:
"They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course."[363]
[362] Edited by M. A. Thorns, 1853, p. 170.
[363] For further information on this subject consult Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876; Kelly's "Notices of Leicester," pp. 152-159.
And in "Julius Cæsar" (iv. 1), Octavius says:
"we are at the stake, And bay'd about with many enemies."
_Boar._ It appears that in former times boar-hunting was a favorite recreation; many allusions to which we find in old writers. Indeed, in the Middle Ages, the destruction of a wild boar ranked among the deeds of chivalry,[364] and "won for a warrior almost as much renown as the slaying an enemy in the open field." So dangerous, too, was boar-hunting considered, that Shakespeare represents Venus as dissuading Adonis from the perilous practice:
"'O be advised! thou know'st not what it is, With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore, Whose tushes never sheathed he whetteth still, Like to a mortal butcher, bent to kill.
His brawny sides, with hairy bristles arm'd, Are better proof than thy spear's point can enter; His short thick neck cannot be easily harm'd; Being ireful, on the lion he will venture.'"
[364] Chambers's "Book of Days," 1864, vol. ii. pp. 518, 519.