De Canibus Britannicis: Of Englishe DoggesCaius, John
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De Canibus Britannicis: Of Englishe Dogges
Caius, John
Dogs -- Early works to 1800
Of such dogges as keepe not their kinde, of such as are mingled out
of sundry sortes not imitating the conditions of some one certaine
spice, because they resẽble no notable shape, nor exercise any
worthy property of the true perfect and gentle kind, it is not
necessarye that I write any more of them, but to banishe them as
vnprofitable implements, out of the boundes of my Booke,
vnprofitable I say for any vse that is commendable, except to
intertaine straũgers with their barcking in the day time, giuyng
warnyng to them of the house, that such & such be newly come,
[Admonitor.] unde canes admonitores appellamus:
wherevpon we call them admonishing Dogges, because in that point
they performe theyr office.
Of the Dogge called Turnespete in Latine _Veruuersator_.
vel quòd in officio culinario, cum assandum est, inserviant, & rota
minore gradiendo, verua circumagant, pondereque suo æquabiliter
versent, ut ne calo aut lixa quidem artificiosius;
There is comprehended, vnder the curres of the coursest kinde, a
certaine dogge in kytchen seruice excellent. For whẽ any meate is to
bee roasted they go into a wheele which they turning rounde about
with the waight of their bodies, so diligently looke to their
businesse, that no drudge nor skullion can doe the feate more
cunningly.
[Versator.] quos hinc canes versatores, seu veruversatores nostrum
vulgus nominat: postremos omnium generum, quæ primo memoravimus.
Whom the popular sort herevpon call Turnespets, being the last of
all those which wee haue first mencioned.
Of the Dogge called the Daunser, in Latine _Saltator_ or
_Tympanista_.
[Tympanista.] Sunt etiam canes nostri degeneres & ad tympanum
saltare, & ad lyræ modos se movere docti, multaque alia erecti
pronique facere, quæ à vagis quæstuosisque heris exequi didicerunt.
There be also dogges among vs of a mungrell kind which are taught
and exercised to daunce in measure at the musicall sounde of an
instrument, as, at the iust stroke of the drombe, at the sweete
accent of the Cyterne, & tuned strings of the harmonious Harpe
showing many pretty trickes by the gesture of their bodies. As to
stand bolte upright, to lye flat vpon the grounde, to turne rounde
as a ringe holding their tailes in their teeth, to begge for theyr
meate, and sundry such properties, which they learne of theyr
vagabundicall masters, whose instrumentes they are to gather gaine,
withall in Citie, Country, Towne, and Village. As some which carry
olde apes on their shoulders in coloured iackets to moue men to
laughter for a litle lucre.
Of other Dogges, a short conclusion, wonderfully ingendred within
the coastes of this country.
Three sortes of them,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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