BADGER (BROCK)

11th January 2024

Photo Credit: TonyBaggett (Getty Images Pro), CANVA

MALVOLIO: (reads)

Jove knows I love,

but who?

Lips, do not move:

No man must know.

“No man must know.” What follows? The numbers altered. “No man must know.” If this should be thee, Malvolio!

TOBY: (aside) Marry, hang thee, brock!

MALVOLIO & TOBY: Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5

BROCK (European Badger: Meles meles)

The term ‘Brock’ is used as an insult towards the steward, Malvolio. Topsell wrote in his 1607 History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents that the animal was called ‘Badger’, ‘Brocke’, Grey or ‘Bauson’ and “In Italy and Germany they eat Greys flesh, and boil it with pears, which maketh the flesh taste like the flesh of a Porcupine.”

The UK holds 25% of the population of the European Badger. They are nocturnal animals which feed on earthworms, fruit/berries and sometimes other small animals. The Badger is currently assessed as a species of ‘Least Concern’ in UK conservation threat rankings. Badgers are protected from killing, persecution, trapping and their setts are protected from digging and obstruction under the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act.

More Information

Badger Conservation Trust: visit site

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Mammal Society UK: Badger

Topsell, E., 1607, History of Four-footed Beast and Serpents (accessed via Archive.org)

Wildlife Trusts: Badgers