GOAT

15th January 2024

Photo Credit: tracy-williams-photography (Getty Images), CANVA

Give me leave

To tell you once again that at my birth

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,

The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds

Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.

These signs have marked me extraordinary,

And all the courses of my life do show,

That I am not in the roll of common men.

GLENDOWER: Henry IV, Part 1, Act 3, Scene 1

GOAT (Capra hircus)

Goats make a surprising number of appearances in Shakespeare. Glendower, the great Welsh leader of the late 1300s and early 1400s, includes the Mountain Goats in the supernatural signs of his great destiny. There are other references to a Welsh Goat in the Merry Wives of Windsor and to Cadwallader and all his Goats in Henry V. Audrey is a Goat Herd in As You Like It and there are also references to the supposed link between Goats and sexual behaviour, ‘as wanton as youthful goats’ in Henry IV, Part 1 and also in Othello.

Goats have been domesticated for thousands of years and provide milk, meat and goat hair and skin. There is a rich cultural heritage of Goat imagery in the Bible reflecting their uses, their husbandry, the use of Scapegoats and the sacrifice of goats to atone for sins. In I Samuel 24:3 ‘Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks among the wild goats’.

Welsh Mountain Goats are still part of the landscape and heritage of Wales but their independent ways can bring them into conflict with their neighbours. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) supports the conservation and promotion of native breeds including 4 Goats breeds.

More Information

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition: Accessed via Bible Gateway

Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST): Goats Watchlist

John Vidal, Guardian, 13th Nov 2006: Goats have roamed Snowdonia for 10,000 years: now they face secret cull

Welsh Mountain Zoo: Welsh Mountain Goat