PORPENTINE (Porcupine)

8th February 2024

Photo Credit: Digital Vision (Photo Images), CANVA

QUOTATION

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand an end,

Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.

GHOST: Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5

PORPENTINE (PORCUPINES, e.g. Crested Porcupine: Hystrix cristata)

Porpentine appear in several guises in Shakespeare. The inn in Comedy of Errors is the ‘Porpentine’. The appearance of the Porpentine is used metaphorically in the Hamlet quote above and also to describe a body pierced with arrows in Henry VI, Part 2.

In Topsell’s 1607 Book of Four-footed Beasts we learn that ‘these are bred in India and Africk, and brought up and down in Europe to be seen for money’ and ‘the pilgrims that come yearly from Saint James of Compostella in Spain, do bring back generally one of these quils in their caps, but for what reason I know not’.

Porcupines are found in the old and new worlds. Porcupines like the Crested Porcupine (Hystrix cristata) are native to parts of Africa and up into Italy.

More Information

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

IUCN Global Red List: Crested Porcupine

Topsell, E. 1607 History of Four Footed Beasts & Serpents (Accessed via Arvchive.org)