RABBIT/CONY

21st February 2024

Photo Credit: MikeLane45 (Getty Images Signature), CANVA

QUOTATION

I am glad I am so acquit of this tinderbox.

His thefts were too open. His filching was like an

unskillful singer: he kept not time.

…

There is no remedy. I must cony-catch, I must shift.

FALSTAFF: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 1, Scene 3

RABBIT/CONY (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Cony-catching was an Elizabethan expression for theft or deception. Shakespeare uses this expression in the Merry Wives of Windsor and Taming of the Shrew. Rabbits are found in Henry IV parts 1 and 2, as well as in Love’s Labours Lost and Taming of the Shrew. The Good Huswifes Handmaide in the Kitchin (1594) contains several recipes for Rabbit including ‘Fine sauce for a rabbet, used to king Henrie the eight’ and ‘to boyle a conie with a pudding in his bellie’.

Pliny the Elder in his chapter ‘Nations that have been exterminated by animals’ shares the story that a town in Spain was undermined by Rabbits. Topsell (1607) tells us that ‘there are few Countries wherein Conies do not breed, but the most plenty of all is in England.’

Rabbits are not native but have been naturalised for hundreds if not thousands of years in Britain. There is great debate about whether the Romans or the Normans introduced the Rabbit to Britain for both meat and fur. Rabbit populations periodically reach high numbers and have an impact on crops. The myxomatosis virus killed up to 99% of the population in the 1950s, but populations have since recovered.

More Information

Current Archaeology June 6th, 2019: Roman rabbit discovered at Fishbourne

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Foods of England: A Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin 1594

The Mammal Society: Rabbit

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 8, Chapter 43 (accessed via Perseus Digital Library)

Topsell 1607 History of Four-Footed Beasts (accessed via Archive.org)

Wildlife Trusts: Rabbit