BEAGLE

31st January 2024

Photo Credit: Kurt Pas (Getty Images), CANVA

QUOTATION

She’s a beagle true bred, and one that

adores me. What o’ that?

TOBY: Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3

BEAGLE (Breed of Dog, Canis familiaris)

In Twelfth Night Toby calls Maria, the servant he will later marry, a Beagle. Here it is a form of compliment but in Timon of Athens it is more insulting. Timon tells Alcibiades and a group of women to leave him alone, ‘get thee away, and take thy beagles with thee.

Beagles were a breed used to hunt Hares, a pursuit called Beagling. There is debate about the origins and antiquity of the breed but the term ‘Beagle’ seems to be used in the 1500s.

More Information

Airedale Beagles: What is Beagling?

Beagle Society: History of the Breed

Folger Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare’s Works