LIZARD

24th April 2024

Photo Credit: Seona Anderson, Cairngorms

QUOTATION

Fillet of fenny snake

In the cauldron boil and bake.

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blindwork sting,

Lizard’s leg and howlet wing

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

SECOND WITCH: Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1

LIZARD (Common Lizard: Zootoca vivipara)

The Lizard is one of the list of animals to be included in the witches’ broth and Lizard is used in a negative or dangerous sense in Shakespeare. Lizards get a slightly better press in Topsell’s (1607) Four-footed beast: “the lizard a kind of serpent is most friendly to man, and most irefull against Serpents to the utmost of his power.” Topsell describes a wide range of Lizards from the ancient and contemporary world including a range of medicines based on Lizards.

There are 3 native UK Lizards: the Common Lizard (Zootoca vivipara), the rare Sand Lizard (Lacerta agilis) and the legless Lizard the Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis). Common Lizards and Slow Worms incubate their eggs inside the female and produce live young. Sand Lizards lay their eggs in sand and they hatch between August and October. All three Lizards hibernate during the winter.

More Information

Amphibian & Reptile Conservation: Lizards

Folger Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Froglife: Lizard Identification

Topsell, E. 1607 The History of Four-footed Beasts & Serpents (accessed via Archive.org)