But whither am I
digressed? In returning therefore to our own, I say that of mastiffs,
some bark only with fierce and open mouth but will not bite; but the
cruelest do either not bark at all or bite before they bark, and
therefore are more to be feared than any of the other. They take also
their name of the word "mase" and "thief" (or "master-thief" if you
will), because they often stound and put such persons to their shifts
in towns and villages, and are the principal causes of their
apprehension and taking. The force which is in them surmounteth all
belief, and the fast hold which they take with their teeth exceedeth
all credit: for three of them against a bear, four against a lion, are
sufficient to try mastries with them. King Henry the Seventh, as the
report goeth, commanded all such curs to be hanged, because they durst
presume to fight against the lion, who is their king and sovereign.
The like he did with an excellent falcon, as some say, because he
feared not hand-to-hand match with an eagle, willing his falconers in
his own presence to pluck off his head after he was taken down, saying
that it was not meet for any subject to offer such wrong unto his lord
and superior, wherein he had a further meaning.
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