monster’s mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down it goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his, and perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his paunch.”
—HOLLAND’S PLUTARCH’S MORALS.
“The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes that are:
among which the Whales and Whirlpooles called Balaene, take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of land.”
—HOLLAND’S PLINY.
“Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when about sunrise a
great many Whales and other monsters of the sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most monstrous size… . This came towards us, open-mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea before him into a foam.”
—TOOKE’S LUCIAN. “THE TRUE HISTORY.”
“He visited this country also with a view of catching
horse-whales, which had bones of very great value for their teeth, of which he brought some to the king… . The best whales were catched in his own country, of which some were forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was one of six who had killed sixty in two days.”
—OTHER OR OCTHER’S VERBAL NARRATIVE TAKEN DOWN FROM
HIS MOUTH BY KING ALFRED, A.D. 890.
“And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel, that
enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster’s (whale’s) mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-gudgeon retires into it in great security, and there sleeps.”
—MONTAIGNE. — APOLOGY FOR RAIMOND SEBOND.
“Let us fly, let us fly! Old Nick take me if is not Leviathan
described by the noble prophet Moses in the life of patient Job.”
—RABELAIS.
“This whale’s liver was two cartloads.”
—STOWE’S ANNALS.
“The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like boiling
pan.”
—LORD BACON’S VERSION OF THE PSALMS.
“Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have received
nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat, insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted out of one whale.”
—IBID. “HISTORY OF LIFE AND DEATH.”
“The sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an inward
bruise.”
—KING HENRY.
“Very like a whale.”
—HAMLET.
“Which to secure, no skill of leach’s art
Mote him availle, but to returne againe
To his wound’s worker, that with lowly dart,
Dinting his breast, had bred his restless paine,
Like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro’ the maine.”
—THE FAERIE QUEEN.
“Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can in a
peaceful calm trouble the ocean til it boil.”
—SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT. PREFACE TO GONDIBERT.
“What spermacetti is, men might justly doubt, since the learned
Hosmannus in his work of thirty years, saith plainly, Nescio quid sit.”
—SIR T. BROWNE. OF SPERMA CETI AND THE SPERMA CETI WHALE. VIDE HIS V. E.
“Like Spencer’s Talus with his modern flail
He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail.
…
Their fixed jav’lins in his side he wears,
And on his back a grove of pikes appears.”
—WALLER’S BATTLE OF THE SUMMER ISLANDS.
“By art is created that great Leviathan, called a Commonwealth or
State—(in Latin, Civitas) which is but an artificial man.”
—OPENING SENTENCE OF HOBBES’S LEVIATHAN.
“Silly Mansoul swallowed it without chewing, as if it had been a
sprat in the mouth of a whale.”
—PILGRIM’S PROGRESS.
“That sea beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream.”
—PARADISE LOST.
“There Leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, in the deep
Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land; and at his gills
Draws in, and at his breath spouts out a sea.”
—IBID.
“The mighty whales which swim in a sea of water, and have a sea of
oil swimming in them.”
—FULLLER’S PROFANE AND HOLY STATE.
“So close behind some promontory lie
The huge Leviathan to attend their prey,
And give no chance, but swallow in the fry,
Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way.”
—DRYDEN’S ANNUS MIRABILIS.
“While the whale is floating at the stern of the ship, they cut
off his head, and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it will come; but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet water.”
—THOMAS EDGE’S TEN VOYAGES TO SPITZBERGEN, IN PURCHAS.
“In their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean, and in
wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes and vents, which nature has placed on their shoulders.”
—SIR T. HERBERT’S VOYAGES INTO ASIA AND AFRICA. HARRIS COLL.
“Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were forced
to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship upon them.”
—SCHOUTEN’S SIXTH CIRCUMNAVIGATION.
“We set sail from the Elbe, wind N. E. in the ship called The
Jonas-in-the-Whale… .
Some say the whale can’t open his mouth, but that is a fable… .
They frequently climb up the masts to see whether they can see a
whale, for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains… .
I was told of a whale taken near Shetland, that had above a barrel
of herrings in his belly… .
One of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in
Spitzbergen that was white all over.”
—A VOYAGE TO GREENLAND, A.D. 1671 HARRIS COLL.
“Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife) Anno 1652, one
eighty feet in length of the whale-bone kind