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Wuthering Heights vocabulary

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zoology

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cockatrice: synonyms: basilisk ???

tags: [zoology]

► definition

Definition:

1. The term seems to have been specially applied to a captain’s mistress, though it is also found as a general name for a courtesan.

^{John Marston. The Malcontent (1603), glossary of terms}
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2. a mythical beast, essentially a two-legged dragon or serpent-like creature with a rooster's head. Described by Laurence Breiner as "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans", it was featured prominently in English thought and myth for centuries.

^{text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike}
^{http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/}
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A sort of serpent hatched form the egg of a cock. The basilisk had a bad eye, and its glance was fatal. Many infidels deny this creature's existence, but Semprello Aurator saw and handled one that had been blinded by lightning as a punishment for having fatally gazed on a lady of rank whom Jupiter loved. Juno afterward restored the reptile's sight and hid it in a cave. Nothing is so well attested by the ancients as the existence of the basilisk, but the cocks have stopped laying.

Ambose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
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according to ancient writers t[it] is produced from an egg laid by a nine-year-old cock and hatched by a toad on a dunghill. Probably this is merely the expression of the intensified loathing which it was desired to typify. But the heraldic basilisk is stated to have its tail terminating in a dragon's head.

^{Arthur Charles Fox-Davies. A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909)}
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^{Ambrose Parey. The Workes of that famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey (published: Latin in 1579, English in 1649), p.517}
^{https://archive.org/stream/workesofthatfamo00par#page/517/mode/1up}
^{image: https://archive.org/stream/workesofthatfamo00par#page/518/mode/1up}

► uses

Uses:

for as nowadays no courtier but has his mistress, no captain but has his cockatrice, no cuckold but has his horns, and no fool but has his feather;

John Marston. The Malcontent (1603)

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‘explain your son’s character. Show his resemblance to yourself: and then, I hope, Miss Cathy will think twice before she takes the cockatrice!’

Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights (1847)

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KAS [KNOCKING]. What rogues, bawds, slaves,

you'll open the door, anon!

Punk, cockatrice, my suster! By this light

I'll fetch the marshal to you. You are a whore

To keep your castle—

Ben Jonson. The Alchemist (1610)