"BANFES'S HORSE."
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR...3 Sin,—The interesting letter on "The Elberfeld Horses" (Spectator, April 12th) recalls Shakespeare's reference to "Bankes's Horse" in "Love's Labour's Lost," i. 2; "How easy it is to . . . study three years in two words, the dancing horse will tell you." Sir Kenelm Digby, quoted in Malone's notes, says :- "His horse would restore a glove to its due owner, after the master had whispered tho man's name in his ear ; would tell the just number of pence in any piece of silver coin newly shewed him by his master. . ."
Bankes seems to have been a martyr to science. According to an old pamphlet, after a narrow escape in France, "man and horse—at Rome—to the disgrace of the age, of the country, and humanity, were burnt by order of the Pope for magicians." Ben Jonson (epigram 133) refers to this :— "Old Banks, the juggler, our Pythagoras, Grave tutor to the learned horse ; both which,- Being, beyond sea, burned for one witch, Their spirits transmigrated to a cat."
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