Of the Shrewmouse

[The Shrewmouse] is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle and tame, but being touched it biteth deep and poysoneth deadly. It beareth a cruel minde, desiring to hunt anything, neither is there any creature that it loveth.

Edward Topsell, 1607

From: The Historie of Foure-footed Beasts
by Edward Topsell
published by William Jaggard, London, 1607
quoted in: Natural History – Lore and Legend Being some few examples of quaint and by-gon beliefs gathered in from diverse authorities, ancient and mediaeval, of varying degrees of reliability
by F.Edward Hulme
published by Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly, London, 1895
electronic publication by Arment Biological Press, 2000
page 88
https://www.thothweb.com/documents/NaturalHistory.pdf
Aus dem Englishen übersetzt von Uli Westphal