Hare
.It is unlucky for a hare to cross your path, because witches were said to transform themselves into hares.
⁂ In the Flamborough Village and Headland, we are told, “if a fisherman on his way to the boats happens to meet a woman, parson, or hare, he will turn back, being convinced that he will have no luck that day.”
Antipathy to hares. Tycho Brahe (2 syl.) would faint at the sight of a hare; the Duc dʹEpernon at the sight of a leveret; Marshal de Brézé at sight of a rabbit; and Henri III., the Duke of Schomberg, and the chamberlain of the emperor Ferdinand, at the sight of a cat. (See Antipathy.)
First catch your hare. (See Catch.)
Hold with the hare and run with the hounds. To play a double and deceitful game, to be a traitor in the camp. To run with the hounds as if intent to catch the hare, but all the while being the secret friend of poor Wat. In the American war these double-dealers were called Copperheads (q.v.).
Mad as a March hare. Hares are unusually shy and wild in March, which is their rutting season.
⁂ Erasmus says “Mad as a marsh hare,” and adds, “hares are wilder in marshes from the absence of hedges and cover.” (Aphorisms, p. 266; 1542.)
Melancholy as a hare (Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 2). According to mediæval quackery, the flesh of hare was supposed to generate melancholy; and all foods imparted their own speciality.
Part i. 37, 38.
