Note 382 — ACTUS III., SCÆNA 1.
Reading edition
Or, as it was sometimes called, an Island, or Isling. So in "The Queen of Corinth," act iv. sc. 1—
"Hang, hair, like hemp, or like the Isling cur's."
Again, in Massinger's "Picture," act v. sc. 1—
"Would I might lie Like a dog under her table, and serve for a footstool, So I might have my belly full of that Her Iceland cur refuses."
Abraham Fleming, in his tract "Of Englishe Dogges, the diversities, the names, the natures, and the properties," 1576, speaks of the introduction of Iceland dogs, and describes them. "Use and custome hath intertained other dogges of an outlandish kinde, but a few, and the same being of a pretty bygnesse, I meane Iseland dogges, curled and rough al over, which by reason of the length of their heare, make showe neither of face nor of body. And yet these curres, forsoothe, because they are so straunge, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken vp, and made of, many times in the roome of the Spaniell, gentle or comforter."—Collier. [Sig. F 4. Fleming's book is, however, only a translation from Caius, "De Canibus Britannicis."]