Was Shakespeare a Dog Hater?

In a recent article in The Times (“20 Things you never knew about Shakespeare” 31.05.10)  Jonathan Bate argues that Shakespeare, judging from references in his plays, probably had a strong dislike for dogs. According to Bate (Did he keep a pet?) “He hated them!”

I beg to differ.  The use of cur and dog in a pejorative sense was not something peculiar to Shakespeare but common practice in Elizabethan society.  There were probably three sorts of dog in Shakespeare’s time (1) Dogs bred specifically for hunting, fighting or baiting. (2) Dogs kept by nobility or royalty as status symbols and (3) Feral mongrel strays.  They were viewed as among the lowest forms of life and therefore lent themselves easily to forms of disfavourable comparison (c.f. the pig in Jewish history and both the pig and the dog in Arab culture)

However, if Shakespeare was such a caniphobe, how could he even contemplate creating the relationship between Launce and his dog, Crab, in Two Gentlemen of Verona?  It is even arguable that this is possibly the only true example of unconditional love in the play.  (See Act IV Scene iv!) And how touching is it that King Lear in his terminal mental decay remembers his dogs by name.
Shakespeare was probably not a very “doggie” person but as with most things he possessed a deep understanding both of dogs and their relationship with human beings.

Geoffrey Hutchings - Associate Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Posted 2nd June, 2010