Careful Words

hare (n.)

hare (v.)

To hold with the hare and run with the hound.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.

Mad as a march hare.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.

  He is as mad as a March hare.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

  I mean not to run with the Hare and holde with the Hounde.

John Lyly (Circa 1553-1601): Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 107.

The blood more stirs

To rouse a lion than to start a hare!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.