Animals in Shakespeare

The Pythagorean theory in Ovid's Metamorphoses states that one should not eat flesh for our souls may inhabit the bodies of animals. In chapter fifteen Pythagoras decrees as such: "O mortals, don't contaminate your bodies with food procured so sacrilegiously [for] those who need to feed on bloody food are savage beasts- (Ovid p 516). Pythagoras explains the reason for his strong belief in vegetarianism; "For all things change, but no thing dies. The spirit wanders: here and there, at will, the soul can journey from an animal into a human body, and from us to beasts; it occupies a body, but it never perishes- (Ovid p 519). Pythagoras believed in reincarnation as "over souls "be sure "death has no sway: each soul, once it has left one body, takes another body as its home, the place where it lives on- (Ovid p 519). Therefore, according to Pythagoras, whom Shakespeare was familiar, it would be dangerous and sacrilegious to consume the flesh of an animal for it might contain the soul of someone we once knew.
             Shakespeare made many references to the Pythagorean theory by portraying humans as inhabiting the bodies of animals. An indication of this is found in The Merchant of Venice where he blends the tradition of the werewolf, a man who could metamorphose himself into the form of a wolf while retaining his human soul, or who might have the soul of a wolf but the form of a man, into the character of Shylock. Shylock is a greedy and dangerous villain who lends some money to Bassanio, but the bondsman Antonio is the one who will be responsible for making sure it is paid back. Shylock convinces Antonio to sign a contract that states that if the money not be paid in time Shylock can remove a pound of his bodily flesh. Bassanio thinks Shylock to be wrong but Antonio tells Bassanio to give up trying to reason with Shylock. He reasons with him; "You may as well use question with the wolf Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb- (Act IV.