More forbears of today’s beagle were found in the literature of that time, as well. Famed and somewhat naughty author Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned them in The Canterbury Tales as “smale houndes”, while a line from Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night goes, “She’s a beagle true bred, and one that adores me. What o’ that?”
Source: The Animal Rescue site