In Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' the play-within-a-play is called 'The Mousetrap'. What would a mouse trap have consisted of in this time and place (16th Century England)? Would it be the kind of trap familiar to us now, with a spring that crushes the mouse when it eats a piece of food?
Well Shakespeare mentions them in Hamlet: Act 3, sc2, but doesn't describe them, so I can see why that would be interesting:
HAMLET
The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o' that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.
Enter LUCIANUS
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.
Dagg has an interesting paper on the subject, and mentions in Mascal's 1590 book A Booke of Engies and traps to take Polcats, buzardes, Rattes, Mice and all other kindes of Vermine and beasts whatsoever, most profitable for all Warriners and such as delight in this kinde of sport and pastime which have "Renaissance Torrision Mouse Traps" which might have been in use around Shakespeare's time (or some variation thereof).
[Here is an article with pictures of those Renaissance traps.] (http://historiesofecology.blogspot.com/2011/09/here-be-dragon-traps.html) It also has some excellent references, including Dagg.
The most comprehensive work on this was done by Drummond. Here is his interesting read. Though it is not really "scholarly" in this form.
Other mousetrap references of note:
Saint Augustine Sermon 130 (I can't find a good link... he uses the metaphor of the cross as a mouse trap for Satan in the same way Shakespeare uses the play as a trap for the king)
In the left column of the blog Natural History Apostilles you will find, if you scroll down, a section on "Trap Records." Click on them and you get, for example to a zoomable image of the Mérode altarpiece (ca. 1427-32) showing Joseph as a carpenter with two different kinds of traps (one he is working on and one on display for sale). Add to this the various kinds you can find in the other links (e.g. Mascall 1590, The fable of the ancient (1405-1511), Crouch's ballad (1647)) and you will see that there was already a variety of trap types. Some were neck breaking others smashed the whole mouse by blocks of wood, some caught them in cages.
P.S.: You can also click on the tab "traps" at the top above the posts, in order to get all the posts relating to traps.
I imagine that the most effective trappers of vermin like mice were not machines, but rather, cats and terriers. In fact, many small dogs were originally bred as rat catchers.
