OF SERPENTS. 6x 



in Jlrahia^ which (according to the Tradition) if a Man Jlept 

 upon^ he died in his Sleep without any Pain. 



A C E R T A I N le-c rned Pen, makes this Remark upon Cleo^ 

 fatras Cafe, viz, that flie was not bit by an JJp^ as Ibme have 

 allerted, but did that which was more fecret and furej that is, 

 after fhe had bit her own Arm, infufed Poifon into the Wound, 

 exprelTed before-hand from an j4fp by Irritation, and preferved in • 

 a Phial for that purpofe : Or, as Dio lays, ilie wounded her Arm 

 with a Needle, or DreiTing-pin, and then poured the Poifon into 

 the bleeding Wound. This feems probable, becaufe no Serpent 

 was found in her Chamber or near it. 



The ^ieeity in order to find the moft eafy Paflage out of this 

 Life, made an Experiment upon Criminals by various kinds of 

 Poifon, and Application of diverfe forts of Serpents, and found 

 nothing came up to AJpick Foifon^ which throws Perfons into a 

 pleafant Sleep, in which they die* . 



Qbj. If it be faid, that in the Triumphs oi Auguftus, Q^z"^ 

 Cleopatra is drawn with an Afp in her Hand: 



I A N s w E R, That I apprehend that Device might only be PiBo- 

 rial' Licence, or a Flouriili of the Painter to affed the People, by 

 difplaying the Heroifm of a Woman, who to prevent the Difgrace 

 of Captivity, embraced Death at the hands of a Serpent, a ter- 

 rible Creature, to which none has fo great an Averfion as the fe- 

 male Sex. Excufe a poetick DigreiTion. 



On the A S P and its P O I S O N. 



Welcome thou kind Deceiver, 



T^hoii befi of Thieves ! who with an eafy Key 

 Doft open Life, and unperceiv'd by us. 

 Even flea I us from our f elves \ difcharging fo^ 

 Death's dreadful Office^ better than himfelf 

 Touching our Limbs fo gently into Slumber^ 

 That Death flarids by, deceivd by its own Image y 



And^hinks himfelf ajleep -f 



Some 



* Plutarch's Lives of Man Anton, and Cleopatra, and Fr, RtJi Neb'dis Jrftini 

 Experiment, p. 170, — i, — 23—3, 

 f Dryden, All for Lovt, 



