loo SNAKES. 



of natural history, he often gave additional force to error 

 by the weight of his authority.' 



In recalling some lines from Shakspeare, the reader 

 will find how very familiar to the mind are the serpent 

 similes. Some of them prove that the poet was cognizant 

 of a tooth being also a source of evil ; but it is evident that 

 he thought the tongue was so also, especially the tongue of 

 the ' blindworm.' 



For a few out of the many in which Shakspeare's plays 

 abound, vide Timon of Athens, Act iv. Scene 3: 'The 

 gilded newt and eyeless venomed worm.' 



Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act iii. Scene 2. When 

 Hermia thinks that Demetrius has killed Lysander while 

 sleeping, she scathingly ejaculates : ' O brave touch ! Could 

 not a worm, an adder do so much ? An adder did it ; for 

 with deadlier tongue than thine, thou serpent, never adder 

 stung ! ' 



In Cymbeline, Act iii. Scene 2, Pisanio says : * What false 

 Italian, as poisonous tongued as handed, hath prevailed on 

 thy too ready hearing,?' Again, in Scene 4 of the same 

 Act, Pisanio would not hear evil of his mistress, and cries : 

 ' No, 'tis slander ; whose edge is sharper than the sword, 

 whose tongue outvenoms all the worms.' 



Henry VL, Act ii. Scene 2, Clifford says to the King : ' Who 

 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting ! ' Act iii. Scene 2 : 

 ' Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting. . . . What ! 

 art thou like the adder waxen deaf ? Be poisonous too ! ' 



Muck Ado about Nothing, Act v. Scene i, Antonio 

 says : ' As I dare take a serpent by the tongue.' 



And in King John, Act ii. Scene i, Randolph says to 



