MUSCID.E — FLIES. 291 



In Gayton's Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, 1654, p. 

 99, speaking of Sancho Panza's having converted a cassock 

 into a wallet, onr pleasant annotator observes : " It was ser- 

 viceable, after this greasie nse, for nothing but to preach at 

 a carnivale or Shrove Tuesday, and to tosse Pancakes in 

 after the exercise ; or else, if it could have been conveighed 

 thither, nothing more proper for a man that preaches the 

 Cook's sermon at Oxford, when that plump society rides 

 upon their governour's horses to fetch in the Enemie, the 

 riie." That there was such a custom at Oxford, let Peshall, 

 in his history of that city, be a voucher, who, speaking of 

 St. Bartholomew's Hospital, p. 280, says : " To this Hos- 

 pital cooks from Oxford flocked, bringing in on Whitsun- 

 week the Fly." Aubrey saw this ceremony performed in 

 1642. He adds: "On Michaelmas-day, they rode thither 

 again to carry the Fly away."^ 



Plutarch, in his disquisition on the Art of Discerning a 

 Flatterer from a Friend, makes the following curious com- 

 parison : "The Gad-Flie (as they say) which useth to 

 plague bulles and oxen, setteth about their eares, and 

 so doth the tick deal b}^ dogges : after the same manner, 

 flatterers take hold of ambitious mens eares, and possesse 

 them with praises; and being once set fast there, hardly 

 are they to be removed and chased away."^ 



Plautus twice compares envious and inquisitive persons 

 to Flies.^ 



In a narrative of unheard-of Popish cruelties toward 



1 Brand's Pop. Antiq., i. 84. 



2 Holl. Trans., p. 76, There was one time a law at Athens, which 

 a good deal nonplussed these sponging gentlemen so appropriately 

 called Flies. " It was decreed that not more than thirty persons 

 should meet at a marriage feast; and a wealthy citizen, desirous of 

 going as far as the law wovild allow him, had invited the full com- 

 plement. An honest Fly, however, who respected no law that in- 

 terfered with his stomach, contrived to introduce himself, and took 

 his station at the lower end of the table. Presently the magistrate 

 appointed for the purpose entered, and espying his man at a glance, 

 began counting the guests, commencing on the other side and end- 

 ing with the parasite. 'Friend,' said he, 'you must retire. I find 

 there is one more than the hiw allows.' 'It is quite a mistake, sir,' 

 replied the Fly, ' as you will find if you will have the goodness to 

 count again, beginning on this side.' " — St. John's 3Ian. and Cust. of 

 And. Grec, ii. 172. 



3 Vide Mercator, A. ii. Sc. 4, and the Young Carthag.^ A. iii. Sc. 3. 



