34 



Cleopatra, foreseeing her coming fate and that of her country, 

 says — 



" My brave Egyptians all, 



Lie graveless till the flies and gnats of JSile 



Have buried them for prey." — Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. 



" Dost know the water-fly ? " asks Hamlet. 



Hamlet v., '2. 



and Thersites, with his bitter sarcasm, attacks the Grecian noble, 

 Patroclus — 



"Ah! how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies, 

 diminutives of nature ! " — Troilus and Cresmla, v., 1. 



But Cleopatra has a different fly in mind in her bitter and hope- 

 less words to her captor, Proculeius — 



" Rather on Nilus mud 

 Lay me stark naked, and let Avater- flies « 



Blow me into abhorring." — Antomj and Cleopatra, v., 3. 



The destructive power of larvas have furnished Shakspere with 

 many a metaphor. Bolingbroke called the creatures of Richard, no 

 doubt on account of their destructive proclivities — 



" The caterpillars of the common wealth." — Kuui Hic/iard IL, ii., 4. 

 and again the Duke of York's reflection on the destruction of hia 

 hopes of Kingdom — 



" Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud. 

 And caterpillars eat my leaves away."^ — 2 Henry VI., iii.,1^ 



" False caterpillars " is the epithet bestowed by Jack Cade on his 

 opponents, but the metaphor is never employed more justly than in 

 the colloquy between the gardener and his attendant in King 

 Richard IL, on the state of the Kingdom. Instead of silently 

 carrying out the orders of his superiors to ''Cut ofl' the heads of the 

 too fast-growing sprays," the servant enquires — 



" Why should we in the compass of a pale 

 Keep law, and form, and due proportion. 

 Showing as in a model our Arm state ; 

 When our sea- walled garden the whole land 

 Is full of weeds ; her fairest flowers choked up, 

 Her fruit trees all unpruned, her hedges ruined. 

 Her knots dis-ordered and her wholesome herbs 

 Swarming with caterpillars ? "- — Kiny Richard IL, iii., 4. 



When Coriolanus has become the invincible leader of the enemies 

 of his native city of Rome, Sicinius, a Roman noble, asks — 



