40 



Macbeth when bracing up his courage for the " dreadful deed," 

 promises Lady Macbeth — 



"Ere the bat hath flown 

 His cloister'd flight ; ere to black Hecate's summons 

 The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, 

 Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 

 A deed of dreadful note." — Macbeth, in., 2. 



" Shard " appears to have been a common term, for we find the 

 friend of Mark Antony images the close unity of the Triumvirs 

 when he speaks of Lepidus — 



" They are his shards and he their beetle." 



Antonu and Cleojiatra, iii., 4. 



Again Belarius in the mountains of Wales in voicing his love of 

 the wild freedom and the healthy pleasure there is in danger, says — 



" Often to our comfort do we find 

 The sharded beetle in a safer hold 

 Than is the full-wing'd eagle." — Cijinhelinc, iii., 3. 



Not that ''shard" always has this meaning, for it occurs in its 

 primitive English significance — a piece of broken tile — when the 

 priest says of Ophelia — 



" Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her." 



Hamlet, v., 1. 



There is some ambiguity in the wording put by the poet into the 

 mouth of Isabel imaging her fear for Claudio in prison and in 

 expectation of death — • 



" The poor beetle that we tread upon 

 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies." — Measure for Measure, iii., 1. 



It would appear at first that the ancient view that insects suffered 

 pain was here voiced, but like many a text divorced from its context, 

 a wrong impression is produced. Close students of Shakspere years 

 ago pointed out that there were few instances of a more complete 

 perversion of the meaning of a poetical quotation by omission of the 

 context than in this passage. The lines preceding the passage 

 quoted — 



" Oh ! I do fear thee, Claudio ; and I quake. 

 Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain, 

 And six or seven winters more respect 

 Than a perpetual honour. Darest thou die ? 

 The sense of death is most in apprehension ;" 



