41 



leave no doubt that the purpose was to show how little pain a man 

 really felt in dying. 



Another passage where " beetle " occurs is in Caliban's impreca- 

 tions against Prospero — 



" All the charms 

 Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you." 



Tempeat, i., 2. 



That one brought up in the country should know the glow-worm 

 might be assured. Titauia the spellbound queen instructs her 

 hand-maid fairies " Pease-blossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustard- 

 seed !" to work for Bottom and— 



" Steal from the humble-bees, 

 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs 

 And light them at the fiery glow-worms eyes." 



Midsiiinnier Nitfht'a I > ream, iii., 1. 



Of course " glow-worms eyes " is a poetic licence which again occurs 

 when the ghost urges his adieu to Hamlet — 



" The glow-worm shews the matin to be near, 

 And 'gins to pale his uneHectual fire." — tlamlft, i., 5. 



In one passage we find a beetle used in a simile to enforce the 

 dizzy height of Dover cliff — 



" The crows and choughs that wing the midway air. 

 Show scarce so gross as beetles." — Lear, iv., 6. 



In Hermione's reply to the spiteful jealousy of Leontes — 



" Sir, spare your threats, 

 The bug which you will fright me with I seek." 



Winter s Tale, iii., 1. 



" The bug" is not that beastie to which we could apply the words 

 of Jacques — 



" let's meet as little as we can."^ — Ah You Like It, iii., '6. 

 but as always in Shakspere is short for " bug-bear." 



In days when cleanliness of person was not quite so possible as 

 at present another domestic beast was more comnaon. 



When the rival justices are holding forth on the importance ol 

 Justice Shallow and his family, Slender says — 



" All his successors gone before him have done it, and all his 

 ancestors that come after him may : they may give the dozen white 

 luces in their coat. 



Shallow. Tis an old coat. 



