“ The poor harmless Fly” 
The mind of Titus, broken down by a 
succession of crushing calamities, had by 
this time become unhinged, and the ex- 
travagance of his language is doubtless 
designed to show this derangement, though 
it may perhaps also express the poet’s own 
underlying pity with even “the poor harm- 
less fly.” Modern science, however, has 
recently discovered that the house-fly is 
far from harmless, and that its ruthless 
extirpation from human habitations, as a 
dangerous carrier of disease, should be 
regarded as really what Titus called ‘a 
charitable deed.” 
Not less effectively than his forerunner 
Chaucer, does Shakespeare enliven his 
pictures of day and night and of the 
seasons of the year by introducing the 
voices of the birds. He loves the 
summer bird 
Which ever in the haunch of winter sings 
The lifting up of day.! 
12 Henry IV. ww. iv. 91. 
23 
