The Vulture 
voracity, and partly also on the legend of 
Prometheus and the eagle. In one passage 
a speaker asserts “ there cannot be that vul- 
ture in you to devour so many.”* ‘The ex- 
pressions “vulture thought” and “vulture - 
folly” are used in the Poems.’ A favourite 
observation of the braggart Pistol was “let 
vultures vile seize on his lungs.” Sir 
William Lucy speaks of ‘‘the vulture of 
sedition that feeds in the bosom of great 
commanders.” ® 
“The gnawing vulture 
onthe mind’ is. referred to: in Tras 
Andronicus. But the most touching allu- 
sion in which this bird is used is that 
where King Lear, wounded to the quick 
by Goneril’s unkindness, exclaims to her 
sister, as he raises his hand to his heart, 
O Regan, she hath tied 
Sharp-tooth’d unkindness like a vulture here.* 
Reference may be made to two other 
exotic birds mentioned by Shakespeare— 
1 Macbeth, wW. iii. 73. 
2 Venus and Adonis, 551 ; Lucrece, 556. 
Sa Heory VT. Ww. in. a7: * Ear, tie We Led 
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