The Birds of Shakespeare 
little commendation from him. He twice 
connects it with evidence of the care of 
Providence, in obvious allusion to passages 
in Holy Writ. Hamlet observes that 
“there is special providence in the fall of 
21 
a sparrow. Reference has already been 
made to the trust expressed by Orlando’s 
faithful old Adam in Him “that pro- 
vidently caters for the sparrow.”? ‘The 
bird comes also into the presentation of 
classical deities in The Tempest, where Iris 
tells how Venus’ 
Waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, 
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows 
And be a boy right out.? 
Thersites, who had been soundly thrashed 
by Ajax, takes his own method of revenge 
by declaring 
I have bobbed his brain more than he has beat 
my bones; I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, 
and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a 
sparrow. 
| Hamlet, v.11. 212. 2 4s You Like It, i. iii. 44. 
3 Tempest, 1v. 1. 99. 4 Troilus and Cressida, u1. 1. 67. 
102 
