72 SHAKESPEARE'S [CRAB. 



may not close himself. And when the closing is so let, 

 the Crab eateth and gnaweth the fish of the oyster. 



Bartholomew (Berthelet\ bk. xiii. 29. 



THE Crab goes backward, and has never known how to 

 follow his nose. When he grows old, two stones of a 

 white colour mixed with red are found in his head, which 

 are said to be of such virtue that, given in drink, they 

 heal punctures of the heart. There are some little Crabs 

 on the coast of Judea which are called soldiers, because 

 they run so fast and cannot be caught. And if one of 

 them be cut in half, there is no flesh or superfluity at all 

 to be found in its body, because they take no food. 



Hortus SanitatiSj bk. iv. ch. xvi. 



[!N the Moluccas shipwrecked men were forced to build 

 a fort] to defend themselves from certain Crabs of exceed- 

 * n g greatness, and in as great numbers, and of such force, 

 that whosoever they got under their claws it cost him his 

 life. Purcbas\ " Pilgrims," p. 504, ed. 1616. 



CRABS here with us have a sympathy with the moon, 

 and are fullest with her fulness. In India there is a 

 contrary antipathy, for at full moon they are emptiest. 



Ibid., P . 505. 



Crab (i.e., Crab-apple). 



And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl 

 In very likeness of a roasted crab. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, ii. I, 48. 



[Lamb's wool was made of cultivated apples, not of crabs. 

 Cf. Gerard's " Herbal," s.v. Apple.] 



A CUP of ale had in his hand, and a Crab lay in the fire. 



"Gammer Gurton's Needle." 



Cricket. 



As merry as crickets. 



i. KING HENRY IV., ii. 400. 



[CRICKET] is a little beast, feeble and mightless and thievish 

 and venomous with pricks and pikes. This .beast goeth back- 

 ward, and saweth and diggeth the earth, and worketh by 

 night ; and is hunted with an ant tied with an hair, and 

 thrown into his den : and the powder [dust] is first blown 

 away, lest the ant hide herself therein, and so he is drawn 



to Jove of the ant. Bartholomew (Berthelef), bk. xviii. 58. 



