352 SHAKESPEARE'S [WORM. 



Woodcocks were baked (Dekker's "Raven's Almanac") and 

 made into pies (Webster s " Westward Ho!"), and served on 

 buttered toast (Ben Jonson's " Epicure," Middletoris " New 

 Way to pay Old Debts ").] 



Worm. 



A WORM is a beast that oft engendereth of flesh and of 

 herbs, and gendereth oft of gall, and sometime of corruption 

 of humours, and sometime of meddling of male and female, 

 and sometime of eggs, as it well appeareth of scorpions 

 and of tortoises and newts. And worms come out of their 

 dens in springing - time. Of Worms be many manner 

 diverse kinds, for some be water-worms, and some be land- 

 worms ; and of those some be in herbs and in worts, as 

 malshrags [caterpillars] and other such ; and some be in 

 trees, as tree-worms ; and some in clothes, as moths ; and 

 some in flesh as maggots, that breed of corrupt and rotted 

 moisture in flesh ; and some in beasts within and without, 

 as long Worms in children's wombs, and lice and nits in 

 heads, and all such Worms breed and gender of corrupt 

 humours in bodies of beasts within and without. And 

 there be other Worms of the earth, which be long and 

 round, nesh [soft] and smooth, as angle - twitches, and 

 moles do hunt them under earth, and with angle-twitches 

 fish is taken in waters, when fish-hooks be baited with such 

 Worms instead of bait. And such Worms help against cramp, 

 and against shrinking of sinews, and also against biting of 

 serpents and against smiting of scorpions. And among 

 Worms, some be foot-less, as adders and serpents, and some 

 nave six feet, and some be full evil and malicious, and 

 enemies to mankind, as serpents and other venomous 

 Worms ; and some Worms be round of body, and hath 

 no sinews nor bones, great nor small, neither gristles, 

 neither blood ; and all such dieth if they be anointed 

 with oil, and do quicken again in vinegar. And some 

 Worms gender and be gendered, and some be gender 

 and gender not, as the Salamander. 



Bartholomew (Bertkelet], bk. xviii. 115. 



ne 







OF earth-worms some are bred only in the earth, and 

 others among plants, and in the bodies of living creatures. 

 Worms are found to be very venomous in the kingdom of 

 JMogor, and the inhabitants there do stand in so great fear 



