NOTES BY THE WAY 



doubt fed upon the tree that supported it, whether 

 the real ivy does or not. 



It is also probably untrue that 



"The poor beetle that we tread upon 

 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies," 



though it has suited the purpose of other poets 

 besides Shakespeare to say so. The higher and 

 more complex the organization, the more acute the 

 pleasure and the pain. A toad has been known to 

 live for days with the upper part of its head cut 

 away by a scythe, and a beetle will survive for hours 

 upon the fisherman's hook. It perhaps causes a 

 grasshopper less pain to detach one of its legs than 

 it does a man to remove a single hair from his beard. 

 Nerves alone feel pain, and the nervous system of 

 a beetle is a very rudimentary affair. 



In " Coriolanus " there is a comparison which 

 implies that a man can tread upon his own shadow, 

 a difficult feat in northern countries at all times 

 except midday; Shakespeare is particular to men- 

 tion the time of day : 



"Such a nature, 



Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow 

 Which he treads on at noon." 



