90 THE RAVEN 



dignity and seventy, than that with which the god 

 of prophecy now turned upon his guilty messenger. 

 " Went not my heart with thee ?. Dost thou dare to 

 add a lie to thy guilt? Never henceforward, so 

 long as the figs are hanging green upon the trees, 

 shalt thou taste of water from the spring." The 

 incident was closed ; but, according to Ovid, a 

 strange memorial of it, half punishment, it would 

 seem, and half reward, remained. The raven, the 

 snake, and the bowl have, ever since, been seen, in 

 the heavens, side by side ; and the constellation 

 which contains them all was long called by astro- 

 nomers the Corvus or Raven. 



Influenced by such legends, and by some of the 

 undoubted characteristics of the raven, Shake- 

 speare is fond of contrasting his " black arts " with 

 the whiteness and innocence of the dove. 



" Not Hermia, but Helena I love : 

 Who will not change a raven for a dove ? " 



cries Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

 So too, the Duke of Illyria, in Twelfth Night, 

 says: 



" I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, 

 To spite a raven's heart within a dove." 



So again, the violent outburst of Queen Margaret 



