WHITE RAVENS 91 



against the "good Duke Humphrey " of Gloucester, 

 in whom her husband still has implicit trust : 



" Seems he a dove ? His feathers are but borrowed, 

 For he's disposed as the hateful raven. 

 Is he a lamb ? His skin is surely lent him, 

 For he's inclin'd as are the ravenous wolves." 



And, once more, read the impassioned utterances, 

 the contradictions in terms of the love-lorn Juliet, 

 when she hears of the deed which may separate her 

 from her Romeo : 



" BeautifuJ tyrant ! Fiend angelical ! 

 Dove-featured raven, wolfish ravening lamb ! " 



A white raven was supposed by the ancients to 

 be as much an impossibility, a contravention of the 

 order of nature, as a black swan. Phalanthus, 

 when besieged in a town of Rhodes, having received 

 an oracle that he would remain master of the town 

 " till ravens became white," felt as secure as Macbeth 

 did in his castle, till " Birnam wood " began to 

 " move towards Dunsinane." But the commander 

 of the besieging army, hearing of the oracle, rubbed 

 some ravens with gypsum and let them loose. 

 Phalanthus, on seeing them, abandoned the town 

 in despair. It is now well known that there are 

 such apparent freaks of nature as white ravens, and 

 black swans are also known to exist. Black swans 



