The Poets Snakes. 83 



(Churchill) and Evil (Akenside) are vipers, while Ben 

 Jonson adds to the list, in the following powerful lines, 

 the faithless, the selfish man : 



" Look on the false and cunning man, that loves 

 No person nor is loved : what ways he proves 

 To gain upon his belly ; and at last 

 Crushed into the snaky brakes that he had passed." 



Love, of course, is a serpent, in a score or two of poets : 



" A serpent nourish I under my wing, 

 And now, of nature, 'ginneth it to sting." 



Nor does the breaking of the heart cure, but rather aggra- 

 vate the evil : 



1 ' I thought that this some remedy might prove ; 

 But, oh ! the mighty serpent Love 

 Broke, by this chance, in pieces small, 

 In all still lived, and still it stung in all." 



Nor are even "the loves of the Angels" secure from 

 reptilian intrusion : 



" When Love hath not a shrine so pure, 



So holy, but the serpent Sin, 

 la moments .even the most secure,, 

 Beneath his altar may glide in." 



The jealousy of rivals, and the pleasure of inflicting pain, 

 and the pain of suffering it, suggests the snake to many 

 poets. Thus Wyatt in his "Jealous Man : " 



" The wand'ring gadling in the summer tide 

 That finds the adder with his reckless foot 

 Starts not dismay' d so suddenly aside 

 As jealous despite did, though there were no boot, 

 When that he saw me sitting by her side 

 That of my health is very crop and root. 

 It pleased me then to have so fair a grace 

 To sting the heart, that would have had my place." 



Among the classes of individuals specially colubrine are 



