CHAPTER IV. 

 SOME "SHELL-FISHES." 



CRUSTACEANS, "whose shell is all their bones," curiously 

 enough bear a somewhat sinister character; but they have 

 doubtless inherited this from antiquity, and so, having 

 passed opprobriously into proverbs, became fair game for 

 poets. At any rate, they do not hesitate to reflect upon 

 the character of the lobster and the crab, and, as a sample, 

 either Gay or Drayton is worth consulting by those interested 

 in " heating " viands. Hood in his " Mermaid of Margate " 

 celebrates the crustacean's revenge : 



" The squealing lobsters that he had boiled, 



And the little potted shrimps, 

 All the horny prawns that he had spoiled, 

 Gnawed into his soul like imps." 



Yet had our poets known as much as the Germans do of 

 those monster crustaceans of Udvaer (which the fishermen 

 dare not attack as their claws are a fathom apart) the poets 

 might have been more respectful to the Jesuits' symbol. 

 The crab, "as bargemen wont to fare, bending their force 

 contrary to their face" (Spenser), is ridiculed for being 

 "sidelong" and "crouching:" 



" No crab more active in the dirty dance, 

 Downward to climb, and backward to advance" (Pope) 



and therefore papistical. 



