16 INTRODUCTION. 
Again, in Sonnet CXIL, “the adder’s sense” is referred 
to in such a way as to leave no doubt of the poet’s 
impression that adders do not hear. 
“ Caliban. Sometime am I 
All wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues 
Do hiss me into madness.” 
Tempest, Act ii. Se. 2. 
The “eyeless venom’d worm” referred to in Timon of 
Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3, is of course the Slow-worm (Anguis 
fragilis). 
The observant naturalist must doubtless have remarked 
the partiality evinced by snakes and other reptiles for 
basking in the sun. Shakespeare has noticed that— 
“The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun.” 
Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
And— 
“Tt is the bright day that brings forth the adder ; 
And that craves wary walking.” 
Fulius Cesar, Act ii. Sc. 1. 
In Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 2, allusion is made to the won- 
derful vitality which snakes possess, and to the popular 
notion that they are enabled, when cut in two, to reunite 
the dissevered portions and recover :— 
“We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it ; 
She’ll close and be herself.” 
