288 SHAKESPEARE’S [SHRIMP. 
To keep beasts safe that the blind mouse called a Shrew 
do not bite them: Enclose the same mouse quick in 
chalk, which when it is hard, hang the same about the 
neck of the beast that you would keep safe from biting ; 
and it is most certain, that he shall not be touched nor 
bitten. Lupton, “ Notable Things,” bk. vii. § 52. 
Ir a Shrew, I take it to be the blind mouse, doth 
chance to go over any part of any beast, that part of the 
beast will after be lame. This I know to be true. 
Ibid., bk. x. § 11. 
Shrimp. 
i. King Henry VI., i. 3, 23. 
[AppREssED to a salmon] one 
That for the calmest and fresh time o’ the year 
Dost live in shallow rivers, rank’st thyself 
With silly smelts and Shrimps. 
Webster, ‘Duchess of Malfi,” iii. 5. 
You shall eat nothing but Shrimp porridge for a fort- 
night. Brome, “ Sparagus Garden,” ii. 3. 
Silk. 
So often as I consider that some ten thousands of Silk- 
worms, labouring continually night and day, can hardly 
make three ounces of silk,—so often do I condemn the 
excessive profusion and luxuriousness of men in such costly 
things, who defile with dirt silks and velvets, that were 
formerly the ornaments of kings, and make no more 
reckoning of them now than of an old tattered cloak, as 
if they were ashamed to esteem better of an honourable 
thing than of a base, and were wholly bent upon waste. 
Amongst the English a silken habit is so much loved and 
valued, that they despise their own wool, which compared 
with silk is not contemptible, and is the most profitable 
and the greatest merchandise of the kingdom, But time 
will make them forego this wantonness, when they shall 
observe that their moneys are treasured up in Italy at that 
time, when they stand in need of it for their public or 
private affairs. 
Dr. Thos. Mouffet, ‘Theatre of Insects,” p. 1033. 
