296 SHAKESPEARE’S [SPINNER. 
Wuen houses are ready to drop down, Spiders with their 
cobwebs first of all fall, and get them away packing, alter 
their climate to some other surer place and dwelling to rest 
in. The Spider beareth a deadly feud and mortal hatred to 
serpents; for if so be the serpent at any time lie in the 
shadow under any tree to cool himself, where Spiders do 
resort, some one of them levelleth directly at him, and 
with such a violence striketh and dasheth at his head with 
her beak or snout, that her enemy withal making a 
whizzing noise, and being driven into a giddiness, turning 
round, hisseth, being neither able to break asunder the 
thread that cometh from above, nor yet hath force enough 
to escape it [and so the snake is killed]. 
Topsell, ‘‘ History of Serpents,” pp. 782-83. 
Tue Spider feedeth of the corruption that she findeth in 
the flowers and fruits that are in the gardens, whereas the 
bee gathereth her honey out of the best and fairest flower 
she can find. 
‘“‘History of Hamblet, Prince of Denmark.” 
Tue poets’ Arachne doth never weave her entangling web 
near the cypress-tree. 
Walkington, ‘‘Optic Glass of Humours,” p. 96. 
Spinner. 
Romeo anp JuLigT, i, 4, 59. 
VY, Spider, 
Sponge. ; 
HaMLerT iv. 2, 22. 
WHEN a Sponge is thrown into wine mixed with water, 
then taken out and squeezed, the water comes out of it, 
and the wine remains, and if it be not mixed, nothing 
comes out. 
Albertus Magnus, “Of the Wonders of the World.” 
