Reptiles. 391 



of the animal is noticed by Demetrius in the line — 



" I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point.'' 



Titus And. Act iv. Scene ii. 



Another passage, in which the creature is mentioned in both these 

 states, will be given hereafter. 



The common toad (Bufo vulgaris) belongs, like the frog, to the or- 

 der Anoura of Bell. It is perfectly innocuous, living on earth-worms, 

 slugs, caterpillars, and insects, thus giving actual assistance to the 

 husbandman, in keeping his most common assailants within due 

 bounds. Did we not, in other instances, know how potent are the 

 workings of imagination, and how tacitly men occasionally surrender 

 to them their senses and their reason, it might well seem incredible 

 that the toad was formerly regarded as " highly poisonous, and this 

 not only from its bite ; its breath, and even its glance, were fraught 

 with mischief or death."* So perfectly were these malign influences 

 accredited, that Pliny enumerates several plants as forming " a sin- 

 gular counter-poison against the venome of toads and serpents." 

 At a time when such ideas were still current, it was natural that in 

 the sorceries of the weird sisters such an animal should be placed in 

 the very foremost rank ; — 



" Toad that under the cold stone 

 Days and nights hath thirty-one, 

 Sweltered venom sleeping got, 

 Boil thou first i' the charmed pot !" 



In perfect accordance with the opinions and feelings of his day are 

 the several passages in which the toad is mentioned by Shakspeare ; 

 and so entirely do they give utterance to the popular opinion, to the 

 exclusion of any other particulars in the economy of the animal, that 

 a mere quotation of a few of the most striking is all that is here ne- 

 cessary. Juliet's garrulous old nurse, in speaking of Paris, says her 

 mistress " had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him ; " and 

 Lady Anne, when showering her reproaches on Gloster, says — 



" Never hung poison on a fouler toad. 

 Out of my sight ! thou dost infect my eyes." 



Richard III. Act i. Scene ii, 



While we appreciate the poetic beauty of the language used by 

 Othello — 



* Bell, p. 1 12. 



