386 Reptiles, 



"comes by nature." Shakspeare has given to the sound a cha- 

 racteristic epithet in the line — 



" Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss." 



2nd Part K. Henry VI. Act iii. Scene iii. 



A remarkable difference exists between the common snake and the 

 viper, with regard to the production of the young. The former is 

 oviparous, and deposits from sixteen to twenty eggs, which are vivi- 

 fied by heat; the latter is ovo-viviparous, and the young, which vary 

 in number from sixteen to twenty, come forth alive. Such distinc- 

 tions were most probably unknown to Shakspeare, who, regarding all 

 serpents as dangerous, might naturally attribute to all the same mode 

 of reproduction. The words of Brutus, when communing with him- 

 self respecting Caesar, favour this opinion. 



" And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, 

 Which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous, 

 And kill him in the shell." 



Julius Ccesar, Act ii. Scene i. 



But although specific differences are not always regarded by our 

 poet, it is obvious that he was not only aware of the fact that snakes 

 are produced from eggs, but that they are vivified by the heat of the 

 sun, and recalled by the same genial warmth from their winter tor- 

 pidity. 



" It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, 

 And that craves wary walking." 



Julius Cmsar, Act ii. Scene i. 



The application of gentle and continued warmth will, at any period, 

 restore the suspended animation of the torpid snake. That it should 

 turn against the individual by whom that warmth had been applied, 

 is so revolting to the feelings, that the fact furnishes to our bard the 

 striking and poetic image — 



" Snakes in my heart-hlood warmed, that sting my heart." 



Richard II. Act iii. Scene ii. 



One common though erroneous idea, current at the time of Shaks- 

 peare, has descended unchanged to our own days, and, in the minds 

 of uneducated persons, flourishes with all its pristine luxuriance. I 

 allude to the notion that a horse-hair, by immersion in river water, 

 becomes vivified into what naturalists term the "hair-worm" [Gor- 

 dius aqua tic us), but which the vulgar regard as the young state of 

 eels or serpents. The idea is embodied in the words employed by 

 Antony — 



