Reptiles. 385 



Notes upon the Reptiles mentioned in Shakspeare's Plans. 

 By Robert Patterson, Esq., V.P. Nat. Hist. Soc. Belfast. 



(Continued from page 320). 



The fact that the tongue of the serpent is bifid for about the one- 

 third of its length, was a phenomenon too striking to have escaped 

 " the poet's eye." Hence such phrases as " adder's fork," " forked 

 tongue," &c, are of frequent occurrence. But although Lear makes 

 use of the expression — 



"struck me with her tongue 



Most serpent-like, upon the very heart,'' 



there is no reason to suppose that Shakspeare attributed to the tongue 

 the poisonous property. On the contrary, it is distinctly referred to 

 the " tooth," or poison-fangs. Thus Macbeth says, in one of the in- 

 terviews with his lady — 



" We have scotched the snake, not killed it ; 

 She'll close and be herself; whilst our poor malice 

 Remains in danger of her former tooth." 



Act iii. Scene iii. 



Thus also we find in King Henry the Sixth, — 



" Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth.'' 

 3rd Part, Act i. Scene iv. 



And we notice that Lear concludes his harrowing imprecations 

 against Goneril with the words — 



" that she may feel 



How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 

 To have a thankless child." 



Act i. Scene iv. 



To enter into any description of the exquisite contrivance evinced 

 in the mechanism of the adder's fang, would be out of place in a pa- 

 per such as the present. It furnishes one of the countless examples 

 of that nice adaptation of means to an end, which in every kingdom 

 of Nature unfolds itself to the eye of the naturalist, and by the de- 

 light which attaches to each onward step in the course of its inves- 

 tigation "makes a July's day short as December." 



The hiss of the serpent is so well known, and so universally alarm- 

 ing, that our knowledge of it, like Dogberry's reading and writing, 

 ii B 



