83 



mona speaks of herself as a " moth of peace," Act I., sc. 3 ; and in Coriolanus^ 

 " You would be another Penelope, yet they say all the yarn she spun, in Ul3''sses' 

 absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths," Act I., sc. 4, The reference in this last 

 passage is probably to the tapestry moth. Tinea tapetzella. 



DiPTEKA. — The most numerous of Shakespeare's entomological allusions are 

 to the two-winged flies. As a fitting image of littleness and meanness he makes 

 use of the gnat, as where Simonides says that princes who are not given to hos- 

 pitality : 



Are like to gnats which make a sound, but killed, 

 Are wondered at. 



Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act II., sc. 3. 



And where Biron mocking at the love-sick King of Navarre : 



me, with what strict patience have I sat 

 To see a king transformed to a gnat. 



Love's labour's lost, Act IV., sc. 3. 



But the diminutive is used with much feeling and afiection, where Imogen, 

 speaking of the departure of her banished lord, says : 



1 would have broke my eye-strings ; crack 'd them, but 

 To look upon him ; till the diminution 



Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle. 

 Nay, foUow'd him, till he had melted from 

 The smallness of a gnat to air. 



"Cymbeline," Act I., sc. 4. 



There is knowledge both of human nature and of natural history, in the re- 

 buke which Antipholus of Syracuse administered to Dromio of Syracuse. 



Because that I familiarly sometimes 



Do use you for my fool, and chat with you, 



Your sauciness will jest upon my love. 



And make a common of my serious hours. 



When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport. 



But creep in crannies, when he hides his beams. 



Comedy of Errors, Act II., sc. 2. 



The Flea (Pulex irritans) is spoken of in at any rate seven passages : — "Henry 

 v.," Act II., sc. 3, and Act III., sc. 7 ; " Merry Wives of Windsor," Act IV./' sc. 

 2 ; " Twelfth Night," Act III., sc. 4; " All's Well that Ends Well," Act IV., sc. 3 ; 

 " Taming the Shrew," Act V., sc. 3, and 1st Part K. Henry IV., Act II., sc. 1 ; 

 always in a trifling sense. 



Shakespeare's allusions to the breeze-fly or gad-fly of the ox {Tabanus 

 hovinus) are forcible. In Troilus and Cressida Nestor, replying to Agamemnon, 

 to illustrate the difference between " valour's show" and " valour's worth," says 

 that in Fortune's 



ray and brightness 



The herd hath more annoyance by the brize 



Than by the tiger ; but when the splitting wind 



Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, 



And flies flee under shade, why then the thing of courage 



As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize. 



Act I., sc. 3. 



And in Antony and Cleopatra, Scarus cries out against the Egyptian Queen 

 who was hastening from the fight off" Actium : 



Yon ribald-rid nag of Egypt 



The brize upon her like a cow in June 

 Hoists sails and flies. 



Of the many allusions to flies made by Shakespeare, some are used in a 

 slighting and contemptuous sense, as when Timon of Athens calls his false friends 



Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, 

 Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears. 

 You fools of fortune, trencher frien.ds, time's flies. 



Act III., sc. 6. 



i 



