io8 
A BLACK CHARACTER. 
Here “ wicked ” may be taken to mean pernicious or 
destructive—the antonym being “ virtuous,” as in the 
expression “the virtuous properties of plants.” A bad 
sore is described, in an old tract on hawking (Harl. MS. 
2,340), as “a wykked felone.” 
As the type of blackness, both as regards colour and 
character, we find the raven frequently contrasted with 
the white dove, the emblem of all that is pure and gentle. 
“Who will not change a raven for a dove ?” 
Midsummer Night's Dream y Act ii. Sc. 2. 
“ I ’ll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, 
To spite a raven’s heart within a dove.” 
Twelfth Nighty Act v. Sc. 1. 
“ Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! 
Dove-feather’d raven! 
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st.” 
Romeo and Juliet , Act iii. Sc. 2. 
The quarto (1599) an d folio here read, “ravenous, dove- 
feather’d raven,” &c. 
As colour is intensified by contrast, so we read— 
“ Whiter than snow upon a raven’s back.” 
So the undated quarto. Other editions have the emen¬ 
dation— 
