Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand,
Sign’d in they spoil and crimson’d in thy lethe.
. . . . .
How like a deer strucken by many princes
Dost thou here lie!”—III., 1, 205.
It must be remembered that Antony’s “credit stands on slippery grounds,” and it is hardly to be expected that he would use, at this critical moment, the simile employed by the Messenger in Pescetti as he laments the murder:
“Non fu mai fatto si crudele strazio
Di mansueto agnello
Da un gregge di rabbiosi
E famelici lupi,