Lucio, the Euphuist, in Measure for Measure, confesses
’Tis my familiar sin,
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart.[131]
The WILD DUCK or MALLARD is taken by Shakespeare as a symbol of cowardice and uxoriousness. Falstaff, after robbing the travellers on the highway, without the help of the two chief members of the gang, declares,
An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there’s no equity stirring: there’s no more valour in that Poins than in a wild duck.[132]
In the description of the flight of Cleopatra from the battle of Actium, the conduct of her Roman lover is thus given:
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, and like a doting mallard,
Leaving the fight in height, flies after her.[133]