Vast confusion waits,
As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast,
The imminent decay of wrested pomp.[138]
With less justice, the bird has also been credited with savageness of disposition—a character which Shakespeare has sometimes attributed to persons who may outwardly seem to be gentle and kindly. These are said to have “a raven’s heart within a dove.”[139] Juliet expands the simile—
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st.[140]
Yet there was a belief that the Raven can show a wholly different nature:
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests.[141]