[122]. Plutarch’s Lives of Marc Anton. and Cleopatra, and Fr. Redi Nobilis Aretini Experiment. p. 170, -1, -2, -3.
Obj. If it be said, that in the Triumphs of Augustus, Queen Cleopatra is drawn with an Asp in her Hand:
I answer, That I apprehend that Device might only be Pictorial-Licence, or a Flourish of the Painter to affect the People, by displaying the Heroism of a Woman, who to prevent the Disgrace of Captivity, embraced Death at the hands of a Serpent, a terrible Creature, to which none has so great an Aversion as the female Sex. Excuse a poetick Digression.
On the ASP and its POISON.
——Welcome thou kind Deceiver,
Thou best of Thieves! who with an easy Key
Dost open Life, and unperceiv’d by us,
Even steal us from our selves; discharging so,
Death’s dreadful Office, better than himself.
Touching our Limbs so gently into Slumber,