A knave oft strikes the various stings of fraud,
’Tis best the sea of death ingulf him soon,
That he be freed from man, and man from him.[1123]
Topsel, in his History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, has the following in his chapter on the Scorpion:
“There is a common adage, Cornix Scorpium, a Raven to a Scorpion, and it is used against them that perish by their own inventions: when they set upon others, they meet with their matches, as a raven did when it preyed upon a Scorpion, thus described by Alciatus, under his title Justa ultio, just revenge, saying as followeth:
Raptabat volucer captum pede corvus in auras
Scorpion, audaci præmia parta gulæ.
Ast ille infuso sensim per membra venemo,
Raptorem in stygias compulit ultor aquas.
O risu res digna! aliis qui fata parabat,