Ipse periit, propriis succubuitque dolis.
Which may be Englished thus:
The ravening crow for prey a Scorpion took
Within her foot, and therewithal aloft did flie,
But he empoysoned her by force and stinging stroke,
So ravener in the Stygian Lake did die.
O sportfull game! that he which other for bellyes sake did kill,
By his own deceit should fall into death’s will.
“There be some learned writers, who have compared a Scorpion to an epigram, or rather an epigram to a Scorpion, because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayl, so the force and vertue of an epigram is in the conclusion, for vel acriter salse mordeat, vel jucunde atque dulciter delectet, that is, either let it bite sharply at the end, or else delight pleasingly.”[1124]