Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.”
“Pale and wan,”—two most fruitful words, certainly, to bring forth so graphic a description of men that are “very dangerous.”
Of names historic the Emblem writers give a great many examples, but only a few, within the prescribed boundaries of our subject, that are at the same time historic and Shakespearean.
Vel post mortem formidolosi,—“Even after death to be dreaded,”—is the sentiment with which Alciatus (Emblem 170), and Whitney after him (p. 194), associate the noisy drum and the shrill-sounding horn; and thus the Emblem-classic illustrates his device,—
“Cætera mutescent, coriumq. silebit ouillum,
Si confecta lupi tympana pelle sonent.
Hanc membrana ouium sic exhorrescit, vt hostem
Exanimis quamuis non ferat exanimem.
Sic cute detracta Ziscas, in tympana versus,