Alciat, 1551.
“Of thieves and robbers evil-omen’d bands the city through
Go thy companions; and a cohort girded with dreadful swords.
And so, O prodigal, thou thinkest thyself of generous mind,
Because thy cooking pot allures very many of the bad ones.
Lo, a new Actæon, who after he assumed the horns,
Himself gave himself a prey to his own dogs.”
The device is graphically drawn: Actæon is in part embruted; he is fleeing with the dogs close upon him. Supposing Shakespeare to have seen this print, it represents to the life Pistol’s words in the Merry Wives of Windsor (act ii. sc. 1, l. 106, vol. i. p. 186),—
“Prevent, or go thou,
Like Sir Actæon he, with Ringwood at thy heels.”