Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard.”
Immediately references follow to other fables, or to their pictorial representations,—
“I’ll smoke your skin-coat, an I catch you right:”
in allusion to the fable of the fox or the ass hunting in a lion’s skin. Again (l. 141),—
“Blanch. O, well did he become that lion’s robe
That did disrobe the lion of that robe.
Bast. It lies as sightly on the back of him
As great Alcides’ shows upon an ass:”
a sentiment evidently suggested to the poet’s mind by some device or emblem in which the incongruity had found a place. Farther research might clear up this and other unexplained allusions in Shakespeare to fables or proverbs; but there is no necessity for attempting this in every instance that occurs.
“Friendship enduring even after death,” might receive a variety of illustrations. The conjugal relation of life frequently exemplifies its truth; and occasionally there are friends who show still more strongly how death hallows the memory of the departed, and makes survivors all the more faithful in their love. As the emblem of such fidelity and affection Alciat (Emb. 159) selects the figures of the elm and the vine.[[143]]