He’ll soon find means to make the body follow.”
The bird in borrowed plumes, or the Jackdaw dressed out in Peacock’s feathers, was presented, in 1596, on a simple device, not necessary to be produced, with the motto, “Qvod sis esse velis,”—Be willing to be what thou art.
“Mutatis de te narratur fabula verbis,
Qui ferre alterius parta labore ſtudes.”
i.e.
“By a change in the words of thyself the fable is told,
Who by labour of others dost seek to bear off the gold.”
It is in the Third Century of the Symbols and Emblems of Joachim Camerarius (No. 81), and by him is referred to Æsop,[[145]] Horace, &c.; and the recently published Microcosm, the 1579 edition of which contains Gerard de Jode’s fine representation of the scene.
Shakespeare was familiar with the fable. In 2 Henry VI. (act iii. sc. 1, l. 69, vol. v. p. 153), out of his simplicity the king affirms,—
“Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent