The sentiment is the same as that of the proverb in the motto which Lebeus-Batillius prefixes to his 18th Emblem (edition 1596), “Qvibvs rebvs confidimvs, iis maxime evertimvs,”—To whatever things we trust, by them chiefly are we overthrown. The subject is Milo caught in the cleft of the tree which he had riven by his immense strength; he is held fast, and devoured by wolves.
The application of Beza’s Emblem is made by Hamlet (act iii. sc. 4, l. 205, vol. viii. p. 117), during the long interview with his mother, just after he had said,—
“No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house’s top,[[152]]
Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.”
Then speaking of his plot and of the necessity which marshals him to knavery, he adds,—
“Let it work;
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer