Whitney (p. 51) adopts motto, device, and meaning,—
“The Hippocrites, that make so great a showe,
Of Sanctitie, and of Religion sounde,
Are shaddowes meere, and with out substance goe,
And beinge tri’de, are but dissemblers founde.
Theise are compar’de, vnto the Ostriche faire,
Whoe spreades her winges, yet sealdome tries the aire.”
A different application is made in 1 Henry IV. (act iv. sc. 1, l. 97, vol. iv. p. 317), yet the figure of the bird with outstretching wings would readily supply the comparison employed by Vernon while speaking to Hotspur of “the nimbled-footed madcap Prince of Wales, and his comrades,”—
“All furnish’d, all in arms;
All plumed like estridges that with the wind