Doth peirce her brest, and geue them of her blood:
Then searche your breste, and as yow haue with tonge,
With penne proceede to doe our countrie good:
Your zeale is great, your learning is profounde,
Then helpe our wantes, with that you doe abounde.”
The full poetry of the thoughts thus connected with the Pelican is taken in, though but briefly expressed by Shakespeare. In Hamlet (act iv. sc. 5, l. 135, vol. viii. p. 135), on Laertes determining to seek revenge for his father’s death, the king adds fuel to the flame,—
“King. Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge,
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,