With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen,
Drop on you both!”
Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2.
Here “wicked” may be taken to mean pernicious or destructive—the antonym being “virtuous,” as in the expression “the virtuous properties of plants.” A bad sore is described, in an old tract on hawking (Harl. MS. 2,340), as “a wykked felone.”
A BLACK CHARACTER.
As the type of blackness, both as regards colour and character, we find the raven frequently contrasted with the white dove, the emblem of all that is pure and gentle.
“Who will not change a raven for a dove?”
Midsummer Nights Dream, Act ii. Sc. 2.
“I’ll sacrifice the lamb that I do love,
To spite a raven’s heart within a dove.”