There shall be done a deed of dreadful note.”
Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 2.
In a printed broadside of the time of Queen Anne, in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London, is the following curious fable relating to the Bat:—
“615. The Birds and Beasts. A Fable.
“Once the Birds and Beasts strove for the prerogative: the neuter Batt, seeing the Beasts prevail, goes to them and shows them her large forehead, long ears, and teeth: afterwards, when the Birds prevail’d, the Batt flies with the Birds, and sings chit, chit, chat, and shows them her wings.
“Hence Beakless Bird, hence Winged Beast, they cry’d;
Hence plumeless wings; thus scorn her either side.
“London. Printed for Edw. Lewis,
Flower-de-Luce Court, Fleet Street. 1710.”
In alluding to the “venom toad” as “mark’d by the destinies to be avoided,” Shakespeare probably only treated it as other writers had done before him, and, without any personal investigation of the matter, ranked it with the viper and other poisonous reptiles, when in fact it is perfectly harmless.
The habit which the snake has, in common with other reptiles, of periodically casting its skin or slough, is frequently alluded to in the Plays, where that covering is sometimes called “the enamell’d skin” (Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act ii. Sc. 1); at other times the “casted slough” (Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1, and Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4); and the “shining checker’d slough” (Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1).
It is difficult to say why the Adder is supposed to be deaf, unless because it has no visible ears—but then the term would apply to other reptiles. Shakespeare has several times alluded to this. In the Second Part of King Henry VI. Act iii. Sc. 2, Queen Margaret asks the King,—
“What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?”
And in Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2, Hector says to Paris and Troilus,—
“Pleasure and revenge