will recognize in it an excellent illustration to the following passage:—
“I’ the world’s volume
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in ’t;
In a great pool, a swan’s nest.”
Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4.
For the purpose of comparison, Shakespeare has found the swan very useful in metaphor.
Benvolio, referring to Rosaline, says,—
“Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.”
Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 2.