Ben Jonson's Alchemist having taken gold from Abel Drugger, the Tobacco Man, for the device of a sign — 'a good lucky one, a thriving sign' — will give him nothing so commonplace as a sign copied from the constellation he was born under, but says:
| Subtle | He shall have a bel, that's Abel; And by it standing one whose name is Dee In a rug grown, there's D and rug, that's Drug: And right anenst him a dog snarling er, There's Drugger, Abel Drugger. That's his sign. And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic. |
| Face | Abel, thou art made. |
| Drugger | Sir, I do thank his worship. |
Bel, in the apocryphal addition to the
Book of Daniel
, called
the History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon.