A boy is then introduced, who sings a song upon the fish, commencing with these lines:
"We show no monstrous crocodile,
Nor any prodigy of Nile;"[389:A]
which again alludes to the monster-loving propensities of good Queen Bess's subjects; for Batman in his work upon Bartholome, published in 1582, says,—"Of late years there hath been brought into England, the cases or skinnes of such crocodiles, to be seene, and much money given for the sight thereof; the policy of strangers," he adds, in the spirit of Shakspeare, "laugh at our folly, either that we are too wealthy, or else that we know not how to bestow our money[389:B];" and Bullokar, in his English Expositor of 1616, confirms the charge by telling us, that a dead crocodile, "but in perfect forme," and nine feet long, had lately been exhibited in London, a fact to which he annexes the following tradition:—"It is written," he remarks, "that he will weep over a man's head when he hath devoured the body, and then he will eat up the head too. Wherefore—crocodiles tears signifie such tears as are fained, and spent only with intent to deceive or doe harme."[389:C] Of this superstition Shakspeare has made a poetical use in two of his dramas: Margaret in Henry VI. Part 2. complains that Gloucester beguiles the king,
—————— "as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers:"[389:D]
and Othello, execrating the supposed duplicity of Desdemona, exclaims,
"If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile."[389:E]
Many superstitions relative to the Dying, existed at this time, among all ranks of people, and a few of these have been preserved by our poet. One of the most general was built on the belief, that Satan, or some of his infernal host, watched the death-bed of every individual, and, if impenitence or irreligion appeared, immediately took possession of the soul. The death-scene of Cardinal Beaufort is an admirable exemplification of this appalling idea; Henry is appealing to the Almighty in behalf of the agonised sinner, and utters the following pious petition:—