Frog. In the “Two Noble Kinsmen” (iii. 4), the Gaoler’s Daughter says:
“Would I could find a fine frog! he would tell me
News from all parts o’ the world; then would I make
A carack of a cockle-shell, and sail
By east and north-east to the King of Pigmies,
For he tells fortunes rarely.”
In days gone by frogs were extensively used for the purpose of divination.
Gad-fly. A common name for this fly is the “brize” or “breese,”[570] an allusion to which occurs in “Troilus and Cressida” (i. 3), where Nestor, speaking of the sufferings which cattle endure from this insect, says:
“The herd hath more annoyance by the breese
Than by the tiger.”
And in “Antony and Cleopatra” (iii. 10) Shakespeare makes the excited Scarus draw a comparison between the effect which this insect produces on a herd of cattle and the abruptness and sudden frenzy of Cleopatra’s retreat from the naval conflict:
“Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt,
Whom leprosy o’ertake! i’ the midst o’ the fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appear’d,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,—
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,—
Hoists sails, and flies.”
It is said that the terror this insect causes in cattle proceeds solely from the alarm occasioned by “a peculiar sound it emits while hovering for the purpose of oviposition.”[571]
Lady-bird. This is used in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 3) as a term of endearment. Lady Capulet having inquired after her daughter Juliet, the Nurse replies:
“I bade her come. What, lamb! What, lady-bird!
God forbid! Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!”