Very hesitatingly I venture to express dissent from Mr. Keightley's ingenious suggestion of a change of meaning in the proverb "Tread on a worm and it will turn." I support my dissent, however, by the following lines from Shakspeare:
"Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting?
Not he that sets his foot upon her back.
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on;
And doves will peck in safe-guard of their brood."
Third Part of King Henry VI., Act II. Sc. 2.
King Henry says, Withhold revenge, dear God!
Clifford replies, The lion, the bear, the serpent, the smallest worm, and doves, if injured, will make an effort at revenge or defence. It is clear that Shakspeare uses the word worm as meaning, not a venomous serpent, but the most defenceless of reptiles.
Again, I do not think that Mr. Keightley's quotation from Schiller's Wallenstein's Tod supports his view. I am not a German scholar, but I find that the translator of Wallenstein's Tod (I believe Lord Ellesmere) has translated or paraphrased the lines quoted by Mr. Keightley as follows:
"But nature gave the very worm a sting,