it has been long ago pointed out, is founded upon that of Shakspeare,
"For wrens make wing where eagles dare not perch."
I know not why that line of Pope is in your correspondent's list. It is not a proverb.
C.B.
Allusion in Friar Brackley's Sermon (Vol. i., p. 351.)—It seems vain to inquire who the persons were of whom stories were told in medieval books, as if they were really historical. See the Gesta Romanorum, for instance: or consider who the Greek king Aulix was, having dealings with the king of Syria, in the 7th Story of the Novelle Antiche. The passage in the sermon about a Greek king, seems plainly to be still part of the extract from the Liber Decalogorum, being in Latin. This book was perhaps the Dialogi decem, put into print at Cologne in 1472: Brunet.
C.B.
Earwig (Vol. i., p. 383.).—This insect is very destructive to the petals of some kinds of delicate flowers. May it not have acquired the title of "couchbell" from its habit of couching or concealing itself for rest at night and security from small birds, of which it is a favourite food, in the pendent blossoms of bell-shaped flowers? This habit is often fatal to it in the gardens of cottagers, who entrap it by means of a lobster's claw suspended on an upright stick.
S.S.S.
Earwig (Vol. i., p. 383.).—In the north of England the earwig is called twitchbell. I know not whether your correspondent is in error as to its being called in Scotland the "coach-bell." I cannot afford any explanation to either of these names.
G. Bouchier Richardson.