J. B. WHITBORNE.
Cynthia's Dragon-yoke (Vol. v., p. 297.).
—For the satisfaction of your Boston correspondent H. T. P., I have been unable to find anything but the following note from Bishop Newton's edition of Milton's works:—
"Dragon-yoke.—This office is attributed to dragons on account of their watchfulness."
So Shakspeare, in Cymbeline, Act II. Sc. 2.:
"Swift, swift, you dragons of the night."
And in Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. 14.:
"The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth."
Milton has somewhat of the same thought again in his Latin poem, In Obitum Præsulis Eliensis:
"Longeque sub pedibus deam