"I will tell it softly; Yond crickets shall not hear it."
_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."
[570] See Patterson's "Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare," 1841, pp. 104, 105.
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]
[571] "Linnæan Transactions," vol. xv. p. 407; cf. Virgil's "Georgics," iii. l. 148.
_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!"
Mr. Staunton regards this passage as an exquisite touch of nature. "The old nurse," he says, "in her fond garrulity, uses 'lady-bird' as a term of endearment; but, recollecting its application to a female of loose manners, checks herself--'God forbid!' her darling should prove such a one." Mr. Dyce,[572] however, considers this explanation incorrect, and gives the subjoined note: "The nurse says that she has already bid Juliet come; she then calls out, 'What, lamb! What, lady-bird!' and Juliet not yet making her appearance, she exclaims, 'God forbid! Where's this girl?' The words 'God forbid' being properly an ellipsis of 'God forbid that any accident should keep her away,' but used here merely as an expression of impatience."