act v. sc. 2, l. 48, vol. iv. p. 596) to war, are also to be attributed

to the negligence which war creates,—

“The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover, Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, Losing both beauty and utility.”

Another instance we may give of that Emblem spirit, which often occurs in Shakespeare, and at the same time we may supply an example of Freitag’s method of illustrating a subject, and of appending to it a scriptural quotation. (See _Mythologia Ethica_, Antwerp, 1579, p. 29.) The instance is from _King Lear_, act ii. sc. 4, l. 61, vol. viii. p. 317, and the subject, _Contraria industriæ ac desidiæ præmia_—“The opposite rewards of industry and slothfulness.”

When Lear had arrived at the Earl of Gloster’s castle, Kent inquires,—

“How chance the king comes with so small a train?

_Fool._ An thou hadst been set i’ the stocks for that question, thou hadst well deserv’d it.

_Gent._ Why, fool?

_Fool._ We’ll set thee to school to an ant to teach thee there’s no labouring in the winter.”

That school we have presented to us in Freitag’s engraving (see woodcut on next page), and in the stanzas of Whitney, p. 159. There are the ne’er-do-well grasshopper and the sage schoolmaster of an ant, propounding, we may suppose, the wise saying, _Dum ætatis ver agitur: consule brumæ_,—“While the spring of life is passing, consult for winter,”—and the poet moralizes thus:

“IN winter coulde, when tree, and bushe, was bare, And frost had nip’d the rootes of tender grasse: The antes, with ioye did feede vpon their fare, Which they had stor’de, while sommers season was: To whome, for foode the grashopper did crie, And said she staru’d, if they did helpe denie.

Whereat, an ante, with longe experience wise? And frost, and snowe, had manie winters seene: Inquired, what in sommer was her guise. Quoth she, I songe, and hop’t in meadowes greene: Then quoth the ante, content thee with thy chaunce, For to thy songe, nowe art thou light to daunce?”

Contraria induſtriae ac deſidiæ præmia.

_Propter frigus piger arare noluit: mendicabit ergo æſtate, & non dabitur illi._

_Prouerb. 20, 4._

“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.”

Freitag’s representation makes indeed a change in the season at which the “ante, with longe experience wise,” administers her reproof; but it is equally the school for learning in the time of youth and strength, to provide for the infirmities of age and the adversities of fortune.

And more than similar in spirit to the Emblem writers which preceded, almost emblems themselves, are the whole scenes from the _Merchant of Venice_, act ii. sc. 7 and 9, and act iii. sc. 2, where are introduced the three caskets of gold, of silver, and of lead, by the choice of which the fate of Portia is to be determined,[90]—

“The first, of gold, who this inscription bears, ‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire;’ The second, silver, which this promise carries, ‘Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves;’ This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt, ‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’”