ngendered
these worms, or that they were the offspring of putrefaction. In "1
Henry IV." (ii. 1), one of the carriers says: "Peas and beans are as
dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the
bots." And one of the misfortunes of the miserable nag of Petruchio
("Taming of the Shrew," iii. 2), is that he is so "begnawn with the
bots."

_Cricket._ The presence of crickets in a house has generally been
regarded as a good omen, and said to prognosticate cheerfulness and
plenty. Thus, Poins, in answer to the Prince's question in "1 Henry IV."
(ii. 4), "Shall we be merry?" replies, "As merry as crickets." By many
of our poets the cricket has been connected with cheerfulness and mirth.
Thus, in Milton, "Il Penseroso" desires to be

"Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the cricket on the hearth."

It has not always, however, been regarded in the same light, for Gay, in
his "Pastoral Dirge," among the rural prognostications of death, gives
the following:

"And shrilling crickets in the chimney cry'd."

And in Dryden's "OEdipus" occurs the subjoined:

"Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death."

Lady Macbeth, also ("Macbeth," ii. 2), in replying to the question of
her husband after the murder of Duncan, says:

"I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry."

In "Cymbeline" (ii. 2), also, when Iachimo, at midnight, commences his
survey of the chamber where Imogen lies sleeping, his first words refer
to the chirping of crickets, rendered all the more audible by the
repose which at that moment prevailed throughout the palace:

"The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense
Repairs itself by rest."

Gilbert White, in his "History of Selborne" (1853, p. 174), remarks that
"it is the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain; and
is prognostic, sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck, of the death
of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the
constant companion of her solitary home, it naturally becomes the object
of her superstition."[569]

[569] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. pp. 190, 191.

Its supposed keen sense of hearing is referred to in the "Winter's Tale"
(ii. 1) by Mamillius, who, on being asked by Hermione to tell a tale,
replies:

"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