t?"

In another part of the same play (iv. 4) the epithet "bottled" is again
applied in a similar manner by Queen Elizabeth:

"That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad!"

Ritson, on these two passages, has the following remarks on the term,
bottled spider: "A large, bloated, glossy spider, supposed to contain
venom proportionate to its size."

The origin of the silvery threads of gossamer which are so frequently
seen extending from bush to bush was formerly unknown. Spenser, for
instance, speaks of them as "scorched dew;" and Thomson, in his
"Autumn," mentions "the filmy threads of dew evaporate;" which probably,
says Mr. Patterson,[581] refers to the same object. The gossamer is now,
however, known to be the production of a minute spider. It is twice
mentioned by Shakespeare, but not in connection with the little being
from which it originates. One of the passages is in "Romeo and Juliet"
(ii. 6):

"A lover may bestride the gossamer
That idles in the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall; so light is vanity."

[581] "Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare," 1841, p. 220.

The other occurs in "King Lear" (iv. 6), where Edgar accosts his father,
after his supposed leap from that

"cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully in the confined deep."

He says:

"Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
So many fathom down precipitating,
Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg."

In each case it is expressive of extreme lightness. Nares, in his
"Glossary" (vol. i. p. 378), considers that the term "gossamer"
originally came from the French _gossampine_, the cotton-tree, and is
equivalent to cotton-wool. He says that it also means any light, downy
matter, such as the flying seeds of thistles and other plants, and, in
poetry, is not unfrequently used to denote the long, floating cobwebs
seen in fine weather. In the above passage from "King Lear" he thinks it
has the original sense, and in the one from "Romeo and Juliet" probably
the last. Some are of opinion that the word is derived from _goss_, the
gorse or furze.[582] In Germany the popular belief attributes the
manufacture of the gossamer to the dwarfs and elves. Of King Oberon, it
may be remembered, we are told,

"A rich mantle he did wear,
Made of tinsel gossamer,
Bestarred over with a few
Diamond drops of morning dew."

[582] See Croker's "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South