d's head
off; he did so, but in a few hours his lips, tongue, and throat began to
swell in a most alarming way, and he was dangerously ill for some
time."

[584] See "Notes and Queries," 6th series, vol. v. pp. 32, 173:
also, Gilbert White's "Natural History of Selborne," letter xvii.

Owing to the supposed highly venomous character of the toad,
"superstition," says Pennant,[585] "gave it preternatural powers, and
made it a principal ingredient in the incantations of nocturnal hags."
Thus, in Macbeth (iv. 1), the witch says:

"Toad that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot."

[585] "Zoology," 1766, vol. iii. p. 15.

Pennant adds that this was intended "for a design of the first
consideration, that of raising and bringing before the eyes of Macbeth a
hateful second-sight of the prosperity of Banquo's line. This shows the
mighty power attributed to this animal by the dealers in the magic art."

The evil spirit, too, has been likened by one of our master bards to the
toad, as a semblance of all that is devilish and disgusting ("Paradise
Lost," iv. 800):

"Him they found,
Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,
Assaying with all his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy."

In "Macbeth" (i. 1), the paddock or toad is made the name of a familiar
spirit:

"Paddock[586] calls.--Anon!"

[586] Cf. "Hamlet," iii. 4; here paddock is used for a toad.

_Wasp._ So easily, we are told,[587] is the wrathful temperament of this
insect aroused, that extreme irascibility can scarcely be better
expressed than by the term "waspish." It is in this sense that
Shakespeare has applied the epithet, "her waspish-headed son," in the
"Tempest" (iv. 1), where we are told that Cupid is resolved to be a boy
outright. Again, in "As You Like It" (iv. 3), Silvius says:

"I know not the contents; but, as I guess
By the stern brow and waspish action
Which she did use as she was writing of it,
It bears an angry tenor."

[587] Patterson's "Insects Mentioned by Shakespeare," 1841, p. 137.

Again, in the "Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1), Petruchio addresses his
intended spouse in language not highly complimentary:

"_Pet._ Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.

_Kath._ If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

_Pet._ My remedy is, then, to plu