A certain learned Pen, makes this Remark upon _Cleopatra_’s Case, _viz._ that she was not bit by an _Asp_, as some have asserted, but did that which was more secret and sure; that is, after she had bit her own Arm, infused Poison into the Wound, expressed before-hand from an _Asp_ by Irritation, and preserved in a Phial for that purpose: Or, as _Dio_ says, she wounded her Arm with a Needle, or Dressing-pin, and then poured the Poison into the bleeding Wound. This seems probable, because no Serpent was found in her Chamber or near it. The _Queen_, in order to find the most easy Passage out of this Life, made an Experiment upon Criminals by various kinds of Poison, and Application of diverse sorts of Serpents, and found nothing came up to _Aspick Poison_, which throws Persons into a pleasant Sleep, in which they die[122]. Footnote 122: _Plutarch_’s _Lives of Marc Anton._ and _Cleopatra_, and _Fr. Redi Nobilis Aretini Experiment_. p. 170, -1, -2, -3. _Obj._ If it be said, that in the Triumphs of _Augustus_, Queen _Cleopatra_ is _drawn with an Asp in her Hand_: I answer, That I apprehend that Device might only be _Pictorial-Licence_, or a Flourish of the Painter to affect the People, by _displaying the Heroism_ of a Woman, who to prevent the Disgrace of Captivity, _embraced Death at the hands of a Serpent_, a terrible Creature, to which none has so great an Aversion as the female Sex. Excuse a poetick Digression. On the ASP and its POISON. ——_Welcome thou kind Deceiver, Thou best of Thieves! who with an easy Key Dost open Life, and unperceiv’d by us, Even steal us from our selves; discharging so, Death’s dreadful Office, better than himself. Touching our Limbs so gently into Slumber, That Death stands by, deceiv’d by its own Image, And thinks himself asleep[123]._—— Footnote 123: _Dryden_, _All for Love_. Some are of Opinion, that the _Asp_ is _David_’s _deaf Adder_, Psal. lviii. 45. _They are like the deaf Adder that stops her Ear, which will not hearken to the Voice of Charmers, charming never so wisely._ They are like the _deaf Asp_, says the _Hebrew_ and the _Septuagint_. The word in the Original is [124] _Pethen_, q. d. _Unpersuadedness_; hence, wicked Men are called Απειθεις in the _New Test._ unpersuadable, which the _English_ Translation renders _Disobedient_, Tit. i. 16. Footnote 124: פתן . ωσουι ασπιδος κωφης. The common Tradition is, that when Men by Inchantments and Charms have attempted to take these Serpents, they stopt one Ear with the Tail, and the other was either deaf, or made so by laying it close to the Ground. Some are of Opinion, that there is a sort of _Asp_ that really is deaf, which of all others is the most dangerous, and is meant by the _Royal Prophet_ here.