“No state so sure, no seate within this life But that maie fall, thoughe longe the same haue stoode: Here fauninge foes, here fained frendes are rife. With pickthankes, blabbes, and subtill Sinons broode, Who when wee truste, they worke our ouerthrowe, And vndermine the grounde, wheron wee goe. The Olephant so huge, and stronge to see, No perill fear’d: but thought a sleepe to gaine But foes before had vndermin’de the tree, And downe he falles, and so by them was slaine: First trye, then truste: like goulde, the copper showes: And NERO ofte, in NVMAS clothinge goes.” Freitag’s “MYTHOLOGIA ETHICA,” pp. 176, 177, sets forth the well-known fable of the Countryman and the Viper, which after receiving warmth and nourishment attempted to wound its benefactor. The motto is,— _Maleficio beneficium compensatum_,— “A good deed recompensed by maliciousness.” [Illustration: _Freitag, 1579._] “_Qui reddit mala pro bonis, non recedet malum de domo eius._”—_Prouerb_, 17, 13. “Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.” Nicolas Reusner, also, edition Francfort, 1581, bk. ii. p. 81, has an Emblem on this subject, and narrates the whole fable,— _Merces anguina_,—“Reward from a serpent.” “Frigore confectum quem rusticus inuenit anguem Imprudens fotum recreat ecce sinu. Immemor hic miserum lethale sauciat ictu: Reddidit hìc vitam; reddidit ille necem. Si benefacta locis malè, simplex mente, bonusq.: Non benefacta quidem, sed malefacta puta. Ingratis seruire nefas, gratisq. nocere: Quod benè fit gratis, hoc solet esse lucro.”[111] In several instances in his historical plays, Shakespeare very expressly refers to this fable. On hearing that some of his nobles had made peace with Bolingbroke, in _Richard II._ (act. iii. sc. 2, l. 129, vol. iv. p. 168), the king exclaims,— “O villains, vipers, damn’d without redemption! Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man! Snakes, in my heart blood warm’d that sting my heart!” In the same drama (act. v. sc. 3, l. 57, vol. iv. p. 210) York urges Bolingbroke,— “Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove, A serpent that will sting thee to the heart.” And another, bearing the name of York, in _2 Henry VI._ (act. iii. sc. 1, l. 343, vol. v. p. 162), declares to the nobles,— “I fear me, you but warm the starved snake, Who, cherish’d in your breasts, will sting your hearts.” Also Hermia, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (act. ii. sc. 2, l. 145, vol. ii. p. 225), when awakened from her trance-like sleep, calls on her beloved,— “Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast.”