_Vel post mortem formidolosi_,—“Even after death to be dreaded,”—is the sentiment with which Alciatus (Emblem 170), and Whitney after him (p. 194), associate the noisy drum and the shrill-sounding horn; and thus the Emblem-classic illustrates his device,— “CÆTERA _mutescent, coriumq. silebit ouillum, Si confecta lupi tympana pelle sonent. Hanc membrana ouium sic exhorrescit, vt hostem Exanimis quamuis non ferat exanimem. Sic cute detracta Ziscas, in tympana versus, Boëmos potuit vincere Pontifices._” Literally rendered the Latin elegiacs declare,— “Other things will grow dumb, and the sheep-skin be silent, If drums made from the hide of a wolf should sound. Of this so sore afraid is the membrane of sheep, That though dead it could not bear its dead foe. So Zisca’s skin torn off, he, changed to a drum, The Bohemian chief priests was able to conquer.” These curious ideas Whitney adopts, and most lovingly enlarges,— “A Secret cause, that none can comprehende, In natures workes is often to bee seene; As, deathe can not the ancient discorde ende, That raigneth still, the wolfe and sheepe betweene; The like, beside in many thinges are knowne, The cause reueal’d, to none, but GOD alone. For, as the wolfe, the sillye sheepe did feare, And make him still to tremble, at his barke: So beinge dead, which is most straunge to heare, This feare remaynes, as learned men did marke; For with their skinnes, if that two drommes bee bounde, That, clad with sheepe, doth iarre; and hathe no sounde. And, if that stringes bee of their intrailes wroughte, And ioyned both, to make a siluer sounde: No cunninge care can tune them as they oughte, But one is harde, the other still is droun’de: Or discordes foule, the harmonie doe marre; And nothinge can appease this inward warre. So, ZISCA thoughte when deathe did shorte his daies, As with his voice, hee erste did daunte his foes; That after deathe hee shoulde new terror raise, And make them flee, as when they felte his bloes. Wherefore, hee charg’d that they his skinne shoulde frame, To fitte a dromme, and marche forth with the same. So, HECTORS sighte greate feare in Greekes did worke, When hee was showed on horsebacke, beeinge dead: HVNIADES, the terrour of the Turke, Thoughe layed in graue, yet at his name they fled: And cryinge babes, they ceased with the same, The like in FRANCE, sometime did TALBOTS name.” The cry[114] “A Talbot! a Talbot!” is represented by Shakespeare as sufficient in itself to make the French soldiers flee and leave their clothes behind; _1 Henry VI._ (act ii. sc. 1, l. 78, vol. v. p. 29),—