“By a change in the words of thyself the fable is told, Who by labour of others dost seek to bear off the gold.” It is in the _Third_ Century of the Symbols and Emblems of Joachim Camerarius (No. 81), and by him is referred to Æsop,[145] Horace, &c.; and the recently published _Microcosm_, the 1579 edition of which contains Gerard de Jode’s fine representation of the scene. Shakespeare was familiar with the fable. In _2 Henry VI._ (act iii. sc. 1, l. 69, vol. v. p. 153), out of his simplicity the king affirms,— “Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent From meaning treason to our royal person As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove.” But Margaret, his strong-willed queen, remarks (l. 75),— “Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrow’d, For he’s disposed as the hateful raven. Is he a lamb? his skin is surely lent him, For he’s inclined as is the ravenous wolf.” In _Julius Cæsar_ (act i. sc. 1, l. 68, vol. vii. p. 322), Flavius, the tribune, gives the order,— “Let no images Be hung with Cæsar’s trophies;” and immediately adds (l. 72),— “These growing feathers pluck’d from Cæsar’s wing Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, Who else would soar above the view of men And keep us all in servile fearfulness.” But more forcibly is the spirit of the fable expressed, when of Timon of Athens (act ii. sc. 1, l. 28, vol. vii. p. 228) a Senator, who was one of his importunate creditors, declares,— “I do fear, When every feather sticks in his own wing, Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, Which flashes now a phœnix.” The fable of the Oak and the Reed, or, the Oak and the Osier, has an early representation in the Emblems of Hadrian Junius, Antwerp, 1565, though by him it is applied to the ash. “Εἴξας νικᾶ,” or, _Victrix animi equitas_,—“By yielding conquer,” or, “Evenness of mind the victrix,”—are the sentiments to be pictured forth and commented on. The device we shall take from Whitney; but the comment of Junius runs thus (p. 49),— “_Ad Victorem Giselinum._” “Vis Boreæ obnixas violento turbine sternit Ornos: Arundo infracta eandem despicit. Fit victor patiens animus cedendo furori: Insiste, Victor, hanc viam & re, & nomine.” [Sidenote: _i.e._] “The stout ash trees, with violent whirl The North-wind’s force is stretching low; The reeds unbroken rise again And still in full vigour grow. Yielding to rage, the patient mind Victor becomes with added fame; That course, my Victor, thou pursue Reality, as well as name.”