And very admirably does Whitney (p. 87) apply the sentiment to one of the most eminent of divines in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,—namely, to Dr. Alexander Nowell, the celebrated Dean of St. Paul’s, illustrious both for his learning and his example,— “The Pellican, for to reuiue her younge, Doth peirce her brest, and geue them of her blood: Then searche your breste, and as yow haue with tonge, With penne proceede to doe our countrie good: Your zeale is great, your learning is profounde, Then helpe our wantes, with that you doe abounde.” The full poetry of the thoughts thus connected with the Pelican is taken in, though but briefly expressed by Shakespeare. In _Hamlet_ (act iv. sc. 5, l. 135, vol. viii. p. 135), on Laertes determining to seek revenge for his father’s death, the king adds fuel to the flame,— “_King._ Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your revenge, That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser? _Laer._ None but his enemies. _King._ Will you know them then? _Laer._ To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms; And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.”[167] From _Richard II._ (act ii. sc. 1, l. 120, vol. iv. p. 140) we learn how in zeal and true loyalty John of Gaunt counsels his headstrong nephew, and how rudely the young king replies,— “Now, by my seat’s right royal majesty, Wert thou not brother to great Edward’s son, This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders. _Gaunt._ O, spare me not, my brother Edward’s son, For that I was his father Edward’s son; That blood already, like the pelican, Hast thou tapp’d out and drunkenly caroused.” The idea, indeed, almost supposes that the young pelicans strike at the breasts of the old ones, and forcibly or thoughtlessly drain their life out. So it is in _King Lear_ (act iii. sc. 4, l. 68, vol. viii. p. 342), when the old king exclaims,— “Death, traitor! nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! ’twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters.” And again (_2 Henry VI._, act iv. sc. 1, l. 83, vol. v. p. 182), in the words addressed to Suffolk,— “By devilish policy art thou grown great, And, like ambitious Sylla, over-gorged With gobbets of thy mother’s bleeding heart.”