Shakespeare is scarcely more sparing in this respect than the Cheshire Emblematist; he mentions for us “golden tresses of the dead,” “golden oars and a silver stream,” “the glory, that in gold clasps locks in the golden story,” “a golden casket,” “a golden bed,” and “a golden mind.” _Merchant of Venice_ (act ii. sc. 7, lines 20 and 58, vol. ii. p. 312),— “A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross. . . . . . . But here an angel in a golden bed Lies all within.” And applied direct to Cupid’s artillery in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (act i. sc. 1, l. 168, vol. ii. p. 204), Hermia makes fine use of the epithet golden,— “My good Lysander! I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head.” So in _Twelfth Night_ (act i. sc. 1, l. 33, vol. iii. p. 224), Orsino, Duke of Milan, speaks of Olivia,— “O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame To pay the debt of love but to a brother, How will she love, when the rich golden shaft Hath kill’d the flock of all affections else That live in her; when liver, brain and heart These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill’d Her sweet perfections with one self king!” And when Helen praised the complexion or comeliness of Troilus above that of Paris, Cressida avers (_Troilus and Cressida_, act i. sc. 2, l. 100, vol. vi. p. 134),— “I had as lief Helen’s golden tongue had commended Troilus for a copper nose.” _Plate 14_ THEATRVM VITÆ HVMANÆ. CAPVT I. _VITA HVMANA EST TANQVAM_ _Theatrum omnium miſeriarum._ [Illustration: _Life as a Theatre, from Boissards Theatrum 1596._] _Vita hominis tanquam circus, vel grande theatrum est: Quod tragici ostentat cuncta referta metus. Hoc laſciva caro, peccatum, morsſque, Satanque Triſti hominem vexant, exagitantque modo._ As Whitney’s pictorial illustration represents them, Death and Cupid are flying in mid-air, and discharging their arrows from the clouds. Confining the description to Cupid, this is exactly the action in one of the scenes of the _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (act ii. sc. 1, l. 155, vol. ii. p. 216). The passage was intended to flatter Queen Elizabeth; it is Oberon who speaks,—