“Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake’s groan, I would invent as bitter-searching terms, As curst, as harsh and horrible to hear, Deliver’d strongly through my fixed teeth, With full as many signs of deadly hate, As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave.” _2 Hen. VI._, act iii. sc. 2, l. 310 “’tis greater skill In a true hate, to pray they have their will: The very devils cannot plague them better.” _Cymbeline_, act ii. sc. 5, l. 33 “Men that make Envy and crooked malice nourishment Dare bite the best.” _Hen. VIII._, act v. sc. 3, l. 43 “That monster envy.” _Pericles_, act iv. _Introd._, l. 12 The ill-famed Thersites, that railer of the Grecian camp, may close the array against “the hideous hagge with visage sterne” (_Troilus and Cressida_, act ii. sc. 3, l. 18, vol. vi. p. 169),— “I have said my prayers; and devil Envy say Amen.” The wrong done to the soul, through denying it at the last hour the consolations of religion, or through negligence in not informing it of its danger when severe illness arises, is set forth with true Shakespearean power in Holbein’s _Simulachres & Historiees faces de la Mort_ (Lyons, 1538), on sign. Nij,— “O si ceulx, qui font telles choses, scauoient le mal qu’ilz font, ilz ne cõmettroient iamais vne si grande faulte. Car de me oster mes biens, persecuter ma personne, denigrer ma renommée, ruyner ma maison, destruire mõ parẽtaige, scãdalizer ma famille, criminer ma vie, ces ouures sõt dũg cruel ennemy. Mais d’estre occasion, q̃ ie perde mõ ame, pour nõ la cõseiller au besoing, c’est vne oeuure dũg diable d’Enfer. Car pire est q̃ vng diable l’hõme, qui trompe le malade.” It is in a similar strain that Shakespeare in _Othello_ (act iii. sc. 3, lines 145 and 159, vol. viii. pp. 512, 513) speaks of the wrong done by keeping back confidence, and by countenancing calumny,— “_Oth._ Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think’st him wrong’d and mak’st his ear A stranger to thy thoughts. . . . . . . . . _Iago._ It were not for your quiet nor your good, Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom, To let you know my thoughts. _Oth._ What dost thou mean? _Iago._ Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.”