Vast confusion waits, As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast, The imminent decay of wrested pomp.[138] With less justice, the bird has also been credited with savageness of disposition――a character which Shakespeare has sometimes attributed to persons who may outwardly seem to be gentle and kindly. These are said to have “a raven’s heart within a dove.”[139] Juliet expands the simile―― Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st.[140] Yet there was a belief that the Raven can show a wholly different nature: Some say that ravens foster forlorn children, The whilst their own birds famish in their nests.[141] The Raven comes into one of the Scriptural allusions in the Plays where the faithful old Adam, pressing upon Orlando the thrifty savings of his lifetime, consoles himself with the prayer He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age![142] But the most frequent reference made by Shakespeare to this bird has regard to its supposed boding power. It is called the “fatal raven.” A messenger of ill news is said to “sing a raven’s note.” When Othello has the first suspicions craftily suggested to him by Iago, he exclaims O, it comes o’er my memory, As doth the raven o’er the infected house, Boding to all.[143] Again, when the king is approaching the Castle at Inverness, we hear from Lady Macbeth the ominous words: The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements.[144] [Illustration: THE MALLARD] [Sidenote: _The Crows_] Under the general name of CROWS Shakespeare seems to group the Carrion Crow, the Hooded Crow and the Rook, though the last-named is plainly distinguished in the description of evening when Macbeth tells his wife Light thickens, and the crow Makes wing to the rocky wood.[145] Like the Raven, the Crows are often contrasted with something pure and white. Thus, in a striking simile, we learn that The ornament of beauty is suspect, A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air.[146] The simile is sometimes reversed, as where Romeo, on seeing Juliet for the first time, exclaims: Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.[147] Although it is usually with the dove that the contrast is drawn, another bird is sometimes chosen: The crow may bathe his coal-black wings in mire, And unperceiv’d fly with the filth away; But if the like the snow-white swan desire, The stain upon his silver down will stay.[148] Again, when Benvolio presses Romeo to come with him to Capulet’s feast, where he will see his Rosaline among the admired beauties of Verona, he challenges him, “with unattainted eye,” to