[93] _Hamlet_, IV. v. 142. [94] _Lear_, III. iv. 71. [95] _Macbeth_, V. iii. 11. [96] IV. vi. 17. [97] II. iii. 82. [98] Thus in the song of the “Ewie wi’ the crooked horn” the knave that did the mischief is thus maledicted: O had I but the loon that did it, I hae sworn as well as said it, Though the parson should forbid it I wad gie his neck a thraw. [99] _Hamlet_, IV. v. 40. [100] _Venus and Adonis_, 529. [101] _2 Henry VI._ I. iv. 16. [102] _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, V. ii. 899. [103] _3 Henry VI._ II. i. 130. [104] _Macbeth_, II. iv. 13. [105] _Macbeth_, II. ii. 2-4. [106] _Ibid._ II. iii. 57. [107] _Julius Caesar_, I. iii. 26. [108] _Richard II._ III. iii. 182. [109] _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, V. i. 364. Chaucer refers to “The oule that of dethe the bode bringeth.” _Parlement_, 343. [110] _Henry VI._ V. vi. 44. [111] _Macbeth_, IV. i. 17. [112] _Tempest_, V. i. 88. [113] _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, II. ii. 5. [114] II. ii. 188. [115] V. ii. 881. [116] _Merchant of Venice_, V. i. 110. [117] _1 Henry IV._ III. ii. 75. [118] _Anthony and Cleopatra_, II. vi. 28. [119] _Lucrece_, 848. [120] _1 Henry IV._ II. iv. 343. [121] _3 Henry VI._ I. iv. 61. [122] _Hamlet_, I. iii. 115. [123] _Twelfth Night_, II. v. 77. [124] _Winter’s Tale_, IV. iv. 727. [125] _Much Ado about Nothing_, II. i. 128. [126] _Othello_, I. iii. 379. In Shakespeare’s time the bird was also called snite, under which form it is referred to by his contemporary poet, Drayton, who speaks of The witless woodcock and his neighbour snite. The use of the word “snipe” as a disparaging epithet for an individual is not yet extinct in the north. [127] _Antony and Cleopatra_, II. iii. 34. [128] _Troilus and Cressida_, V. i. 48. [129] _Comedy of Errors_, IV. ii. 27. It was this instinct of deception that Chaucer had in mind when he wrote of “the false lapwing ful of trecherye.” _Parlement_, 347. [130] _Much Ado about Nothing_, III. i. 23. [131] _Measure for Measure_, I. iv. 31. [132] _1 Henry IV._ II. ii. 95. [133] _Antony and Cleopatra_, III. x. 19. [134] _Venus and Adonis_, 85. [135] _Sonnets_, CXXVII. [136] _Romeo and Juliet_, III. ii. 17. [137] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, II. ii. 113. [138] _King John_, IV. iii. 152. [139] _Twelfth Night_, V. i. 125. [140] _Romeo and Juliet_, III. ii. 75. [141] _Titus Andronicus_, II. iii. 153. [142] _As You Like It_, II. iii. 43. [143] _Othello_, IV. i. 20. [144] _Macbeth_, I. v. 35. [145] _Macbeth_, III. ii. 50. [146] _Sonnet_, lxx.