Note 92 — Chapter IV · THE KNOWLEDGE OF EMBLEM-BOOKS IN BRITAIN, AND GENERAL INDICATIONS THAT SHAKESPEARE WAS ACQUAINTED WITH THEM.
Reading edition
In the work of Joachim Camerarius, just quoted, at p. 152, to the motto, “Violentior exit,”—The more violent escapes, p. 99,—there is the device of Gnats and Wasps in a cobweb, with the stanza,—
“Innodat culicem, sed vespæ pervia tela est:
Sic rumpit leges vis, quibus hæret inops.”
“The gnat the web entangles, but to the wasp
Throughout is pervious; so force breaks laws,
To which the helpless is held bound in chains.”