Note 413 — ACT II.

A very venomous little serpent. “A man or beast wounded with this serpent,” says Topsel in his Hist. of Serpents (ed. 1658, p. 699), “is afflicted with intolerable thirst, insomuch as it is easier for him to break his belly than to quench his thirst with drinking; always gaping like a bull, casteth himself down into the water and maketh no spare of the cold liquor, but continually sucketh it in till either the belly break or the poison drive out the life by overcoming the vital spirits.”