"here, here will I remain.
With worms that are thy chambermaids."
The word is most usually employed to denote the larva of some species of insect. Thus when Hamlet, after speaking of the "convocation of politic worms," says "your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots;" we perceive at once that the words "worm" and "maggots" apply to one and the same thing, namely, the larvæ of the flesh-flies. Every one will call to mind another example, in the celebrated scene where Othello demands " the handkerchief."
"The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk."
In other instances, however, the word is applied either to the serpent, or to some species of venomous reptile.
"Were there a serpent seen with forked tongue,
That slily glided towards your majesty,
It were but necessary you were wak'd,
Lest, being suffered in that harmful slumber,
The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal."
2nd part K. Henry VI. Act iii. Scene ii.
Again, when Hermia, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, reproaches Demetrius for the supposed murder of Lysander, she asks—
"And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder do so much?
An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung."
Act iii. Scene ii.
Cleopatra employs the word to designate the asp, for she enquires of the countryman who had brought it —
"Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there,
That kills and pains not?"
Act v. Scene ii.
On one occasion the peculiar malignity of the "worm" is indicated by the term "viperous."
"Civil dissension is a viperous worm
That gnaws the bowels of the Commonwealth."
1st part K. Henry VI. Act iii. Scene ii.
3, College Square North, Belfast.
(To be continued).
