on in some parts of Italy, and also in
China. Mr. Douce has given a curious print, from an elegant Chinese
miniature painting, which represents some ladies engaged at this
amusement, where the quails are actually inhooped.

[308] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 367.

[309] Marsden's "History of Sumatra," 1811, p. 276.

_Raven._ Perhaps no bird is so universally unpopular as the raven, its
hoarse croak, in most countries, being regarded as ominous. Hence, as
might be expected, Shakespeare often refers to it, in order to make the
scene he depicts all the more vivid and graphic. In "Titus Andronicus"
(ii. 3), Tamora, describing "a barren detested vale," says:

"The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe:
Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven."

And in "Julius Caesar" (v. 1), Cassius tells us how ravens

"Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us,
As we were sickly prey."[310]

[310] Cf. "2 Henry VI." iii. 2; "Troilus and Cressida," v. 2.

It seems that the superstitious dread[311] attaching to this bird has
chiefly arisen from its supposed longevity,[312] and its frequent
mention and agency in Holy Writ. By the Romans it was consecrated to
Apollo, and was believed to have a prophetic knowledge--a notion still
very prevalent. Thus, its supposed faculty[313] of "smelling death"
still renders its presence, or even its voice, ominous. Othello (iv. 1)
exclaims,

"O, it comes o'er my memory,
As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all."

[311] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. pp. 211, 212.

[312] "English Folk-lore," 1878, p. 78.

[313] See Hunt's "Popular Romances of West of England," 1881, p. 380.

There is no doubt a reference here to the fanciful notion that it was a
constant attendant on a house infected with the plague. Most readers,
too, are familiar with that famous passage in "Macbeth" (i. 5) where
Lady Macbeth, having heard of the king's intention to stay at the
castle, exclaims,

"the raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty!"

We may compare Spenser's language in the "Fairy Quee