Which may be thus englished; He makes the vulgar farre from him to stand, While Cockatrice alone raignes on the sand.
Cockatrice was a popular phrase for a loose woman, probably from the fascination of the eye.
A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world, Whose unavoided eye is murderous!
Sir Thomas Browne,[393] however, distinguishes the cockatrice from the ancient basilisk.
Nor is this Cockatrice only unlike the Basilisk, but of no real shape in Nature; and rather an Hieroglyphical fansie, to express different intentions, set forth in different fashions.
And though the cockatrice be veneme withoute remedye whilest he liueth, yet when he is dead and burnt to ashes, he loseth all his malice, and the ashes of him are good for alkumistes, and namely, in turnyng and chaungeyng of mettall.
His enemy is the wesell, who when he goeth to fight with y{e} cockatrice eateth the herbe commonlye called Rewe, and so in fight byting him he dyeth and the wesell therewith dyeth also.
Illustration] The Cockatrice If you will listen to advice You will avoid the Cockatrice-- A caution I need hardly say Wholly superfluous to-day.
God Jupiter is banished, I hear, and his cockatrice Juno lock'd up.
The heraldic cockatrice is represented as having the head and legs of a cock, a scaly and serpent-like body, and the wings of a dragon.
Then the great eyelid shut down fast, and the waking days of the Cockatrice were over.
And Beppo's native town lay safe, because he had learned from the Cockatrice to be patient and gentle, and had gone to be king of a green world where everything was harmless.
Inside, the cave was quite still and cold, and when he laid his hand on the Cockatrice he could not feel any stir or warmth in its bones.
And all the way he said to himself, "Shall I put fire under the Cockatrice once more, and make him shake the town into ruins?
And presently, when Beppo had let the fires which warmed him get low, and had let time go by without bringing him any fresh fodder, the Cockatrice dozed off into an uneasy, prehistoric slumber.
But it was a hard life, stoking up fires day and night, and bringing the Cockatrice the fodder necessary to replenish his drowsy being.
When Beppo was quite tired out he would come and lay his head against the monster's snout: and the Cockatrice would open a benevolent eye and look at him affectionately.
When Beppo came down again he was quite giddy, and lost in wonder and joy over the beautiful green world the Cockatrice had shown him.
He sat down and watched the Cockatrice finish his meal.
Very slowly the Cockatrice began munching the fresh fodder, and Beppo, intent on feeding him back to life, ran to and fro between the hillside and the cavern till he was exhausted and could go no more.
Presently the mouth of the Cockatrice unsealed itself, and began to babble of green fields.
Slowly and painfully the Cockatrice opened his eye enough to let Beppo slip through; and Beppo saw the green world with its playful cockatrices waiting to welcome him.
And though the cockatrice be venomous without remedy while he is alive, yet he looseth all the malice when he is burnt to ashes.
Nevertheless the biting of the cockatrice is death to the weasel if the weasel eat not rue before.
Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch, O're such as do a Toleration hatch, Lest that ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice To poison all with Heresie and Vice.
The difference between a wyvern and a cockatriceis that the latter has the head of a cock substituted for the dragon's head with which the wyvern is decorated.
The cockatrice is sometimes termed a basilisk, and according to ancient writers the basilisk is produced from an egg laid by a nine-year-old cock and hatched by a toad on a dunghill.
One great preservative was the wearing of a ring with the figure of a cockatrice upon it.
There was, however, a counteraction to the danger, for it was also believed that if a person saw the creature before it saw him, then the cockatrice died from the effect of the human eye.
Any living thing near which the Cockatrice passed was instantly slain by the fiery heat of its venom, which was exhaled not only from its mouth, but its sides.
The subtle poison of the Cockatrice infected everything near it, so that a man who killed a Cockatrice with a spear fell dead himself, by reason of the poison darting up the shaft of the spear and passing into his hand.
Even in this case, however, the word is rendered as Cockatrice in the marginal translation.
The reader will, we apprehend, by this time have had enough of absurdities, but still we can imagine his anxiety to know what a cockatrice was like.
There is an old saying that "everything has its enemy"--and the cockatrice quailed before the weasel.
Beppo undertook whatever the Cockatrice told him--it was so grand to have a Cockatriceof his own.
Very well," said theCockatrice sadly; "I will wait!
All the cave looked as green as grass when the eye of the Cockatrice lighted on it; and Beppo, seeing so mighty an optic turning its rays on him, felt all at once shrivelled and small, and very weak at the knees.
There isn't room in the world for a Cockatrice to feel young nowadays," answered Beppo gravely.
Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice Edmund was a boy.
He respected the cockatrice very much from that moment, and set off at once to do exactly as he was told--for perhaps the first time in his life.
So then he made off through the back door of the town, and raced up the hill to tell the cockatrice and ask for his help.
He told the boys at school about the cockatrice and his wonderful true tales, and the boys liked the stories; but when he told the master he was caned for untruthfulness.
He thanked the cockatrice for his kindness, and got home just in time to have breakfast and get to school by nine.
The cockatrice beckoned Edmund to the side of the basin and whispered in his ear so long and so earnestly that one side of the dear boy's hair was quite burnt off.
Well," said the cockatrice thoughtfully, when the tale had been told.
Here it is," said Edmund, and the cockatrice woke up at once and asked the drakling very politely to sit down and wait.
Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice 139 List of Illustrations The Book of Dragons frontispiece The Book of Beasts PAGE 1 "The dragon flew away across the garden.
I am to go before thecockatrice you saw this morning.
I would fain come with my cockatrice one day, and see a play; .
A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world, Whose unavoided eye is murtherous," etc.
The eye of the fabled cockatriceor basilisk was said to kill with a glance.
The cockatrice is a foul dragon with a crown on its head.
The cockatrice is emblematic of monarchy, a monster generated by ingratitude or absurdity.
