Beside the fruitfull shore of muddie Nile,
Upon a sunnie banke outstretched lay,
In monstrous length, a mightie Crocodile,
That, cram’d with guiltles blood and greedie pray
Of wretched people travailing that way,
Thought all things lesse than his disdainfull pride.
I saw a little Bird, cal’d Tedula,
The least of thousands which on earth abide,
That forst this hideous beast to open wide
The greisly gates of his devouring hell,
And let him feede, as Nature doth provide,
Upon his iawes, that with blacke venime swell.
Why then should greatest things the least disdaine,
Sith that so small so mightie can constraine?
[* _Brize_, a gadfly.] [** _Diseased_, deprived of ease.]
III. 7.—Tedula. Spenser appears to mean the bird Trochilos, which,
according to Aristotle, enters the mouth of the crocodile, and picks
her meat out of the monster’s teeth. C.