My Sweet Alpha
Pliny (Natural History,
Book Eight, paragraph 33) tells us nothing of the posthumous aptitudes of
this ophidian, but the conjunction of the two ideas of seeing (mirar) and
dying (morir) vedi Napoli e poi mori [see Naples and die]—must have
influenced Shakespeare.
The gaze of the basilisk was poisonous; the Divinity, however, can kill
with pure splendor or pure radiation of manna. The direct sight of God is
intolerable. Moses covers his face on Mount Horeb, “for he was afraid to
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