serpent

   Used occasionally of or to a person who is treacherous, alluding to the biblical story of the devil disguised as a serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden.

   In A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3:ii), Shakespeare has Hermia say to Demetrius, thinking that he has killed Lysander: ‘And hast thou kill’d 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.’

   There is a serpent scene in The Pickwick Papers, however, which shows Dickens at his comic best. Mr Pott, believing that his wife has been unfaithful with his house-guest, Mr Winkle, descends to the breakfast-room:

   ‘Serpent!’

   ‘Sir!’ exclaimed Mr Winkle, starting from his chair.

   ‘Serpent, sir,’ repeated Mr Pott, raising his voice, and then suddenly depressing it; ‘I said, serpent, sir - make the most of it.’

   When you have parted with a man at two o’clock in the morning, on terms of the utmost fellowship, and he meets you again, at half-past nine, and greets you as a serpent, it is not unreasonable to conclude that something of an unpleasant nature has occurred meanwhile. So Mr Winkle thought. He returned Mr Pott’s gaze of stone, and in compliance with that gentleman’s request, proceeded to make the most he could of the ‘serpent’. The most, however, was nothing at all; so, after a profound silence of some minutes’ duration, he said - ‘Serpent, sir! Serpent, Mr Pott! What can you mean, sir? - this is pleasantry.’

   ‘Pleasantry, sir!’ exclaimed Pott, with a motion of his hand, indicative of a strong desire to hurl the Britannia Metal teapot at the head of his visitor. ‘Pleasantry, sir! - But no, I will be calm; I will be calm, sir;’ in proof of his calmness, Mr Pott flung himself into a chair and foamed at the mouth.

   ‘My dear sir,’ interposed Mr Winkle.

   ‘Dear sir!’ replied Pott. ‘How dare you address me as dear sir, sir? How dare you look me in the face and do it, sir?

   ‘Well, sir, if you come to that,’ responded Mr Winkle, ‘how dare you look me in the face, and call me a serpent, sir?’

   ‘Because you are one,’ replied Mr Pott.

   ‘Prove it, sir,’ said Mr Winkle warmly. ‘Prove it!’