“Come, thou mortal wretch,
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak,
That I might hear thee call great Caesar Ass
Unpolicied!”
—Cleopatra VII, Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt (69-30 BC), as quoted from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra