answer:--

1st. In Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's _Natural History_ (a
great authority at the time) this passage occurs in book ix. cap. 30.:--


"Lobsters, so long as they are secure of any fear and danger, go
directly straight, letting down their hornes at length along their
sides; ... but if they be in any fear, up go their hornes
straight--and then they creep byas and go sidelong."


And in the next chapter (31.):--


"Crabs" (which were often confounded with lobsters) "when they will
be afraid, will recule backward, as fast as they went forward."


2nd. In the celebrated work of Sebastian Brandt, entitled _Stultifera
Naxis_ (which went through many editions after its first appearance in
1494), is an engraving of a fool, wearing cap and bells, seated astride
on the back of a lobster, with a broken reed in his hand, and a pigeon
flying past him as he stares vacantly at it with open mouth. The
following lines are attached:--


DE PREDESTINATIONE

"Qui pretium poseit quod non meruisse videtur,