Captivus ob gulam.

Caught by greed

Regnator penus, & mensae corrosor[1] herilis
Ostrea mus summis vidit hiulca labris.
Queis teneram apponens barbam salsa [=falsa] ossa momordit
Illa recluserunt[2] tacta repente domum.
Depraensum & tetro tenuerunt carcere furem,
Semet in obscurum qui dederat tumulum.[3]

A mouse, king of the pantry, nibbler at the master’s table, saw oysters with their shells just slightly open. Applying his sensitive whiskers, he nibbled the deceptive bone. The oysters, when touched, suddenly slammed shut their house and held the thief, caught red-handed, in a noisome prison, a thief who had put himself into a lightless tomb.

Mus quidam penum inhabitans, ubi victus
variarum domini fercularum conservaban-
tur, singula corrodens, utque nihil intactum re-
linqueret, vidit inter alia Ostrea hiulca, fissa
testisque apertis, accurrit avidè ac momordit.
Ostrea verò laesa repentè domum recludunt
capto & strangulato fure, qui semetipsum in
  Link to an image of this page  [i8r p143]illo obscuro sepelivit tumulo, & de merito
deprehensis poenaque dignis, dicitur prover-
bialiter illud. Decipula murem coepit. De
Ostreis etiam Plinius lib. 32. cap. 6.