Rats in Ireland Irish rats rhymed to death. It was once a prevalent opinion that rats in pasturages could be extirpated by anathematising them in rhyming verse or by metrical charms. This notion is frequently alluded to by ancient authors. Thus, Ben Jonson says: "Rhyme them to death, as they do Irish rats" (Poetaster): Sir Philip Sidney says: "Though I will not wish unto you to be rimed to death, as is said to be done in Ireland" (Defence of Poesiè); and Shakespeare makes Rosalind say: "I was never so berhymed since I was an Irish rat," alluding to the Pythagore'an doctrine of the transmigration of souls (As You Like It, iii. 2). Source: E. Cobham Brewer 1810­1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.