Green-Eyed Jealousy or Green-eyed Monster

Expressions used by Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice, iii. 2; Othello, iii. 3). As cats, lions, tigers, and all the green-eyed tribe “mock the meat they feed on,” so jealousy mocks its victim by loving and loathing it at the same time.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.