William Blake asks us to beware "venomous Newt" — venomous because the skin of this lizard-like creature contains the extraordinarily dangerous poison tetrodotoxin which it secretes through its granular skin glands. It is unwise to befriend or embrace a Newt and they should never be swallowed. Tetrodotoxin blocks sodium channels and can therefore cause heart arrhythmia or heart arrest.
Shakespeare did not love the Newt; among the ingredients in the witches' potion in Macbeth, along with the fenny snake, toe of frog, wool of bat, tongue of dog and owlet's wing is "eye of Newt."
In Timon of Athens, a list of "abhorred births" includes the "black toad and adder blue" along with the "gilded Newt." "Gilded," for Shakespeare, could mean "gilt" but also "guilty" and sometimes even "false."
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Second Villager claims that a witch has transformed him into the most loathsome of critters: "She turned me into a Newt." He then withdraws the charge: "I got better."
It's definitely better not to be a Newt — or even to get too close to one.
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