Edmund, I arrest thee
On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,
This gilded serpent.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Albany arrests Edmund for capital treason. He has seen the letters proving an adulterous affair between Edmund and Goneril and their plot to kill Albany. Albany also arrests his disloyal wife Goneril as an accessory, branding her a "gilded serpent" (quite the appropriate metaphor).