The Birds of Shakespeare 
Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles, » 
How he outruns the wind, and with what care 
He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles.! 
When he has for a little succeeded in 
throwing the hounds off the scent, 
Poor Wat, far off upon a hill, 
Stands on his hinder legs, with listening ear, 
To hearken if his foes pursue him still : 
Anon their loud alarums he doth hear, 
‘Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch 
Turn, and return, indenting with the way ; 
Each envious brier his weary legs doth scratch, 
Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay.? 
The poet’s feeling of pity descends even 
to small and fragile forms of living things, 
to which most people are indifferent or 
even hostile. Perhaps he may sometimes 
have credited these feeble creatures with 
greater sensitiveness to pain than a modern 
naturalist would allow, as where Isabella in 
Measure for Measure tells her brother that 
The poor beetle, that we tread upon, 
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
As when a giant dies.® 
Shakespeare elsewhere alludes to our 
1 Venus and Adonis, 680. 2 1b,°097- a ae Bs 
20 
