52 COWPER'S THREE TAME HARES 



LINE 1. In the year 1774, behtg much indisposed, $c. In this, 

 the opening sentence of his article, Cowper pathetically alludes 

 to the effect of an attack of madness, the third he had 

 experienced within ten years. At the time of the attack 

 (which lasted from January 1773 till the early summer of 1774), 

 he was living with his friend Mrs. Unwin at Orchard Side, Olney, 

 or at his friend the Rev. John Newton's in the same village. It 

 was after his return from the Vicarage to Orchard Side in May 

 1774 that he began to keep hares as pets. 



24. tivo feminine appellatives. Puss and Bess. 



61. rhetoric. Persuasive artifice. 



91. the Vestns of the party. A Florentine family of this name 

 gave to Europe a series of cooks, actors, and ballet-dancers, 

 more or less distinguished in their various callings. To a 

 ballet-dancer of this family, popular in London, Cowper here 

 refers. 



126. to hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence. See The 

 Task, Book III, 11. 326 seqq. : 



Detested sport, 



That owes its pleasures to another's pain ; 

 That feeds upon the sobs and dying shrieks 

 Of harmless nature, dumb, but yet endued 

 With eloquence, that agonies inspire, 

 Of silent tears and heart-distending sighs ! . . . 

 Well one at least is safe. One sheltered hare 

 Has never heard the sanguinary yell 

 Of cruel man, exulting in her woes. 

 Innocent partner of my peaceful home, 

 Whom ten long years 1 experience of my care 

 Has made at last familiar, . . . 

 Yes, thou mayst eat thy bread, and lick the hand 

 That feeds thee ; thou mayst frolic on the floor 

 At evening, and at night retire secure 

 To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarmed : 

 For I have gained thy confidence .... 

 If I survive thee I will dig thy grave; 

 And, when I place thee in it, sighing say 

 I knew at least one hare that had a friend. 



