THE HUNTED HARE 55 



For, there his smell with others' being mingled, 

 The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt 

 Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled 

 With much ado the cold fault 1 cleanly out: 

 Then do they spend their mouths 2 ! Echo replies, 

 As if another chase were in the skies. 



By this, poor Wat 3 , 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, 

 And now his grief may be compared well 

 To one sore sick that hears the passing-bell 5 ! 



Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch 

 Turn, and return, indenting 6 with the way; 

 Each envious briar his weary legs doth scratch, 

 Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay : 

 For misery is trodden on by many, 

 And, being low, never relieved by any. 



LINE 4. stubble chapt. The ends of the cut corn-stalks. A chap 

 is a crack or a cut. 



6. Cp. Somerville's poem The Chace, Bk.. II : 



The withered grass that clings 

 Around her head, of the same russet hue, 

 Almost deceived my sight. 



Tlie Chace was published five years after The Seasons. 



7. The fallow ground. Land newly ploughed. 



8. Concoctive. That dries, warms, and bakes it. 



11. eyes By Nature raised. A hare's eyes project in such a 

 way as to give it a wide range of vision ; but they are so situated 

 in its head that, while it sees well on each side and even behind, 

 it does not see well, if at all, straight in front. Hence Shake- 



1 faint scent which has brought them fo a stand. 2 spare not. 

 their cries. 3 the hare. * calls to pursuit. 5 death-bell. 

 6 winding. 



