The King of the Beasts. 1 1 



" tawny " lioness that, robbed of whelps, " forgets to fear ; " 

 the father of the brindled cubs "blood-nurtured in their 

 grisly den." And it is worth noting that, just as the cock 

 comes off, both in poetry and proverb, with such honours, 

 while the hen is left behind to cackle and be generally 

 ridiculous, so the lioness fails to receive from her spouse 

 any adequate reflection of his dignities. She is desperately 

 cruel, and, in defence of her young, exceptionally fierce. 

 Because one, being robbed of her whelps, is said to have 

 killed the Ambracian king, they all seem athirst for homi- 

 cide. But the poets know little else of her. Pope calls 

 her "stubborn," Spenser, King, and several others "fell," 

 Montgomery, in the sense of mad with rage, "wild," and 

 all the rest speak of her as the incarnation of maternal 

 fury. But the poets should not call the lioness or her 

 cubs "brindled," nor speak of "lionets," or as heraldry 

 calls little lions, "lioncels,"^ as "shrieking." For lion- 

 kittens are spotted, and mew — "slumbering in milk and 

 sighing " like any other cat's kittens. 



But their home, "Gurden the Hen's palace," the grisly 

 den, all strewn with victim-remnants, cannot be too dread- 

 fully rendered, and the poets' grimness - rises to the subject. 



' The air as in a lion's den 

 Is close and hot." 



" Terrific as the lair 

 WTiere the young lions couch." 



" Giant rocks at distance p'led 

 Cast their deep shadows o'er the wild. 

 Darkly they rise. 

 Away ! within those awful cells 

 The savage lion of Afric dwells." 



^ " The Lyoncel from sweltrie countries braughte. 

 He looketh with an eie of flames of fyre." 



— Chalterton s " Tonmameitt" 

 ' litter alios Wordsworth, Thomson, Hemans, ^lontgomer)-, Your.g. 



