14 The Poets Beasts. 



or evil-doers at the voice of God ; and, in short, everything 

 in Nature that at one time or another may be suddenly 

 startlecf into the propriety of precipitate self-preservation. 



As a rule it is heard roaring at night — " midnight listens 

 to the lion's roar " (Byron) ; but sometimes in broad day- 

 light "the lion's sullen roar at noon resounds along the 

 lonely banks of ancient Tigris " (Akenside). As a rule, 

 too, the lion roars only when alone ; when, that is, it is call- 

 ing to its mate or seeking one — " the solitary lion's roar " 

 (Montgomery) ; but occasionally travellers have heard them 

 roaring in company, and justifying therefore Montgomery's 

 fine simile of — 



" Mad as a Lybian wilderness by night 

 With all its lions up." 



So that the poets have no room for error. But it is not a 

 fact, as Prior supposes,^ that lions go about roaring seeking 

 for hunters to rend. 



Yet, reverent as the majority are, there are poets who 

 (in spite of Eliza Cook's warning 2) have been found auda- 

 cious enough to " talk as familiarly of roaring lions as maids 

 of thirteen do of puppy-dogs," and even to make fun of tlie 

 tremendous voice. 



" Boinhastes : So have I heard on Afric's burning shore 

 A hungry lion give a grievous roar ; 

 The grievous roar echoed along the shore. 



1 " So the fell lion in the lonely glade, 



His side still sm.nrting with the hunter's spear, 



Tho' deeply wounded, no way yet disniay'd, 



Roars terrible, and meditates new war. 



In sullen fury traverses the plain 



To find the vent'rous foe, and bailie him again." 



— Ode to the Queen. 



' " Let the lion be stirred by too daring a word, 

 And beware of liis echoing growl." 



