20 The Poets Beasts. 



where the King of Babylon's daughter is in great trouble, 

 her father wishing to kill her, Fidelia hangs about the king's 

 neck "like a lioness," and says : "Thou monstrous murderer, 

 more cruel than the mad dogs of Egypt, why dost thou 

 determine to slaughter the most chaste and loyal lady in 

 the world, even she within whose lap untamed lions will 

 come and sleep ? " 



But women were the special objects of leonine forbear- 

 ance, particularly if they were chaste — 



" 'Tis said that a lion will turn and flee 

 From a maid in the pride of her purity ; " 



and again — 



" Harpers have sung and poets told 

 That he, in fury uncontrolled, 

 The shaggy monarch of the wood, 

 Before a virgin, fair and good, 

 Hath pacified liis savage mood ; " 



SO that if Byron, Scott, and the rest be correct, "a lion 

 among ladies " need not after all be so " dreadful " a thing as 

 Snug supposed. Nor if they are of royal blood will the royal 

 beast do them hurt, as in Beaumont and Fletcher's play — 



" Fetch the Numidian lion I brought over. 

 If she be sprung from royal blood, the lion 

 Will do her reverence ; else, he'll tear her." 



Una, it will be remembered, was at first attacked by the 

 beast, but, recognising her virtue, it fawned upon her, kissed 

 her feet, licked her hands, and followed her to the death. 



As a matter of (poetical) fact, lions will not hurt princes 

 under any consideration. Nor are many individual instances 

 of leonine generosity wanting. To say nothing of the fre- 

 quent allusions to Androclcs his lion, Shakespeare, Waller, 

 Blake, Fairfax, Cowper, and others cite examples of the lion's 

 unexpected clemency to such as were in misfortune, or those 

 who had befriended it. 



