26 The Poets Beasts. 



George to Nelson, as also most European celebrities — • 

 Henri IV., Napoleon, Tell, Charles XII., Luther, and 

 others ; " classical " notables, varying in degrees of merit, 

 from Ulysses to Tarquin, and all the heroes of poets' fancy, 

 the Douglases, Alberts, and Tracy de Veres, besides a pro- 

 digious series of miscellaneous personages of very diversified 

 character, ranging from Cain to Jonathan, and from the 

 Messiah to Satan. 



The singular elasticity of the lion idea is thus abundantly 

 illustrated. But when we remember that in Holy Writ the 

 animal stands as the symbol of such very different things as 

 dignity and falsehood, courage and craft, the enemies of 

 truth and of wickedness : that in one part of Holy Writ it 

 typifies the devil, in another is a type of the Saviour ; also, 

 that in all fables the lion is presented to us in every possible 

 variety of character, from supreme grandeur to ridiculous 

 meanness, we perceive that the poets have been faithful to 

 their sources of information. 



But it is in the metaphors and morals which the King of 

 Beasts affords that his many-sided nature is perhaps best 

 illustrated. Independence is (in Smollett) "Lord of the 

 lion-heart;" Ambition is (in Cowley) "the lion-star;" 

 Truth, "lion-bold;" Danger (in Akenside) has a "lion- 

 walk ; " Wrath (in Spenser) — 



" And him besiile rides fierce avenging Wralh 

 Upon a lion, loth for to be led." 



Passion and War (in Churchill), " fierce as the lion roaring 

 for his prey, or lioness of royal whelps foredone," are on 

 one side, while Peace, Cruelty, and Self-interest (in Young) 

 may be cited on the other. Tennyson has a noble simile — 



" Slowly comes a hungry peo]ile as a lion creeping nigher, 

 Glares at one who nods and winks behind a slowly dying fue." 



an assrhe sea is often a lion, and sometimes with admirable 



