i6o The Poets Beasts. 



" Fretful " is an excellent epithet for the porcupine. Yet 

 I cannot help thinking that in the Ghost's speech "fretted" 

 ^Yould perhaps have been better. For though it is perfectly 

 true that the former characterises the animal's disposition to 

 take offence quickly, the latter would have assisted out the 

 spectre's meaning. " Each particular hair on your head," 

 he would then have said, " would stand on end with horror, 

 like the quills upon the porcupine when he is out of temper." 

 As it is, he seems to imply that the animal's quills are always 

 standing on end — which is not strictly true. Now Milton 

 has the line, "Chafed wild boar or ruffled porcupine;" 

 and "ruffled" is admirable, inasmuch as it conveys two 

 facts in one word — the agitation both of body and mind. 



The occurrence of this beast in another poet, also con- 

 joined with the boar, is perhaps noteworthy, as in myth 

 the porcupine is a vague sort of animal, occupying a place 

 somewhere between the boar and the hedgehog. In the 

 " Dragon of Wantley " we have the other association pre- 

 sented to us — its hedgehog side — 



" Had you but seen him in this dress, 

 How fierce he looked and how big, 

 You would have thought him for to be 

 Some Egyptian porcupig. 

 He frighted all, cats, dogs, and all, 

 Each cow, each horse, and each hog ; 

 For fear they did flee, for they took him to be 

 Some strange outlandish hedgehog." 



Yet the poets — three at any rate — employ the metaphor in 

 regard to woman. Thus Cowley, singing of Beauty, says — - 



" They are all weapons, and they dart 

 Like porcupines from every part." 



And Byron has — 



" Those cursed pins, 

 Wliich surely were invented for our sins, 

 Making a woman like a porcupine, 

 Not to be rashly touched." 



