i6S The Poets Beasls. 



And, stretching forward free and far, 

 Sought the wild heaths of Uam-var ! " 



Leyden, as has been seen, is also full of sympathy, but 

 confesses to a regret that the stag does not make better use 

 of his ** formidable grove of pointed thorns;" as Waller 

 also — 



" So the tall stag upon the brink 



Of some smooth stream about to drink, 



Surveying there his armed head. 



With shame remembers that he fled 



Tlie scorned dogs, resolves to try 



The combat next. But if their cry 



Invades again his trembling ear. 



He straiglit resumes his wonted care, 



Leaves the untasted spring behind, 



And, winged with fear, oulflies the wind." 



Several poets even go so far as to make the stag regret 

 its armament as cumbering it in its flight. For instance, 

 Davenant — 



" As deer that mourn their growth of head with tears 

 Where the defenceless weight does hinder flight." 



But this is probably only a reminiscence of the familiar story 

 of the stag proud of its antlers that met with Absalom's 

 fate. 



In other poets besides those who sing specifically of the 

 chase, all the details of the deer-hunt " where we did chase 

 the fearful hart of force," and all redounding to the honour 

 of the quarry — " the frighted roebuck and his flying roe " 

 — will be found abundantly scattered. 



Somerville alone is cruel, after his wont. He has a 

 wretchedly cruel account of a stag-hunt, in which he follows, 

 with a detail that seems like gloating over suffering, the 

 wretched stag's agonised flight. He compares its terror to 

 that of "the poor, fury-hunted wretch (his hands in guiltless 

 blood bestained) that slill seems to hear the dying shrieks, 



