The Poets Herds. 293 



"Straight down she ran like an enraged cow 

 That is berobbed of her youngling dear " — 



and after ail, in the matter of being tossed, it does not 

 matter much whether you are pitchforked by a " tyrant of 

 the herd " or a " milky mother." Sancho swore they were 

 clothworkers from Segovia : the Don said they were magi- 

 cians. Whichever they were, the squire's bones ached for 

 ever so many days, and his self-respect was tossed out of 

 him for the rest of his life. 



The heifer is always, in the poets, a thing of beauty, 

 "gentle," "balmy-breathing," "sleeker than night-swollen 

 mushrooms " (Keats). Yet they like to see it, in the tradi- 

 tional tigress fashion, looking on while rivals combat to the 

 death for her possession — 



"A lowing heifer, loveliest of the herd, 

 Stood feeding by, while two fierce bulls prepared 

 Their armed heads for fight, by fate of war to prove 

 The victor worthy of the fair one's love." 



Nor outside the natural animal do the poets neglect 

 their kine. Scattered up and down are references to 

 bull- baiting — 



" When through the town, with slow and solemn air. 

 Led by the nostril, walks the muzzled bear ; 

 Behind him moves, majestically dull, 

 The pride of Hockley Hole, the surly bull " — 



and bull-fights — the sympathy of the poet being always 

 with the baited beast — to the kine that Egypt worshipped, 

 the bovine metamorphoses of Jupiter and of lo, the beast of 

 the Bethlehem stable — 



" When He incradled was, 

 In simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay, 

 Betweene the tovlful oxe and humble asse." 



