1 20 Shakspeare 



ofttimes proves a good horse, especially if he be 

 well ridden and broken, as he should be." In 

 his humble occupations and wild excursions he 

 gained a real knowledge of nature in all its aspects, 

 of which he afterwards made exact and excellent 

 use. Had he not known the habits of deer as 

 well as the ways of men by direct observation, 

 he could hardly have written the soliloquy of 

 Jacques on the poor stricken stag, or pictured the 

 behaviour of the frighted deer when it stands at 

 gaze, bewildered which way to fly.* If he had 

 not himself run with the harriers he could not 

 well have described so vividly the devious course 

 and wily shifts and thousand doubles of the dew- 

 bedabbled hare, limping wearily to die near the 

 seat from which it was started ; and poor Wat's 

 last panting agonies when, listening erect on 

 hind-legs, in fearful hope to have escaped, it 

 hears renewed the clamorous cry of its loud 

 pursuers — 



And now his grief might be compared well 

 To one sore-sick that hears the passing bell. 



If he had not many times been out before sunrise 

 he could not have written with fresh and eloquent 

 feeling, as he often does, of the gentle lark 

 mounting up high from its moist cabinet to wake 

 the morning with its song, and of the many a 

 glorious morning which he had seen burnish the 



* As the poor frighted deer that stands at gaze, 

 Wildly determining which way to fly. — Rape of Lucrece. 



