152 Gleanings from the 



Umbrian hound, a variety much valued by ancient 

 hunters, is beautifully described r 1 



" Thus, when a fearful flag is clofed around 

 With crimfon toils, or in a river found, 

 High on the bank the deep-mouthed hound appears 

 Still opening, following ftill, where'er he fleers ; 

 The perfecuted creature, to and fro, 

 Turns here and there to 'fcape his Umbrian foe ; 

 Steep is th* afcent, and if he gains the land 

 The purple death is pitched along the flrand ; 

 His eager foe, determined to the chafe, 

 Stretched at his length, gains ground at every pace ; 

 Now to his beamy head he makes his way, 

 And now he holds, or thinks he holds, his prey ; 

 Jull at the pinch the flag fprings out with fear, 

 He bites the wind, and fills his founding jaws with air. 

 The rocks, the lakes, the mountains, ring with cries, 

 The mortal tumult mounts and thunders in the fkies." 



DRYDEN. 



The Englifh poet amplifies the original into 

 twice the number of lines, without augmenting 

 in any fenfible degree his Roman brother's 

 imagery ; and careful, and in fome of the lines 

 excellent, as is the tranflation, to feel the more 

 chaftened beauty of the Latin tongue the reader 

 mould confult the original, which is terfe, vivid, 

 and cumulative in intereft in the higheft degree. 

 Indeed, without reference to Virgil, moft Englifh 

 readers will be hopeleffly confufed about the mean- 

 ing of Dryden's line : 



" The purple death is pitched along the flrand." 



Another characteriftic defcription, replete with 

 Virgil's ornate tendernefs, might be quoted the 

 chafe of Silvia's pet flag by Afcanius and his 



xii. 749-757. For "puniceae feptum formidine 

 pennas," fee note I, p. 150. 



