26 The Poets and Nat 



ure. 



" On that hope, 



I build my happiness, I live upon it, 

 Like the chameleon, on its proper food, 

 The unsubstantial air." Hurdis. 



' Bards are not chameleons quite, 

 And heavenly food is very light." Montgomery. 



No living thing, whate'er its food, feasts there, 



But the chameleon who can feast on air." Churchill, 



While I, condemned to thinnest fare, 

 Like those I flatter live on air." Gay. 



"Cold" is Sir William Jones's epithet borrowed, of course, 

 from the general lizard idea, that these creatures are gelid 



" E'en cold chameleons pant in thickets dun, 

 And o'er the burning grit the unwinged locusts run." 



It was thus that the salamander got a reputation for disre- 

 garding flames, or even putting them out, by the extreme 

 "coldness" of its body. It is therefore in metaphor that 

 this strange lizard is most conspicuous. The gay gallant in 

 Moore 



" Pranked in gay vest, to which the flame 

 Of every lamp he passed, or blue, 

 Or green, or crimson, lent its hue ; 

 As though a live chameleon's skin 

 He had despoiled to robe him in." 



the turncoat politician in Churchill 



1 ' A creature of the right cameleon hue, 

 Wears any colours, yellow or true blue." 



In Cowley Fancy, in Savage Fortune, has the same steeds 



" Wild dame with much lascivious pride 

 By twin chameleons drawn does gaily ride." 



Advisers are chameleons in Dryden 



" To change the dye, with every distant view." 



