The Poets' Snakes. 85 



" He saw a lawyer killing a viper 

 On a dung heap beside his stable, 

 And the devil smiled, for it put him in mind 

 Of Cain and his brother Abel." 



Many families, alas ! appreciate all too sadly Byron's 

 picture of that insidious wretch who, either calling herself 

 the friend of one or other, comes between husband and 

 wife, or parent and children, and working mischief under 

 pretence of impartial advice, widens the breach with a show 

 of healing it : 



" O serpent under femininitee 

 Like to the serpent depe in helle ybound : 

 O feined woman, all that may confound 

 Vertue and innocence, thurgh thy malice, 

 Is bred in thee, as nest of every vice." Chaucer. 



Or else as the friend of both, poisons each mutually against 

 the other, carrying to and fro not the peace-making con- 

 cessions, the timid beginnings of conciliation with which she 

 is entrusted, but embittering hints and irritating suggestions 

 that provoke recrimination, and further involve the already 

 complicated difficulty. She found a rift which a single kiss 

 might have closed ; she leaves a grief which passionate re- 

 pentance, stretching from to-day to the tomb, cannot bridge. 



1 ' She rules the circle which she served before ; 

 If mothers none know why before her quake ; 

 If daughters dread her for the mother's sake ; 

 If early habits those false links, which bind 

 At times the loftiest to the meanest mind 

 Have given her power too deeply to instil 

 The angry essence of her deadly will ; 

 If like a snake she steal within your walls, 

 Till the black slime betray her as she crawls ; 

 If like a viper to the heart she wind, 

 And leave the venom there she did not find, 

 What marvel that this hag of hatred works 

 Eternal evil latent as she lurks, 

 To make a Pandemonium where she dwells, 

 And reign the Hecate of domestic hells ? 

 Skill'd by a touch to deepen scandal's tints 

 With all the kind mendacity of hints, 



