DANTE AS A NATURALIST. 363 



sporting way, without turning round, Dante, however, knows 

 what an Otter looks like, for (Inf. xxii. 36) he compares a baron 

 of Thibault, King of Navarre, when he is being dragged out of 

 the boiling pitch, to one — which is a very good simile. 



This completes the list of extraneous animals, unless the 

 Lynx be included ; for some would have it that it is the Leopard, 

 or the Caracal, that Dante intends by the Lonza, which he 

 selects as representing worldly pleasure, on the one hand, and 

 Florence, torn by the factions of the Bianchi and Neri, on the 

 other. Set us look at what he says of it (Inf. 1. 32) : — 



" Une lonza leggiera et presto molto, 

 Che cli pel maculato era coperta ; " 



and again (Inf. xvi. 108), "la lonza alia pelle dipinta." 



There is no doubt as to what he would set before us — some 

 quick-stealing feline animal with a mottled coat ; and probably 

 he is following his master Virgil, who speaks twice of " varise 

 lynces," which take us back to the [^ahiai \vyms of the 'Alcestis.' 

 It is hence that several commentators, going back to the fact 

 that Lynces were the satellites of Bacchus, and that in the classics 

 the idea is associated with India, while at times the word Tiger 

 is used, determine that the word Lynx here must mean either 

 the Leopard or the Felis caracal, which are not European speci- 

 mens. I cannot see why it should not be the Felis lynx (the 

 Common Lynx), which was to be found in most parts of Southern 

 Europe ; an animal with long fur of dull reddish grey, marked 

 upon the sides with oblong spots of reddish brown, which become 

 round and smaller on the limbs ; the lower part mottled with 

 black and white. This seems to suit the " pelle maculata " and 

 " dipinta " ; while Boccaccio's tale that, when one was being led 

 through the streets of Florence, the boys followed it, and called 

 it a " pard," shows how commonly the two were mistaken. It is 

 not at all impossible that Dante may have come across the beast 

 on some hunting expedition, and that it should have been in- 

 cluded in the second division — that of animals with which Dante 

 met in Italy. 



Under this head I will first consider those which he met in 

 the chase. The most important of these are the Dogs, of which 

 one knows a good deal from pictures by early masters, and 



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