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SHAKESPEARE—A FOXHUNTER. 
Sometimes he runs among the flock of sheep. 
To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell; 
And sometimes where earth-delving conies keep, 
To stop the loud pursuers in their yell; 
And sometimes sorleth with a herd of deer: 
Danger deviseth shifts, wit waits on fear. 
For there his smell with others being mingled. 
The hot-scent snuffing hounds are driven to doubt, 
Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled, 
With much ado, the cold fault clearly out; 
Then do they spend their mouths; echo replies. 
As if another chase were in the skies. 
By this poor Wat, far off upon a hill, 
Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear, 
I’o hearken if his foes pursue him still : 
Anon their loud alarums he doth hear; 
And now his grief may be compared well 
To one sore sick that hears the passing bell. 
Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch 
Turn and return, indenting with the way : 
Each envious brier his weary legs doth scratch, 
Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay; 
, Eor misery is trodden on by many. 
And, being low, never relieved by any. 
I can hardly conceive that any man could write thus who 
had not witnessed and admired all this again and again. 
Now, however, comes the chief evidence. While Adonis is 
withstanding the solicitations of the goddess, his horse espies a 
filly at a little distance. 
Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds. 
And now his woven girths he breaks asunder; 
The solid earth with his hard hoof he wounds. 
Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven’s thunder. 
The iron bit he crushes ’tween his teeth. 
Controlling what he was controlled with. 
His ears up-pricked, his braided hanging mane 
Upon his compassed crest now stands on end ; 
His nostrils drink the air, and forth again, 
As from a furnace vapours doth he send : 
His eye, which glistens scornfully like fire. 
Shews his hot courage and his high desire. 
Sometimes he trots, as if he told the steps. 
With gentle modesty, and modest pride : * 
Anon he rears upright, curvets and leaps, 
As who should say, lo! thus my strength is tried ; 
And thus do I to captivate the eye 
Of the fair breeder that is standing by. 
