lizard will have observed his short, swift | But the dog is referred to in every kind of rushes and absolute stillness, which the relation throughout the poems, some of poet in these lines brings prominently which we may mention later. The fox forward. is not very often mentioned; "foxlike in the vine " reminds us of verses of Theocritus: And this leads us to remark, that in more than one instance a somewhat unusual trait has apparently been marked by the poet's mind in early life, and has again and again presented itself in his poems afterwards. We have already called attention to these in the mouse and the lizard, and we will now follow up what he has to say about the colt. Every reader of Greek poetry will remember a passage in the " Antigone " of Sophocles where the Daughter of the North Wind is called оs; and this rather untranslatable word has been gracefully rendered in "The Talking Oak,” “ gamesome as the colt," in reference to a young girl. But what we now want to call attention to is the fact that, wherever he may have had the idea suggested to him, thenceforward the poet frequently efers to the colt as a symbol of the exuberance of youthful activity and joyousness: Lighter-footed than the fox, of the prince who has the good fortune to "Catkiss and wake the Sleeping Beauty. footed " occurs in the same sense in "The Princess." Insects are generally used by the poet to suggest flashing light or swiftness : The lightning-flash of insect or of bird; With his clear plates of sapphire mail, His babes were running wild, Like colts about the waste, while Enoch Arden was far away. King Hildebrand says (to go to Mr. Gilbert for nomenclature) of Gama's daughter, rather disrespectfully, we admit, "She's yet a fly: colt; " and, naving regard to the fact that "all the swine were sows, and all the dogs "he might, perhaps, have more accurately described her as a filly. But Hildebrand is a monarch of too hasty speech to care for accuracy. Again, in the " Idylls of the King" we hear of Gawain, when a boy, that he Ran like a colt, and leapt at all he saw. We do not know that a colt is referred to in any other sense, except only where St. Simeon alleges that Asmodeus and Abaddon annoyed him sadly With colt-like whinny and with hoggish whine, and they perhaps were youthful fiends. Another noticeable trait brought out by Tennyson, which we fancy was suggested by the classical studies of his youth, occurs twice in his earlier poems; the curious way in which a dog dreams of the chase, and shows what he is dreaming of With inward yelp and restless forefoot. (Lucretius.) and the idea recurs in "Locksley Hall," in the bitter description of the squire: Like a dog, he hunts in dreams. and the Pleiads shine Like fireflies tangled in a silver braid. Shall eagles not be eagles? wrens be wrens? Passing from the king of birds to the king of beasts, we are at once reminded of that tremendous simile: Slowly comes a hungry people, as a lion creeping nigher, Glares at one that nods and winks behind a slowly-dying fire. hens; And it is interesting to note that, long after | He praised his hens, his geese, his guinea"Locksley Hall" was written, in Tiresias" the Demos is contemptuously compared by that seer once again to the lion: 66 Other persons, however, are not quite so complimentarily referred to by the names of animals: Maud's brother is the "oiled and curled Assyrian bull," and her father a "lean, grey wolf; the Spaniards are dogs of Seville; the Sepoy pioneer, a murderous mole " (but not in this case "four-handed" one); robbers are in the Idylls called "wild bees," and "wolves, of woman born;" and we find a minstrel referred to as a "grey cricket" chirping by the hearth. 66 a 66 His pigeons. What can come nearer to the heart of every man than the bluff illustration in "The Revenge?" For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqueteers, And a dozen times we shook 'em off, as a dog that shakes his ears When he leaps from the water to the land. Who has not lain awake, like Mariana though, Heaven help her! she lived in a moated grange- and heard the night-fowl crow, The cock sing out an hour ere light, From the dark pen the oxen's low? Indeed, what strikes the thoughtful reader of Tennyson most is the homeliness of the greater part of his illustrations; we do not have to go far afield in the realms of imagination to seek for Horses that have broken fence, And glutted all night long breast-deep in corn; The martin flew The parrot scream'd, the peacock squall'd; The cock couldn't crow, and the bull couldn't or It now behoves us to see how far Tennyson approaches, under our present head, the form of democratic art as set out by or its English exponent, Mr. J. A. Symonds. Does he avoid the note of condescension, the unnatural transfiguration of rusticity and humble life in his poems, which mark the didactic pastoral? No doubt a large number of his efforts stand condemned, and, first and foremost, the famous " Idylls of the King," the romanticism of which, with their high born heroes and lofty dames, stinks in the nostrils of the school of Walt Whitman. But many of his smaller poems, notably "The Brook," "The Revenge," ""The Siege of Lucknow," and the dialectical poems, appear to us to approach or the new ideal. How well we all know the loquacity of old Phillip in "The Brook " when or low, es 'ansom a tabby as iver patted a mouse; Like threaded spiders one by one we dropt; or the Newfoundland dog, Two-footed at the limit of his chain, "And whit, whit, whit, in the bush beside me, Chirrupt the nightingale ; He praised his land, his horses, his machines; He praised his ploughs, his cows, his hogs, his dogs; or A neck to which the swan's Is tawnier than her cygnet's; which is one of few references to the color | be patronized by the younger Pliny must of the swan made by the poet, who sings oftenest of her flight, and sometimes of her song, but rarely mentions her "pure, cold plumes" for their dazzling whiteness; or, lastly: We hope we have done something to enable the reader to see the beasts of the field and the birds of the air with the poet's fanciful eye; but we trust he will glean the field for himself, where a plentiful harvest is left ungathered. He will find them touched with a brightness of fancy that does not fail to delight even the most artificial or borrowed; but, more often, throwing its soft charm upon some slight or rarely noted beauty of form or habit, the verse lingers with us, and sug. gests itself again and again. The man who can read the poems of Tennyson without gathering some fresh interest in animal life, and perceiving some novelty in its aspect towards himself, must indeed be deafer than the blue-eyed cat, And thrice as blind as any noonday owl. From The National Review. WIT AND PATHOS IN SUETONIUS. I TAKE it that Suetonius was a thoroughly dull man; dull, dismal and obscure. He was a man to whom his friends could venture to dictate. The younger Pliny writes to tell him that it is high time his book should appear, as he was only spoiling it; and again, that it was absurd of him to be alarmed by a dream about the issue of a law-suit in which he was engaged. He requests a friend to get Suetonius a small estate or garden, but is careful to remark that one such as he, a student and a recluse, would require but a little one. The man who could submit to have been a poor creature, and on the whole lacking in a sense of humor. And consistently with such an estimate of his character we find that Suetonius, in the only work of his which has come down to us entire, the lives of the Cæsars, does not attempt to make any display of humor on his own account. He makes no jokes ; as far as I know, he makes only one facetious remark. This shall be mentioned later. Yet there are jokes in Suetonius; nor is his book without situations of pathetic interest. He has made it his business, besides describing the habits and personal appearance of the various emperors of Rome, to give specimens of their wit where any are forthcoming. It does not seem likely, on the whole, that Suetonius was debarred from giving specimens of jokes by any consideration but their absence. We may conclude, then, that while the principal jesters were Caligula, Vitellius, and Vespasian, the remarks of Claudius are only sources of amusement at his own expense; while Galba, Otho, and Titus made no jokes. The jokes of Otho may, it is true, have been considered unfit for publication even by Suetonius, but Galba was too old and had not time, and Titus too much oppressed with his sense of responsibility as emperor. Tiberius was not without a certain dry humor. When a deputation came rather late in the day from the people of Ilium to con. dole with him on the death of his son Drusus, he replied that he, too, was grieved on their account that they had lost an excellent citizen called Hector. But Tiberius was generally too depressed to make comings in this respect. Of course Caa joke. Caligula made up for his shortligula was mad. The man who could invite the moon to his embraces, appear in public with his beard gilded, or in the garb of Venus and hold imaginary conversations, sometimes rising into angry altercation with the Capitoline Jupiter, was mad if any one ever was so. was in one of his sane moments that he described his grandmother Livia as Ulixes stolata, "Ulysses in petticoats," and his barbarities were generally so conceived that they should cause amusement to all but the victims. At the contests of eloquence which he instituted at Lyons, it was his practice to make the unsuccessful competitors compose orations in praise of the successful, while those whose productions he disapproved were compelled to obliterate their own writings with their tongues, unless indeed they preferred to But it 1 be chastised with rods or immersed in the nearest stream. When Caligula was ill, a loyal subject vowed a gladiatorial exhibiEl tion in case of his recovery. Caligula recovered from his illness, made the man carry out his vow, and forced him to fight as a gladiator at his own games. He used to compel parents to be present at the execution of their children. One such unfortunate asked to be excused on the ground of ill-health. Caligula sent him a litter. On one occasion, a Roman knight who had been exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre persisted in loudly protesting his innocence. The emperor or dered him to be removed, and had his tongue cut out. After that, he again exposed him to the beasts. Caligula asked a man who had just returned to Rome after a long period of exile, how he had spent the time during his banishment. He replied, "In praying the gods that Tiberius might die, and you be emperor." It occurred to the emperor that those at present in exile might be offering similar prayers. He sent and had them all killed. He had been importuned for a long time by a centurion to grant him his dismissal, on the ground of ill-health. He ordered him to be killed, with the remark that "Bloodletting was now necessary, as the man had been taking hellebore so long without effect." One day he was fencing with a professional fighter, with wooden weapons; whipping out a dagger, he stabbed him and ran off with the garland of palm leaves usually bestowed on victors. On another occasion, all the preparations had been made for a sacrifice. The victim was at the altar. Caligula, habited in the garb of one whose duty it is to slay the victim, stood ready, his dress girt up, mallet raised high in air for the stroke. Down it came, not on the victim but on the priest. Without approving of the emperor's conduct, one can understand his feeling a good deal of satisfaction at dealing the blow. The jokes of Caligula have this common feature, that they are, as a rule, designed to add insult to injury, and make his victims appear ridiculous. Claudius, as I have said, was a butt rather than a wit. Still, he must have been the occasion of as much merriment as many a jester. He was quite a wellmeaning person, and Augustus's remarks about him are justified by the facts. Misellus aruxeî (he writes to Livia), nam Ev Tois σTOνdatos, ubi non aberravit eius animus apparet Tŷs Yuxŷs aʊToû Evyével." But he was ridiculous and undignified, and that the Romans could not stand. And | so Suetonius is not kind to him, and relates unfeelingly how the poor man, perhaps one of the most laborious students of his time, made a fiasco when he attempted to realize the fruits of his industry. He was to recite part of a history he had written before a large audience. As luck would have it, at the beginning of the recitation several benches gave way beneath the weight of a fat man. At this a laugh arose. But even when it was silenced, the reciter could not help recurring to the incident again and again, and bursting into renewed laughter, so that it was with difficulty that he got through the recitation at all. Claudius had a habit of making uncalled-for and futile remarks. Thus at a mimic sea-fight which he gave on the lake Fucinus, the combatants, as usual before the engagements, saluted him with the words, “Ave, Cæsar, morituri te salutant." "Aut non!" Claudius thought it necessary to rejoin. In a moment all was confusion. The gladiators were pleased to understand the emperor's words to mean that they were released from the necessity of fighting, and they refused to fight. The emperor was in considerable embarrassment. For some time he debated whether he should not order them all to be destroyed with fire and sword, but eventually rose from his seat, ran along the edge of the lake amid the laughter of the beholders, and at length, by dint of threats and entreaties, prevailed on the gladiators to begin the conflict. The Romans were in no awe of Claudius. A speaker in a law-suit, at which Claudius was presiding, had the audacity to say to him, "You are an old fool" — kai σv yépwv ei kaiμwpós. In fact, from the day when he was drawn out by his heels from behind the curtains till he was first married and then poisoned by his niece, Claudius had but a poor time. To Suetonius's spicilegium of jokes Nero makes only a small contribution. He aspired to be an artist rather than a wit, and his remark on the completion of the golden house, that now at last he was lodged as a man should be, is conceived rather in the grand style. Yet I imagine he thought he was saying something rather funny when, on appointing officials, he introduced them to their new functions with the words, "And now to business. You know what I want. Nobody is to have a penny left." From whatever cause, Nero met his tragic end having left few jokes, though many theatrical utterances, for record on the pages of Suetonius. Galba ― bald, blue-eyed, gouty Galba — was no The name of Titus is associated with the observation Diem perdidi, and thereby he runs considerable danger of being set down as a prig. Domitian was first well meaning though vicious, and afterwards cracked, but there is one remark of his which is worth noticing. "I wish," said he, "I were as good-looking as Maevius thinks himself." This is really not a bad remark, and is capable of indefinitely extended application. There are a few jokes for which emperors are not responsible scattered about the book. The wit of Roman soldiers was probably more distinguished by coarseness than merit. Still, I cannot help thinking they made a good joke when, in reference to his fondness for drinking, they substituted for the name Tiberius Nero that of Biberius Mero. It is time that I should turn to the pathetic element in Suetonius's pages. There was something tragical in the position of an early Roman emperor. He was placed in a position far too exalted to be filled by a man. A Roman emperor was incalculably more free to exercise his power according to his caprices than a modern despot. He was not only an absolute ruler, from the constitutional point of view, but he was entirely unfettered by what restrains the modern czar far more effectually than any written laws - the force of public opinion. People were quite jester. Perhaps, as I said before, he had | first attacked by the illness which caused not time. Tacitus described him as his death, he remarked: "Dear me, I Capax imperii nisi imperasset, and from suppose I am turning into a god." our point of view he may be dismissed with the words, Capax jocandi nisi interisset. Otho was a man resembling his predecessor in nothing but the barrenness of humorous production which he shares with him. Vitellius, however, though not a wit, had a fund of exuberant jocularity, born of good living and delight at finding himself an emperor. On his visiting the battle-field on which his generals had lately won him the imperial throne, some of his suite expressed disgust at the stench of the corpses rotting on the field. Vitellius reassured them that a slaughtered foe smelt excellently well, and a slaughtered citizen still better. This opinion as to the relative merits of corpses did not, however, prevent him from drinking large draughts of unmixed wine, and distributing the same to his attendants, to do away with the effects of the odor. (The remark is Suetonius's own, and is, I think, his only attempt at a humorous remark.) Yet he was a coarse fellow, Vitellius, and it was from pure greed rather than any sense of humor that, when a Roman knight whom he had condemned to death begged for forgiveness on the ground that he had made Cæsar his heir, he ordered the will to be opened, and finding himself associated in it with a freedman, commanded the freedman to be executed also. More witty and less coarse than Vitellius, Vespasian is a man for whom one can feel a certain amount of liking. He was a down-ready to believe that the emperor was a right fellow, and was not afraid to go to sleep and snore loudly during the musical performances of Nero; and he was endowed, too, with qualities which may command our respect. But the Romans did not appreciate him. They were offended by his vulgarity and avarice. They felt that these post-Julian emperors were low creatures; that there had been a great come-down since the great Julian line had come to an end, and they were disposed to be critical of the present occupants of the throne. Thus Suetonius relates some stories illustrative of Vespasian's greed in no friendly spirit. On receiving the news from a deputation that the Senate had resolved to erect a statue in his honor at a large cost, Vespasian held out his hand, and said: "Raise it here at once; the base is all ready." A better-known remark of Vespasian's deserves to be as well known as it is, as the satire of a sensible man on the infatuation of those who would make gods of mortals. On being god, and rather expected him to act with the carelessness for all restraint characteristic of an Olympian deity. And, again, it was not as though they were Oriental despots, who were used to this kind of thing. They were still influenced by the traditions of a free state. The power of despotism was advancing by leaps and bounds. Nero declared that he was the first to make the discovery how much was allowed an emperor. Not till Domitian did the emperors assume a title hitherto reserved to the gods. Such a position was intolerably irksome to reasonable men; but many emperors did not retain their reason - their heads were turned. They accepted the general estimate of their own position and acted accordingly. Der masstab aller dingen war verloren. Augustus was a reasonable man, and did not like being taken for a god- at least, not more than was advisable for political reasons. Addressed by a petitioner with the title of Dominus, he rebuked him |