Note 160 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Apollonius Rhodius has well expressed the κύνες δεδαημένοι ἄγρης straining after the game with open jaws;
Argonaut. L. ii. 280.
τυτθὸν δὲ τιταινόμενοι μετόπισθεν ἄκρῃς ἐν γενύεσσι μάτην ἀράβησαν ὀδόντας.
and Virgil in the simile of the “vividus Umber;” copying, probably, the poet of the Argonauts,
Æneid. L. xii. 754.
Hæret hians, jam jamque tenet, similisque tenenti Increpuit malis, morsuque elusus inani est.
The hare under pursuit has a peculiar sensibility of sounds behind her. To this excellence she owes her preservation from the danger of her pursuers. By this faculty she often outstrips the fleetest brace of greyhounds, attentive to the noise of every stretch, and sound of every pant:
Statii Theb. L. v. 168.
Præcipitat suspensa fugam; jam jamque teneri Credit, et elusos audit concurrere morsus.
The Booke of Venerie. p. 248.
“It is a gallant sport,” says Turberville, “to see how the hare will turne and wind to save herselfe out of the dogges mouth. So that sometimes even when you thinke that your greyhound doth (as it were) gape to take her, she will turne and cast them a good way behind her: and so saveth herselfe by turning, wrenching, and winding, until she reach some covert and so save her life.” And a far greater than this translator of Fouilloux has remarked: Bacon, of Discourse, Essay xxxii.“We see in beasts, that those that are weakest in the course, are yet nimblest in the turne; as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare.”
Scarce inferior to his poetical predecessor of Venusium, the classic Darcius slips his swift-footed Pterelas after the started hare, in a sketch which places the course before the reader’s eyes:
Darcii Venusini Canes.
Ocyus insequitur Pterelas, cursuque citato Intervalla facit lati decrescere campi. Jam propior propiorque micat, jam captat hianti Summa pedum rostro, jam terga fugacia stringit. Ille pavet, flexoque obliquat tramite cursus, Et dubiâ trepidans formidine, jamque teneri Se putat, et rursùm tangentis ab ore recedit, Fataque momento sibi prorogat, æmula donec Rostra levis mergat miserando in corpore victor, Fulmineus victor, gemino cui tramite lumbos Spina subit graciles, et castigata coercet Ilia substrictus venter, stant crura volantem Præteritura notum, longo internodia ductu Pes gerit, in cœlum tolluntur acumine bino Auriculæ, flexoque in lævia tergora gyro Erectæ redeunt falcata volumina caudæ.
Mr. Gay’s “Rural Sports,” Canto 2nd, afford the only poetical description of a hare-course in the English language, with which I am acquainted, in addition to that already cited from the Polyolbion of Michael Drayton:
Canto ii. v. 289.
Yet if for sylvan spurts thy bosom glow, Let thy fleet greyhound urge his flying foe. With what delight the rapid course I view! How does my eye the circling race pursue! He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws, The subtle hare darts swift beneath his paws: She flies, he stretches: now with nimble bound Eager he presses on, but overshoots his ground: She turns, he winds, and soon regains the way, Then tears with gory mouth the screaming prey.