Note 61 — CANTO II. CONJURATIONS!
Reading edition
Why scream the bats! why hoot the owls! While Darwin’s midnight bull-dog howls!
A delectable imitation of Dr Darwin’s delightful pair of lines—
“Shrill scream the famish’d bats and shiverings owls, And long and loud the dog of midnight howls.
To prevent any post obit disputes among those who may hereafter write comments on this sublime passage, I have thought it advisable to designate the species of the dog which howls so horridly on this great occasion.