The wretched animal heaved forth such _groans_,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the _big round tears_
Coursed one another down his _innocent nose_
In piteous chase.
Of these three pictures the _beseeching eyes_ of Dryden perhaps is more
pathetic than _the big round tears_, certainly borrowed by Thomson from
Shakspeare, because the former expression has more passion, and is
therefore more poetical. The sixth line in Dryden is perhaps exquisite
for its imitative harmony, and with peculiar felicity paints the action
itself. Thomson adroitly drops the _innocent nose_, of which one word
seems to have lost its original signification, and the other offends now
by its familiarity. _The dappled face_ is a term more picturesque, more
appropriate, and more poetically expressed.