Apeil 23. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



399 



JLiisty. Chaucer. 



Melancholy. Milton, Milman. 



Melodious. Chris, Smart, Ld. Lyttelton, Southey. 



Merry. Red Book of Ossory, fourteenth century (quoted 

 in " N. & Q.," Vol. ii., No. 54.), Chaucer, Dunbar, 

 Coleridge. 



Minstrel. Mrs. Charlotte Smith. 



Modest. Keble. 



Mournful. Shakspeare, Theo. Lee, Pope, Lord Thur- 

 low, Byron. 



Musical. Milton. 



Music-panting. Shelley, 



New-abashed. * Chaucer. 



Night-warbling. Milton, Milman. 



jPale. Author of Raffaelle and Fomarina (1826). 



Panting. Crashaw. 



Passionate. I-.ady E. S. Wortley. 



Pensive. Mrs. Charlotte Smith. 



Piteous. Ambrose Pl)ilips. 



Pity-pleading (used ironically). Coleridge. 



Plaintive. Lord Lyttelton, Thomson, Keats, Hood. 



Pleasant. An old but unknown author, quoted in Todd's 

 Illustrations to Gower and Chaucer, p. 291., ed. 1810. 



Poor. Shakspeare, Ford. 



Jtapt. Hon. Julian Fane (1852). 



Ravished. Lilly. 



Jiesponsive. Darwin. 



Jiestless. T. Lovell Beddoes (in The Bride's Tragedy, 

 1822). 



Michly-toned. Southey. 



Sad. Milton, Giles Fletcher, Drummond of Hawthorn- 

 den, Graves, Darwin, Collins, Beattie, Byron, Mrs. 

 Hemans, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, Hood, T. L. Bed- 

 does. 



•Shrill. Cl)aucer, Crashaw. 



Silver-sounding. Richard Barniield. 



JSingle.f Southey. 



Skilled. Ford. 



-Sleepless.^ Atherstone. 



Sober-suited. Thomson. 



Soft. Milton, James I. Scot., Crashaw, Mrs. Charlotte 

 Smith, Byron. 



Solemn. Milton, Otway, Graingle. 



Sole-sitting. Thomson. 



Sorrowing. Shakspeare. 



Soul-entrancing. Bishop Heber. 



Supple. Crashaw. 



Sweet. Chaucer, James I. Scot., Milton, Spenser, Cra- 

 shaw, Drummond, Richard Barnfield, Ambrose 

 Philips, Shelley, Cowper, Thomson, Young, Dar- 

 win, Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Moore, 

 Coleridge, Wordsworth, L. E. L., Milman, Hood, 

 Tennyson, P. J. Bailey, Kenny, Hon. J. Fane. 



Sweetest. Milton, Browne, Thomson, Turnbull, Beattie. 



■Sweet-voiced. Wither. 



* Chaucer ( Troilus and Creseide) imagines the night- 

 ingale to " stint" at the beginning of its song, and to be 

 frightened at the least noise. 



f This, and the epithets of " sole-sitting " and " un- 

 seen," refer to the nightingale's love of solitary seclu- 

 sion. 



\ " He slep no more than doth the nightingale." 

 Chaucer, Cant, PiL 



Syren. Crashaw. 



Tawny. Cary. 



Tender. Crashaw, Turnbull. 



Thrilling. Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley (1847). 



Tuneful. Dyer, Grainger. 



Unseen. Byron. 



Vaunting. Bloomfield. 



Voluptuous. Shelley. 



Wakeful. Milton, Coleridge. 



Wailing. Miss Landon. 



Wandering. Mrs, Charlotte Smith, Hon, Mrs. Wrottes- 

 ley. 



Wanton. Coleridge. 



Warbling. Milton, Ford, Chris. Smart, Pope, Smollett, 

 Lord Lyttelton, Jos. Warton, Gray, Cowper. 



Welcome. Wordsworth. 



Wild. Moore, Tennyson, J. Westwood (1840), 



Wise. Waller. 



Wondrous. Mrs. Fanny Kemble, 



In addition to these 109 epithets, others might 

 be added of a fuller character ; such as " Queen 

 of all the quire" (Chaucer), "Night-music's king" 

 (Richard Barnfield, 1549), "Angel of the spring" 

 (Ben Jonson), "Music's best seed-plot" (Crashaw), 

 "Best poet of the grove" (Thomson), "Sweet poet 

 of the woods " (Mrs. Charlotte Smith), " Dryad 

 of the trees " (Keats), " Sappho of the dell " 

 (Hood) ; but the foregoing list of simple adjec- 

 tives (which doubtless could be greatly increased 

 by a more extended poetical reading) sufficiently 

 demonstrates the popularity of the nightingale as 

 a poetical embellishment, and would, perhaps, tend 

 to prove that a greater diversity of epithets have 

 been bestowed upon the nightingale than have 

 been given to any other song-bird. 



CUTHBERT BePE, B.A. 



ON A PASSAGE IN OKOSIUS. 



In King Alfred's version of Orosius, book ii. 

 chap. iv. p. 68., Barrington, we have an account 

 of an unsuccessful attempt made by one of Cyrus 

 the Great's officers to swim across a river " mid 

 twam tyncenum," with two tynhens. What was a 

 tyncen ? That was the question nearly a hundred 

 years ago, when Barrington was working out his 

 translation ; and the only answer to be found then 

 was contained in the great dictionary published 

 by Lye and Manning, but is not found now in 

 Dr. Bosworth's second edition of his Dictionary : 

 " Tynce, a tench." 



How the Persian nobleman was to be supported 

 by two little fishes, which were more likely to 

 land their passenger at the bottom of the river 

 than on the opposite bank, we are left to guess. 

 But, before we proceed with the experiment, let 

 us see that we have got the fishes. That tench 

 was in the Gyndis we have no authority for deny- 

 ing ; but, if its Anglian or Saxon name was such 

 as the dictionary exhibits, we have no trace of it 



