398 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 182. 



seems to possess tbe power to awaken. In his 

 Recollections of the Arabian Nights, he says, — 



" The living airs of middle night 

 Died round the Bulbul as he sung ; 

 Not he ; but something which possess'd 

 The darkness of the world, delight, 

 Life, anguish, death, immortal love, 

 Ceasing not, mingled, unrepress'd, 

 Apart from place, withholding time." 



Again, in the In Memoriam : 



" Wild bird ! whose warble, liquid, sweet, 

 Rings Eden through the budded quicks, 

 Oh, tell me where the senses mix, 

 Oh, tell me where the passions meet, 



" Whence radiate ? Fierce extremes employ 

 Thy spirit in the dusking leaf, 

 And in the midmost heart of grief 

 Thy passion clasps a secret joy." 



With which compare these lines in The Gardener's 

 Daughter : 



" Yet might I tell of meetings, of farewells,— 

 Of that which came between, more sweet than each, 

 In whispers, like the whispers of the leaves 

 That tremble round a nightingale — in sighs 

 Which perfect Jot/, perplexed for utterance. 

 Stole from her sister Sorrow." 



But the most singular proof that, I think, I 

 have met with, concerning the diversity of opinion 

 touching the song of the nightingale, is to be 

 found in the following example. When Shelley 

 (^Prometheus Unbound) is describing the luxurious 

 pleasures of the Grove of Daphne, he mentions (in 

 some of the finest lines he has ever written) " the 

 voluptuous nightingales, sick with sweet love," to 

 be among the great attractions of the place : while 

 Dean Milman (Martyrs of Antioch), in describing 

 the very same " dim, licentious Daphne," is parti- 

 cular in mentioning that everything there 



" Ministers 

 Voluptuous to man's transgressions " 



(even including the " winds, and flowers, and 

 -waters") ; everything, in short, 



"Save thou, sweet nightingale!" 



The question is indeed a case of " fierce ex- 

 tremes," as we may see by the following table of 

 epithets, which are taken from the British poets 

 only : 



Amorous. Milton. 



Artless. Drummond of Hawthornden. 



Attick (" Attica aedon"). Gray. 



Beautiful. Mackay. 



Charmer. Michael Drayton, Philip Ayres. 



Charming. Sir Roger L'Estrange. 



Cheerful. Philip Ayres. 



Complaining. Shakspeare. 



Conqueror. Ford. 



Dainty. Crashaw, Giles Fletcher. 



Darkling, Milton, 



Dear. Ben .Tonson, Drummond of Hawthornden, 



Deep. Mrs. Hemans. 



Delicious. Crashaw, Coleridge, 



Doleful. Shakspeare. 



Dusk. Barry Cornwall. 



Enchanting. Mrs. T. Welsh. 



Enthusiast. Crashaw. 



Evening. Chaucer. 



Ever-varying. Wordsworth. 



Fervent. Mrs. Hemans. 



Fond. Moore. 



Forlorn. Shakspeare, Darwin, Hood. 



Fidl-hearted. Author of The Naiad (1816). 



Full-throated. Keats. 



Gentle. The Spanish Tragedy, Dunbar (Laureate to 

 James IV. Scot.), Mrs. Charlotte Smith. 



Good. Chaucer, Ben Jonson. 



Gushing. Campbell. 



Hapless. Milton. 



Happy. Keats, Mackay, 



Harmless. Crashaw, Browne. 



Harmonious. Browne. 



Heavenly.* Chaucer, Dryden, Wordsworth. 



Holy. Campbell, 



Hopeful. Crashaw, 



Immortal. Keats. 



Joyful. Moore. 



Joyous. Keble. 



Lamenting. Shakspeare, Michael Drayton, Drummond 

 of Hawthornden, 



Light-foot. Crashaw. 



Light-winged. Keats, 



Liquid. Milton, Bishop Heber, Tennyson. 



Listening. Crashaw, Thomson. 



Little, James I. Scot., Philip Ayres, Crashaw. 



Lone. Beattie, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, Mrs. Fanny 

 Kemble, Milman. 



Lonely, Countess of Winchilsea (1715), Barry Corn- 

 wall. 



Loud. Shelley, 



Loved. Mason, 



Lovely. Bloomfield. 



Ijove-lorn. Milton, Scott, Collins. 



Lowly. Mrs. Thompson. 



* The epithets " heavenly," " holy," "solemn," &c., 

 represent the nightingale's song, as spoken of by Keats, 

 as the bird's " plaintive anthem ; " by Mackay, as its 



" Hymn of gratitude and love ;" 



and by Moore also, in his account of the Vale of Cash- 

 mere, as 



" The nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars." 



In A Proper New Boke of the Armony of Byrdes 

 (quoted by Dibdin, Top. Antiq., iv. 381.), of unknown 

 date, though probably before 1580, the nightingale is 

 represented as singing its Te Deum: 



" Tibi Cherubin 



Et Seraphin 

 Full goodly she dyd chaunt. 



With notes merely 



Incessabile 

 Voce prceclamant." 



