The Birds of Shakespeare 
Shakespeare was keenly alive to the 
strong contrasts so continually placed in 
juxtaposition by Nature—what he calls 
Melodious discord, heavenly tune harsh-sounding, 
Ear’s deep-sweet music, and heart’s deep-sore wounding." 
He recognised contrasts of this kind both 
in the animate and the inanimate creation, 
and not least where the birds are involved : 
Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring ; 
Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers ; 
The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing, 
What virtue breeds iniquity devours.” 
He makes the Bishop of Ely account for 
the reformation of the Prince of Wales by 
calling attention to the association in’ Nature 
of what is baneful with what is profitable. 
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, 
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 
Neighbour’d by fruit of baser quality : 
And so the Prince obscured his contemplation 
Under the veil of wildness ; which, no doubt, 
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, 
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.” 
1Venus and Adonis, 431. 2 Lucrece, 869. 
8 Henry V2 11s G0: 
26 
