The Birds of Shakespeare 
coming in a crowded throng from all 
quarters to choose their mates. As he 
enumerates our familiar birds he couples 
with their names epithets that express the 
popular estimation of them. The scene 
is laid in a garden where 
On every bough the briddes herde I singe 
With voys of aungel in hir armonye.? 
Again, in his quaint and humorous verses 
on the Cuckow and the Nightingale, the 
poet transports us into the very heart 
of the woods to hear a discourse between 
these two harbingers of summer. For the 
nightingale he had a fondness which is 
lovingly expressed in the Flower and the 
Leaf, where we find the picture of a 
woodland of oaks whose new leaves 
Sprongen out ayein the sonne shene, 
Some very rede, and some a glad light grene ; 
Which, as me thought, was right a plesaunt sight, 
And eek the briddes songes for to here 
Would have rejoised any erthly wight ; 
1 Parlement of Foules, 190. 
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