The Birds of Shakespeare 
The time chosen by Bolingbroke for the in- 
cantation scene in Gloucester’s garden was 
Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, 
The time when screech-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl, 
And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves.’ 
In a view of winter the owl is made to 
play its part : 
When icicles hang by the wall, 
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, 
And Tom bears logs into the hall, 
And milk comes frozen home in pail, 
When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul, 
Then nightly sings the staring owl, 
Tu-whit ; 
Tu-who, a merry note, 
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.” 
The poet has noted “ the night owl’s lazy 
flight,”* and the predatory habits of the 
“mousing owl.”* He has increased the 
glamour of the night-scenes in the tragedy 
of Macbeth by the introduction of this 
bird. When Lady Macbeth, alone and 
on the alert for the perpetration of the 
12 Henry VI.1. iv. 16. ? Love’s Labour's Lost, v. 11. 899. 
32 Henry VI.u.i.130. * Macbeth, u. 1. 13. 
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