The Birds of Shakespeare 
When Richard II. realises the machin- 
ations of his enemies, and is asked to come 
down to the base-court to meet Boling- 
broke, he exclaims 
In the base-court? Come down? Down, court! 
Down, king ! 
For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should 
sing,} 
The hooting or screeching of the owl 
was often looked upon as a foreboding of 
death. Among the nocturnal sounds re- 
counted by fairy Puck, he tells that 
Now the wasted brands do glow, 
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 
Puts the wretch that lies in woe 
In remembrance of a shroud.” ; 
Even at a babe’s nativity the sound of 
this bird’s note might be taken as a bad 
omen. King Henry VI. tells Gloucester : 
The owl shriek’d at thy birth—an evil sign : 
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time.* 
1 Richard II. 111. ii. 182. 
2 Midsummer Nights Dream, v. i. 364. Chaucer refers to 
“<The oule that of dethe the bode bringeth.” Parlement, 343. 
33 Henry V1. v. vi. 44. 
58 
