The Birds of Shakespeare 
Of the birds recounted in this song, 
Shakespeare’s favourite, if we may judge 
from the frequency and appreciation with 
which he mentions it, was the LARK. He 
makes this bird a rival to Chanticleer 
in the honour of setting the day agoing. 
He. calls it “the morning lark,” “the 
herald of the morn,” specially associated 
with the brightness and glory of dawn. 
Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest, 
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high, 
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast 
The sun ariseth in his majesty.! 
Again 
The busy day, 
Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows.” 
The blithe sound of the bird’s carol 1s 
commemorated in the line 
The merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks. 
How joyfully does this feeling find ex- 
pression in the exquisite song in Cymbeline : 
1 Venus and Adonis, 853. 
2 Troilus and Cressida, ww. ii. 8. 
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