The Birds of Shakespeare 
Our great dramatist refers to the WREN 
no fewer than nine times in his different 
Plays. Its small size is noticed, and the 
bird is credited with an amount of courage 
disproportionate to its stature. When 
Macduff flees to England his wife bitterly 
complains that he should have left her and 
his children without his protection : 
He loves us not ; 
He wants the natural touch ; for the poor wren, 
The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.! 
When Imogen, recovering in the cave, 
hardly knows where she is, she muses 
with herself and prays : 
I tremble still with fear: but if there be 
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity 
As a wren’s eye, fear’d gods, a part of it !? 
Shakespeare hardly does justice to the 
notes of the wren, which are louder, 
sweeter and more varied than might have 
been looked for in so tiny a bird. Portia 
thought that if the nightingale sang by 
1 Macbeth, iv. ii. 8. 2 Cymbeline, iW. ii. 304. 
98 
