The Hedge-sparrow and Finch 
presses his wife to sing and she twice 
refuses, his only remark is, “‘’'Tis the next 
way to turn tailor, or be redbreast-teacher.’’? 
The only allusion to the HEDGE-sPARROW 
occurs in King Lear. When Goneril has 
gone some way in her recrimination of 
her father, the Fool, who had just before 
called the old king “a shealed peascod,” 
breaks into the conversation with these lines : 
The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long 
That it had it head bit off by it young.” 
The Fincu, included in Bottom’s song, 
is not elsewhere mentioned by the poet, 
though the epithet “‘ finch-egg,” as a term 
‘of reproach, is hurled by Thersites at 
Patroclus.* Of the various English finches 
we may suppose that the bird intended 
was the common chaffinch. 
The familiar HousE-sPARROow, though 
often mentioned by Shakespeare, receives 
Vadesry 1/11. i, 260. * King Lear, 1. iv. 214. 
8 Troilus and Cressida, v.\. 34. 
101 
