The Nightingale 
the Greek name and legend, he uses the 
common English appellation of the bird, 
and, like ancient and modern poets, speaks 
of the bird as feminine, although it is the 
male alone that sings. 
Along with the ancient myth about 
Philomela he intertwined another and 
probably much more recent, but equally 
unfounded belief that the nightingale, 
when it sings, leans against a thorn that 
pierces its breast. This combination of 
ignorant fancies is most fully expressed in 
the following passage : 
Every thing did banish moan, 
Save the nightingale alone : 
She, poor bird, as all forlorn, 
Lean’d her breast up-till a thorn, 
And there sung the dolefull’st ditty, 
That to hear it was great pity: 
‘Fie, fie, fie,’ now would she cry ; 
*Wereu, terew ! by and by ; 
That to hear her so complain, 
Scarce I could from tears refrain ; 
For her griefs, so lively shown, 
Made me think upon my own.! 
1 Passionate Pilgrim, xxi. 
107 
