The Nightingale 
In the Plays it is pleasant to find the bird 
with its English name and in natural sur- 
roundings. When Valentine, one of the 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, was banished 
from Milan and from the lady of his love, 
he pictured to himself among the woes 
that lay in front of him: 
Except I be by Silvia in the night 
There is no music in the nightingale. 
And when afterwards, through stress of 
circumstances, he found himself com- 
pelled to become the captain of a band 
of outlaws, he found consolation in this 
wise : 
How use doth breed a habit in a man ! 
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, 
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns : 
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, 
And to the nightingale’s complaining notes 
Tune my distresses and record my woes.! 
It will be recollected that among the 
tantalising tricks played off by the lord 
1 Two Gentlemen of Verona, 111. i. 178, Vv. iv. 1. 
10g 
