ERYTHACA RUBECULA. 29$ 



Henry IV., asks his wife, Lady Percy, to sing, he gives as his 

 reason — 



" 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast teacher." 



Shakespeare only mentions it thrice in his works ; the second 

 time in the " Two Gentlemen of Verona," by making Speed say 

 he knows Valentine is in love, because he " relishes a love-song 

 like a robin redbreast ; " the third time in " Cymbeline," where 

 he calls it the " ruddock," which is to cover " Fidele " with 

 flowers — as it did the " babes in the wood," for Arviragus says — 



" With fairest flowers, 

 Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, 

 I'll sweeten thy sad grave ; thou shalt not lack 

 The flowers that's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor 

 The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor 

 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 

 Out-sweeten'd not thy breath ; the ruddock would, 

 With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shaming 

 Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie 

 Without a monument ! ) bring thee all this ; 

 Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, 

 To winter-ground thy corse." 



For doing all these good deeds one poet says — 



" Him that harries their nest 

 Never shall his soul have rest." 



And Blake crushes all the sentiment about the robin, in a 

 short but furious form, when he says — 



" A robin in a cage 

 Puts all heaven in a rage." 



John Bunyan also, in his " Pilgrim's Progress," is its friend, 

 for he says to the Cuckoo — 



" Thou booly ! say'st thou nothing but cuckoo, 

 The robin and the wren can thee outdo." 



Although Wordsworth, in his poem of the " Redbreast Chasing 

 the Butterfly," was quite vexed to think that " such a pretty 

 little bird — a bird above many that loveth to maintain a kind 

 of sociableness with man, could be so cruel " — 



" O, pious bird ! whom man loves best, 

 Love him, or leave him alone." 



Meaning the butterfly — a thing impossible in Nature, for as a 

 rule it is the strong preying upon the weak all the world over. 



The next allied genus in the sub-family, Saxicoliria, is the 

 Phcenicura — the Redstarts. 



