414 THE BROWN LINNET. 



Again — 



" The croxodoth sing as sweetly as the lark when neither are attended." 



But yet how beautifully he introduces the lark in " Cymbe- 



line"— 



" Hark ! hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings, 

 And Phoebus 'gins arise, 

 His steeds to water at those springs 



On chalic'd flower that lies ; 

 And winking Mary-buds begin 



To ope their golden eyes ; 

 With everything that pretty bin ; 

 My lady sweet, arise, 

 Arise, arise." 



Which he iterates in one of his sonnets — 



" Like to the lark at break of day arising 

 (From sullen earth) sings at heaven's gate !" 



And in " Venus and Adonis " how finely he paints its early 

 rising — 



" Lo ! here the gentle lark weary of rest, 

 From his ' moist cabinet' mounts up on high, 

 And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast 

 The sun ariseth in his majesty ; 



Who doth the world so gloriously behold, 

 That cedar-tops and hills seem burnished gold." 



In many of his plays the same early stirring is noted — 



Troilus : " O Cressida ! but that the busy day, 



Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribald crows, 

 And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, 

 I would not from thee." 



Cressida : " Night hath been too brief." 



Troilus : " Beshrew the witch ! with venomous wights she stays, 

 As tediously as hell ; but flies the grasp of love 

 With wings more momentary — swift than thought." 



And when Richard III. wants to be early stirred, all he says is — 



" Stir with the lark to-morrow, gentle Norfolk." 



Sometimes he writes so deeply and so quaintly we have to think 

 out what he means — for instance, speaking of the handsome and 

 inviting but wanton Cressida, he makes Pandarus say to Troilus 

 — " She's making her ready, she'll come straight; you must be 

 witty now. She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short, 

 as if she were frayed with a sprite. I'll fetch her. It is the 

 prettiest villain : — she fetches her breath as short as a new-ta'en 

 sparrow." 



