

THE NIGHTINGALE. 57 



distinguish a song unless they can see the author of 

 it. Hence they often listen in the early spring to 

 the notes of the Thrush, and express their con- 

 viction that they have heard the Nightingale long 

 before the usual time of its arrival in this country. 



Many poets have perpetuated the odd belief 

 that the mournful notes of the Nightingale are 

 caused by the bird leaning against a thorn to sing ! 

 Shakespeare, for example, in his Passionate Pilgrim, 



says 



" Everything 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 dolefulPst ditty 

 That to hear it was great pity." 



These lines, by the way, although generally 

 attributed to Shakespeare, and included in most 

 editions of his poems, were written, it is said, by 

 Richard Barnefield in 1598, and published by him 

 in a work entitled Poems in Divers Humours^ 

 Shakespeare's Lucrece, however, invoking Philomel, 



says 



" And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part 

 To keep thy sharp woes waking." 



1 See Ellis's Specimens of the Early English Poets, vol. ii. p. 356. 



