NATURE AND THE POETS. 101 



expect them to see the fact through their imagination, 

 but it must still remain a fact ; the medium must not 

 distort it into a lie. When they name a flower or 

 a tree or a bird, whatever halo of the ideal they 

 throw around it, it must not be made to belie the 

 botany or the natural history. I doubt if you can 

 catch Shakespeare transgressing the law in this 

 respect, except where he followed the. superstition, 

 and the imperfect knowledge of his time, as in his 

 treatment of the honey-bee. His allusions to nature 

 are always incidental to his main purpose, but they 

 reveal a careful and loving observer. For instance, 

 how are fact and poetry wedded in this passage, 

 put into the mouth of Banquo ! 



" This guest of summer, 

 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 

 By his loved rnansionry, that the heaven's breath 

 Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, 

 Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 

 Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle ; 

 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 

 The air is delicate.'* 



Nature is of course universal, but in the sanw 

 sense is she local and particular cuts every suit to 

 fit the wearer, gives every land an earth and sky of 

 its own, and a flora and fauna to match. The poets 

 and their readers delight in local touches. We have 



o 



both the hare and the rabbit in America, but this 

 line from Thomson's description of a summer morn 

 l g> 

 And from the bladed field th*5 fearful har* Mmps awkward," - 



