184 IS THIS THE WOODWELE ? 



It is an open question whether the term Woodwele or 

 Woodwale, used by some old English writers, refers to this 

 bird, or to a kind of Finch or Thrush. In the ballad of 

 Robin Hood, where the gentle outlaw is represented as 

 surrounded by Nature's minstrels, it is said that 



The Woodwele sang and would not cease, 



Sitting upon the spray. 

 So loud he wakened Kobin Hood, 



In the greenwood where he lay. 



Again, in ' The Rhyme of True Thomas,' we have the 

 name in a somewhat different form 



There the Jay and the Throstel, 



The Mavis menydin her song, 

 The Woodwale farde or beryd as a bell 



That the wode about me rung. 



Clear as a bell is the reading we should give to the expres- 

 sion. A different reading of the quaint phraseology is 

 given by some, but the above seems to be as near as any 

 to the author's meaning. 



In the early editions of Chaucer, also, this term occurs, 

 as thus 



In many places Nightingales, 



And Alpes, and Finches, and Woodwales. 



Alp is an old name for the Bullfinch. In some versions of 

 old poetry we believe the term Woodwele is most used, pro- 

 bably in allusion to our sweet Woodlark, for whose benefit, 

 and that of all feathered captives, we would quote 

 the indignant protest of the father of English poetry, as 

 Chaucer has been called. "We give Leigh Hunt's rendering 

 of the passage, which finely describes the love of freedom 

 inherent in the feathered creatures : 



- which men feed in cages ; 



For though they day and night tend them like pages, 

 And strew the birds' room fair and soft as silk, 

 And give them sugar, honey, bread, and milk, 

 Yet right anon, let but the door be up, 

 And with his feet he spurneth down the cup, 

 And to the wood will he and feed on worms. 



