June — Chaucer s Love of the Nightingale. 203 



Chaucer, always so alive to every thing that could 

 add a charm to the woods and fields where he delighted 

 to wander, paid great attention to the songs of birds, 

 and to the nightingale especially. He tells us in ' The 

 Flower and the Leaf ' how eagerly he listened for this 

 bird, although many others were singing in a way that 

 ought to have gladdened any one : — 



1 And eke the briddes songe for to here 

 Would have rejoiced any earthly wight, 

 And I that couth not yet in no manere 

 Heare the nightingale of all the yeare, 

 Full busily hearkened with herte and with eare, 

 If I her voice perceive coud any where.' 



There is a charming description, in the same poem, 

 of a conversation between a goldfinch and a nightingale ; 

 the goldfinch singing first when he had eaten * what he 

 eat wold/ and the nightingale answering him with so 

 merry a note that all the wood rang suddenly. Then 

 comes one of the most naif passages in all Chaucer, 

 when he tells us how he wanted to get sight of the 

 nightingale, which at first was not easy (as any one 

 knows who has tried) ; however, he managed it at last, 

 and then felt so gladdened by seeing what he wanted 

 to see that he fancied himself in Paradise : — 



\ Wherefore I waited about busily 

 On every side, if I might her see ; 

 And at the last I gan full well espy 

 Where she sat in a fresh grene laurer tree, 

 On the further side even right by me, 

 That gave so passing a delicious smell 

 According to the eglantere full well. 



