36 love's meinie. 



we shall need chiefly. In the second place, you 

 probably, most of you, know more of the mythology 

 of the robin than I do, for the stories about it are 

 all northern, and I know scarcely any myths but 

 the Italian and Greek. You will find under the 

 name " Robin," in Miss Yonge's exhaustive and 

 admirable " History of Christian Names," the various 

 titles of honour and endearment connected with 

 him, and with the general idea of redness, — from 

 the bishop called " Bright Red Fame," who founded 

 the first great Christian church on the Rhine, (I 

 am afraid of your thinking I mean a pun, in con- 

 nection with robins, if I tell you the locality of it,) 

 down through the Hoods, and Roys, and Grays, to 

 Robin Goodfellow, and Spenser's "Hobbinol," and 

 our modern " Hob," — ^joining on to the "goblin," 

 which comes from the old Greek K68a\o<;. But I 

 cannot let you go without asking you to compare 

 the English and French feeling about small birds, in 

 Chaucer's time, with our own on the same subject. 

 I say English and French, because the original 

 French of the Romance of the Rose shows more 

 affection for birds than even Chaucer's translation, 

 passionate as he is, always, in love for any 

 one of his little winged brothers or sisters. Look, 

 however, either in the French or English, at the 

 description of the coming of the God of Love, 



