I. THE ROBIN. 39 



think it a piece of good fortune that I chanced to 

 draw for you, thinking only of its brilliant colour, 

 the popinjay, which Carpaccio allows to be present 

 on the grave occasion of St. George's baptizing the 

 princess and her father. 



38. And, indeed, as soon as the Christian poets 

 begia* to speak of the singing of the birds, they 

 show themselves in quite a different mood from 

 any that ever occurs to a Greek. Aristophanes, with 

 infinitely more skill, describes, and partly imitates, 

 the singing of the nightingale ; but simply as beau- 

 tiful sound. It "fills the thickets with honey;" and 

 if in the often-quoted — ^just because it is not charac- 

 teristic of Greek literature — passage of the Coloneus, 

 a deeper sentiment is shown, that feeling is depen- 

 dent on association of the bird-voices with deeply 

 pathetic circumstances. But this troubadour finds 

 his heart in heaven by the power of the singing 



only : — 



Trop parfoisaient beau servise 

 Ciz oiselles que je vous devise. 

 II chantaient un chant ytel 

 Com fussent angle esperitel. 



We want a moment more of word-chasing to enjoy 

 this. "Oiseau," as you know, comes from "avis;" 

 but it had at this time got "oisel" for its singular 

 number, of which the terminating " sel " confused 

 itself with the " selle," from " ancilla " in domisella 



