A BIRD OF ILL OMEN. IOI 



"Would I could meet that rogue Diomed ; I would 

 croak like a raven ; I would bode, I would bode." 



In the play of Henry VI. Suffolk vainly endeavours to 

 cheer up the King, who has swooned on hearing of 

 Gloster's death, saying : 



" Comfort, my sovereign ! gracious Henry, comfort ! " 



But the King, likening his message to the ill-boding note 

 of a raven, replies : 



" What, doth my lord of Suffolk comfort me ? 

 Came he right now to sing a raven's note, 

 Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers ; 

 And thinks he that the chirping of a wren, 

 By crying comfort from a hollow breast, 

 Can chase away the first-conceived sound ? " 



Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2. 



After Balthazar has sung his well-known song, " Sigh no 

 more, ladies," (Much Ado, Act ii. Sc. 3,) Benedick observes 

 to himself, " An he had been a dog that should have 

 howled thus, they would have hanged him : and I pray 

 God his bad voice bode no mischief. I had as lief have 

 heard the night-raven, come what plague could have come 

 after it." 



Willughby thought that the so-called " night-raven " 

 was the bittern. Speaking of the curious noise produced 

 by the latter bird, he says : " This, I suppose, is the 



