A HUNT FOR THE NIGHTINGALE. 119 



start is a vivid flash of sound. On the whole, a high- 

 bred, courtly, chivalrous song ; ?. song for ladies to 

 hear leaning from embowered windows on moonlight 

 nights ; a song for royal parks and groves and 

 easeful but impassioned life. We have no bird-voice 

 so piercing and loud, with such flexibility and com- 

 pass, such full-throated harmony and long-drawn 

 cadences; though we have songs of more melody, 

 tenderness, and plaintiveness. None but the nightin- 

 gale could have inspired Keats's ode that longing 

 for self-forgetfulness and for the oblivion of the 

 world, to escape the fret and fever of life, 



"And with thee fade away into the forest dim." 



