132 SINGING AT HEAVEN'S GATE. 



" Hark ! hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings, 



And Phoebus 'gins arise, 

 His steeds to water at those springs 



On chalic'd flowers that lies ; 

 And winking Mary-buds begin 



To ope their golden eyes ; 

 With everything that pretty is, 



My lady sweet, arise : 



Arise, arise. 



Cymbeline, Act ii. Sc. 3. 



The notion of singing " at heaven's gate " has been again 

 introduced by Shakespeare in one of his Sonnets : — 



" Like to the lark, at break of day arising 

 From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate." 



While the same idea, coupled with the mention of 

 Phoebus, has been expressed by earlier poets. Chaucer, 

 in his " Knightes Tale," says : — 



" The busy larke, messager of daye, 

 Salueth in hire song the morwe gray : 

 And fyry Phebus ryseth up so bright, 

 That al the orient laugheth of the light." 



So also, Spenser, in his " Epithalamion," 1595 : — 

 " Hark how the cheerefull birds do chaunt theyr laies, 

 And carroll of loves praise. 

 The merry larke hir mattins sings aloft, 

 The thrush replyes, the mavis descant playes, 



