COVERING THE DEAD WITH LEAVES. 141 



Out-sweeten'd not thy breath : the ruddock would, 

 With charitable bill, — O, bill, sore-shaming 

 Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie 

 Without a monument ! — bring thee all this ; 

 Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, 

 To winter-ground thy corse. "* 



Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2. 



Bishop Percy asks, " Is this an allusion to the ' Babes in 

 the Wood,' or was the notion of the redbreast covering dead 

 bodies general before the writing of that ballad ?" Mr. 

 Knight says, " There is no doubt that it was an old popular 

 belief, and the notion has been found in an earlier book 

 of natural history." John Webster, writing in 1638, says : 



" Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren, 

 Since o'er shady groves they hover, 

 And with leaves and flowers do cover 

 The friendless bodies of unburied men." 



Izaak Walton, in his " Compleat Angler," 1653, speaks 

 of " the honest robin that loves mankind, both alive and 

 dead'' Possibly Shakespeare intended only to refer to the 

 ancient and beautiful custom of strewing the grave with 

 flowers. 



With all birds it is the habit of the male to sing while 



* Instead of "winter-ground" in the last line, Mr. Collier's annotator reads 

 "winter-guard;" but " to winter-ground " appears to have been a technical term 

 for protecting a plant from the frost by laying straw or hay over it. 



