38 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



that the mournful notes of the Nightingale are 

 caused by the bird's leaning against a thorn to 

 sing ! Shakespeare, for example, in his " Pas- 

 sionate Pilgrim," says : 



" Everything did banish moan, 

 Save the nightingale alone. 

 She, poor bird, as all forlorn, 

 Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn ; 

 And ther^sung the dolefuU'st ditty, 

 That to hear it was great pity." 



These lines, by the way, although generally 



attributed to Shakespeare, and included in most 



editions of his poems, were written, it is said, 



by Richard Barnefield in 1598, and published 



by him in a work entitled "Poems in divers 



humors.'" Shakespeare's Lucrece, however, 



invoking Philomel, says : 



" And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part 

 To keep thy sharp woes waking." 



Fletcher speaks of 



" The bird forlorn. 

 That singeth with her breast against a thorn." 



^ See Ellis's " Specimens of the Early English Poets," vol. 

 il p. 356. 



