The Minstrels of the Summer. 23 



1 ' Qualis populea moerens Philomela sub umbra/' etc.,* beauti- 

 fully rendered by Dryden — 



" Her children gone, 



The mother nightingale laments alone, 

 Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence, 

 By stealth, convey'd th' unfeathered innocence, 

 But she supplies the night with mournful strains ; 

 And melancholy music fills the plains." — (L. 741 — 7.) 



Milton described the song as c ' most musical, most melan- 

 choly/' yet, after all, these quotations go for nothing, except 

 to show that, according to the mood of the mind is the nature 

 of the impression, for the chorus in Helena is overwhelmed by 

 anguish as the tragedy moves towards its climax. Yirgil de- 

 scribes the song of a bird bereaved of its young, and Milton has 

 it, in II Penseroso, where every item of the furniture " some sad 

 embroidery wears." So iEschylus, in the Agamemnon, makes 

 amends for coupling the nightingale with images of woe — 



" Ah me ! Ah me ! the nightingale's sweet lot ! 

 A sweet existence that lamenteth not."- 



The nightingale is, in habit, one of the cheerfullest, as it is, 

 perhaps, the most elegant of small birds. There is a tree in 

 my garden on which a nightingale perches over my head a 

 dozen times a day, while hunting for caterpillars and other 

 dainties, and its sprightly action is unequalled for life and 

 grace and spirit, coupled with a delicate shyness, most appro- 

 priate to such a marvellous songster. I often repeat to myself, 

 as I enjoy the glorious concert, which, from the end of April to 

 the end of June, rings out during the whole twenty-four hours, 

 those lines of Gavin Douglas — 



" To bete thare amouris of thare nychtis bale 

 The merle, the mavys, and the nychtingale, 

 With mirry notis myrthfully furth brist." 



It is at night only that the thought of sadness would occur, 

 and as the nightingale, until his mate has hatched the brood, 

 sings at all hours, except just before and just after noon, it 

 only needs to be heard in the daytime to prove that, intrinsi- 

 cally, the song is neither sad nor playful; it is deeply joyous, 

 rich, sonorous, and enlivening, except during the gloom of a 

 moonless night, when it rises above the sigh of the fitful gust, 

 and issues out of darkness like weird music from a tomb. 



Birds vary much as to the power of individuals and the 

 effect of circumstances. The same bird will trill out a more 

 spirited lay after a warm shower than during a cold, dry east 

 wind. There are times when, for a few hours, or a whole 



* Comment peuvent se rencontrer ensemble la nuit et Pombre du penplier. — 

 Heutiana, xIt. 



