BIRDS AND POETS. 
161 
Thereby ravislied into paradise, lie sat him down upon " the 
sote grasse" to drink in tranquilly the fulness of the new 
bliss ; and reclined thus, his heart begins to chaunt of itself 
— like wind-stirred boughs — concerning this song of its little 
Brother which so moved it. Above all images of soft de- 
light, that rippling accord was 
" More pleasaunt to me by many fold 
Than meat or drinke or any other thing ^ 
Thereto the herber was so fresh and cold, 
The wholesome savours eke so comforting, 
That as I deemed sith the beginning 
Of the world was never scene er than 
So pleasaunt a ground of none earthly man !" 
You perceive that Chaucer and his Goldfinch might both 
have sprung from from a very " Halcyon's nest" of spiritual 
" Loaferdom !" Indeed, 
" the placid mien 
Of him who first with harmony informed 
The language of our fathers " 
seems to have marked him peculiarly as Prince and Founder 
of this world-wide Order of " the lovers of quiet." He ab- 
solutely and unblushingly confesses the whole implication in 
" The Komaunt of the Kose" — 
" And then Avist I and saw full well 
That Idlenesse me served well, 
That put me in such jolitie." 
But then, who does not love that "jolitie" when he under- 
stands that 
" There were many a bird singing 
Throughout the yerde all thringing," 
" is fit for treasons, stratagems," &c. Ay, he is the veriest 
hind that ever turned up clod, who has not a fountain of 
