THE COMMON WREN. 
351 
The legend there given as “ current among the peasantry/' is not 
however confined to them, for Mr. Macgillivray, apparently with- 
out knowing anything of the Irish fable, relates the same as told 
In Act. 2. Scene 1., is the village of Shanagolden, in Munster. The wren boys enter 
confusedly, one bearing a bush with a wren in it, and the first four lines nearly as 
above given, are sung, followed by the chorus. The wren boys are occasionally in- 
troduced afterwards, wanting “money and liquor.” They bear but a subordinate 
part in the “ romantic drama.” It was printed and published in London. 
The wren boys remind one of the swallow boys at Rhodes, whose song had better 
be given here with some prefatory matter : — 
“ The household swallow was interwoven with the legendary history of Athens, by 
the tragic poets of the Attic stage. The nightingale and the swallow were both of 
them birds of passage. The children in Rhodes greeted the latter as herald of the 
spring in a little song. Troops of them carrying about a swallow, sang this from door 
to door, and collected provisions in return . — 
“ The Swallow is come ! 
The Swallow is come ! 
O fair are the seasons, and light 
Are the days that she brings 
With her dusky wings, 
And her bosom snowy white. — 
And wilt thou not dole 
From the wealth that is thine, 
The fig, and the bowl 
Of rosy wine, 
And the wheaten meal, and the basket of cheese, 
And the omelet cake, which is known to please 
The Swallow, that comes to the Rhodian land ? 
Say: Must we be gone with an empty hand. 
Or shall we receive 
The gift that we crave ? 
If thou give, — it is well. 
But beware, if thou fail. 
Nor hope that we’ll leave thee : 
Of all we’ll bereave thee. 
We’ll bear off the door. 
Or its posts from the floor, — 
Or we’ll seize thy young wife who is sitting within, 
Whose form is so airy, so light, and so thin, 
And as lightly, be sure, will we bear her away. 
Then look that thy gift be ample to-day ; 
And open the door, open the door. 
To the Swallow open the door ! 
No greybeards are we 
To be foiled in our glee. 
But boys who will have our will 
This day, 
But boys, who will have onr will.” * 
Hase’s Public and Private Life of the Ancient Greeks, p. 23-25. 
“ A tradition is prevalent in some parts both of the north and south of Ireland, 
that on one occasion James the 2nd’s forces were on the point of surprising King 
* Atheneeus, viii., c. 60 . 
