A BIRD OF ILL OMEN. 
IOI 
“Would I could meet that rogue Diomed ; I would 
croak like a raven ; I would bode, I would bode.” 
In the play of Henry VI. Suffolk vainly endeavours to 
cheer up the King, who has swooned on hearing of 
Gloster’s death, saying :— 
“ Comfort, my sovereign ! gracious Henry, comfort ! ” 
But the King, likening his message to the ill-boding note 
of a raven, replies :— 
“ What, doth my lord of Suffolk comfort me ? 
Came he right now to sing a raven’s note, 
Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers ; 
And thinks he that the chirping of a wren, 
By crying comfort from a hollow breast, 
Can chase away the first-conceived sound ? ” 
Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
After Balthazar has sung his well-known song, “ Sigh no 
more, ladies,” {Much Ado , Act ii. Sc. 3,) Benedick observes 
to himself, “ An he had been a dog that should have 
howled thus, they would have hanged him : and I pray 
God his bad voice bode no mischief. I had as lief have 
heard the night-raven, come what plague could have come 
after it.” 
Willughby thought that the so-called “ night-raven ” 
was the bittern. Speaking of the curious noise produced 
by the latter bird, he says :—•“ This, I suppose, is the 
