The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 22

_L'Allegro._

While every musician must remember the song in _Cymbeline_, adapted to music since Shakespeare's day by an eminent composer:--

"Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, And Phbus 'gins arise, His steeds to water at those springs On chalic'd flowers that lies; And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes; With everything that pretty is, My lady sweet, arise: Arise, arise."

_Cymbeline_, Act ii. Sc. 3.

[Sidenote: SINGING AT HEAVEN'S GATE.]

The notion of singing "at heaven's gate" has been again introduced by Shakespeare in one of his Sonnets:--

"Like to the lark, at break of day arising From sullen earth, sings hymns _at heaven's gate_."

While the same idea, coupled with the mention of Phbus, has been expressed by earlier poets. Chaucer, in his "Knightes Tale," says:--

"The busy larke, messager of daye, Salueth in hire song the morwe gray: And fyry Phebus ryseth up so bright, That al the orient laugheth of the light."

So also, Spenser, in his "Epithalamion," 1595:--

"Hark how the cheerefull birds do chaunt theyr laies, And carroll of loves praise.

The merry larke hir mattins sings aloft, The thrush replyes, the mavis descant playes, The ouzell shrills, the ruddock warbles soft, So goodly all agree with sweet consent, To this dayes merriment."

And Milton, in the "Paradise Lost," Book v., has--

"Ye birds That, singing, _up to heaven's gate_ ascend."

The "rising of the lark" and the "lodging of the lamb" have become synonymous with "morn" and "eve," (_Henry V._ Act iii. Sc. 7); and he that would rise early is counselled to "stir with the lark" (_Richard III._ Act v. Sc. 3).

[Sidenote: THE PLOUGHMAN'S CLOCK.]

With the labourer whose avocation takes him across the fields at early dawn, the lark is always an especial favourite; and Shakespeare would have it furnish some indication of the time of day:--

"When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks."

_Song--Love's Labour's Lost._

Again--

"O happy fair!

Your eyes are lode-stars, and your tongue's sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear."

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act i. Sc. 1.

[Sidenote: SONG OF THE LARK.]

When Juliet spoke disparagingly of the lark's song, it was because she wished the night prolonged, and knew that his voice betokened the approach of day:--

"It is the lark that sings so out of tune, Straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps.

Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes; O, now I would they had changed voices too!

Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray."

_Romeo and Juliet_, Act iii. Sc. 5.

The lark has ugly eyes, and the toad very fine ones; hence arose the saying that the lark and toad changed eyes. Juliet wished they had changed voices too; for then, as Heath has suggested, the croak of the toad would have been no indication of the day's approach, and consequently no signal for Romeo's departure.

[Sidenote: SOARING AND SINGING.]

To the naturalist who walks abroad at early dawn, there are few sights more pleasing than the soaring of a lark. As the first ray of suns.h.i.+ne dispels the glistening dew-drop and gently falls to earth, the lark, warmed by its soft touch, mounts high in air, and joyfully proclaims to all the advent of a new day. What glee is expressed in the song of that small brown bird, which, as it soars towards heaven and sings, teaches us the first duty of the day--grat.i.tude to our Creator!

"Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

What thou art we know not; What is most like thee?

From rainbow clouds there flow not Drops so bright to see As from thy presence showers a rain of melody."[74]

The bird which could inspire such thoughts as these is indeed noteworthy, and that poets in all ages have singled it out as an especial favourite, can be no matter of surprise.

Who does not remember those beautiful lines of Wordsworth?--

"Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; A privacy of glorious light is thine, Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood Of harmony, with instinct more divine; Type of the wise, who soar but never roam-- True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!"

But to return to Shakespeare. Perhaps no bird has received more notice at his hands than the one now under consideration. To enumerate all the pa.s.sages in which it is mentioned, would probably only weary the reader.

In addition to those already named, "the shrill-gorg'd lark" is alluded to in _King Lear_ (Act iv. Sc. 6); while to sing "as sweetly as the lark" has pa.s.sed into a proverb (_Merchant of Venice_, Act v. Sc. 1).

Mention is made of this bird in _t.i.tus Andronicus_ (Act ii. Sc. 3, and Act iii. Sc. 1); in _Cymbeline_ (Act iii. Sc. 6); and in _Richard II._ (Act iii. Sc. 3).

Formerly, a curious method of taking larks was practised by means of small pieces of looking-gla.s.s and red cloth. These were made to move at a little distance from the fowler by means of a string, and when the birds, impelled by curiosity, came within range, they were taken in a net. This practice is referred to by Shakespeare in _Henry VIII._--

"Let his grace go forward, And dare us with his cap, like larks."

_Henry VIII._ Act iii. Sc. 2.

The cap in this case was the scarlet hat of the Cardinal, which it was intended to use as a piece of red cloth. It seems probable, from the context, that the word "dare" should be "draw."

[Sidenote: THE COMMON BUNTING.]

A bird which is often taken with larks, and which, indeed, is not unlike one in appearance, is the Common Bunting (_Emberiza miliaria_). In some parts of the country it is known as the Bunting-Lark, and, from its size and general colouring, a casual observer might easily mistake it for one of the last-named species. No wonder, then, that the old lord Lafeu says:--

"I took this lark for a bunting."

_All's Well that Ends Well_, Act ii. Sc. 5.

[Sidenote: THE THROSTLE.]

It is somewhat singular that the Thrush (_t.u.r.dus musicus_), a bird as much famed for song as either the nightingale or the lark, has been so little noticed by Shakespeare. We have failed to discover more than three pa.s.sages in the entire works of our great poet in which this well-known bird is mentioned. It is referred to once in _A Winter's Tale_ (Act iv. Sc. 2); once in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act iii. Sc.

1, where Bottom the weaver, in a doggrel rhyme, sings of--