The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 44

[48] To "cry on" anything was a familiar expression formerly. In _Oth.e.l.lo_ (Act v. Sc. 1), we read--

"Whose noise is this that 'cries on' murder?"

And in _Richard III._ (Act v. Sc. 3), Richmond says:--

"Methought, their souls, whose bodies Richard murder'd, Came to my tent, and 'cried on' victory."

To "cry havoc" appears to have been a signal for indiscriminate slaughter. The expression, "Cry havoc, kings!" occurs in _King John_, Act ii. Sc. 2; and again in _Julius Caesar_, Act iii. Sc. 1:--

"Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war."

In _Coriola.n.u.s_ (Act iii. Sc. 1), Menenius says--

"Do not cry _Havoc_, where you should but hunt With modest warrant."

[49] Salvin and Brodrick, "Falconry in the British Islands."

[50] His "bow," that is, his "yoke." Some editions read "low;" an evident mistake.

[51] Compare, _ante_, pp. 57-59, "I'd whistle her off," &c.

[52] Compare, _ante_, p. 52, "A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place,"

&c.

[53] It will be observed that, in these pages, falconry is treated as a thing of the past, as indeed it is a sport now almost obsolete, and but few comparatively are acquainted with its technicalities.

[54] The weapon of this name, the most important of small fire-arms, is said to have borrowed its t.i.tle from this the most useful of small hawks, in the same way that other arms--as the falcon, falconet, and saker--have derived their names from larger and more formidable birds of prey. Against this view it is a.s.serted that the musket was invented in the fifteenth century by the Muscovites, and owes its name to its inventors. See Bescherelle, "Dict. Nat.," and "The Target: a Treatise upon the Art Military," 1756.

[55] December 30th, 1865.

[56] Victor Fatio, "Les Campagnols du Ba.s.sin du Leman." Bale, Geneve, et Paris. 1867. P. 16.

[57] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners." 1807.

[58] "The Moor and the Loch."

[59] "The Zoologist" for 1863, p. 8,765.

[60] "Essays on Natural History," 1st Series, p. 14.

[61] Stanley's "Familiar History of Birds," p. 179.

[62] An excellent dissertation on the organ of voice in the raven will be found in the second volume of Yarrell's "British Birds," 3rd ed.

p. 72.

[63] Willughby's "Ornithology," folio, 1678. Book I. p. 25.

[64] Stanley's "Familiar History of Birds," p. 188.

[65] Compare, "A _cyprus_, not a bosom, hides my heart."

_Twelfth Night_, Act iii. Sc. 1.

[66] "To fear," that is, "to frighten."

[67] According to Steevens, this is not merely a poetical supposition.

"It is observed," he says, "of the nightingale that, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together;" and Russell, in his "Account of Aleppo," tells us "the nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the day-time."

[68] "Ovid. Metamorph." Book vi. Fab. 6.

[69] These lines, although included in most editions of Shakespeare's Poems, are said to have been written by Richard Barnefield, and published in 1598 in a volume ent.i.tled "Poems in Divers Humors." (_See_ Ellis's "Specimens of the Early English Poets," vol. ii. p. 356, and F.

T. Palgrave's "Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language," p. 21.) The "Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim" was not published until 1599.

[70] "Sir Thomas Browne's Works" (Wilkin's ed.), Vol. II. p. 537.

[71] Not only does the nightingale sing by day, but she is by no means the only bird which sings at night. We have frequently listened with delight to the wood lark, skylark, thrush, sedge-warbler and gra.s.shopper-warbler long after sunset, and we have heard the cuckoo and corncrake at midnight.

[72] The "recorder" is mentioned in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act v.

Sc. 1, and in _Hamlet_, Act iii. Sc. 2.

[73] Bechstein "Ornithologisches Taschenbuch."

[74] Sh.e.l.ley.

[75] "The ruddock warbles soft."--SPENSER'S _Epithalamium_, I. 82.

[76] Instead of "winter-ground" in the last line, Mr. Collier's annotator reads "winter-guard;" but "to winter-ground" appears to have been a technical term for protecting a plant from the frost by laying straw or hay over it.

[77] See _ante_, p. 129.

[78] "The English of Shakespeare," by G. L. Craik.

[79] That is, the young cuckoo. The expression occurs again in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act ii. Sc. 1:--

"Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo-birds do sing."

[80] "Epigrams (Black Letter), 1587."

[81] "Musurgia Universalis." 1650. p. 30.

[82] _Pied_, that is parti-coloured, of different hues. So in _The Merchant of Venice_, Act i. Sc. 3:--

"That all the yeanlings (_i.e._ young lambs) which were streaked and _pied_."

And in _The Tempest_, Caliban, alluding to the parti-coloured dress which Trinculo, as a jester, wore, says:--

"What a _pied_ ninny's this."