Nightingale. The Roman senate, when within The round-fac'd prodigy t' avert, From doing town or country hurt. BUTLER-Hudibras. Pt. II. 1. Canto III. L. 709. In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest will shrink away! O, when the night falls, and roosts the fowl, Then, then, is the reign of the Horned Owl! BARRY CORNWALL-The Owl. m. The startled bats flew out-bird after bird- n. L. 574. O honey-throated warbler of the grove! The rose looks out in the valley, And thither will I go, To the rosy vale, where the nightingale Sings his song of woe. i. GIL VICENTE-The Nightingale. Bowring's trans. q. Macbeth. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 3. Nimbly they seized and secreted their prey, Alive and wriggling in the elastic net, Which Nature hung beneath their grasping beaks; Till, swoln with captures, the unwieldy burden Clogg'd their slow flight, as heavily to land, Gorging their hapless victims one by one; On fair Britannia's isle, bright bird, Mocked with a crown of thorns the Just. Pierced by our sorrows, and weighed down By our transgressions,-faint and weak, Crushed by an angry Judge's frown, And agonies no word can speak,'Twas then, dear bird, the legend says That thou, from out His crown, didst tear The thorns, to lighten the distress, And ease the pain that he must bear, While pendant from thy tiny beak The gory points thy bosom pressed, And crimsoned with thy Saviour's blood The sober brownness of thy breast! Since which proud hour for thee and thine, As an especial sign of grace God pours like sacramental wine Red signs of favor o'er thy race! Redbreast. |