Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853 | Page 2

her insanity. (Shakspeare makes Edgar say, "The foul fiend haunted poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale."--King Lear, Act III. Sc. 6.)
Tennyson seems to be almost the only poet who has thoroughly recognised the great variety of epithets that may be applied to the nightingale's song, through the very opposite feelings which it {398} seems to possess the power to awaken. In his Recollections of the Arabian Nights, he says,--
"The living airs of middle night Died round the Bulbul as he sung; Not he; but something which possess'd The darkness of the world, delight, Life, anguish, death, immortal love, Ceasing not, mingled, unrepress'd, Apart from place, withholding time."
Again, in the In Memoriam:
"Wild bird! whose warble, liquid, sweet, Rings Eden through the budded quicks, Oh, tell me where the senses mix, Oh, tell me where the passions meet,
"Whence radiate? Fierce extremes employ Thy spirit in the dusking leaf, And in the midmost heart of grief Thy passion clasps a secret joy."
With which compare these lines in The Gardener's Daughter:
"Yet might I tell of meetings, of farewells,-- Of that which came between, more sweet than each, In whispers, like the whispers of the leaves That tremble round a nightingale--in sighs Which perfect Joy, perplexed for utterance, Stole from her sister Sorrow."
But the most singular proof that, I think, I have met with, concerning the diversity of opinion touching the song of the nightingale, is to be found in the following example. When Shelley (Prometheus Unbound) is describing the luxurious pleasures of the Grove of Daphne, he mentions (in some of the finest lines he has ever written) "the voluptuous nightingales, sick with sweet love," to be among the great attractions of the place: while Dean Milman (Martyrs of Antioch), in describing the very same "dim, licentious Daphne," is particular in mention that everything there
"Ministers Voluptuous to man's transgressions"
(even including the "winds, and flowers, and waters"); everything, in short,
"Save thou, sweet nightingale!"
The question is indeed a case of "fierce extremes," as we may see by the following table of epithets, which are taken from the British poets only:
Amorous. Milton. Artless. Drummond of Hawthornden. Attick ("Attica aedon"). Gray. Beautiful. Mackay. Charmer. Michael Drayton, Philip Ayres. Charming. Sir Roger L'Estrange. Cheerful. Philip Ayres. Complaining. Shakspeare. Conqueror. Ford Dainty. Carshaw, Giles Fletcher. Darkling. Milton. Dear. Ben Jonson, Drummond of Hawthornden. Deep. Mrs. Hemans. Delicious. Crashaw, Coleridge. Doleful. Shakspeare. Dusk. Barry Cornwall. Enchanting. Mrs. T. Welsh. Enthusiast. Crashaw. Evening. Chaucer. Ever-varying. Wordsworth. Fervent. Mrs. Hemans. Fond. Moore. Forlorn. Shakspeare, Darwin, Hood. Full-hearted. Author of The Naiad (1816). Full-throated. Keats. Gentle. The Spanish Tragedy, Dunbar (Laureate to James IV. Scot.), Mrs Charlotte Smith. Good. Chaucer, Ben Jonson. Gushing. Campbell. Hapless. Milton. Happy. Keats, Mackay. Harmless. Crashaw, Browne. Harmonious. Browne. Heavenly.[1] Chaucer, Dryden, Wordsworth. Holy. Campbell. Hopeful. Crashaw. Immortal. Keats. Joyful. Moore. Joyous. Keble. Lamenting. Shakspeare, Michael Drayton, Drummond of Hawthornden. Light-foot. Crashaw. Light-winged. Keats. Liquid. Milton, Bishop Heber, Tennyson. Listening. Crashaw, Thomson. Little. James I. Scot., Philip Ayres, Crashaw. Lone. Beattie, Mrs. Hemans, Miss London, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, Milman. Lonely. Countess of Winchilsea (1715), Barry Cornwall. Loud. Shelley. Loved. Mason. Lovely. Bloomfield. Love-lorn. Milton, Scott, Collins. Lowly. Mrs. Thompson. {399} Lusty. Chaucer. Melancholy. Milton, Milman. Melodious. Chris. Smart, Ld. Lyttelton, Southey. Merry. Red Book of Ossory, fourteenth century (quoted in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., No. 54.), Chaucer, Dunbar, Coleridge. Minstrel. Mrs. Charlotte Smith. Modest. Keble. Mournful. Shakspeare, Theo. Lee, Pope, Lord Thurlow, Byron. Musical. Milton. Music-panting. Shelley. New-abashed.[2]Chaucer. Night-warbling. Milton, Milman. Pale. Author of Raffaelle and Fornarina (1826). Panting. Crashaw. Passionate. Lady E. S. Wortley. Pensive. Mrs. Charlotte Smith. Piteous. Ambrose Philips. Pity-pleading (used ironically). Coleridge. Plaintive. Lord Lyttelton, Thomson, Keats, Hood. Pleasant. An old but unknown author, quoted in Todd's Illustrations to Gower and Chaucer, p. 291., ed. 1810. Poor. Shakspeare, Ford. Rapt. Hon. Julian Fane (1852). Ravished. Lilly. Responsive. Darwin. Restless. T. Lovell Beddoes (in The Bride's Tragedy, 1822). Richly-toned. Southey. Sad. Milton, Giles Fletcher, Drummond of Hawthornden, Graves, Darwin, Collins, Beattie, Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs Fanny Kemble, Hood, T. L. Beddoes. Shrill. Chaucer, Crashaw. Silver-sounding. Richard Barnfield. Single.[3] Southey. Skilled. Ford. Sleepless.[4] Atherstone. Sober-suited. Thomson. Soft. Milton, James I. Scot., Crashaw, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Byron. Solemn. Milton, Otway, Graingle. Sole-sitting. Thomson. Sorrowing. Shakspeare. Soul-entrancing. Bishop Heber. Supple. Crashaw. Sweet. Chaucer, James I. Scot., Milton, Spenser, Crashaw, Drummond, Richard Barnfield, Ambrose Philips, Shelley, Cowper, Thomson, Young, Darwin, Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Moore, Coleridge, Wordsworth, L. E. L., Milman, Hood, Tennyson, P. J. Bailey, Kenny, Hon. J. Fane. Sweetest. Milton, Browne, Thomson, Turnbull, Beattie. Sweet-voiced. Wither. Syren. Crashaw. Tawny. Cary. Tender. Crashaw, Turnbull. Thrilling. Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley (1847). Tuneful. Dyer, Grainger. Unseen. Byron. Vaunting. Bloomfield. Voluptuous. Shelley. Wakeful. Milton, Coleridge. Wailing. Miss Landon. Wandering. Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley. Wanton. Coleridge. Warbling. Milton, Ford, Chris. Smart, Pope, Smollett, Lord Lyttelton, Jos. Warton, Gray,