Having lately been making some research among our British poets, as to
the character of the nightingale's song, I was much struck with the
great quantity and diversity of epithets that I found applied to the
bird. The difference of opinion that has existed with regard to the
quality of its song, has of course led the poetical adherents of either
side to couple the nightingale's name with that very great variety of
adjectives which I shall presently set down in a tabular form, with the
names of the poetical sponsors attached thereto. And, in making this the
subject of a Note, I am only opening up an old Query; for the character
of the nightingale's song has often been a matter for discussion, not
only for poets and scribblers, but even for great statesmen like Fox,
who, amid all the anxieties of a political life, could yet find time to
defend the nightingale from being a "most musical, most melancholy"
bird.
Coleridge's onslaught upon this line, in his poem of "The Nightingale,"
must be well known to all lovers of poetry; and his re-christening of
the bird by that epithet which Chaucer had before given it:
"'Tis the _merry_ nightingale,
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates,
With fast thick warble, his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!"
The fable of the nightingale's origin would, of course, in classical
times, give the character of melancholy to its song; and it is rather
remarkable that Æschylus makes Cassandra speak of the _happy_ chirp of
the nightingale, and the Chorus to remark upon this as a further proof
of 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, Cowper.
_Welcome._ Wordsworth.
_Wild._ Moore, Tennyson, J. Westwood (1840).
_Wise._ Waller.
_Wondrous_. Mrs. Fanny Kemble.
In addition to these 109 epithets, others might be added of a fuller
character; such as "Queen of all the quire" (Chaucer), "Night-music's
king" (Richard Barnfield, 1549), "Angel of the spring" (Ben Jonson),
"_Music's best seed-plot_" (Crashaw), "Best poet of the grove"
(Thomson), "Sweet poet of the woods" (Mrs. Charlotte Smith), "Dryad of
the trees" (Keats), "Sappho of the dell" (Hood); but the foregoing list
of simple adjectives (which doubtless could be greatly increased by a
more extended poetical reading) sufficiently demonstrates the popularity
of the nightingale as a poetical embellishment, and would, perhaps, tend
to prove that a greater diversity of epithets have been bestowed upon
the nightingale than have been given to any other song-bird.