"And every shepherd _tells his tale_
Under the hawthorn in the dale."
Milton's _L'Allegro_.
I used to suppose the _tale told_ was a love tale. Now I take it to mean
that each shepherd _tells the tale_, that is, counts the number of his
sheep. Is there any doubt on this point?
Milton (_Paradise Lost_, b. v.), speaks of "silent night with this her
_solemn_ bird;" that is, the nightingale. Most readers take "_solemn_"
to mean "_pensive_;" but I cannot doubt that Milton (who carries
Latinism to excess) used it to express _habitual_, _customary_,
_familiar_, as in its Latin form _sollemnis_.