Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853

POETICAL EPITHETS OF THE NIGHTINGALE

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:

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 seems to possess the power to awaken. In his Recollections of the Arabian Nights, he says,—

Again, in the In Memoriam:

With which compare these lines in The Gardener's Daughter:

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

(even including the "winds, and flowers, and waters"); everything, in short,

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.

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.

ON A PASSAGE IN OROSIUS

In King Alfred's version of Orosius, book ii. chap. iv. p. 68., Barrington, we have an account of an unsuccessful attempt made by one of Cyrus the Great's officers to swim across a river "mid twam tyncenum," with two tynkens. What was a tyncen? That was the question nearly a hundred years ago, when Barrington was working out his translation; and the only answer to be found then was contained in the great dictionary published by Lye and Manning, but is not found now in Dr. Bosworth's second edition of his Dictionary: "Tynce, a tench."

How the Persian nobleman was to be supported by two little fishes, which were more likely to land their passenger at the bottom of the river than on the opposite bank, we are left to guess. But, before we proceed with the experiment, let us see that we have got the fishes. That tench was in the Gyndis we have no authority for denying; but, if its Anglian or Saxon name was such as the dictionary exhibits, we have no trace of it in the text of Alfred; for under no form of declension, acknowledged in grammar, will tynce ever give tyncenum. We have no need, then, to spend time in calculating the chance of success, when we have not the means of making the experiment.

As either tync or tynce would give tyncum, not tyncenum, the latter must come out of tyncen (query, tynkin or tunkin, a little tun, a barrel, or a cask?). Such was the form in which the question presented itself to my mind, upon my first examination of the passage three or four years ago, but which was given up without sufficient investigation, owing to an impression that if such had been the meaning, it was so simple and obvious that nobody could have missed it.

An emergency, which I need not explain here, has within these few days recalled my attention to the subject; and I have no reason to be ashamed, or to make a secret, of the result.

Tyncen, the diminutive of tunne, is not only a genuine Anglo-Saxon word, but the type of a class, of whose existence in that language no Saxonist, I may say no Teutonist, not even the perspicacious and indefatigable Jacob Grimm himself, seems to be aware. The word is exactly analogous to Ger. tönnchen, from tonne, and proves three things:—1. That our ancestors formed diminutives in cen, as well as their neighbours in ken, kin, chen; 2. That the radical vowel was modified: for y is the umlaut of u; 3. That these properties of the dialect were known to Alfred the Great when he added this curious statement to the narrative of Orosius.

NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS

Imperseverant, undiscerning. This word I have never met with but twice,—in Shakspeare's Cymbeline, with the sense above given; and in Bishop Andrewes' Sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth at Hampton Court, A.D. 1594, in the sense of unenduring:

"For the Sodomites are an example of impenitent wilful sinners; and Lot's wife of imperseverant and relapsing righteous persons."—Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology, vol. ii. p. 62.

Perseverant, discerning, and persevers, discerns, occur respectively at pp. 43. and 92. of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure (Percy Society's edition). The noun substantive perseverance=discernment is as common a word as any of the like length in the English language. To omit the examples that might be cited out of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure, I will adduce a dozen other instances; and if those should not be enough to justify my assertion, I will undertake to heap together two dozen more. Mr. Dyce, in his Critique of Knight and Collier's Shakspeare, rightly explains the meaning of the word in Cymbeline; and quotes an example of perseverance from The Widow, to which the reader is referred. Mr. Dyce had, however, previously corrupted a passage in his edition of Rob. Greene's Dramatic Works, by substituting, "perceivance" for perseverance, the word in the original quarto of the Pinner of Wakefield, vol. ii. p. 184.:

I subjoin the promised dozen:

"For his dyet he was verie temperate, and a great enemie of excesse and surfetting; and so carelesse of delicates, as though he had had no perseuerance in the tast of meates," &c.—"The Life of Ariosto," Sir John Harington's Translation of Orlando Furioso, p. 418.

"In regarde whereof they are tyed vnto these duties: First by a prudent, diligent, and faithfull care to obserue by what things the state may be most benefited; and to haue perseuerance where such marchandize that the state most vseth and desireth may be had with greatest ease," &c.—The Trauailer, by Thomas Palmer: London, 1606.

"There are certain kinds of frogs in Egypt, about the floud of Nilus, that have this percewerance, that when by chance they happen to come where a fish called Varus is, which is great a murtherer and spoiler of frogs, they use to bear in their mouths overthwart a long reed, which groweth about the banks of Nile; and as this fish doth gape, thinking to feed upon the frog, the reed is so long that by no means he can swallow the frog; and so they save their lives."—"The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes," chap. xliii. p. 294. of Lloyd's Marrow of History, corrected and revised by R. C., Master of Arts: London, 1653.

"This fashion of countinge the monthe endured to the ccccl yere of the citie, and was kepte secrete among the byshops of theyr religion tyl the time that C. Flauius, P. Sulpitius Auarrio, and P. Sempronius Sophuilongus, then beinge Consuls, against the mynde of the Senatours disclosed all their solemne feates, published the in a table that euery man might haue perseuerauce of them."—An Abridgemente of the Notable Worke of Polidore Vergile, &c., by Thomas Langley, fol. xlii.

"And some there be that thinke men toke occasion of God to make ymages, whiche wylling to shewe to the grosse wyttes of men some perceiueraunce of hymselfe, toke on him the shape of man, as Abraham sawe him and Jacob also."—Id., fol. lxi.

In this passage, as in others presently to be alleged, "notification" seems to be the drift of the word.

"Of this vnreuerent religio, Mahomete, a noble mane, borne in Arabie, or, as some report, in Persie, was authour: and his father was an heathen idolater, and his mother an Ismaelite; wherfore she had more perceuerance of the Hebrues law."—Id., fol. cxlii.

"Where all feelyng and perseuerace of euill is awaie, nothyng there is euill or found a misse. As if a manne be fallen into a sound slepe, he feleth not the hardenesse or other incommoditie of his cabon or couche."—"The Saiynges of Publius, No. 58.," The Precepts of Cato, &c., with Erasmus Annotations: London, 1550.

"Wherfore both Philip and Alexander (if ye dead haue anie perceuerance) woulde not that the rootes (rooters) out of them and theyre issue, but rather that the punnishers of those traitors, should enioye the kingdom of Macedone."—"The XVI Booke of Justine," fol. 86., Golding's Translation of the Abridgement of the Historyes of Trojus Pompeius: London, 1578.

"And morouer bycause his setting of vs here in this world is to aduaunce vs aloft, that is, to witte to the heauenly life, whereof he giueth vs some perceyuerance and feeling afore hande."—Io. Calvin. "Sermon XLI., on the Tenth Chap. of Job," p. 209., Golding's Translation: London, 1574.

"And so farre are wee off from being able to atteine to such knowledge through our owne power, that we flee it as much as is possible, and blindfold our own eyes, to the intent we might put away all perceyuerance and feeling of God's judgement from vs."—Id., "Sermon XLII.," p. 218.

"For (as I haue touched already) God of his goodnesse doth not vtterly barre vs from hauing any perceyuerance at all of his wisdome: but it behoueth vs to keepe measure."—Id., "Sermon XLIII.," p. 219.

I shall not cite any more from Golding, but simply observe that the word occurs again and again in his translations. The remaining three examples exhibit the noun in a somewhat different sense, viz. "notification," or "means of discerning:"

"The time most apt in all the yeare, and affoording greatest perseuerance for the finding out of the heads of wells and fountaines, are the moneths of August or September."—The First Booke of the Countrie Farme, p. 8., by Stevens and Liebault, translated by Svrflet, and edited by G. Markham: London, 1616.

"He may also gather some perceiuerance by the other markes before specified; that is to say, by the prints of his foote vpon the grasse, by the carriages of his head, his dung, gate," &c.—Id., booke vii. p. 685.

"And this lyfe to men is an high perseveraunce,

Or a lyght of faythe wherby they shall be saved."

"God's Promises," by John Bale; Dodsley's Old Plays (Collier's edition), vol. i. Part II. Act I.

By-the-bye, as a specimen of the value of this edition, take the following passage of this very play:

"O perfyght keye of David, and hygh scepture of the kyndred of Jacob; whych openest and no man speareth, that speakest and no man openeth."—Act VII. p. 40.

On the word speareth the commentator treats his reader to a note; in which he informs him that speareth means "asketh," and in proof of this cites one passage from Chaucer, and two from Douglas's Virgil. It might almost appear to be upbraiding the reader with stupidity to mention that speareth signifieth "bolteth, shutteth;" and that "speaketh" is a misprint for speareth. This verb was a favourite with Bale. One word more closes my budget for the present.

More, a root. Still in use in Gloucestershire, once of frequent occurrence. To the examples alleged by Richardson, in his Dictionary, add the following:

At p. 302. you find the sentiment in Latin:

"Sicut cum videris arborem pallidam et marcidam, intelligis quod vitium habet in radice"—"a meschief in the more."

The Glossary of the editor is silent.

There should not be any comma, or other stop, at body, because the sense is—"The root of that stock is amid man's body."

Mr. Wright's Glossary refers to these last two instances as follows:

"More (A.-S.) 330, 331., the main or larger part, body (?)"

At p. 334. we meet with the word again:

"On o more thei growed."

And again, at p. 416.:

"And bite a-two the mores."

May I, in passing, venture to inquire of the editor on what authority he explains waselede (p. 476.) to be "the pret. of waselen (A.-S.) to become dirty, dirty oneself?"

Afterwards, in the same book, a few stanzas further on, he joins "crop" and "root" together.

"Last of all, if these thinges auayle not the cure, I do commend and allow above all the rest, that you take the iuyce of Celendine rootes, making them cleane from the earth that doth vse to hang to the moores."—The Booke of Falconrie, by George Turbervile, 1611, p. 236.

"Chiefely, if the moare of vertue be not cropped, but dayly rooted deepelyer."—The Fyrste Booke of the Nobles or of Nobilitye, translated from Laurence Humfrey.

The next and last example from the "Second Booke" of this interesting little volume I will quote more at large:

"Aristotle mencioneth in his Politikes an horrible othe vsed in certaine states, consistinge of the regimente of fewe nobles, in maner thus: I will hate the people, and to my power persecute them. Which is the croppe and more of al sedition. Yet too much practised in oure liues. But what cause is there why a noble man should eyther despise the people? or hate them? or wrong them? What? know they not, no tiranny maye bee trusty? Nor how yll garde of cotinuance, feare is? Further, no more may nobilitie misse the people, then in man's body, the heade, the hande. For of trueth, the common people are the handes of the nobles, sith them selues bee handlesse. They labour and sweate for them, with tillinge, saylinge, running, toylinge: by sea, by lad, with hads, wt feete, serue them. So as w'oute theyr seruice, they nor eate, nor drink, nor are clothed, no nor liue. We reade in ye taleteller Esope, a doue was saued by the helpe of an ant. A lyon escaped by the benefit of a mowse. We rede agayne, that euen ants haue theyr choler. And not altogether quite, the egle angered the bytle bee."

The reader will notice in this citation another instance of the verb miss, to dispense with. I have now done for the present; but should the collation of sundry passages, to illustrate the meaning of a word, appear as agreeable to the laws of a sound philology, as conducive to the integrity of our ancient writers, and as instructive to the public as brainspun emendations, whether of a remote or modern date, which now-a-days are pouring in like a flood—to corrupt long recognised readings in our idolised poet Shakspeare, in order to make his phraseology square with the language of the times and his readers' capacities—I will not decline to continue endeavours such as the present essay exhibits with a view to stem and roll back the tide.