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
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This, and the epithets of "sole-sitting" and "unseen," refer to the nightingale's love of solitary seclusion.
