Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853. Various

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Footnote 1:

The epithets "heavenly," "holy," "solemn," &c., represent the nightingale's song, as spoken of by Keats, as the bird's "plaintive anthem;" by Mackay, as its

and by Moore also, in his account of the Vale of Cashmere, as

In A Proper New Boke of the Armony of Byrdes (quoted by Dibdin, Top. Antiq., iv. 381.), of unknown date, though probably before 1580, the nightingale is represented as singing its Te Deum:

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(Troilus and Creseide) imagines the nightingale to "stint" at the beginning of its song, and to be frightened at the least noise.

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

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