How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns:
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
And to the nightingale’s complaining notes
Tune my distresses and record my woes.[234]
It will be recollected that among the tantalising tricks played off by the lord and his servants upon Christopher Sly, he was asked
Wilt thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays
And twenty caged nightingales do sing.[235]
Nor can we forget the magnanimous offer of Bottom when he wanted to play the part of the lion, and the danger of his frightening the duchess and the ladies was pointed out to him: