Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds.[226]
The regular disappearance of the bird on the approach of autumn is taken as a symbol of human constancy. Timon of Athens is assured by his associates:—“The swallow follows not summer more willing than we your lordship.”[227]
The Wren
The House-Martin
For the HOUSE-MARTIN or MARTLET Shakespeare seems to have had a special regard. He had noted the courageous way in which the bird places its nest, and the social instinct which leads it to build in companies where it can find convenient settlements. In one passage we are told:
The martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,