“The ancient saying is no heresy,
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.”
Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 9.
King Henry IV., alluding to his predecessor, says:—
“So when he had occasion to be seen,
He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded.”
Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.
For in June the cuckoo has been in song for a month, and is therefore less noticed than on its first arrival in April, when listened to as the harbinger of Spring.
Apropos of the cuckoo’s song, the following ballad is considered to be the earliest in the English language now extant. Its date is about the latter part of the reign of Henry III., and it affords a curious example of the alterations which our language has undergone since that time;