35

fome People; but that this is the truth I had myself ocular demonftration, and have heard with mine own ears a Swan fing, and affirm that I faw it inftantiy die; but this I impute to chance: whatever may be faid of the Swan's fong, I have commonly and accurately obferved, that it never fings, except in the fpring 34; at which time I have heard at least 300 on the fhore of the fea, bordering on Hagæfted 3 and Holbec, finging or rather making an uncouth found, and imagine, that the females are then invited by the males, or that the former are then laying their eggs: At other feafous of the year I have observed, that Swans in our rivers and feas are generally mute: Were I to produce more examples 36, which are many and weighty, both in Iceland and Norway, obvious almost to all, I might extend my treatise to an infinite length I will however cite one inftance of the most creditable authority, which is that of a Student of Norway, and a friend of mine, George Wilhemi, who heard the fame song with his ears; as he was walking by chance on a fhady ver

34 It may not perhaps be unworthy of obfervation, that according to this idea of Bartholinus of the vernal fong of the Swan Dionyfius in his poetical furvey of the world describes them as vocal in the spring,

Εἴαρος ὥρη

Κύκνων εἰσαΐοις λιγυρὴν ὅπα. V. 834.

35 A place near Copenhagen.

36 Plura, fi perfequamur exempla, quæ magna & gravia funt, & tum in Iflandia tum in Norwegiâ quoque tantum non omnibus obvia, in infinitum poffemus progredi Unicum adhuc bonâ fide afferam de Norwegio quodam ftudiofo Georgio Wilhelmi amico meo, qui eundem quoque cantum fuis haufit auribus: Is aliquando forte fortunâ in viridi & opaca ripa inambulans advolantes ibi cygnos aliquot animadvertit, & viâ quâdam fatis humili: Tum ille glandibus plumbeis expeditus ex eo agmine unum trajicit; deciditque ifte illicò & moritur: At fuperftites focii fato folliciti in orbem convolare defpicere fed & fuaviter concinere quafi leflum admodulantes tanto quidem & tam dulci modulamine, ut effer & ad videndum erectior & ad audiendum incitatior: Hiftoriam hanc pofteà clariffimis multis & eminentiffimis viris feriò enarravit. (P. 70.)

dant bank, he obferved fome Swans flying towards him, and at a small distance: Being furnished at the time with a gun, he fhot one out of the flight, which inftantly dropping expired: His furviving companions, concerned for his death, hovered round him in a circle, beheld him, and fung fweetly, attuning, as it were, their funeral dirge with fo exquifite a modulation, that his curiofity was excited both to behold and liften to them: He afterwards feriously related this circumftance to many eminent and diftinguished Men." The Author after this proceeds to produce other teftimonies corroborating this affertion; "Paulus " Meliffus Schedius Francus, an excellent Poet of his age, afferted, that he heard Swans fing most melodiously, where the cygnets are bred in the canals, as he was rowing in a boat on the Thames against the ftream towards London, and he maintained the truth of this fact in the moft folemn manner; Adamus Silefius in the defcription of his life mentions this circumftance. We alfo readily affent to the fuffrage of other Men and thofe Philofophers of the most unexceptionable veracity." He then produces the teftimony from Aldrovandus, which I have already cited; and afterwards adds, "that experience is the most irrefragable witness, that Swans are melodious in a wonderful manner: Let us hear Oppian, who was extremely diligent in obferving the fong of those birds; and he in his Halieu

37 Paulus Meliffus Schedius Francus, vatum fui feculi princeps, fe dulciffimè cantantes olores, cygneæ ubi in fotfis aluntur, & deinde adverío Tamefi flumine cymbâ vectum verfus Londinum omni affeveratione affirmabat ; cujus meminit etiam vitam defcribens, 1615. Adamus Silefius. Aliis prætereà viris philofophis, tanquam fide digniffimis, non illibenter habentes fidem fuffragamur.

38

ticks 3, or Pifcatory Poems, afferts, that the rocks and vallies reecho to the fong of the Swan, and of all Birds they are esteemed the most musical, and by that title confecrated to Apollo: They do not however fing with a plaintive note, as the alcedines, or king fifhers, but with a fweet mellifluous ftrain, like a concert of foft inftruments: In the fequel of his treatife he imagines, that from the foft melody of this modulation Antiquity 39 invented the fable of the mournful funeral dirge, prefaging the inftant period of its death: Upon the whole he concludes, that though many perfons affirm that Swans would fing, yet feveral deny it; but this he declares is owing to the impetuofity of a frantick zeal, and to the influence of degenerate cuftom against experience and the teftimony of thofe, who in inveftigating caufes of this nature have beftowed much time and labour. And he adds, that many moderns affent to the opinion of thofe who maintain the fact." Such is the general outline of the curious in formation, contained in this treatife of Thomas Bartholinus: It is very remarkable, that this fhould have efcaped the obfervation of many learned Men, fuch as Spanheim and Erneftus, Editors of Callimachus; the latter of whom furnishes us with other corroborating evidence to the fame purpose in a note, printed at Leyden in 1761, on the following verfe in the Hymn to Apollo of that Poet,

Ὁ δὲ κύκνος ἐν πέρι καλὸν οἰείδει 40. (ν. 5.)

* In

38 I have not been able to find the paffage in Oppian here alluded to; but that Author in his Poem on Hunting mentions, that Swans are not the only Birds, who are mutical i rophets of their death. (L. ¡l."v. 548.)

39 P. 63.

This tine is thus tranflated by Prior,
And hovering Swans, their throats releas'd
From native Eltace, carol founds harmonious.

(Callim. Hymn to Apollo.)

There

"In addition ", fays he, to those things, which are faid by learned Men, concerning the fong of the Swan, it may not be improper to obferve, that an Afiatick confirmed to me, that he in Afia had heard Swans when finging; and Paulus Vidalinus related to me, what he alfo publickly af ferted in his panegyrick on the King of Denmark in these words: In regard to Swans, which I here mention for the fake of the learned, when I once heard my much respected Preceptor exprefs his aftonishment, that the Ancients had delivered down fo many things, concerning the fong of the Swan, whom no one in more modern times, either in these countries or in Italy, or in any region of Europe, had ever heard fing, I was fuprifed at this obfervation, as having often my felf heard in my own country with pleasure the sonorous and pleafant voice of Swans: I was therefore extremely glad, that, as a witnefs both with mine own eyes and ears, I was

There is nothing in the original, which implies only that the Swan in the air fings charmingly, to juftify the liberty of the English Poet in imputing to them native filence, contrary to the Græcian idea, and the exprefs allertion of Callimachus in other paffages; for in the Hymn to Delos he calls them the finging Muficians of the God (v. 249.) and the Birds of the Muses, the most harmonious of the winged choir, (v. 252.)

4o Ad ea, quæ de cygui cantu a viris doctis etiam dicuntur, non alienum fit dicere, mihi & hominem Afianum confirmâffe, cantantes fe in Afiâ audiffe cygnos; & de Islandiâ retulit mihi Paulus Vidalinus, qui id etiam apud nos palam in oratione panegyricâ in Regem Daniæ narravit his verbis. Denique etiam cygni five olores, quos eruditorum gratiâ hic memorare libet, cum aliquem mihi dilectiffimum quondam preceptorem audierim mirari, quod veteres de cantu cygneo tam mulia prodiderint, quos tamen recentiori ævo nec in his locis nec in Italia, nec in ulla Europa regione cantare quifquam audiviffet, mirabare o hunc fermonem. qui ipfe in meâ quidem patriâ fonoram illam & amænam cygnorum vocem fæpe non fine voluptate audiveram : quarè valde gaudebam, quod ego iple teftis oculatus atque auritus hanc antiquiffimam tradisionem contra recentiorum dubia confirmare poffem; ea autem fabula eit, quod morti vicinus canat. (Erneftus in v. 5.) Hymn, in Apoll. Callim. (vol. I. p. 41.)

1

4

able.

42

able to confirm this most ancient tradition against the doubts of the Moderns; but it is a fable that the Bird fings at the approach of death." Thefe are the teftimonies of more modern Authors, which tend to establish the received notion of the Ancients on this fubject: But others have roundly and pofitively denied the veracity of the fact. Among these I find the names of Erafmus, Julius Scaliger, and Bodin, who all lived in the 16th Century: The former + declares, "that nothing in all Poetry is more generally celebrated, than the harmony of Swans; although no one had ever the fortune to hear this fong." The next Critick 43 attributes the fuppofed melody of the Bird to Grace the Parent of Lies; and in another place ** he obferves, that at Ferrara he had seen many Swans, but that they were execrable fongfters, and no better than Geefe. The laft Author 5 affents with Scaliger. Our own Countryman of the last Century in his book of Enquiries 46 into Vulgar and Common Errors, Dr. Brown, has included this in the number of them and fays, "that Authors, who countenance it, fpeak not fatisfactorily of it: Some affirming, that they fing

45

44

42 Cygnos canoros effe fic omnium poetarum literis eft decantatum, ut nihil fit celebratius, etiamfi nemini contigit hunc audiri cantum; nec defunt Philofophi, qui hujufce rei rationem quoque reddere conantur; Elianus addit eos non canere, nifi flante Favonio, unde fertur etiam proverbium xxso doua, id eft cygnea cantio. (Erafin. Chil. I. Pent. 7. c. 22. p. 233. ed. 1558. R. Steph.) There is great inaccuracy in this citation, fince Elian never mentions the circumftance, of the Swan's fong, as occafioned by the Western Gale; nor do I understand how Erafmus collects the inference.

43 De Cygni vero cantu fuaviffimo, quem cum parente mendaciorum Græcia jactare aufus es, ad Luciani tribunal, apud quem novi aliquid dicas, ftatuo. (Exercit Exot. 232. contra Cardan. 1. X. De Subtil.)

44 Ferrariæ multos (Cygnos) vidimus, fed cantores fane malos nec melius anfere canere. (Cited in Bryant's Mythol. vol. I. p. 384.) 45 In Methodo Hiftoriæ. 46 B. III. c. 27. p. 216. ed. 1658.