Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Cuckoo
How sweet the sound of the cuckoo’s note!
Whence is the magic pleasure of the sound?
Grahame.—Birds of Scotland, Part II. Line 1.
The cuckoo then on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo!
Cuckoo! Cuckoo! O word of fear,
Unpleasing sound to the married ear.
Shakespeare.—Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V. Scene 2. (A song at the end of the Act.)
The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay.
Shakespeare.—Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III. Scene 1. (Bottom, singing.)
With the hymns of the church, and the plain song.
Longfellow.—Evangeline, Part I. Div. 1.
Why do you weep, you cuckoo?
Riley’s Plautus, Vol. I. The Pseudolus, Act I. Scene 1.