Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Wren
And then the wren gan scippen and to daunce.
Chaucer—Court of Love. L. 1,372.
I took the wren’s nest;—
Heaven forgive me!
Its merry architects so small
Had scarcely finished their wee hall,
That, empty still, and neat and fair,
Hung idly in the summer air.
D. M. Mulock—The Wren’s Nest.
For the poor wren.
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 9.
Thus the fable tells us, that the wren mounted as high as the eagle, by getting upon his back.
Tatler. No. 224.
Among the dwellings framed by birds
In field or forest with nice care,
Is none that with the little wren’s
In snugness may compare.
Wordsworth—A Wren’s Nest.