pier than those Men whom Pliny speaks of * Nyctipolas appelat. Lib. 6. 20. cap.
, who could see well enough in the Day, but were quite blind at Night.Nyctipolas ... Night: Nothing about “nyctipolas” appears in Bk. VI, ch. 20 of Pliny’s Natural History. On p. 493 of the 1666 reprint of Laus Ululae we find not “Nyctipolas” but “Nyctilopas.” In the Liddell & Scott Greek dictionary “nyctipolos” is defined as “roaming by night,” which would apply aptly to the owl, but the word “nyctilopas” does not appear at all. If the author intended “nyktipolos,” then the fault may be assigned to a copyist or to a compositor who worked on the 1666 edition. Interestingly, the term “nyctalopia” turns up in John Gideon Millingen’s book Curiosities of Medical Experience (1839). Consider, O ye Fathers, whether in this Respect he is not more fortunate than all Men, who want some auxiliary Light in the Night-Time, when they are about to do any Work, or pursue their Studies? Unless we may except a few, from the Rule, as Tiberius Cæsar, and the two Scaligers; it is reported of Tiberius that he had most excellent Eyes, and what is really wonderful, at Night he could see very well in the dark; but this held but for a short Time, when he first awoke out of his Sleep †Vid Suet. in Tiberio.
;Tiberius ... Sleep: See Suetonius’s life of Tiberius in his The Twelve Caesars, tr. by Robert Graves (Harmondsworth and Baltimore: Penguin, 1958), p. 143. but our Bird maintains the Sharpness of his Sight all Night long: As for the two Scaligers, and their being able to see in the Dead of Night, as well as others at Twilight ‖Vid Epist. de gente. Scaligera.
,Scaligers ... Twilight: Did the two Scaligers have excellent night vision? The exact passage is unknown to me, but Goddaeus may have found that information in one of the following works: Josephi Scaligeri... epistola de vetustate et splendore gentis Scaligerae et J. C. Scaligeri vita. J. C. Scaligeri oratio in luctu fiuoli Audecti. Item testimonia de gente Scaligera & J. C. Scaligero. 4to., Lugduni Batavorum, 1594. I think none will doubt the Truth of it, except some surly Criticks; yet these could not do it in every Hour; but the OWL can see clearly through the whole Night, as I just now observed, be it ever so long; nay, I believe, he felt no Decay in his Eye-sight all that long Night in which Hercules was begotten; and though he was no Jew yet could he see very well
in the Egyptian Darkness. Now those who do not have the Talent of seeing in the Dark, must take care to furnish themselves with a Lamp or somewhat of that Nature. Hence the Performances of the Learned were stiled Lucubrations, because they were generally wrote by the Light of a Lamp (or Candle,) in which more Oil than Wine is consumed: Agreeable to the Story that is told of Demosthenes. It was a noted Speech concerning him that his Orations smelt of the Lamp, because he composed and wrote them in the Night. Now how chargeable is this, and what a great Expence must it be to maintain such constant Lucubration, especially at this Time when Oil and Candles are so dear! I am sensible that in your great œconomical Wisdom, you must be very apprehensive of the Importance of this Article: How great then is the OWLS Prerogative who is at none of these nightly Expences? As every Letter of his Name does express (I confess not without some Mystery;*Noctua enim est Noctu omnia cernens Tenebrosa visu acuto; ita.
Conveniunt Rebus Nomina sæpe suis.
)not without some Mystery: “An owl (noctua) is indeed a night flyer able to see everything clearly through the darkness.” No exact source found. The “ita” (“thus”) is a bridge to the proverb that follows, which asserts that “Names and natures do often agree,” or “Names often fit their objects.” See M.P. Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1950). from hence (conscript Fathers) you may easily observe how beautiful the Order of Nature is in appointing Birds which should be able to seeIl Penseroso. Lines 57-64. In these lines by Milton the translator again introduces an English passage, probably to make Goddaeus’s work more appealing to English readers. In this passage the musicality of the nightingale is emphasized. If we ask why Foxton thought that a quotation from Il Penseroso belongs here, we can probably conclude that he justified importing this selection by Milton from the text’s assertion that night birds are not inferior to those that appear by day! The Luscinia is a genus of birds that includes the nightingale, but (it seems) not the owl.