A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square is a song published in 1940 and made famous by Vera Lynn during the Second World War.
The song was written in Le Lavandou, a small French fishing village at the time, by Eric Maschwitz, an English entertainer and writer, and Manning Sherwin, an American composer.
Nightingales are renowned for their beautiful songs and have long been symbolic in poetry, representing creativity and spontaneity. While they are famous for singing at night, this behaviour is typical only of unpaired males. Female nightingales become more active around midnight, moving about to find a mate. Once paired, the male usually stops singing at night but continues during the day to defend his territory.
Despite their romantic associations, the chances of hearing a nightingale sing in London are slim. These elusive birds prefer dense scrub, bushes, or woodland, where they sing from deep cover. Many urban dwellers who think they’ve heard a nightingale may have actually heard a robin, another bird known to sing at night.
So why did Eric Maschwitz write about the highly improbable event of a nightingale singing in Berkeley Square? Could he have mistaken another nocturnal singer for a nightingale?
The answer lies in the song’s lyrics, which reflect how love can transform our perception of reality so the “whole damned world seemed upside down”.
The lovers in the song, meeting in Mayfair, imagine a world turned magical with angels dining at the Ritz, stars paving the streets, and a nightingale singing in Berkeley Square. As dawn breaks, they wonder if it was real or just a dream.
Eric Maschwitz wasn’t mistaken in referencing the nightingale. He fully understood that Berkeley Square was the last place one would expect to hear such a bird. But the nightingale’s song serves as a metaphor, capturing the enchanting, dreamlike quality of love.
4 Responses
Angels did dine at the Ritz. The “Angels” referred to were the ultra-rich theatre-land money-men who put up the capital for the musicals etc. Where do you think they went to eat back then? It would be the Ritz or the Savoy Grill – they didn’t have the London restaurant scene we have today.
I can’t comment on the rest of your analysis, but you’ve totally missed that point. However, it might tie in with what you said about the time of night. The angels would be more likely to dine after the performance, no?
Very good information,
Does the female have a reddish /orange breast?
with a cluft of hair raised on its head?
Many miss the true meaning of this song.
London was bombed during W.W. II, frightening the birds away. When the War was over and the bombing had stopped, the birds came back, and “a nightingale sang in Barkley Square. “
I love this