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The colloquial expression Dutch nightingale designates any of various species of frog producing a call or song.
This expression occurs, for example, in the following from American Cooking: Southern Style (New York: Time-Life Books, 1971), by the U.S. author Eugene Walter (1921-1998) [Chapter 5: The South’s Great Gift of Soul Food, page 112]:
My own experience with soul food goes back to the time when I was a boy in Mobile. […] I had been to visit a school friend whose parents summered in a rackety old white frame house on the banks of the Fish River that flows into Bon Secour Bay. […] In the evening the “Dutch nightingales,” the frogs, would sing a deafening antiphonal chorus in voices ranging from the Butterfly McQueen treble of the tree frogs to the basso profundo of the green swamp frogs, vying like dozens of Boris Godunovs to out-boom each other.
—Synonym of Dutch nightingale: Cambridgeshire nightingale.
Dutch nightingale is one of several expressions in which the adjective Dutch is used derogatorily or derisively—cf., for example, to take Dutch leave—and the following from The Dutch and the English, published in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 25th November 1950 [page 2, column 2]:
How little the Englishman once trusted the Dutchman! The English language is rich in expressions which are derisive of the Dutch. When we speak of a Dutch auction, or of Dutch courage, or of Dutch concert, or of Dutch gold, or of Dutch nightingales (that is, frogs) we imply that the Dutch were rather less than honest, or deficient in valour or other good qualities we expect of other men. And there was a time when an Englishman could not be more emphatic in a refusal than when he said “I’m a Dutchman if I do”!
Much of this is a survival of the days when Holland and England were rival world powers. It enshrines a great deal of prejudice that must have been quite unjust.
Interestingly, the noun frog—which is now specifically applied to the French—has long been a general term of abuse, applied in particular to the Dutch.—Cf. origin of ‘Froggy’ (French).
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the expression Dutch nightingale that I have found:
1-: From a letter from Dublin, Ireland, by ‘T. B.’—i.e., by the Irish author and politician Richard Steele (1672-1729)—, published in The Tatler (London, England) of Thursday 12th October 1710 [No. 236, page 264]:
Finding by several Passages of your Tatlers, that you are a Person curious in Natural Knowledge, I thought it would not be unacceptable to you to give you the following History of the Migration of Frogs into this Country. There is an ancient Tradition among the wild Philosophers of the Kingdom, That this whole Island was once as much infested by Frogs, as that wherein Whittington made his Fortune was by Mice. Insomuch that it is said, Mackdonald the First could no more sleep by Reason of these Dutch Nightingales, (as they are call’d at Paris [note 1]) than Pharaoh could when they croaked in his Bed-Chamber.
2-: From a text about the English preacher John Henley (1692-1756), published in The Connoisseur. By Mr. Town, Critic and Censor-General (London: Printed for R. Baldwin) of Thursday 10th October 1754 [No. 37, page 218]:
In these pious addresses he would first invoke the Supreme Being in the most solemn manner; then suddenly slide into the familiar, and pray,—“that we might not hear the croaking of Dutch Nightingales in the king’s chambers;”—or on another occasion, “that our clergy might not study Shakespear more than the Gospel, and that they might be rather employed on the Evangelists, than As you like it, or Much ado about nothing.”
3-: From Cobleriana; Or, The Cobler’s Medley. Being a Choice Collection of the Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Verse, Serious and Comic, of Jobson the Cobler, of Drury-Lane (London: Printed for J. Wilkie, 1768) [Vol. 1, Letter 8, page 70]—the following is about “Tom Dunderhead, a Relation of the Coblers, […] famous for his Art at Cooking a Peace-up”:
The Occasion of Tom’s Trip over to Holland and Flanders caus’d among the knowing ones in Politics, various Speculations; some thought that he had projected a Plan for draining the Fens and Bogs of the Low-Countries, being very ingenious at Works of that Sort: and so would go with it to the Hague himself, that it might not miscarry, and the better to explain his Scheme to the Grand Pensionary; but others (of our Family) who knew more of Tom’s real Taste, were very well satisfy’d that he only went over to regale himself and his Lady with a Dish of Dutch Nightingales drest after the Hogan Mogan Fashion, after his Fatigue of cooking the Peace up.
4-: From British Zoology (Chester: Printed by Eliz. Adams, for Benjamin White, London, 1769), by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant (1726-1798) [Vol. 3. Class III. Reptiles. 1. The Common Frog, page 5]:
The croaking of frogs is well known, and from that in fenny countries they are distinguished by ludicrous titles, thus they are stiled Dutch Nightingales and Boston Waites [note 2].
Notes:
Note 1: Richard Steele seems to imply that the expression Dutch nightingale is a loan translation from French. But the corresponding French expression (which would be rossignol hollandais) does not seem to have ever been used in the sense of a frog. I have found no occurrence of it—except in reference to Richard Steele’s text. For example, the following query and reply are from Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc.—Eighth Series, Volume Second (London: Published at the Office):
– Of Saturday 10th September 1892 [No. 37, page 208, column 2]:
“Dutch Nightingales.”—Steele, in the two hundred and thirty-sixth Tatler, says, “these Dutch nightingales, as they [i.e., frogs] are called at Paris.” Is this a joke of Steele’s; or were frogs so called by the French in the days of the Tatler? Can any one point out examples of the phrase in French authors?
Jonathan Bouchier.
– Of Saturday 15th October 1892 [No. 42, page 316, column 1]:
“Dutch Nightingales” (8th S. ii. 208)—[…] It seems more appropriate to call a frog “a Dutch nightingale” than an ass “un rossignol d’Arcadie.” See the dictionaries of Boyer, Chambaud, and Napoleon Landais. I have not, however, found “un rossignol hollandais” in any of my dictionaries.
Robert Pierpoint.
Note 2: The following, on the expression Boston Waite, is from Literature/archive search for information relating to pool frogs Rana lessonae in East Anglia (English Nature Research Report No. 480, © Copyright English Nature 2004), by Geoffrey Kelly, published by English Nature, Northminster House, Peterborough PE1 1UA [5. Selective ‘frog’ dialect and place-names, page 29]:
Boston Waites. Given by Pennant (1776) under the head of common frog; however, Boulenger (1884a) considered this sobriquet should apply to the edible (?= pool frog), although there could be some confusion with the natterjack toad. The Waytes, or municipal band, of Boston, Lincolnshire, was in existence from 1573 to 1734, Thompson (1856), 70. A thorough search of published and unpublished material in Lincolnshire repositories failed to establish any likely reason why the term should have been applied to any frog population.
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