a short, amorous poem, composed of a number of free and unequal verses, neither confined to the regularity of a sonnet, nor to the point or antithesis of an epigram, but only consisting of some tender and delicate thought, expressed with a beautiful, noble, or elegant simplicity. Menage derives the word from mandra, which, in Latin and Greek, signifies a sheep-fold; imagining that it had been originally a kind of pastoral or shepherd's song, whence the Italians formed their madrigale, and the English madrigal. But others derive it from the word madrigar, which in the Spanish language signifies to rise in the morning; the madrigales having been formerly sung early in the morning by those who had a mind to serenade their mistresses.