On Passages in Milton

"And every shepherd *tells his tale* Under the hawthorn in the dale." Milton's *L'Allegro*. I used to suppose the *tale told* was a love tale. Now I take it to mean that each shepherd *tells the tale*, that is, counts the number of his sheep. Is there any doubt on this point? Milton (*Paradise Lost*, b. v.), speaks of "silent night with this her solemn bird;" that is, the nightingale. Most readers take "*solemn*" to mean "*pensive*;" but I cannot doubt that Milton (who carries Latinism to excess) used it to express *habitual*, *customary*, *familiar*, as in its Latin form *sollemnis*.