Rot half a Grain a-day.
But Shakespear being no Scholar, I suppose he had so little Skill in Rhetorick, that by a Synecdoche he did not put a Whole for a Part, as Virgil do’s Anima for Homo, in describing the Funeral of Polydorus, in Æneid. lib. 3. The Faults of this same Poetaster are not a few also in his Tragedy, call’d Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; in which he is mighty drolling, particularly where he tells an old Woman’s Story of the Cocks crowing always at Christmas, in Act 1. Scen. 1.
It faded at the Crowing of the Cock.
Some say, that ever ’gainst that Season comes,
Wherein our Saviour’s Birth is Celebrated,
This Bird of dawning singeth all Night long,
And then, they say, no Spirit dares stir abroad,
The Nights are wholsome; then no Plannets strike,
No Fairy takes, no Witch hath Power to Charm,