Some keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits.[113]
The popular association of owls with supernatural beings is again noted in the Comedy of Errors, where poor Dromio of Syracuse, utterly bamboozled by the confusion of Dromios and Antonios, exclaims:
This is the fairy-land: O land of spites!
We talk with goblins, owls and sprites;
If we obey them not, this will ensue,
They’ll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.[114]
