Cymbeline, Act ii. Sc. 3.
SINGING AT HEAVEN’S GATE.
The notion of singing “at heaven’s gate” has been again introduced by Shakespeare in one of his Sonnets:—
“Like to the lark, at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate.”
While the same idea, coupled with the mention of Phœbus, has been expressed by earlier poets. Chaucer, in his “Knightes Tale,” says:—
“The busy larke, messager of daye,
Salueth in hire song the morwe gray:
And fyry Phebus ryseth up so bright,
That al the orient laugheth of the light.”