And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.”
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 1.
“Hark! hark! I hear the strain of strutting chanticleer cry cockadidle-dowe.”—Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2.
Just as “cock-crow” denotes the early morning, so is “cock-shut-time” or “cock-close,” expressive of the evening; although some consider that the latter phrase owes its origin to the practice of netting woodcocks at twilight, that is, shutting or enclosing them in a net.
COCK-A-HOOP.
The origin of the phrase “cock-a-hoop,” which occurs in Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 5, is very doubtful: the passage is—
“You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!