“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
Or now hath time made me his numb’ring clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs, they jar
Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.”
In Henry VI. Shakespeare again takes notice of the sundial:—
“Methinks it were a happy life
To carve out dials quaintly point by point.”
He also alludes to them in some of his other plays. Mentioned by many famous men in various ways they are dealt with directly by not a few.