Mar. ’Tis gone![Exit Ghost.
We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet of the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at this warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object makes probation.
Marcellus answers, “It faded on the crowing of the cock,” and concludes on the vigilance of this bird, previous to the solemn festival, in a strain of superlative beauty:—
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 stirs abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planet strikes;
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.
[422] Dugdale’s Orig. Jurid.
[423] Grose.
[424] Ibid.
[425] “A black Christmas makes a fat kirk-yard.” A windy Christmas and a calm Candlemas are signs of a good year.