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Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.

Portents

In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman street:
Stars with strains of fire, and dews of blood;
Disasters in the sun.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1. (Prodigies.)

The night has been unruly: where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ the air.——
Some say the earth was feverous, and did shake.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act II. Scene 3. (Lenox to Macbeth.)

The bay-trees in our country are all wither’d,
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven:
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change.
Shakespeare.—King Richard II., Act II. Scene 4. (A Captain to Salisbury.)