Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Signs
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear.
St. Luke, Chap. xxi. Verses 25, 26.
The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light; and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
St. Matthew, Chap. xxiv. Ver. 29.
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous, to the frighted fields.
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part I. Act III. Scene 3. (Glendower to Hotspur.)
At my nativity,
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and, at my birth,
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part I. Act III. Scene 1. (Glendower to Hotspur.)
[There was a blow as if all the artillery in the world had been discharged at once; the sea retired from the town above two miles; the birds flew about astonished; the cattle in the fields ran crying.—Malone’s Note on the above passage.]
Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky;
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars,
That have consented unto Henry’s death!
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part I. Act I. Scene 1. (Bedford in the Abbey.)