flower itself
drizzles dew."

[91] Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. viii. p. 208.

By a popular fancy, the sun was formerly said to dance at its rising on
Easter morning--to which there may be an allusion in "Romeo and Juliet"
(iii. 5), where Romeo, addressing Juliet, says:

"look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east;
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops."

We may also compare the expression in "Coriolanus" (v. 4):

"The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes,
Tabors, and cymbals, and the shouting Romans,
Make the sun dance."

Mr. Knight remarks, there was "something exquisitely beautiful in the
old custom of going forth into the fields before the sun had risen on
Easter Day, to see him mounting over the hills with tremulous motion, as
if it were an animate thing, bounding in sympathy with the redeemed of
mankind."[92]

[92] See Knight's "Life of Shakespeare," 1843, p. 63.

A cloudy rising of the sun has generally been regarded as ominous--a
superstition equally prevalent on the Continent as in this country. In
"Richard III." (v. 3), King Richard asks:

"Who saw the sun to-day?

_Ratcliff._ Not I, my lord.

_K. Richard._ Then he disdains to shine; for, by the book
He should have braved the east an hour ago:
A black day will it be to somebody."

"The learned Moresin, in his 'Papatus,'" says Brand,[93] "reckons among
omens the cloudy rising of the sun." Vergil, too, in his first Georgic
(441-449), considers it a sign of stormy weather:[94]

"Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum
Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe,
Suspecti tibi sint imbres; namque urget ab alto
Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister,
Aut ubi sub lucem densa inter nubila sese
Diversi rumpent radii, aut ubi pallida surget,
Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile,
Heu, male tum mitis defendet pampinus uvas:
Tam multa in tectis crepitans salit horrida grando."

[93] "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 241.

[94] See Swainson's "Weather-Lore," 1873, p. 176, for popular
adages on the Continent.

A red sunrise is also unpropitious, and, according to a well-known
rhyme:

"If red the sun begins his race,
Be sure the rain will fall apace."

This old piece of weather-wisdom is mentioned by our