noticed
in "Venus and Adonis:"

"Long may they kiss each other, for this cure!
O, never let their crimson liveries wear!
And as they last, their verdure still endure,
To drive infection from the dangerous year!
That the star-gazers, having writ on death,
May say, the plague is banish'd by thy breath!"

Heroes were in ancient times immortalized by being placed among the
stars, a custom to which Bedford refers in "1 Henry VI." (i. 1):

"A far more glorious star thy soul will make
Than Julius Caesar."

And, again, "Pericles" (v. 3) exclaims:

"Heavens make a star of him."

On a medal of Hadrian, the adopted son of Trajan and Plotina, the
divinity of his parents is expressed by placing a star over their heads;
and in like manner the medals of Faustina the Elder exhibit her on an
eagle, her head surrounded with stars.[128]

[128] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 397.

In "2 Henry IV." (iv. 3) a ludicrous term for the stars is, "cinders of
the elements;" and in "Merchant of Venice" (v. 1) they are designated
"candles of the night."

_Meteors._ An elegant description of a meteor well known to sailors is
given by Ariel in "The Tempest" (i. 2):

"sometime I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join."

It is called, by the French and Spaniards inhabiting the coasts of the
Mediterranean, St. Helme's or St. Telme's fire; by the Italians, the
fire of St. Peter and St. Nicholas. It is also known as the fire of St.
Helen, St. Herm, and St. Clare. Douce[129] tells us that whenever it
appeared as a single flame it was supposed by the ancients to be Helena,
the sister of Castor and Pollux, and in this state to bring ill luck,
from the calamities which this lady is known to have caused in the
Trojan war. When it came as a double flame it was called Castor and
Pollux, and accounted a good omen. It has been described as a little
blaze of fire, sometimes appearing by night on the tops of soldiers'
lances, or at sea on masts and sailyards, whirling and leaping in a
moment from one place to another. According to some, it never appears
but after a tempest, and is supposed to lead people to suicide by
drowning. Shakespeare in all probability consulted Batman's "Golden
Books of the Leaden Goddes," who, speaking of Castor and Pollux, says:
"They were figured like