y-trees in our country are all wither'd,
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap,
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings."

[956] Drake's "Shakespeare and his Times," p. 352.

Previous to the assassination of Julius Caesar, we are told, in "Hamlet"
(i. 1), how:

"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 streets;
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse."

More appalling still are the circumstances which preceded and
accompanied the murder of Duncan ("Macbeth," ii. 3). We may also compare
the omens which marked the births of Owen Glendower and Richard III.
Indeed, the supposed sympathy of the elements with human joy or sorrow
or suffering is evidently a very ancient superstition; and this presumed
sensitiveness, not only of the elements, but of animated nature, to the
perpetration of deeds of darkness and blood by perverted nature, has in
all ages been extensively believed. It is again beautifully illustrated
in the lines where Shakespeare makes Lenox, on the morning following the
murder of Duncan by his host ("Macbeth," ii. 3), give the following
narrative:

"The night has been unruly; where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death;
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to the woeful time: the obscure bird
Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverous and did shake."

This idea is further illustrated in the dialogue which follows, between
Ross and an old man:

"_Old Man._ Threescore and ten I can remember well:
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful, and things strange: but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.

_Ross._ Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody