The Birds of Shakespeare 
We also recall how Capulet, bustling 
among his household, gave them a three- 
fold indication of the time: 
Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow’d, 
The curfew-bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock.? 
Shakespeare brings the cock’s shrill clarion 
even into his fairyland, for Ariel’s song 
breaks off at this signal: 
Hark, hark! I hear 
The strain of strutting chanticleer 
Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. * 
But the most detailed and impressive 
reference to this familiar bird occurs in 
the memorable scene on the platform 
before the Castle of Elsinore. The ghost 
had just appeared to Hamlet’s friends and 
Was about to speak when the cock crew. 
And then it started like a guilty thing 
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, 
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
Awake the god of day, and at his warning, 
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 
1 Romeo and Juliet, 1. iv. 3. 2 Tempest, i. il. 384. 
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