THE METEOROLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE. 583 



Is this mere imaginary descripti n? We should say that it is a most faithful 

 picture of such a season as that of 1879. with all its distressing features. We have 

 summer frosts, short fits of mild weather coming when cold would be more sea- 

 sonable, overflowing rivers, fields swamped, sheep perishing of foot-rot and of 

 "flukes" in '.he liver, the corn rotting before it can reach maturity, the field- 

 paths becoming indistinguishable because impassable. It is, in short, 1879 to the 

 life, as any faithful observer — especially if living in a rural district — would have 

 found it, and no one could have given its sad characters at once so strikingly and 

 yet so briefly. We see, then, that cold wet summers are not a misfortune pecul- 

 iar to the nineteenth century. A glacial epoch may be returning, but "cruel 

 1879 " is no proof that such is to be the doom of our immediate posterity. 



The appearance of the sky at sun rising has always been considered an indi- 

 cation of the weather that is to follow. Proverbs in common use in France and 

 Germany, as well as in Britain, warn us against a red sky in the morning. Shakes- 

 peare was no stranger to this view, which does not always hold good. 



" As doth the blushing discontented sun 

 From out the fiery portal of the east. 

 When he perceives the envious clouds are bent 

 To dim his glory, and to stain the track 

 Of his bright passage to the Occident." 



Richard II., Act III., Sc. 3. 



Here we have a picture of a particular type of unpromising mofniiig, which 

 every observer of the weather must have observed, and which was but too com-- 

 mon both in 1879 ^^^ in 1882, The ^un rises "blushing" — /. e., red — into a 

 tract of clear, fiery sky, beyond which lies a dense bank of clouds, which main- 

 tain their position and thicken till the whole sky is overcast, and the rain 

 sets in. 



Another red dawn is described, as on the day of the battle of Shrewsbury : 



" How bloodily the sun begins to peer 

 Above yon busky hill ! The day looks pale 

 At his distemperature. 



The southern wind 

 Doth play the trumpet to his purposes. 

 And by his hollow whistling m the leaves 

 Foretells a tempest and a blust'ring day." 



Henry IV., Fart L, Act V., Sc. i. 



Here, in addition to a red dawn, we have another indication of rain drawn 

 from the peculiar character of the wind, in various rural districts we have heard 

 a "bustling wind " spoken of as a sure sign of rain, and, as far as our observations 

 have gone, it has invariably proved correct. The wind is by no means violent • 

 it does not seem to move the stems or the larger branches of trees or shrubs but 

 it causes a great commotion in the leaves, especially if these are broad. ' 



VI— 37 



