30 The Meteorology of Shakspere . [January, 
when the barometer, the thermometer, and all other meteor- 
ological instruments were still unknown. 
The first point we notice is that the south wind is held in 
strange disrespedt. It is regarded as unhealthy, as bois- 
terous and wet, and as especially connected with fog. Thus 
we read — 
“All the contagions of the south light on you.” 
Coriolanus, I., 8. 
“ A south-west blow on ye 
And blister you all o'er!” 
Tempest, I., 4. 
Elsewhere we find — 
“ The south fog rot thee ! ” 
And again — 
“ Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain.” 
In short this wind is never well spoken of by Shakspere, 
except in one passage : — 
“ Like the sweet south 
That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
Stealing and giving odour.” 
Twelfth Night , I., 1. 
So exceptional are these lines to all other references to 
the south wind that in Knight’s Cabinet Edition an emend- 
ment is proposed. The editor would read “ sound ” for 
“ south.” 
It is scarcely necessary to say that this emendation in- 
volves greater difficulties than the one it is intended to 
remove. Shakspere assuredly would never have likened a 
strain of music to a “ sound,” nor spoken of a sound carry- 
ing along with it the odours of the violets. 
But how comes the poet to couple the south wind with 
fogs ? We know that fogs are exclusively connected with 
the “ polar current,” i,e ., northerly or easterly winds, though 
of course so gentle as to be only just perceptible. The 
moment the wind turns to the south or south-west London 
breathes afresh, and finds that the threatened doom of the 
great city is not yet. 
Besides one of the passages quoted is self-contradidtory. 
“ Foggy south puffing with wind and rain !” Puffing wind 
and rain, from whatever quarter, dispel a fog. 
Nor are the charges of unhealthiness brought against 
the south much better founded. The south-west wind, 
especially, blowing as it does over a wide expanse of ocean, 
is exceedingly unlikely ever to have wafted any pestilence 
