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CONCLUSION: AN ELIZABETHAN DAY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

John Dover Wilson
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Summary

And then he drew a dial from his poke,

And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,

Says very wisely, ‘ It is ten o'clock;

Thus may we see, ’ quoth he, ‘ how the world wags:

'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,

And after one hour more 'twill be eleven;

And so, from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,

And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,

And thereby hangs a tale. ’

As You Like It, ii. vii. 20–28

One of the Clock.

It is now the first hour and time is, as it were, stepping out of darkness and stealing towards the day: the cock calls to his hen and bids her beware of the fox, and the watch, having walked the streets, take a nap upon a stall: the bell-man calls to the maids to look to their locks, their fire and their light, and the child in the cradle calls to the nurse for a dug: the cat sits watching behind the cupboard for a mouse, and the flea sucks on sweet flesh, till he is ready to burst with blood: the spirits of the studious start out of their dreams, and if they cannot fall asleep again, then to the book and the wax candle: the dog at the door frays the thief from the house, and the thief within the house may hap to be about his business.

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Chapter
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Life in Shakespeare's England
A Book of Elizabethan Prose
 , pp. 273 - 280
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1911

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