"O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration."

[96] Napier's "Folk-Lore of West of Scotland," 1879, p. 141.

Francis Bernier[97] says that, in France, in 1654, at an eclipse of the
sun, "some bought drugs against the eclipse, others kept themselves
close in the dark in their caves and their well-closed chambers, others
cast themselves in great multitudes into the churches; those
apprehending some malign and dangerous influence, and these believing
that they were come to the last day, and that the eclipse would shake
the foundations of nature."[98]

[97] Quoted in Southey's "Commonplace Book," 1849, 2d series,
p. 462.

[98] See Tylor's "Primitive Culture," 1871, vol. i. pp. 261,
296, 297, 321.

In "3 Henry VI." (ii. 1), Shakespeare refers to a curious circumstance
in which, on a certain occasion, the sun is reported to have appeared
like three suns. Edward says, "do I see three suns?" to which Richard
replies:

"Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun;
Not separated with the racking clouds,
But sever'd in a pale clear-shining sky.
See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss,
As if they vow'd some league inviolable:
Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun,
In this the heaven figures some event."[99]

[99] In "3 Henry VI." (ii. 1), Edward says:

"henceforward will I bear
Upon my target three fair shining suns."

This fact is mentioned both by Hall and Holinshed; the latter says: "At
which tyme the sun (as some write) appeared to the Earl of March like
_three sunnes_, and sodainely joyned altogether in one, upon whiche
sight hee tooke such courage, that he fiercely setting on his enemyes
put them to flight." We may note here that on Trinity Sunday three suns
are supposed to be seen. In the "Memoires de l'Academie Celtique" (iii.
447), it is stated that "Le jour de la fete de la Trinite, quelques
personne vont de grand matin dans la campagne, pour y voir levre trois
soleils a la fois."

According to an old proverb, to quit a better for a worse situation was
spoken of as to go "out of God's blessing into the warm sun," a
reference to which we find in "King Lear" (ii. 2), where Kent says:

"Good king, that must approve the common saw,
Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st
To the warm sun."

Dr. Johnson t