emned thus to expiate his broken vows
of perpetual chastity; and it is very probable that it is to some
similar belief existing in this country, at the time when he wrote, that
Milton alludes in "L'Allegro," when he says:

"She was pinched and pulled, she said,
And he by Friar's Lanthorn led."

[140] Thorpe, "Northern Mythology," 1852, vol. iii. pp. 85,
158, 220.

[141] "Notelets on Shakespeare," pp. 64, 65.

[142] Ibid.

In Brittany the "Porte-brandon" appears in the form of a child bearing a
torch, which he turns like a burning wheel; and with this, we are told,
he sets fire to the villages, which are suddenly, sometimes in the
middle of the night, wrapped in flames.

The appearance of meteors Shakespeare ranks among omens, as in "1 Henry
IV." (ii. 4), where Bardolph says: "My lord, do you see these meteors?
do you behold these exhalations? What think you they portend?" And in
"King John" (iii. 4), Pandulph speaks of meteors as "prodigies and
signs." The Welsh captain, in "Richard II." (ii. 4), says:

"'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd,
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven."

_Comet._ From the earliest times comets have been superstitiously
regarded, and ranked among omens. Thus Thucydides tells us that the
Peloponnesian war was heralded by an abundance of earthquakes and
comets; and Vergil, in speaking of the death of Caesar, declares that at
no other time did comets and other supernatural prodigies appear in
greater numbers. It is probably to this latter event that Shakespeare
alludes in "Julius Caesar" (ii. 2), where he represents Calpurnia as
saying:

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

Again, in "1 Henry VI." (i. 1), the play opens with the following words,
uttered by the Duke of Bedford:

"Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry's death!"

In "Taming of the Shrew" (iii. 2), too, Petruchio, when he makes his
appearance on his wedding-day, says:

"Gentles, methinks you frown:
And wherefore gaze this goodly company,
As if they saw some wondrous monument,
Some comet, or unusual prodigy?"

In "1