For Christmas Time: The bird of dawning singeth all night long

Vinci Léonard de (1452-1519). Paris, musée du Louvre. INV776.

“Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit
dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome;
then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath
power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is that time.”

~ William Shakespeare from Act One, Scene One of Hamlet

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