The Only Use of
harbinger
in
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,—As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on,—Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climature and countrymen.†Scene 1.1harbingers = indications of the approach of something
Definition:
an indication of the approach of something -- especially something bad