_ end of scene
1; Alarum _and cry within_, 'Fly, fly, fly,' _Jul. Caes._ V, v; Alarum
afar off, _as at a sea fight_, _Ant._ IV, x.
Out of the 72 cases in the stage directions, 70 mean a call to battle
by _drums_. There are only two exceptions, where the Alarum is
identified with trumpets, _H. 6. B._ II, iii, 92, and _Troil._ IV, v,
112, 117.
Skeat gives the original of the term as 'all'arme' (Ital.) a war cry
of the time of the Crusades. For the _form_ of the word, he compares
_arum_ (arm) and _koren_ (corn).
_'Alarum' in the text._
The word is used 13 times in the text of Shakespeare; and in 6 of
these it refers to _drums_, as in the stage directions _H. 6. A._ I,
ii, 18, I, iv, 99, II, i, 42; _R. 3._ I, i, 7; _Cor._ II, ii, 76; _H.
5._ IV, vi, 35.
But in two of the remaining examples, alarum is distinctly said to be
_trumpets_, _H. 6. B._ II, iii, 93 and V, ii, 3; while other more
extended meanings are found--_e.g._, in _Venus and Adonis_, l. 700,
where it refers to the noise of the dogs hunting the hare; in
_Macbeth_ II, iii, 75 and V, v, 51, where alarum is used of a Bell;
also in _Lucrece_, 433, of Tarquin's 'drumming heart' 'giving the hot
charge,' and _Othello_ II, iii, 27, of Desdemona's voice, which Iago
says is 'an alarum to love.'
_Flourish_, either simply in this form, or 'Flourish of Trumpets' (six
times) or 'Flourish of Cornets' (twice), occurs about 68 times in
seventeen plays.
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