![]() ![]() “There is a romance about all who are abroad in the black hours, and with something of a thrill we try to guess their business,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), his account of hiking in the French mountains.ĭespite the romantic, mysterious image that books and movies might portray about night owls, many studies warn that people who frequently stay up until the early hours of the morning are placing their health and well-being at risk.įor instance, a 2018 study analyzing the relationship between bedtime habits and health in 433,268 adults found that night owls are more at risk of developing diabetes, and 10% more likely to die prematurely when compared with individuals who identified as morning people. The fact that they keep unusual hours, and that they are most productive in the evenings or even at night can make them seem mysterious - both appealing and somewhat frightening. Literature often romanticizes night owls. If, like Bram Stoker’s famous character Dracula from the 1897 novel of the same title, you are most active when the moon is up and tend to go into hiding at sunrise, then you might not be a vampire, but you probably qualify as a night person or night owl. However, calling someone a ‘night owl’ these days simply means that they are someone who stays up late, or operates better in the evening rather than during the daytime.Share on Pinterest What health risks do night owls face, and why? And should they strive to turn into morning larks? How is the term ‘night owl’ used today?Īs a metaphor, the owl is connected mainly with sexual violence in literature. In Henry VI Part 3 King Henry remarks that an owl was heard at the birth of Gloucester (The owl shriek’d at thy birth, an evil sign) who, of course, grew up to become the villainous King Richard III. One of the worst omens is if an owl is heard while a child is being born. Shakespeare’s use of the owl imageĮven when they are doing nothing, and not hunting, owls are a bad sign in Shakespeare. The association of the owl with bad omens and death is repeated numerous times in Shakespeare: in fact, Shakespeare’s plays and poems include a number of negative images of owls. Shakespeare copies that Roman idea by having an owl cry while Macbeth is murdering Duncan. Virgil describes how the owl cries as a portent of Dido’s impending death, and Ovid’s Metamorphasis has an owl screech during the story of Myrrha sleeping with her own father, Cynadus. He calls the owl an “especially funerial” bird, “greatly abhorred,” a “direful omen.” ![]() He tells about how the whole city of Rome had to be cleansed after an owl had flown into the Capitol. Pliny calls the owl “the monster of the night” in his book, Natural History. ![]() In ancient Rome, they were associated with bad omens. They have never had a positive image in literature. Owls have a sinister, unmistakable appearance and their cries are bloodcurdling. He is stalking her late at night, intent on raping her, and is described as a night owl. Tarquin is portrayed as a predatory bird, an owl, intent on catching the sparrow, Lucrece. The use of the term ‘night owl’ to refer to a type of person is first found in Shakespeare’s poem The Rape of Lucrece. The term has been tautologically used to denote the actual bird – the owl – for centuries but it was Shakespeare who first applied the term ‘night owl’ to a type of person. Where does the phrase ‘night owl’ come from? That is the idiomatic or metaphorical use of the term. ‘Night owl’ is a term used to refer to someone who prefers to be active at night rather than during the day. Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order.
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