Shakespeare referred to Jesus’ birth in the first scene of Hamlet. Amazed because he saw the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the officer Marcellus says, “Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes/Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,/The bird of dawning singeth all night long:/And then, they say, no spirit dares 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 the time” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 1).