Gascoigne, in his "Workes," 1587, mentions the passing bell in the prefatory lines to a sonnet, he says: "Alas, loe now I heare the passing bell, Which care appoynteth carefully to knowle, And in my brest I feele my heart now swell To breake the stringes which joynd it to my soule." Another instance of the poetic use is to be found in the _Rape of Lucrece_, by Heywood (1630), where Valerius exclaims: "Nay, if he be dying, as I could wish he were, I'le ring out his funerall peale, and this it is: Come list and harke, the bell doth towle, For some but now departing soule. And was not that some ominous fowle, The batt, the night-crow, or skreech-owle, To these I heare the wild woolfe howle, In this black night that seems to skowle. All these my black booke shall in-rowle; For hark, still, still, the bell doth towle For some but now departing sowle." Just a little earlier, Copley, in his "Wits, Fits, and Fancies" (1614), bears evidence to the ringing of the bell while persons were yet alive. A gentleman who lay upon a severe sick bed, heard a passing bell ring out, and thereupon asked his physician: "Tell me, maister Doctor, is yonder musicke for my dancing?" Continuing the subject, he gives an anecdote concerning "The ringing out at the burial." It is as follows: A rich miser and a beggar were buried in the same churchyard at the same time, "and the belles rung out amaine" for the rich man. The son of the former, fearing the tolling might be thought to be for the beggar instead of his father, hired a trumpeter to stand "all the ringing-while" in the belfry and proclaim between every peal, "Sirres, this next peale is not for R., but for Maister N.," his father. In the superstitions which gathered round the bells of Christianity, the passing bell was considered to ward off the influence of evil spirits from the departing soul. Grose says: "The passing bell was anciently rung for two purposes: one to bespeak the prayers of all good Christians for a soul just departing; the other to drive away the evil spirits who stood at the bed's foot and about the house, ready to seize their prey, or at least to molest and terrify the soul in its passage; but, by the ringing of the bell (for Durandus informs us evil spirits are much afraid of bells), they were kept aloof; and the soul, like a hunted hare, gained the start, or had what is by sportsmen called law. Hence, perhaps, exclusive of the additional labour, was occasioned the high price demanded for tolling the greatest bell of the church, for, that being louder, the evil spirits must go farther off to be clear of its sound, by which the poor soul got so much more the start of them; besides, being heard farther off, it would likewise procure the dying man a greater number of prayers." This dislike of spirits to bells is mentioned in the "Golden Legend," by Wynkyn de Worde.