(68) XLI: Demum, ad evitandos abusus, Terminus definiendus videtur, quo elapso, nisi prius pars cui interest instaverit, lites omnes (quae hunc
terminum patiuntur), censeantur ab ipso jure derelictae sive in prima sive in alia quacumque instantia cognoscantur.
The mood was set from the start as the choir walked through the hall to the stage singing Te Lucis Ante
Terminum, a seventh-century hymn for the close of day at Compline.
(24) Light is smothered under the veil of darkness, a darkness that brings nightmares to Macbeth, but also had affected Banquo, for in the second act he betrayed his anxiety by praying, using words reflecting the Catholic compline hymn Te lucis ante
terminum with its plea to be released from all terrifying 'phantoms of the night' (noctium phantasmata).
As evidence against this, however, the Latin "Et ad terre
terminum terram inclinari" (1.
(42.) Incidentally, Belloc says that they were going to Vespers, but the hymn he quotes, Te Lucis Ante
Terminum, is, in fact, from the night office of Compline.