Literary notes about Forerun (AI summary)
The term "forerun" has been deployed in literature to signify the act of preceding or heralding events, often with an anticipatory or ominous nuance. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet [1], it connotes an immediate prior need, implying urgency and direct causality. Milton’s use in Paradise Lost [2][3] underscores its martial aspect, depicting the pioneering actions that precede the establishment of a royal camp, thereby setting the scene for ensuing conflict. In a slightly different vein, Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo [4] evokes the word to foreshadow death through dreams, imbuing it with a spectral quality. Lastly, Irving’s Sketch-Book [5] employs "forerun" to indicate ominous warnings before disastrous events, reinforcing its role as a harbinger of significant, often perilous, developments in narrative.
- O, this same thought did but forerun my need, And this same needy man must sell it me.
— from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - As when bands Of Pioners with Spade and Pickaxe arm’d Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field, Or cast a Rampart.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - As when bands Of Pioners with Spade and Pickaxe arm'd Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field, Or cast a Rampart.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton - No, no, doubtless he was deceived, and it was but one of those dreams that forerun death!
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - The troubles with Philip and his Indians were preceded, we are told, by a variety of those awful warnings which forerun great and public calamities.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving
