The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Lovers, to bed. ‘Tis almost fairy time.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. When the clock signals midnight and the dance is over, Theseus bids the lovers to go to bed and hands over the stage to the fairies. We see an example of prosopopoeia in this passage, a figure of speech in which an abstract thing is personified – "The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve."