ON THE USE OF THE MUSICAL STAGE DIRECTIONS
_With references to the same Words as they occur in the Text_
_Alarum, Alarums_ (of Drums), occurs as a stage direction about 72 times in fourteen of the historical plays, always in connection with battle. It is found alone, as above, about 45 times, sometimes qualified--_e.g._, Loud alarum, Low alarum, Short alarum, Alarum within. _Alarums and Excursions_ occurs about 21 times, always in fight. ['Excursions' merely means 'parties of men running about;' see the stage direction _H. 6. A._ IV, vi. 'Excursions, _wherein_ Talbot's son is hemmed about;' also _Id._ I, v, where the direction has 'Alarum. _Skirmishings_,' instead of the usual 'excursions.']
A few special cases are--Alarum _with thunder and lightning_, _H. 6. A._ I, iv, 97; _Flourish and Alarums_, used by Rich. III. to drown the reproaches of Q. Eliz., etc.; Alarum and _chambers_ [cannon] _go off_, _H. 5._ Act iii. line 33 of the chorus, and again _Id._ end of scene 1; Alarum _and cry within_, 'Fly, fly, fly,' _Jul. Cæs._ V, v; Alarum afar off, _as at a sea fight_, _Ant._ IV, x.
Out of the 72 cases in the stage directions, 70 mean a call to battle by _drums_. There are only two exceptions, where the Alarum is identified with trumpets, _H. 6. B._ II, iii, 92, and _Troil._ IV, v, 112, 117.
Skeat gives the original of the term as 'all'arme' (Ital.) a war cry of the time of the Crusades. For the _form_ of the word, he compares _arum_ (arm) and _koren_ (corn).
The word is used 13 times in the text of Shakespeare; and in 6 of these it refers to _drums_, as in the stage directions _H. 6. A._ I, ii, 18, I, iv, 99, II, i, 42; _R. 3._ I, i, 7; _Cor._ II, ii, 76; _H. 5._ IV, vi, 35.
But in two of the remaining examples, alarum is distinctly said to be _trumpets_, _H. 6. B._ II, iii, 93 and V, ii, 3; while other more extended meanings are found--_e.g._, in _Venus and Adonis_, l. 700, where it refers to the noise of the dogs hunting the hare; in _Macbeth_ II, iii, 75 and V, v, 51, where alarum is used of a Bell; also in _Lucrece_, 433, of Tarquin's 'drumming heart' 'giving the hot charge,' and _Othello_ II, iii, 27, of Desdemona's voice, which Iago says is 'an alarum to love.'
_Flourish_, either simply in this form, or 'Flourish of Trumpets' (six times) or 'Flourish of Cornets' (twice), occurs about 68 times in seventeen plays.