ral notice doth remain,--
The siege of Boulogne,[484] and the plaguy sweat,[485]
The going to Saint Quintin's[486] and New-Haven,[487] 10
The rising[488] in the north, the frost so great,
That cart-wheel prints on Thamis' face were graven,[489]
The fall of money,[490] and burning of Paul's steeple,[491]
The blazing star,[492] and Spaniards' overthrow:[493]
By these events, notorious to the people,
He measures times, and things forepast doth show:
But most of all, he chiefly reckons by
A private chance,--the death of his curst[494] wife;
This is to him the dearest memory,
And th' happiest accident of all his life. 20

FOOTNOTES:

[481] Not in MS.

[482] So Isham copy.--Omitted in ed. A.

[483] So Isham copy.--Eds. A, B, C "old."

[484] Boulogne was captured by Henry VIII. in 1544.

[485] The reference probably is to the visitation of 1551.

[486] In 1557 an English corps under the Earl of Pembroke took part in
the war against France. "The English did not share in the glory of the
battle, for they were not present; but they arrived two days after to
take part in the storming of St. Quentin, and to share, to their shame,
in the sack and spoiling of the town."--Froude, VI. 52.

[487] Havre.--The expedition was despatched in 1562.

[488] Led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569.

[489] The reference is to the frost of 1564.--"There was one great frost
in England in our memory, and that was in the 7th year of Queen
Elizabeth: which began upon the 21st of December and held in so
extremely that, upon New Year's eve following, people in multitudes went
upon the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster; some, as you tell me,
sir, they do now--playing at football, others shooting at pricks."--"The
Great Frost," 1608 (Arber's "English Garner," Vol. I.)

[490] "This yeare [1560] in the end of September the copper monies which
had been coyned under King Henry the Eight and once before abased by
King Edward the Sixth, were again brought to a lower
valuacion."--Hayward's _Annals of Queen Elizabeth_, p. 73.

[491] On the 4th June 1561, the steeple of St. Paul's was struck by
lightning.

[492] "On the 10th of October (some say on the 7th) appeared a blazing
star in the north, bushing towards the east, which was nightly seen
diminishing of his brightness until the 21st of the same month."--Stow's
_Annales_, under the yea