hould reign over
the world: which though it may be was meant of our Savior; yet Tacitus
expounds it of Vespasian. Domitian dreamed, the night before he was
slain, that a golden head was growing, out of the nape of his neck: and
indeed, the succession that followed him for many years, made golden
times. Henry the Sixth of England, said of Henry the Seventh, when he
was a lad, and gave him water, This is the lad that shall enjoy the
crown, for which we strive. When I was in France, I heard from one Dr.
Pena, that the Queen Mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the
King her husband's nativity to be calculated, under a false name; and
the astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a duel; at
which the Queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges
and duels: but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the
staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver. The trivial prophecy, which
I heard when I was a child, and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her
years, was,

When hempe is spun

England's done:

whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princes had reigned,
which had the principal letters of that word hempe (which were Henry,
Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter
confusion; which, thanks be to God, is verified only in the change of
the name; for that the King's style, is now no more of England but of
Britain. There was also another prophecy, before the year of '88, which
I do not well understand.

There shall be seen upon a day,
Between the Baugh and the May,
The black fleet of Norway.
When that that is come and gone,
England build houses of lime and stone,
For after wars shall you have none.

It was generally conceived to be meant, of the Spanish fleet that came
in '88: for that the king of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway.
The prediction of Regiomontanus,

Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus,

was thought likewise accomplished in the sending of that great fleet,
being the greatest in strength, though not in number, of all that ever
swam upon the sea. As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a jest. It was,
that he was devoured of a long dragon; and it was expounded of a maker
of sausages, that troubled him exceedingly. There are numbers of
the like kind; especially if you include dreams, and predictions of
astrology. But I have set down these few only, of certain credit,