I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies; nor
of heathen oracles; nor of natural predictions;
but only of prophecies that have been of cer-
tain memory, and from hidden causes. Saith the
Pythonissa to Saul, To-morrow thou and thy son
shall be with me. Homer hath these verses:
At domus AEneae cunctis dominabitur oris,
Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.
A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire.
Seneca the tragedian hath these verses:
--Venient annis
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat Tellus, Tiphysque novos
Detegat orbes; nec sit terris
Ultima Thule:
a prophecy of the discovery of America. The daugh-
ter of Polycrates, dreamed that Jupiter bathed her
father, and Apollo anointed him; and it came to
pass, that he was crucified in an open place, where
the sun made his body run with sweat, and the
rain washed it. Philip of Macedon dreamed, he
sealed up bis wife's belly; whereby he did expound
it, that his wife should be barren; but Aristander
the soothsayer, told him his wife was with child,
because men do not use to seal vessels, that are
empty. A phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus, in
his tent, said to him, Philippis iterum me videbis.
Tiberius said to Galba, Tu quoque, Galba, degusta-
bis imperium. In Vespasian's time, there went a
prophecy in the East, that those that should come
forth of Judea, should 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 hus-
band 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 Eng-
land but of Britain. There was also another proph-
ecy, 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 pre-
diction 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, for example. My judg-
ment is, that they ought all to be despised; and
ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside.
Though when I say despised, I mean it as for be-
lief; for otherwise, the spreading, or publishing,
of them, is in no sort to be despised. For they have
done much mischief; and I see many severe laws
made, to suppress them. That that hath given them
grace, and some credit, consisteth in three things.
First, that men mark when they hit, and never
mark when they miss; as they do generally also of
dreams. The second is, that probable conjectures,
or obscure traditions, many times turn themselves
into prophecies; while the nature of man, which
coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to foretell
that which indeed they do but collect. As that of
Seneca's verse. For so much was then subject to
demonstration, that the globe of the earth had
great parts beyond the Atlantic, which mought
be probably conceived not to be all sea: and adding
thereto the tradition in Plato's Timaeus, and his
Atlanticus, it mought encourage one to turn it to
a prediction. The third and last (which is the great
one) is, that almost all of them, being infinite in
number, have been impostures, and by idle and
crafty brains merely contrived and feigned, after
the event past.
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