University of Virginia Library

A Dream of Dooms Day.

Dreams are the Stories of our Sleep, they be
The things that best perswade, Security
Is not in beds of softest Down, for they
Disturb by Night, like our Designs by Day:
Yet there be some who have them in election,
To be the Prophets of our next days Action:
I shall hold no opinion, but refer
Them and their Natures to th' Interpreter:
But I'le declare my own; The hour of Night,
Nature, and Custome, did at once invite
My weary Brain to Rest. I made my Prayer
To my Preserver, and did straight prepare
To entertain their bounty: Not an hour
Had Sleep possess'd me with his passive pow'r,
But such a Dream I had, as made me flow
In my own Sweat and Tears, a greater woe
Nere did engrosse the grieving soul of Man,
Since those black days, Egipts ten plagues began.