University of Virginia Library

To Master W. Bolton.

Epistle. 2.

Bolton , amidst thy many other theames
Thou dost desire me to discourse of dreames:
Of which, what I could gather, reade, or find,
I here set downe to satisfie thy mind:
Dreames then (in sleep our spirits true retreate)
Do chalenge their predominance, and seate:
And in their natures, are but fantasies
Made by the motion of Imageries,
According to the sleepers habitude
Of euery sensible similitude.
So then, all dreames from diuers causes grow,
And from th' interior, or th' exterior flow:
Thinterior likewise hath a double right,
The one is mentall, clayming by the spright,
Where through in sleep (the fantasie and thought
Encountring) strange and rare effects are wrought;
Resembling those, which our affections kept,
And thoughts did trauel on before we slept:
The other cause takes his fruition,
And being from the bodies disposition:
For by th' interior habitude and state
The bodie houlds, (corrupt or ordinate)
Some motion in the fancie is maintain'd,
According to the disposition gain'd:
For where as chilly humors doe abound,
Men seeme in snow, or water, to be drown'd:
This makes the sage Phisitian to coniect
By dreames, what griefes the inward parts infect,
Th' exterior cause likewise, we double call,
The first diuine, pure, and spirituall,
Whereby things hidden, sacred, and concealed,
By God, or by his Angels, are reuealed:
The next is meerely corporall; whereby
Not onely mind and working fantasie
Is chang'd, (according as the sleepers thought
Or fancie, by containing aire is wrought)
But by th' impression of celestiall raies,
Which doe conforme affection to their waies.
For so the staid star-gazers doe areede,
That from celestiall bodies doe proceede,
The cause, & workings of our dreames in sleepe:
And in this point a mightie coyle they keepe.
Note me the houre (sayth one) and bring it me,
I will expresse th' effect and dreame to thee:
For as when choller swarmes in breast or hed,
Men dreame of things inflam'd and fierie red,
And whereas fleugme preuailes, abounds and springs.
We dreame of watrie, colde, and frostie things:
So heauen may by his influence bestowe
The knowledge of th' effects which he doth owe,
And what in strength, and vertue it containes,
Infuse in man, in whom his worke remaines:
But by their leaues; tis not materiall
The heauens can doe onely but casuall:
But now me thinks Apollo puls mine eare
And claimes mine industrie an other wheare:
Speaking in thee, (because in thee he raignes)
And bids me busilie imploy my braines,
And proue if spirits either good or bad,
In formes, and certaine apparitions clad,
Can further force, or els infuse by right,
Vnfained dreames, to those that sleepe by night.
To which mine answer is affirmatiue,
Because the fathers make it positiue:
For dreames both true, & certaine, now & then,
By blessed sprites, are powr'd in liuing men
Either as pertinent to their reliefe,
Or to represse their frends impendent griefe,
Such was the dreame Albertus Magnus had,
Who whilst the world in nights-dark-cloake was clad,
Suppos'd he sawe, (neere to a water-mill
By which a brook, did flow with murmure shril)
A pretie lad, hard by the riuer side,
That from the bancke fell headlong in the tide,
Whilst wrastling there he lay, and he in dreame
In pittie seemd to saue him from the streame,
The morne arose, he walkt, and scarce araid
Beheld a wofull mother quite dismaid;
That piteously perplext and tir'd with teene,
Complain'd no lesse thē he in dreame had seene.
The selfe-like hap to Nicons sonne befell,
Who knowing neither purge, nor hidden spell,
To cure his patient trauel'd with the spleene,
Fell fast asleepe within a medow greene:
Wherein he thought, some spright, or genius good,
Enioyn'd him presently to let him blood
Betwixt the wedding finger and the small,
Which wakned he perform'd, and therewithall
The sicke man got his health, he wonne the fame,
And thus by dreame his doubt he ouercame:
If then the heauenly bountie by good sprights,
Direct mens actions to their best delights,
To bodily contents, to perfect health,
To safetie, to securitie, and wealth:
Farre and more working is his heau'nly power,
In sending holy spirits euery howre;
Who in our morall, and spirituall weale,
Are prest syncere instinctions to reueale:
So in a dreame King Salomon the sage,
(Both wealths, & wisdomes, wonder in his age)
Had speciall counsaile how to beare a hand
In gouerning his people, and his land:
So euen the most corrupt and vnretir'd,
Haue to good ends, beene faithfully inspir'd:
So Pharao, and Nabuchadonsor;
The caitife Caiphas, and many more,
To their confusion haue fore-knowne their fall,
And miseries God threatned them withall:
From euill messengers the sonnes of pride,
To euill men, true things are tould beside,
Not for the diuels longues they shuld beleeue,
But that in right he labours to deceiue,
Not for desire to manifest misdeede,
But to himselfe more faith and trust to breede:
So Socrates, the night before he sawe
Diuiner Plato, skild in natures lawe,
After digestions howers were ouerpast,
And vapours in the braine digested fast,
Bethought him in his dreame that he beheld
A milk-white swan, whose pleasant note exceld,
That from the earth to heauen did singing flie,
And cheer'd all other birds with melodie:
Which when he wak'd, he knew fore-tould the truth
Of Platos worth; for seeing of the youth:
Here is (quoth he) that swan that sung so sweete,
Whose eloquence, all Greece shal grace & greete:
Thus much for dreames, though more remaines to say:
My Muse commaunds me now make holiday:
And end abruptly, vowing faithfully,
To prosecute this subiect seuiously.