The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton For the First Time Collected and Edited: With Memorial-Introduction, Notes and Illustrations, Glossarial Index, Facsimilies, &c. By the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart. In Two Volumes |
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 | The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton |  |
A prety Toye written vpon this Theame:
A man a sleepe, is not at rest.
Although the heart a sleepe,the bones be all at rest,
Yet man a sleepe, his minde is oft
with many thoughts opprest.
He dreames of this and that:
sometime with trifling toyes
His onely minde is troubled sore:
sometime of pleasaunt ioyes
His minde dooth run in sleepe:
sometime, he dreames of Kinges,
Of Princes Courts & princely feates,
and of such gallant thinges:
And, by and by, is out
in midst of all his dreame,
And from the Court to country Clowns,
and of a messe of Creame:
Of Cattle in the feelde,
of woods and pasture groundes,
Of Hawking, Fyshing, Fowling too,
& hunting hare with hoūds:
And sodeinly, vnwares,
he leaues his countrey sport,
And from the countrey, by and by,
to Cittie dooth resort.
And there a thousand things
at once runs in his minde:
The gallant shops of sundry sortes,
and wares of sundry kinde:
The precious Pearles and stones
on Goldsmiths shops that shine:
And then the Horsehead, but hard by
and then a cuppe of Wine.
Besides all gallant showes,
yet one aboue the rest,
The Marchaunts wiues, with other dames,
in fine attire adrest,
That at their dores, sometime
on Sundayes vse to sit:
This when some doo behold by day,
by night they dreame of it.
And then they fall in loue,
although their sute be small:
For in the Morning once awakte,
they haue forgotten all.
Some dreame of cruell warres,
of men slaine here and there:
And all the Fields with bodyes dead
nye couered euery where.
And by and by, the warres
not scarcely halfe begon:
But who dooth get the victory,
and then the warres are done.
And sodeinly againe,
he cannot tell which way,
He is at sea, and there he sees
great Fishes gan to play:
And straight a tempest comes,
that makes the waues to rore:
And then he seeth how the Ships
doo saile in daunger sore.
Anon he sees his ship
with billowes beaten so:
That comes at last a sodaine waue,
that dooth her ouerthrow:
And there, both she, and all
her Marriners are dround:
Yet he himselfe, he knowes not how,
is safely set on ground.
He onely is at shore,
when all the rest are lost:
And there he sees, how other ships
with tempests like are tost.
And there he stands not long,
but straight a suddaine chaunge:
He carryed is, he knowes not how,
into a Countrey straunge:
And there he speakes a speech
he neuer spake before:
And once awake againe, perhaps,
he neuer shall speake more.
A thousand things too, more,
a man dooth thinke to see
49
nor yet are like to be.
For I my selfe haue dreamde,
in sleepe, of sightes so straunge,
And, in the midst of all my dreame,
of sodaine sundry chaunge:
That, in the morne awake,
I could but merueile much,
What cause by day, by night should driue
me into dreaming such.
But sitting so a while,
sometime I call to minde
A prouerbe olde, which some count true,
but I meere false doo finde:
That is, That man asleepe
dooth lie at quyet rest:
For many sleepe, yt haue their mindes
with many greefes opprest.
Some Dreame of Parents death,
or death of some deare friend:
Some dreame of sorrowes to insue,
and pleasures at an end.
And dreaming so, I thinke
that man is not at rest,
Although he sleepe, his heart is yet
sore troubled in the brest.
The Boye that goes to Schoole
dooth dreame of Rods by night,
His breech too, ready for the rodde:
and in a soddaine fright
He starteth in his sleepe,
and waketh therewithall:
And then say I, although he sleepe,
his rest can be but small.
Some thinke in sleepe they are
in Field with foe at fight,
And with their fysts they buffet them
that lie with them by night.
And are they not at rest,
although they sleepe, say you?
In deede they haue a kinde of rest,
but rest, I wot not how.
And many causes moe
of great vnquiet rest,
I could declare, that are in sleepe:
but these that are exprest
May well suffice, I hope, to prooue
my iudgement good in this:
That minde of man is troubled much,
when moste a sleepe he is.
| The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton | |