Of Daniel you may read in holy writ, 380
  Who, when the king his vision did forget,
  Could word for word the wondrous dream repeat. 
  Nor less of patriarch Joseph understand,
  Who by a dream enslaved the Egyptian land,
  The years of plenty and of dearth foretold,
  When, for their bread, their liberty they sold. 
  Nor must the exalted butler be forgot,
  Nor he whose dream presaged his hanging lot.

    And did not Croesus the same death foresee,
  Raised in his vision on a lofty tree? 390
  The wife of Hector, in his utmost pride,
  Dream’d of his death the night before he died;
  Well was he warn’d from battle to refrain,
  But men to death decreed are warn’d in vain: 
  He dared the dream, and by his fatal foe was slain.

    Much more I know, which I forbear to speak,
  For, see, the ruddy day begins to break;
  Let this suffice, that plainly I foresee
  My dream was bad, and bodes adversity: 
  But neither pills nor laxatives I like, 400
  They only serve to make the well-man sick: 
  Of these his gain the sharp physician makes,
  And often gives a purge, but seldom takes: 
  They not correct, but poison all the blood,
  And ne’er did any but the doctors good. 
  Their tribe, trade, trinkets, I defy them all;
  With every work of pothecary’s hall. 
  These melancholy matters I forbear: 
  But let me tell thee, Partlet mine, and swear,
  That when I view the beauties of thy face, 410
  I fear not death, nor dangers, nor disgrace: 
  So may my soul have bliss, as when I spy
  The scarlet red about thy partridge eye,
  While thou art constant to thy own true knight,
  While thou art mine, and I am thy delight,
  All sorrows at thy presence take their flight. 
  For true it is, as in principio,
  Mulier est hominis confusio. 
  Madam, the meaning of this Latin is,
  That woman is to man his sovereign bliss. 420
  For when by night I feel your tender side,
  Though for the narrow perch I cannot ride,
  Yet I have such a solace in my mind,
  That all my boding cares are cast behind;
  And even already I forget my dream. 
  He said, and downward flew from off the beam;
  For daylight now began apace to spring,
  The thrush to whistle, and the lark to sing;
  Then, crowing, clapp’d his wings, the appointed call,
  To chuck his wives together in the hall. 430

    By this the widow had unbarr’d the door,
  And Chanticleer went strutting out before. 
  With royal courage, and with heart so light,
  As show’d he scorned the visions of the night. 
  Now roaming in the yard, he spurn’d the ground,
  And gave to Partlet the first grain he