Chap. 41. Of many merye Dreames.

VAlerius in the first booke and seuenth Chapter, writeth, that Alexander the king of Macedonie,* was warned of the hand y^t should slay him in his dreame, before that he felt it to be true in effect, for he thought that he sawe him in his sléepe y^t should kyll him. And shortly after, when he saw the partie, and knew that he was Antipaters sonne, he declared the vanitie of his dreame, and he cast out of his minde the suspicion which hée had conceyued of the poyson, whereof he dyed at Cassanders handes. Lykewise he telleth that whylst Amilcar, that was captaine of the Carthagians,* lay in siege about the Cittie of Sy∣racuse, he thought that in his dreame he hearde a voyce which sayd, that the night following he should suppe within the City. Then Amilcar being carelesse, or rather thinking himself sure of the victorie, was somewhat negligent in not loking careful∣lye to his Armie, vpon whome the Syracusians issuing forth the next daye, possessed his tentes, tooke him prisoner, and led him into the Citie,* where the same night he supped not as a conque∣rour, but as a captiue. Fryer Iohn of Duren, dreamed one nyght, that hée rode vpon a snayle, hauing two long hornes, & that his armes touched the grounde, and how the boyes in the str•etes seeing him, laughed and shouted at him: after which dreame,* as he sayd, he had verye good fortune, but wherein, he would not tell. A countrey man dwelling neere Ratis∣bona, dreamed that vpon the bridge at Ratisbona he should find great treasure. And comming thyther in the morning verye Page  [unnumbered] earlye for that purpose, he met with a rytch man which asked him what he sought, and he told him the cause of his comming, and how and whereof he had dreamed the night before. Then the rytch man vp with his fyst, & gaue him a boxe on the eare, saying: Ah foole, wylt thou beleeue dreames? I my selfe drea∣med this night, how that in the vyllage of Regendolf in such a place, (naming a certaine farme place) I shoulde finde a great summe of money, but I meane not to be so much a foole as to goe séeke it. But when the countrey man heard this, and per∣ceyuing that it was his owne farme where he dwelt, thought within himself, it is happie for mee that I came hyther this day to haue a boxe on the eare, & going home immediatlye, dygged in the place which the other named, and found a ritch treasure.*

A certaine Cannon in VVerda nigh to the Rhine, which ne∣uer could make verse in all his lyfe, dreamed of these two ver∣ses in his sléepe, which he remembred well when he awaked, to this effect.

And when he had openly told it at the table, one of his family∣ars said vnto him, what euer it should signify, if I were in your case, I would take order with my goodes, & dispose them as I thought best, whatsoeuer should befall: but others sayd it was but a tryfle, & that dreames were not to be accoumpted of. But he being stroken into a dumpe, gat him vpon his horse, & tooke his hawke vpon his fyst, & roade abroade into the fieldes for pleasure, to digest the melancholy. And comming homeward at night, where he must ryde ouer a bridge y^t lay ouer an arme of the Rhine, his horse began to striue and plunge, and threwe them both headlong into the Rhine, and there were drowned.