Geron's[49] mouldy memory corrects
Old Holinshed, our famous Chronicler,
With morall rules; and policy collects
Out of all actions done these fourscore yeare;[50]
Accounts the times of euery old[51] event,
Not from Christ's birth, nor from the Prince's raigne,
But from some other famous accident,
Which in mens generall notice doth remaine,--
The siege of Bulloigne and the Plaguy Sweat,
The going to St. Quintin's and New-haven,
The rising in the North, the Frost so great
That cart-wheeles' prints on Thamis face were graven,[52]
The fall of money, and burning of Paul's steeple;
The blazing starre, and Spaniard's ouerthrow:
By these events, notorious to the people,
He measures times, and things forepast doth show:
But most of all, he chiefly reckons by
A priuate chance,--the death of his curst[53] wife;
This is to him the dearest memory,
And the happiest accident of all his life.
[Footnote 49: MS. 'Geron, his.' D. Isham 'Geron whose.' G.]
[Footnote 50: Isham corrects the misprint 'yeares,' and of 'time' in
next line. G.]
[Footnote 51: Isham 'odde.' G.]
[Footnote 52: The reading in our text, and in all the editions,
including Isham, is 'seene': but above from MS, as rhyming with
Newhaven seems preferable. Newhaven was formerly called Havre de Grace.
All the date-events are commonplaces of History. G.]
[Footnote 53: Ill-natured. D. [This is a good-natured explanation. I
fear that in this place it means more and worse, though in the Taming
of the Shrew we have Kate the curst, without the slightest imputation
on her moral character, or any allusion to anything but her vixen
temper. G.]]