"HOW it comes to pass, I know not;* but by ancient and modern example
it is evident, that no great accident befalls a city or province, but
it is presaged by divination, or prodigy, or astrology, or some way or
other. I shall here set down a few instances."
* Discourses of Nicholas Machiavel, book 1. Chap 56.
A Rainbow appeared about the sun before the battle of Pharsalia. See.
Appian, and Mr. T. May's 5th book of his Continuation of Lucan.
" Ex Chronico Saxonico, p. 112, Anno 1104, fuit primus Pentecostes
dies Nonis Junii, & die Martis sequnte, conjuncti sunt quatuor Circuli
circa Solem, aibi coloris, & quisque sub alio collocatus, quasi picti
essent. Omnes qui videbant obstupuerunt, propterea quod nunquam ante
tales meminerant. Post haec facta est Pax inter Comitem, Robertum de
Normannia, & Robertum de Boeloesme i, e."
In the year 1104, on the first day of Pentecost, the sixth of June,
and on the day following being Tuesday, four circles of a white
colour, were seen to roll in conjunction round the sun, each under the
other regularly placed, as if they had been drawn by the hand of a
painter. All who beheld it were struck with astonishment, because they
could not learn that any such spectacles had ever happened in the
memory of man. After these things it is remarkable, that a peace was
immediately set on foot, and concluded between Robert, Earl of
Normandy, and Robert de Baelaesme.
The Duke of York (afterwards Edward IV.) met with his enemies near to
Mortimer's Cross, on Candlemas day in the morning, at which time the
Sun (as some write) appeared to him like three Suns, and suddenly
joined altogether in one, and that upon the sight thereof, he took
such courage, that he fiercely set on his enemies, and them shortly
discomfited: for which cause, men imagined that he gave Sun in his
full brightness for his cognisance or badge. Halle, F. 183, b. 4.
Our Chronicles tell us, that Anno Secundo Reginae Mariae, 15th of
February, two suns appeared, and a rainbow reversed: see the bow
turned downwards, and the two ends standing upwards, before the
coining in of King Philip.
The phaenomenon, fig. 1, was seen at Broad-Chalk in Wiltshire, on the
first day of May, 1647. It continued from about eleven o'clock
(or before) till twelve. It was a very clear day; but few did take
notice of it, because it was so near the sun-beams. My mother happened
to espy it, going to see what o'clock it was by an horizontal dial;
and then all the servants saw it. Upon the like occasion, Mr. J.
Sloper, B.D. vicar there, saw it, and all his family; and the servants
of Sir George Vaughan, (then of Falston) who were hunting on the downs,
saw it. The circles were of rainbow colour; the two filots, which cross
the greater circle, (I presume they were segments of a third circle)
were of a pale colour. The sun was within the intersections of the
circles.
The next remarkable thing that followed was, that on the third of June
following;* Cornet Joyce carried King Charles I. prisoner from
Holdenby to the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight lieth directly from
Broad-Chalk, at the 10 o'clock point.
* See Sir W. Dugdale's hist. of the Civil Wars.
The phaenomenon, fig. 2, was seen in the north side of the church-yard
of Bishop-Lavington in Wiltshire, about the latter end of September
1688, about three o'clock in the afternoon. This was more than a
semicircle. B. B. two balls of light. They were about eleven degrees
above the Horizon by the quadrant; observed by Mr. Robert Blea, one of
the Earl of Abingdon's gentlemen.
Cicero de Natura Deorum, lib. 2. "Multa praeterea Ostentis, multa ex
eis admonemur, multisque rebus aliis, quas diuturnus usus ita notarit,
ut artem Divinationis efficeret". i. e.
Besides, we learn a world of things from these Portents and Prodigies,
and many are the warnings and admonitions we receive from them, and
not only from them indeed, but from a number of extraordinary
accidents, upon which daily use and constant observation has fixed
such marks, that from thence the whole art of divination has been
compounded.