Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/66

58 is a very signal accident, which perhaps hath not fallen out for several hundred years before, and is the reason why some astrologers have thought that this prophecy could never be fulfilled, because they imagined such a thing would never happen in our climate.

. This is a plain designation of the duke of Marlborough: one kind of stuff used to fatten land is called marle, and every body knows that borough is a name for a town; and this way of expression is after the usual dark manner of old astrological predictions.

. By the fish, is understood the dauphin of France, as their kings eldest sons are called: it is here said, he shall lament the loss of the duke of Burgundy, called the Bosse, which is an English word for humpshoulder, or crookback, as that duke is known to be; and the prophecy seems to mean, that he should be overcome or slain. By the green berrys, in the next line, is meant the young duke of Berry, the dauphin's third son, who shall not have valour or fortune enough to supply the loss of his eldest brother.

. By Symnele is meant the pretended prince of Wales, who, if he offers to attempt any thing against England, shall miscarry as he did before. Lambert Symnele is the name of a young man, noted in our histories for personating the son (as I remember) of Edward the Fourth.

. I cannot guess who is meant by Norway's pride, perhaps the reader may, as well as the sense of the two following lines. Reaums