[Exit Michael.
Come, Master Franklin, you shall go with me.
This night I dreamt that, being in a park,
A toil was pitched to overthrow the deer,
And I upon a little rising hill
Stood whistly watching for the herd’s approach.
Even there, methoughts, a gentle slumber took me, 10
And summoned all my parts to sweet repose;
But in the pleasure of this golden rest
An ill-thewed foster had removed the toil,
And rounded me with that beguiling home
Which late, methought, was pitched to cast the deer.
With that he blew an evil-sounding horn,
And at the noise another herdman came,
With falchion drawn, and bent it at my breast,
Crying aloud, ‘Thou art the game we seek!’
With this I woke and trembled every joint, 20
Like one obscured in a little bush,
That sees a lion foraging about,
And, when the dreadful forest-king is gone,
He pries about with timorous suspect
Throughout the thorny casements of the brake,
And will not think his person dangerless,
But quakes and shivers, though the cause be gone:
So, trust me, Franklin, when I did awake,
I stood in doubt whether I waked or no:
Such great impression took this fond surprise. 30
God grant this vision bedeem me any good.
Franklin. This fantasy doth rise from Michael’s fear,
Who being awaked with the noise he made,
His troubled senses yet could take no rest;
And this, I warrant you, procured your dream.
Arden. It may be so, God frame it to the best:
But oftentimes my dreams presage too true.
Franklin. To such as note their nightly fantasies,
Some one in twenty may incur belief;
But use it not, ’tis but a mockery. 40
Arden. Come, Master Franklin; we’ll now walk in Paul’s
And dine together at the ordinary,
And by my man’s direction draw to the quay,
And with the tide go down to Feversham.
Say, Master Franklin, shall it not be so?
Franklin. At your good pleasure, sir; I’ll bear you company. [Exeunt.
III. iii. 14. rounded me = brought me round.
III. iii. 40. use: Warnke quotes Macbeth, III. ii. 10, ‘Using those thoughts which should indeed have died.’
III. iii. 44. with the tide, i.e. by boat on the Thames. Holinshed makes Greene and Black Will go to London, from Gravesend apparently, ‘at the tide.’