In this Booke let him raunge,
His fancie to feede.
In the dedication to Gilbert Talbote, Esq. second son of the Earl of Shrewsbury, the work is described as composed to eschew idleness, when the author’s “turne came to serue in watche of the Scottishe Queene:” I then (he says) euery night collected some part thereof, to thend that nowe it might the better appeare, that I vsed not altogeather to sleepe: Though one time I chaunsed among many watchfull nightes to take a slumber, which incited mee to compile this fiction of poetry as more largely appeareth in my prologue.
The address to the reader is dated the XIX of Maie, 1574, and the Prologue describes the time of the dream as in December, after a “good ale feast,” when the author says:
I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,
All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.
Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,
Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,
And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,
And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”