ryon shall have three Hedes agayne,
Till Hapsburge makyth them but twayne.

Explanatory notes.

Seven and Ten. This line describes the year when these events shall
happen. Seven and ten makes seventeen, which I explain seventeen
hundred, and this number added to nine, makes the year we are now in;
for it must be understood of the natural year, which begins the first of
January.

Tamys Rivere twys, etc. The River Thames, frozen twice in one year, so
as men to walk on it, 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 imagine such a thing would never happen in our climate.

From Town of Stoffe, etc. 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.

Then shall the Fyshe, etc. By the fish, is understood the Dauphin of
France, as their kings eldest sons are called: 'Tis here said, he shall
lament the loss of the Duke of Burgundy, called the Bosse, which is an
old English word for hump-shoulder, or crook-back, 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.

Yonge Symnele, etc. By Symnele is meant the pretended Prince of Wales,
who, if he offers to attempt anything 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.

And Norway's Pryd, etc. 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 shall, etc. Reums, or, as the word is now, realms, is the old
name for kingdoms: And this is a very plain prediction of our happy
Union, with the felicities that shall attend it. It is added that Old
England shall be no more, and yet no man shall be sorry for it. And
indeed, properly speaking, England is now no more, for the whole island
is one Kingdom, under the name of Britain.

Geryon shall, etc. This prediction, tho' somewhat