Miscellanies upon Various Subjects | Page 5

the day he died, th' eleventh
of June, On which he bravely fought at Scanderoon. 'Tis rare that one
and self-same day should be His day of birth, of death, of victory.
I had a maternal uncle, that died the third of March,1678, which was
the anniversary day of his birth; and (which is a truth exceeding strange)
many years ago he foretold the day of his death to be that of his birth;
and he also averred the same but about the week before his departure.
The third of March is the day of St. Eutropius; and as to my uncle it
was significative; it turned well to him, according to that of Rev. 14, 13.
Blessed are the dead, &e. and that of Ovid Metam. lib. 3.
"---Dicique beatus", "Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera
debet.-----"
--None happy call Before their death, and final funeral.
The sixth of January was five times auspicious to Charles, Duke of
Anjou. Ibid. in the life of the Earl of Sunderland.
The twenty-fourth of February was happy to Charles V. four times.
(Ibid.) Heylin, speaking of the Temple of Jerusalem, hints three of
these four; his birth, taking of Francis, King of France, prisoner; his
receiving the Imperial crown at Bononia. And so doth also the Journal
History before mentioned.

Of the family of the Trevors, six successive principal branches have
been born the sixth of July. Same memoirs.
Sir Humphrey Davenport was born the 7th of July; and on that day
anniversary, his father and mother died, within a quarter of an hour one
of another. Same memoirs.
I have seen an old Romish MSS. prayer-book, (and shewed the same to
that general scholar, and great astrologer, Elias Ashmole, Esq.;) at the
beginning whereof was a Calendar wherein were inserted the unlucky
days of each month, set out in verse. I will recite them just as they are,
sometimes infringing the rule of grammar, sometimes of Prosodia; a
matter of which the old monkish rhymers were no way scrupulous. It
was as ancient as Henry the sixth, or Edward the fourth's time.
January "Prima dies mensis, & septima truncat ut ensis". February
"Quarta subit mortem, prostemit tertia fortem." March. "Primus
mandentem, disrumpit quarto, bibentem". April "Denus & undenus est
mortis vulnere plenus". May "Tertius occidit, & Septimus ora relidit".*
June "Denus pallescit, quindenus feeders nescit". July. "Ter-decimus
mactat, Julij denus labefactat." August. "Prima necat fortem, prostemit
secunda cohortem". September "Tertia Septembris & denus fert mala
membris". October. "Tertius & denus est, sicut, mors alienus".
November. "Scorpius est quintus, & tertius e nece cinctus". December.
"Septimus exanguis, virosus denus & anguis". * Ex re & ledo.
The tenth verse is intolerable, and might be mended thus.
"Tertia cum dena sit sicut mors aliena".
If any object and say, "Deni" is only the plural; I excuse my self by that
admirable chronogram upon King Charles the martyr.
"Ter deno, Jani, Lunae, Rex (Sole cadente)" "Carolus euxtus Solio,
Sceptroque, secure".
Neither will I have recourse for refuge to that old tetrastich,

"Intrat Avaloniam duodena Caterva virorum "Flos Arimathioe Joseph,
&c."
because I have even now blamed the liberty of the ancient rhymers. He
means by "Mors aliena", some strange kind of death; though "aliena",
signifies in quite another sense than there used.
I shall take particular notice here of the third of November, both
because 'tis my own birth day, and also for that I have observed some
remarkable accidents to have happened thereupon.
Constantius, the Emperor, son of Constantine the Great, little inferior to
his father, a worthy warrior, and good man, died the third of November:
"Ex veteri Calendario penes me".
Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, that great man, and famous
commander under Henry IV. V. and VI. Died this day, by a wound of a
cannon-shot he received at Orleans, E MSS. quodam, & Glovero.
So, also Cardinal Borromeo, famous for his sanctity of life, and
therefore canonized, (Heylin in his "Prcognita", says, he made Milan
memorable, by his residence there) died 1584, this day, as Possevinus
in his life.
Sir John Perrot, (Stow corruptly calls him Parrat) a man very
remarkable in his time, Lord Deputy of Ireland, son to Henry VIII. And
extremely like him, died in the tower, the third of November, 1592 (as
Stow says). Grief, and the fatality of. this day, killed him. See
Naunton's "Fragmenta Regalia", concerning this man.
Stow, in his Annals, says, Anno 1099, November 3, as well in Scotland
as England, the sea broke in, over the banks of many rivers, drowning
divers towns, and much people; with an innumerable number of oxen
and sheep, at which time the lands in Kent, sometimes belonging to
Earl Godwin, were covered with sands, and drowned, and to this day
are called Godwin's Sands.
I had an estate