Geron, whose mouldy memory corrects
Old Holinshed our famous chronicler
With moral rules, and policy collects
Out of all actions done these fourscore year;
Accounts the time of every odd event,
Not from Christ's birth, nor from the prince's reign,
But from some other famous accident,
Which in men's general notice doth remain,—
The siege of Boulogne, and the plaguy sweat,
The going to Saint Quintin's and New-Haven,
The rising in the north, the frost so great,
That cart-wheel prints on Thamis' face were graven,
The fall of money, and burning of Paul's steeple,
The blazing star, and Spaniards' overthrow:
By these events, notorious to the people,
He measures times, and things forepast doth show:
But most of all, he chiefly reckons by
A private chance,—the death of his curst wife;
This is to him the dearest memory,
And th' happiest accident of all his life.