There is some jargon about the mystery of numbers in the Man in the Moon.[1] Phœbe (moon) says,
"by proportion certainly I move,
In rule of number, and the most I love
That which you call full, that most perfect seven
Of three and four made, which for odd and even
Are male and female, which by mixture frame,
It most mysterious that as mine I claim;"
and she shows how her phases are regulated with respect to this wondrous numeral. Somewhat later we learn that Endymion sees how the signs in their triplicities sympathise with the elements from which our bodies take their "complexions," natures, and numbers; so that what men on earth call fortune is really stellar influence for evil or for good. The treble Trine that makes up the holy theologic nine—the nine orders of angels—is referred to in the same poem,[2] as also in the very curious lines in which Drayton commended the Polyolbion of 1612 to his loyal countrymen by praising the rising hope of England. These are so little known[3] that I think I may give them at full length without apology, although they be but weak in yield of folk-lore.
"Britaine behold here portray'd to thy sight,
Henry thy best hope and the world's delight;
Ordained to make thy eight great Henries nine,
Who by that virtue in the trebble Trine
To his own goodnesse (in his Being) brings
These seuerall Glories of th'eight English Kings,
¹Deep Knowledge, ²Greatness, ³long Life, ⁴Policy,
⁵Courage, ⁶Zeale, ⁷Fortune, ⁸awfull Maiestie.
He like great Neptune on three Seas shall roue,
And rule three Realms with triple power, like Joue.
Thus in soft Peace, thus in tempestuous Warres,
Till from his foote his Fame shall strike the Starres."
A sublunary mode of divination, osteomancy, which has already been discussed before the Folk-Lore Society by Mr. Thoms,[4] is said by Drayton to be rife in that little England beyond Wales, the Flemish colony in Pembrokeshire.[5]
