As a dream. — Better,
“As a man on waking (despises) his dream,
So, O Lord, on rousing thyself, thou wilt
Despise their shadow.”
an image of the result of the Divine judgment on the vain and boastful tyrants, which may be illustrated by Henry V.’s rising with his royalty to self-respect: —
“I have long dreamt of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell’d, so old, and so profane;
But, being awake, I do despise my dream.”