¶ Illustrations.

IF in Prose and Religion it were as iustifiable, as in Poetry and Fiction, to in­uoke a Locall power (fo [...] anciently both Iewes, Gentiles, & Christians haue sup­posed to euery Countrey a singular Rabbin. ad 10. Dan. Macrob. Saturnal. 3. cap. 9. Symmach. Epist. 40. lib. 1. D. Th. 2. dist. 10. art. 3. alij. Genius) I would therin ioyne with the Au­thor. Howsoeuer, in this and all God afore. [...]: and so I begin to you.

When Pope Clement VI. graunted the fortunate Isles to Lewes Earle of Clere­mont, by that generall name (meaning onely the seauen Canaries, and purposing their Christian conuersion) the English Ambassadors at Rome seriously doub­ted, Rob Auesburi­ens. A. XVII. Ed. III. The fortunate Isles. least their owne Countrey had beene comprised in the Donation. They were Henry of Lancaster Earle of Derby, Hugh Spenser, Ralph L. Stafford, the Bi­shop [Page 14] of Oxford, and others, agents therewith the Pope, that hee; as a priuate friend, not as a Iudge or party interessed, should determine of Edward the third [...] right to France ▪ where you haue this Embassage in Walsinghā, Hypodigmatis Neustriae locus emendatus, sub anno M.CCC.XLIV. correct Regnum Angliae, and reade Francia, Britains excellence in earth and ayre (whence the Macares, Pompo [...]. Mela l. 2. c. 7. and particularly Crete among the Greekes, had their title) together with the Popes exactions, in taxing, collating, and prouising of Benefices (an intollerable wrong to Lay-mens inheritances, and the Crowne-reuenewes) gaue cause of this iealous coniecture; seconded in the conceit of them which denie Albion from Happy. [...] hither [...]to the Author in his title and this verse alludes. But of Albion more, presently.

Fabulous Iupiters ill dealing with his Father Saturne, is well known, and that after deposing him, and his priuities [...] off, hee perpetually imprisoned him. Homer Iliad. [...]. & He­siod. in Theogon. ioynes I [...]pet with him, liuing in eternal night about the utmost ends of the earth: which well fits the more Northerne climate of these Islands. Of them (dispersed in the Deucalidonian Sea) in one most temperate, of gentle ayre, and fragrant with sweetest odours, lying towards the Northwest, it is reported, Plutar. de fa­cie in Orbe Lu­nae. & l. de defect oracul. that Saturne lies bound in iron chaines, kep [...] by Briareus, attended by spirits, conti­nually dreaming of Iupiters proiects, whereby his ministers prognosticate the secrets of Fate. Euery thirtie yeares, diuers of the ad [...]acent Islander [...] with solem­nitie for successe of the vndertaken voyage, and competent prouision, enter the vast Seas, [...]. and at last, in this Saturn [...]an Isle (by this name the Sea is called also) enioy the happy quie [...] of the place, some in studies of nature, and the Mathe­matiques, which continue▪ others in sensuality, Rablais. which after XXX. years returne perhaps to their first home. This fabulous relation might be, and in part is, by Chymiques as well interpreted for mysteries of their art, as the common tale of Daedalus Labyrinth, Pasoh and his Argonautiques, and almost the whole Chaos of Mythique inuentions. But neyther Geography (for I ghesse no [...] where or what this Isle should be, vnlesse than ideal [...] which [...] discoue­red) nor the maner self permits it l [...]sse Poeticall (although a learned Greeke Father Clem. Alexan­drin. stromat. [...]. Odyss. ♌. Iliad. [...]. out of some credulous Historian seemes to remember it) then the Eli­sian fields, which, with this, are alwayes laide by Homer about the Vtmost ends of the earth. Vpon affinity of this with the Cap [...] de Finistere, Goro­pius thinkes the Elisian fields were by that Promontory of Spaine. v. Strab. lib. [...]. [...]; a place whereof too large liberty was giuen to [...]aine, because of the dif­ficult possibility in finding the truth. Onely thus note seriously, that this reuo­lution of XXX. yeares (which with some latitude is Saturnes naturall motion) is especially Plin, hist. na [...]. 16. cap. 44. noted for the longest period, or age also among our Druids; and that in a particular forme, to bee accounted yearely from the sixt Moone, as their New-yeares-day: which circuit of time▪ diuers of the Ancients reckon for their generations in Chronologie; as store E [...]stat. ad Iliad [...]. Herodot. lib. [...]. Suid. in [...]. Censori [...]. in de d [...] nat. cap. 17. of Authors shew you.

You cannot be without vnderstanding of this Pythagorean opinion of trans-animation (I haue like liberty to naturalize that word, as Lipsius had to make it a Romane, by turning A passing of soules from one to another. [...]) if euer you read any that speakes of Py­thagoras (whom, for this particular, Epiphanius reckons among his heretiques) or discourse largely of Philosophicall doctrine of the soule. But especially, if you affect it tempered with inuiting pleasure, take Lucians Cock, and his Ne­groman [...]y; if in serious discourse, Plato's Phadon, and Phadrus with his followers. Lipsius doubts Physiolog. Stoi [...]. l. 3. dissert. 12. whether Pythagoras receiued it from the Druids, or they from him, because in his trauels he conuerst as well with Gaulish as Indian Philoso­phers. [Page 15] Out of Caesar and Lucan informe your selfe with full testimony of this their opinion, too ordinary among the heathen and Iewes also, which thought our Iustin Mar­tyr. dialog. Sauiour to be Ieremie or Elias vpon this error; irreligious indeed, yet such a one, as so strongly erected mouing spirits, that they did neuer

but most willingly deuote their whole selues to the publique seruice: and this was in substance the politique enuoyes wherewith Plato and Cicero conclu­ded their Common-welths, as Macrobius hath obserued. The Author, with pitie, imputes to them their being led away in blindnes of the time, and errors of their fancies; as all other the most diuine Philosophers (not lightned by the true word) haue beene▪ although (meere humane sufficiencies only considered) some of them were sublimat farre aboue earthly conceit: as especially Hermes, Orpheus, Pythagoras, (first learning the sou [...]es immortality of Cicer. Tuscu­lan. 1. Pherecydes a Syri­an) Seneca, Plato, and Plutarch; which last two, in a Greeke hymne of an Eastern Ioann Eucha [...] ­tens. iampridem Etoniae graecè editus. Bishop, are commended to Christ for such as came neerest to holines of any vntaught Gentiles. Of the Druids more large in fitter place.

In the Seame (an Isle by the coast of the French Bretaigne) nine Virgins conse­crate to perpetual chastitie, were Priests of a famous oracle, remembred by Me­la. His printed bookes haue Gallicenas vocant; where that great critique Turneb reades The Gaules call them Iupi­ters Priests or Bawdes. Galli Zenas, or Lenas vocant. But White of Basingstoke will haue it Vaine. Cenas, as interpreting their profession and religion, which was in an arbitra­rie metamorphosing themselues, charming the windes (as of later time the Witches of Lappland and Finland) skill in predictions, more then naturall me­dicine, and such like; their kindnes being in all chiefly to Solin. Polyhist. cap. 35. Sayler [...] ▪ But fin­ding that in the Syllies were also of both Sexes such kinde of professors, that there were [...] Dio­nys. Asro in [...] multis. n. pro a [...]bitrio anti­quorum S. litera ad est vel abest. v. Casaubon. ad [...]. Strab▪ Samn [...]tae, strangely superstitious in their Baccha [...]a [...]s, in an Ile of this coast (as is deliuered by Strabo) and that the Gaules, Britaines, Indians (twixt both whom and Pythagoras is found no small concent of doctrine) had their Philosophers (vnder which name both Priests and Prophets of those times were included) called Origen. [...]. lib a. Clem. Alex strom. [...] & [...]. Diogen. La [...]rt. lib. [...] Coniecture vpon Mela. Samanai, and Semni, and (perhaps by corruption of some of these) Samothei, which, to make it Greeke, might be turned into Semnothes: I doubted whether some relique of these words remained in that of Mela, if you reade Cenas or Senas, as contracted from Samanaei; which by deduction from a roote of some Easterne tongue, might signifie as much, as, what we call Astrologers. But of this too much.

Not onely to their owne countrey Saints (whose names are there very fre­quent) but also to the Irish; a people anciently (according to the name of the Festo Auteno Insula sacra di­cta Hiber [...]ae. Holy Iland giuen to Ireland) much deuoted to, and by the English much respected for their holines and learning. I omit their fabulous Caesara neece to Noah, Girald. Cam­brens. dist. 3. cap. 2. their Bartholan, their Ruan, who, as they affirme, first planted Religion, before Christ, among them: nor desire I your beleefe of this Ru­ans age, which by their account (supposing him liuing CCC. yeares after the floud, and christned by Saint Patriq [...]s) exceeded M.DCC. yeares, and so was elder then that impostor, Assuerus Cor­donnier (dictꝰ in historiâ Gallicâ Victor [...] ante triennium editâ de la pa [...]x &c.) [...]ius partes olim egisse videntur Ioseph [...] Clint [...]o­phylacius (refe­rente Episcopo Armenia [...]o apud Matth. Paris in Hen. 3.) & Io­annes ille (Gui­dom Bonato in Astrologiâ sic indigitalꝰ) But­ta-deus. whose fained continuance of life and rest­les trauailes, euer since the Passion, lately offered to deceiue the credulous. Onely thus I note out of Venerable Bede, that in the Saxon times, it was vsuall [Page 16] for the English and Gaulish to make Ireland, as it were, both their Vniuersity and Monastery, for studies of learning and diuine contemplation, as the life of In Bibliothec. Floriacens. edit. per Ioann. à bosco. Gil­das also, and other frequent testimonies discouer.

That the Ocean (as in many other places of other countries) hath eaten vp much of what was here once shore, is a common report, approued in the Cor­nish name of S. Michaels mount; which is Careg Cowz in Clowz Carew descript. Corn. lib. 2. .i. the hoare rocke in the wood.

Main-Amber .i. Ambroses stone (not farre from Pensans) so great, that ma­ny mens vnited strength cannot remoue it, yet with one finger you may wagge it. The Burien trophy is xix. stones, circularly disposed, and, in the middle, one much exceeding the rest in greatnesse: by coniecture of most learned Camden, erected eyther vnder the Romanes, or else by K. Athelstan in his conquest of these parts.

Neere Camel about Camblan, was Dictus hinc in Merlini vatici­nio, Aper Cor­nubia. Arthur slain by Mordred, and on the same shore, East from the riuers mouth, borne in Tintagel castle. Gorlois Prince of Cornewall at Vther-Pendragons coronation, solemnized in London, vpon diuers too kinde passages and lasciuious regards twixt the King and his wife Igerne, grew very iealous, in a rage left the Court, committed his wiues chastitie to this Castles safegard; and to preuent the wasting of his countrey (which vpon this discontent was threatned) betooke himselfe in other forts to martiall pre­paration. Vther (his bloud still boiling in lust) vpon aduice of Vlfin Rhicara­dech, one of his Knights, by Ambrose Merlins magique personated like Gorlois, and Vlsin like one Iordan, seruant to Gorlois, made such successefull vse of their imposture, that (the Prince in the meane time slaine) Arthur was the same night begotten, and verified that Euripid. An­dromach. Bastards are ofttimes bet­ter then legiti­mates. [...]; although Merlin by the rule of Hermes, or Astrologicall direction, iustified, that hee was conceiued III. houres after Gorlois death; by this shift answering the dangerous imputati­on of bastardy to the heire of a crowne. For Vther taking Igern to wife, left Arthur his successor in the Kingdome. Here haue you a Iupiter, an Alcmena, an Amphitry [...], a Sofias, and a Mercury; nor wants there scarce any thing, but that truth-passing reports of Poeticall Bards haue made the birth an Hercules.

The name Dumnonij, Damnonij, or Danmonij, in Solinus and Ptolemy, com­prehended the people of Deuonshire and Cornewall: whence the Lizard- pro­montory is called Damnium in Marcian Heracleotes; [...]. and William of Malmes­bury, Florence of Worcester, Roger of Houeden, and others, stile Deuonshire by name of Dom [...]nia, perhaps all from Duff neint. i. low valleyes in British; wherein are most habitations of the countrey, as iudicious Camden teaches me.

Fuller report of the excellence in wrastling and nimblenesse of body, [Page 17] wherewith this Westerne people haue beene, and are famous, you may finde in Carew's description of his countrey. But to giue reason of the climat [...] na­ture, for this prerogatiue in them, I thinke as difficult, as to shew why about the Magellanique straights they are so white, about the Cape de buon speranza so blacke, Ortelius thea­tro. yet both vnder the same Tropique; why the Abyssins are but tawny Moores, when as in the East Indian Isles Zeilan and Malabar, they are very blacke, both in the same parallel; or why we that liue in this Northerne lati­tude, compared with the Southerne, should not be like affected from like cause. I referre it no more to the Sunne, then the speciall Horsmanship in our Northerne men, the nimble ability of the Irish, the fiery motions of the French, Italian iealousie, German liberty, Spanish puft vp vanity, or those different and perpetuall carriages of state-gouernement, Haste and Delay, Thucydid. [...] & passim. de A­then. & Lace­daem. & de Thae­bis & Chalcide v. Columell. i. de re rustic. cap. 4. which as inbred qualities, were remarqueable in the two most martiall people of Greece. The cause of Aethiopian blackenesse and curled haire was long since iudiciously Onesecrit. ap. Strabon. lib. [...]. fetcht from the disposition of soile, ayre, water, and singular operations of the heauens; with cōfutation of those which attribute it to the Suns distance: And I am resolued that euery land hath its so singular selfe-nature, and indiuiduall ha­bitude with celestiall influence, that humane knowledge, consisting most of all in vniuersality, is not yet furnisht with what is requisite to so particular discoue­rie: but for the learning of this point in a special Treatise Hippocrates, Ptolemy, Bodin, others have copious disputes.

I should the sooner haue beene of the Authors opinion (in more then Poe­ticall forme, standing for Brute) if in any Greeke or Latine Storie authentique, speaking of Aeneas and his planting in Latium, were mention made of any such like thing. To reckon the learned men which denie him, or at least permit him not in coniecture, were too long a Catalogue: and indeede, this critique age scarce any longer endures any nation, their first supposed Authors name, not I­talus to the Italian, not Hispalus to the Spaniard, Bato to the Hollander, Brabo to the Brabantine, Francio to the French, Celtes to the Celt, Galathes to the Gaule, Scota to the Scot; no, nor scarce Romulus to his Rome, because of their vnlikely and fictitious mixtures: especially this of Brute, supposed long before the be­ginning of the Olympiads (whence all time backeward is iustly call'd by Ap. Censorin. de dit nat. cap. 21. Christoph. Heluici Chrono­logiā sequimur, nec, vt accurati­us temporum subductioni hoc loci in [...]umba­mꝰ, res postulat; verèm & ille satis accuratè, qui Samuelis praefecturam A. MM.M.DCCC.L. haùt iniquo computo posuit. Varro, unknowne or fabulous) some M.M.D.CC. and more yeares since, about Sa­muels time, is most of all doubted. But (reseruing my censure) I thus main­taine the Author: although nor Greeke nor Latine, nor our countrey stories of Bede and Malmesbury especially, nor that fragment yet remayning of Gildas, speak of him; & that his name were not published vntil Geffrey of Monmouths e­dition of the British story, which grew and continues much suspected, in much reiected; yet obserue that Tali [...]ssin a Io. Pris. def. hist. Brit. great Bard, more then M. years since af­firmes it, Nennius (in some copies hee is vnder name of Gildas) aboue DCCC. yeares past, and the Glosse of Samuel Beaulan, or some other, crept into his text, mention both the common report, and descent from Aeneas; and withall, (which I take to be Nennius his owne) make him sonne to one Isicio or Hesi­ch [...] (perhaps meaning Aschenaz, of whom more to the fourth Song) conti­nuing a pedegree to Adam, ioyning these words: Ex vetustiss & perpulchrè m. s. Nennio sub titu­lo Gildae. This Genealogie I found by tradition of the Ancients, which vvere first inhabitants of Britaine. In a Manuscript Epistle of Henry of Huntingdon Lib. de summi­tatibꝰ reru [...] qui 10. est historia­rum in m.s. Huntingdon began his History at Caesar, but vpon better inquisition added Brute. Librū illum, in quem ait se incidis­se, Nenuium fuisse obsignatis serm [...]tabulù sum potis adserere. to one Warin, I read the Latine [Page 18] of this English; You aske me, Sir, Why omitting the succeeding raignes from Brute to Iulius Caesar, I begin my story at Caesar? I answer you, that neyther by word nor writing, could I finde any certainty of th [...]se times; although with diligent search I oft inquired it, yet this yeare in my iourney towards Rome, in the Abbey of Beccensam, e­uen with amazement, I found the storie of Brute: and in his owne printed booke he affirmes, that what Bede had in this part omitted, was supplied to him by o­ther authors; of which Girald seemes to haue had vse. The British story of Monmouth was a translation (but with much liberty, and no exact faithfulnesse) of a Welsh booke, deliuered to Geffrey by one Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, and hath beene followed (the Translator being a man of some credite, and Bi­shop of S. Asaphs, vnder K. Stephen) by Ponticus Virunnius an Italian; most of our Countrey Historians of middle times, and this age; speaking so certainly of him, that they blazon his coat Harding. Nich. Vpton. de re militari. 2. to you, two Lions combatant, and crowned Or in a field gules; others, Or, a Lion passant gules; and lastly, by Doctor White of Ba­singstoke, lately liuing at Doway, a Count Palatine; according to the title besto­wed by the C. tit. de profes­sorib l. vnica. Imperials vpon their professors. Arguments are there also drawne from some affinity of the Greek Girald de­script. cap. 15. tongue, & much of Troian and Greeke names, with the British. These things are the more enforst by Cambro-Britons, through that vniuersall desire, bewitching our Europe, to deriue their bloud from Tro­ians, which for them might as well be Camden. by supposition of their ancestors mar­riages with the hither deduced Romane Colonies, who by originall were certain­ly Troian, if their antiquities deceiue not. You may adde this weake coniecture; that in those large excursions of the Gaules, Cimmerians, & Colts (among them I doubt not but were many Britons, hauing with them community of nation, manners, climat, customs; and Brennus himselfe is affirmed a Briton) which vn­der indistinct names when this Westerne world was vndiscouered, ouer-ran I­taly, Greece, and part of Asia, it is Agesianax ap. Strab. lib. [...]. reported that they came to Tro [...] for safegard; presuming perhaps vpon like kindnesse, as wee reade of twixt the Troians and Roma [...]s, in their warres with Trog. Pomp. lib. 31. Antiodius (which was louing respect through con [...]gence of bloud) vpon like cause remembred to them by tradition. Brief­ly, seeing no Nationall storie, except such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Cae [...]ar, Tacitus, Procopius, Cantacuzen, the late Guicciardin, Commnines, Maccha­ [...]el, and their like, which were employed in the state of their times, can iustifie themselues but by tradition; and that many of the Fathers and Ecclesiasticall Melchior Canꝰ lib. 11. de ant. hist. hum. de his plurima. Histori [...]ns, especially therewish Rabbins (taking their highest learning of Ca­bala, but from antique and successiue report) haue inserted vpon tradition many relations curr [...]nt enough, where holy Writ crosses them not: you shall enough please Saturne and Mercury, presidents of antiquity and learning, if with the Author you foster this belief. Where are the authorities (at least of the names) of Iannes & Iambres, Origen. ad 35. Matth. the writings of Enoch, and other such like, which we know by diuine tradition were? The same questiō might be of that infinit losse of Au­thors, whose names are so frequent in Stephen, Athenaeus, Plu [...]arch, Clemens, Polybius, Li [...]ie, others. And how dangerous it were to examine antiquities by a forreine writer (especially in those times) you may see by the Stories of the He­brewes deliuered in Iustin, Strabo, Tacitus, and such [...]her discording and con­trary (beside their infinit omissions) to Moses infallible conte [...]. Nay he with his successor Iosuah [...] copious in the Israelites entring; conquering, and expel­ling the Gergesites, See the VI. Song. Ieb [...]lites, and the rest out of the holy land; yet no [...] haue they of their transmigration, and peopling of Afrique, which by testimo­ny of two pillers, Precopius de bell. Vandilic. lib. [...].erected and engrauen at Ting [...] hath beene affirmed. But you blame me thus expatiating. Let me adde for the Author, that our most iudici­ous antiquary of the last age Iohn Leland, Ad Cyg. Cant. with reason and authority hath also for Brute argued strongly.

So goes the ordinary descent; but some make Syluius sonne to Aeneas, to whom the Prophesie was giuen:

As you haue it in Virgill.

From these infortunate accidents, one Basingstoch. lib. 1. will haue his name Brotus, as from the Greeke [...] i. mortall; but rather (if it had pleased him) from [...], i. bloudy.

His request to Diana in an Hexastich, and her answere in an Ogdoastich, hex­ameters and pentameters, discouered to him in a dreame, with his sacrifice and rituall ceremonies are in the British story: the verses are pure Latine, which cleerely (as is written of Cicer. de diui­nat. lib. 2. Apollo) was not in those times spoken by Diana, nor vnderstood by Brute: therefore in charity, beleeue it a Translation; by Gildas a British Poet, as Virunnius tels you. The Author takes a iustifiable liberty, ma­king her call it Albion, which was the olde name of this Isle, and remembred in Pliny, Marcian, the booke [...], falsly attributed to Aristotle, Stephen, A­pulelus, others; and our Monke of Bury Io. Lidgat. lib. de bell. Troian. 5. & alibi saepiꝰ cals Henry the fift

often vsing that name for the Iland. From Albina, daughter to Dioclesian Chronic. S. Al­bani. King of Syria some fetch the name: others from a Lady of that name, one of the Danaid's; affirming their Hugo de Ge­nes. ap. Harding. cap. 3. arriuall here, copulation with spirits, and bringing forth Giants. and all this aboue CC. yeares before Brute. But neyther was there any such King in Syria, nor had Danaus (that can be found) any such daughter, nor trauelled they for aduentures, but by their father were newly Pausanias in Laconic. married, after slaughter of their husbands: briefly, nothing can bee written more impudently fabulous. Others from K. Albion, Neptunes sonne, from the Greeke Happy. [...] others, or from (I know not what) Olibius a Celtish King, re­membred by the false Mancthon. Follow them rather, which will it From white cliffs. ab albis rupibus, whereby it is specially conspicuous. So was an Isle in the Indian Sea called Leuca .i. white and [...], vti Euripides in Andromachâ, magis vellem, quam [...] quod [...]anit Dio­nysi [...] Afer. another in Pontus, supposed also fortunate, and a re­ceptacle of the soules of those great Heroes, Peleus and Achilles. Thus was a place by Tyber Strabo lib. [...]. & Sixt. Pompeius in Alpum. called Albiona ▪ & the very name of Albion was vpon the Alpes, which from like cause had their denomination; Alpum in the Sabin tongue (from the Greeke [...]) signifying white. Some much dislike this deriuation, Humf. Lhuid. in Breuiar. because it comes from a tongue (suppose it eyther Greeke or Latine) not anci­ently communicated to this Isle. For my part, I thinke cleerely (against the common opinion) that the name of Britain was knowne to strangers before Albion. I could vouch the Moshion ap. Athen. dipno­sop [...]. finding of one of the masts of Hi [...]r [...]'s Ship, In the hils of Britany. [...] [...] her torns de [...] [...] lower Calubria in [...], a place aboue all other, I remember [...]ore of Ship-tymber; comended Thucydid. hist. [...]. by Alcibiades to the L [...]cedaemonians. But with better surety can I produce the expresse [...] of British Isles. [...], out of a writer that Polyb. hist. [...]. qu [...] I. C [...]sarem C C. ferm [...] [...] and trauelled in warfare with Selpio; before whose time S [...]lox ( [...] king [...] Catalogue of XX. other Isles) and Heracletus (to whom these Westerne [Page 20] parts were by his confession vnknowne) neuer so much as speake of vs by any name. Afterward was Albion imposed vpon the cause before toucht, expressing the olde British name The white Isle. Inis-guin: which argument moues me before all other, for that I see it vsuall in antiquity to haue names among strangers, in their tongue iust significant with the same in the language of the country, to which they are applyed; as the redde Sea is (in Strabo, Curtius, Stephen, others) named from a King of that coast called Erythraus (for, to speake of redde sand, as some, or redde hils, as an olde Vranius in A­rabic. ap. Steph, [...]. writer, were but refuges of shamefull ignorance) which was surely the same with Esau, called in holy Writ Aedom Gen. 36. Num. 20.; both signifying (the one in Greek, the other in Hebrew) redde. So the riuer Nile, Iesai. 23. Iirm. 2. in Hebrew & Aegyp­tian called [...] .i. blacke, in obserued by that mighty Prince of learnings state, Ioseph Scaliger, to signifie the same colour in the word [...], vsed for it by Odyss. [...] — fortè tamen, fluuius Aegypti, vt Hebraeis [...] Gen. 15. commat. 17 Homer; which is inforst also by the black Pausan. Arca­dic. [...]. Statues among the Greeks, erected in honour of Nile, named also expresly Melas: so in proper names of men; Simon Zelotes, Festus in Al­cedo. in Luke, is but Simon the Chanauit, and N [...]brissens. in quinquagen. cap. 49. [...] in Orpheus the same with Moses, Ianus with Oenetrus: and in our times those Authors, Me­lanchthon, Magirus, Theocr [...]nus, Palargus, in their owne language, but Swert­earth, Cooks, Fountain de dieu, Storke. Diuers such other plaine examples might illustrate the conceit; but, these sufficient. Take largest etymologicall liberty, and you may haue it from Camden. Ellan-ban .i. the white Isle, in Scottish, as they call their Albani [...]; and to fit all together, the name of Britaine from Brith-inia .i. the coloured Isle in Welsh, twixt which and the Greeke Vocabulo [...] vsi sunt AEschylus, So­phocles, Hellan­ꝰ, Archil [...]chꝰ, Hecataꝰ ap. A­thenaum dip­nosoph. 10. [...] eiusdem perè natura cum Sy­tho & Curmithe apud Dioscori­dem lib. [...]. cap. [...] & [...]. fertè [...]. [...], or [...] (vsed for a kinde of drinke neerely like our Beere) I would with the French Forcatulus thinke affinity (as Italy was called Oen [...]tria, from the name of wine) were it not for that [...] may be had frō an ordinary primitiue, or else from [...] .i. sweet (as Solinus teaches, making Britomart signifie as much as sweet Virgin) in the Cre­tique tongue. But this is to play with syllables, and abuse precious time.

Vnderstand Tours vpon Loire in France, whose name and foundation the in­habitants Andrè du Chesne en les recorchez des vilies 1. ca. 122. referre to Turnus (of the same time with Aeneas, but whether the same which Virgil speakes of, they know not:) his funeral monuments they yet shew, boast of, and from him idly deriue the word Torneaments. The British storie sayes Brute built it (so also Nennius) and from one Turon, Brutes nephew there buried, giues it the name. Homer is cited for testimony: in his works ex­tant it is not found. But, because he had diuers others (which wrongfull time hath filcht from vs) as appeares in Herodotus and Suidas; you may in fauour thinke it to be in some of those lost; yet I cannot in conscience offer to per­swade you that he euer knew the continent of Gaule (now, in part, France) al­though a learned Goropius in Hispanic. 4. [...]. Strab. geograph. 2. & alios de Olyssippone. German endeauours by force of wit and etymologie, to car­rie Vlysses (which he makes of Elizza in Genesis) into Spaine, and others before Solin. Poly­hist. cap. 35. him (but falsely) into the Northerne parts of Scotland. But for Homers know­ledge, see the last note to the six [...] song.

If you trust our stories, you must beleeue, the land then peopled with Giants, of vast bodily composture. I haue read of the Nephilim, the R [...]pha [...], Ana­kim, Og, Goliath, and other in holy writ: of Mars, Tityus, Antaus, T [...]rnus, and the Titans in Homer, Virgil, Ouid, and of Adams stature (according to Iewish Rabbi Eleazar ap. Riccium in epit. Talmud. caeterum in bâc. re allegoriam v. ap. D. Cypgianū serm. de montib. Sina & Sion. fi­ction) equalling at first the worlds Diameter; yet seeing that nature (now as fer­tile as of old) hath in her effects determinate limits of quantitie, that in Ari­stotles [Page 21] [...] time (neere M.M. yeares since) their beds were but sixe foote ordinarily (nor is the difference, twixt ours and Greeke dimension, much) and that neere the same length was our Sauiours Sepulchre, as Adamnan informed Bed. hist. Ec­clesiast. 5. cap. 17. K Alfrid; I could think that there now are some, as great Statures, as for the most part haue beene, and that Giants were but of a somewhat more then vulgar [...] Baruch. cap. [...]. Consule, si pla­cet, Scaliger. ex­ercitat. Becan. becc [...]selan. [...]. Augustin Ciu. Dei. 25. cap. [...]2. Clement. Rom. Recognit. 1. Lactavit. &c. ex­cellence in bodie, and martiall performance. If you obiect the finding of great bones, which, measured by proportion, largely exceed our times. I first answer, that in some singulars, as Monsters rather then naturall, such proofe hath bin; but withall, that both now and of ancient, S [...]t [...]n. Oct [...]n. cap. 72. time, the eyes iudgement in such like hath beene, and is, subiect to much imposture; mistaking bones of huge beasts for humane. Dio Cass. lib. [...]. Claudius brought ouer his Elephants hither, and perhaps Iulius Caesar some, (for I haue read Poly [...]. [...]rata germat. [...]. in Cae­sar [...]. that he terribly frighted the Brit [...]ns, with sight of one at Coway stakes) and so may you be deceiued. But this in no place to examine it.

So, if you beleeue the tale of Corin, and Gogmagog: but rather imagine the name of Cornewall from this promontory of the lands end; extending it selfe like a Cornugallia dicta est Henri­co Huntingd [...] ­nio, a [...]ijs. horne, which in most tongues is Corn, or very neere. Thus Strabo lib. [...]. &. [...]. Steph. M [...]. Plin. Geogra­phi passim. was a pro­montory in Cyprus, called Cerastes, and in the now Candy or Crete, and Gazaria, (the olde Taurica Chersonesus) another titled Rams head. [...], and Brundusium in Italy had name from Brendon or Seleucus ap. Steph. [...] & Suid. [...]. Brention. i. a Harts-head in the M [...]ssapian tongue, for similitude of hornes. But De gest. reg. 2. cap. 6. Malmesbury thus: They are called Corne­walsh men, because being seated in the Westerne part of Britaine, they ly ouer a­gainst a horne (a promontory) of Gaule. The whole name is, as if you should say Corne-wales; for hither in the Sa [...]n conquest the British called Welsh (sig­nifying the people, rather then strangers as the vulgar opinion willes) made transmigration: wherof an olde Rob. Gloce­strens. Rimer;

Such, was the language of your fathers betweene CCC. and CCCC. yeares since: and of it more hereafter.

In the IIII. yeare of A. DCC.LXXX.VII. Brithric, K. of the West Saxons at Portland, and at this place (which makes the fiction proper) three ships of Danish Pirats entred: the Kings Lieutenant offering inquisition of their name, state and cause of arriuall, was the first English man, in this first Danish inuasion, slaine by their hand. Mi­serable losses and continuall, had the English by their frequent irruptions from this time till the Norman conquest, twixt which intercedes CC.LXX.IX. yeares: and that lesse account of Audacter lege ducento [...] v [...]ce [...] tricentos in sol. 237. Houe­deni, cui prolo­gum libro quinto H. Huntindon. committas licet. Dangelt shewed against a com­mon error, both in remis­sion and insti­tution. CC.XXX. during which space this land endured their bloudy slaughters, according to some mens calculation, begins at K. Ethelulph; to whose [...]me Henry of Huntigdon, & Roger of Houeden, referre the beginning of the Danish mischiefe, continuing so intollerable, that vnder K. Ethelred was there begun a tribute insupportable (yearly afterward exacted frō the subiects) to giue their King Sw [...]n, & so preuent their insatiat rap [...]n. It was between XXX. & XL, thousand Mariano Sco­to XXXVI.M. librae, & Floren­tio Wigorn. pounds (for I finde no cert [...]inty of it, so variable are the reports) not instituted for pay of Garrisons, [...]mployed in seruice against them (as vpon the misvnderstanding of the Confessors [...]awes some ill affirme) but to satisfie the wasting enemie; but so that it ceased not▪ although their spoyles ceased, but was collected to the vse of the crowne; vntill K. Stephen promised to remit it. [Page 22] For indeede S. Edward vpon imagination of seeing a diuell dancing about the whole summe of it lying in his treasury, moued in conscience, caused it to be repaied, and released the duty, as Ingulph Abbot of Crowland tels you: yet obserue him, and reade Florence of Worcester, Marian the Scot, Henry of Hun­tigdon, and Roger Houeden, and you will confesse that what I report thus from them is truth, and different much from what vulgarly is receiued. Of the Da­nish race were afterward in Kings, Cnut, Hardcnut, and Harold the 1.

Chronologiam hùc spectantem consulas in illu­strat. ad. [...]. Cant.After some M.D. yeares from the supposed arriuall of the Troians, their po­steritie were by incroachment of Saxons, Iutes, Angles, Danes (for among the Saxons that noble Ian. D [...]uz. Annal. Holland. 1. & 6. Denz. wils that surely Danes were) Frisians Procopius in frag. [...] lib. Go­thic. ap. Camden. Name of Eng­land. and Franks driuen into those westerne parts of the now Wales and Cornwales. Our stories haue this at large, and the Saxon Heptarchy; which at last by publique edict of K. Ecbert was called [...]. But Iohn Bishop of Pollicratic. lib. 6. cap. 17. Chartres saith it had that name from * the first comming of the Angles; others from the name of Hengist Chronic. S. Al­bani. Hector B [...]t. Sc [...]ter. hist. 7. (a matter probable enough) whose name, warres, policies, and go­uernement, being first inuested by Vortigern in Kent, are aboue all the other Germans most notable in the British stories: and Harding

Hereto accords that of one of our I. Gower Epi­gram in confess. amantis. countrey old Poets:

If I should adde the idle conceits of Godfrey of Viterbo, drawing the name from I know not what Angri, the insertion of L. for R. by Pope Gregory, or the coniectures of vnlimitable phantasie, I should vnwillingly, yet with them im­pudently, erre.

Illustrations.

THe Muse, yet obseruing her began course of Chorographicall longitude, traces Eastward the Southerne shore of the Isle. In this second, sing [...] Dor­ser and Hantshire; fi [...]ly here ioyned as they ioine themselues, both hauing their South limits washt by the British Ocean.

Iuba remembers Apud Plin. hist. nat. lib. 13. cap. [...]5. a like corall by the Troglodytique Isles (as is here in this Sea) and stiles it Isis haire. Isidi [...] plocam [...]s. True reason of the name is no more perhaps to be giuen, then why Adiantum is called Capillus Veneris, or Sengreene Barba Iouis. Onely thus: You haue in Plutarch and Apuleius such variety of Isis ti­tles, and, in Clemens of Alexandria, so large circuits of her trauels, that it were no more wonder to heare of her name in this Northerne climat, then in Aegypt: especially, Ouse. we hauing three riuers of note Leland. ad Cyg. Cant. synonymies with her. Particularly to make her a Sea-goddesse, which the common storie of her and Osiris her hus­band (sonne to Cham, and of whom Bale dares offer affirmance, that in his tra­uelling ouer the world, hee first taught the Britons to make Beere in steed of Wine) do's not: Isis of the Se [...]. Isis Pelagia, after Pausanias testimony, hath an Golez. thes. antiq. olde coine. The speciall notice which Antiquity tooke of her haire is not onely shewed by her attribute Philostrat in ein. of Loosehaird. [...], but also in that her haire was kept as a sacred re­lique in Lucian, in ein. Memphis, as Geryons bones at Thebes, the Boores skin at Tegea, and such like elsewhere. And after this to fit our corall lust with her colour, Aethiopian sunneburnt. Ae­thiopicis solibus Isis furua, she is called by Aduers. gent. [...]. Blacke-haire. Arnobuis. Gentlewomen of blacke haire (no fault with breuity to turne to them) haue no simple patterne of that part in this great Goddesse, whose name indeed comprehended whatsoeuer in the Deity was feminine, and more too; nor will I sweare, but that Anacreou (a man very iudicious in the prouoking motiues of wanton loue) intending to be­stow on his sweete Mistresse that one of the titles of womens speciall ornament, [...] & [...]. wel hai­red, and pretty­foo [...]ed; two speciall com­mendations, dispersed in Gre [...]ke Poets, ioyned in Luci­lius. Well-haired, thought of this, when he gaue his Painter direction to make her picture blarke-haired. But thus much out of the way.

Very likely from the soile was the old name Blackmore. By report of this countrey, the change was from a white hart, reserued here from Chase, by ex­presse will of Hen. III. and afterward killed by Thomas de la Lynd, a Gentleman of these parts. For the offence, a mulct imposed on the possessors of Black­more [Page 35] (called Camden. white-hart siluer) is to this day paid into the Exchequer. The destruction of woods here bewaild by the Muse, is (vpon occasion too often giuen) often seconded: Destruction of woods. but while the Muse bewailes them, it is Maryas and his country-men, that most want them.

Purbecke (named, but indeed not, an Isle, being ioynd to the firme land) sto­red with game of the Forrest.

Thence alluding to Diana's deuotions, the author well cals her an Huntres and a Nunne. Nor doth the embracing force of the Ocean (whereto she is adiacent) although very violent, preuaile against her stonie cliffes. To this pur­pose the Muse is heere wanton with Neptune [...]ooing.

Albion (sonne of Neptune) from whom that first name of this Britaine was supposed, is well fitted to the fruitfull bedde of this Poole, thus personated as a Sea Nymph. The plaine truth (as wordes may certifie your eyes, sauing all im­propriety of obiect) is, Isles newly out of the Sea. that in [...] Poole are seated three Isles, Brunkse [...], Fursey, and S. Helens, in situation and magnitude, as I name them. Nor is the fiction of begetting the Isles improper; seeing Greek Lucian dialog. Pindar. olymp. [...]. Strab. Pa [...]san [...] ­ [...]. antiquities tell vs of diuers in the Mediterranean and the Archipelag, as Rhodes, Delos, Hi [...]ra, the Echinades, and o­thers, which haue beene, as it were, brought forth out of the salt womb of Amphitrite.

The straight twixt the Wight and Hantshire, is titled in Bedes Story, A Sea three miles ouer, cal­led Solente lib. 4 hist. eccles. cap. [...]6. Pelagus latitudinic III, millium quod vocatur Solente; famous for the double, and ther­by most violent flouds of the Ocean (as Scylla & Charybdi [...] twixt Sicily and Ita­ly in Homer) expressed by the Author towards the end of this Song, & reckon'd among our British wonders. Of it the Author tels you more presently. Con­cerning Shaftesbury (which, beside other names, Malmesb. lib. 2. de Pontific. S. Edwards. DCCCC.LXXIX. from the corps of S ^t. Edward, murdred in C [...]rf [...] Castle▪ through procurement of the bloudy hate of his step­mother Aelfrith, hither translated, and some III. yeares lying buried, was once called S ^t. Edwards) you shall heare a peece out of Harding;

Speaking of Rudhudibras his fabulous building it. I recite it, both to mend it, Harding a­mended. reading Aigle for Angell, and also that it might then, according to the British story, helpe me explaine the author in this,

This Eagle (whose prophecies among the Britons, with the later of Merlin, haue beene of no lesse respect, then those of Bacis were to the Greekes, or the Sybillines to the Romanes) foretold of a reuerting of the crowne, alter the Bri­tons, Saxons, and Normans to the first againe, which in Hen. VII. sonne to O­wen Tyddour, hath beene, Twin. in Albi­oni [...]. 2. See the 5. Song. obserued, as fulfilled. This in particular is peremp­torily [Page 36] affirmed by that Count Palatine of Basingstoke. He plainly said that there would be a time of this re­uerting of the Crowne. Et aperte dixit tempus a­liquando fore vt Britannicum imperium denuo sitad veteres Britannes post Saxo­vas & Normannos rediturum; are his wordes of this Eagle. But this prophe­cie in Manuscript I haue seene, and without the helpe of Albertus secret, Cana­ce's ring in Cha [...]cer, or reading ouer Aristophanes Comedie of Birds I vnder­stood the language▪ neyther finde I in it any such matter expresly. Indeed as in Merlin you haue in him the white Dragon, the redde Dragon, the blacke Dra­gon for the Saxons, Britaines, Normanes, and the fertile tree, supposed for Brute, by one that of later time hath giuen his obscurities Distinct. Aquil Sceptonia. A prophecie of an Angell to Cadwallader. interpretation: in which, not from the Eagles, but from an Angelicall voyce, almost DCC. yeares after Christ, giuen to Cadwallader (whom others call Cedwalla) that restitution of the crowne to the Britons is promised, and grounded also vpon some generall and ambiguous words in the Eag [...] text, by the Author here followed; which (pro­uided your faith be strong) you must beleeue made more then M.M.D. years since. For a corrollary, in this not vnfit place, I will transcribe a piece of the Glosse out of an olde copie, speaking thus vpon a passage in the prophecie: Henricus A Scepter in steed of a sword first in Hen, the thirds seale, but beleeue him not; the seales of those times giue no warrant for it: and euen in K. Arthurs, Leland sayes, there was a fleury Scep­ter; but that perhaps as fai­ned, at this false. IIII. (he meanes Hen. III. who, by the ancient account in regard of Henry, sonne to Henry Fite-lempresse, crowned in his fathers life, is in Bracton and others called the fourth) concessit omne ius & clameum, prose & heredibus su­is, quod habuit in Ducatu Normannia imperpetuùm. Tunc fractum fuit eius si­gillum & mutatum; nam prius tenebat in scepter [...]gladium, nunc tenet virgam; qui gladiꝰ fuit de conquestu Ducis Willielm [...] Bastardi, & ideo dicit Aquila, separabitur gladius à sceptre. Such good fortune haue these praedictions, that eyther by conceit (although strained) they are applied to accident, or else euer religiously expected; as Hist. Scot. lib. 5. in Cong allo. Buchanan of Merlins,

I would not haue you lay to the Authors charge a iustification of these signes at those times: but his liberty herein, it is not hard to iustifie,

and such like hath Silius Italicus before the Roman ouerthrow at Canna; and Historians commonly affirm the like; therfore a Poet may wel guesse the like.

The fall of Stour and Auon into the Ocean is the limit of the two shires, and here limits the Authors description of the first, his Muse now entring New-for­rest in Hantshire.

New-forest (it is thought the newest in England, except that of Hampton Court, made by Hen. VIII.) acknowledges William her maker, that is, the Norman Con­queror. His loue to this kinde of possession and pleasure was such, that he con­stituted losse Matth. Paris post Hen. Hun­ting [...]. and vnder Will. 11. it was capital to steale Deere. of Eies punishment for taking his Venery: so affirme expresly Florence of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Walter Mapez, and others, al­though the Author of Distenctio Aquilae, with some of later time, falsly laid it to William Rufus his charge. To iustifie my truth, and for variety, see these rimes, Robert. Glo­cestrensi. euen breathing antiquity:

But to quit you of this antique verse, I returne to the pleasanter Muse.

About the Norman inuasion was Beuis famous with title of Earle of South­hampton; Duncton in Wiltshire knowne for his residence. What credit you are to giue to the Hyperbolies of Itchin in her relation of Beuis, your owne iudgement, and the Authors censure in the admonition of the other riuers here personated, I presume, will direct. And it is wished that the poeticall Monkes in celebration of him, Arthur, and other such Worthies had containd themselues within bounds of likelyhood; or else that some iudges, [...] proportionat to those Lucian. [...]. of the Graecian Games, (who alwayes by publique authority pull'd downe the statues erected, if they exceeded the true symmetry of the victors) had giuen such exorbitant fictions their desert. The sweet grace of an inchanting Poem (as vnimitable Pindar Olymp. [...] & Nem. [...]. affirmes) often compels beliefe; but so farre haue the indi­gested reports of barren and Monkish inuention expatiated out of the lists of Truth, that from their intermixed and absurd fauxeties hath proceeded doubt; and, in some, euen deniall of what was truth. His sword is kept as a relique in A­rundell Castle, not equalling in length (as it is now worne) that of Edward the thirds at Westminster.

For him, his table, order, Knights, and places of their celebration, looke to the IV. Song.

Portsey an Iland in a creeke of the Solent, comming in by Portesmouth, en­dures the forcible violence of that troublesome sea, as the Verse tels you in this fiction of wooing.

Illustrations.

DIscontinuing her first course, the Muse returnes to Somerset and Wiltshire, which lie twixt the Seuerne and Hantshire; as the Song here ioynes them:

Old Salisbury seated Northeast from the now famous Salisbury, some mile distant, about Richard Ceur de Lions time had her name and inhabitants, hither translated, vpon the meeting of Auon and Aderborn; where not long after she enioy'd, among other, that glorious title of admiration for her sumptuous Church-buildings. Of that, one of my Authors thus:

This worke then began, was by Robert of Bingham, next succeeding Bishop to that excellencie, prosecuted.

Vpon Salisbury plaine stones of huge waight and greatnes, some in the earth pitcht, and in forme erected, as it were circular; others lying crosse ouer them, as if their owne poize did no lesse then their supporters giue them that proper place haue this name of Stone-henge;

As the noble In his Sonets. Sidney of them.

No man knowes, saith Histor lib. 1. Huntingdon (making them the first wonder of this Land, as the Authour doth) how, or why they came here. The cause thus take from the British storie: Hengist vnder colour of a friendly treaty with Vorti­gern at Amesbury, his falshoods watch word to his Saxons (prouided there priui­ly [Page 50] with long kniues) being [...] Take your swords. Nime [...] .ix. noble Britons, and kept the King prisoner. Some xx [...]. yeares after K. Ambros (to honour with one monument the name of so many murdred, Worthies) by helpe of Vter-pen-dragons forces and Merlins magique, got them transpor­ted from off a plaine (others say a hill) neere Girald. Cam­brensis Topo­graph. Hib. dist. 2. cap. 18. Chorea gigan­tum. Naas in Kildare in Ireland, hither, to remain as a trophy, not of victory, not of wronged innocencie. This Mer­lin perswaded the King that they were medicinall; and first brought out of the vtmost parts of Afri [...]us by [...]ants which thence came to inhabit Ireland. Not one of the stones but is good for somwhat in Physique. No [...] est ibi lapis qui [...] caret, as [...] Merlins person▪ Geffrey of Monmouth speakes; whose authority in this treacherous slaughter of the Britons, I respect not so much as Nennius, Malmesbury, Sigebert, Matthew of Westminster, and o­thers, who report it as I deliuer. Whether they be naturally solid or with cement artificially compos'd, I will not dispute. Although the last be of easier credit; yet I would, with our late Historian White, beleeue the first sooner, then that V­lysses ship was by Neptune turnd into one stone, as it is in the Odyssees, and that the Aegyptian King Amasis had a house cut out in one marble (which, by Here­dotus description, could not after the workmanship haue lesse content then M.M.CCC.XCIV. solid cubits, if my Geometry false me not) or that which the Iewes Apud Mun­ster. ad Deuter. 3. If among them there be a Whetstone, let the Iew haue it. are not asham'd to affirme of a stone, with which K. Og at one throw from his head purpos'd to haue crusht all the Israelites ▪ had not a La [...]wing strangely peck [...] such a hole through it, that it fell on his shoulders, and by mi­racle his vpper-teeth suddainly extended, kept it there fall from motion. It is possible they may be of some such earthy dust as that of Puzzole and by Ae [...] ­na, which cast into the water turnes stonie, as Pliny after Strabo of them and o­ther like remembers. Powel▪ ad lib. 2. cap. 9. Girald. itenerarij. And for certain I find it reported, that in Cairnaruan vpon Snowdon hils is a stone (which miraculously somewhat more then LX. yeares since, rais'd it selfe out of a lake at the hil foot) equalling a large house in great­nes, and suppos'd not moueable by [...] yoake of Oxen. For the forme of bringing them, your opinion may take freedom. That great one which Hercu­les Aristot. [...]. is wondred at for the carriage was but [...] a Cartload, which he left for a mo­nument in Otranto of Italy: and except Geffrey of Monmouth, with some which follow him, scarce any affirme or speake of it▪ nor Na [...]ius, nor Malmesbury; the first liuing somewhat neere the supposed time.

So thinkes our Antiquary and Light of this Kingdome; that, to be a limit of those two ancient states, sometime diuided by Auon, which falls into Seuerne, Wansdike crossing the shire Westward ouer the plaine was first call vp Wodens­dike, the old name is supposed from Woden; of no lesse (if not greater) esteeme to the Saxons, then Arsaces, P [...]lops, Cadmus, and other such to their posterity; but so, that, I guesse it went but for their greatest God Mercury (he is called ra­ther Wonden from Win; that is, gaine by Ad Germ. Tacit. Woden or Wonden. Lipsius) as the German and English anti­quities discouer. And very likely, when this limit was made, that in honor of him, being by name president of wayes, and by his office of Heraldship Paci­fex .i. Peacemaker, [...]. Sau. Mercury. Adam Bremens. cap. 5. & Hence Irmingstrea [...]. as an old stamp titles him, they called it Wodansdike; as not onely the Greeks, had their [...] (statues erected) for limits and direction of wayes, Pausan sapius & Theocrit. [...]. and the Latines their Terminus, but the ancient Iewes also, as vpon interpretation of [...] Prouerb. 26. v. 8. in the Prouerbs .i. into an heape of Mercury (in the vulgar) for a heape of stones in that sense, Goropius in his hieroglyphiques affirmes, somewhat boldly deriuing Mercury from Mere, which signifies a li­mit in his and our tongue, and so fits this place in name and nature. Stonh [...]nge and it not improperly contend, being seuerall workes of two seuerall na­tions [Page 51] anciently hatefull to each other; Britons and Saxons.

Willibourne (by the old name the Author cals her VVilly) deriued from neere S [...]lwood by VVarm [...]ster, with her creeky passage, crossing to VVilton, naming both that town and the shire, and on the other side Auon taking her course out of Sauer [...] by Marlsborow through the shire Southward, washing Ambresbury and the Salisburies (new Salisbury being her Episcopall citie) both watring the plaine, and furnisht with these reasons, are fitly thus personated, striuing to en­deare themselues in her loue: & prosecuting this fiction, the Muse thus addes;

Diuers riuers of that name haue we; but two of eminent note in Wiltshire: one is next before shew'd you, which fals through Dorcet into the Ocean; the other here mentioned hath her head in the edge of Glocester: and with her snakie course, visiting Malmesbury, Chippenham, Bradford, and diuers townes of slight note, turns into Somerset, passes Bath, and casts her selfe into Seuerne at Bristow. This compendious contention (whose proportionat example is a speciall ele­gancie for the expressing of diuersity▪ as in the Pastorals of Theocritus and Vir­gill) is aptly concluded with that point of ancient politique In Thucydid. & Li [...]. obseruation, that Outward common feare is the surest band of friendship.

The History of Oxford in the Procto [...]s booke, and certaine old verses, L [...]land, ad cyg. cant. in Iside. kept somewhere in this tract, affirme, that with Brute came hither certaine Greeke Philosophers, from whose name and profes [...]ion here it was thus called, and as an Vniuersity afterward translated in Oxford (vpon like notation a company of Physitians retiring to i. The Physi­tians lake. Lechlade in this shire, gaue that its title, as I. Rous addes in his story to Hen. VII.) But Godwine and a very old Anonymus, cited by Br. Twine, referre it to Theodore of Tarsus in Cilicia (made Archbishop of Canterbu­ry by P. Vitalian vnder Eegbert King of Kent) very skilful in both tongues, and an extraordinary restorer of learning to the English-Saxons; That he had (a­mong other) Greeke schooles, is certaine by Bedes affirmation that some of his scholers vnderstood both Greeke and Latin as their mother language. Richard of the Vies Apud Cai de antiq. Canta­brig. [...]ib. 2. & Cod. Ni [...]an­tabr. apud aut. assert. antiq. Oxon. will that Penda K. of M [...]cland, first deduced a colony of Cam­bridge men hither and cals it [...] with variety of names: but I suspect all; as well for omission [...] best authorities, as also that the name is so different in it selfe. [...] was neuer honoured with Greeke schooles, as the ignorant multitude thinke saith Ad Cyg. Cant. in Iside & Isid. vad. Curuus Graecus sermo Britanicꝰ Gaifred. Monu­meth. lib. 1. Leland, affirming it should be rather Creclade, Lechelade, or Lath [...]ar. Nor we thinkes (of [...]) stands it with the British story, making the tongue then a kind of Greeke a matter, that way reasonable enough, seeing it is questionles that colonies anciently deriued [...], and those continents into the [...] the Greeke with them) that profession of Graecians should make this so particular a name.

[...] is that, which is [...] the authors opinion, [Page 52] which hath warrant enough in others) or agitation of wind, as some will; but eyther passage through metallique, bituminous, and sulphurous veins, or ra­ther a reall subterranean fire, as Senec. Natu­ral, quaest. lib. 3. cap. 24. Empedocles first thought, and with most witty arguments (according to the Poeticall conceit of Typhon Pynder. Pyth. [...]., buried in Prochyta; wherto Strabo referres the best Bathes in Italy) my learned and kind friend M ^•. Lydiat, that accurat Chronologer, in his ingenious Philosophy, hath lately dis­puted. But, as the Author tels you, some British vanity imputes it to Bladuds art, which in a very ancient fragment Ex antiq. sched. of rimes I found exprest [...] and if you can endure the language and fiction you may reade it, and then laugh at it.

I will as soone beleeue all this as [...]. [...]. cent. 1. Deui or Iulius Caesar ( [...] neere it) was author of it, on that he made Knights of the Bathal. They la [...] no [...] wanting which haue durst say so.

From eight in the morning till three' within which time the [...] make their strongest angles of incidence) it [...]ur [...] [Page 53] cleane excrements, nor then doth any enter it; which the Muse here expresses in a feruent sympathy of loue twixt the Water and the Sun, and the more pro­perly because it had the name of Ant [...]nus in Itinerario. Waters of the Sunne. Aquae Solis.

Or. Ochy Wockey hole (so call'd in my conceit, from poc [...] Beat. Rh [...]nan. lib. 2. ver. Ger­manie., which is the same with pic, signifying a hollow or creekie passage) in Mendip hills by Welles, for her spacious vaults, stonie walles, creeping Labyrinths, vnimaginable cause of posture in the earth and hi [...] neighbours report (all which almost equall her to that Grotta de la Ortelius theat mundi. The wonders of England. Sibylla in the Apenin of Marca Anconitano, and the Dutch song of little Daniel) might well wonder she had not place among her countrey wonders. One that seemes to encrease Samuel Beaulan vpon Nennius, reckons XIII. by that name, but with vaine and false reports (as that of the B [...]h to be both hot and cold, according to the desire of him that washes) and in some the Author of Polychronicon followes him; neyther speaking of this. But the last, and Henry of Huntingdon reckon onely foure remarqueable; the Peake, Ston­henge. Chederhole, and a hill out of which it raines. That wonder of humane excellence, Sir Philip Sidney, to fit his Sonnet, makes six; and to fit that number conceitedly addes a froward, but chast, Lady for the seuenth. And the Author heretels you the chiefest.

Out of Mendip hils Froome springeth, and through the Colepits after a short course Eastward turnes vpward to Bathes Avon. The fiction of her besinea [...]'d face happens the better, in that Froome, after our old mother language, signifies faire, as that paradoxall Becanus Hermathen. lib. 5., in exposition of the Egyptian Pyromis in He­rodotus, Euterpe. would by notation teach vs.

Neere Axbridge, Chedder cleeues, rockey and vauted, by continual distilling, is the fountain of a forcible stream (driuing XII. M [...]'s within a miles quarter of its head) which runnes into Ax deriued out of Wocker.

Henry the second in his expedition towards Ireland entertayned by the way in Wales with Bardish songs, wherein he heard it affirmed that in Glastenbury (made almost an Ile by the Riuers embracements) Arthur was buried twixt two pillars, gaue commandement to Henry of Blois then Abbot, to make search for the corps: which was found in a wooden coffin ( Girald saith O [...]n, Leland thinks Alder) some sixteene foote deepe; but after they had digged nine foot, they Chronicon. Glasconiens. found a stone on whose lower side was fixt a leaden crosse (Crosses fixt vpon the Tombs of old Christians were in all places ordinary) with his name inscribed, and the letter side of it turn'd to the stone. He was then honored with a sumptuous monument, and afterward the sculs of him and his wife Gui­neuer were taken out (to remaine as separat reliques and spectacles) by Edward Longshanks and Elianor. Of this, Girald, Leland, Prise, diuers others (although Polydore make slight of it) haue more copious testimony. The Bards Songs suppose, that after the battell of Camlan in Cornwall, where trayterous Mor­dred [Page 54] was slaine, and Arthur wounded, Morgain le Fay a great Elfin Lady (sup­posed his neere kinswoman) conueyed the body hither to cure it: which done, Arthur is to returne (yet expected) to the rule of his country. Read these attributed to the Talies [...]in. ap. Pris. desens. hist. Brit. best of the Bards, expressing as much:

Englisht in meeter for me thus by the Author:

The same also in effect, an excellent Dan Lidgat. lib. 8. vers. Boc­cat. cap. 24. Nania [...] ad has resert Alanus de Insulis illud Merlini vatici­nium. Exit [...] cius dubius erit. Poet of his time thus singing it.

Worthily famous was the Abbey also from Ioseph of Arimathia (that, Noble Coun­seller. First Christiani­tie in Britaine: but see the VIII. Song. [...], as S. Mark cals him) here buried, which giues proof of Christianity in the Ile before our Lucius. Hence in a Charter of liberties by Hen. II. to the Ab­bey (made in presence of Heraclius Patriarch of Ierusalem, and others) I reade, It was called the mother and tomb of the Saints. A Hawthorne blossoming in Winter. Olim à quibusdam mater sanctorum dicta est, ab alijs tumulus sanctorum, quam ab ipsis discipulis Domini edificatans & ab ipso Domino dedicatam primò fuisse ve­nerabilis habet antiquorum authoritas. It goes for currant truth that a Haw­thorne thereby on Christmas day alwayes blossometh: which the Author tels you in that, Trees yet in winter &c. You may cast this into the account of your greatest wonders.

Selwood send [...] forth Bry, which after a winding course from Bruton, (so called of the Riuer) through part of Sedgemore, and Andremore, comes to Glastenbury, & almost inisles it; thence to Gedney Moore, & out of Brent marsh into Seuerne.

By South Cadbury is that Camelot ▪ a hill of a mile compasse at the top, foure trenches circling it, and twixt euery of them an earthen wall; the content of it, within, about xx. acres, full of ruines and reliques of old buildings. Among Roman coines there found, and other workes of antiquity, Stow speakes of a sil­uer Horseshow there digged vp in the memory of our fathers: The work­manship of the Ditches, Wals, and strange steepnes of them, makes it seeme a wonder of Art and Nature. Dij boni (saith Leland) quot hîc profundissimarum fossarum? quot hî egestae terrae valla? quae de­mùm pracipitia? at (que) vt paucis finiam, videtur mihiquidem esse & Atis & Natu­rae miraculum. Antique report makes this one of Arthurs places of his Round Table, as the Muse here sings. But of this more in the next Canto.

Illustrations.

OVer Seuerne (but visiting Lundey, a little Ile twixt Hartland and Gouen point) you are transported into Wales. Your [...]rauels with the Muse are most of all in Monmouth, Glamorgan, and the South maritime shires.

Walter Baker a Canon of Osney (interpreter of Thomas de la Moores life of Edward the II.) affirmes, that it commonly breedes Conies, Pigeons, & struco­nas, quos vocat Alexander Necha [...] (so you must read, Tho. dela Moore emen­datus. not Nechristuna, as the Francfort print senselesly mistooke with Conday, for Lundey) Ganymodis aues. What he meanes by his Birds of Ganymed, out of the name, vnlesse Eagles or Ostriches (as the common fiction of the Ca [...]amits rauishment, and this French Latine word of the Translator would) I collect not. But rather read also Pala­medis aues. [...]. Cranes) of which De rerum na­tural. lib. 1. Necham indeed hath a whole Chapter: what the other should be, or whence reason of the name comes, I confesse I am ignorant.

For she rising neere Hartland, wantonly runnes to Hat [...]erlay in Deuon, as if she would to the Southerne Ocean; but returning, there at last is discharged into the Seuerne Sea.

Tripartit di­uision of Wales. Wales had Girald descript cap. 2. & Powel ad Caradoc. Lancharuan. her three parts, Northwales, Southwales, and Powis. The last, as the middle twixt the other, extended from Cardigan to Shropshire; and on the Eng­lish side from Chester to Hereford (being the portion of Anarawd, sonne to great Roderique) beares this accusation, because it comprehends, for the most, both Nations and both tongues. But see for this diuision to the VII. Song.

Vnder Henry I a Colony of Flemings driuen out of their country by inunda­tion, and kindly receiued here in respect of that alliance which the K. had with their Earle (for his mother Maude wife to the Conqueror, was daughter to Baldwin Earle of Flanders) afterward vpon difference twixt the K. and Earle Ro­bert, were out of diuers parts, but especially Northumberland, where they most of all (as it seemes by Houeden) had residence, constrained into Rosse So called per­haps because it is almost ini­sled within the Sea, and Lhogor as Rosay in Scotland ▪ ex­pressing almost an Ile▪ Bucha­nan. hist. [...]. in Eugenio 4. in Pen­broke, which retaines yet in name and tongue expresse notes of being aliens to the Cambro-Britains. See the Author in his next Song.

Taliessin (not T [...]lesin, as Bal [...] cals him) a learned Bard, stiled Pris. in de­script. Walli [...]. Ben Beirdh .i. the chiefest of the Bards, Master to Merlin Syluester, liued about Arthurs reigne, whose acts his Muse hath celebrated.

Twixt Neth and Lhogor in Glamorgan is this Gower, a little prouince, exten­ded into the Sea as a Cherronesse; out of it on the West, rise these two Riuers meant by the Author.

Vnderstand this Stethua to be the meeting of the British Poets and Min­strels, for tryall Antiquis hu­iusmodi certa­mina fuisse doce­m [...] a sch [...]least, Aristoph. & D. Cypriano serm. de Alcator. Censure vpon bookes publi­shed. of their Poems and Musique sufficiencies, where the best had his reward, a Siluer Harpe. Some example is of it vnder Rees ap Griffith, Prince of Southwales, in the yeare M.C.LXX.VI. A custome so good, that, had it beene iudiciously obserued, truth of Storie had not beene so vncertain: for there was, by suppose, a correction of what was faulty in forme or matter, or at least a cen­sure of the hearers vpon what was recited. As (according to the Roman vse▪ it is Camd. in Epist. Fulconi Greuil. ad edit. Anglie. Norm. &c. noted, that Girald of Cambria, when he had written his Topography of Ireland, made at three seuerall dayes seuerall recitals of his III. distinctions in Oxford; of which course some haue wisht a recontinuance, that eyther amendment of opinion or change of purpose in publishing, might preuent blazoned errors. The sorts of these Poets and Minstrels out of Doctor Powels interserted anno­tations vpon Caradoc Lhancaruan, I note to you; first Beirdhs, otherwise Pryd­uids (called in Athenaeus, Lucan & others, Bards) who▪ somwhat like the [...] among the Greeks, Did sing the valiant deeds of famous men to the swee [...]e melody of the Harpe. fortia virorum illustrium facti [...] hero [...]cis composita versibus cum dulcibus lyrae modulis Amnian Mar­celin. hist. 15. cantitarunt, which was the chiefest forme of the an­cientest musique among the Gentiles, as Parte seconda cap. [...]. & [...]. Zarlino hath fully collected. Their charge also as Heraulto, was to describe and preserue pedegrees, wherein their line ascendent went from the Petruccius to B. M. thence to Syluius and Asca­nius, from them to Adam. Thus Girald reporting, hath his B.M. in some co­pies by Da [...]. Pouel. ad Girald▪ descript. cap. 3. transcription of ignorant Monkes (forgetting their tenent of perpe­tuall virginity, and Suid. in I [...]. that relation of Theodosius) turned into S. Mary For the Harp and other mu­sique instru­ments, their forme and anti­quity▪ see to the VI. Song [...] whether a spe­ciall occasion compeld it. Quantity of the Bards verses.. Beatam Mariam, whereas it stands for Belinum Magnum (that was Heli, in their writers, father to L [...]d and Cassibelin) to whom their genealogies had alwayes reference. The se­cond are which play on the Harp and Crowd; their musique for the most part came out of Ireland with Gruffith ap Conan Pr. of Northwales, about K. Stephens time. This Gruffith reformed the abuses of those Minstrels by a particular sta­tu [...], extant to this day. The third are called Atcaneaid; they sing to instru­ments playd on by others. For the Engly [...]s, Cy [...]dhs and A [...]dls; the first are couplets interchanged of XVI. & XIIII. feet calld Paladiries & Pensels, the second of equall tetrameters, the third of variety in both rime and quantity. Subdiuision of them, and better information may be had in the elaborat insti­tutions of the Cumraeg language by Dauid ap Rees. Of their musique an­ciently, out of an old writer read this: Forme of the British musique. Non vniformitter, vt alibi, sed multipliciter multis (que) modis & modulis cantilena [...] emittunt, ade [...] vt, turbâ canentium, quo [...] vide­as capita to [...] a [...]dias carmina, discrimina (que) vocum varia, in vnam deni (que), sub B. mol­lis dulcedine blanda, consonantiam & organica [...] conuenientia melodiam. A good Musician will better vnderstand it, then I that transcribe it. But by it you see they especially affected the mind composing Dorique (which is shewed in that of an old Mar [...]ian, Heracl [...]ot [...]i [...] [...]. author, affirming that To make them gentle natur'd. [...] the Western people of the world constituted vse of musique in their assemblies, though the Girald. Topog. dist. 3. cap. 11. Irish (from whence they learned) were wholly for the sprightfull Phrygian. See the next Canto.

Our Author (a iudgement day thus appointed twixt the Water-Nymphs) seemes to allude to the course vs'd of old with vs, that those which were to end their cause by combat, were sent to seuerall Saints for inuocation, as in our 30. Ed. 3. fol. 20. Law-annals appeares. For Tropelophorꝰ dictꝰ in menol [...] gie Grate apud Baronium, sorte [...] fiue [...] quid n. Trope­ [...]ophorus? S. George, that he is patron to the English, as S. Di­nis, S. Iames, S. Patrique, S. Andrew, S. Antony, S. Mark, to the French, Spanish, I­rish, Scotish, Italian, Venetian, scarce any is, that knows not. Who he was & when the English tooke him, is not so manifest. The old Martyrologies giue, with vs, to the honor of his birth the XXIII. of April. His passion is supposed in Diocle­tian's persecution. His country Cappadoce. His acts are diuers and strange, re­ported by his seruant Pasicrates, Simeon Metaphrastes, and lately collected by Surius. As for his Knightly forme, and the dragon vnder him, as he is pictured in Beryth a Citie of Cyprus, with a yong maide kneeling to him, an vnwarranta­ble report goes that it was for his martiall deliuery of the Kings daughter from the Dragon, as Hesione and Andromeda were from the Whales by Hercules, and Perseus. Your more neat iudgements, finding no such matter in true antiquity, rather make it symbolicall then truely proper. So that some account him an allegory of our Sauiour Christ; and our admired Faery Q lib. 1. Spencer hath made him an embleme of Religion. So Chaucer to the Knights of that order.

Others interpret that picture of him as some country or Citie (signified by the Virgin) imploring his aide against the Diuell, charactered in the Dragon. Of him you may particularly see, especially in Vsuards martyrologie, and Baronius his annotations vpon the Roman Calendar, with Erhard Celly his description of Frederique Duke of Wittembergs installation in the Garter, by fauour of our present Soueraigne. But what is deliuered of him in the Legend, euen the Church of Rome C. Sancta Rom. eccles. 3. dist. 15. Gelasi [...] PP. hath disallowed in these words; That not so made as any scan­dall may rise in the holy Roman Church, the passions of S. George, and such like, supposed to be written by heretiques, are not read in it. But you may better beleeue the Legend, then that he was a Couentry man borne, with his Caleb Lady of the woods, or that he descended from the Saxon race, and such like; which some English fictions deliuer. His name (as generally Ord. Rom. de diuin. of [...] a­pud Baronium in martyrolog. also S. Maurice and S. Sebasti­an) was anciently cald on by Christians as an aduocat of victory (when in the Church that kind of doctrine was) so that our particular right to him (although they say Harding cap. 72. K. Arthur bare him in one of his Banners) appeares not vntill Ed. III. consecrated to S. George the Knightly order of the Garter, Th. d [...] Walsing. A.M. C.C.C.L. & XXIV Ed. III. Fabian puts it before this yeare, but erro­niously. soone after the victory at Caleis against the French, in which his inuocatiō was Ha S. Edward, Ha S. George. Some authority Ex antiq. ma. ap. Camd. in Berks [...]. referres this to Richard Ceur de Lion, who sup­pos'd himselfe comforted by S. George in his warres against the Turkes and Ha­garens. But howsoeuer, since that he hath beene a Patron among others, as in that of Frederique the thirds institution M.CD.XXCVIII. Die ge scelsch ast S. Georgen schilts. Martin. Crus. anual. [...]. part. [...]. lib. 9. of the quadripartit society of S. Georges shield, and more of that nature, you finde. And vnder Hen. VIII. it was enacted, [...]. Hen. [...] in statuti [...] Hiberni­cis. that the Irish should leaue their Cramaboo and Butleraboo, words of vnlawfull patronage, and name themselues as vnder S. George, and the King of England. More proper is S. D [...]wy (we call him S. Dauid) to the Welsh. Reports of him af­firm that he was of that country, vncle to K. Arthur ( Bale and others say, gotten vpon Melaria a Nunne, by Xantus Prince of Cardigan) and successor to Du [...]rice [Page 69] Archbishop of Caer-leon vpon V [...]ke (whereto Polychronic. lib. 1. cap. 52. along time the British Bishop riques as to their Metropolitique See were subiect) and thence translated with his nephewes consent the Primacie to Meneuia, which is now S. Deuies in Penbroke. He was a strong oppugner of the Pelagian heresie. To him our country Calendars giue the l. of March, but in the old Martyrologies I finde him not remembred: yet I read that Bal. cent. 1. Calixtus II. first canonized him. See him in the next Canto.

Arthurs Nennius. histor. Galfred. lib. 6. cap. [...]. & lib. 7. cap. 2. Beginning of armes and crests. shield Pridwen (or his Banner) had in it the picture of our Lady and his Helme an ingrauen Dragon. From the like forme was his father called V­ter-pen-dragon. To haue terrible crests or ingrauen beasts of rapine ( Herodotus and Strabo fetch the beginning of them, and the bearing of armes from the Ca­rians) hath been from inmost antiquity continued; as appeares in that Epithet of [...], proper to Minerua, but applyed to others in Aristophanes, and also Aeschyl. [...]. Euripid in Phoeniss. The Dragon supporter and Standard of England. in the Thoban warre. Either hence may you deriue the English Dragon now as a supporter, and vsually pitcht in fields by the Saxon, English, and Norman Kings for their Standard (which is frequent in Houeden, Matthew Paris, and Floril [...]gus) or from the Romanes, who after the Minotaure, Horse, Eagle, and o­ther their antique ensignes tooke this beast; or else imagine that our Kings ioy­ned in that generall consent, whereby so many nations bare it. For by plaine and good authority, collected by a great critique, Lips. com. ad Polyb 4. dissert. 5. you may finde it affirm'd of the Assyrians, Indians, Scythians, Persians, Dacians, Romanes; and of the Greekes too for their shields, and otherwise: wherin Lipsius vniustly findes fault with I­sidore, but forgets that in a number of Greeke Pindar. Pythie­ni [...]. [...]. Homer. Iliad. suid. Epa­minond Hesiod. [...]. Plutarch. Ly­sand. Euripid in [...]. authors is copious witnes of as much.

That is Baunsedowne in Somerset (not Blackmore in Yorkeshire, as Polydore mis­takes) as is expresly proued out of a ms. G [...]ldas Camden., different from that published by Iosselin.

Some, too hyperbolique, stories make him a large conqueror on euery ad­iacent country, at the Muse recites▪ and his seale, which Leland sayes he saw▪ in Westminster Abbey, of redde wax pictur'd with a Mound, bearing a crosse in his left hand (which was first Suid in Iusti­nian. No seales be­fore the Con­quest. Iustinians deuice; and surely, in later time, with the seale counterfeited and applied to Arthur: no King of this Land, except the Confessor, before the Conquest Ingalph [...]s. euer vsing in their Charters more then subscription of name and crosses) and a Scepter fleury in his right, cals him Emperour of Britaine, Gaule, Germany, and Danmarke; for so they falsly turned Da [...]ia. Bri­tanniae, Galliae, Germaniae, Daciae Imperator. The Bards songs haue, with this kind of vnlimited attribut so loaden him, that you can hardly guesse what is true of him. Such indulgence to fals report hath wrong'd many Worthies, and among them euen that great Alexander in prodigious suppositions (like Stichus Plaut. in Sti­che. his Geography, laying Pontus in Arabia) as Strabo often complains; & some idle Monke of middle time is so impudent to affirme, that at Babylon hee erected a columne, inscribed with Latine and Greeke verses, as notes of his victory; of them you shall tast in these two:

[Page 70] Onely but that Alexander and his followers were no good Latinists (wherein, when you haue done laughing, you may wonder at the decorum) I should cen­sure my lubbe [...]ly versifier to no lesse punishment then Marsyas his excor [...]ati­on. But for Arthur, you shall best know him in this elogie. This is that Arthur of whom the Brittons euen to this day speake so idly; a man right worthy to haue been celebrated by true storie, not false tales, seeing it was he that long time vpheld his de­clining country and euen inspired martiall courage into his country men; as the Monke of Malmesbury, Knights and Ladies sate in seuerall rooms. of him:

At Caer-leon in Monmouth, after his victories, a pompeous celebration was at Whitsontide, whether were inuited diuers Kings and Princes of the neigh­bouring coasts; he with them, and his Queene Guineuer, with the Ladies kee­ping those solemnities in their seuerall conclaues. For so the British storie makes it according to the Troian custome, that in festiuall solemnities, both sexes should not sit together. Of the Troians I remember no warrant for it: but among the Greekes one Sphyromachus Scholast. ad Arist ephan. [...]. & Suidas. Round Tables. first instituted it. Torneaments and jousts were their excercises, nor vouchsafed any Lady to bestow her fauour on him, which had not beene thrice crown'd with fame of martiall performance. For this order (which herein is delineated) know, that the old Gaules (whose customes and the British were neere the same) had their Orbicular tables to a­uoyd controuersie of presedency (a forme much commended by a late Gemos. halo­graph. lib. 3. cap. 9. wri­ter for the like distance of all from the Salt, being center, first, and last of the furniture) and at them euery Knight attended by his Esquire ( A [...]migeri▪ which is exprest in the word Schilpors in Paul Warn [...]red. lib. [...]. de gest. Lo [...]gobard. cap. [...]. [...] Athe­naeus Dipnosoth. lib. [...]. cal [...] them) holding his shield. Of the like in Hen. III. Matthew Paris, of Mortimers at Kelingworth, vnder Ed. I. and that of Windsor, celebrated by Edw. III. Walsingham speakes. Of the Arthurian our Histories haue scarce mention. But Hauillan's Architrenius, Robert of Glocester, Iohn Lidgat Monke of Bury, and English rimes in diuers hands sing it. It is remembred by Leland, Camden, Volateran, Philip of B [...]rgomo, Lily, Aubert Mir [...], others, but very diuersly. White of Basingstok [...] defends it, and imagines the originall from an election by Arthur and Howell K. of Armorique Britaine of six of each of their worthiest Peeres to be alwayes assistant in counsell. The antiquity of the Earledome of Hoppenrod & spangberg. apud Ortc [...]m in Mansfeld. Many places in Wales in hills and rockes, ho­nor'd with Ar­thurs name. Pris desens. hist. Brit. & Cadair Arthur .i. Arthurs Chaire in Brecknock G [...]rald. I [...]in. Camb. cap. 2. & Arthurs Ouen in S [...]ul [...]ng of Scotland. Mansfeld in old Saxony is hence affirmed, because Heger Earle thereof was honored in Arthurs Court with this order; places of name for residence of him and his Knights were this Caer-leon, Winchester (where his Table is yet sup­pos'd to be, but that seemes of later date) and Camelot in Somerset. Some put his number XII. I haue seene them anciently pictur'd XXIV. in a Poeticall sto­rie of him; and in Denbighshire, Stow tels vs, in the parish of Lansannan on the side of a stonie hill is a circular plaine, cut out of a maine rocke, with some XXIV. seats vnequall, which they call Arthurs Round Table. Some Catalogues of armes haue the coats of the Knights, blazoned; but I thinke with as good warrant as Liure 2. ch [...]pit. 30. Rablais can iustifie, that Sir Lancelot du Lac rostes horses in hell, and that The Knights of the Round Table vse to ferry spirits o­uer Styx, Ache­ron, and other riuers, and for their fare haue a fillip on the nose and a peece of moul­dy bread. Tous le [...]ch [...]ualiers de la Table ronde esto [...]ent poures gaigne-deniers tirans la ram [...]pur passer les riuers de Coccyte, Phlegeton, Styx, Acheron, & Lethe quand Mossieurs les diables se voulent esbatre sur leaucome font les Basteliers de Lyonet gondoliers de Venise, Mais pour chacune passade il [...]n' ont qu'un Nazarde & sur le soir qu [...]lque merceau de pain chaumeny. Of them, their number, exploits, and prodigious performances you may read Caxtons published volume, digested by him into XXI. bookes, out of diuers French and Italian fables, From such I abstaine, as I may.

Two Girald. I [...]iner. Camb. 1. cap. 8. Merlins haue our stories: One of Scotland commonly titled Syluester, or Caledonius liuing vnder Arthur; the other Ambrosius (of whom before) borne of a Nunne (daughter to the K. of Southwales) in Caermardhin, nor na­ming the place (for rather in British his name is Merdhin) but the place (which in Ptolemy is Maridunum) naming him; begotten, as the vulgar, by an Incubus. For his buriall (in supposition as vncertaine as his birth, actions, and all of those too fabulously mixt stories) and his Lady of the Lake it is by liberty of profes­sion laide in France by that Italian Orland. Furi [...]s. cant. 3. See Spencers Fa [...]ry Q. lib. 3. cant. 3. Ariosto: which perhaps is as credible as som more of his attributes, seeing no perswading authority, in any of them, re­ctifies the vncertainty. But for his birth see the next Song, and, to it, more.

According to the Gen. 10. text, the Iews affirm that All the sonnes of Noah were dispersed through the earth, and euery ones name left to the land which he possessed. Vpon this tradition, and false Berosus testimony, it is affirmed that Tuisco (sonne of Noah, gotten with others after the Munsier. Cosm. lib. 3. floud vpon his wife Arezia) tooke to his part the coast about Rhine, and that thence came the name of Teutschland and Teutsch, which we call Dutch, through Germany. Goropius in Indo [...]ythic. Som make him the same with Gomer, eldest sonne to Iaphet (by whom these parts of Europe were peo­pled) out of notation of his name, deriuing Tuiscon or Tuiston (for so Tacitus calls him) from The hoodt son .i. the eldest sonne. Others (as the author here) suppose him sonne to Gomer, and take Iodo [...]. Willich. comm. ad Tacit. Germaniam. & Pantaleon lib. 1. [...]sopograph. him for Aschenaz (remembred by Moses as first sonne to Gomer, and from whom the Hebrewes call the Germans E [...]ias Leuit. in Thi [...]b. Arias Mont. in Pel [...]g. Aschenazim) whose reliques probably indeed seeme to be in Tuisco, which hath beene made of Aschen either by the Dutch prepositiue article die or lie, as our the (according to Derceto for Strab. lib. [...] & [...] de aiijs quae hic congeri­mus. Atergatis, which should be Adargada in C [...]esias; and Danubius for Adubenus in Festus, perhaps therein corrupted, as Ioseph Scaliger obserues; as Theudibald for Ildibald in Procopius, and Diceneus for Ceneus among the Getes) or through mistaking of [...] for [...] or [...] in the He­brew, as in Rhodanim [...] for [...]roughton in concent. praes. [...] being Dodanim, and in Chalibes and Alybes for Thalybes from Tubal by taking [...] or [...] for [...]; for in ruder manuscripts by an im­perfect Reader, the first mistaking might be as soone as the rest. I coniecture it the rather, for that in most Histories diuersity with affinity twixt the same-meant proper names (especially Easterne as this was) is ordinary; as Megaby­zus in C [...]esias is Bacabasu [...] in Iustin, who cals Aaron, Aruas, and Herodotus his Smerdis, Mergidis, Asarhadon, Coras and Esther in the Scriptures are thus Sar­danapalus, Cyrus, & Amestris in the Greek stories, Eporedorix, Ambriorix, Arimi­niu [...], in Caesar and Suetòn, supposed to haue beene Frederique, Henry, Herman: diuers like examples occurre; and in comparison of Arrian with Q. Curtius very many; like as also in the life of S. Iohn the Euangelist, anciently Pet. Kirstenius Grammaticae Arabic [...] sub­in [...]it. written in Arabique you haue Asubasianuusu, Thithimse, Damthianuusu for Vespasian, Ti­tus, Domitian, and in our stories Androgeus for Caesars Mandubratius. From Tuisco is our name of Tuesday; and in that too, taking the place of Mars (the most fiery Starre, and obserue with all that against the vulgar opinion the pla­netary account of dayes is very Scal [...]. in pro­legom. a [...] emen­dat. temp. ancient) discouers affinity with Aschenaz, in whose notation (as Melancthon ap. Becan. in Indoscyth. some body obserues) [...] signifies fire.

So a Latine rime in Ap. Camdenum Engelhuse also;

Although from the Sacans or Sagans a populous nation in Asia (which were al­so Scythians, and of whom an old Dionys Afer. in [...]. The English from their ori­ginall, excellent Archers. See the VIII. Song. Poet, as most others in their Epithe [...]s and passages of the Scythyans,

A faculty for which the English haue had no small honor in their later warres with the French) both Goropius with long argument in his Becceselana, our iudi­cious Camden and others will haue them, as it were, Saca [...]'s-sonnes. According hereto is that name of Strabo lib. [...]. Sacasena, which a colony of them gaue to part of Arme­nia and the Ptolem. geo­graph. lib. [...]. cap. [...]. Sasones in Scythia on this side of Imaus. Howsoeuer, the Authors conceit thus chosen is very apt, nor disagreeing to this other, in that some com­munity was twixt the name of Sacae or Sagae, and a certaine sharp weapon called Sagaris, vsed by the Amazons, Sacans, and Persians, as the Greeke Herodot. Poly­hymn. Xenoph. [...]. Strabo lib. [...]. stories in­forme vs.

Most suppose them sent to by the Britons much subiect to the irruptions of Picts and Scots, and so inuited hither for aide: but the stories of Gildas and Nennius haue no such thing, but onely that there landed of them (as banished their country, See the 8. Song which Geffrey of Monmouth expresses also) III. long boates in Kent with Horse and Hengist Captaines. They afterward were most willingly requested to multiply their number by sending for more of their country men to helpe K. Vortigern, and vnder that colour, and by Ronix (daughter to Hen­gist, and wife to Vortigern) her womanish subtilty, in greater number were here planted. Of this, more large in euery common storie. But to beleeue their first arriuall rather for new place of habitation, then vpon embassage of the Britons, I am perswaded by this, that Iustin. lib. 24. & 41. Herodot. Clio. Wasingh. Hypodig. Neust. Gemetie [...]ēs. lib. 1. cap. 4. Sabnis & Graecis morem hunc suisse me­mini legisse me apud Varron [...]m & Columellam. among the Cimbrians, Gaules, Gothes, Dacians, Scythians, and especially the Sacans (if Strabo deceiue not; from whom our Saxons) with other Northerne people, it was a custome vpon nume­rous abundance to transplant colon [...]es: from which vse the Parthians (sent out of Scythia, as the Romans did their Festus in [...]od. & Mamertinis. Ver Sacrum) retaine that name, signifying banished (sayes Trogus;) not vnlikely, from the Hebrew Paratz [...] Gen. 28. 14. Iesai. 54.3., which is to separat, and also to multiplie in this kind of propagation, as it is vsed in the pro­mise to Abraham, and in Isay's consolation to the Church. Here being the maine change of the British name and State, a word or two of the time and yeare is not vntimely. Most put it vnder CD.XL.IX. (according to Bedes copies and their followers) or CD.L. of Christ; wheras indeed by apparant proofe it was in CD.XXVIII. and the IV. of Valentinian the Emperor. So Prise and Camden (out of an old fragment annexed to Nennius) and, before them, the author of Fa­sciculus Temporum haue placed it. The errour I imagine to be from restoring of wooren out times in Bede and others, by those which fell into the same error with Florence of Worcester and Marian the Scot, who begin the receiued Chri­stian accompt but XII. yeares before the Passion, thereby omitting XXII. For although Marians published Chronicle (which is but Malmesb. lib. 4. de Pontificib. a defloration by Robert of Lorraine Bishop of Hereford vnder Hen. I. and an Epitome of Marian) goes neere from the ordinary time of Incarnation vnder Augustus, yet he layes it al­so, [Page 73] according to the Roman Abbot Dionysius in the XXIII. yeare following, Mistakings in our Chronolo­gies. which was rather by taking aduantage of Dionysius his error then following his opinion. For when he (about Iustinians time) made his Period of D.XXXII. yeares of the golden number and cycle of the Sunne multiplied, it fell out so in his computation that the XV. Moone following the Iewes Passeouer, the Dominicall letter, Friday, and other concurrents according to Ecclesiasticall tradition supposed for the Passion could not be but in the Paul. de Mi­dleburg [...] part. 2. lib. 5. XII. yeare after his birth (a lapse by himselfe much repented) and then supposing Christ liued XXXIV. yeares, XXII. must needes be omitted; a collection directly against his meaning; hauing only forgotten to fit those concurren [...]. This accompt (in it selfe, and by the Abbots purpose, as our vulgar is now, but with some little difference) erroniously followed, I coniecture, made them, which too much desired correction, adde the supposed Euangelicall XXII. yeares to such times as were before true, & so came CCCC.XXVIII. to be CCCC.XL.IX. & CCCC.L. which White of Busingstoke (although ayming to be accurat) vniustly followes. Subtraction of this number, and, in some, addition (of addition you shall haue perhaps example in amendment of the C.L.VI. yeare for K. Lucius his letters to PP. Eleutherius) will rectifie many grosse absurdities in our Chronologies, which are by transcribing, interpolation, misprinting and creeping in of anti­chronisme [...] now and then strangely disordered.

And a little after.

What is now Normandy is, in some, stil'd Neustria and Nuestria corruptly, as most think, for Westria, that is West-rich .i. the west Kingdome (confined anci­ently twixt the Mense and the Loire) in respect of Austrich or Dostrich .i. the East Kingdome, Westrich. now Lorraine, vpon such reason as the Archdukedome hath his name at this day. Rollo sonne of a Danish Potentate, accompanied with diuers Danes, Norwegians, Scythians, Gothes, and a supplement of English, which he had of K. Athelstan, about the yeare D.CCCC. made transmigration into France, and there, after some martiall discords, honored in holy tincture of Christianity with the name of Robert, receiued Paul. Aemiliꝰ hist. Franc. 3. of Charles the Simple with his daughter (or sister) Gilla this Tract as her dower, contayning (as before) more then Normandy. It is Guil. Gemiti­cens. lib. 2 cap. 17. An vnmanner­ly homage. reported, that when the Bishops at this donation requi­red him to kisse the Kings foote for homage, after scornefull refusall, he com­manded one of his Knights to do it; the Knight tooke vp the Kings legge, and in strayning it to his mouth, ouerturned him; yet nothing but honourable re­spect followed on eyther part.

Our Author makes the Norman inuasion a reuniting of seuered kindred, ra­ther then a conquest by a meere stranger, taking argument as well from identi­tie of countryship (being all Germans by originall, and the people of Marcian. He­ra [...]leot. in [...] the Cim­brica Ch [...]rsonesus, now Danmarch, anciently called Saxons) as from contingen­cie of blood twixt the Engle-Saxon Kings, & the Norman Dukes thus expressed:

[Page 74] G [...]miticens. lib. 7. cap. 36. & lib. 3. cap. 18.

Obiect not that Duke Robert got the Conqueror vpon Arletta (from whom perhaps came our name of Harlot) his Concubine, nor that ff. vnde cogna­ti l. 4. spurius. & tit. de grad. affin. l. 4. non sacile. § 8. Sciendum. Consanguinitatis & aedgnationis iura à patre tantum & legitimis nuptijs oriuntur, as the Ciuill Law, and vpon the matter the English also defines; but rather allow it by law of Nature and Nobility, which iustifies the bastards bearing of his fathers coat, distinguisht with a Bend sinister: Nicholas Vpton cals it Right of blood and kin­dred comes on­ly by lawfull marriage. Fissura, eò quod finditur à patriâ haereditate, which is but his conceit: and read Heuters tract de liberâ ho­minis natiuitate, where you shall finde a kind of legitimation of that now dis­gracefull name Bastard, which in more antique times was, as a proud title, in­serted in the stile of great and most honorable Princes. Pretending this con­sanguinity, S. Edward's adoption, and K. Harolds oth, aided by successfull armes the Norman acquired the English Crowne; although William of A diuision, because he is separated from his fathers in­heritance. M.LX.VI. Poiters af­firmes, that on his death bed he made protestation, that his right was not here­ditary, but by effusion of bloud, and losse of many liues.

After composition of French troubles Hen. I. returning into England, the Ship, wherein his sonnes William and Richard were, twixt Barbefleu and South-hampton was cast away, so that heauen onely spared him this issue Maude the Empresse, married, at last, to Geffrey Plantagenest Earle of Aniou, Plantagenest. from whom in a continued race through Hen. II. (sonne to this Maude) vntill Rich. III. that most Noble surname possessed the royall Throne of England.

Illustrations.

If you euer read of, or vulgarly vnderstand, the forme of the Ocean, and affi­nity twixt it and Riuers, you cannot but conceiue this Poetical description of Seuern [...]; wherein Amphitrite is supposed to haue giuen her a precious robe: very proper in the matter-selfe, and imitating that Iliad. [...]. &c. [...]. Odyss. [...]. Father of the Muses which deriues Agamemnons Scepter to him by descent ioyn'd with gift from Iupiter, Achilles armor from Vulcans bounty, Helens Nepenthe from the Aegyptian Polydamna, and such like, honoring the possessor with the giuers iudgement, as much as with the gift possest.

At Milford hauen arriued Henry Earle of Richmont, aided with some forces and summes of money by the French Charles VIII. but so entertained and strengthned by diuers of his friends, groaning vnder the tyrannicall yoake of Rich. III. that, beyond expectation, at Bosworth in Leicester, the day and Crown was soone his. Euery Chron [...]cle tels you more largely▪

Turne to the Eagles prophecies in the II. Song, where the first part of this re­lation is more manifested. For the rest, thus: About our Confessors time Mac­beth Hector Boet. lib. 12. et Bucha­nan. in reg. 85. & 86. lib. 7. qui eosdem aeuo ci­teriori Stuartos ait dictos, quos olim Thanos nuncupabant. Than [...] verò quaestores erant regij per inter­pretationem, vti Boetius. Certè in Charta illa quâ iure cliente [...]ari se Henrico II. obstrina [...]t Wil­helmus Scotorū Rex, leguntur in­ter testes W [...] ­elmus de Curcy Seneschaellus, Willielmus Filius Aldelmi Seneschallus, A­l [...]redus de San­cto Martino Seneschallus, Gilbertꝰ Malet Seneschallus, vnde honorariū fuisse hoc nomen paret. horum bi­ni desunt apud Houedenum ve­rum ex vetufliss. Anonymon [...]s. excerpsi. K. of Scotland (moued by predictions, affirming that, his line extinct, the posterity of Banqhuo a noble Thane of Loqhuabrie should attaine and continue the Scotish raigne) and iealous of others hoped for greatnes, murdred Banqhuo, but mist his d [...]signe▪ for, one of the same posterity, Fleanch sonne to Banqhuo, priuily fled to Gryffith ap Lhe [...]el [...] then Prince of Wales, and was there kindly receiued. To him and Nesta the Princes daughter was issue one Walter. He (af­terward for his worth fauourably accepted, and through stout performance honourably requited by Malcolmb III.) was made L. high Stewart of Scotland; out of whose loynes Robert II▪ was deriued: since whom that royall name hath long continued, descending to our mighty Soueraigne, & in him is ioynd with the commixt Kingly bloud of Tyddour and Plantagenest. These two were vni­ted, [Page 84] with the Yorke and Lancaster white and red Roses, in those auspicious nuptials of Henry the VII. and Elizabeth daughter to Edward IV.) and from them, through the La­die Margaret their eldest daughter, married to Iames the IV. his Maiesties de­scent and spatious Empire obserued easily shewes you what the Muse here playes withall. The rest alludes to that; Cambria shall be glad, Cornwall shall flourish, and the Isle shall be stiled with Brutes name, and the name of strangers shall perish: as it is in Merlins prophecie [...].