When Pope Clement VI. graunted the fortunate I sles 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 [...]. 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 there with the Pope, that hee, as a priuate friend, not as a Iudge or party interessed, should determine of Edward the thirds right to France: where you haue this Embassage in Walsinghā, Hypodigmatis Neustriae locus emendatus, sub anno [...]. CCC. XLIV. correct Regnum Angliae, and reade Franciae. Britains excellence in earth and ayre (whence the Macares, Pompon. Mela l. 2. 6. 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 deriue Albion from Happy. Vtmost ends of the earth. Vpon affinity of this with the Cape de Finistere, Goro­pius thinkes the Elisian fields were by that Promontory of Spaine. v. Strab. lib. 7. A passing of soules from one to another. [...]; whereto the Author in his title and this versealludes. But of Albion more, presently.

Fabulous Iupiters ill dealing with his Father Saturne, is well known; and that after deposing him, and his priuities cut off, hee perpetually imprisoned him. Homer Iliad.9. & He­siod. in Theogon. ioynes Iapet with him, liuing in eternal night about the vtmost ends of the earth: which well fits the more Northerne climate of these Islands. Ofthem (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, kept by Briareus, attended by spirits, conti­nually dreaming of Iupiters proiects, whereby his ministers prognosticate the secrets of Fate. Euery thirtie yeares, diuers of the adiacent Islanders with solem­nitie for successe of the vndertaken voyage, and competent prouision, enter the vast Seas, and at last, in this Saturnian Isle (by this name the Sea is called also) [...] enioy the happy quiet of the place; some in studies of nature, and the Mathematiques, which continue; others in sensuality, 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, Iason and his Argonautiques, and almost the whole Chaos of Mythique inuentions. But neyther Geography (for I ghesse not where or what this Isle should be, vnlesse that des Rablais. Macraont which Pantagruell discoue­red) nor the matter-self permits it lesse Poeticall (although a learned Greeke Father Clem. Alexan­drin. stromat. [...]. Odyss. of. Iliad. 0. out of some credulous Historian seemes to remember it) then the Ely­sian fields, which, with this, are alwayes laide by Homer about the Happy. Vtmost ends of the earth. Vpon affinity of this with the Cape de Finistere, Goro­pius thinkes the Elisian fields were by that Promontory of Spaine. v. Strab. lib. 7. A passing of soules from one to another. [...]; a place whereof too large liberty was giuen to faine, 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. nat. 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 Eustat. ad Iliad 7 Herodot. lib. 7. Suid. in [...]. Censorin. de die nat. cap. 17. of Authors shew you.

You cannot be without vnderstanding of this Pythagorean opinion of trans­animation (I haue like liberty to naturalize that word, as Lipsius had to make it a Romane, by turning Happy. Vtmost ends of the earth. Vpon affinity of this with the Cape de Finistere, Goro­pius thinkes the Elisian fields were by that Promontory of Spaine. v. Strab. lib. 7. 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 temperedwith inuiting pleasure, take Lucians Cock, and his Ne­gromancys if in serious discourse, Plato's Phaedon, and Phaedrus with his followers. Lipsius doubts Physiolog. Stoic. 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 [...] Sauiour to be Ieremte or Elias vpon this error, irreligious indeed, yet such a one, as so strongly erected mouing spirits, that they did neuer — Spare in spen­ding their liues. which they hoped to receiue againe. The Gaules call them Iupi­ters Priests or Bawdes. Vaine. rediturae parcere vitae, but most willingly deuote their whole selues to the publique seruice: and this was in substance the politique enuoyes wherewith Plato and Cicere 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 soules immortality of Cicer. [...]. 1. Pherecydes a Syri­an) Seneca, Plato, and Plutarch; which last two, in a Greeke hymne of an Eastern Ioann [...]. iampridem Etoniae gracè 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 Spare in spen­ding their liues. which they hoped to receiue againe. The Gaules call them Iupi­ters Priests or Bawdes. Vaine. Galli Zenas, or Lenas vocant. But White of Basing stoke will haue it Spare in spen­ding their liues. which they hoped to receiue againe. The Gaules call them Iupi­ters Priests or Bawdes. 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. Polzhist. cap. 35. Saylers. But fin­ding that in the Syllies were also of both Sexes such kinde of professors, that there were [...] Dio­nys. Asro in [...] muitis. n. pro arbitrio anti­quorum S. literae adest vel abefi. v. Casaubon. ad a. Strab. Samnitae, strangely superstitious in their Baccbanals, in an Ile of this coast (as is deliuered by Strabo) and that the Gaulcs, 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. & b. Diogen. Laert. lib. a. Coniecture vpon Mela. Samanaei, and Semni, and (perhaps by corruption of some of these) Samothei, which, to make it Greeke, might be turned into [...]: 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 [...] Insula sacra di­cta Hihernta. 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. Caem­brens. dist. 3. cap. 2. their Bartholan, their Ruan, who, as they affirme, first planted Religion, before Christ, amongthem: 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 Patrique) exceeded [...]. DCC. yeares, and so was elder then that impostor, Assuerus Cor­donnier (dictꝰ in historiâ Gallicâ Victoris ante triennium editâ de la paeix &c.) cuius partes olim egisse videntur Iosephus Charto­phylacius (refe­rente Episcepo Armeniato apud Matth. Paris in Hen. 3.) & Io­annes [...] (Gui­dom Bonato in Astrologiá indigitatꝰ) But­ta-dius. whose fained continuance of life and rest­les trauailes, euer since the Passion, lately offered to deceiue the credulous. Onely thus I note our 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 Cor­nisb 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 therest in greatnesse: by coniecture of most learned Camden, erected eyther vnder the Romanes, or else by K. Atbelstan in his conquest of these parts.

Neere Camel about Camblan, was Dictus hine 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 Cornewailat 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 Castlessafegard; 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 Rhieara­doch, one of his Knights by Ambrose Merlins magique personated like Gorlois, and Vlfin 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 111. 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 Amphitryo, a Sosias, and a Mercury; nor wants there scarce anything, but that truth-passing reports of Poeticall Bards haue made the birth an Hercules.

The name Dumnonij, Damnonij, or `Danmonij, in Solintts 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 Domnonia, 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 [...] of his countrey. But to giue reason of the climats 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 bison speranza so blacke, Orteliusthea­tro. yet both vnder the same Tropique; why the Abyssins are but tawny Moores, wheh asin the East Indian Isles Zetlan and Malabar, they are very blacke, both in the same parallel; or why we that Iiue 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 meh, the nimble ability of the Irish, the fiery motions of the French, Italian iealousle, German liberty, Spanish puft vp vanity, or those different and perpetuall carriages of state gouernement, Haste and Delay, Thucydid. a & passim. de A­then & Lace­daem. & de The­bis & Chalcide v. Columell. 1. de re rustic. cap. 4. which asinbred qualities, were remarqueable in the two most martiall people of Greece. The cause of AEthtopian blackenesse and curled haire was long since iudiciously Onesicrit ap. Strabon. lib. [...]. fetcht from the disposition of soile, ayre, water, and singular operations of the heauens; with cōfutation of those which attribure 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 haue 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 Latino Storie authentique, speaking of AEneas and his planting in Latium, were mention made of any such likething. To reckon the learned men which denie him, or at least permithim 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 Hifpalus 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 die nat. cap. 21. Christoph. Heluics Chrono­logiā sequimur, nec, vt accurati­ùs temporum subductioni hoc loci incumba­mꝰ, res postulat; verùm & ille satis accuraté, qui Samuelis praefecturam A. M [...]. [...]. DCCC. L. haùt iniquo computo posuit. Varro, vnknowne or fabulous) some [...]. [...]. 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 Taliessin a 10. Pris. def. hist. Brit. great Bard, more then [...]. 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 Hesi­chio (perhaps meaning Aschenaz, of whom more to the fourth Song) conti­nuing a pedegree to Adam, ioyning these words: Ex vetuftiss & 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 L. b. de summi­tatibꝰ rerum qui 10. est historia­rum in m. s. Huntingdon began his History at Casar, but vpon better inquisition added Brute. Librū illum, in quera ait se incidis­se, Nennium fuisse obsignatis fermè tabulis sum potis adserere. to one Warin, I read the Latine [Page 18] of this English; You aske me, Sir, Why omitting the succeeding raigues 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 those times; although with diligent search I oft inquiredit, 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 beenefollowed (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 middletimes, and this age; speaking so certainly of him, that they blaz on 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 Ba­sing stoke, lately liuing at [...], a Count palatint; 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 Greel 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 [...] antiquities deceiue not. You may adde this weake coniecture; that in those large excursions of the Gaules, Cimmerians, & Celts (among them I doubt not but were many Britons, hauing with them community of nation, manners, climat, customs; and [...] 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. 31. reported that they came to Troy for safegard; presuming perhaps vpon like kindnesse, as wee reade of [...] the Troians and Romanes, in their warres with Trog. Pomp. lib. 31. [...] (which was louing respect through contingence of bloud) vpon like cause remembred to them by tradition. Brief­ly, seeing no Nationall storie, except such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Caesar, Tacitus, Procopius, [...], the late Guicciardin, [...], Macchia­uel, 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 Melebior Canꝰ lib. 11. de aut. hist. hum. de his plurima. Historians, especially the Iewish Rabbins (taking their highest learning of Ca­bala, but from antique and successiue report) haue inserted vpon tradition many relations currant 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 3 5. 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, [...], Plutarch, Clemens, Polybius, Liuie, 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 other discording and con­trary (beside their infinit omissions) to Moses infallible context. Nay he with his successor [...] is copious in the Israelites entring, conquering, and expel­ling the Gergesites, Iebusites, and the rest out of the holy land; yet no witnes See the VI. Song. haue they of their transmigration, and peopling of Afrique, which by testimo­ny of two pillers, Procopius de bell. V andilic. lib. 7. erected and engrauen at Tingis hath beene affirmed. But you blame methus expatiating. Let me adde for the Author, that our most iudici­ous anriquary 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: — AEneid. 6. & ibid [...]. After thy death Lauinia brings a King borne in the woods, father of kings. Serum Lauinia coniunx,
Educet Syluis regem regúm (que) parentem.

As you haue it in Virgill.
His parents onely death—

From these infortunate accidents, one Basingstoch. lib. 1. will haue his name Brotus, as from the Greeke [...]. mortall; but rather (if it had pleased him) from [...], [...]. 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, belceue 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, A­puleius, others; and our Monke of Bury 10. Lidgat. lib. de bell. Troian. 5. & alibi saepiꝰ. cals Henry the fift
—Protectour of Brutes Albion,
often vsing that name for the Iland. From Albina, daughter to [...] Chronic. S. Al­bani. King of Syria some fetch the name: others from a Lady of that name, one of the [...]; affirming their Hugo de Ge­nes. ap. Harding. cap. 3. arriuall here, copulation with spirits, and bringing forth Giants; and all this aboue C C. 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 [...] 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. From white cliffs. In the hils of Britany. British Isles. [...] others, or from (I know not what) Olibius a Celtish King, re­membred by the false Manethon. Follow them rather, which will it Happy. From white cliffs. In the hils of Britany. British Isles. ab albis rupibus, whereby it is specially [...]. So was an Isle in the Indian Sea called Leuca. 1. white, and [...], [...] Euripides in Andromachâ, magis [...], quam [...] quod canit Die­nysius 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 called Strabo lib. [...]. & Sixt. Pompeius in Alpum. 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, [...]. 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 Moschion ap. Athen. dipno­soph. 1. finding of one of the masts of Hiero's Ship, Happy. From white cliffs. In the hils of Britany. British Isles. [...], if iudicious correction admonished me not rather to reade [...]. the now lower Calabria in Italie, a place aboue all other, I remember, for store of Ship-tymber; cōmended Thucydid. hift 6. by Alcibiaedes to the Lacedaemonians. But with better surety can I produce the expresse name of Happy. From white cliffs. In the hils of Britany. British Isles. [...], out of a writer that Polyb. hist. [...]. qui 1. Casarem C C. fermè annot anteuertit. liued and trauelled in warfare with Scipio; before whose time Scylax (ma­king a Catalogue of XX. other Isles) and Herodot us (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 [...]. 1. blacke, is 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 Festus in Al­cedo. Melas: so in proper names of men; Simon Zelotes Nebrissens. in quinquagen. cap. 49., in Luke, is but Simon the Chananit, and [...] in Orpheus the same with Moses; Ianus with Oenotrus: and in our times those Authors, Me­lanchthon, Magirus, Theocrenus, Pelargus in their owne language, but Swert­earth, Cooke, 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 [...] and to fit all together, the name of Britaine from Brith-inis. i. the coloured Isle in Welsh; twixt which and the Greeke Vocabulo [...] vsi sunt AEschylus, So­phocles, Hellani­cꝰ, Archilochꝰ, Hecataꝰ ap. A­thenaeum dip­nosoph. 10. [...] eiusdem ferè naturae cum Sy­tho & Curmithe apud Dioscori­dem lib. [...]. cap. [...]. fortè [...]. [...], or [...] (vsed for a kinde of drinke neerely like our Beere) I would with the French Forcatulus thinke affinity (as Italy was called Oenotria, 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 recerchez des villes 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. 7. Strab. geograph. 7. & 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 sixt 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 Rephaijm, Ana­kim, Og, Goliath, and other in holy writ: of Mars, Tityus, Antaeus, Turnus, and the Titans in Homer, Virgil, Ouid; and of Adams stature (according to Iewish Rabbi E'eazar ap. Riccium in epit. Talmud. caterum in bâc re allegoriam 7. ap. D. Cyprianū 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] II. [...]. time (neere [...]. [...]. 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. 7. Consuie, si pla­cet, [...]. [...]. Becan. [...] 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 Sueton. Octau. cap. 71. 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. 7. Claudius brought ouer his Elephants hither, and perhaps Iulius Caesar some, (for I haue read Polyaen. strata­gemat. n. in Cae­sara. that he terribly frighted the Britons, with sight of one at Coway stakes) and so may you be deceiued. But this is 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 Huntingdo­nio, alijs. horne, which in most tongues is Corn, or very neere. Thus Strabo lib. 7. & 1. Steph. Mel. Plin. Geogra­phipassim. 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. in Board. Brention. i. a Harts-head in the Messapian tongue, for similitude ofhornes. But De gest. reg. 2. cap. 6. Malmesbury thus: They are called Corne­walshmen, because being seated in the Westerne part of Britaine, they ly euer a­gainst a horne (a promontory) of Gaule. The whole name is, as if you should say Corne-wales; for hither in the Saxon conquest the British called Welsh (sig­nifying the people, rather then strangers as the vulgar opinion willes) made transmigration: wherof an olde Rob. Gloce­strens. Rimer;
The bewe that wer of hom bilened, as in Cornwaile and Walis,
Brutons ner namore ycluped, ac Waleys pluis.
Such was the language of your fathers betweene CCC. and CCCC. yeares since: and of it more hereafter.

In the IIII. yeare of [...]. 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 ducentos [...] & trecentos in fol. 237. Hone­deni, 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. Ethclulph; to whose time Henry of Huntigdon, & Roger of Houeden, referre the beginning of the Danish mischiefs, continuing so intollerable, that vnder K. Ethelred was there begun a tribute insupportable (yearly afterward exacted frō the subiects) to giue their King Swain, & so preuent their insatiat rapin. It was between XXX. & XL. thousand Mariano Sco­to XXXVI. [...]. librae, & [...] Wigorn. pounds (for I finde no certainty of it so variable are the reports) not instituted for pay of Garrisons, imployed in seruice against them (as vpon the misvnderstanding of the Confessors lawes 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 III. Kings, Cnut, Hardcnut, and Harold the I.

After some [...]. D. yeares from the supposed arriuall of the Troians, their po­steritie Chronologiam hùc spectantem consulas in illu­strat. ad. 4. Cant. were by incroachment of Saxons, Iutes, Angles, Danes (for among the Saxons that noble Ian, Douz. Annal. Holland. 1. & 6. Douz 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. [...] was called Enzle-lond. But Iohn Bishop of Policratic. lib. 6. cap. 17. Chartres saith it [...] that name from Britaine sings in Hengists tongue. the first comming of the Angles; others from the name of Hengist Chronic. S. Al­bani. Hector Boet. Scoter. 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 —He called it Engestes land, which afterward was shorted, and called England. Hereto accords that of one of our I. Gower Epi­gram. in confess. amantis. countrey old Poets: —Britaine sings in Hengists tongue. Engisti linguâ canit insula Brutt. 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.

Iuba remembers a like corall by the Troglodytique Isles (as is here in this Sea) and stilesit Isis haire. Isis of the Sea. Loosehaird. A Ethiopian­sunneburnt. [...] wel hai­red, and pretty­footed; two speciall com­mendations, dispersed in Greeke Poets, ioyned in Luci­lium. [...] plocames. 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 Apaleius 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, we hauing threeriuers of note Leland. ad Cyg. Cant. synonymies with her. Particularly to Ouse. make her a Sea-goddesse, which the common storie of her and Ofiris 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 haire. Isis of the Sea. Loosehaird. A Ethiopian­sunneburnt. [...] wel hai­red, and pretty­footed; two speciall com­mendations, dispersed in Greeke Poets, ioyned in Luci­lium. Isis Pelagia, after Pausanias testimony, hath an Goltz. thes. antiq. olde coine. The speciall notice which Antiquity tooke of her haire is not onely shewed by her attribute Philostrat. in six. of Isis haire. Isis of the Sea. Loosehaird. A Ethiopian­sunneburnt. [...] wel hai­red, and pretty­footed; two speciall com­mendations, dispersed in Greeke Poets, ioyned in Luci­lium. [...], but also in that her haire was kept as a sacred re­lique in Lucian. in six. Memphis, as Geryons bones at Thebes, the Boores skin at Tegea, and such like elsewhere. And after this to fit our corall iust with her colour, Isis haire. Isis of the Sea. Loosehaird. A Ethiopian­sunneburnt. [...] wel hai­red, and pretty­footed; two speciall com­mendations, dispersed in Greeke Poets, ioyned in Luci­lium. AE­thiopicis so libus Isis furua, she is called by Aduers. gent. 1. Blacke-haire. Arnobius. 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 Anacreon (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, Isis haire. Isis of the Sea. Loosehaird. A Ethiopian­sunneburnt. [...] wel hai­red, and pretty­footed; two speciall com­mendations, dispersed in Greeke Poets, ioyned in Luci­lium. 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: but while the Muse bewailes them, it is Maryas and his Destruction of woods. country-men, that most want them.

Purbeck (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 Neptunes wooing.

Albian (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, that in the Poole are seated three Isles, Brunksey, Fursey, Isles newly out of the Sea. 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.ꝭ. Strab. Pausani­as. antiquities tell vs of diuers in the Mediterranean and the Archipelag, as Rhodes, Delos, Hiera, 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 latitudinis III, millium quod vocatur Solente; famous for the double, and ther­by most violent flouds of the Ocean (as Scyila & Charybdis twixt Sicily and Ita­ly in Homer) expresled 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, from the corps of S^t. Edward, 1 Malmesb. lib. 2. de Pontifie. S. Edwards. D C C C C. 1. XXXX. murdred in Corse Castle, through procurement of the bloudy hate of his step­mother AElfrith, hither translated, and some III. yeares lying buried, was once called St. Edwards) you shall heare a peece out of Harding; Camden takes this Cair for Bath. Caire Daladoure that now is Shafteshury
Where an Angell spake fitting on the wall
While it was in working over all.
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 lesserespect, then those of Bacis were to the Greekes, or the Sybillines to the Romanes) forefold of a reuerting of the crowne, after the Bri­tons, Saxons, and Normans to the first againe, which in Hen. V II. sonne to O­wen Tyddour, hath beene Twin. in Albi­onic. 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. Hist. Scot. lib. 5. in Cong allo. His. Et aperte dixit tempus a­liquando fore vs Britannium imperium denuo sit ad verteres Britannos post Saxo­nas & 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 Chaucer, 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, Normane's, and the fertile tree, supposed for Brute, by one that of later time hath giuen his obscurities Distinct. Aquil Sceptoniae. 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 otherscall Cedwalla) that restitution of the crowne to the Britons is promised, and grounded also vpon some generall and ambiguous words in the Eagles text, by the Author here followed; which (pro­uided your faith be strong) you must beleeue made more then [...]. [...]. 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, as this false. IIII. (hemeanes Hen. III. who, by the ancient account in regard of Henry, sonneto 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 Normanniae imperpetuùm. Tunc fractum fuit [...] si­gillum & mutatum; nam prius tenebat in sceptro gladium, nunc tenet virgam; qui gladiꝰ fuit de conquestu Ducis Willielmi Bastards, & ideo dicit Aquila, separabitur gladius à sceptro. Such good fortune haue these praedictions, that eyther by conceit (although strained) they are applied to accident, or else euer religiously expected; as He plainly said that there would be a time of this re­uerting of the Crowne. Hist. Scot. lib. 5. in Cong allo. His. 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,
Obsedit (que) frequens castrorum limina bubo:
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 [...] 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. Hun­tingd. and vnder Will. II. 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 Distinctio 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. Glo­cestrens. euen breathing antiquity:
Game of houndes he louede inou, and of wild best,
And He plainly said that there would be a time of this re­uerting of the Crowne. Hist. Scot. lib. 5. in Cong allo. His. is forest, and is wodes, and mest the niwe forest,
That is in Suthamtessire, boz thulke he louede inow
[Page 37] And astored well With. Pastures. Tocke. Shot by Wal­ter Tirell. His owne. mid [...], and With. Pastures. Tocke. Shot by Wal­ter Tirell. His owne. lese mid gret won:
Uor he cast out of house and bom of men a great route,
And With. Pastures. Tocke. Shot by Wal­ter Tirell. His owne. binom their land thritti mile and more thereaboute,
And made it all forest and lese the bests [...] to fede,
Of pouer men [...] he nom let el hede:
[...] therein bell mony mischeuing,
And is sone was thereine With. Pastures. Tocke. Shot by Wal­ter Tirell. His owne. [...] William the red [...],
And With. Pastures. Tocke. Shot by Wal­ter Tirell. His owne. is o sone, that het Richard, caght there is deth also,
And Richard With. Pastures. Tocke. Shot by Wal­ter Tirell. His owne. is o neuen, [...] there is neck thereto,
As he rod an [...] and perauntre his horse sprend,
The [...] ido to pouer men to such mesauntre trend.

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 contained 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 [...] Olymp. a. & 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.

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:
—in the yeare of grace
Twelf hundred and to and twenti in the baire place Rob. Gloce­slrens.
Of the noble [...] of Salesburi hii leide the [...] stone
That me not in [...] [...] work non.
Ther was [...] the Legat, and as hept of echon,
He leide biue the [...] stones: as bor the Pope put on,
The other bor bre Hen. 111. Willielm. de longs spatha. Richard Poore.yonge King, the thridde as me seys
[...] the gode Crle of Salisburi WilliamHen. 111. Willielm. de longs spatha. Richard Poore.the Longespet,
The berth bor the Contesse, the biste he leide tho
[...] theHen. 111. Willielm. de longs spatha. Richard Poore.Bishop of Salesburi, and he ne leide na mo.
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 informe 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-benge;
But so confus'd that neyther any eye
Can count them inst, nor reason reason try,
What force brought them to so vnlikely ground.
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 Author 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 therepriui­ly [Page 50] with long kniues) being i. Take your swords. Not one of the stones but is good for somwhat in Physique. [...]. Ad Germ. Tacit. Woden or Wonden. [...] [...] [...], there trayterously slew CD. IX. noble Britons, and kept the King prisoner. Some xxx. 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, but of wronged innocencie. This Mer­lin perswaded the King that they were medicinall, and first brought out of the vtmost parts of Afrique by Giants which thence came to inhabit Ireland. i. Take your swords. Not one of the stones but is good for somwhat in Physique. [...]. Ad Germ. Tacit. Woden or Wonden. Nonest ibi lapis qui medicamento caret, as in Morlins 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 has a house cut out in one marble (which, by Hero­dotus description, could not after the workmanship haue lesse content then [...]. [...]. CCC. XCIV. solid cubits, if my Geometry faile me not) or that which the Iewes Apud Mun­ster. ad Dtuter. 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 Lapwing strangely peckt such a hole through it, that it fell on his shoulders, and by mi­racle his vpper-teeth suddainly extended, kept it there fast from motion. It is possible they may be of some such earthy dust as that of Puzzolo, and by AEt­na, which cast into the water turnes stonie, as Pliny after Strabo of them and o­ther like remembers. And for certain Powel ad lib. 2. cap. 9. Girald. [...]. I find it reported, that in Cairnarnan vpon Snowdon hils is a stone (which miraculously somewhat more then LX. yeares since, rais'd it selfe out of a lake at the hils foot) equalling a large house in great­nes, and suppos'd not moueable by a M. 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 i. Take your swords. Not one of the stones but is good for somwhat in Physique. [...]. Ad Germ. Tacit. Woden or Wonden. 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 Neunius, 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 Seuerna, Wansdike crossing the shire Westward ouer the plaine was first cast vp. Wodens­dike, the old name is supposed from Woden; of no lesse (if not greater) esteeme to the Saxons, then Arsaces, Pelops, 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 i. Take your swords. Not one of the stones but is good for somwhat in Physique. [...]. 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, as an old stamptitles him, they called it Wodensdike; as not Irmunrull. Sax. Mercury. Adam Bremens. cap. 5. & Hence [...]. onely the Greeks Pausan. saepiùs & Theocrit. sid. [...]. had their [...] (statues erected) for limits and direction of wayes, 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 [...], which signifies a li­mit in his and our tongue, and so fits this place in name and nature. Stonhenge 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 Selwood by VVarmister, 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 Sauernak by Marleborow 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 ofeminent 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 Somer set, passes Bath, and casts herselfe into Scuerne at Bristow. This compendious contention (whose proportionat example is a speciall ele­gancie for the expressing of diuersity, as in the Pastorals of [...] and Vir­gill) is aptly concluded with that point of ancient politique In Thucydid. & Liu. obseruation, that Outward common feare is the surest band of friendship.

The History of Oxford in the Proctors booke, and certaine old verses, Leland. ad cyg­cant. in Iside. kept somewhere in this tract, affirme, that with Brute came hither certaine Greeke Philosophers, from whose name and profession here it was thus called, and as an Vniuersity afterward translated to 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 Ecgbert King of Kent) very skiful 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. [...]. 2. & Cod. Nig. Can­tabr. [...] aut. assert. antiq. Oxon. will that Penda, K. of Mercland, first deduced a colony of Cam­bridge men hither and cals it Crekelade, as other Kirklade with variety of names: but I suspect all; as well for omission of it in best authorities, as also that the name is so different in it selfe. Grecolade was neuer honoured with Greeke schooles, as the ignorant multitude thinke, saith Ad Cyg. Cant. in Iside & Isid. v4d. Leland, affirming it should be rather Creclade, Lechelade, or Lathlade. Nor me thinkes (of all) 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 out of the Westerne Asia, Peloponnesus, Hellas, and those continents into the coast whence Brute came, transported the Greeke with them) that profession of Curu us Graecus sermo Britanic Galfred. Monu­meth. lib. 1. Gracians should make this so particular a name.

You are now in Somersetshire. I doubt not but the true cause is that, which is ordinary of other hot springs; not the sunnes heat (sauing 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 [...]. Natu­ral. quaest. lib. 3. cap. 24. Empedocles first thought, and with most witty arguments (according to the Poeticall conceit of Typhon, Pyndar. Pyth. [...]. buried in Prochyta; wherto Strabo referres the best Bathes in Italy) my learned and kind friend M^r. Lydtat, 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.
Two [...] there beth of bras,
And other two imaked of glas
Seue seats there buth inne
And other thing imaked with ginne:
Duick brimston in them also,
With wild her imaked thereto:
Sal gemmae and sal petrae,
Sal armonak there is eke
Sal albrod and sal alkine
Sal Gemmae is minged with him,
Sal Comin and sal almetre bright
That borneth both day and night,
Al this is in the tonne ido
And other things many mo,
And borneth both night and day
That neuer quench it ne may
In bour welsprings the tonnes liggeth
As the Philosophers bs [...]. See the Au­thors 8. Song.
The here within, the water without,
Maketh it hot a labout
The two welsprings earneth mere
And the other two beth inner clere.
There is maked full iwis
That kings bath icluped is.
The rich king bladud
The kings sonne Lud
And when he maked that bath hot
And if him failed ought
Of that that should thereto,
Derkeneth what he would do
From Bath to London he [...]
And thulke day selfe againe [...]
And fetch that thereto biuel,
He was quicke, and swith bell
Tho the master was ded
And is soule wend to the Dued
For god ne was not put pbore
[...] deth saffred him biuore.
I will as soone beleeue all this, as that S. Bal. cent. 1. Deui or Iulius Malmesbury lib. 2. Pontific.Caesar (who neuer came neere it) was author of it, or that he made Knights of the Bath. They are not wanting which haue durst say so.

From eight in the morning till three (within which time the Sunne beames make their strongest angles of incidence) it purges it selfe (as boyling) of vn­cleane [Page 53] excrements, northen 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 [...] in Itinerario. Waters of the [...]. Or, Ochy. Aquae Solis.

Waters of the [...]. Or, Ochy. Wockey hole (so call'd in my conceit, from pocz Beat. Rhenan. lib. [...]. rer. Ger­manic., 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 hir neighbours report (all which almost equall her to that Grotta de la Ortelius theat. mundi. Stbylla in the Apenin of Marca Ancenitana, 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 Nenntus, reckons XIII. by The wonders of England. that name, but with vaine and false reports (as that of the Bath 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 hiil 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 here tels 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 besmear'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. Mils 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 (Gtrald saith Oken, 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 weretaken 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 Taliessin. ap. Pris. defens. hist. Brit. best of the Bards, expressing as much:
—Morgain suscepit honore,
In (que) suis thalamis posuit super aurea regem
Fulcra, mannu (que) [...] detexit vulnus honest â
Inspexit (que) diù: tandem (que) redire salutem
Posse sibi dixit, si secum tempore longo
Esset, & ipsius vellet medicainine fungi.
Englishe in meeter for me thus by the Author:
—Morgain with honor took,
And in a chaire of State doth cause him to repose;
Then with a modest hand his wounds she doth vnclose:
And hauing searcht them well, she bad him not to doubt,
He should in time be cur'd, if he would stay it out,
And would the med'cine take that she to him would giue.
The same also in effect, an excellent Dan Lidgat. lib. 8. vers. Boc­cat. cap. 24. Naenias ad has refert Alanus de Insulis illud [...] vatici­nium. Exitꝰ eius dubius [...]. Poet of his time thus singing it.
He is a King crouned in Fairie,
With Scepter and sword and with his regally
Shall resort as Lord and Soueraigne
Out of Fairie and reigne in Britaine:
And repaire againe the Round Table
By prophesy Merlin set the date,
Among Princes King incomparable
His seat againe to Carlion to translats
The Parchas [...] sponne so his fate
His Hic iacet [...] quon­dam Rexque su­turus. Noble Coun­seller. The work­manship of the Ditches, Wals, and strange steepnes of them, makes it seeme a wonder of Art and Nature. Epitaph recordeth so certaine
Here lieth K. Arthur that shall raigne againe.

Worthily famous was the Abbey also from Ioseph of Arimathia (that, Hic iacet [...] quon­dam Rexque su­turus. Noble Coun­seller. The work­manship of the Ditches, Wals, and strange steepnes of them, makes it seeme a wonder of Art and Nature. [...], 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, Hic iacet [...] quon­dam Rexque su­turus. Noble Coun­seller. The work­manship of the Ditches, Wals, and strange steepnes of them, makes it seeme a wonder of Art and Nature. Olim à quibusdammater sanctorum dicta est, ab alijs tumulus sanctorum, quam ab ipsis First Christiani­tie in Britaine: but see the VIII. Song. discipulis Domini edificatam & 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 It was called the mother and tomb of the Saints. you in that, Trees yet in winter &c. You may cast this into the account of your greatest wonders.

Selwood sends 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: Hic iacet [...] quon­dam Rexque su­turus. Noble Coun­seller. 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 hic profundissimarum fossarum? quot hîc egest ae terrae valla? quae de­mùm praecipitia? at (que) vt paucis finiam, videtur mihi [...] esse & At is & Natu­raemiraculum. 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.

Walter Baker a Canon of Osney (interpreter of Thomas de la Moores life of Edward the 11.) affirmes, that it commonly breedes Conies, Pigeons, & struco­nas, quos vocat Alexander Nechamus (so you must read, Tho. dela Moore emen­datus. not Nechristum, as the Francfort print senselesly mistooke with Conday, for Lundey) Ganymedis aues. What he meanes by his Birds of Ganymed, out of the name, vnlesse Eagles or Ostriches (as the common fiction of the Catamits rauishment, and this French Latine word of the Translator would) I collect not. But rather read also Pala­medis aues. 1. Cranes) of which Dererum 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 Hortland, wantonly runnes to Hatberlay in Denon, as if she would to the Southerne Ocean; but returniug, there at last is discharged into the Seuerne Sea.

Wales had 'her three parts, Northwales, Southwales, and Powis. The last, as the middle twixt the other, extended from Cardigan to Shropshire; and on the Eng­lish Tripartit di­uision of Wales. side from Chester to Hereford (being the portion of Anarawd, sonne to great Roderique) beares this accusation, because it comprehends, for the most, Girald. descript cap. 2. & Powel ad Caradoc. Lancharuan. 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. 5. 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.

[...] (not Telesin, as Bale cals him) a learned Bard, stiled Pris. in de­script. Walliae. 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 [...] certa­minafuisse doce­mur a scholiast. Aristoph. & D. Cypriano [...]. de Aleator. 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 [...]. 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 Athenaus, Lucan & others, Bards) who, somwhat like the [...] among the Gresks, Did sing the valiant deeds of famous men to the sweete melody of the Harpe. S. Mary. For the Harp and other mu­sique instru­ments, their forme and anti­quity, see to the V I. Song; whether a spe­ciall occasion compeld at. Quantity of the Bards verses. Forme of the British musique. To make them gentle [...]. fortia [...], illustrium facta heroicis 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 secondae cap. 4. & 5. Zarlino hath fully collected. Their charge also as Heraults, 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 Dau. Pouel. ad Girald. descript. cap. 3. transcription of ignorant Monkes (forgetting their tenent of perpe­tuall virginity, and Suid. in [...]. that relation of [...]) turned into Did sing the valiant deeds of famous men to the sweete melody of the Harpe. S. Mary. For the Harp and other mu­sique instru­ments, their forme and anti­quity, see to the V I. Song; whether a spe­ciall occasion compeld at. Quantity of the Bards verses. Forme of the British musique. To make them gentle [...]. Beatam Mariam, whereas it stands for Belinum Magnum (that was Heli, in their writers, father to Lud 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 Gruffish ap Conan Pr. of Northwales, about K. Stephens time. This Gruffith reformed the abuses of those Minstrels by a particular sta­tut, extant to this day. The third are called Atcaneaid; they sing to instru­ments playd on by others. For the Englyns, Cyrohs and Ardls; the first are couplets interchanged of XVI. & XIIII. feet calld [...] & [...], 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: Non vniformiter, vt alibi, sed multipliciter multis (que) modis & modulis cantilen as emittunt, adeo vt, turbâ canentium, quot vide­as capitatot audias carmina, discrimina (que) vocum varia, in vnam deni (que) sub B. mol­lis dulcedine blanda, consonantiam & [...] 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 Marcian. Heracleot. in [...]. author, affirming that Did sing the valiant deeds of famous men to the sweete melody of the Harpe. S. Mary. For the Harp and other mu­sique instru­ments, their forme and anti­quity, see to the V I. Song; whether a spe­ciall occasion compeld at. Quantity of the Bards verses. Forme of the British musique. To make them gentle [...]. [...] the Western people of the world constituted vse of musique in their assemblies, thought the Girald. Topog. dist. 3. cap. 11. Irish (from whence they learned) were wholly for the sprightfull Phrygian. See the next Canto.

Out 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. [...]. 3. fol. 20. Law-annals appeares. For Tropelophorꝰ dictꝰ in menolo­gio Graeco apud Baronium, sorte [...] siue [...], quid n. Trope­lophorus? S. George, that he is patron to the English, as S. De­nis, 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.

—but for Gods pleasance
And his mother, and in signifiance
That ye ben of S. Georges liuerie
Doeth him seruice and knightly obeisance
For Christs cause is his, well knowen yee.
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. Gelasius PP. hath disallowed in these words; That not so made as any scan­dali 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 [...] d­pud 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. 7. 2. 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. de 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. Ha S. [...], Ha S. George. Some authority Ex antiq. m. s. ap. Camd. in Berkscir. referres this to Richard Ceur de Lion, who sup­pos'd himselfe comforted by S. George in his [...] against the Turkes and Ha­garens. But howsoeuer, since that he hath beene a Patron among others, as in mDie ge [...] [...] S. Geoigen [...]. of Frederique the thirds institution [...] CD. XXCV III. of the quadripartit society of S. Georges shield, and more of that nature, you finde. And vnder Hen. VII I. it was enacted, 10. Hen. 8. in statutis Hiberni­cis. that the Irish should leaue their Cramabw and Butlcrabw, words of vnlawfull Martin. Crus. annal. Sueuic. part. 2. lib. 9. patronage, and name themselues as vnder S. George, and the King of England. More proper is S. Dewy (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 Dubrice [Page 69] Archbishop of Caer-leon vpon Vske (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 1. March, but in the old Martyrologies I finde him not remembred: yet I read that Bal. cent. 1. Calixtus 11. first canonized him. See him in the next Canto.

Arthurs Nennius. bistor. Galfred. lib. 6. cap. 2. & lib. 7. cap. 2. Beginning of [...] 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 A [...] [...]. Euripid in [...]. The Dragon [...] and Standard of England. in the Theban 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 Florilegus) 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, you may finde it affirm'd of Lips. [...] Polyb 4. dissert. 5. 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. Pythio­nic. [...]. Homer. Iliad. l. suid. Epa­minond. Hesiod. [...]. Plutarch. Ly­sand. Euripid. in [...]. authors is copious witnes of asmuch.

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

Some, too hyperbolique, stories make him a large conqueror on euery ad­iacent country, as 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 Ingulphas. 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 Dacia. 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 Sti­cho. 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:
Anglicus & Scotus Britonum super (que) caterua
Irlandus, Flander, Cornwallis, & quo (que) Norguey.
[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 lubberly versifier to no lesse punishment then [...] his excoriati­on. But for Artbur, 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, of him: Knights and Ladies sate in seuerall rooms.

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 Trotans I remember no warrant for it: but among the Greekes one Sphyromachus Scholaft. ad Aristophan. [...] & Suidas Round Tables. first instituted it. Torneaments and jousts were their exercises, 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 (Armigeri, which is exprest in the word Schilpors in Paul Warnfred. lib. 2. de gest. [...]. cap. 28. The Knights of the Round Table vse to ferry spirits o­uer Styx, Ache­ron, and other [...], and for their fare haue a fillip on the nose and a peece of moul­dy bread. [...] [...] Dipnosoph. lib. of. cals 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. [...] speakes. Of the Arthurian our Histories haue scarce mention. But [...] 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 Bergomo, Lily, Aubert [...], others, but very diuersly. White of Basingstoke defends it, and imagines the originall from an election by Arthur and Howell K. of Armorique [...] of six of each of their worthiest Peeres to be alwayes assistant in counsell. The antiquity of the Earledome of Hoppenrod & spangberg. [...] Ortelium in Mansfeld. Many places in Wales in hills and rockes, ho­nor'd with Ar­thurs name. Pris. defens. hist. Brit. & Cadair Arthur. i. Arthurs Chaire in Brecknock. Girald. Itin. Camb. cap. 2. & Arthurs Duen in Stitling 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. chapit. 30. Rablais can [...], that Sir Lanceiot du Lac rostes horses in hell, and that Armigeri, which is exprest in the word Schilpors in Paul Warnfred. lib. 2. de gest. [...]. cap. 28. The Knights of the Round Table vse to ferry spirits o­uer Styx, Ache­ron, and other [...], and for their fare haue a fillip on the nose and a peece of moul­dy bread. Tous les cheualiers de la Table ronde estotent poures gaigne-denters tirans la rame pur passer les riuers [...] Coccyte, Phlegeton, Styx, Acheron, & Lethe quand Messieurs les diables se veulent esbatre sur [...] come font les Basteliers de Lyon et gondoliers de Venise. Mais pour chacune passade [...] n' ont qu'un Nazarde & sur le soir quelque morceau 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. Itiner. Camb. 2. 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, not 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. Furios. cant. 3. See Spencers Faery 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 Munster. 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 Indoscythic. 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 Tutscon or Tuiston (for so Tacitus calls him) from The hoodt Lon. i. the eldest sonne. Others (as the author here) suppose him sonne to Gomer, and take Iodoc. Willich. con. m. ad Tacit. Germaniam. & Pantaleon lib. 1. [...]. him for Aschenaz (remembred by Moses as first sonne to Gomer, and from whom the Hebrewes call the Germans Elias Leuit. in Thist. Arias Mont. in Peleg. 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. 7. 16. & 15. de alijs que his congeri­mus. Atergatis, which should be Adargadain Ctesias; 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, asin Rhodanim, for Broughton in concent. pref., 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 same­meant proper names (especially Easterne as this was) is ordinary; as Megaby­zus in Ctesias is Bacabajus 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, Ambiorix, Arirai­nius, in Casar and Sueton, 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 Arabicae sub­iunxit. written in Arabique you haue Asubasianuusu, Thithimse, Damthianuusu for Vespasian, Ti­tus, Domitian, and in our stories Androgeus for Caesars Mandubratsus. From Tutsco is our name of Tuesday; and in that too, taking the place of Mars (the most fiery Starre, and obserue withall that against the vulgar opinion the pla­netary account of dayes is very Scalig. in pro­iegom. ad emen­dat. temp. ancient) discouers affinity with Aschenaz, in whose notation (as Melancthan ap. Becan. in Indoscyth. some body obserues) V R signifies fire.

So a Latine rimein 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 Epithets and passages of the Scythyans,
The shoo­ting Sacae none can teach them Art: For what they loos't at, neuer scapes their dart. [...]
[...].
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, Sacat's-sonnes. According hereto is that name of Strabo lib. 1 a. Sacasena, which a colony of them gaue to part of Arme­nia and the Ptolem geo­graph. lib. 7. cap. 17. 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. 11. 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, which Geffrey of Monmouth expresses also) III. long boates in See the 8. Song 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. Gemetic és. lib. 1. cap. 4. Sabnis & Graecis morem hunc suisse me­mini legisse me apud Varronem & 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 colonies: from which vse the Parthians (sent out of Scythia, as the Romans did their Festus in eod. & 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 Pontisicib. 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 [...] in the XXIII. yeare following, which was rather by taking aduantage of Dionysius his error then following his Mistakings in our Chronolo­gies. opinion. For when he (about Iustinians time) made [...] 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 Mi­dleburgo part. 2. lib. 5. XII, yeare after his birth (a lapse by himselfe much [...]) and then supposing Christ liued XXXIV. yeares, XXII. must needes be omitted; a collection directly against his meaning; hauing only forgotten to fit those concurrents. This accompt (in it selfe, and by the [...] purpose, as our vulgar is now, but with some little difference) erroniously followed, I coniecture, made them, which too much desired [...], 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 Basing stoke (although ayming to be [...]) 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 anti­chronismes now and then strangely disordered.

What is now [...] [...], in some, stil'd Neustria and Nuestria corruptly, as most think, for Westria, that is [...] [...] the west Kingdome (confined anci­ently twixt the Mense and the Loire) in respect of [...] or [...] [...]. the East Kingdome, now Lorraine, vpon such reason as the Archdukedome hath Westrich. 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. A [...] 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. [...]. in [...]. the [...] Chersonesus, now Danmarch, anciently called Saxons) as from contingen­cie of blood twixt the Engle-Saxon Kings, & the Norman Dukes thus expressed.

Obiect not that Duke Robert got the Conqueror vpon Arletta (from whom perhaps came our name of Harlot) his Concubine, nor that ff. rnde cogna­ti l. 4. spurius. & tit. de grad. affin. l. 4. non facile. Consanguinitatis & adgnationis iura à patre tantum & legitimis [...] 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 sinifter: Nicholas Vpton calsit Right of blood and kin­dred comes on­ly by lawfull marriage. A diuision, because he is separated from his fathers in­heritance. [...]. LX. VI. 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 Histor. Cado­mens. 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 South­hampton was cast away, so that heauen onely spared him this issue Maude the Plantagenest. Empresse, married, at last, to Geffrey Plantagenest Earle of Aniou, 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.