tell.

That dreaded not his deeeds, too long that were to [befel And after these, in France th' adventures him At Paris, in the lists where he with Flollio fought; The emperor Leon's pow'r to raise his siege that brought. [knights Then bravely set they forth, in combat how these On horseback and on foot perform'd their several fights: [assail'd, As with what marv'lous force each other they How mighty Flollio first, how Arthur then prevail'd; For best advantage how they traversed their grounds, The horrid blows they lent, the world-amazing wounds,

Until the tribune, tir'd, sank under Arthur's sword.
Then sing they how he first ordain'd the circled
board,
[table round;
The knights whose martial deeds far fam'd that
Which, truest in their loves; which, most in arms
renown'd:
[report;
The laws, which long up-held that order, they
§. The Pentecosts prepar'd at Carleon in his court,
That table's ancient seat; her temples and her
groves,

Her palaces, her walks, baths, theatres, and stoves:
Her academy, then, as likewise they prefer:
Of Camilot they sing, and then of Winchester.
The feasts that under-ground the Faëry did him
make,

And there how he enjoy'd the lady of the lake.
Then told they, how himself great Arthur did
advance,
[France,
To meet (with his allies) that puissant force in
By Lucius thither led; those armies that while-ere
Affrighted all the world, by him struck dead with
fear:

Th' report of his great acts that over Europe ran, In that most famous field he with the emperor

And for a trophy brought the giant's coat away, Madeof the beards of kings. Then bravely chanted they

The several twelve pitch'd fields he with the Saxons fought:

The certain day and place to memory they brought; Then by false Mordred's hand how last he chane'd to fall,

The hour of his decease, his place of burial.

When out the English cry'd, to interrupt their song:

[long,

But they, which knew to this more matter must beNot out at all for that, nor any whit dismay'd, But to their well-tun'd harps their fingers closely laid: [try's crowd, "Twixt every one of which they plac'd their counAnd with courageous spirits thus boldly sang aloud; How Merlin by his skill, and magic's wond'rous might, [night:

From Ireland hither brought the Stonenge in a §. And for Carmarden's sake, would fain have brought to pass,

About it to have built a wall of solid brass:
And set his friends to work upon the mighty frame;
Some to the anvil: some, that still enforc'd the

flame:

But whilst it was in hand, by loving of an elf [self. (For all his wond'rous skill) was cozen'd by him

For, walking with his Fay, her to the rock he brought,

In which he oft before his nigromancies wrought:
And going in thereat his magics to have shown,
She stopp'd the cavern's mouth with an enchanted
stone;
[did stand,
Whose cunning strongly cross'd, amaz'd whilst he
She captive him convey'd unto the Fairy land.
Then, how the lab'ring spirits, to rocks by fetters
[d'ring sound,
With bellows' rumbling groans, and hammers' thun-
A fearful horrid din still in the earth do keep,
Their master to awake, suppos'd by them asleep;
As at their work how still the grieved spirits repine,
Tormented in the fire, and tired at the mine.

bound,

When now the British side scarce finished their

song,

But th' English, that repin'd to be delay'd so long, All quickly at the hint, as with one free consent, Struck up at once, and sung each to the instrument; (Of sundry sorts that were, as the musician likes) On which the practis'd hand with perfect'st fing'ring strikes, [exprest. Whereby their height of skill might liveliest be The trembling lute some touch, some strain the viol best, [choice: In sets which there were seen, the music wond'rous Some likewise there affect the gamba with the voice, To show that England could variety afford. Some that delight to touch the sterner wiry chord, The cythron 25, the pandore, and the theorbo strike:

The gittern and the kit the wand'ring fiddlers like. So were there some again, in this their learned strife,

[fife,

Loud instruments that lov'd; the cornet and the The hoboy, sagbut deep, recorder, and the flute: Even from the shrillest shaum unto the cornamute. Some blow the bagpipe up, that plays the country

round:

The tabor and the pipe, some take delight to sound. Of Germany they sung the long and ancient

fame, [came, From whence their noble sires the valiant Saxons Who sought by sea and land adventures far and near;

And seizing at the last upon the Britons here, Surpris'd the spacious isle, which still for theirs they bold:

[old, As in that country's praise how in those times of §. Tuisco, Gomer's son, from unbuilt Babel 26 brought [ledge fraught, His people to that place, with most high know. And under wholesome laws establish'd their abode;

Whom his Tudeski since have honour'd as a god: Whose clear creation made them absolute in all, Retaining till this time their pure original. And as they boast themselves the nation most unmixt, [fixt, Their language as at first, their ancient customs The people of the world most hardy, wise, and strong;

So gloriously they show, that all the rest among The Saxons, of her sorts the very noblest were: And of those crooked skains they us'd in war to bear,

25 The sundry music of England. 26 Gen. xi. 8, 9.

Which in their thund'ring tongue, the Germans

handseax name,

[fame §. They Saxons first were called: whose far-extended For hardiness in war, whom danger never fray'd, Allur'd the Britons here to call them to their aid: From whom they after reft Loegria as their own, Brute's offspring then too weak to keep it being grown. [of wit, This told the nymphs again, in nimbler strains Next neatly come about, the Englishmen to quit Of that inglorious blot by bastard William brought Upon this conquer'd isle: than which fate never wrought

A fitter mean (say they) great Germany to grace; To graft again in one, two remnants of her race: Upon their several ways, two several times that [sent

went

To forage for themselves. The first of which she §. To get their seat in Gaul: which on Nuestria light,

name

And (in a famous war the Frenchmen put to flight) Possess'd that fruitful place, where only from their [that came, 5. Call'd North-men 27 (from the north of Germany Who thence expell'd the Gauls, and did their rooms supply) [mandy. This, first Nuestria nam'd, was then call'd 28 NorThat by this means, the less (in conquering of the great) [seat, Being drawn from their late home unto this ampler Residing here, resign'd what they lefore had won; §. That as the conquerors' blood did to the conquer'd So kindly being mixt, and up together grown, [run: As sever'd, they were hers; united, still her own. But these myst. rious things desisting now to show (The secret works of Heaven) to long descents they How Egelred (the sire of Edward the last ki g [go: Oth English-Saxon line) by nobly marrying With hardy Richard's beir, the Norman Emma, bred

fone head

Alliance in their bloods. Like brooks that from Bear several ways (as though to sundry seas to haste)

But by the varying soil, int' one again are cast: So chanced it in this the nearness of their blod. Jor when as England's right in question after stood, Froud Harold, Goodwin's heir, the sceptre having [son;

Won

From Edgar Etheling young, the outlaw'd Edward's The valiant Bastard this his only colour made, With his brave Norman powers this kingdom to invale.

Which leaving, they proceed to pedigrees again, Their after-kings to fetch from that old Saxon strain; From Margaret that was made the Scottish Malcom's bride,

Who to her grandsire had courageous Ironside: Which outlaw'd Edward left; whose wife to him

Her Maud again he nam'd, to th' Almain emperor wed: [dead) Whose dowager whilst she liv'd (her puissant Cæsar dead)

She th' earl of Anjou next to husband doth prefer. The second Henry then by him begot of her, Into the Saxon line the sceptre thus doth bring. Then presently again prepare themselves to sing The sundry foreign fields the Englishmen had fought. [they thought

Which when the mountains saw (and not in vain) That if they still went on as thus they had begon, Then from the Cambrian nymphs (sure) Lundy would be won.

And therefore from their first they challeng'd them And (idly running on with vain prolixity) [to fly; A larger subject took than it was fit they should. But, whilst those would proceed, these threat'ning them to hold,

Black-mountain" for the love he to his country bare,

As to the beauteous Uske, his joy and only care, (In whose defence t'appear more stern and full of dread) Put on a helm of clouds upon his rugged bead. Mounchdeny doth the like for his beloved Tawe: Which quickly all the rest by their examples draw. As Hatterel in the right of ancient Wales will stand. [band, To these three mountains, first of the Brekinnian The Monumethian hills, like insolent and stout, On lofty tip-toes then began to look about ; That Skeridvaur at last (a mountain much in might,

In hunting that had set his absolute delight) Caught up his country hook 30; nor cares for future harms,

But irefully enrag'd would needs to open arms: Which quickly put Peuvayl" in such outrageous heat, [sweat,

That whilst for very teen his hairless scalp doth The Blorench looketh big upon his bared crown: And tall Tomberlow seems so terribly to frown, That where it was suppos'd with small ado o none Th' event of this debate would cas'ly have been known,

ensue,

Such strange tumultuous stirs upon this strife [renew: As where al griefs should end, old sorrows still That Severn thus forewarn'd to look unto the worst [first)

(And finds the latter ill more dang'rous than the The doom she should pronounce, yet for a while delay'd,

Till these rebellious rorts by justice might be stay'd;
A period that doth put to my discourse so long,
To finish this debate the next ensuing song.

2 These rest following, the most famous hills in Brecknock, Glamorgan, and Monmouth. 30 Welchbook.

31 So named of his bald head.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

OVER Severn (but visiting Lundy, a little isle be twxt Hertland and Gouen point) you are transported into Wales. Your travels with the Muse are most of all in Monmouth, Glamorgan, and the south maritime shires.

And wantonly to hatch the birds of Ganymede.

Walter Baker, a canon of Osney (interpreter of Thomas de la Moor's life of Edward the Second) affirms, that it commonly breeds conies, pigeons, et struconas, quos vocat Alexander Ne hamus (so you must read (a), not Nechristum, as the Francfort print senselessly mistook with Conday, for Lundey) Ganymedis aves. What he means by his birds of Ganymede, out of the name, unless eagles or ostriches (as the common fiction of the catamite's ravishment, and this French-Latin word of the translator would) I collect not. But rather read also palamedis aves; (i. e. cranes) of which Necham (b) indeed hath a whole chapter: what the other should be, or whence reason of the name comes, I confess I am ignorant.

Clear Towridge whom they fear'd would have estrang'd her fall.

For she rising near Hartland, wantonly runs to Hatherlay in Devon, as if she would to the southern ocean; but returning, there at last is discharged in the Severn sea.

Yet hardly upon Powse they dare their hopes to

lay.

Wales had (c) her three parts, North-wales, South wales, and Powis. The last, as the middle betwixt the other, extended from Cardigan to Shropshire; and on the English side from Chester to Hereford (being the portion of Anarawd, son to great Roderic) bears this accusation, because it comprehends, for the most part, both nations and both tongues. But see for this division to the seventh song.

Nor Ross, for that too much she aliens doth respect. Under Henry the First, a colony of Flemings driven out of their country by inundation, and kindly received here in r spect of that alliance which the king had with their earl (for his mother Maud, wife to the Conqueror, was daughter to Baldwin earl of Flanders) afterward upon difference betwixt the king and earl Robert, were out of divers parts, but especially Northumberland, where they most of all (as it seems by Hoveden) had residence, constrained into Ross (d) in Pembroke, which retains yet in name and tongue express notes of being aliens to the Cambro-Britons. See the author in his next song.

That Taliessen, once which made the rivers dance. Taliessin (not Telesin, as Bale calls him) a learned bard, styled (e) Ben Beirdh, i. e. the

chiefest of the bards, master to Merlin Sylvester, lived about Arthur's reign, whose acts his Muse hath celebrated.

With Lhu and Lhogor given, to strengthen them by Gower.

Betwixt Neth and Lhogor in Glamorgan is this

(a) Tho. de la Moor emendatus. (5) De rerum natur. lib. 1.

(c) Girald. descript. cap. 2. & Powel ad Caradoc. Lancharvan.

(d) So called perhaps because it is almost inisled within the sea and Lhogor, as Rosay in Seotland, expressing almost an isle, Buchanan. hist. 5. in Eugemo 4.

(e) Pris, in descript. Walliæ.

Gower, a little province, extended into the sea as a chersonese; out of it on the west, rise these two rivers meant by the author.

That at the Stethva oft obtain'd a victor's praise.

Understand this Stethva to be the meeting of the British poets and minstrels, for trial (f) of their poems and music sufficiencies, where the best had his reward, a silver harp. Some example is of it under Rees ap Griffith, prince of Southwales, in the year co. C. LXX. VI. A custom so good, that, had it been judiciously observed, truth of story had not been so uncertain: for there was, by suppose, a correction of what was faulty in form or matter, or at least a censure of the bearers upen what was recited. As (according to the Roman use, it is noted (g), that Girald of Cambria, when he had written his Topography of Ireland, made at three several days several recitals of his three distinctions in Oxford; of which course some have wished a recontinuance, that either amendment of opinion or change of purpose in publishing, might prevent blazoned errours. The sorts of these poets and minstrels out of doctor Powel's inserted annotations upon Caradoc Lhancarvan, I note to you; Arst Beirdhs, otherwise Prydvids (called in Athenæus, Lucan and others bards) who, somewhat like the 'Payal among the Greeks, fortia virorum illustrium facta heroicis composita versibus cum dulcibus lyræ mo ulis (h) cantitarunt (i), which was the chiefest form of the ancientest music among the gentiles, as Zarlino (k) hath fully collected. Their charge also as heralds, was to describe and preserve pedigrees, wherein their line ascendant went from the Petruccius to B. M. thence to Sylvius and Ascanius, from them to Adam. Thus Girald reporting, hath his B. M. in some copies by transcription (!) of ignorant monks (forgetting their tenet of perpetual virginity, and that relation (2) of Theodosius) terned into Beatam Mariam (»), whereas it stands for Belinum Magnum (that was Heli, in their writers, father to Lud and Cassibelin) to whom their genealogies had always reference. The second are which play on the harp and crowd; their music for the most part came out of Ireland with Gruffith ap Conan prince of North-wales, about king Stephen's time. This Graffith reformed the abuses of those minstrels by a particular statute, extant to this day. The third are called Atcaneaid; they sing to instruments play'd on by others. For the Englyns, Cysalis and A8dls; the first are couplets interchanged of sixteen and fourteen feet and called paladiries, pensels, the second of equal tetrameters, the third of variety.

(f) Antiquis hujusmodi certamina fuisse docemur à scholiast. Aristoph. & D. Cypriano serin. de Aleator.

(g) Cambd. in Epist. Fulconi Grevil. ad edit. Anglic. Norm. &c.

(h)" Did sing the valiant deeds of famous men to the sweet melody of the harp."

(2) Ammian. Marcellin. hist. 15. (4) Parte seconda cap. 4. & 5.

(1) Dav. Powel. ad Girald. descript. cap. 3. (m) Suid. in Izo.

(n) Saint Mary. For the harp and other masic instruments, their form and antiquity, see to the sixth song,

in both rhyme and quantity. Subdivision of them, and better information may be had in the elaborate institutions of the Cumraeg language by David ap Rees. Of their music anciently, out of an old writer read this: Non uniformiter, ut alibi, sed multipliciter multisque modis & modulis cantilenas emittunt, adeo ut, turbâ canentium, quot videas capita, tot audias carmina, discriminaque vocum varia, in unam denique, sub B. mollis dulcedine blanda, consonantiam & organicam convenientia melodiam. A good musician will better understand it, than I that transcribe it. But by it you see they especially affected the mind-composing Doric (which is showed in that of an old author (0), afirming that Η μερώσεως χάριν. (β) the western people of the world constituted use of music in their assemblies, though the Irish (9) (from whence they learned) were wholly for the sprightful Phrygian. See the next canto.

And humbly to St. George their country's patron

pray.

Our author (a judgment day thus appointed betwixt the water nymphs) seems to allude to the course used of old with us, that those which were to end their cause by combat, were sent to several saints for invocation, as in our law annals (r) appears. For saint George (s), that he is patron to the English, as saint Denis, saint James, saint Patric, saint Andrew, saint Antony, saint Mark, to the French, Spanish, Irish, Scotish, Italian, Venetian, scarce any is that knows not. Who he was, and when the English took him, is not so manifest. The old martyrologies give, with us, to the honour of his birth the twenty third of April. His passion is supposed in Diocletian's persecution; his country Cappadoce. His acts are divers and strange, reported by his servant Pasicrates, Simeon Metaphrastes, and lately collected by Surius. As for his knightly form, and the dragon under him, as he is pictured in Beryth, a city of Cyprus, with a young maid kneeling to him, an unwarrantable report goes, that it was for his martial delivery of the king's daughter from the dragon, as Hesione and Andromeda were from the whales by Hercules and Perseus. Your more neat judgments, finding no such matter in true antiquity, rather make it symbolical than truly proper. So that some account him an allegory of our Saviour Christ; and our admired Spenser (t) hath made him an emblem of religion. So Chaucer to the knights of that order:

-but for God's pleasance

And his mother, and in signifiance That ye ben of saint George's livery, Doeth him service and knightly obeisance: For Christ's cause is his, well knowen yee. Others interpret that picture of him as some country or city (signified by the virgin) imploring his aid against the devil, charactered in the dragon. him you may particularly see, especially in

(0) Marcian. Heracleot. in ginyńoss. (p) To make them gentle natur'd.

(9) Girald. Topog. dist. 3. cap. 11.

(r) 30. Ed. 3. fol. 20.

Of

(s) Tropelophorus dictus in menologio Græco

apud Baronium, forte Ροπαλοφόρος sive Τραπαιοφόρος. quid n. Tropelophorus ?

(t) Fairy Q. lib. 1.

But

Usuard's martyrology, and Baronias his annotations upon the Roman calendar, with Erhard Celly his description of Frederic duke of Wittemberg's installation in the garter, by favour of our present sovereign. But what is delivered of him in the legend, even the church of Rome (u) hath disallowed in these words; That not so much as any scandal may rise in the holy Roman Church, the passions of saint George, and such like, supposed to be written by heretics, are not read in it. you may better believe the legend, than that he was a Coventry-man horn, with his Caleb lady of the woods, or that he descended from the Saxon race, and such like; which some English fictions deliver. His name (as generally (r) also saint Maurice and saint Sebastian) was anciently called on by Christians as an advocate of victory (when in the church that kind of doctrine was) so that our particular right to him (although they say (y) king Arthur bare him in one of his banners) appears not until Edward the Third consecrated to saint George the knightly order of the garter, soon (2) after the victory at Calais against the French, in which his invocation was ha saint Edward, ha saint George. Some authority (a) refers this to Richard Cœur de Lion, who suppos'd himself comforted by saint George in his wars against the Turks and Hagarenes, But howsoever, since that he hath been a patron among others, as in that of Frederic the Third's institution (b) of the quadripartite society of saint George's shield, and more of that nature, you find. And under Henry the eighth, it was enacted (c), that the Irish should leave their Cramaboo and Butecraboo, words of unlawful patronage, and name themselves as under saint George, and the king of England. More proper is saint Dewy (we call him saint David) to the Welsh. Reports of him affirm that he was of that country, uncle to king Arthur (Bale and others say, gotten upon Melaria, a nun, by Xantus prince of Cardigan) and successor to Dubrice archbishop of Caerleon upon Usk (whereto (d) a long time the British bishoprics, as to their metropolitic see were subject) and thence translated with his nephew's consent the primacy to Menevia, which is now Saint David's in Pembroke. He was a strong oppugner of the Pelagian heresy. To him our country calendars give the first of March, but in the old martyrologies I find him not remen bred: yet I read that (e) Calixtus the Second, first canonized him. See him in the next canto.

The sacred Virgin's shape he bare for his device. Arthur's (ƒ) shield Pridwen (or his banner) had (u) C. Sancta Rom. eccles. 3. dist. 15. Gelasius PP.

(x) Ord. Rom. de divin. officiis apud Baronium in martyrolog.

3.

(y) Harding cap. 72.

(2) Th. de Walsing. A. M. cCCL. & 24. Edw. Fabian puts it before this year, but erroneously. (a) Ex antiq. M. S. ap. Camd. in Berkscir.

(b) cis. Die gesceisch aft S. Georgen schilts. Martin. Crus. annal. Suevic. part. lib. 9.

(c) 10. Hen. 8. in statutis Hibernicis. (d) Polychronic. lib. 1. cap. 52.

(e) Bal. cent. 1.

() Nennius histor. Galfred. lib. 6. cap. 2. &

lib. 7. cap. 2.