of name for residence of him and his knights were this Caer-leon, Winchester (where his table is yet supposed to be, but that seems of later date) and Camelot, in Somersetshire. Some put his number twelve. I have seen them anciently pictured twenty-four, in a poetical story of him; and in Denbighshire, Stow tells us, in the parish of Lansannan, on the side of a stony bill, in a circular plain, cut out of a main rock, with some twentyfour seats unequal, which they call Arthur's round table. Some catalogues of arms have the coats of the knights blazoned; but I think with as good warrant as Rabelais (1) can justify that sir Lancelot du Lac flays horses in Hell, and that, "Tous les chevaliers de la table ronde estoient pouvres gaigne deniers, tirans la rame pur passer les riveres de Cocyte, Phlegeton, Styx, Acheron & Lethe, quand messieurs les diables se veulent esbatre sur l'eau, come font les basteliers de Lyon et gondoliers de Venise. Mais pour chacune pas-reader, the first mistaking might be as soon as the sade ils n'ont qu'un nazarde, & sur le soir quelque morceau de pain chaumeny (2). Of them, their number, exploits, and prodigious performances, you may read Caxton's published volume, digested by him into twenty-one books, out of divers French and Italian fables. From such I abstain, as I may.

And for Caermardhin's sake.

Two Merlins (w) have our stories: One of Scotland, commonly titled Sylvester, or Caledonius, living under Arthur; the other Ambrosius (of whom before) born of a nun (daughter to the king of South-Wales) in Caermardhin, not naming the place (for rather in British his name is Merdhia) but the place (which in Ptolemy is Maridunum) naming him; begotten, as the vulgar, by an incubus. For his burial (in supposition as uncertain as his birth, actions, and all of those too fabulously mixt stories) and his lady of the lake, it is by liberty of profession laid in France by that Italian Ariosto (r): which perhaps is as credible as some more of his attributes, seeing no persuading authority, in any of them, rectifies the uncertainty. But for his birth are the next song, and to it more.

Tuisco Gomer's son from unbuilt Babel brought. According to the text (y), the Jews affirm that all the sons of Noah were dispersed through the Earth, and every one's name left to the land he possessed. Upon this tradition, and false Berosus' testimony, it is affirmed that Yuisco (son of Noah, gotten with others after the flood (3) upon his wife Arezia) took to his part the coast about Rhine, and that thence came the name of Teutschland and Teutsch, which we call Dutch, through Germany. Some (a) make him the same with Gomer, eldest son to Japhet (by whom these parts of Europe were peopled) out of notation of his name,

(1) Livre 2. cap. 30.

(u) "The knights of the round table used to ferry spirits over Styx, Acheron, and other rivers, and for their fare have a fillip on the nose and a piece of mouldy bread.”

() Giral. Itiner. Camb. 2. cap. 8.

(a) Orland. Furios. cant. 3. See Spenser's
Faery Qu. lib. 3. cant. 3.
(y) Gen. 10.

(z) Munster. Cosm. 1. 3.
(a) Goropius in Ind. Scythic.

deriving Tuiscon or Tuiston (for so Tacitus calla
him) from the hoodt-son, i. e. the eldest son.
Others (as the author here) suppose him son to
Gomer, and take (6) him for Aschenaz (remem-
bered by Moses as first son to Gomer, and from
whom the Hebrews call the Germans (c) Asche-
nazim) whose relics probably indeed seem to be
in Tuisco, which hath been made of Aschen,
either by the Dutch prepositive article tie or lie,
as our the (according to Derceto for Atergatis (d),
which should be Adardaga, in Ctesias; and Da-
nubius for Adubenus in Festus, perhaps therein
corrupted, as Joseph Scaliger observes; as Theu-
dibald for Hdibald, in Procopius, and Diceneus
for Ceneus among the Getes) or through mistak-
ing of & or or in the Hebrew, as in Rhodanim
7 for
(e) being Dodanim, and in Chalibes and
Alybes for Thalybes, from Tubal, by taking or
for ; for in ruder manuscripts, by an imperfect
rest. I conjecture it the rather, for that in most his-
tories diversity with affinity betwixt the same, meant
proper names (especially eastern as this was) is
ordinary; as Megabyzus, in Ctesias, is Bacaba-
sus, in Justin, who calls Aaron, Aruas, and Hero-
dotus his Smerdis, Mergidis; Asarhaddon, Coras
and Esther in the scriptures, are thus, Sardana-
palus, Cyrus, and Amestris in the Greek stories;
Eporedorix, Ambiorix, Ariminius, in Cæsar and
Sucton, supposed to have been Frederic, Henry,
Herman: divers like examples occur; and in com-
parison of Arrian with Q. Curtius, very many; like
as also in the life of saint John the evangelist, an-
ciently written () in Arabic, you have Asuba-
sianuusu, Thithimse, Damthianuusu, for Vespa-
sian, Titus, Domitian; and in our stories Andro-
geus for Cæsar's Mandubratius. From Tuisco is
our name of Tuesday; and in that too, taking the
place of Mars (the most fiery star, and observe
withal that against the vulgar opinion, the planet-
ary account of days is (g) very ancient) discovers
affinity with Aschenaz, in whose notation (as some
body (b) observes) w signifies fire.

They Saxons first were call'а-
So a Latin rhyme in Engelhuse (i) also;

Quippe brevis gladius apud illos Saxa vocatur,
Unde sibi Saxo nomen traxisse putatur.
Although from the Sacans, or Sagans, a populous
nation in Asia (which were also Scythians, and of
whom an old poet (4), as most others in their
epithets and passages of the Scythians,

A faculty for which the English have had no small honour in their later wars with the French) both Goropius, with long argument in his Becceselana, our judicious Camden, and others, will have them, as it were, Sacai's so.s. According hereto is that name of Sacasena ('), which a colony of them gave to part of Armenia, and the Sasones (m) in Scythia, on this side of Imaus. Howsoever, the author's conceit thus chosen is very apt, nor disagreeing to this other, in that some community was betwixt the name of Sacæ or Sagæ, and a certain sharp weapon called sagaris, used by the Amazons, Sacans, and Persians, as the Greek stories inform us (2).

to fit those concurrents.

sion, thereby omitting twenty-two. For although Marian's published chronicle (which is but a defloration (7) by Robert of Lorrain, bishop of Hereford, under Henry the First, and an epitome of Marian) goes near from the ordinary time of incarnation under Augustus, yet he lays it also, according to the Roman abbot, Dionysius, in the twenty-third year following, which was rather by taking advantage of Dionysius's errour, than following his opinion. For when he (about Justinian's time) made his period of D.XXXII. years of the golden number and cycle of the sun multiplied, it fell out so in his computation, that the fifteenth moon following the Jews' passover, the dominical letter, Friday, and other concurrents according The Britons here allur'd to call them to her aid. to ecclesiastical tradition supposed for the pasMost suppose them sent to by the Britons, much sion, could not be but in the twelfth (s) year subject to the irruptions of Picts and Scots, and after his birth (a lapse by himself much repented) so invited hither for aid: but the stories of Gildas and then supposing Christ lived thirty-four years, and Neunins have no such thing, but only that twenty-two must needs be omitted; a collection there landed of them (as banished their country, directly against his meaning; having only forgotten which Geffery of Monmouth expresses also) three This account (in itself, long boats in Kent, with Horsa and Hengist, capand by the abbot's purpose, as our vulgar is now, tains. They afterward were most willingly rebut with some little difference) erroneously followquested to multiply their number by sending fored, I conjecture, made them, which too much desired more of their countrymen to help king Vortigern; correction, add the supposed evangelical twenty-two and under that colour, and by Ronix (daughter years to such times as were before true; and so to Hengist, and wife to Vortigern) her womanish came CCCC.XXVIII. to be CCCC.XLIX. and subtilty, in greater number were here planted. CCCC.L. which White, of Basingstoke (although Of this, more large in every common story. Bat aiming to be accurate) unjustly follows. Subtracto believe their first arrival rather for new place tion of this number, and, in some, addition (of of habitation, than upon embassage of the Britons, addition you shall have perhaps example in I am persuaded by this, that among the Cim- amien ment of the C.L VI. year for king Lucius' brians, Gauls, Goths, Dacians, Scythians, and letters to pope Fleutherias) will rectify many gross absurdities in our chronologies, which are by especially the Sacans(o) (if Strabo deceive not, from whom our Saxons) with other northern people, it transcribing, interpolation, misprinting, and creepwas a custom upon numerous abundance, to trans-ing in of antichronisms now and then, strangely disordered. plant colonies: from which use the Parthians (sent ont of Scythia, as th. Romans did their Ver ($) Sacrum) retain that name, signifying banished (says Trogus;) not unlikely, from the Hebrew Faratz (q), which is to separate, and also to multiply in this kind of propagation, as it is used in the promise to Abraham, and in Isaiah's consolation to the church. Here being the main change of the British name and state, a word or two of the time and year is not untimely. Most put it under CD. XL. IX. (according to Bede's copies and their followers) or CD. L. of Christ; whereas indeed, by apparent proof, it was in CD.XXVIII. and the fourth of Valentinian, the emperor. Prise and Camden (out of an old fragment annexed to Nennius) and, before them, the author of Fasciculus Temporum have placed it. errour I imagine to be from restoring of worn-out times, in Bele and others, by those which fell into the same errour with Florence of Worcester, and Marian the Scot, who begin the received Caristian account but twelve years before the pas

() Strabo. I. 12.

So

The

To get their seat in Gaul, which on Nuestria light.
And a little after,

Call'd North-men, from the north of Germany
that came.

What is now Normandy is, in some, stiled Neustria and Nuestria, corruptly, as most think, for Westria, that is, West-rich, i. e. the West kingdom (confined anciently betwixt the Meuse and Loire) in respect of Austrich or Oostrich, i. e. the East kingdom, now Lorrain, upon such reason as the archdukedom bath his name at this day. Rollo (1), son of a Danish potentate, accompanied with divers Danes, Norwegians, Scythians, Goths, and a supplement of English, which he had of King Athelstan, about the year D.CCCC. made transmigration into France, and there, after some martial discords, honoured in holy tincture of Christianity with the name of Robert, received (2) sister) Gilla, this tract as her dower, containing of Charles the Simple, with his daughter (or (as before) more than Normandy. It is report

ed (v), that when the bishops at this donation re

(1) Ptolem. geograph. lib. 5. can. id. (7) Herodot. Polyhyman. Xenoph. &vaßár. d. Stra- quired him to kiss the king's foot for homage bo, lib. See the eighth song.

after scornful refusal, he commanded one of his

(r) Malmesb. lib. 4. de Pontificib.
(s) Paul. de Midicburgo part. 2. lib. 5.
(4) See Song XIII.

(u) Paul. Em. hist. Franc. 3.

(v) Guil. Gemeticens. lib. 2. cap. 17.

knights to do it; the knight took up the king's leg, and in straining it to his mouth, overturned him; yet nothing but honourable respect followed on either part.

befleu and Southampton, was cast away, so that Heaven only spared him this issue, Maud, the empress, married, at last, to Geffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, from whom, in a continued race through Henry the Second (son to this Maud) possessed the royal throne of England.

That as the conquerors' blood did to the conquer'd until Richard the Third, that most noble surname

run.

Object not that duke Robert got the Conqueror upon Arietta (from whom perhaps came our name of harlot) his concubine, nor that consanguinitatis & agnotionis jura à patre tantum & legitimis nuptiis oriuntur (y), as the civil law, and upon the matter the English also defines; but rather allow it by law of nature and nobility, which jus tifies the bastard's bearing of his father's coat, distinguished with a bend sinister: Nicolas Upton calls it, fissura, eò quod finditur à patriâ hæreditate (2); which is but his conceit and read Heuter's tract de liberâ hominis nativitate, where you shall find a kind of legitimation of that now disgraceful name bastard: which in more antique times was, as a proud title, inserted in the style of great and most honourable princes. Pretending this consanguinity, saint Edward's adoption, and king Harold's oath, aided by successful arms, the Norman acquired the English crown; although William of Poicters affirms (a), that on his death bed he made protestation, that his right was not hereditary, but by effusion of blood, and loss of many lives.

Who him a daughter brought, which Heaven did strangely spare.

POLY-OLBION.

THE FIFTH SONG.

THE ARGUMENT.

In this song, Severn gives the doom
What of her Lundy should become.
And whilst the nimble Cambrian rills
Dance hy-da-gies amongst the hills,
The Muse them to Camarden brings;
Where Merlin's wondrous birth she sings.
From thence to Pembrook she doth make,
To see how Milford state doth take:
The scattered islands there doth tell:
And, visiting saint David's cell,
Doth sport her all the shores along,
Preparing the ensuing song.

Now Sabrine, as a queen, miraculously fair,
Is absolutely plac'd in her imperial chair
Of crystal richly wrought, that gloriously did shine,
Her grace becoming well, a creature so divine:
And as her godlike self, so glorious was her throne,
In which himself to sit great Neptune had been
known;
[god had woo'd,
Whereon there were engrav'd those nymphs the
And every several shape wherein for love he su'd;
Each daughter, her estate and beauty, every son;
What nations he had rul'd, what countries he had
[cost
No fish in this wide waste, but with exceeding
Was there in antique work most curiously embost.
She, in a watchet weed, with many a eurious wave,
Which as a princely gift great Amphitrite gave;
Whose skirts were to the knee, with coral fring'd
below,
[to go,

won.

To grace her goodly steps. And where she meant
The path was strew'd with pearl: which though
they orient were,
[rous clear;
Yet scarce known from her feet, they were so wond-
To whom the mermaids hold her glass, that she
may see

son.

Before all other floods how far her beauties be: [wise, Who was by Nereus taught, the most profoundly After composition of French troubles, Henry That learned her the skill of hidden prophecies, the first returning into England, the ship wherein By Thetis' special care; as Chiron ' erst had done his sons William and Richard were, betwixt Bar-To that proud bane of Tray, her god-resembling [flood For her wise censure now, whilst ev'ry list'ning (When reason somewhat cool'dtheir late distemper'd mood) Inclosed Severn in; before this mighty rout, She sitting well prepar'd, with count'nance grave and stout, [cause, Like some great learned judge, to end a weighty Well furnish'd with the force of arguments and laws,

& lib. 3.

(w) Marcian. Heracleot. #ıgızλ. ß. (r) Gemiticens. lib. 7. cap. 36. cap 18. (y) ff. Unde cognati 1. 4. spurius. & tit. de grad. affin. lib. 4. non facile. §. 8. Sciendum. "Right of blood and kindred comes only by lawful marriage."

(z)" A division, because he is separated from his father's inheritance." Co.LX, VI. (4) Histor. Cadomens.

And every special proof that justly may be brought; Now with a constant brow, a firm and settled thought,

And at the point to give the last and final doom:
The people crowding near within the pester'd room,
A slow soft murmuring moves amongst the won-
d'ring throng,
[tongue:
As though with open ears they would devour his
So Severn bare herself, and silence so she wan,
When to th' assembly thus she seriously began :
"My near and loved nymphs, good hap ve both
betide:
freply'd:
Well Britons have ye sung; you English, well
Which to succeeding times shall memorise your
stories
[glories.
To either country's praise, as both your endless
And from your list'ning ears, sith vain it were to
hold
[told,
What all-appointing Heaven will plainly shall be
Both gladly be you pleas'd: for thus the powers
reveal,
[fail
That when the Norman line in strength shall lastly
(Fate limiting the time) th' ancient Briton race
Shall come again to sit upon the sovereign place.
A branch sprung out of Brute, th' imperial top shall
get,

Which grafted in the stock of great Plantagenet,
The stem shall strongly wax, as still the trunk doth
wither:
[it thither
That power which bare it thence, again shall bring
By Tudor, with fair winds from Little Britain driven,
§. To whom the goodly bay of Milford shall be
given;
[arrive,
As thy wise prophets, Wales, foretold his wish'd
§. And how Lewellin's line in him should doubly
For from his issue sent to Albany before, [thrive.
Where his neglected blood, his virtue did restore,
He first unto himself in fair succession gain'd
The Steward's nobler name; and afterward attain'd
The royal Scottish wreath, upholding it in state.
This stem, to Tudor's join'd, (which thing all-
powerful fate

So happily produc'd out of that prosperous bed,
Whose marriages conjoin'd the white rose and the
red)
[wide,
Suppressing every plant, shall spread itself so
As in his arms shall clip the isle on every side.
By whom three sever'd realms in one shall firmly
stand,
[land:
As Britain-founding Brute first monarchiz'd the
And Cornwal, for that thou no longer shalt contend,
But to old Cambria cleave, as to thy ancient friend,
Acknowledge thou thy brood of Brute's high blood
to be;
[to thee;
And what hath hapt to her, the like t' have chanc'd
The Britons to receive, when Heaven on them did
lower,
[power
Locgria fore'd to leave; who from the Saxons'
Themselves in deserts, creeks, and mount'nous
[abode:
Or where the fruitless rocks could promise them
Why strive ye then for that, in little time that
shall

wastes bestow'd,

(As you are all made one) be one unto you all? Then take my final doom pronounced lastly, this; That Lundy like ally'd to Wales and England is."

t

2 James the fourth, sirnamed Steward, married Margaret, eldest daughter to Henry the seventh, king of England.

VOL. IV.

Each part most highly pleas'd, then up the
session brake:

When to the learned maids again invention spake;
"O ye Pegasian nymphs, that hating viler things,
Delight in lofty hills, and in delicious springs,
That on Pierus born, and named of the place,
The Thracian Pimpla love, and Pindus often grace;
In Aganippa's fount, and in Castalia's brims,
That often have been known to bathe your crystal
limbs,
Conduct me through these brooks, and with a
[fast'ned clue,
Direct me in my course, to take a perfect view
Of all the wand'ring streams, in whose trancing
gyres,

Wise Nature oft herself her workmanship admires,
(So manifold they are, with such meanders wound,
As may with wonder seem invention to confound)
That to those British names, untaught the ear to
please,

Such relish I may give in my delicious lays,
That all the armed orks of Neptune's grisly band,
With music of my verse, amaz'd may list'ning
stand;

[call,

As when his Tritons' trumps do them to battle
Within his surging lists to combat with the whale."
Thus have we overgone the Glamorganian Gowr,
Whose promontory (plac'd to check the ocean's
pow'r)

Kept Severn yet herself, till being grown too great,
She with extended arms unbounds her ancient seat:
And turning lastly sea, resigns unto the main
What sovereignty herself but lately did retain.
Next, Loghor leads the way, who with a lusty crew
(Her wild and wand'ring steps that ceaselessly
pursue)
Still forward is enforc'd: as Amond thrusts her
[on,
And Morlas (as a maid she much relies upon)
Entreats her present speed; assuring her withal,
Her best beloved isle, Bachannis, for her fall
Stands specially prepar'd, of every thing supply'd.
When Guendra with such grace deliberately doth

glide,

As Tovy doth entice: who setteth out prepar'd
At all points like a prince, attended with a guard :
Of which, as by her name, the near'st to her of kin
is Toothy, tripping down from Verwin's rushy lin'
Through Rescob running out, with Pescover to
meet
Those rills that forest loves; and doth so kindly
[greet,
As to entreat their stay she gladly would prevail.
Then Tranant nicely treads upon the wat'ry trail :
The lively-skipping Brane, along with Gwethrick
goes,
[lose,
In Tovy's wand'ring banks themselves that scarcely
But Mudny, with Cledaugh, and Sawthy, soon
resort,
Which at Langaddoc grace their sovereign's wat’ry
[court.
As when the servile world some gathering man
espies,
Whose thriving fortune shows he to much wealth
[may rise,
And through his prince's grace his followers may
prefer,

Or by revenue left by some dead ancestor;
All louting low to him, him humbly they observe,
And happy is that man his nod that may deserve:
To Tovy so they stoop, to them upon the way
Which thus displays the spring within their view
that lay.

"Near Denevoir, the seat of the Demetian king | Being those immortals long before the Heaven, that Whilst Cambria was herself, full, strong, and

Them subt'ler shapes resume, of water, air, and fire, And wallowing porpice sport and lord it in the flood,