[gether.

cast,

That peopled cities sank into the mighty waste. The Flemings were enforc'd to take them to their

oars,

To try the setting main to find out firmer shores; When as this spacious isle them entrance did allow, To plant the Belgian stock upon this goodly brow: These nations', that their tongues did naturally Both generally forsook the British dialect: [affect, As when it was decreed by all-fore-dooming fate, That ancient Rome should stoop from her imperious state,

With nations from the north then altogether fraught, Which to her civil bounds their barbarous customs brought,

Of all her ancient spoils and lastly be forlorn, From Tyber's hallowed banks to old Bizantium 8 born:

Th' abundant Latins then old Latium lastly left,
Both of her proper form and elegancy reft;
Before her smoothest tongue, their speech that did
prefer,

And in her tables fix'd their ill-shap'd character. A divination strange the Dutch-made English have, [it gave) Appropriate to that place (as though some power §. By th' shoulder of a ram from off the right side par'd, [bar'd: Which usually they boil, the spade-bone being Which then the wizard takes, and gazing thereupon, [agone; Things long to come foreshows, as things done long Scapes secretly at home, as those abroad, and far; Murthers, adulterous stealths, as the events of war, The reigns and death of kings they take on them [show. Which only to their skill the shoulder-blade doth You goodly sister floods, how happy is your [fate, Or should I more commend your features, or your That Milford, which this isle her greatest port doth

to know:

state!

call

spake:

But there was not a port the prize durst undertake.
So highly Milford is in every mouth renown'd,
No haven hath ought good, in her that is not found:
Whereas the swelling surge, that with his foamy
head

The gentler-looking land with fury menaced, With his encount'ring wave no longer there contends ;

But sitting mildly down like perfect ancient friends, Unmov'd of any wind which way so e'er it blow, And rather seem to smile, than knit an angry brow. The ships with shatter'd ribs scarce creeping from the seas,

On her sleek bosom ride with such deliberate ease, As all her passed storms she holds but mean and base, [place, So she may reach at length this most delightful By Nature with proud cliffs environed about, §. To crown the godly road: where builds the falcon stout, [wings, Which we the gentil call; whose fleet and active It seems that Nature made when most she thought [flight,

on kings:

Which manag'd to the lure, her high and gallant The vacant sportful man so greatly doth delight, That with her nimble quills his soul doth seem to hover,

And ly the very pitch that lusty bird doth cover: That those proud eyries, bred whereas the scorch. ing sky

Doth singe the sandy wilds of spiceful Barbary; Or underneath our pole, where Norway's forests 10 wide [do hide, | Their high cloud-touching heads in winter snows Out-brave not this our kind in metal, nor exceed The falcon which sometimes the British cliffs do breed: Which prey upon the isles in the Vergivian waste, That from the British shores by Neptune are embrac'd; [do rave, Which stem his furious tides when wildliest they And break the big swoln bulk of many a boist'rous. [glory

wave:

As, calm when he becomes, then likewise in their Do cast their amorous eyes at many a promontory That thrust their foreheads forth into the smiling south; [mouth,

As Rat and Sheepy, set to keep calm Milford's Expos'd to Neptune's power. So Gresholm 11 far doth stand: [nearer land Scalm, Stockholm, with saint Bride, and Gatholm, (Which with their veiny breasts entice the gods of That with the lusty isles do revel every day) [sea, As crescent-like the land her breadth here inward bends, [sends;

much :

From Milford, which she forth to old Menevia
Since, holy David's seat; which of especial grace
Doth lend that nobler name, to this unnobler place.
Of all the holy men whose fame so fresh remains,
To whom the Britons built so many sumptuous
[hold:
This saint before the rest their patron still they
Whose birth, their ancient bards to Cambria
long foretold,

fanes,

10 The places from whence the highest flying hawks are brought.

"Islands upon the point of Pembrookshire,

nephew fraughted herLay all together, and

-the messagers to Kermerdin come, And hou children bivore the yate pleyde hii toke gome,

Tho sede on to another, "Merlin wat is the,
Thou faderlese ssrewe (), wy misdostou me,

Dur icham of kiuges icome, and thou nart nought worth a fille,

Nor thou naddest nevere nanne fader, therevore hold the stille."

Tho the messagers hurde this hii astunte there,
And essie at men aboute wat the child were,

But why she could not as well divine of whose flock it was, as the other secret, when I have more skill in osteomanty, I will tell you. Nor was their report less in knowing things to come, than past; so that jealous Panurge, in his doubt de la coquage (m), might have had other manner of resolution than Rondibilis, Hippothade, Bridoye, Trovillogan, or the oracle itself, were able to give him. Blame me not, in that, to explain my author, I insert this example.

To crown the goodly road, where built that falcon

stout.

understond,

And is moder au king's doughter was of thulke lord,

And woned at St. Petre's in a nonnerie there.

His mother (a nun, daughter to Pubidius, king of Mathraval, and called Matilda, as by poetical (4) authority only I find justifiable) and he being brought to the king, she colours it in these words:

-whanneich ofte was,

In chambre mid mine fellawes, there come to me bi cas,

A saithe vaire man mid alle, and bi clupt me well softe,

And semblance made vaire ynou, and cust me well ofte.

And tells on the story which should follow so kind a preface. But enough of this.

By th' shoulder of a ram from off the right side par'd.

Take this as a taste of their art in old time. Under Henry II. one William Mangunel (), a gentleman of those parts, finding by his skill of prediction that his wife had played false with him, and conceived by his own nephew, formally dresses the shoulder-bone of one of his own rams; and sifting at dinner (pretending it to be taken out of his neighbour's flock) requests his wife (equalling him in these divinations) to give her judgment; she curiously observes, and at last with great laughter casts it from her. The gentleman, importuning her reason of so vehement an affection, receives answer of her, that his wife, out of whose flock the ram was taken, had by incestuous copu

(3) Illustres sæpiùs viros indigetant historici nostri Consules, unde & Ætium & in repuadloquuntur Saxones Cos. quem tametsi Consulem fuisse haut asserent Fasti, illustriss. tn. blicâ nobilissimum Procopii aliorumque historiæ Gothicæ produnt. (i) Shrew, now a word applied to the shrewish sex; but in Chaucer, Lidgat, and Gower, to the quieter also.

(4) Spenser's Faery Queen, lib. 3. cant. 3. (1) Girald. Itin. 1. cap. 11.- -Quæ te dementia cepit, Querere sollicitè quod reperire times? Th. Mor. Epig.

at the source by the falcon, soon fell down at the king's foot, which performance in this ramage, made him yearly afterward send hither for eyesses, as Girald is author. Whether these here are the haggarts, (which they call peregrins) or falcongentles, I am no such falconer to argue; but this I know, that the reason of the name of peregrins is given, for that they came from remote and unknown places (n), and therefore hardly fits these: but also I read, in no less than imperial authority (0), that peregrins never bred in less latitude than beyond the seventh climate, dia Riphæos, which permits them this place; and that, of true falcons-gentle, an eyry is never found but in a more southern and hotter parallel: which (if it be true) excludes the name of gentle from ours, breeding near the ninth per Rostochium. And the same authority makes them (against common opinion) both of one kind, differing rather in local and outward accidents, than in self-nature.

Whose birth the ancient bards to Cambria long foretold.

Of St. Dewy and his bishopric you have more to the fourth song, He was prognosticated (p) above thirty years before his birth; which with other attributed miracles (after the fashion of that credulous age) caused him to be almost paralleled in

onkish zeal with that holy John, which, unborn, sprang at presence of the incarnate author of our redemption. The translation of the archbishopric was also foretold (4) in that of Merlin: "Menevia shall put on the pall of Caer-leon; and the preacher of Ireland shall wax dumb by an infant growing in the womb." That was performed when child, suddenly lost use of his speech; but recoSt. Patrick, at presence of Melaria, then with vering it after some time, made prediction of Dewy's holiness, joined with greatness, which is so celebrated. Upon my author's credit only believe me.

POLY-OLBION.

SONG THE SIXTH.

THE ARGUMENT.

With Cardigan the Muse proceeds,
And tells what rare things Tivy breeds:
Next, proud Plynillimon she plies;
Where Severn, Wy, and Rydoll rise
With Severn she along doth go,
Her metamorphosis to show;
And makes the wand'ring Wy declaim
In honour of the British name:
Then musters all the wat'ry train
That those two rivers entertain:
And viewing how those rillets creep
From shore to the Vergivian deep,
By Radnor and Mountgomery, then
To Severn turns her course agen:
And bringing all their riverets in,
There ends; a new song to begin.

SITH I must stem thy stream, clear Tivy, yet before

The Muse vouchsafe to seize the Cardiganian shore, She of thy source will sing in all the Cambrian coast; [boast Which of thy castors once, but now canst only The salmons, of all floods most plentiful in thee. Dear brook, within thy banks if any powers there be; [kind Then naïads, or ye nymphs of their like wat'ry (Unto whose only care great Neptune hath assign'd The guidance of those brooks wherein he takes delight) [eite, Assist her and whilst she your dwelling shall reBe present in her work: let her your graces view, That to succeeding times them lively she may show; As when great Albion's sons, which him a seanymph brought [caught Amongst the grisly rocks, were with your beauties (Whose only love surpris'd those of the Phiegrian [rise) The Titanois, that once against high Heaven durst When as the hoary woods, the climbing hills did hide,

size,

[glide;

And cover'd every vale through which you gently Even for those inly heats which through your loves they feit,

That oft in kindly tears did in your bosoms melt, To view your secret bowers, such favour let her win. Then Tivy cometh down from her capacious lin, 'Twixt Mirk and Brenny id, two handmaids, that

A water-nymph; yea, though great Thetis self she were: [there But nothing might prevail, nor all the pleasures Her mind could ever move one minute's stay to

make.

Mild Mathern then, the next, doth Tivy overtake: Which instantly again by Dittor is supply'd. Then, Keach and Kerry help: 'twixt which on either side,

To Cardigan she comes, the sovereign of the shire. Now, Tivy, let us tell thy sundry glories here.

When as the salmon seeks a fresher stream to

find [kind, (Which hither from the sea comes yearly by his As he in season grows) and stems the wat❜ry tract, Where Tivy falling down doth make a cataract, Forc'd by the rising rocks that there her course [enclose;

oppose,

leap,

For beavers Tivy was in her strong banks that bred, Which else no other brook of Britain nourished: Where Nature, in the shape of this now-perish'd beast,

His property did seem t' have wond'rously exprest; Being body'd like a boat, with such a mighty tail, As serv'd him for a bridge, a helm, or for a sail, When kind did him command the architect to play, That his strong castle built of branched twigs and clay:

Which, set upon the deep, but yet not fixed there, He easily could remove as it he pleas'd to steer To this side or to that; the workmanship so rare, His stuff wherewith to build, first being to preA foraging he goes, to groves or bushes nigh, [pare, And with his teeth cuts down his timber: which

laid by,

He turns him on his back, his belly laid abroad, When, with what he hath got, the other do him Joad; [found. Till lastly, by the weight, his burthen he have Then, with his mighty tail his carriage having bound

As carters do with ropes, in his sharp teeth he grip'd Some stronger stick: from which the lesser branches stript,

He takes it in the midst ; at both the ends, the rest Hard holding with their fangs, unto the labour prest, Going backward, tow'rds their home their loaded carriage led, [useful sled. From whom, those first here born, were taught the

2 Or water-fall.

3 The word in tumbling, when one casteth himself over and over.

Then builded he his fort for strong and several

fights;

His passages contriv'd with such unusual sleights, That from the hunter oft he issu'd undiscern'd, As if men from this beast to fortify had learn'd; §. Whose kind, in her decay'd, is to this isle unknown.

Thus Tivy boasts this beast peculiarly her own.

But here why spend I time these trifles to areed? Now, with thy former task, my Muse, again proceed. To show the other floods from the Cerettic shore To the Vergivian sea contributing their store: With Bidder first begin, that bendeth all her force The Arron to assist, Arth holding on her course The way the other went, with Werry, which doth win

Fair Istwid to her aid; who kindly coming in,
Meets Rydoll at her mouth, that fair and princely
maid,

Plynillimon's dear child, deliciously array'd,
As fits a nymph so near to Severn and her queen.
Then come the sister Salks, as they before had seen
Those delicater dames so trippingly to tread :
Then Kerry; Cletur next, and Kniver making head
With Enion, that her like clear Levant brings by her.
Plynillimon's high praise no longer, Muse, defer;
What once the Druids told, how great those floods
should be,

That here (most mighty hill) derive themselves

from thee.

The bards with fury rapt, the British youth among, §. Unto the charming harp thy future honour sung In brave and lofty strains; that in excess of joy, The beldam and the girl, the grandsire and the boy, [did load With shouts and yearning cries, the troubled air (As when with crowned cups unto the Elian god Those priests high orgies held; or when the old world saw [daw, Full Phoebe's face eclips'd, and thinking her to Whom they supposed fall'n in some enchanted swound, [sound) Of beaten tinkling brass still ply'd her with the That all the Cambrian hills, which high'st their

heads do bear,

Do homage to those floods that issued out of thee: To princely Severn first; next to her sister Wye, Which to her elder's court her course doth still apply. [pride But Rydoll, young'st, and least, and for the others' Not finding fitting roomth upon the rising side, Alone unto the west directly takes her way. So all the neighbouring hills Plynillimon obey. For, though Moylvadian bear his craggy top so high,

As scorning all that come in compass of his eye, Yet greatly is he pleas'd Plynillimon will grace Him with a cheerful look: and, fawning in his face, His love to Severn shows as though his own she

Brute's first-begotten son, which Gwendolin did wed; But soon th' unconstant lord abandoned her bed (Through his unchaste desire) for beauteous Elstred's love. [did move,

Now, that which most of all her mighty heart Her father, Cornwal's duke, great Corineus dead, Was by the lustful king unjustly banished. When she, who to that time still with a smoothed brow [vow, Had seem'd to bear the breach of Locrine's former Perceiving still her wrongs insufferable were; Grown big with the revenge which her full breast did bear,

And aided to the birth with every little breath (Alone she being left the spoil of love and death, In labour of her grief outrageously distract, The utmost of her spleen on her false lord to act) She first implores their hate to aid him whom she found; [sound. Whose hearts unto the depth she had not left to To Cornwal then she sends (her country) for supplies:

Which all at once in arms with Gwendolin arise. Then with her warlike power her husband she pursu'd,

Whom his unlawful love too vainly did delude. The fierce and jealous queen, then void of all

remorse,

[force,

As great in power as spirit, whilst he neglects her
Him suddenly surpris'd, and from her ireful heart
All pity clean exil'd (whom nothing could convert)
The son of mighty Brute bereaved of his life;
Amongst the Britons here the first intestine strife,
Since they were put a-land upon this promis'd shore.
Then crowning Madan king, whom she to Locrine
bore,
[brought;
And those which serv'd his sire to his obedience
Not so with blood suffic'd, immediately she sought
The mother and the child: whose beauty when she
[draw
Had not her heart been flint, had had the power to
A spring of pitying tears; when, dropping liquid
pearl,
Before the cruel queen, the lady and the girl
Upon their tender knees begg'd mercy. Woe for

saw,

thee,

[see, Fair Elstred, that thou should'st thy fairer Sabrine As she should thee behold the prey to her stern rage, [suage: Whom kingly Locrine's death suffic'd not to asWho from the bord'ring cliffs thee with thy mother

But leave we Severn here, a little to pursue The often-wand'ring Wye (her passages to view, As wantonly she strains in her lascivious course) And muster every flood that from her bounteous [bound Attends upon her stream, whilst (as the famous 'Twixt the Brecknokian earth, and the Radnorian

source

ground)