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hor (p) frend y se,

And some to lese hor maidenhod wives vor to be.
Tho hii were in ssipes ydo, and in the se ver were
So gret tempest ther come that drof hem here and

there.

So that the mestedel (q) adreined were in the se. And to other londs some ydrive, that ne come never age (r).

A king there was of Hungry, Guaine was his name, And Melga, K. Picardy (s) that couthe inou of fame,

Council of Lateran, held by Innocent Ill. reign- | That h¡i (o) ssold of londe wende and neu est ing our king John; and the law of lapse in benefices had so its ground from that council of Lateran, in the year eleven hundred seventy-nine, under Alexander the third, whither, for our part, were sent Hugh bishop of Durham, John bishop of Norwich, Robert bishop of Hereford, and Rainold bishop of Bath, with divers abbots, where the canon was made for presentation within six months (h), and title of lapse given to the bishop in case the chapter were patron, from the bishop to them if he were patron: which although, in that, it be not law with us, nor also their differ- The waters vor so soki aboute the se hii were ence between a lay and ecclesiastic patron (i), for A company of this maydens so that hii met there number of the months, allowing the layman but To hor folie hii wolde home nime (t) and bor men four, yet shows itself certainly to be the original of that custom anciently, and now used in the [thereto At the maydens wold rather die than concenty ordinary's collation. And hither Henry of Brac-Tho wende vorth the luther (u) men and the maidens ton refers it expressly (k); by whom you may amend John le Briton, and read Lateran instead of Lions, about this same matter. Your conceit, truly joining these things, cannot but perceive that canons, and constitutions in popes' councils, absolutely never bound us in other form than, fitting them by the square of English law and policy, our reverend sages and baronage allowed and interpreted them (/), who in their formal writs (m), would mention them as law and custom of the kingdom, and not otherwise.

also

slow echone,

[nonc.

So that to the lasse Brutaine there ne come alive Some lay all this wickedness absurdly (for time endures it not) to Attila's charge (x), who reigned king of Huns about four hundred fifty (about sixty years after Gratian) and affirm their suffering of this (as they call it) martyrdom at Cologne, whither, in at the mouth of Rhine, they were carried; others also particularly tell you that there were four companions to Ursula, in greatness and Eleven thousand maids sent those our friends Eleutheria, Florentia, and that under these were honour, their names being Pynnosa (y), Cordula,

again.

Our common story affirms, that in time of Gratian, the emperor, Conan, king of Armoric Britain (which was filled with a colony of this isle by this Conan and Maximus, otherwise Maximian, that slew Gratian) having war with the neighbouring Gauls, desired of Dinoth, regent of Cornwal, or (if you will) of our Britain (by nearness of blood so to establish and continue love in the posterity of both countries) that he might himself match with Dinoth's daughter Ursula, and with her a competent multitude of virgins might be sent over to furnish his unwived batchelors: whereupon were eleven thousand of the nobler blood with Ursula, and sixty thousand of meaner rank (selected out of divers parts of the kingdom) shipt at London for satisfaction of this request. In the coast of Gaul, they were by tempest disperst; some ravished by the ocean; others for chaste denial of their maidenheads to Guaine aud Melga, kings of Huns and Picts (whom Gratian had animated against Maximus, as usurping title of the British monarchy) were miserably put to the sword on some German coast, whither misfortune carried them. But because the author slips it over with a touch, you shall have it in such old verse as I have (n).

This maidens were ygadred and to London come,
Mani were glad ther of and well sorri some

(h) G. Nubr. (cujus edit. nuperam & Jo. Picardi annotationes consulas) 1. 3. & Hovedenus habent ipsas, quæ sunt Constit.

(i) Extrav. Concess. præb. c. 2.

(k) 6 Decret. tit. jure patronat. §. Verum cùm

unic.

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to every of the eleven thousand one president, lotan, Benigna, Clementia, Sapientia, Carpophora, Columba, Benedicta, Odilia, Celyndris, Sibylla and Lucia: and that, custom at Cologne hath xcluded all other bodies from the place of their burial. The strange multitude of seventy one thousand virgins thus to be transported, with the difference of time (the most excellent note to examine truth of history by) may make you doubt of the whole report.

I will not justify it, but only admonish thus, that those our old stories are in this followed by that great historian Baronius, allowed by Francis de Bar, White of Basingstoke, and before any of them, by that learned abbot Tritemius, beside the martyrologics, which to the honour of the eleven thousand have dedicated the eleventh day of our October. But indeed how they can stand with what in some copies of Nennius we read (2), I cannot see: it is reported, that those Britons which went thither with Maximus (the same man and time with the former) took them Gaulish wives, and cut out their tongues, lest they should possess their children of Gaulish language; whence our Welsh called them afterward Lehit-widion (a), because they spake confusedly. I see that yet there is great affinity betwixt the British Armoric, and the Welsh, the first (to

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give you a taste) saying, Hon tad pehunii sou en efaou, the other En tad yr hwn ydwit yn y nefoedd, for "Our Father which art in Heaven"; but I suspect extremely that fabulous tongue-cutting, and would have you, of the two, believe rather the virgins, were it not for the exorbitant number, and that, against infallible credit, our historians mix with it Gratian's surviving Maximus (b), a kind of fault that makes often the very truth doubtful.

That from the Scythian poor, whence they themselves derive.

The rivers for them showing there
The wonders of their Pimble-mere.
Proud Snowdon gloriously proceeds
With Cambria's native princes' deeds.
The Muse then through Caernarvon makes,
And Mon (now Anglesey) awakes
To tell her ancient Druids' guise,
And manner of their sacrifice.
Her rillets she together calls;
Then back for Flint and Denbigh falls.

so high,

He means the Saxons, whose name, after learned Or all the Cambrian shires their heads that bear men, is to the fourth song derived from a Scythian nation. It pleases the Muse in this passage to speak of that original, as mean and unworthy of comparison with the Trojan British, drawn out of Jupiter's blood by Venus, Anchises, and Æneas; I justify her phrase, for that the Scythian was indeed poor, yet voluntarily, not through want, living commonly in field-tents; and (as our Germans in Tacitus) so stoical, as not to care for the future, having provision for the present, from nature's liberality. But, if it were worth examining, you might find the Scythian as noble and worthy a nation as any read of; and such a one as the English and others might be as proud to derive themselves from, as any which do search for their ancestors' glory in Trojan ashes. If you believe the old report of themselves (c), then can you not make them less than descended by Targitaus from Jupiter and Borysthenes; if what the Greeks, who, as afterward the Romans, accounted and styled all barbarous, except themselves; then you must draw their pedigree through Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scytha, from Hercules; neither of this have, in this kind, their superior. If among them you desire learning, remember Zamolxis, Diceneus, and Anacharsis, before the rest. For although to some of these, other patronymics are given, yet know that anciently (which for the present matter observe seriously) as all, southward, were called Æthiopians, all eastward, Indians, all west, Celts, so all northerns were styled Scythians; as Ephorus is author (d). I could add the honourable allegories, of those their golden yoke, plongh, hatchet, and cup, sent from Heaven, wittily enough delivered by Goropius (e), with other conjectural testimonies of their worth. But I abstain from such digression.

[ous eye,
And farth'st survey their soils with an ambiti-
Mervinia for her hills, as for their matchless
crowds,
[clouds,
The nearest that are said to kiss the wand'ring
Especial audience craves, offended with the throng,
That she of all the rest neglected was so long:
Alledging for herself; when through the Saxons'
pride,

The godlike race of Brute to Severn's setting side
Were cruelly inforc'd, her mountains did relieve
Those, whom devouring war else every-where did
grieve.
[might)

And when all Wales beside (by fortune or by
Unto her ancient foe resign'd her ancient right,
A constant maiden still she only did remain,
§. The last her genuine laws which stoutly did
retain.
[things;
And as each one is prais'd for her peculiar
So only she is rich, in mountains, meres, and
springs,

And holds herself as great in her superfluous
waste,
[grac'd.
As others by their towns, and fruitful tillage
And therefore, to recount her rivers, from their
lins 2,

66

Abridging all delays, Mervinia thus begins;
Though Dovy, which doth far her neighbour-
ing floods surmount
[account)
(Whose course for hers alone Montgomery doth
Hath Angel' for her own, and Keriog she doth
clear,

With Towin, Gwedal then, and Dulas, all as dear,
Those tributary streams she is maintain'd withal:
Yet, boldly may I say, her rising and her fall
My country calleth hers, with many another
brook,

[look. That with their crystal eyes on the Vergivian

(6) Paul. Merul.. Cosmog. part. 2. lib. 3. To Dovy next, of which Desunny sea-ward сар. 15.

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(c) Herodot. Melpom. d.

(d) Apud Strab. I. «.

(e) Amazon. Becceselan. 8.

POLY-OLBION.

THE NINTH SONG.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Muse here Merioneth vaunts,
And her proud mountains highly chants.
The hills and brooks, to bravery bent,
Stand for precedence from descent:

drives,

Lingorril goes alone: but plenteous Avon strives
The first to be at sea; and faster her to hie,
Clear Kessilgum comes in, with Hergum by and
[Cain,

by.

So Derry, Moothy draws, and Moothy calleth
Which in one channel meet, in going to the
main,
[aids;

As to their utmost power to lend her all their
So Atro by the arm Lanbeder kindly leads.
And Velenrid the like, observing th' other's law,
Calls Cunnel; she again, fair Drurid forth doth
draw,

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That from their mother earth, the rough Mervinia, pay

Their mixed plenteous springs, unto the lesser bay §. Of those two noble arms into the land that hear, Which through Gwinethia be so famous every where, [monnd,

On my Caernarvon side by nature made my As Dovy doth divide the Cardiganian ground. The pearly Conway's head, as that of holy Dee, Renowned rivers both, their rising have in me: So, Lavern and the Lue, themselves that beadlong throw [doth flow.

. Into the spacious lake, where Dee unmix'd Trowerrin takes his stream, here from a native jin; [doth win, Which, out of Pimble-mere when Dee himself Along with him his lord full courteously doth glide:

So Rudock riseth here, and Cletor that do guide Him in his rugged path, and make his greatness

way,

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Their Dee into the bounds of Denbigh to convey. The lofty hills, this while attentively that stood, As to survey the course of every several food, Sent forth such echoing shouts (which every way so shrill,

With the reverberate sound the spacious air did fill) That they were eas'ly heard through the Vergivian main [constrain

To Neptune's inward court; and beating there, That mighty god of sca t'awake: who full of dread, [head, Thrice threw his three-fork'd mace about his griesly And thrice above the rocks his forehead rais'd, to

sce

The. Amongst the high-topt hills what tumult it should So that with very sweat Cadoridric did drop. And mighty Raran shook his proud sky-kissing [enrage; Amongst the furious rout whom madness did Until the mountaiu-nymphs, the tumult to as

top.

suage,

Upon a modest sign of silence to the throng, Cousorting thus, in praise of their Mervinia, sung; "Thrice famous Saxon king, on whom time ne'er shall prey,

pay

O Edgar; who compell'dst our Ludwal hence to [thee: Three hundred wolves a year for tribute unto And for that tribute paid, as famous may'st thou be, [destroy'd

O conquer'd British king, by whom was first 5. The multitude of wolves, that long this land annoy'd; [flocks, Regardless of their rape, that now our harmless Securely here may sit upon the aged rocks; Or wand'ring from their walks, and straggling here and there

Amongst the scatter'd cliffs, the lamb needs never fear; [creep But from the threat'ning storm to save itself may Into that darksome cave where once his foe did keep: [having fed, That now the clamb'ring goat all day which And climbing up to see the Sun go down to bed, Is not at all in doubt her little kid to lose, Which grazing in the vale, secure and safe she knows.

4 North-wales.

"Where, from these lofty hills which spacious Heaven do threat,

Yet of as equal height, as thick by nature set, We talk how we are stor'd, or what we greatly need, [feed, Or how our flocks do fare, and how our herds do When else the hanging rocks, and vallies dark and deep, [keep.

The summer's longest day would us from meeting "Ye Cambrian shepherds then, whom these our mountains please,

And ye our fellow nymphs, ye light Oreades', §. Saint Helen's wondrous way, and Herbert's let

us go,

And our divided rocks with admiration show." Not meaning there to end, but speaking as they were,

A suddain fearful noise surprised every ear. The water-nymphs (not far) Lin-teged that fre[dew besprent,

quent, With brows besmear'd with ooze, their locks with Inhabiting the lake, in sedgy bow'rs below, Their inward grounded grief that only sought to [did take, Against the mountain kind, which much on them Above their wat'ry brood, thus proudly them bespake; [threat

show

"Tell us, ye haughty hills, why vainly thus you Esteeming us so mean, compar'd to you so great? To make you know yourselves, you this must understand,

That our great Maker laid the surface of the land.
As level as the lake until the general flood,
When over all so long the troubled waters stood:-
Which, hurried with the blasts from angry Heaven
that blew,
[threw :
Up on huge massy heaps the loosen'd gravel
From hence we would ye know, your first beginning

came;

[tains name, Which since, in tract of time, yourselves did moun So that the Earth, by you (to check her mirthful cheer) [poured were May always see (from Heaven) those plagues that Upon the former world; as 'twere by scars to

show

[blow:

That still she must remain disfigur'd with the And by th' infectious shume that doomful deluge left,

Nature herself hath since of purity been reft;
And by the seeds corrupt, the life of mortal man
Was shorten'd. With these plagues ye mountains
first began.

"But, ceasing you to shame; what mountain is there found

In all your monstrous kind (seek ye the island round)

That truly of himself such wonders can report, As can this spacious Lin, the place of our resort? That when Dee in his course fain in her lap would lie, [deny, Commixtion with her store, his stream she doth By his complexion provid, as he through her doth glide.

Her wealth again from his, she likewise doth divide. [abound, Those white-fish that in her do wondrously Are never seen in him; nor are his salmons found

6 Nymphs of the mountains.

"The wonders of Linteged, or Pemblemere.

At any time in her : but as she him disdains ;
So he again, from her, as wilfully abstains.
Down from the neighbouring hills, those plenteous
springs that fall,

none:

Nor land-doods after rain, her never move at all. And as in summer's heat, so always is she one, Resembling that great lake which seems to care for [rank, . And with stern Æolus' blasts, like Thetis waxing She only over-swells the surface of her bank." But, whilst these nymphs report these wonders of their lake, [brake; Their farther cause of speech the mighty Snowdon' Lest, if their wat'ry kind should suffer'd be too long, [ains wrong. The licence that they took, might do the mountFor quickly he had found that straiten'd point of land,

Into the Irish sea which puts his powerful band, Puft with their wat'ry praise,grew insolently proud, And needs would have his rills for rivers be allow'd: Short Darent, near'st unto the utmost point of all That th'isle of Gelin greets, and Bardsey in her fall;

*

[May, And next to her, the Saw, the Gir, the Er, the Must rivers be at least, should all the world gainsay: [wide, And those, whereas the land lies eastward, amply That goodly Conway grace upon the other side, Born near upon her banks, each from her proper lin, [mistress in. Soon from their mothers out, soon with their As Ledder, her ally, and neighbour Legwy; then Goes Purloyd, Castel next, with Giffin, that agen Observe fair Conway's course: and though their race be short, [resort, Yet they their sovereign flood enrich with their And Snowdon, more than this, his proper mere did note (§. Still Delos like, wherein a wand'ring isle doth Was peremptory grown upon his higher ground; That pool, in which (besides) the one-ey'd fish are found,

[float)

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For succour hither came; where that unmixed race Remains unto this day, yet owners of this place: Of whom no flood nor hill peculiarly hath song. These, then, shall be my theme: lest time too much should wrong [been;

Such princes as were ours, since sever'd we have And as themselves, their fame be limited between The Severn and our sea, long pent within this place, [now embase 5. Till with the term of Welsh, the English The nobler Britons' name, that well-near was destroy'd [annoy'd; With pestilence and war, which this great isle Cadwallader that drave to the Armoric shore : To which, dread Conan, lord of Denbigh, long before,

His countrymen from hence auspiciously convey'd: Whose noble feats in war, and never-failing aid, Got Maximus (at length) the victory in Gaul, Upon the Roman powers. Where, after Gratian's fall,

Armorica to them the valiant victor gave: Where Conan their great lord, as full of courage, drave (supply The Celts out of their seats, and did their room §. With people still from hence; which of our colony [king, Was Little Britain call'd. Where that distressed Cadwallader, himself awhile recomforting With hope of Alan's aid (which there did him detain) freigu

§. Forewarned was in dreams, that of the Britons' A sempiternal end the angry pow'rs decreed, A recluse life in Rome injoining him to lead. The king resigning all, his son young Edwal left With Alan: who, much griev'd the prince should be bereft [fleet;

Of Britain's ancient right, rigg'd his unconquer'd And as the generals then, for such an army meet, His nephew Ivor chose, and Hiner for his pheer; Two most undaunted spirits. These valiant Britons

were

[war, The first who West-sex won. But by the ling'ring When they those Saxons found t'have succour stili from far, [shore: They took them to their friends on Severn's setting Where finding Edwal dead, they purpos'd to re[pursn'd:

store

His son young Roderic, whom the Saxon pow'rs But he, who at his home here scorn'd to be subdu'd, With Aldred (that on Wales his strong invasion

brought)

[fought, Garthmalac, aud Pencoyd (those famous battles) That North and South-wales sing, on the WestSexians won. [had done,

Scarce this victorious task his bloody'd sword But at Mount Carno' met the Mercians, and with wounds

Made Ethelbald to feel his trespass on our "bounds; [How; Prevail'd against the Pict, before our force that And in a valiant fight their king Dalargan slew. "Nor Conan's courage less, nor less prevail'd in ought [fought Renowned Roderic's heir, who with the English

The West-Saxons' country, comprehending Devonshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, and their ad? A hill near Aber-gavenny in Monmouth.

The most famous mountain of all Wales, in jacents. Caernarvonshire.

The Herefordian field; as Ruthland's red with gore:

[shore, Who, to transfer the war from this his native March'd through the Mercian towns with his revengeful blade:

And on the English there such mighty havoc made, That Offa (when he saw his countries go to wrack) From bick'ring with his folk, to keep us Britons back, [length Cast up that mighty mound 10 of eighty miles in Athwart from sea to sea. Which of the Mercians'

strength A witness tho' it stand, and Offa's name does bear, Our courage was the cause why first he cut it there:

As that most dreadful day at Gavelford can tell, Where under either's sword so many thousands fell [own; With intermixed blood, that neither knew their Nor which went victor thence, unto this day is known. [show'd, "Nor Kettle's conflict then less martial courage Where valiant Mervin met the Mercians and bestow'd [flight. His nobler British blood on Burthred's recreant "As Rodoric his great son, his father following

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brought.

Whose no less valiant son, again at Conway fought With Danes and Mercians mix'd, and on their hateful head [murthered. Down-show'r'd their dire revenge whom they had "And, wer't not that of us the English would report

(Abusing of our tongue in most malicious sort As often-times they do) that more than any, we (The Welsh, as they us term) love glorify'd to be, Here could I else recount the slaughter'd Saxons' gore, [shore, Our swords at Crossford spilt on Severn's wand'ring And Griffith here produce, Lewellin's valiant son (May we believe our bards) who five plicht battles [wrought, And to revenge the wrongs the envious English His well train'd martial troops into the Marches

won;

brought

As far as Wor'ster walls: nor thence did he retire, Till Powse lay well-near spent in our revengeful fire; [soils, As Hereford laid waste: and from their plenteous Brought back with him to Wales his prisoners and his spoils.

"Thus as we valiant were, when valour might us steed:

With those so much that dar'd, we had them that decreed.

For, what Mulmutian laws, or Martian, ever were More excellent than those which our good Howel here [main. Ordain'd to govern Wales? which still with us re"And when all-powerful fate had brought to

pass again,

That as the Saxons erst did from the Britons win; Upon them so (at last) the Normans coming in,

10 Offa's Ditch.

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Took from those tyrants here, what treach'rously they got, [allot) (To the perfidious French which th'angry Heavens Ne'er could that conqueror's sword (which roughly did decide

His right in England here, and prostrated her pride) Us to subjection stoop, or make us Britons bear Th'unwieldy Norman yoke: nor basely could we fear [rage) ours His conquest, ent'ring Wales; but (with stout couDefy'd him to his face, with all his English pow'rs. And when in his revenge, proud Rufus hither came, [shame, With vows us to subvert; with slaughter and with O'er Severn him we sent, to gather stronger aid. "So, when to England's power, Albania hers

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had lay'd,

[wit, By Henry Beauclark brought (for all his dev'lish By which he raught the wreath) he not prevail'd a whit : [press'd, And through our rugged straits when he so rudely Had not his proved mail sat surely to his breast, A skilful British band his life had him bereft, As his stern brother's heart, by Tirill's hand, was cleft.

"And let the English thus, which vilify our

name.

If it their greatness please, report unto our shame,

The foil our Gwyneth gave at Flint's so deadly fight,

[Alight: To Maud the empress' son, that there he put to §. And from the English power th' imperial ensign took :

About his plumed head which valiant Owen shook.

"As when that king again, his fortune to advance Above his former foil, procur'd fresh pow'rs from France,

A surely levell'd shaft if Sent-clear had not seen, And in the very loose, not thrust himself between His sovereign and the shaft, he our revenge had try'd:

among;

Thus, to preserve the king, the noble subject dy'd. "As Madoc his brave son, may come the rest [grandsires sprung, Who like the godlike race, from which his Whilst here his brothers tir'd in sad domestic strife, On their unnatural breasts bent either's murtherous

knife;

This brave adventurous youth, in hot pursuit of fame,

With such as his great spirit did with high deeds inflame, [ground, Put forth his well rigg'd fleet to seek him foreign And sailed west so long, until that world he found To Christians then unknown (save this advent'rous crew)

Long ere Columbus liv'd, or it Vespucius knew; And put the now nam'd Welsh on India's parched face,

Unto the endless praise of Brute's renowned race, Ere the Iberian powers had toucht her long sought bay,

§. Or any ear had heard the sound of Florida. "§. And with that Croggen's name let th' English us disgrace;

place

When there are to be seen, yet, in that ancient [grandsires' graves: From whence that name they fetch, their conquer'd For which each ignorant sot, unjustly us depraves.

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