'He first unto himself in fair fucceffion gain'd The Steward's nobler name; and afterwards at

⚫tain'd

'The royal Scottish wreath, upholding it in ftate. This ftem, to (6) Tudor's join'd (which thing 'all-powerful Fate

So happily produc'd out of that profperous bed. Whofe marriages conjoin'd the white-rofe and 'the red)

Suppreffing every plant, fhall fpread itself fo wide,

As in his arms fhall clip the lfre on every fide.

By whom three fever'd realms in one shall firm. ly ftand,

'As Britain-founding Brute first monarchiz'd the ⚫land:

'And Cornwal, for that thou no longer fhalt con'tend,

But to old Cambria cleave, as to thy ancient friend,

'Acknowledge thou thy brood of Brute's high blood to be;

(Her wild and wand'ring fteps that ceaselefly purfue)

Still forward is inforc'd; as Amond thrufts her on, And Morlas (as a maid fhe much relies upon) Intreats her present speed; affuring her withall, Her best-beloved ifle, Bachannis, for her fall Stands fpecially prepar'd, of every thing fupply'd. When Guendra with fuch grace deliberately doth glide,

As Tovy doth entice; who fetteth out prepar'd At all points like a prince, attended with a guard; [kin Of which, as by her name, the near'ft to her of Is Toothy, tripping down from Verwin's rufhy (c) lin, [meet Through Refcob running out, with Pefcover to Those rills that foreft loves; and doth fo kindly

princely Tovy thus the of the prophet fings: Of Merlin and his skill what region doth not

• hear?

The world fhall ftill be full of Merlin every

where.

[run, "A thoufand lingering years his prophecies have And fcarcely fhall have end till time itself be ⚫ done :

Who of a British nymph was gotten, whilft fhe 'play'd [maid; With a feducing fpirit, which won the godly (As all Demetia through, there was not found

⚫her peer)

Who be'ing fo much renown'd for beauty far • and near,

'Great lords her liking fought, but ftill in vain 'they prov'd;

[lov'd; That fpirit (to her unknown) this virgin only Which taking human fhape, of fuch perfection

'feem'd,

As (all her fuiters fcorn'd) the only him efteem'd. Who, feigning for her fake that he was come... ⚫ from far,

And richly could endow (a lufty batchelor)

On her that prophet got, which from his mother's womb

Of things to come foretold until the general ⚫ doom.

(e) Ebbing and flowing with the fea. (f) Merlin, born in Caermarden.

Them fubt'ler shapes refume, of water, air, and Being those immortals long before the heaven, that fell,

. Whofe deprivation thence, determined their hell: And lofing through their pride that place to them affign'd,

Predefined that was to man's regenerate kind,
They, for th' inveterate hate to his election, fill
Defift not him to tempt to every damned ill:
And to feduce the fpirit, oft prompt the frailer
blood,

Inveigling it with taftes of counterfeited good, And teach it all the flights the foul that may excite

To yield up all power unto the appetite.

And to thofe curious wits if we ourselves apply, Which fearch the gloomy shades of deep philofophy,

They reafon fo will cloathe, as well the mind can show,

That contrary effects, from contraries may grow; And that the foul a fhape fo ftrongly may con. ceit,

As to herself the-while may feem it to create ; By which th' abused sense more easily oft is led To think that it enjoys the thing imagined.

But, toil'd in thefe dark tracts with fundry doubts repleat,

Calm fhades, and cooler ftreams must quench this furious heat;

Which feeking, foon we find, where Cowen in her courfe

Tow'rds the Sabrinian fhores, as fweeping from her fource,

Takes Towa, calling then Carkenny by the way, Her through the wayless woods of Cardiff to

convey;

A foreft, with her floods environ'd fo about
That hardly fhe reftrains th' unruly watry rout,
When fwelling, they would feem her empire to
invade :

And oft the luftful fawns and fatyrs from her fhade

'Were by the ftreams entie'd' abode with them to make.

Then Morlas meeting Taw, her kindly in doth take:

Cair coming with the reft, their watry tracts tread,

Increase the Cowen all; that as their general head Their largess doth receive, to bear out his expence; Who to vaft Neptune leads this courtly confluence.

To the Pembrokian parts the muse her still doth keep,

Upon that utmost point to the Iberian deep, By Cowdra coming in; where clear delightful air, [pair;

(That forests most affect) doth welcome her reThe Heliconian maids in pleasure groves delight; (Floods cannot ftill content their wanton appetite).

And wand'ring in the woods, the neighbouring bills below,

With wife Apollo meet (who with his ivory bow Once in the paler fhades the ferpent Python flew) And hunting oft with him, the heartlefs deer purfue;

Those beams then laid aside he us'd in heaven

to wear.

Another foreft-nymph is Narber, standing near, That with her curled top her neighbour would aftound,

Whose groves once bravely grac'd the fair Penbrokian ground,

When Albion here beheld on this extended land, Amongst his well-grown woods, the fhag-hair'd fatyrs ftand

(The Sylvans chief refort) the shores then fitting high,

Which under water now so many fathoms lie: And wallowing porpice sport and lord it in the flood,

Where once the portlike oak, and large-limb'd poplar flood:

Of all the foreft's kind these two now only left. But time, as guilty fince to man's infatiate theft, Transfer'd the English names of towns and houf[gether. With the industrious Dutch fince fojourning toWhen wrathful heaven the clouds fo lib'ral

holds hither,

ly bestow'd,

The feas (then wanting roomth to lay their boift'rous load)

Upon the Belgian marsh their pamper'd sto machs caft,

That peopled cities fank into the mighty waste. The Flemings were inforc'd to take them to

their oars,

brow:

To try the setting main to find out firmer shores;
When as this fpacious ifle them entrance did allow,
To plant the Belgian ftock upon this goodly
[ly affect,
Thefe (g) nations, that their tongues did natural-
Both generally forfook the British dialect:
As when it was decreed by all-fore-dooming fate,
That ancient Rome fhould stoop from her impe-
rious ftate,

With nations from the north then altogether fraught,

Which to her civil bounds their barbarous cultoms brought,

Of all her ancient fpoils and laftly be forlorn, From Tyber's hallowed banks to old (b) Bizantium born:

(8) The colony of Flemings here planted. See to the fourth fong. (b) Now Conftantinople.

To crown the godly road: where builds the falcon ftout,

Which only to their fkill the shoulder-blade doth fhow.

You goodly fifter floods, how happy is your state! Or fhould I more commend your features, or your fate,

That Milford, which this ifle her greatest port doth call

Before your equal floods is lotted to your fall?
Where was fail ever feen, or wind hath ever blown,
Whence Penbrook yet hath heard of haven like
her own?

She bids Dungleddy dare (i) Iberia's proudest road,
And chargeth her to fend her challenges abroad
Along the coaft of France, to prove if any be
Her Milford that dare match: fo abfolute is the.
And Clethy coming down from Wrenyvaur her
fire

(A hill that thrufts his head into th' etherial fire)
Her fifter's part doth take, and dare àvouch as
much:
[touch,
And Percily the proud, whom nearly it doth
Said he would bear her out; and that they all
fhould know.
[to fhow

And therewithal he ftruts, as though he fcorn'd His head below the heaven, when he of Milford fpake:

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

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

Which we the gentil call; whofe fleet and active wings, [on kings: It seems that nature made when most she thought Which manag'd to the lure, her high and gallant flight,

The vacant sportful man so greatly doth delight, That with her nimble quills his foul doth feem to hover,

And ly the very pitch that lufty bird doth cover; That those proud eyries, bred whereas the fcorch→ ing fky

Doth finge the fandy wilds of spiceful Barbary; Or underneath our pole, where Norway's (4) forefts wide [do hide, Their high cloud-touching heads in winter fnows Out-brave not this our kind in mettal, nor exceed The falcon which fometimes the British cliffs do breed:

Which prey upon the isles in the Vergivian waste, That from the British fhores by Neptune are embrac'd;

Which ftem his furious tides when wildlieft they do rave, [t'rous wave: And break the big-fwoln bulk of many a boisAs, calm when he becomes, then likewife in their glory

Do caft their amorous eyes at many a promontory That thrust their foreheads forth into the fmiling [mouth,

fouth;