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And after him the fatall Welland went,
That if old sawes proue true (which God forbid)
Shall drowne all Holland with his excrement,
AndshallseeStaraford,thoughnowhomelyhid,
Then shine in learning, more then euer did
Cambridge orOxford, Englandsgoodly beames
And next to him the Nene downe softly slid,
AndbounteousTrent,thatmhimselfeenseames
Both thirty sorts of fish, and thirty sundry
streames
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THE IIII BOOKE OF THE Cant XI
40
Ne thence the Irishe Riuers absent were,
Sith no lesse famous then the rest they bee,
And loyne m neighbourhood of kingdome nere,
Why should they not likewise in loue agree,
And loy likewise this solemne day to see ?
They saw it all, and present were in place ,
Though I them all according their degree,
Cannot recount, nor tell their hidden race,
Nor read the saluage cuntreis, thorough which
they pace
Next these came Tyne, along whose stony bancke There was the Liffy rolling downe the lea,
That Romaine Monarch built a brasen wall, The sandy Slane, the stony Aubrian,
WhichmotethefeebledBritonsstronglyflancke The spacious Shenan spreading like a sea,
Against the Picts, that swarmed ouer all, The pleasant Boyne, the fishy fruitfull Ban,
Which yet thereof Gualseuer they doe call Swift Awniduff, which of the English man
And Twede the limit betwixt Logris land Is cal'de Blacke water, and the Liffar deep,
And Albany And Eden though but small, Sad Trow is, that once his people ouerran,
Yet often stainde with bloud of many a band Strong Alio tombling from Slewlogher steep,
Of Scots and English both, that tyned on his And Mulla mine, whose waues I whilom taught
strand
to weep
37
42
Then came those sixesad brethren, like forlome, And there the three renowmed brethren were,
That whiiome were (as antique fathers tell) Which that great Gyant Blomtus begot,
Sixe valiant Knights, of one faire Nymphe Of the faire Nimph Rheusa wandnng there
yborne,
One day, as she to shunne the season whot,
Which did in noble deedes of armes excell, Vnder Slewbloome in shady groue was got,
And wonned there, where now Yorke people This Gyant found her, and by force dcflowr'd,
dwell,
Whereof concerning, she in time forth brought
Still Vre,swiftWerfe, and Ozethemostof might, These three faire sons, which being thence
High Swale, vnquiet Nide, and troublousSkell, forth powrd
All whom a Scythian king, that Humber hight, In three great riuers ran, and many countreis
Slew cruelly, and in the nuer drowned quight scowrd
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38
The first, the gentle Shure that making way
But past not long, ere Brutus warhcke sonne By sweet Clonmell, adornes rich Waterford ,
Locrtnus them aueng'd, and the same date, The next, the stubborne Newre, whose waters
Which the proud Humber vnto them had donne, gray
By equall dome repayd on his owne pate By faire Kilkenny and Rosseponte boord,
For in the selfe same nuer, where he late The third, the goodly Barow, which doth hoord
Had drenched them, he drowned him againe, Great heapes of Salmons in his deepe bosome
And nam'd the nuer of his wretched fate, All which long sundred, doe at last accord
Whose bad condition yet it doth retame, To loyne in one, ere to the sea they come,
Oft tossed with his stormes, which therein still So flowing all from one, all one at last become
remame
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39
There also was the wide embayed Mayre,
These after, came the stony shallow Lone, The pleasaunt Bandon crownd with many a
That to old Loncaster his name doth lend, wood,
And following Dee, which Britons long ygone The spreading Lee, that like an Island fay re
Did call diume, that doth by Chester tend , Lncloseth Corke with his deuided flood ,
And Conway which out of his streame doth send AndbalefullOure,latestaindwithEnghshblood
Plenty of pearles to decke his dames withall, With many more, whose names notongue cantell
And Lindus that his pikes doth most commend, All which that day in order seemly good
Of which the auncient Lmcolne men doe call, Did on the Thamis attend, and waited well
All these together marched toward Proteus hall To doe their duefull seruice, as to them befell
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