Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (2 of 8): The Second Booke Of The Historie Of EnglandHolinshed, Raphael
History
Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (2 of 8): The Second Booke Of The Historie Of England
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 55 B.C.
Al things being thus brought to passe according to Brutes desire, wind
also and wether seruing the purpose, he with his wife Innogen and his
people imbarked, and hoising vp sailes departed from the coasts of
Grecia. Now after two daies and a nights sailing, they arriued at
Leogitia (in some old written bookes of the British historie noted downe
Lergetia) an Iland, where they consulted with an oracle. Brute himselfe
knéeling before the idoll, and holding in his right hand a boll prepared
for sacrifice full of wine, and the bloud of a white hinde, spake in this
maner as here followeth:
Diua potens nemorum, terror syluestribus apris,
Cui licet anfractus ire per æthereos,
Infernasq; domos, terrestria iura resolue,
Et die quas terras nos habitare velis:
Dic certam sedem qua te venerabor in æuum,
Qua tibi virgineis templa dicabo choris.
These verses (as Ponticus Virumnius and others also doo gesse) were
written by Gildas Cambrius in his booke intituled _Cambreidos,_ and may
thus be Englished:
Thou goddesse that doost rule
the woods and forrests greene,
And chasest foming boares
that flee thine awfull sight,
Thou that maist passe aloft
in airie skies so sheene,
And walke eke vnder earth
in places void of light,
Discouer earthlie states,
direct our course aright,
And shew where we shall dwell,
according to thy will,
In seates of sure abode,
where temples we may dight
For virgins that shall sound
thy laud with voices shrill.
After this praier and ceremonie done, according to
the pagane rite and custome, Brute abiding his answer, fell asléepe: in
which sléepe appeared to him the said goddesse vttering this answer in
the verses following expressed.
Brute, sub occasum solis trans Gallica regna,
Insula in oceano est, vndiq; clausa mari,
Insula in oceano est, habitata gigantibus olim,
Nunc deserta quidèm, gentibus apta tuis:
Hanc pete, námq; tibi sedes erit ilia perennis,
Hîc fiet natis altera Troia tuis:
Hîc de prole tua reges nascentur, & ipsis
Totius terræ subditus orbis erit.
Brute, farre by-west beyond the Gallike
land is found,
An Ile which with the ocean seas
inclosed is about,
Where giants dwelt sometime,
but now is desart ground,
Most meet where thou maist plant
thy selfe with all thy rout:
Make thitherwards with speed,
for there thou shalt find out
An euerduring seat,
and Troie shall rise anew,
Vnto thy race, of whom
shall kings be borne no dout,
That with their mightie power
the world shall whole subdew.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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