Great Britain -- History -- Poetry; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources
As thus amongst them all hee fought with force
And fortune great, in daunger of his lyfe,
Lord _Brutus_[184] had on him therewith remorce,
Came with a troupe of men to ende the strife.
When Frenchmen saw the Troians force so rife,
They fled away, vnto their losse and payne;
In fight and flight nigh all their host was slayne.
41.
And in that broyle, saue _Corinœus_, none
Did fight so fearcely, as did _Turnus_ then:
Sir _Brutus_[185] cosin with his sword alone
Did sley that time well nigh sixe hundreth men.
They founde him dead as they return’d agen,
Amongst the Frenchmen, wounded voyde of sence,
And bare his noble corps with honour thence[186].
42.
On this they bode awhile reuenge to yeelde,
And to interre the dead, and _Turnus_ slaine,
They tooke a towne not far from place of fielde,
And built it strong, to vexe the Galles agayne.
The name they gaue it still doth yet remayne:
Sith there they buried _Turnus_, yet men call
It Tours, and name the folke Turones all.
43.
Which towne they left at last with Troians man’d,
When as their ships were storde with what they neede
Aboarde, they hoise vp sayles and left the land,
By ayding windes they cut the seas with speede.
At length the shyning Albion clyues[187] did feede
Their gazing eyes, by meanes whereof they fand
Our Totnes hauen, and tooke this promist land.
44.
The countrey seemed pleasaunt at the vewe,
And was by fewe[188] inhabited, as yet,
Saue[189] certaine Giauntes whom they did pursue,
Which straight to Caues in Mountaines did them get:
So fine were Woods, and Flouds, and Fountaines set,
So cleare the ayre, so temperate the clime,
They neuer saw the like before that time[190].
45.
And then this Ile that Albion had to name,
Lord _Brutus_ caus’d it Britaine cal’d to bee,[191]
And eke the people Britans of the same,
As yet in auncient Recordes is to see.
To _Corinœus_ gaue hee franke and free
The land of Cornwall, for his seruice don,
And for because from Giauntes hee it won.
46.
Then sith our Troiane flock came first from Troy,
The Chiefetaine[192] thought that duty did him binde,
As[193] Fortune thus had sau’d him from anoy,
The auncient towne againe to call to minde.
Hee builte new Troy, them Troian lawes assignde,
That so his race,[194] to his eternal fame,
Might keepe of Troy the euerlasting name[195].
47.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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