Begin then, O my dearest sacred Dame, iv Daughter of _Phœbus_ and of _Memorie_, That[906] doest ennoble with immortall name The warlike Worthies, from antiquitie, In thy great volume of Eternitie: Begin, O _Clio_, and recount from hence My glorious Soueraines goodly auncestrie[907], Till that by dew degrees and long protense[908], Thou haue it lastly brought vnto her Excellence. Full many wayes within her troubled mind, v Old _Glauce_ cast, to cure this Ladies griefe: Full many waies she sought, but none could find, Nor herbes, nor charmes, nor counsell, that is chiefe And choisest med’cine for sicke harts reliefe: For thy great care she tooke, and greater feare, Least that it should her turne to foule repriefe, And sore reproch, when so her father deare Should of his dearest daughters hard misfortune heare. At last she her auisd, that he, which made vi That mirrhour, wherein the sicke Damosell So straungely vewed her straunge louers shade, To weet, the learned _Merlin_, well could tell, Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell, And by what meanes his loue might best be wrought: For though beyond the _Africk Ismaell_, Or th’Indian _Peru_ he were, she thought Him forth through infinite endeuour to haue sought. Forthwith themselues disguising both in straunge vii And base attyre, that none might them bewray, To _Maridunum_, that is now by chaunge Of name _Cayr-Merdin_ cald, they tooke their way: There the wise _Merlin_ whylome wont (they say) To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day, That of no liuing wight he mote be found, When so he counseld with his sprights encompast round. And if thou euer happen that same way viii To trauell, goe to see that dreadfull place: It is an hideous hollow caue (they say) Vnder a rocke that lyes a little space From the swift _Barry_, tombling downe apace, Emongst the woodie hilles of _Dyneuowre_: But dare thou not, I charge, in any cace, To enter into that same balefull Bowre, For fear the cruell Feends should thee vnwares deuowre. But standing high aloft, low lay thine eare, ix And there such ghastly noise of yron chaines, And brasen Caudrons thou shalt rombling heare, Which thousand sprights with long enduring paines Doe tosse, that it will stonne thy feeble braines, And oftentimes great grones, and grieuous stounds, When too huge toile and labour them constraines: And oftentimes loud strokes, and ringing sounds From vnder that deepe Rocke most horribly rebounds.