How King Kimarvs was deuoured by wilde beastes the yeere before Christ 321.
1.
No place commendes the man vnworthie prayse.
No title of estate[651] doth stay vp vices fall,
No wicked wight to woe can make delayes,
No loftie lookes preserue the proud at all,
No brags or boast, no stature high and tall,
No lustie[652] youth, no swearing staring stout,
No brauery, banding, cogging, cutting out.
2.
Then what auayles to haue a Princely place,
A name of honour or an high degree,
To come by kinred of a noble race?
Except we princely, worthie, noble be!
The fruite declares the goodnes of the tree,
Do brag no more of birth or linage than,
For vertue,[653] grace, and manners make the man.
3.
My selfe might bragge, and first of all begin,
Mulmucius made and constituted lawes,
And Belinus and Brenne his sonnes did win
Such prayse, their names to be immortall cause.[654]
Gurgunstus Readbeard with his sober sawes,
The sonne of Beline and my Grandsyre grand,
Was fortunate what ere he tooke in hand.
4.
His sonne my grandsire Guintheline did passe
For vertue’s praise, and Martia was his wife,
A noble Queene that wise and learned was,
And gaue her selfe to study all her life,
Deuising lawes, discust the ends of strife
Amongst the Britaynes to her endlesse fame:
Her statutes had of Martian lawes the name.[655]
5.
My father eke was sober, sage, and wise,
Cicilius hight, King Guintheline his sonne,
Of noble Princes then my stocke did rise,
And of a Prince of Cornwall first begonne:
But what thereby of glory haue I wonne?
Can this suffice to aunswere eke for mee,
I came by parents of an high degree?
6.
Or shall I say, I was forsooth the King?[656]
Then might I liue as lewdely as I lust,
No sure, I cannot so auoide the sting
Of shame that prickes such Princes are vniust.
Wee rather should vnto our vertues trust,
For vertue of the auncient bloud or kinne,
Doth onely praise the parties shee’s within.[657]
7.
And nobles onely borne (of this bee sure)
Without the vertues of their noble race,
Doe quite and cleane themselues thereby obscure,
And their renowne and dignities deface:
They doe their birth and linage all deface,
For why, in deede they euer ought so well
In vertues graue, as titles braue excell.
8.
But oft (God wot) they fare as erst did I,
They thinke if once they come of Princely stocke,
Then are they placed safe and sure, so hie
Aboue the rest, as founded on a rocke:
Of wise mens warnings all they make a mocke:
They counsayles graue as abiect reedes despise,
And count the braue men gratious, worthy, wise.
9.
This kingdome came to mee by due discent,
For why my father was before mee King,
But I to pleasure all and lust was bent,
I neuer reckte of Iustice any thing,
What purpose I did meane to passe to bring,[658]
That same t’accomplish I with all my might
Endeuourde euer, were it wrong or right.
10.
I deemde the greatest ioyes in earthly hap,
I thought my pleasures euer would abide,
I seemde to sit in Lady Fortune’s lap,
I reckte not all the world mee thought beside:
I did by lust my selfe and others guide,
Whereby the fates to worke my bane withall,
And cut mee of, thus wise procurde my fall.
11.
As I was alwayes bent to hunting still,
(Yet hunting was no vice to those I had)
When I three yeares had ruld this Realme at will,
In chace a chaunce did make my heart ful sad:
Wilde cruell beasts as desperate and mad
Turnde backe on mee, as I them brought to bay,
And in their rage my sinfull corps did slay.[659]
12.
A iust reward for so vniust a life,
No worse a death then I deserued yore,
Such wrecks in th’end to wretches all are rife,
Who may and will not call for grace before:
My wilfull deedes were nought, what wilt thou more?
For wanton wildenesse, witlesse, hedelesse toyes
The brutishe beasts bereaude mee of my ioyes.[660]
LENUOY.
1.
By this appeares that time in Britayne were
Aboundant store of wolues, and vices rife:
Mempricius tale the like doth witnesse beare,
And so doth Madan’s mangled end of life:
These though they scaped stout Bellonae’s knife,
Yet in the end for vices foule they fell
By Wolues deuourde, mine Author so doth tell.
2.
The glory vaine that fades and flits away,
Makes men so blinde, they looke not on the end:
Allurde to losse, on earthly pompe they stay,
But fewe to scale the vertue towres contend:
Fewe seeke, by Christ, the heauenly way to wend;
The onely causes why these Princes fell,
Are vices vile, as auncient authors tell.
3.
Next after this, on stage a Prince appearde,
With slimye glere, and bloud beraide that came,
In hand a dagger drawne his foe that dearde
Hee bare perdy, and showde mee eke the same:
And thus his tale in order hee did frame
As shall ensue, so hee mee thought did tell
How hee was slaine, and slewe a monster fell.