How King Madan for his euill life was slayne by Wolues, The yeare before Christ, 1009.

Among’st the rest that sate in hauty seat,

And felt the fall, I pray thee pen for mee

A Tragedy, may some such wisedome geat

As they may learne, and somewhat wiser bee:

For in my glasse when as themselues they see,

They may beware; my fall from Fortune’s lap

Shall teach them how, t’eschew the like mishap.

I am that Madan, once of[334] Britayne King,

The[335] third that euer raygned in this land:

Marke well therefore my death, as straunge a thing

As some would deeme could scarce with reason stand;

Yet when thou hast my life well throughly scand,

Thou shalt perceaue not halfe so straunge as true,

Ill life, worse death, doth after still ensue.

For when my mother Guendoline had raygn’d

In my nonage full xv yeares, shee dide:

And I but yong, not well in vertues trayn’d,

Was left this noble Iland for to guide;

Whereby when once my minde was puft with pryde,

I past for nought, I vs’d my lust for lawe;

Of right, or iustice, reckte I not a strawe.

No meane I kept but ruled all by rage,

No boundes of measure could mee compasse in.

No counsayle could my meekelesse minde asswage:

When once to fume I fearcely did begin,

And I excelde in nothing else but sinne;

So that my subiects all did wish my end,[336]

Saue such to whom for vice I was a friend.

In[337] pleasures plung’d I tooke my whole repast,[338]

My youth mee led deuoyde of compasse quite:

And vices were so rooted in at last,

That to recure the euill it past my might.

For who so doth with will and pleasure fight,

(Though all his force doe striue them to withstand)

Without good grace they haue the vpper hand.

What licoure first the earthen pot doth take,

It keepeth still the sauour of that same.

Full hard it is a Cramocke[339] strayght to make,

Or crooked Logges with wainscot fine to frame.

Tis hard to make the cruell Tiger tame.

And so it fares with those haue vices caught:

Naught once (they say) and euer after naught.

I speake not this as though it past all cure

From vices vile to vertue to retire:

But this I say, if vice be once in vre,

The more you shall to quite your selfe require,

The more you plunge your selfe in fulsome mire,

As hee that striues in soakte quicke sirts[340] of sand,

Still sinkes, scarce euer[341] comes agayne to land.

The giftes of grace may nature ouercome,

And God may graunt the time when wee repent.

But I did still in laps of lewdnes runne:

At last my selfe to cruelty I bent.

But who so doth with bloudy acts content

His minde, shall sure at last finde like agayne,

And feele for pleasures thousand panges of payne.

For in the mid’st of those vntrusty toyles,

When as I nothing fearde, but all was sure,

With all my trayne, I hunting rode for spoiles

Of those, who after did my death procure.

These lewde delightes did boldly mee allure

To follow still and to pursue the chase:

At last I came into a desert place.

10.

Besette with hills, and monstrous rockes of stone,

My company behinde mee lost, or stayed:

The place was eke with hauty trees oregrowne,

So wist[342] and wylde it made mee halfe afrayd.

And strayght I was with rauening wolues betrayd,

Came out of caues, and dennes, and rockes amayne.

There was I rent in peeces, kild, and slayne.

11.

Woe worth that youth (in vayne) so vily spent

Should euer cause a King to feele such smart:

Woe worth that euer I should here lament,

Or shew the hurt of my poore Princely heart.

I thinke the clowne that driues the mixen cart

Hath better hap then Princes, such as I:

No storme of Fortune castes him downe so hie.

12.

A man by grace and wit may shunne the snare.

Tis sayd a wise-man all mishap withstands.

For though by starres wee borne to mischiues are,

Yet grace and prudence bayles our carefull bandes.

Ech man (they say) his fate hath in his handes,

And what hee marres, or makes to leese, or saue

Of good or euill, is euen selfe doe selfe haue.

13.

This thing is seene by mee, that led my daies

In vitious sort, for greedy wolues a pray.

I wish, and will, that Princes guide theyr wayes:

Lo, here by this eschew like chaunce they may,

And vices such as worke their whole decay.

Which if they doe, full well is spent the time

To warne, to write, and eke to shun the crime.[343]

LENUOY.

Thus haue you here the end of Madan[344] seene,

(If it were hee) and yet I may suspect

It was some other Prince so seru’d had beene,

For that all stories doe not so detect

His death that Princely vertues did neglect.

But if hee died by wolues, as here I write,

His vice the cause mine author doth resite.

Wherefore although that authors heere dissent,

And I haue pen’d as praysed stories haue:

To reade his warnings thou maist bee content,

And take what counsaile of good life hee gaue.

I trust, I (dreaming) may some pardon craue,

For if the rest no dreames but stories pen

Can I for that they write bee blamed then?

But what neede I on this to longer stay,

Sith many moe remayne which felt the fall.

Of Britayne Princes heathen reade you may,

As Maline one appearing next of all:

Whose tale in order now resite I shall.

Then here conceiue this wounded Prince you see,

Thus wise, of Fortune, speaking vnto mee.