Ut quamvis mentem labor est inhibere volentem,
Pauca tamen liceat dicere pace sua: 30
Pace tua liceat mihi nunc tibi dicere pauca,
Dulce meum decus, et sola Britanna salus.
Summa rei nostræ remanet, celeberrime princeps,
In te præcipuo, qui modo sceptra geris.
Si tibi fata favent, faveant[696] precor atque precabor,
Anglia, tunc plaude; sin minus, ipsa[697] vale.
Polychronitudo basileos.
[689] Vel mage ... humo] Not in Reges, &c. These lines (containing an allusion to the battle of Flodden) are of a later date than the preceding poem, to the 12th verse of which they are intended as a sort of note. This is not the only passage in our author’s Latin pieces where two pentameters occur without an intervening hexameter: see conclusion of The Garlande of Laurell.