In secret Manner shows,
How in his Heart he wish’d to have,
A Child in time to come,
To be his Heir, tho’ it might be
No bigger than his Thumb.
Of which old Merlin was foretold,
That he his Wish should have,
And so a Son of Stature small
The Charmer to him gave.
There is nothing more common throughout the Poets of the finest Taste, than to give an Account of the Pedigree of their Hero. So Virgil,