THE
LIVES
Of the most Famous
ENGLISH POETS,
FROM WILLIAM the Conqueror,
to these Present Times.
[The Life of ROBERT of Glocester.]
We will begin first with Robert of Glocester, so called, because a Monk of that City, who flourisht about the Reign of King Henry the Second; much esteemed by Mr. Cambden, who quotes divers of his old English Rhythms in praise of his Native Country, England. Some (who consider not the Learning of those times) term him a Rhymer, whilst others more courteously call him a Poet: Indeed his Language is such, that he is dumb in effect, to the Readers of our Age, without an Interpreter; which that ye may the better perceive, hear these his Verses of Mulmutius Dunwallo, in the very same Language he wrote them.
A Kynge there was in Brutayne Donwallo was his Nam,