'Lordlingës that be now here,
If ye willë listen and lere,
All the story of England,
As Robert Mannyng written it fand,
And in English has it shewed,
Not for the leared but for the lewed;[1]
For those that on this land wonn
That the Latin ne Frankys conn,[2]
For to have solace and gamen
In fellowship when they sit samen,
And it is wisdom for to witten
The state of the land, and have it written,
"What manner of folk first it wan,
And of what kind it first began.
And good it is for many things,
For to hear the deeds of kings,
Whilk were fools, and whilk were wise,
And whilk of them couth[3] most quaintise;
And whilk did wrong, and whilk right,
And whilk maintained peace and fight.
Of their deedës shall be my saw,
In what time, and of what law,
I shall you from gre to gre,[4]
Since the time of Sir Noe:
From Noe unto Eneas,
And what betwixt them was,
And from Eneas till Brutus' time,
That kind he tells in this rhyme.
For Brutus to Cadwallader's,
The last Briton that this land lees.
All that kind and all the fruit
That come of Brutus that is the Brute;
And the right Brute is told no more
Than the Britons' timë wore.
After the Britons the English camen,
The lordship of this land they nameu;
South and north, west and east,
That call men now the English gest.
When they first among the Britons,
That now are English then were Saxons,
Saxons English hight all oliche.
They arrived up at Sandwiche,
In the kings since Vortogerne
That the land would them not werne, &c.
One Master Wace the Frankës tells
The Brute all that the Latin spells,
From Eneas to Cadwallader, &c.
And right as Master Wacë says,
I tell mine English the same ways,' &c.
[1] 'Lowed:' ignorant.
[2] 'Conn:' know.
[3] 'Couth:' knew.
[4] 'Gre:' step.