88 Charles G. Osgood, 



hath beene called Humber, as our writers sale ; and whereof I 

 find these verses : 



Dum fugit obslat ei flumen submergitur illic, 

 Deque suo tribuit nomine nomen aquse.' 



But the 'antique father' who tells the story of the six slain 

 knights, children of a nymph, who gave their names to the six 

 rivers, I have not found. The texture of that part of the story 

 is true Spenserian, and the poet very likely invented it. His 

 insistence upon the stormy character of the Humber, both here 

 and in stanza 30, line 7, may not improbably arise from his recol- 

 lection of Greek ofx^po?, 'storm.' 



These after, came the stony shallow Lone, 

 That to old Loncaster his name doth lend; 

 And following Dee, which Britons long ygone 

 Did call divine, that doth by Chester tend; 

 And Conway, which out of his streame doth send 

 Plenty of pearles to decke his dames withall ; 

 And Lindus, that his pikes doth most commend, 

 Of which the auncient Lincolne men doe call.^^ 



Of the first of these Harrison says (i. 145) : 'I came to a 

 notable river called the Lune or Loine, . . . and giveth name to 

 Lancaster, Lonecaster, or Lunec^ster.' Camden also writes : 

 'Lone having passed on some few miles from hence, commeth 

 within sight of Lancaster, standing on his South banke, the cheife 

 towne of this region [county] : which the inhabitants more truly 

 call Loncaster, as the Scots also, who name it Loncastell of the 

 River Lone' (Lancashire, p. 754). The stream descends from the 

 hills of Westmoreland to its mouth just below Lancaster. Cam- 

 den describes it as flowing southward in 'a channell now broad, 

 now narrow with many a reach in and out hindring his streame' 

 (Lancashire, p. 753). It abounds in salmon, 'which because 

 they delight in cleere water and especially in shallow places that 

 are sandy, come up thick togither,' etc. 



Spenser's lines on the Dee may well have been based upon his 

 reading of Camden : 'The river Dee, called in Latin Deva, in 

 British Dyffyr-dtvy, that is, the water of the Dwy, . . . for 

 Divy in their tongue signifieth Tzvo. Yet others, . . . interpret 

 it Black-zvater, others againe, Gods-water, or Divine zuater' 



"St. 39. 



