THE SECOND BOOK 83 



of Great Brittany, as it is now joined in monarchy for 

 the ages to come, so were joined in one history for the 

 times passed ; after the manner of the sacred history, 

 which draweth doAvn the story of the ten tribes and of 

 the two tribes as twins together. And if it shall seem 

 that the greatness of this work may make it less exactly 

 performed, there is an excellent period of a much 

 smaller compass of time, as to the story of England ; 

 that is to say, from the uniting of the Roses to the 

 uniting of the kingdoms ; a portion of time wherein, 

 to my understanding, there hath been the rarest 

 varieties that in like number of successions of any 

 hereditary monarchy hath been known. For it begin - 

 neth with the mixed adoption of a crown by arms and 

 title ; an entry by battle, an establishment by mar- 

 riage ; and therefore times answerable, like waters 

 after a tempest, full of working and swelling, though 

 without extremity of storm ; but well passed through 

 by the wisdom of the pilot, being one of the most 

 sufficient kings of all the number. Then foUoweth the 

 reign of a king, whose actions, howsoever conducted, 

 had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe, 

 balancing and inclining them variably ; in whose 

 time also began that great alteration in the statt; 

 ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon 

 the stage. Then the reign of a minor : then an offer 

 of an usurpation (though it was but as febris ephemera). 

 Then the reign of a queen matched with a foreigner : 

 then of a queen that lived solitary and unmarried, and 

 yet her government so masculine, as it had greater 

 impression and operation upon the states abroad than 

 it any ways received from thence.* And now last, this 

 most happy and glorious event, that this island of 

 Brittany, divided from all the world, should be united 

 in itself : and that oracle of rest given to Aeneap, 

 ' antiquam exquirite matrem,' should now be per- 

 formed, and fulfilled upon the nations of England and 

 Scotland, being now reunited in the ancient mother 

 name of Brittany, as a full period of all instability 

 and peregrinations. So that as it cometh to pass in 

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