650Ne did it then deserve a name to have,

51Till that the venturous mariner that way

52Learning his ship from those white rocks to save,

53Which all along the southern sea-coast lay

54Threatening unheedy wreck and rash decay,

55For safety's sake that same his sea-mark made,

56And named it Albion. But later day,

57Finding in it fit ports for fishers' trade,

58'Gan more the same frequent, and further to invade.

759But far inland a savage nation dwelt,

60Of hideous giants and half beastly men

61That never tasted grace, nor goodness felt,

62But like wild beasts lurking in loathsome den,

63And flying fast as roebuck through the fen,

64All naked without shame or care of cold,

65By hunting and by spoiling livèd then;

66Of stature huge, and eke of courage bold,

67That sons of men amazed their sternness to behold.

868But whence they sprung, or how they were begot,

69Uneath is to assure; uneath to wene

70That monstrous error, which doth some assot,

71That Dioclesian's fifty daughters shene

72Into this land by chance have driven been,

73Where companing with fiends and filthy sprites

74Through vain illusion, of their lust unclean,

75They brought forth giants and such dreadful wights

76As far exceeded men in their immeasured mights.

977They held this land, and with their filthiness

78Polluted this same gentle soil long time

79That their own mother loathed their beastliness,

80And 'gan abhor her brood's unkindly crime,

81All were they born of her own native slime;

82Until that Brutus, anciently derived

83From royal stock of old Assarac's line,

84Driven by fatal error, here arrived,

85And them of their unjust possession deprived.

1086But ere he had establishèd his throne,

87And spread his empire to the utmost shore,

88He fought great battles with his savage fone

89In which he them defeated evermore,

90And many giants left on groaning floor;

91That well can witness yet unto this day

92The western Hogh, besprinkled with the gore

93Of mighty Göemot, whom in stout fray

94Corineus conquered, and cruelly did slay.