of theim, named, accordyng to her name, Albiō; and Brute after that called it, accordyng to his name, Brytayne.
NE, afore Brute, was in [no ealme yt name,] [that reame no name.]
No kyng on liue, that hight ne called so;
But of Argiuos [Argiues.] , the kyng of full hye fame
Had doughters fifty, whose name was Danao:
The kyng of Egipte, his brother Egisto,
Had soonnes also fifty, together wedde,
In chronicles of olde as I haue redde.
¶ Whiche doughters slew their husbandes ech one,
Long before Brute was of his mother bore:
So fynde I [I well.] , by these women alone,
And by these soonnes, thus [thusgates.] slain before,
The chronicle trewe in their persones more
Then in the doughters of Dioclesian.
Were, in no lande, that tyme, so hight kyng none [kynges name.] .
¶ So in the yere of Aioth iudge of Israell,
These ladies here landed full [full seke.] weery and sore;
••euenty and twoo [sixty and twelve.] , as Hugh dooeth tell,
Whiche was, I saie, an hundred [two hundreth.] yere afore
That Brute came into this lande, and more
By fyue yeres trulye and well accompted,
Of yeres [ode] [olde. edit. alt.] so muche more amounted.
¶ [Also in Surray] [Als in Sirie.] there was no kyng before
Kyng Alexaunder dedde [died.] and expired;
For Seleucius was the first kyng thore,
By all chronicles that I haue enquired.
That chronicle should not bee desired,
Seyng that it is not trew ne autenticke,
By no chronicle vnto the trewth oughte [oure.] like.
¶ I dare well saie he sawe neuer Hugh Genesis, [This sheweth that our chro∣nicle is false in the begynnyng.]
Ne he redde neuer the chronicles of Surry,
Of Israell, Iude, ne of Egipciis,
Of Argiuos [Argiues.] , of Athenes, ne [ne of.] Thessaly,
Of Macedon, Cesile, ne of Assery, [Fol. viii.]