_Exeat Sen. et Hu. Intrat Experiens et Stu_.
Now, cousin Experience, as I may say, Ye are right welcome to this country Without any feigning. EX. Sir, I thank you thereof heartily, And I am as glad of your company As any man living. STU. Sir, I understand that ye have been In many a strange country, And have had great facility Strange causes to seek and find. EX. Right far, sir, I have ridden and gone, And seen strange things many one, In Africa, Europe, and India; Both east and west I have been far, North also, and seen the south star Both by sea and land, And been in sundry nations, With people of divers conditions, Marvellous to understand. STU. Sir, if a man have such courage, Or devotion in pilgrimage, Jerusalem unto For to account the next way, How many miles is it, I you pray, From hence thither to go? EX. Sir, as for all such questions, Of towns to know the situation, How far they be asunder, And other points of cosmography, Ye shall never learn them more surely Than by that figure yonder; For who that figure did first devise, It seemeth well he was wise, And perfect in this science; For both the sea and land also Lie true and just as they should do, I know by experience. STU. Who, think you, brought here this figure? EX. I wot not. STU. Certes, Lord Nature, Himself not long agone, Which was here personally Declaring high philosophy, And laft this figure purposely For Humanity's instruction. EX. Doubtless, right nobly done. STU. Sir, this realm you know is called England, Sometimes Britain, I understand; Therefore, I pray you, point with your hand In what place it should lie. EX. Sir, this is England lying here, And that is Scotland that joineth him near, Compassed about everywhere With the ocean sea around; And next from them westwardly, Here by himself alone, doth lie Ireland, that wholesome ground. Here then is the narrow sea, To Calais and Boulogne the next way, And Flanders in this part; Here lieth France next him joining, And Spain southward from them standing, And Portugal in this quarter. This country is called Italy, Behold where Rome in the midst doth lie, And Naples here beyond; And this little sea that here is Is called the Gulf of Venice, And here Venice doth stand. As for Almaine lieth this way; Here lieth Denmark and Norway; And northward on this side There lieth Iceland where men doth fish, But beyond that so cold it is, No man may there abide. This sea is called the Great Ocean, So great it is that never man Could tell it, since the world began, Till now, within this twenty years, Westward be found new lands, That we never heard tell of before this By writing nor other means, Yet many now have been there; And that country is so large of room, Much lenger than all Christendom, Without fable or guile; For divers mariners had it tried, And sailed straight by the coast side Above five thousand mile! But what commodities be within, No man can tell nor well imagine; But yet not long ago Some men of this country went, By the king's noble consent, It for to search to that intent, And could not be brought thereto; But they that were th' adventurers[17] Have cause to curse their mariners, False of promise and dissemblers, That falsely them betrayed, Which would take no pains to sail farther Than their own list and pleasure; Wherefore that voyage and divers other Such caitiffs have destroyed. Oh, what a thing had be then, If that they that be Englishmen Might have been the first of all That there should have take possession, And made first building and habitation, A memory perpetual! And also what an honourable thing, Both to the realm and to the king, To have had his dominion extending There into so far a ground, Which the noble king of late memory, The most wise prince the seventh Herry, Caused first for to be found.