Our people all at first no strangers were,
From foreign parts who hither did arrive;
Time out of mind those that inhabit here
Were born in place, and so remain'd alive.
All cities else and nations at one word
With aliens peopled be, who like to men
At table play, or else upon chess-board
Removed have, and leapt, some now, some then.
If women, we may be allow'd to grace
Our native soil, and with proud words exalt.
Presume we dare to say that in this place,
A temperate air we have without default,
Where neither heat nor cold excessive is;
If ought there be that noble Greece doth yield,
Or Asia rich, of best commodities,
And daintiest fruits, by river or by field.
We have it here, in foison plentiful
To hunt, to catch, to reap, to crop and pull.
And yet even he who hath set such goodly praises upon his native country, left the same, went into Macedonia, and there lived in the court of King Archelaus. You have heard likewise (I suppose) this little epigram in verse:
Interred and entombed lieth here
Euphorion's son, the poet Æschylus
(In Athens town though born sometime he were),
To Gelas near, in corn so plenteous.
For he also abandoned his own country, and went to dwell in Sicily, like as Simonides did before him. And whereas this title or inscription is commonly read (This is the history written by Herodotus the Halicarnassean), many there be who correct it and write in this manner, Herodotus the Thurian, for that he removed out of the country wherein he was bom, became an inhabitant among the Thurians, and enjoyed the freedom of that colony. As for that heavenly and divine spirit in the knowledge of muses and poetry:
Homerus, who with wondrous pen.
Set forth the battles Phrygian,
what was it that caused so many cities to debate about the place of his nativity, challenging every one unto themselves, but only this; that he seemed not to praise and extol any one city above the rest? Moreover, to Jupiter, surnamed Hospital, know we not that there be many, and those right great, honours done.
Now if any one shall say unto me, that these personages were all of them ambitious, aspiring to great honour and glory, do no more, but have recourse unto the sages, and those wise schools and learned colleges of Athens; call to mind and consider the
