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Чарльз Маккей
Но вернемся к Мерлину. О нем даже сегодня можно сказать словами, которые Берне адресовал другой известной персоне:
«Great was his power and great his fame;
Far kenned and noted is his name.»
Мерлин известен не только у себя на родине, но и в большинстве европейских стран. В 1498 г. в Париже была издана довольно любопытная книга
Древнее предание относит строительство Стонхенджа на счет сверхъестественных способностей Мерлина. Люди верили, что эти огромные каменные глыбы по его велению перенеслись по воздуху из Ирландии на равнину Солсбери и обрели существующие форму и взаимное расположение, дабы служить вечным напоминанием о трагической участи трехсот вождей бриттов, зверски убитых на этом месте саксами.
В местечке Абергвилли близ Кармартена все еще можно увидеть пещеру пророка и место, где он произносил свои заклинания. Как же замечательно описал их Спенсер в своей
«There the wise Merlin, whilom wont (they say,)
To make his wonne low underneath the ground,
In a deep delve far from the view of day,
That of no living wight he mote be found,
Whenso he counselled with his sprites encompassed round.
And if thou ever happen that same way
To travel, go to see that dreadful place;
It is a hideous, hollow cave, they say,
Under a rock that lies a little space
From the swift Barry, tumbling down apace
Amongst the woody hills of Dynevoure;
But dare thou not, I charge, in any case,
To enter into that same baleful bower,
For fear the cruel fiendes should thee unwares devour!
But, standing high aloft, low lay thine eare,
And there such ghastly noise of iron chaines,
And brazen caudrons thou shalt rombling heare,
Which thousand sprites, with long-enduring paines,
Doe tosse, that it will stun thy feeble braines;
And often times great groans and grievous stownds,
When too huge toile and labour them constraines;
And often times loud strokes and ringing sounds
From under that deep rock most horribly rebounds.
The cause, they say, is this. A little while
Before that Merlin died, he did intend
A brazen wall in compass, to compile
About Cayr Merdin, and did it commend
Unto these sprites to bring to perfect end;
During which work the Lady of the Lake,
Whom long he loved, for him in haste did send,
Who thereby forced his workmen to forsake,
Them bound till his return their labour not to slake.
In the mean time, through that false ladie's traine,
He was surprised, and buried under biere,
Ne ever to his work returned again;
Natheless these fiendes may not their work forbeare,
So greatly his commandement they fear,
But there doe toile and travaile day and night,
Until that brazen wall they up doe reare.»