Siþen þe sege and þe assaut     watz sesed at Troye,
    Þe bor3 brittened and brent     to bronde3 and askez,
    Þe tulk þat þe trammes          of tresoun þer wro3t
    Watz tried for his tricherie,   þe trewest on erþe:
    Hit watz Ennias þe athel,       and his highe kynde,
    Þat siþen depreced prouinces,   and patrounes bicome
    Welne3e of al þe wele           in þe west iles.
    Fro riche Romulus to Rome       ricchis hym swyþe,
    With gret bobbaunce þat bur3e   he biges vpon fyrst,

    When the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy,
    and the fortress fell in flame to firebrands and ashes,
    the traitor who the contrivance of treason there fashioned
    was tried for his treachery, the most true upon earth--
    it was Æneas the noble and his renowned kindred
    who then laid under them lands, and lords became
    of well-nigh all the wealth in the Western Isles.
    When royal Romulus to Rome his road had taken,
    in great pomp and pride. he peopled it first,
    and named it with his own name that yet now it bears;

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes

    Hwæt! We Gardena     in geardagum,
    þeodcyninga,         þrym gefrunon,
    hu ða æþelingas      ellen fremedon.
    Oft Scyld Scefing    sceaþena þreatum,

    monegum mægþum,      meodosetla ofteah,
    egsode eorlas.       Syððan ærest wearð
    feasceaft funden,    he þæs frofre gebad,
    weox under wolcnum,  weorðmyndum þah,
    oðþæt him æghwylc    þara ymbsittendra
    ofer hronrade        hyran scolde,
    gomban gyldan.       Þæt wæs god cyning!