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Merlin’s Magic Mirror
Merlin’s Magic Mirror or Venus’s looking-glass,
fabricated in South Wales, in the days of king Ryence. It would
show to those who looked therein anything which pertained to
them, anything that a friend or foe was doing. It was round like
a sphere, and was given by Merlin to king Ryence—
That never foes his kingdom might invade
But he it knew at home before he heard
Tidings thereof.
Britomart, who was king Ryence’s daughter and heiress,
saw in the mirror her future husband, and also his name, which
was sir Artegal. Spenser:
Faërie Queene, iii. 2, 1590.
