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Albion in King Lear (Shakespeare)

   (Folio 1, 1623) Ile speake a Prophesie ere I go: When Priests are more in word, then matter; When Brewers marre their Malt with water; When Nobles are their  Taylors  Tutors, No Heretiques burn’d, but wenches Sutors; When euery Case in Law, is right; No Squire in debt, nor no poore  Knight ; When Slanders do not liue in Tongues; Nor Cut-purses come not to throngs; When Vsurers tell their Gold i’th’Field, And Baudes, and whores, do Churches build, Then shal  the Realme of  Albion , come to great confusion.

Etymology of Albion

  The toponym is thought to derive from the Greek word   Ἀλβίων , [3]   Latinised   as   Albiōn   ( genitive   Albionis ). It was seen in the   Proto-Celtic nasal stem   * Albiyū   ( oblique   * Albiyon- ) and survived in   Old Irish   as   Albu   ( genitive   Albann ). The name originally referred to Britain as a whole, but was later restricted to   Caledonia   (giving the modern   Scottish Gaelic   name for Scotland:   Alba ). The root  * albiyo-  is also found in  Gaulish  and  Galatian   albio-  'world' and  Welsh   elfydd  ( Old Welsh   elbid  'earth, world, land, country, district'). It may be related to other European and Mediterranean toponyms such as  Alpes ,  Albania  or the river god  Alpheus  (originally 'whitish'). It has two possible etymologies: either from the  Proto-Indo-Europea...

Famous Albions

Origin of the name Albion Albion is an alternative name for  Great Britain . The oldest attestation of the  toponym  comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for  Scotland  in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion:  Alba  in  Scottish Gaelic ,  Albain  (genitive  Alban ) in  Irish ,  Nalbin  in  Manx  and  Alban  in  Welsh  and  Cornish . These names were later  Latinised  as  Albania  and  Anglicised  as  Albany , which were once alternative names for Scotland. New Albion  and  Albionoria  ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as  names of Canada  during the period of the  Canadian Confederation . [1] [2]   Francis Drake  gave the name  New Albion  to what is now...