No. II. The answer of the abbot of Ban-

gor to Augustine, the monk, word

for word, in Welsh and English,

PREFACE.

No character, eminent in ancient history, has ever been treated with more extravagance, mendacity and injustice, than the renowned Arthur, the illustrious monarch and valiant commander of the Britons. Extolled by some, as greater in power, more victorious in war, more abundant in dominion, more extensive in fame, than either the Roman Julius or the Grecian Alexander; his very existence has, by others, been, positively and absolutely, denied. In the year 1138, being the third of king Stephen, appeared an elaborate work, in a classical style, and containing two short pieces of elegiac poetry, of singular elegance for that age,* intitled "Historia Britonum, or

* Diva potens nemorum, terror sylvestribus apris ;
Cui licet amfractus ire per aethereus,
Infernasque domos; terrestria jura resolve,
Et dic quas terras nos habitare velis?
Dic certam sedem qua te venerabor in aevum,
Qua tibi virgineis templa dicabo choris ?"

This elegy, thus Englished by Pope:

"Goddess of woods, tremendous in the chace
To mountain boars and all the savage race!

B

regum Britanniae,"† in which this celebrated sovereign, as, at least, in consequence thereof he

Wide o'er th' aethereal walks extends thy sway,
And o'er th' infernal mansions void of day!
On thy third realm look down! unfold our fate,
And say what region is our destin'd seat?
Where shall we next thy lasting temples raise?
And choirs of virgins celebrate thy praise?

was, according to the author in question, the address of Brutus to the oracular statue of Diana, in the island of Leogecia, which he said nine times, himself holding, before the altar of the goddess, the vase of the sacrifice, full of wine and the blood of a white hart; having encircled the altar four times; and poured the wine into the fire; and laid down upon the hart-skin, he, at length, slept. About the third hour of the

night, it seemed to him that the goddess stood before himself,

and in this manner bespoke him :

"Brute, sub occasum solis, trans Gallica regna,

Insula in oceano est, undique clausa mari;

Insula in oceano est, habitata gigantibus olim,
Nunc deserta quidem; gentibus apta tuis.

Hanc pete, namque tibi sedes erit ille perennis :

Sic fiet natis altera Troja tuis.

Sic de prole tua reges nascentur: et ipsis

Totius terrae subditus orbis erit :"

Englished by the same poet (see Milton's Poems, by Warton, 1791, P. 364):

"Brutus, there lies beyond the Gallic bounds
An island which the western sea surrounds,
By giants once possess'd; now few remain
To bar thy entrance, or obstruct thy reign.

became, is represented as a hero of such magnitude, that, having succeeded Uther Pendragon,

To reach that happy shore thy sails employ :
There fate decrees to raise a second Troy,

And found an empire in thy royal line,

:

Which time shall ne'er destroy nor bounds confine."

This island, of course, was Britain, then called Albion, at which he arrived in good time, and which was inhabited by no one, except a few giants. (B. 1, C. 11, 16.)

Whether these two elegies were composed by Geoffrey of Monmouth may be, reasonably, doubted. Henry, arch-deacon of Huntingdon, appears to have been the best elegiac poet of that age.

+ The title varies in the different manuscripts and printed copies. There are three editions, in Latin, under these titles: "Britannie utriusque regum et principum origo et gesta insignia ab Galfrido Monemutensi ex antiquissimis Britanni sermonis monumentis in Latinum sermonem traducta et ab [Johanne Badio] Ascensio cura et impendio magistri Luonis Cavellati in lucem edita. [Parisiis, MDVIII: quarto]: the second edition [MDXVII], by the same printer, differs very little, and in nothing of consequence, from the former: the third: "Galfredi Monumetensis historiæ regum Britannia" apud "Rerum Britannicarum [Hieronimo Commelino edito]: Lugduni, ċIɔ. Iɔ. LXXXVII: folio. Beside the English version by Aaron Thompson, in 1718, 8vo: and it is a very common manuscript. It is sometimes, called Liber Bruti; and the anonymous author of The Chronicle of Jervaux (falsely attributed to John Bromton, abbot of that monastery, in the time of Henry the sixth) calls it (in Latin) not only "The history of the Britons," or, "The British book;" but, likewise, "The book of the gests [or actions] of the Britons, vulgarly call'd "Le Brut" (see Co. 725, 1153).