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XXVII.—On the Literary History of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Britons, and of the Romantic Cycle of King Arthur. By Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A., &c.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
Extract
The history of Britain, during the latter years of its existence as a Roman province, is that of a series of rebellious usurpations in opposition or rivalry to the wearer of the imperial purple at Rome; and the manner in which these usurpations were carried on proves not only how the Romano-British population of this island had become essentially Roman in its character, but that the imperial power was fast drawing towards an end. About the middle of the fifth century, as the communications with Rome were cut off by the inroads and conquests of the barbarians in the other provinces, another race, of whom we are in the habit of speaking collectively as the Saxons, who had certainly been settled on the eastern coasts of Britain for years, and who had joined in supporting the Romano-British usurpers, began to contend for mastery in the island. In the dim cloud that envelopes the subsequent history, we can just trace the faint outlines of civil contention, until in the course of the latter half of the fifth century the different tribes of Germanic invaders had established their power over the greater part of what is now called England.
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References
page 335 note a See what I have said of this writer in the Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon Period, page 120.
page 336 note a See the Historia Gildœ, § 14–26.
page 336 note b See the Epistola Gildœ, § 28–33.
page 337 note a Will. Malmsb. de Gestis Reg. Angl. lib. i. p. 9, ed. Savile.
page 337 note b Ibid. lib. iii. p. 115.
page 339 note a The book is dedicated to Robert Earl of Gloucester, who died in October, 1147. In the preface to the seventh book, Geoffrey speaks of his patron Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, as recently dead—the bishop died in August, 1147. He said that when he had proceeded so far in his history, the prophecies of Merlin beginning to be much talked of, the bishop called him off from the history to give an authentic translation of those prophecies, which, now he had finished his history, he inserted in it as a seventh book.
A difficulty regarding the date is caused by a statement of Henry of Huntingdon in a MS. at Lambeth, which would seem to prove that Geoffrey's History had been at least partially published a few years earlier. I have not had an opportunity of examining the MS. and it is of no importance for the question agitated in the present paper.
page 340 note a In mirum contuli, quod intra mentionem quam de eis Gildas et Beda luculento tractatu fecerunt, nihil de regibus qui ante incarnationem Christi Britanniam inhabitaverunt, nihil etiam de Arturo, cæterisque compluribus qui post incarnationem successerunt reperissem; cum et gesta eorum digna æternitatis laude constarent, et a multis populis quasi inscripta jucunde et memoriter prædicentur. Galf. Mon. Epist. dedicat.
page 340 note b Galf. Mon. Hist. Brit. lib. xii. c. 20.
page 341 note a See Alfred's Prologue to his History.
page 341 note b Wil. Neub. de Rebus Anglicis, proœm.
page 341 note c Girald. Cambr. Itin. Cambriæ. lib. i., c. 5.
page 342 note a Girald. Cambr. Walliæ Descrip. cap. vii.
page 342 note b The passage in Nennius (§ 15) is,—
“At ille per quadraginta et duos annos ambulavit per Affricam [he was coming from Egypt]; et venerunt ad Aras Philistinorum per lacum Salinarum, et venerunt inter Rusicadam et montes Azariæ, et venerunt per flumen Malvam, et transierunt per maritima [Mauritaniam, in other MSS.] ad Columnas Herculis, et navigaverunt Tyrrenum mare,” &c.
Geoffrey, Hist. Brit. lib. i. § 11, 12, says of Brutus and his companions,—
“Et sulcantes æquora, cursu triginta dierum venerunt ad Africam: nescii adhuc quorsum proras verterent. Deinde venerunt ad Aras Philenorum, et ad locum (leg. lacum) Salinarum; et navigaverunt intra Ruscicadam et montes Azaræ..… Porro flumen Malvæ transeuntes, applicuerunt in Mauritaniam; deinde …. refertis navibus petierunt Columnas Herculis..… Utcumque tamen elapsi, venerunt ad Tyrrhenum æquor.”
page 342 note c Galfr. Mon. Hist. Brit. lib. i. § 14.
page 343 note a This is about the depth at which the floors of the houses of Roman London would be found. Is it not probable that the origin of Geoffrey's tale about the subterranean chamber was the discovery of the foundations of a Roman house in digging some pit in the city?
page 344 note a See my edition of the Seven Sages, p. 78, and the Introduction, pp. lvi. lvii.
page 345 note a Sed ut in Britannico præfato sermone invenit, et a Gualtero Oxinefordensi in multis historiis peritissimo viro audivit, vili licet stylo, breviter tamen propalabit. Galf. Monum. Hist. Brit. lib. xi. § 1.
page 345 note b Gildas, in his invective against the Britons, § 33, says to Maglocunus,— “Quid tu, enim, insularis draco, multorum tyrannorum depulsor tam regno quam etiam vita, supradictorum, novissime in nostro stylo, prime in malo, major multis potentia simulque malitia, largior in dando, profusior in peccato, robuste amis, sed animæ fortior excidiis, Maglocune, in tam vetusto scelerum atramento, veluti madidus vino de sodomitana vite expresso, stolide volutaris?”
Geoffrey of Monmouth says of his Malgo (lib. xi. § 7),— “Cui successit Malgo omnium fere Britanniæ pulcherrimus, multorum tyrannorum depulsor, robustus armis, largior cæteris, et ultra modum probitate præclarus, nisi sodomitana peste volutatus sese Deo invisum exhibuisset.”
page 346 note a For instance, the medieval name for Arithmetic was Algorismus. Instead of seeking its real source, the writers on the subject tell us gravely that the name was derived from a king named Algor, who first treated of it. Non invenientes sed doctrinam traditam de numerorum progressione ab Algore rege quondam Castelliæ suo in Algorismo, &c. Johannis Norfolk in artem progres. summula, MS. Harl. 3742. Hæc præsens ars dieitur Algorismus ab Algore rege ejus inventore. MS. Bibl. Reg. 12 E. I.
page 346 note b Galf. Mon. Hist. Brit. lib. iii. § 13.
page 347 note a Galf. Mon. Hist. Brit. lib. ii. § 17, and lib. iii. § 5.
page 349 note a See the account of this discovery in the work of Giraldus Cambrensis de Instructione Principis (lately published by the Anglia Christiana Society), p. 191.