GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH'S
BRITISH HISTORY.
BOOK I.
Chap. I.—The epistle dedicatory to Robert Earl of Gloucester.[1]
Whilst occupied on many and various studies, I happened to light upon the History of the Kings of Britain, and wondered that in the account which Gildas and Bede, in their elegant treatises, had given of them, I found nothing said of those kings who lived here before the Incarnation of Christ, nor of Arthur, and many others who succeeded after the Incarnation; though their actions both deserved immortal fame, and were also celebrated by many people in a pleasant manner and by heart, as if they had been written. Whilst I was intent upon these and such like thoughts, Walter, archdeacon of Oxford,[2] a man of great eloquence, and learned in foreign histories, offered me a very ancient book in the British tongue, which, in a continued regular story and elegant style, related the actions of them all, from Brutus the first king of the Britons, down to Cadwallader the son of Cadwallo. At his request, therefore, though I had not made fine language my study, by collecting florid expressions from other authors, yet contented with my own homely style, I undertook the translation of that book into Latin. For if I had swelled the pages with rhetorical
- ↑ Robert, earl of Gloucester was the natural son of king Henry I. by whose command he swore fealty to the empress Matilda, daughter of that monarch. To prove his fidelity, he rebelled against king Stephen, and mainly contributed to the success of Henry son of the empress, afterwards Henry II.
- ↑ Thought to be Walter Mapes the poet, author of several ludicrous and satirical compositions.
