real character-not as the triumphant invader of distant countries*—not as the conqueror of giants and kingdoms -not as the possessor of every human excellence, and even of supernatural powerst, but merely as a warrior, distinguished indeed by his valour and his successes, but not otherwise exalted above his contemporaries-is an undertaking of no common risk. Those, who have from their cradle been taught to admire what resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son, Begirt with British and Armoric knights, will hardly descend to contemplate that same individual, as one exposed to the ordinary vicissitudes of fortune, and pretending to no other reputation than what belongs to the warlike champion of an uncivilized age. Yet at last we may say, with an ingenious writer, that, "when all fictions" in the life of Arthur "are removed, and when those incidents only are retained, which the sober criticism of his * Among the countries, which Arthur is reported by Geoffrey of Monmouth and others to have subdued, are Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and Palestine, from which latter place he is modestly recorded to have brought away the holy cross as a trophy. The visions of these romancers are effectually dispelled by the more sober testimony of the ancient bards and the Triads. † There is no virtue, actual or ideal, with which the legendary biographers of Arthur have not adorned his romantic character. Geoffrey of Monmouth, with a hyperbolical profaneness, asserts, that "God hath not created, since the time of Adam, a man more perfect than Arthur; and that this perfection was bestowed upon him by God, as an inherent virtue from his birth." Yet even this eulogium is outdone by Joseph of Exeter, who, in his Antiocheis, ascribes to our hero a superiority not only over all former excellence, but over all that may possibly exist hereafter. These are his words : reges supereminet omnes Solus; præteritis melior majorque futuris. THE CAMBRIAN PLUTARCH: COMPRISING MEMOIRS OF SOME OF THE MOST EMINENT WELSHMEN, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT, INCLUDING THE SUBSTANCE OF ALL PREVIOUS RESEARCHES INTO THE OF ANEURIN, TALIESIN, LLYWARCH HEN, ASSER MENEVENSIS, GIRALDUS DAVID RYS, BISHOP MORGAN, AND OTHER EARLY WELSH POETS AND HISTORIANS. BY JOHN H. PARRY, ESQ. EDITOR OF THE CAMBRO-BRITON, TRANSACTIONS OF THE LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL. 1834. |
