336 



ticularly copious, beginning with the earlier legends of Irish history, 

 and terminating with the English invasion. And in all these histories 

 will be found on examination just such an agreement in essential, and 

 such a difference in unimportant matters, as bespeak that veracity 

 without combination, which has been deduced as the best evidence of 

 authenticity in a more vital cause. It must not be omitted, that about 

 the commencement of this period, a compilation was made from more 

 ancient documents, entitled the " Dinn-Seanchas," which professes to 

 illustrate much of the ancient topography of Ireland, but is conside- 

 rably alloyed by fabulous narratives.* 



-•' The poetry of the day may safely be consigned to internal evi- 

 dence. It survived the independence of the country, and even in the 

 days of Elizabeth, the author of the " Faerie Queene," thus reluc- 

 tantly extols the poems of the Irish bards. " I have caused divers of 

 them to be translated unto me, that I might understand them; and 

 surely they savoured of sweet wit and good invention. -f 



That music had been, long previously to the period at present un- 

 der consideration, introduced in the service of religion, is most satis- 

 factorily evidenced by the existence of the Antiphonarium Bencho- 

 rense ; that valuable document, were other evidence wanting, must 

 evince, that though the Roman canticles might not have been sung in 

 Ireland till the time of Malachy, as S. Bernard would seem to testify in 

 his life of that saint,J yet the Irish were not without their own an- 

 cient ecclesiastical music. § At the obsequies of Brien Boroimhe and 



* See O'Reilly's Account of Irish Writers, Trans. lb. Celt. Soc. p. xxxvii. He who read* 

 this interesting treatise will but regret its conciseness. 

 ■U. f View of the State of Ireland. 



X See O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, vol. iv. p. 158, and see ante, p. 318. 



§ On the testimony afforded by this document, see Gerbert. Hist. Mus. cited O'Conor, 

 Rer. Hib. Script, vol. iv, p. 166. 



