AldfritJi's Qualifications as a Patron of Literature 311 



was indebted to his residence in Celtic lands for 'that passionate 

 curiosity and lavish liberality which may be traced among the Irish 

 of the seventh century, and which seems a kind of prelude to the 

 revival of learning in the fifteenth century.' 



In the paucity of our information concerning' xA.ldfrith, few, if 

 any, traits can be added to this characterization of him. It has, 

 however, been suggested,^ on the basis of the rather numerous 

 Greek words in Aldhelm's first letter to him, that he may have been 

 somewhat acquainted with that language. On this supposition, 

 we are not bound to assume that he learned his Greek in Ireland, 

 since he might have studied it under Theodore and Hadrian ; or, 

 if under Irish teachers, it might have been such as had undergone 

 an influence from the Canterbury school." However, on this 

 point nothing definite has been, or perhaps can be, determined. 



It may also be plausibly argued, on the strength of a passage in 

 Bede's History of the Abbots (chap. 9), taken in conjunction with 

 the munificence of his rewards for books, that he was addicted to 

 display. \\'hat Bede tells us is that, on Benedict Biscop's return 

 from his sixth visit to Rome, he brought with him, among other 

 things, two silken cloaks of incomparable workmanship, which, 

 when he found that King Ecgfrith, his patron, was dead, he dis- 

 posed of to Aldfrith, receiving from him and his councillors an 

 estate of three hides — say, three hundred and fifty acres — of land 

 at \\>armouth. Now, since this grant was made with the sanction 

 of the z^'itenageuwt, the purchase can hardly have been for Ald- 

 f rith's personal behoof," and we may accordingly conceive of these 

 silken cloaks — possibly of Oriental manufacture^ — as intended for 

 gifts to allied princes, or perhaps to signalize the loyalty and public 

 spirit of some nobleman or public official — much as Hrothgar, 

 after the slaying of Grendel, bestowed upon Beowulf a golden 

 ensign, a helmet, a coat of mail, and a jeweled sword. Perhaps, 

 therefore, this episode may serve to illustrate the lavish liberality 

 of which Montalembert speaks, just as the acquisition of books 

 dealing with remote parts of the world may exemplify his pas- 

 sionate curiosity. 



What effect on the production of national literature is the 



^ Manitius, p. 541. 



^ Roger, L'Enscignemcnt dcs Lcttrcs Classiqucs d'Ausone a Alcnin, p. 271. 



' See Bright, p. 338. 



