1826.) Notes of a Miscellaneous Reader. 267 
proportion with the advance of printing, has the language acquired a 
character of permanence. 
With respect to Girald of Wales, and the other monkish writers 
whom Mr. Irving cites in support of his position, it is evident that they 
are totally beside the question. They wrote, not in English of any 
date, but in Latin. Indeed, Girald flourished at a period (the end of 
the 12th century) almost prior to the existence of any thing like the 
English language, properly so called. Ingulphus (a Saxon by birth, 
and secretary successively to Edward the Confessor’s queen and_ to 
William the Conqueror), William of Malmesbury, John of Salisbury, and 
Benedictus Abbas, are continually and most deservedly quoted by our 
early historians. Their Latin, for the most part, was very pure and 
beautiful. ‘The extreme monkish deterioration of the language did not 
supervene till a century or two later. The Latin of the 11th and 12th 
centuries was proverbially pure. It was during the subsequent ages 
that it became so barbarous ; and had reached a climax of jargon, when 
the invention of printing came to raise the modern dialects into the 
dignity and usefulness of established tongues. 
Girald of Wales, in particular, is a most unhappy instance for Mr. 
Irving to have singled out. His authority is constantly quoted by our 
historians for the history of both Henry II.’s and Richard I.’s reigns ; 
and, especially, for the state of Ireland at the period of its conquest: of 
which conquest he wrote a history, besides a very detailed topographia 
of that country generally. If he had lived in the reign of Queen Anne, 
I question much whether his treatise De rebus a se gestis would not be 
as popular and well known as Burnet’s History of His Own Times. It 
is certainly, allowing for the different date of the events, quite as 
entertaining, and, in more points than one, bears to it very considerable 
resemblance. 
As to his refusing two bishoprics that he might prosecute his studies, 
he did so merely because he had fixed his heart upon the third Welsh 
Bishopric, that of St. David’s, to which he had been (somewhat irregu- 
larly) elected a few years before, during the ecclesiastical contests of 
Henry I1.’sreign ; and of which he had been subsequently administrator. 
He was, at last, again elected to it; but his election was never con- 
firmed. So far from wishingto retire from the world, he engaged in 
litigation to establish the validity of his appointment, during which he 
consumed all his substance, and made no fewer than five journies to 
Rome. He was ultimately foiled; and then did retire from the world— 
I believe, to the university of Paris. It is true, shortly after the con- 
quest of Ireland by Henry II., he accompanied Prince John thither 
when he made his topographical survey of the country. At his time 
(when, be it remembered, he thought himself rightful Bishop of St. 
David’s) he was offered the united Bishoprics of Leighlin and Ferns; 
which, as we have seen done in our own day, he declined, being pretty 
certain of better preferment in his own country. His history of his own 
Gestes is one of the most amusing and characteristic pieces of egregious 
biography extant. His extraordinary and undoubting vanity—his great 
importance in his own eyes—and the quiet confidence with which he 
shews and records these feelings, are strangely mingled with ‘his 
unquestionable learning, and (for the period) his elegant, and even 
eloquent diction. . . es alt 
? 
a 
2M 2 Lit wee! 
