The Welsh Conquest of Ireland, Chapters I-IV [pp. 740-756]

i885.J T~E WELSH CONQUEST OF LRELAND. 749
the day was his night, and the night his day; that he loved not to lye
long wooing of wenches to yeeld unto him, but where he came he tooke by
force the spoyle of other men's love, and left but lamentations to theyr
lovers; that his musicke was not the harpe, nor layes of love, but the
cryes of people and the clashing of armour; and that finally he died not
bewayled of many, but made many wayle when he died that dearely bought
his death. Doe not you thinke, Eudoxus, that many of theese prayses
might be applyed to men of best desarte? Yet are they all yeelded to a most
notable traytoure and amongest some of the Irish not smally accounted of.
For the songe, when it was first made and songe unto a person of high degree, they were bought (as their manner is) for forty crownes.
"Et~doz. And well worthye sure! But tell me (I pray you), have they
any arte in theyr compositions? or be they any thing wittye or well savoured as Poems should be?
"fren. Yea truly; I have caused diverse of them to be translated unto
me, that I might understand them; and surely they savoured of sweete
witt and good invention, but skilled not of the goodly. ornamentes of
Poetrye; yet were they sprinckled with some prety flowers of theyr owne
naturall devise, which gave good grace and comliness unto them, the
which it is a greate pitye to see soe abused, to the gracing of wickedness
and vice, which would with good usage serve to beautifye and adorne vertue."
The long quotation must excuse itself, owing to tbe light it
throws on Irish poetry in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the view
it gives of Spenser's attitude toward poetry-a singularly Philis
tine attitude, if we may still use Mn Matthew Arnold's useful
naturalization of German student slang.
III.
The fear of satire among the Irish, which we now find in their
thinskinnedness under the ceaseless raillery of strangers, has
been often noted and instances given; here, in a threat from the
Senchus Mor, is an odd separation of satirical literature into
specific kinds: "I will grom satirize in satire called ~1as gab/zail;
I will ~1am satirize in the extempore lampoon, and I will aer
satirize in the full satire." Learning was so fully recognized as a
profession that laws were established defining the duties, one to
the otlier, of the pupil and his "literary foster-father," or master,
as the liabilities of master and apprentice in regular trades. And
in the same treasure of ancient habits and customs we read how
a master must act toward his pupil, what his perquisites are, and
what he can expect from him:
"The social connection that is considered between the foster-pupil
and the~literary foster-father is, that the latter is to instruct him without