第5章 INTRODUCTION(5)

This last prick of Fortune's sword pierced Gerald to the quick.He had for years been gradually withdrawing from an active life.He had resigned his archdeaconry and his prebend stall,he had made a fourth pilgrimage,this time for his soul's sake,to Rome,he had retired to a quiet pursuit of letters probably at Lincoln,and henceforward,till his death about the year 1223,he devoted himself to revising and embellishing his old works,and completing his literary labours.By his fight for St.David's he had endeared himself to the laity of his country for all time.The saying of Llewelyn the Great was prophetic."So long as Wales shall stand by the writings of the chroniclers and by the songs of the bards shall his noble deed be praised throughout all time."The prophecy has not yet been verified.Welsh chroniclers have made but scanty references to Gerald;no bard has ever yet sung an Awdl or a Pryddest in honour of him who fought for the "honour of Wales."His countrymen have forgotten Gerald the Welshman.It has been left to Sir Richard Colt Hoare,Foster,Professor Brewer,Dimmock,and Professor Freeman to edit his works.Only two of his countrymen have attempted to rescue one of the greatest of Welshmen from an undeserved oblivion.In 1585,when the Renaissance of Letters had begun to rouse the dormant powers of the Cymry,Dr.David Powel edited in Latin a garbled version of the "Itinerary"and "Deion of Wales,"and gave a short and inaccurate account of Gerald's life.In 1889Dr.Henry Owen published,"at his own proper charges,"the first adequate account by a Welshman of the life and labours of Giraldus Cambrensis.When his monument is erected in the cathedral which was built by his hated rival,the epitaph which he composed for himself may well be inscribed upon it -Cambria Giraldus genuit,sic Cambria mentem Erudiit,cineres cui lapis iste tegit.

And by that time perhaps some competent scholar will have translated some at least of Gerald's works into the language best understood by the people of Wales.