Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/215

 He writes clearly and correctly, with much force and picturesque power, and gives many details. Now and then he uses expressions that are evidently proverbial, such as ‘ubi enim dolor, ibi et digitus,’ and sometimes plays on words, as in ‘Papa Lucius, lucis expers’ (ib. vol. vii. Preface, p. xvi). His quotations, though not superabundant, are fairly numerous. They come for the most part from Latin poets—Ovid, Horace, Juvenal, Persius, Terence, and others—and are generally well-worn citations; indeed, it seems probable that they were drawn from some textbook rather than from the authors directly. Some quotations given as from Seneca have not been identified. One quotation is given from Aristotle's ‘Meteora’ (ib. vol. iv. Preface, p. xvi). In vigour and brightness of expression he stands before every other English chronicler, and in these respects his writing is in striking contrast to that of his immediate predecessor, Roger de Wendover. The freshness of his narrative is partly due to the frankness with which he wrote, and partly also to his habit of collecting information from eye-witnesses of the events that he relates. It is evident that, in addition to the instances noted above, in which he expressly says that he has recorded things told him by King Henry and his brother Earl Richard, both of them, and especially the earl, must have been his authorities for many other statements. Besides them he names about eighteen persons as having given him information, and they must certainly have been a few among many who did so.

His narrative may be accepted as thoroughly accurate, though in so large a work as his greater chronicle some slips of course occur (ib.) Inaccuracies, however, occur more frequently in the many documents that he inserts in this chronicle, whether taken from the copies kept at St. Albans, or procured by himself; in these he makes frequent errors, and some interpolations. His interests were wide, for in his greater chronicle he writes much, and with full knowledge, on the relations between the empire and the papacy, on the affairs of Italy, Germany, and France, and on the crusades and other wars and movements in the East; and notes events in Spain, Hungary, the Eastern Empire, and elsewhere. Nor were his interests confined to political and personal matters. The weather of each year, floods, earthquakes, falling stars, and other natural phenomena; good and bad harvests, famines, sicknesses, and the like are all recorded by him. He remarks on the camel's neck and the leopard, describes the first buffaloes that were brought into England, writes fully on an elephant that was given to the king, and tells us of an invasion of crossbills that devastated the orchards. No trait in his character stands out more clearly in his historical writings than his boldness. Thoroughly English in feeling, patriotic, and a lover of freedom, he was deeply angered when foreigners were promoted to high places in church or state; when English wealth was spent on enriching them, or on objects and schemes that were of no benefit to the country; or when ecclesiastical or civil liberty was set at naught. In such cases he spared neither pope nor king, neither cardinal, minister, nor royal favourite. The abuses of the court, the greediness and falsity of the king, the insolence of his relations and his Poitevin ministers, the venality of the papal curia, and the oppression of the English church by successive popes, are exposed in his pages in scornful and indignant language. He speaks in the same spirit of the pride and luxury of the mendicant orders, and his wrath is strongly expressed against every one who attempted to injure his convent. His judgment of men and their doings is extremely valuable as expressing the independent opinion of a contemporary Englishman of wide knowledge, acute intellect, and perfect truthfulness. Nor have we merely the first outpourings of his indignation. He revised his work in later years, when his judgment was calm, and he was inclined to record such good as he could concerning men whom he had previously condemned in strong terms. And he was not a man of bitter spirit. In spite of much that angered him in the doings of Henry III, he certainly liked the king; and in other respects, too, he shows himself a man of genial temper and warm heart. No other English chronicler so vividly impresses on his readers his personal character. It is impossible to read his books without seeing that he had a pre-eminently manly temperament; that he was quickly moved to anger, was courageous, outspoken, satirical, and at the same time kindly. That he was trustworthy, courteous, and well-bred, may safely be asserted, seeing that his society was acceptable to the great, and that they conversed familiarly with him. His works are abundantly illustrated with drawings and paintings, executed either with his own hand, as was doubtless often the case, or under his direction; and presenting, among other things, the mitre and pastoral staff when a bishop is spoken of in the text, a large number of shields with heraldic bearings, the crown of thorns presented to Louis IX, fights by land and sea, Saracen girl-acrobats, Tartars devouring their captives, an elephant, whales,