Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/104

 out "how saucily and how shamelessly he lies almost throughout." But Geoffrey's bright invention in handling the Celtic legends stirred men's imagination, vivified the mind of England, and broke fresh ground in literature. This Brut of Gruffydd ap Arthur of Monmouth became a mine for makers of immortal song. Shakespere delved in the traditions of Italy for his Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Romeo and Juliet, but he drew from Celtic sources his material for Macbeth, King Lear and Cymbeline. It is therefore with just pride that Thomas Stephens quotes from the Quarterly Review of March, 1848—"Perhaps Gorboduc, and Ferrex and Porrex might be not much missed from the Dramatic Literature of Europe; but what should we think of the loss of Lear and Cymbeline." Let us thankfully remember Geoffrey of Monmouth to whom Shakespere was indebted for the ground-work of those marvellous productions, and without whose Historia Britonum we should never have had them. A spark is but a small matter in itself, but it may serve to kindle "a light for