A Literary History of the English People | Page 8

Jean Jules Jusserand
death; rather
would I till the ground for wages on some poor man's small estate than
reign over all the dead."[5] The race was an optimistic one. It made the
best of life, and even of death.
These beliefs were carefully fostered by the druids, priests and
philosophers, whose part has been the same in Gaul, Ireland, and
Britain. Their teaching was a cause of surprise and admiration to the
Latins. "And you, druids," exclaims Lucan, "dwelling afar under the
broad trees of the sacred groves, according to you, the departed visit
not the silent Erebus, nor the dark realm of pallid Pluto; the same spirit
animates a body in a different world. Death, if what you say is true, is
but the middle of a long life. Happy the error of those that live under
Arcturus; the worst of fears is to them unknown--the fear of death!"[6]
The inhabitants of Britain possessed, again in common with those of
Gaul, a singular aptitude to understand and learn quickly. A short time
after the Roman Conquest it becomes hard to distinguish Celtic from
Roman workmanship among the objects discovered in tombs. Cæsar is
astonished to see how his adversaries improve under his eyes. They
were simple enough at first; now they understand and foresee, and
baffle his military stratagems. To this intelligence and curiosity is due,
with all its advantages and drawbacks, the faculty of assimilation
possessed by this race, and manifested to the same extent by no other in
Europe.
The Latin authors also admired another characteristic gift in the men of
this race: a readiness of speech, an eloquence, a promptness of repartee
that distinguished them from their Germanic neighbours. The people of
Gaul, said Cato, have two passions: to fight well and talk cleverly
(argute loqui).[7] This is memorable evidence, since it reveals to us a
quality of a literary order: we can easily verify its truth, for we know
now in what kind of compositions, and with what talent the men of
Celtic blood exercised their gift of speech.
II.

That the Celtic tribes on both sides of the Channel closely resembled
each other in manners, tastes, language, and turn of mind cannot be
doubted. "Their language differs little," says Tacitus; "their buildings
are almost similar,"[8] says Cæsar. The similitude of their literary
genius is equally certain, for Cato's saying relates to continental Celts
and can be checked by means of Irish poems and tales. Welsh stories of
a later date afford us evidence fully as conclusive. If we change the
epoch, the result will be the same; the main elements of the Celtic
genius have undergone no modification; Armoricans, Britons, Welsh,
Irish, and Scotch, are all inexhaustible tale-tellers, skilful in dialogue,
prompt at repartee, and never to be taken unawares. Gerald de Barry,
the Welshman, gives us a description of his countrymen in the twelfth
century, which seems a paraphrase of what Cato had said of the Gaulish
Celts fourteen hundred years before.[9]
Ireland has preserved for us the most ancient monuments of Celtic
thought. Nothing has reached us of those "quantities of verses" that,
according to Cæsar, the druids taught their pupils in Gaul, with the
command that they should never be written.[10] Only too well was the
injunction obeyed. Nothing, again, has been transmitted to us of the
improvisations of the Gallic or British bards ([Greek: bardoi]), whose
fame was known to, and mentioned by, the ancients. In Ireland,
however, Celtic literature had a longer period of development. The
country was not affected by the Roman Conquest; the barbarian
invasions did not bring about the total ruin they caused in England and
on the Continent. The clerks of Ireland in the seventh and eighth
centuries committed to writing the ancient epic tales of their land.
Notwithstanding the advent of Christianity, the pagan origins
constantly reappear in these narratives, and we are thus taken back to
the epoch when they were primarily composed, and even to the time
when the events related are supposed to have occurred. That time is
precisely the epoch of Cæsar and of the Christian era. Important works
have, in our day, thrown a light on this literature[11]; but all is not yet
accomplished, and it has been computed that the entire publication of
the ancient Irish manuscripts would fill about a thousand octavo
volumes. It cannot be said that the people who produced these works
were men of scanty speech; and here again we recognise the

immoderate love of tales and the insatiable curiosity that Cæsar had
noticed in the Celts of the Continent.[12]
Most of those Irish stories are part of the epic cycle of Conchobar and
Cuchulaïnn, and concern the wars of Ulster and Connaught. They are in
prose, interspersed with verse. Long before being written, they existed
in the
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