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versal approbation; the authority of the History was un- questioned and unshakened1 until the criticisms of Polydore Vergil in the sixteenth century.2 Hence, regard-, less of its truth or falsehood, it is of supreme importance! as a living force moulding and directing the conceptions; and the aspirations of the mediaeval Welshman. It is not, perhaps, too much to assert that the first definition of nationality of any force or clearness appears in the Historia Regum. There are vague foreshadowings in Gildas, but no real evidence of conscious nationalism; there is a more precise and clearer perception in the com- posite Nennius who recognizes the British as descended from Brutus and therefore as an honourable race whose unity is implied in the national symbol of the Red Dragon, but it is difficult to see more in this than the recognition of some sort of political unity based on pride of race. But how wide is the gulf that divides Geoffrey from his sources! The Historia Regum displays a complete and imposing fabric of nationalism; there is the common descent from Brutus, taken, doubtless, from Nennius, but emphasized with a wealth of accretions; there is the national hero and greatest of kings, Arthur; there is the national prophet Merlin, the shadowy Ambrose of Nennius transformed into the mighty magican there is the national code, the Molmutine laws, quae usque ad hoc qui statim tanquam aves evolantes, omnes penitus evanuerunt. Quo sublato postmodum, et Historia Britonum a Galfrido Arthuro trac- tata, experiendi causa, loco ejusdem subrogata, non solum corpori ipsius toti, sed etiam libro superposito, longe solito crebrius et taediosius insederunt also Descriptio Kambriae, i, 7, (ibid., vol. vi, p. 179). "Wallia vero non a Walone duce, vel Wendoloena regina, sicut fabulosa Galfridi Arthuri mentitur historia 1 It was quoted by Edward I in a controversy with Pope Boniface VIII (Thompson, loc. cit.). 2 See also article by Prof. W. Lewis Jones in the Quarterly Review, 1906.