Geoffrey pretended to have found an old manuscript which related the deeds of all British kings from Brutus, the mythical founder of the kingdom of Britain, and the great-grandson of Aeneas, to Caesar. Geoffrey wrote an account of the traditionary British kings down to Cadwallader in 689 with as much minuteness and gravity as Swift employed in the _Voyage to Lilliput_. Other chroniclers declared that Geoffrey lied saucily and shamelessly, but his book became extremely popular. The monks could not then comprehend that the world's greatest literary works were to be products of the imagination. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's _History of the Kings of Britain_ we are given vivid pictures of King Lear and his daughters, of Cymbeline, of King Arthur and his Knights, of Guinevere and the rest of that company whom later poets have immortalized. It is probable that Geoffrey was not particular whether he obtained his materials from old chroniclers, Welsh bards, floating tradition, or from his own imagination. His book left its impress on the historical imagination of the Middle Ages. Had it not been for Geoffrey's _History_, the dramas of _King Lear_ and _Cymbeline_ might never have been suggested to Shakespeare. Layamon's Brut.--About 1155 a Frenchman named Wace translated into his own language Geoffrey of Monmouth's works. This translation fell into the hands of Layamon, a priest living in Worcestershire, who proceeded to render the poem, with additions of his own, into the Southern English dialect. Wace's _Brut_ has 15,300 lines; Layamon's, 32,250. As the matter which Layamon added is the best in the poem, he is, in so far, an original author of much imaginative power. He is certainly the greatest poet between the Conquest and Chaucer's time. A selection from the _Brut_ will give the student an opportunity of comparing this transition English with the language in its modern form:-- "And Ich wulle varan to Avalun: And I will fare to Avalon, To vairest alre maidene To the fairest of all maidens, To Argante ðere quene, To Argante the queen, Alven swiðe sceone; Elf surpassing fair; And heo scal mine wunden And she shall my wounds Makien alle isunde, Make all sound, Al hal me makien All hale me make Mid halweige drenchen. With healing draughts. And seoðe Ich cumen wulle And afterwards I will come To mine kineriche To my kingdom And wunien mid Brutten And dwell with Britons Mid muchelere wunne." With much joy. With this, compare the following lines from Tennyson's _The Passing of Arthur_:--