Book II: Preface
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Since, therefore, St. David's is the head, and in times past was the metropolitan, city of Wales, though now, alas! retaining more of the NAME than of the OMEN,111
yet I have not forborne to weep over the obsequies of our ancient and undoubted mother, to follow the mournful hearse, and to deplore with tearful sighs the ashes of our half-buried matron. I shall, therefore, endeavour briefly to declare to you in what manner, from whence, and from what period the pall was first brought to St. David's, and how it was taken away; how many prelates were invested with the pall; and how many were despoiled thereof; together with their respective names to this present day. 111
Giraldus, ever glad to pun upon words, here opposes the word NOMEN to OMEN. "Plus nominis habens quem ominis." He may have perhaps borrowed this expression from Plautus. Plautus Delphini, tom. ii. p. 27. - Actus iv., Scena iv.BOOK II
PREFACE
Footnotes:
Gerald of Wales, The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales (Oxford, Mississippi, 1997)