It was in May, 1169, that the first force of these new invaders10 landed, and, aided by the incompetence12 of a particularly feeble High-king, they had so thoroughly13 established themselves in Ireland by the close of the century, that they succeeded in putting an end to the Irish High-kingship, under which Ireland had subsisted14 for over a thousand years. Then began that permanent war—very different, indeed, from what the Irish tribes waged among themselves—which, almost from its very commencement, thoroughly arrested Irish development, and disintegrated15 Irish life.
It is not too much to say that for three centuries after the Norman Conquest Ireland produced nothing in art, literature, or scholarship, even faintly comparable to what she had achieved before. With the Normans came collapse16;
"Red ruin and the breaking up of laws,"
and all the horrors of chronic17 and remorseless warfare.
We must now examine the history of Irish art, as displayed in metal-work, buildings, and illuminated18 manuscripts.
That peculiar19 class of design which Irish artists developed so successfully in "the countless20 hosts of the illuminated books of the men of Erin," is not really of Irish origin at[Pg 454] all. It is not even Celtic. The late researches of M. Solomon Reinach and others into the genuine remains21 of the Celts of Gaul and the Continent have discovered in their ornamentation scarcely a trace at all of the so-called Irish patterns. They are in truth not Irish, but Eastern. They seem to have started from Byzantium, spread over Dalmatia and North Italy, and finally found their way into Ireland. The early forms of pre-Christian23 Irish art show no trace whatsoever24 of those peculiar interlaced patterns and convoluted26 figures which are usually associated with the name of Celtic design. The engraved27 patterns on the tumulus of New Grange, dating from probably about 800[3] years before the Christian era, and the similar scribings upon sepulchral28 chambers29 at Louchcrew, Telltown, and other places, do not show a particle of interlaced work, but consist for the most part of circles with rays, arrangements of concentric circles, patterns of double and triple spirals, and lozenges. Indeed, it is the spiral, in countless forms and applications, which seems to have been really indigenous30 to the earliest inhabitants of Ireland, and with it the interlaced and convoluted figures of non-Irish post-Christian art became blended, gradually driving it out. These in their turn perished, degraded and abased31 by admixture with Gothic forms introduced by the Normans, whose invasion soon put an end to the development of all art in Ireland save that of architecture.
The so-called Celtic design of Ireland, with its interlaced bands, its convolutions, its knots, its triquetras, is really a survival of what once, starting from the East, spread over a large portion of western and northern Europe, but which soon died out there overwhelmed by Gothic and other influences; whilst in Ireland, where it was applied32 with far truer artistic33 feeling and far finer elaboration than elsewhere, it has been preserved in countless works of stone,[Pg 455] bronze, and parchment. A scrutiny34 of early Scandinavian art and of the architectural styles of Italy known as the Latino-Barbaro and Italo-Bizantino, with portions of the art of other countries, have revealed traces of the so-called Celtic designs in places and under circumstances which prove that they cannot be—as used to be generally supposed—the work of exiled Irishmen. Nevertheless, there is a certain individuality in the working out of these designs when brought to perfection by Irish hands, which sufficiently distinguishes Irish art from that of other countries. For in Ireland the interlaced decoration was grafted35 on to the more archaic36 and pre-Christian style.
"The peculiar spirals found on these bronzes of that [pre-Christian] time," says Miss Stokes,[4] "the trumpet37 pattern, the even more archaic single-line spirals, zigzags38, lozenges, circles, dots, are all woven in with interlaced designs, with marvellous skill and sense of beauty and charm of varied39 surface, added to which is an unsurpassed feeling for colour where the style admits of colour, as in enamels41 and illumination. Besides all this, the interlacings, taken by themselves, gradually undergo a change in character under the hand of an Irish artist. They become more inextricable, more involved, more infinitely42 varied in their twistings and knottings, and more exquisitely44 precise and delicate in execution than they are ever seen to be on continental45 work, so far as my experience goes."
The original pre-Christian art of the Irish Celts, that known to Cuchulain and Conor mac Nessa and the heroes of the Red Branch, survives only upon a few bronzes and upon the stones of a few sepulchral mounds47. The tracings upon the sepulchral mounds are rude—though we find in some instances evidences of designs deliberately48 worked out to cover a given surface—and they mostly consist of recognisable symbols of Sun and Fire worship. The bronze sword-sheaths of Lisnacroghera, which are magnificent specimens49 of early Irish art, are a development of these patterns, but bear no trace of that interlaced work which was introduced with Christianity. There are several other bronze ornaments51, evidently pre-Christian,[Pg 456] which exhibit the same kind of designs, notably52 what appear to be two horns of a radiated crown exquisitely decorated by spiral lines in relief, and which, said Mr. Kemble, "for beauty of design and execution may challenge comparison with any specimen50 of cast bronze-work that it has ever been my fortune to see." Miss Stokes, however, has shown that these pieces were not cast, but repoussé, and consequently, she writes—
"If not the finest pieces of casting ever seen, yet as specimens of design and workmanship they are perhaps unsurpassed. The surface is here overspread with no vague lawlessness, but the ornament22 is treated with fine reserve, and the design carried out with the precision and delicacy53 of a master's touch. The ornament on the cone54 flows round and upwards55 in lines gradual and harmonious56 as the curves in ocean surf, meeting and parting only to meet again in lovelier forms of flowing motion. In the centre of the circular plate below—just at the point or hollow whence all these lines flow round and upwards, at the very heart, as it might seem, of the whole work—a crimson57 drop of clear enamel40 may be seen."
These beautiful fragments are almost certainly pre-Christian, and may even have been worn by Conairé the Great or Conor mac Nessa. They represent a variety of design which stands midway between the stone engravings and the art of the early Christians58. It is a remarkable59 fact, amply proven and universally acknowledged, that the bronze-work of the pre-Christian Irish was never surpassed by their post-Christian metal-work. Indeed, while the pagan Irish are proved to have attained60 great skill in the art of design, in working of metals, and especially in the art of enamelling by various processes, the specimens of the earliest Christian metal-work, such as St. Patrick's bell, are exceedingly rude and barbarous—possibly because the skilled pagan workmen did not turn their hands to such business, and the Christian converts had themselves to do the best they could.
Many of the monks61, however, appear to have given themselves up to metal-work, and reached a very high pitch of[Pg 457] excellence62 in it, as may be seen at a glance by the inspection63 of such master works as the two-handed Ardagh chalice64, the cross of Cong, and numerous shrines66, cúmhdachs [coodachs], or book-cases, and croziers. The ornamental67 designs upon the later Christian metal-work reached their highest perfection in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and the work of this period exhibits about forty different varieties of design, in which animal forms are only sparingly used, and in which there is no trace of foliate pattern. Indeed, these are not found in Irish metal-work before the period of decadence68 in the thirteenth century. Although the best specimens of Christian art in metal-work belong to the tenth and eleventh centuries, we are not to assume from this that the metal-work of the earlier Christian artists did not keep pace with the work of the early Christian scribes, who produced such magnificent specimens of penmanship and colour in the seventh and eighth centuries. They may have done so, but no relics69 of their work are left. According to Dr. Petrie, few, if any, of the more distinguished70 churches of Ireland were destitute71 of beautiful metal-work in the shape of costly72 shrines at the coming of the Norseman, as the frequent allusions73 in the Irish annals show; but scarcely one of these escaped their destructive raids, and hence the finest surviving specimens are of a much later date than the finest surviving manuscripts,[5] which were only destroyed whenever met with, but were not, like the costly metal-work, an object of eager and unremitting pursuit.
In sculpture the Irish never produced anything finer than their tall, shapely, richly but not over-richly ornamented74[Pg 458] Celtic crosses. The Ogam-inscribed75 stones, of which over a couple of hundred remain, are perfectly76 plain and undecorative. Some of the later inscribed tombstones (of which some two hundred and fifty remain), contain, it is true, fine chisel-work, but the numerous high Celtic crosses, covered many of them with elaborate sculpture in relief, with undercutting, and ornamented with the divergent and interlaced spiral pattern, show the finest artistic instinct. Most of these beautiful works of art are later than the year 900, but hardly one is posterior to the Norman invasion, which soon put a stop to such artistic luxuries.
The Irish were not a nation of builders. Most of the early Irish houses, even at Tara, were, as we have seen, of wood. The ordinary dwelling-house was either a cylindrical78 hut of wicker-work with a cup-shaped roof, plastered with clay and thatched with reeds, or else a quadrilateral house built of logs or of clay. The so-called city of Royal Tara was, in fact, a vast enclosure, containing quite a number of different raths, and houses inside the raths. The buildings seem to have been constructed of the timbers of lofty trees planted side by side, probably carved into fantastic shapes upon the outside, while the inside walls were closely interwoven with slender rods, over which a putty or plaster of loam79 was smoothly80 spread, which, when even and dry, was painted in bright colours, chiefly red, yellow, and blue. The roofs were formed of smooth joists and cross-beams, and probably thatched with rods and rushes, much in the same manner as the houses of the peasantry to-day. The floors appear to have been of earth, carefully hardened and beaten down, and then covered with a coat of some kind of hard and shiny mortar81. No doubt some very fine barbaric effects were realised in these buildings, some of which, as is evidenced by the description of Cormac's Teach Midhchuarta, must have been immense. There were as many as seven dúns, or raths, round Tara, each containing within it many houses, and each surrounded by a mound46, or vallum, planted with a stockade[Pg 459] like a Maori pah.[6] The finest house of all, painted in the gayest colours, planted in the sunniest spot, and provided overhead with a balcony, was reserved for the ladies of the place, and was called the grianán [greeanawn], or sunny house.
Stone, however, was used in places, at a very early date, long before the first century, as may be seen from the stone forts of western and south-western Ireland, huge structures of which one of the best known is Dún-Angus, in the Isle82 of Arran, but there was no knowledge of mortar. Masonry83 was also used occasionally by the early monks in constructing their little clocháns, or beehive cells, and their oratories84, with rounded roofs, built without a vestige85 of an arch, the whole surrounded by an uncemented stone wall, or cashel.
The Irish do not seem to have done much in stone-work until the Danish invasions forced them to construct the round towers in which to take shelter when the enemy was upon them, saving thus their jewels, books, and shrines. The Danes, who made rapid marches across the country, could not burn these towers nor throw them down, nor could they spend the time necessary to reduce them by famine, lest the country should be roused behind them, and their retreat to their ships cut off. The idea and form of the round tower the Irish almost certainly derived86 from the East. In Lord Dunraven's "Notes on Irish Architecture" the path of these buildings from Ravenna across Europe and into Ireland is distinctly shown; but while only about a score of examples survive in the rest of Europe, Ireland alone possesses a hundred and eighteen of these curious structures. There are three well-marked styles of towers. The doors and windows of the earlier ones are primitive87 and horizontal, but in the later ones the rude entablature of the earlier towers has given way[Pg 460] to the decorated Romanesque arch, and the beauty and number of the arched windows is greatly increased.
The transition from the horizontal to the round-arched style is shown in the Church of Iniscaltra, erected88 two years after the battle of Clontarf, and many years before the true Romanesque appeared in England. From that time till the coming of the Normans, Irish ecclesiastical architecture—the only kind practised, for the Irish did not live in or build castles—progressed enormously, and several fine specimens belonging to the twelfth century still survive.
"The remains," writes Miss Stokes, "of a great number of monuments belonging to the period between the fifth and twelfth centuries of the Christian era, have survived untouched by the hand either of the restorer or of the destroyer, and in them, when arranged in consecutive89 series, we can trace the development from an early and rude beginning to a very beautiful result, and watch the dovetailing, as it were, of one style into another, till an Irish form of Romanesque architecture grew into perfection. The form of the Irish Church points to an original type which has almost disappeared elsewhere—that of the Shrine65 or Ark, not of the Basilica."
The Norman invasion, however, put a complete stop to the natural development of Irish Romanesque, and changed the building of churches into that of castles, in which the Irish only copied, so far as they built at all, the pattern of the invader11.
The art, however, in which the Irish earliest excelled, and in which they have really no rivals in Europe, was in that of writing and illuminating90 manuscripts. The most recent authority on the subject, Johan Adolf Brunn in his "Inquiry91 into the Art of Illuminated MSS. of the Middle Ages," acknowledges that the fame of the Celtic school, "dating from the darker centuries of the Middle Ages, excels that of any of its rivals." Westwood, the great British authority, declares that were it not for Irishmen these islands would contain no primitive works of art worth mentioning, and asserts that the Book of Kells is "unquestionably the most[Pg 461] elaborately executed manuscript of so early a date, now in existence." Even Giraldus Cambrensis, who came in with the early Normans, was struck dumb with admiration92 of the exquisite43 book shown him at Kildare, which of all the miracles with which Kildare was credited was to him the greatest. Here, he writes, "you may see the visage of majesty93 divinely impressed, on one side the mystic forms of the evangelists having now six, now four, now two wings, on one side the eagle, on another the calf94, on one side the face of a man, on the other of a lion, and an almost infinite quantity of other figures.... A careless glance at the whole," he goes on to say, "reveals no particular excellence, but if, looking closer at it, the spectator examined the work in detail he would see how extraordinarily95 subtle and delicate were the knots and lines, how bright and fresh the colours remained, how interlaced and bound together was the whole, so that we would feel inclined to believe that it could hardly be a human composition but the works of angels. In fact," writes Cambrensis, "the oftener and closer I inspect it,[7] the more certain I am to be struck with something new, with something ever more and more wonderful." Indeed, the story ran, that such figures and such colouring were due to no mere96 mortal invention, but that an[Pg 462] angel had appeared to the scribe in his sleep and taught him how to make these wondrous97 drawings, "and thus," adds Cambrensis, "through the revelation of the angel, the prayer of Brigit, and the imitation of the scribe, that book was written."
Now Giraldus Cambrensis, as Johan Adolf Brunn observes, "knew to perfection the master-achievements of the non-Celtic schools of art of contemporary date," and "although referring to a particular work of especial merit," says Brunn, "the testimony98 of this medi?val writer may well be placed at the head of an inquiry into the art in general of the Celtic illuminated manuscripts, emphasising as it does the salient characteristics of the style followed by this distinguished school of illumination, its minute and delicate drawing, its brilliancy of colouring, and, above all, that amazing amount of devoted99 and patient labour, which underlies100 its intricate composition, and creates the despair of any one who tries to copy them."
Between six and seven centuries later Westwood expresses himself in terms not unlike those of Cambrensis, of the now scanty101 remains of ancient Irish illumination—
"Especially deserving of notice," he writes, "is the extreme delicacy and wonderful precision, united with an extraordinary minuteness of detail with which many of these ancient manuscripts were ornamented. I have examined with a magnifying glass the pages of the Gospel of Lindisfarne, and the Book of Kells, for hours together, without ever detecting a false line or an irregular interlacement; and when it is considered that many of these details consist of spiral lines, and are so minute as to be impossible to have been executed without a pair of compasses, it really seems a problem not only with what eyes but also with what instruments they could have been executed.... I counted in a small space, measuring scarcely three quarters of an inch by less than half an inch in width, in the Book of Armagh, not fewer than one hundred and fifty-eight interlacements of a slender ribbon pattern formed in white lines edged with black ones upon a black ground."[8]
The Book of Armagh, as we have seen, was written in 807, or perhaps, as the "Four Masters" antedate102 at this period, in 812,[Pg 463] while the Book of Kells is ascribed, according to the best judges, to the close of the seventh century.
The seventh and eight centuries, before the island was disturbed by the Danes, were the most flourishing period of the Irish illuminator103 and scribe. But their schools continued to turn out very fine work as late as the twelfth century, and Gilbert, in his "Facsimiles of the National Manuscripts of Ireland," states that there are perhaps no finer specimens of minute old writing extant than those in the margins104 and interlineations of a copy of the Gospels written by Maelbrigte Ua Maelruanaigh [Mulroony], in Armagh, in 1138, that is, seventeen years after that city had for the last time been burnt and plundered105 by the Danes.
Like all the other arts of civilised life, that of the illuminator and decorative77 scribe was brought to a standstill by the Norman warriors106, nor do the Irish appear after this period to have produced a single page worth the reproduction of the artistic pal107?ographer. The reason of this, no doubt, was that the Irish artist in former days could—no matter how septs fell out or warring tribes harried108 one another—count upon the sympathy of his fellow countrymen even when they were hostile. Under the new conditions caused by the Norman settlements in each of the four provinces, he could count on nothing, not even on his own life. All confidence was shaken, all peace of mind was gone, the very name of so-called government produced a universal terror, and Ireland became, to use a graphic109 expression of the Four Masters, a "trembling sod." "No words," writes Mrs. Sophie Bryant, with perfect truth, "could describe that arrest of development so eloquently110 or so lucidly111 as the facts of Irish art-history." "Since then" [i.e., since the Norman invasion], writes Miss Stokes, one of the highest living authorities upon this subject, "the native character of Ireland has best found expression in her music. No work of purely112 Celtic art, whether in illumination of the sacred writings,[Pg 464] or in gold, or bronze, or stone, was wrought113 by Irish hands after that century and as we shall now see this decay of Irish art is reflected in the falling off" of Irish literature, which continued languishing114 until the great revival which took place about the year 1600.
********
[1] After Malachy reigned115 Donough O'Brien, son of Brian Boru; after him Diarmuid of Leinster, of the race of Cáthaoir Mór; after him two other O'Briens, then an O'Lochlainn king of Ulster, then O'Conor of Connacht, then another O'Lochlainn, and then another O'Conor, King Roderick, in whose time the Normans landed.
[2] Although the backbone116 of the Danish power was broken at Clontarf, desultory117 warfare with them did not cease for long after. Even so late as 1021 they were able to penetrate118 into the city of Armagh for the seventeenth time during two hundred years, and burnt the whole city to the ground, with its churches and books. Within two years of the battle of Clontarf they burned Glendalough and Clonard.
[3] This is the minimum date assigned them by Mr. George Coffey in his admirable monograph119 upon the subject.
[4] "Six Months in the Apennines," Introductory Letter.
[5] The earliest surviving book-shrine, that of Molaise's Gospels, was made between the year 1001 and 1025; the earliest dated crozier is 967; the earliest bell-shrine may be assigned to 954. The Cross of Cong dates from about 1123. That the earlier Christian craftsmen120 must have made good work, if only it had survived, may be inferred from the fine silver chalice of Kremsmünster, in Lower Austria, dating from between the years 757 and 781.
[6] This was the case with most of those earthen circumvallations, called in different parts of Ireland raths and lisses, and in Hibernian English forts or forths. The houses were inside the embankment, which was in most cases protected by a wall of stakes planted round its summit.
[7] The whole passage is worth transcribing121 in the original. "Inter25 numerosa Kildari? miracula nihil mihi miraculosius occurrit quam liber ille mirandus, tempore Virginis [he means St. Brigit] ut aiunt, angelo dictante, consumptus. Hic Majestatis vultum videas divinitus impressum, hinc mysticas Evangelistarum formas, nunc senas, nunc quaternas, nunc binas alas122 habentes: hinc aquilam, inde vitulum, hinc hominis faciem, inde leonis, aliasque figuras fere infinitas. Quas si superficialiter et usuali more minus acute conspexeris, litura potius videbitur quam ligatura, nec ullam prorsus attendes subtilitatem. Sin autem ad perspicacius intuendum oculorum aciem invitaveris, et longe penitius ad artis arcana et transpenetraveris, tam delicatas et subtiles tam arctas et artitas, tam nodosas et vinculatim colligatas, tam que recentibus adhuc coloribus illustratas, notare poteris intricaturas, ut veré h?c omnia potius angelica quam humana diligentia jam asseveraveris esse composita. H?c equidem quanto frequentius et diligentius intueor semper quasi novis obstupeo semper magis ac magis admiranda conspicio." Master of the Rolls series, vol. v., p. 123.
[8] "The Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS."
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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warfare
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opposition
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revival
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clan
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accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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exhausted
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invaders
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invader
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incompetence
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thoroughly
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subsisted
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disintegrated
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| v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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collapse
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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illuminated
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peculiar
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countless
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remains
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ornament
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Christian
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whatsoever
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inter
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convoluted
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engraved
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sepulchral
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chambers
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indigenous
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abased
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applied
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artistic
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scrutiny
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grafted
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archaic
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trumpet
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zigzags
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varied
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enamel
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| n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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41
enamels
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| 搪瓷( enamel的名词复数 )； 珐琅； 釉药； 瓷漆 | |
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42
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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43
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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44
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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45
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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46
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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47
mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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48
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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49
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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50
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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51
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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53
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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54
cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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55
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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56
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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57
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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58
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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59
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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60
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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61
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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62
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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63
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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64
chalice
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| n.圣餐杯；金杯毒酒 | |
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65
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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66
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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67
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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68
decadence
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| n.衰落，颓废 | |
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69
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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71
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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72
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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73
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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74
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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76
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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77
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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78
cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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79
loam
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| n.沃土 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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81
mortar
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| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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82
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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83
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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84
oratories
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| n.演讲术( oratory的名词复数 )；（用长词或正式词语的）词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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85
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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86
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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87
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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88
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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89
consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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90
illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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91
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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92
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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93
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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94
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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95
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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96
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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97
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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98
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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99
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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100
underlies
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| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的第三人称单数 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起 | |
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101
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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102
antedate
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| vt.填早...的日期，早干，先干 | |
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103
illuminator
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| n.照明者 | |
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104
margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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105
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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106
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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107
pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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108
harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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109
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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110
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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111
lucidly
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| adv.清透地，透明地 | |
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112
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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113
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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114
languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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115
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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116
backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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117
desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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118
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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119
monograph
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| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
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120
craftsmen
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| n. 技工 | |
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121
transcribing
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| （用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的现在分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音） | |
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122
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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