Seeing the fellow in such a
miserable plight, he asked who had struck him; on which they told him,
"Benvenuto did it, but the stupid creature brought it down upon
himself." No sooner had Pompeo reached the Pope than he began to
speak: "Most blessed Father, Benvenuto has this very moment murdered
Tobbia; I saw it with my own eyes." On this the Pope in a fury ordered
the Governor, who was in the presence, to take and hang me at once in
the place where the homicide had been committed; adding that he must
do all he could to catch me, and not appear again before him until he
had hanged me.

CELTIC LITERATURE

BY WILLIAM SHARP AND ERNEST RHYS

The widespread and deepening contemporary interest in Celtic
literature is primarily due to four distinct influences. The
publication (followed by its world-wide repute and the bitterest
literary controversy of modern days) of Macpherson's 'Ossian' comes
first. There is no inorganic development in art, whether the art of
words or any other: in the fundamental sense, there is no accident.
It is a mistake therefore to speak of Macpherson's 'Ossian' as a
startling meteor which flashed across the world of literature, a brief
apparition out of a void into which it has returned, leaving only a
mass of debris to testify to its actuality and bygone splendor: a
mistake, for this famous production was indirectly but closely related
to another literary influence, the publication of Bishop Percy's
celebrated 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.' In art there is no
room for accidents: for art is an organic development, and the most
seemingly arbitrary variations are inevitable or at least natural.

After Macpherson's 'Ossian' the next important influence is the
'Mabinogion,' as retold in English from the early Welsh originals by
Lady Charlotte Guest. The influence, as well as the inherent beauty
and interest, of each of these famous productions will be dealt with
later in these volumes.

'Ossian' and the 'Mabinogion' afforded a new standpoint. The two
heralds of the treasure we have inherited in this Celtic literature of
the past were Ernest Renan and Matthew Arnold. Renan by his treatise
on 'La Poesie des Races Celtiques,' and later Matthew Arnold by his
essay on 'Celtic Literature,' accomplished an almost inestimable
service. Everything that has been done since is but a variation along
the lines indicated by these two great critics; and with this result,
that it is already a common