ry well have been the
actual author; (4) a poem in praise of some Leinster princeling called
Aed.

Old glosses.

For our knowledge of the older language, however, we have to rely mainly
on the numerous glosses scattered about in a large number of MSS., which
it is impossible to enumerate here. Indeed, such an enumeration is now
rendered superfluous owing to the publication of the _Thesaurus
Palaeohibernicus_, in which all the various glosses have been collected.
For our purpose it will be sufficient to mention the three most
important codices containing Old Irish glosses. These are as
follows:--(1) The Codex Paulinus at Wurzburg, which contains the
thirteen epistles of St Paul, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, with a
great mass of explanatory glosses, partly in Latin, partly in Irish,
partly mixed. The chief source of the commentary is the commentary of
Pelagius, who is often cited by name. The date of this highly important
MS. is much disputed; part of the Irish glosses seem to date from about
700, whilst the rest may be placed a little before 800. (2) The Codex
Ambrosianus, formerly at Bobbio, now at Milan, which contains a
commentary on the psalter with a large number of Irish glosses. In their
present state these glosses were copied in the first half of the 9th
century. (3) Glosses on Priscian contained in four MSS., of which the
most important is the Codex Sangallensis, dating from the middle of the
9th century. Apart from the biblical glosses and scholia the other chief
texts or authors provided with Irish glosses are Augustine, Bede, the
Canons, the Computus, Eutychius, Juvencus, Philargyrius, Prudentius and
Servius.

The Milan and the St Gall codices just mentioned both contain several
short poems in Irish. In two stanzas in the Swiss MS. we find expressed
for the first time that keen sympathy with nature in all her moods which
is so marked a feature of Irish and Welsh verse.

Two ponderous religious poems have now to be noticed. To Oengus the
Culdee is attributed the lengthy _Felire_ or Calendar of Church
Festivals, consisting of 365 quatrains in _rinnard_ metre, one for each
day in the year. The language of this dry compilation, which is heavily
glossed and annotated, points to 800 as the date of composition, and
Oengus, who is stated to have lived about that time, may well have been
the author. This calendar has been twice edited by W. Stokes with an
English translation, the first time for the Royal I