The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
IX. Historical and Political Writings.
§ 12. Pacata Hibernia.
| The important historical narrative Pacata Hibernia, originally published in 1633, was almost entirely composed by some one who stood very near to the person of Sir George Carew (afterwards lord Carew of Clopton and earl of Totnes), president of Munster during the three years (1600–3) through which the book traces the history of that province, ending with the suppression of the insurrection there. Possibly, the author was lieutenant Thomas Stafford, who served under Carew, but whose name is mentioned only a single time in the entire narrative. The book, which, in the words of its editor, Standish O’Grady, “deals with the stormy conclusion of a stormy century, the lurid sunset of one of the wildest epochs in Irish history,” shows how complete, in the days of Mountjoy’s viceroyalty, 16 was the absence of anything like patriotism or public spirit from all but a very few of the Irish lords and that of all sense of honourable dealing from English officials. |
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