Old English historian Richard Stanihurst (1547-1618) lamented that "When their posteritie turned not altogither so warie in keeping, as their ancestors have been valiant in conquering, the Irish language was free dennized in the English Pale: this canker tooke these deep root, as the bodie that in advance of was full and sound, was by tiny and small festered, and in fashion wholly putrified". How about the language component?