Old English historian Richard Stanihurst (1547-1618) lamented that "When their posteritie grew to become not altogither so warie in retaining, as their ancestors had been valiant in conquering, the Irish language was free dennized in the English Pale: this canker tooke these types of deep root, as the bodie that in advance of was complete and seem, was by minor and very little festered, and in fashion wholly putrified".