As a historian, William of Malmesbury has attracted much praise over the centuries. Even John Milton, writing in 1670, had good things to say about William's ‘stile and judgment’, especially in comparison with what Milton dismisses as the ‘Monachisms’ of William's contemporaries. He has been called a ‘classicist extraordinaire’ for his wide reading of ancient literature and his passion for alluding to the classics in his writing. William is also respected for his literary aesthetic; recently, he has been described as a ‘mosaicist’ who, with both skill and artistry, wove together quotations from the auctores, fragments from other works, and his own prose. This chapter will show how these oft-praised aspects of William's Gesta regum Anglorum (c. 1126, revised c. 1135, henceforth Gesta regum) constellate around William’s practice of varietas.

Of the historians in this book, only William uses the Latin word varietas to describe the literary variety of his work – perhaps unsurprisingly, since William, more than other writers, tends to advertise his classicism. Scholars have typically assumed that William uses this term to refer to varietas in its simplest form, i.e. to digressions or changes in stylistic register. In contrast, I argue that the Gesta regum's varietas is far more wide-reaching than that. This chapter examines William's theory and practice of varietas, to show how William's conception of varietas shapes the literary forms of the Gesta regum. I argue that William's reliance on a classical understanding of varietas leads him to choose a variety of styles and structures – both classical and medieval – and to arrange them in a way that creates a fitting balance. Since the style and structure of William's Gesta regum contributes to its political argument, the varietas of this text also plays a role in disseminating William's interpretation of history. In this way, varietas becomes not only an action or even a quality, but also a historiographical framework that forwards interpretations of England's past. Moreover, the popularity of William's Gesta regum – it survives in twenty-nine manuscripts, and was often a source for later historians – ensured the availability of that framework to other historians.

Cato enters the theater

As chapter 1 explained, well-fitting juxtaposition is at the heart of classical varietas.