WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



of truucripU are now deposited which were intended {or a 

 continuation of the work. After the cessation of Jones'* exertion*, the 

 old apathy returned, and more than thirty yean elapsed before, in 

 1837, an association wai aet on foot on the model of the Camden and 

 uiuilar societies, and under the name of the Weigh Manuscript Society, 

 for the purpoee of publishing manuscript*, whether in Welsh or other 

 language*, connected with Wales. The important provision was made 

 in the rule*, that the works in Welsh were to be accompanied with 

 translations. The Society has uot been so active a* it promised. 

 Since its foundation, it has scarcely issued fire volumes, and some of 

 them are of a mere antiquarian aud genealogical cast. The most 

 important is that entitled ' The lolo MSS.,' a volume of selections 

 from the materials collected by lolo Morganwg for the continuation 

 of the ' Myvyrian Archaiology.' At present (in 1861) it is said in the 

 Cambrian Journal ' that measures have been taken for " re-invigorating " 

 the society, and we heartily wish them success. 



In the publications of this society the second step was begun to bo 

 taken of the throe which are requisite to bring the literature of Wales 

 fairly before the world. The first is, the publication of iu monuments, 

 as indispensable materials for all that is to follow ; the second, the 

 rendering of them accessible, by translations, to those who have not 

 the opportunity of acquiring, in addition to the knowledge of the 

 Welsh language as it now is, tliat of all its variations from the time of 

 King Arthur. The third will be, that of applying a judicious criticism 

 to these materials ; of comparing, elucidating, and investigating ; sepa- 

 rating the genuine from the spurious ; and deciding their value. " When 

 all this has been done, aud uot before, it will be possible to take a 

 satisfactory survey of the history of early Welsh literature, in which 

 is involved the history of two of the most interesting points of modem 

 literature in general, the origin of rhyme and the origin of romantic 

 liction. Under present circumstances many questions of interest must 

 be left doubtful. 



The history of Welsh literature may be divided into four periods : 

 from the earliest times to the Norman conquest of England iu 1068, 

 from the Norman conquest to the Reformation, which nearly coincides 

 with the incorporation of Wales with England in the reign of 

 Henry VIII., in 1536, from the Reformation to the commencement 

 of the reign of George III., in 1760, and from 1760 to the present 

 time. 



The Pint Period, 1068. The Welsh, it has been already stated, claim 

 to be in possession of several poetic compositions of the date of the 

 6th century, and these compositions are in rhyme, which would be, as 

 far as is at present known, the earliest instances of that kind of com- 

 position in Europe. The whole of them were printed in the ' Myvyriau 

 Archaiology,' in which they occupy one hundred and eighty-eight pages 

 of double columns, nothing of which beyond {a, few specimens had 

 appeared in print before. The authors to whom they are attributed 

 are: Aneurin, who is supposed to have lived from 510 to 560; 

 Toliesin, the Chief of Bards, from 520 to 570; Llywarch Hen, or 

 Llywarch the Old, from 550 to 640 ; and Myrddin, or Merlin, from 530 

 to 600 ; besides Qwydduo, Gwilym ab Don, Golyddan, and others of 

 minor importance. 



The authenticity of these poems having been impugned by two cele- 

 brated antagonists of the Celts, by Pinkerton, in his preface to 

 Barbour, and by Laing, in a note to his ' Dissertation on Ossian,' it was 

 maintained by Sharon Turner, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, in his ' Vindi- 

 cation of the Genuineness of the Antient British Poems of Aneurin, 

 Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, and Menldin,' first published separately in 

 1803, and since appended to the successive editions of his ' History of 

 the Anglo-Saxons.' 



In this treatise Mr. Turner asserted the genuineness of the ancient 

 poems on both internal and external evidence. The oldest copy of 

 any of them extant occurs in an ancient manuscript called ' The Black- 

 Book of Carmarthen,' formerly preserved in the library of the Vaughous 

 at Hengwrt in Merionethshire, which was brought together by Robert 

 Vaughan, who died in 1666. This book is believed, by competent 

 judges, to be of the 12th century ; so that if forged at all the poems 

 must have been forged as far bock as" that period, while in fact they are 

 alluded to as ancient by writers of the centuries immediately following. 

 If fabricated at that time, it is probable that they would have con- 

 tained allusions to the popular legends respecting King Arthur, whose 

 name had then become known throughout Europe as that of the hero 

 of romantic tradition; while these compositions, professing to be 

 written by contemporaries of Arthur, and frequently referring to his 

 life and actions, always mention him in a sober, unexaggerated, strain, 

 perfectly consistent with the light in which he is presented by authentic 

 history. Finally the language is of an extremely antiquated cast, often 

 obscure, and sometimes unintelligible, and altogether different from 

 that of compositions known to be of the 12th century. 



The weak point in Mr. Turner's argument is that it proves, or 

 assume* to prove, too much. If all that he advances were valid, the 

 whole of the poem* ascribed to the primitive bards would be genuine, 

 but in fact some are demonstrobly otherwise. There is a remarkable 

 passage in E vans'* ' Specimen* of the British Bard*,' published in 1763, 

 every word of which has been confirmed by the most recent investiga- 

 tions. Speaking of Taliesin, Evans says, " There are many spuri.ni* 

 pieces fathered on this bard in a great many hands in North Wak-n. 

 but these are all forged, either by the inonka to answer the purpose of 



WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



85) 



the I 'liurch of Rome, or by the British bards in the time of the later 

 princes of Wales to spirit up their countrymen against the English, 

 which any body versed in the language may easily find by the style 

 and matter." These pieces are those made public in the ' Myvyriau 

 Archaiology,' on the judicious principle laid down by its editors, of 

 putting in print and on record whatever was asserted to be of a certain 

 degree of antiquity, without any preliminary inquiry into the justice 

 of iu claims. The opportunity thus afforded of subjecting them to 

 criticism ha* been taken. 



The two works in which the subject has been treated \\ith tin- 

 greatest care since Mr. Turner's time, are ' The Literature of the 

 Kymry,' by Mr. Thomas Stephens, of Merthyr-Tydvil, pul.lishi'.l in 

 1849, and ' Taliesin, or the Bards and Druid* of Britain,' l.y Mr. I). W. 

 Nash, of the Royal Society of Literature, published in 1858. Mr. 

 Stephens is a Welshman of learning and of a critical habit of nnn.l, 

 and a candour not always met with among his countrymen. Mr. Nash 

 is an Englishman who has studied Welsh literature with peculiar alien- 

 ti "ii and success. The conclusions at which they arrive ore almost the 

 same. Of the seventy-seven poems ascribed to Taliesin, and printed in 

 the ' Myvyrian Archaiology,' Mr. Stephens considers fifty-seven to be 

 demonstrably spurious, and of the remaining twenty there ore i.nly 

 tuvlvu that he assigns with confidence to the time of Talk-sin. Mr. 

 Nosh gives translations of more than fifty of these poems, many ul 

 ulik-h had never appeared before iu any other language than Welsh ; 

 and the mere perusal of them is sufficient to show that the notion of 

 their belonging to the 6th century is absurd. Poems which had been 

 represented by some Welsh writers as full of allusions to the rites of 

 Druidisin are full of allusions to Roman Catholic theology, partly 

 couched in medueval Latin. One instance will be sufficient to show 

 the nature of the arguments. There is a poem, ascribed to Taliesin, 

 prophetic of the fall of his country, in which occur the lines which arc 

 on the lips of every Welshman, and have been cited ofteuer than any 

 other lines in the language : 



I. ii Xer a mutant, 

 Eii hiailh a gad want, 

 i.u tir a golUnt 



Ond gwyllt Wulia." 



" Their God they shall adore, 

 Their Language they shall keep, 

 Their country they shall lose 

 Excejit wild Wales." 



Such a prophecy made in the 6th century, when the Saxons were 

 contending with King Arthur, and the struggle between the races was 

 still going'on in Cumberland and elsewhere, would indeed be remarkable, 

 while in the 12th century it would be that not unusual phenomenon, a 

 prophecy after the event. The language of the poem is so free from 

 obscurity, that it is said, in the periodical entitled ' Taliesin,' for 1861, 

 to be " intelligible this day to the children of Aberystwith." Many of 

 the proper names which occur in the poem have a very peculiar 

 character. They are in a Latinised form, " Troia " for Troy, 

 mania" for Germany, "Sacsonia" for Saxony, "Sabrina" for the 

 Severn, and, in the passage quoted, " Wolia " for Wales. Can it bo 

 supposed that the Saxon term for Wales was iu common use in the 

 6th century ? that it hod been already Latinised ? aud, lastly, that a 

 Welsh bard of the court of King Arthur borrowed the Latinised form 

 of the name of his country from his country's foes to introduce in his 

 patriotic poem ? All these circumstances appear to indicate the com- 

 position of the lines by a mediaeval monk, and the supposi; 

 strengthened by the mention of Troy as the land of the origin of the 

 Britons, a prevalent belief after the time of Geoffrey of iloiimouth, 

 who flourished under Henry I. 



While the authenticity of some of the most interesting supposed 

 relics of Taliesin must therefore be given up, the critics who impugn 

 them concur in believing that other portions ore really genuine. The 

 Rev. Evan Evans in his 'Specimens,' Mr. Stephens, Mr. Nash, and 

 others, are all of this opinion. Unfortunately, those of the seventy- 

 seven which they respect are of a very small degree of interest 

 Taliesin, as he has descended to us, ia certainly no Ossian taking as 

 the proper representative of the Gaelic bard the Ossian of Macpherson 

 nor is he even equal to Aueurin, still less to Llywarch Hen. 



Many of the fictitious poems ascribed to Taliesin occur iu a strange 

 legend of his life, which is itself a singular relic of literature. The 

 traditions of the great bard, relied ou by Williams in his ' Lives of 

 Eminent Welshmen,' represent him as the son of a saint, a certain St. 

 Henwg, and educated at the College of St. Cadog. Much of bis time 

 was spent at the court of Urieu Rheged, a chieftain to whom many of 

 his poems are addressed, but being once fishing at sea in a skin coracle 

 he was seized by Irish pirates, who bore away with him towards 

 Ireland. Escaping from them in his coracle, while they were engaged in 

 drunken revelry, he was tossed about at the mercy of the waves till the 

 coracle stuck to the point of a pole iu the weir of Gwydduo, prince of 

 Cardigan at Aberdy vi. At the court of Gwydduo. who was himself a 

 poet, he remained till the memorable event of the destruction of 

 Gwyddno's country, in the beginning of the 6th century, by an inun- 

 dation of the sea, which converted what was dry land into the present 

 Cardigan Bay. After thU time Taliesiu went to the court of Km 

 Arthur at Caerleou on Uek, and ou his death was interred at the spot 



