1*7 



WELSH I.VSta'AOK AND LITERATURE. 



I LANGUAGE AXD LITERATl'UK. 



treatiM on the art of Welah verification, ' Bard.loniacth,' which wo* 

 never completed. The Poolm* were reprinted in 1827. 



The meet popular poem, not only of that period, but of any period 

 in the history of Welah literature, was produoed.it is laid, l.y the 

 simple pioceai of turning into vene a aerie* of sermon*. The Rer. 

 Ree* Priehard, known a* the Vicar of Llandovery, wai aa popular a 

 preaehr in hU lifetime at after hia death ha became a popular poet. 

 When he preached at St. David'* the cathedral wa too small to hold 

 hit congregation, and he was cited in the eocleaiaBtioal court* fur having 

 at up a movable pulpit in the churchyard. Perceiving the partiality 

 of hia flock for verae he turned hi* homilies into rhymes, and the col- 

 lection wa* fint published in 1646 two yean after hia death. " The 

 work," aity* William*, in hia ' Liven of Kminent Welshmen,' waa no 

 aooner printed than it appeared in almost every hand, and wu hoard 

 from almot every mouth throughout the principality, and it it scarcely 

 credible with what uncommon avidity and pleasure it was received, 

 read, and repeated by the people." The Italian student i* reminded 

 by this account of the passage in Bernardo TOHSO'H letters, in which he 

 peak* of the fint appearance of Ariosto's epic and it* overwhelming 

 ucoea*. The aecret of the popularity of I'richard's volume, the 

 'Cinwyll y Cymry,' or 'Candle of the Cambrians,' as it is called, 

 appear* to have lain in it* combined religious and homely character 

 it did not fly one inch above common apprehension. A passage baa 

 been already quoted from an English translation of it by the Rev. 

 William Evans, which was publuhed in 1771, and this passage may be 

 taken a* an average specimen. The ' Candle of the Cambrian* ' is not 

 yet eztinguuhed, for the last edition, about the twentieth, appeared 

 with note*, Ac., in 1858. Its author was born at Llandovery in 1. ">?''. 

 became vicar of the parish in 1602, and died at Llandovery in 1644, 

 and the two laat and best edition* of hi* work ore from the Llandovery 

 prea*. 



The next bard who deserves attention in a general surrey of Welsh 

 literature is Huw Morns, or Hugh Morris, who was born in 1622, and 

 punrived till 1709. " He is to be ranked," we are told in the ' Cam- 

 brian Register,' '' among the fint of the Welsh pouts. He eminently 

 excelled in that talent which we call humour, and was equally master 

 of the pathetic and the sublime." The lamu writer state* that hia 

 ' Elegy on the Death of Mrs. Middleton,' U equal or superior to " the 

 two most beautiful compositions in the English language on the game 

 subject, the ' Monody' on the death of hia lady, by Lord Lyttelton, 

 ami that ' To the Memory of a Young Lady,' by Mr. Shaw." The 

 wurks of Huw Morns were published in two duodecimo volumes, at 

 Wrexhum, in 1823, under the title of ' Eon Ceiriog/ or ' The Nightin- 

 gale of Ceiriog.' 



The most distinguished bard of the 18th century was Ooronwy 

 Owen, who i* styled by Owen Pughe " one of the greatest poets that 

 appeared among the Welsh." He was the son of a peasant in Anglesey, 

 where he was born on the 1st of January, 1722, and was indebted for his 

 education to Mr. Lewis Morris, a distinguished antiquary, who had him 

 brought up for the church. He married in Oswestry, where he was curate, 

 and says in one of his letters," My wife speaks very little Welsh, yet she 

 understand* tome ; BO that I fear that if I go not to Wales, my boys 

 will l.e Saxon*, for by the life of me I cannot teach the eldest one 

 word of Welsh." He was curate to Dr. Douglas, afterwards bishop of 

 Salisbury. " the person," he say*, in one of his letters, ' who defended 

 the poet Milton against the insidious defamation of Laudcr. Be it as 

 it may, he is sufficiently severe and hard towards me. I hold some 

 little land of him appertaining to the school, and though it wo* set too 

 huh before, yet he ho* sent down this year orders to raise the rent, 

 lest a poor wretched curate should gain anything in his service, or 

 obtain too good a bargain at his hand." His career appears to have 

 been a very unfortunate one ; but it must not be forgotten that he was 

 an incorrigible drunkard. HU poverty led him to petition the Cyniin- 

 rodorion Society, in 1 757, for ami stance toward* paying his passage 

 for America, where lie settled at \V illLuusburg in Virginia; and after 

 the year 1767 nothing further waa heard of him. " About the year 

 1798," *ay*Owen Pughe, in the ' Cambrian Biography,' "some persons 

 who revered hi* memory tried to obtain information if he were alive 

 or dead, and with that view cent a letter over to hU son. Him they 

 found perfectly A ! ; before any answer was sent, he must 



fint know who would pay him for his trouble." In a life of Goronwy 

 Owen by Mr. Borrow, tint printed in the ' Quartet ly Iteview ' for 

 1861, it i* stated that he died about 1780. Thu prmci|al poem* of 

 .vy Owen are t<. lie found in the first vulu: . culled 



1 Diddanwch Teuliiaidd,' or ' Domestic Amuse.'iictit,' printed at i 

 in 17>>". lu a curious preface the printer states that the v. 

 put into lii. h.iiL'l* liy the editor, Hugh Joncn,' who "owned 

 himnelf inca|>able of writing an EiiKh.-h preface to it, and t! 

 detired me to do that office for him. ' " The editor," In- add*, " being 

 an itinerary ban! in the manner of the ancient*, hath given mo leavu 

 to tell hi* rtaden that he pn t -H<M to neither learning nor language*; 

 he despise* them all except uiioun, a* the chief Ureck poeU did. calling 

 other l.ngiiage* barbarous. He can hanlly be persuaded that the 

 English or French nation* have anything tint may properly l> called 

 poetry ; such i man'* partiality tonunU lii> own country 

 KTh prone literature of the thitd period U remarkably poor. It* 

 most popular production i* iUcIf only an adaptation or imitation 

 of a foreign original, the ' Dardd Cwig, or ' Sleeping Bard,' 



Wynne, first published in 1703, and since frequently reprint, 



hut time in ISfll, with note* by Silvan Evan*. It consiiU of a aerie* of 



vision* of hell and the invisible world, chiefly taken from the . 



of Quevedo, the Spanish humourist, which were translated into 



English, and for a time enjoyed eonaiderable popularity. Wynne hod 



prepared a second work, ' Uweledigneth y Nov,' 



Heaven,' but waa to mortified at being spoken of aa a plagiarist 



from Quevndo, that he threw the manuscript into the fire. The 



plan! of the " Bardd Cwag " is a singularly gloomy and repulsive one for 



a satire; bat the beauty of the style i* *o striking, that th< 



remains popular in Welsh ; and, itrange to aay, a tranlati 



l.ir.-li-h was published in 1861 by Mr. (Jeorp 



' The liipsiea, and ' The Bible in Spain.' Ellis Wynne also translated 



into Welsh, Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy Living,' and revised the v 



of the < '..Minion 1'iay T, and though most celebrated for hi* prose, 



enjoyed *ome reputation a* a poet. He was induced to tak< 



orders, though he had no inclination for the ministry, and held tho 



rectory of Llanvair. He was born in 1670 and died in 1734. 



A vigorous attempt to call attention to th. .-ancient literature 



waa made toward* the end of this period by the Rev. Moses William*, 

 an antiquary and author, who was in advance of hia age, and ha* not 



dated July 31st, 1719. * This design," it is said, " ha 

 of by such gentlemen as have been made acquainted therewith, who 

 have promised to encourage it a* well by subscribing to it as by com- 

 municating their manuscript*, some whereof are already put itr 

 publisher's hands. . . . Subscriptions for the fint volume are tak 

 by Mr. Alban Thomas, at the Royal Society's House in Crane ' 

 Fleet Street; Messrs. William and John I nnys, booksellers i 

 Churchyard, London ; and by the editor, Moses 'Williams." A speci- 

 men is subji page* of the 'Liber Triadmn,' <>r I'. 

 Triads, in Welsh only. Bound up in the came volume with it in the 



:i is a ma:, :t ion of the intended preface, in Latin, 



apologising for publishing the documents in the original language 

 without a translation, which is excused on the ground of the extreme 

 difficulty of arriving at a cert-tin knowledge of the meaning of 

 sentence in the then state of the study of the language. The writer. 

 Moses Williams, was, however, at that time one of the belt Welsh 

 scholars living, and the glossary which he supplied to Wotton's ' Leges 

 Wallicm' is a proof of his erudition. The library of t 

 Macclesfield contains a number of transcripts which he hail mode, 

 doubtless for the purposes of this intended work, and which arc likely 

 to be of great critical value. Had his proposals bi-ti r..,i-. .1 with 

 favour, he might have hod the glory of anticipating the 'My 

 Archaiology.' William* was a singularly diligent and accurate sch'.lar, 

 and ; published a ' Kepertorium Poeticum,' or list of V 

 and a general catalogue of Welsh books, which will 1 

 more particularly henafter. Two Welsh sermons, pi 

 printed by him in London, in 1717 and 171!'. are in the 1 

 Museum, and are of considerable interest from the it I'oiin.iti- 

 contain on the state of the Welsh church, and of the Welsh 1 u 

 at that period. They are not mentioned, so far as we are aware, in 

 any of the notices on Williams'* biography, of which the most aroplu 

 that we have Been U in William* of Llangadwalulr's ' Lives of lii 

 Welshmen.' He was born in Cardiganshire in.ltiSS, and died as vicar 



lary's, Bridgewater, in 17-1^. 



It has been mentioned that the early editions of the Welsh Bible were 

 printed in London, and the introduction of typography into the 

 Principality wa exceedingly slow. Cotton, in the ' Typographical 

 Gazetteer,' states that the earliest information he possesses on ill 

 subject i* from one of 'the Martin Jl.u -Pniatc tracts in < 

 Elizabeth's reign, in which mention is made of knave Tha.-kwell tin 1 

 printer, which printed jiopyshe and traitorous Wolshe books in Wale*,' 

 and nothing more ha* ever been discovered of the printer or hi* books. 

 I'enry, who was hanged as the author of tho Mar- Prelate tracts, was by 

 birth a Welshman. In th. lor August, 



1821, it i* observed by a correspondent, that "from the invention of 



; downward*, so advene were the circumstances attending the 

 diH'uxiim of Welsh literature, that there waa not a print inn-pre.-K in the 

 principality until the year 1734, or thereabouts, wh, D 



1 up l'_v Mr. !.<> '' I'.dcyrn, ie Tlii - 



':c correspondent add*, " Is still in being at Trevriw, 

 near l.lam v 



// I'n-inil- 17<iO-lSijl. A new period in the history of 

 literati!' .-aid to commence with the i. in "t George 111, a 



hundred years ag". MOntftft the middle <.f the l>th century. Tin- 

 remarkable increase of activity whi in that lit. 



during these hundred yean, and especially during t! 

 t. ! attributable to the spontaneous impulse given b] 



i Wales; to the 



establUhmci: nl'lications; and to tho 



institution or revival of , 



< >. of the tint signs of a new era in the literature of Wai. 

 given by the publication in 17C4 of a thin but important 

 volume. " Some Specimens of tho Poetry of the atici 1.1 u ,:i. 

 translated into English, with explanatory notes on the historical passage* 



