873 



WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



874 



they were transcribed. One of these pieces, called the ' Voice Conven- 

 tional of the Bards of Britain," contains an account of the origin of the 

 ancient Welsh alphabet at the time of the Creation, taken also from a 

 manuscript by Llewelyn Sion of Llangewyd. But again, as has been 

 said, the 'Bardie Triads' are missing, and in 1861 the ' Secret of the 

 Bards ' is still a secret. 



Taliesin Williams appears to have told the Rev. Thomas Price, after 

 the death of lolo ('Cambrian Journal' for 1857, p. 224), that "he 

 himself had been for twenty years under a sort of druidical training 

 with his father, and that the system was of so sublime and intellectual 

 a nature, that unless he could find some one qualified in such a way as 

 to be a worthy member of the order the secret should die with him." 

 The hope, therefore, of developing the mystery, such as it is, might be 

 abandoned, but for the declaration of the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, 

 in the ' Cambrian Journal,' of which he is the editor (1857, p. 57) : 

 "Much of the real Cyvrinach alluded to is still extant, as we ourselves 

 can testify, and we sincerely trust that measures will be adopted by 

 the Welsh Manuscript Society for the speedy publication of the whole. 

 Until this is done, the early literature and history of our country can 

 never be properly understood." 



Much doubt was also thrown on the discovery of the ' Coelbren 

 y Beirdd," or Alphabet of the Bards, an alphabet resembling the Runic, 

 which was also brought forward by lolo Morganwg, and an essay on its 

 genuineness was proposed as the subject of a prize at an Eisteddvod 

 in 1840. When the author of the successful essay was sought for by 

 opening the envelope containing his name, it was found to be Taliesin 

 Williams, or, as he was proud to call himself, Ab lolo, who thus strove 

 to vindicate the fair fame of his father. The dissertation is pronounced 

 by impartial critics, Dr. Williams of Llangadwaladr, and Dr. Tregelles, 

 to be a masterpiece, and the author is said to have shown satisfactorily 

 that there were traces of the alphabet in Welsh literature long before 

 his father's time. Since then, it has apparently been assumed by some 

 Welsh writers, not only that the history of this alphabet, tracing it 

 back to the Creation, was shown to be Elizabethan, or mediaeval, but 

 was also shown to be druidical, and strangest of all authentic. 

 There are many illiterate persons who suppose that a statement must 

 necessarily be true because it has appeared in print, but some of the 

 Welsh critics carry the point still farther, and apparently believe every- 

 thing they find in manuscript. 



The three associates of the ' Myvyrian Archaiology ' had each but one 

 son, and in each case the son became an eminent man. Taliesin Wil- 

 liams, or Ab lolo, the son of Edward Williams, or lolo Morganwg, who 

 has been already so frequently mentioned, was for the greater part of 

 his life a schoolmaster at Merthyr-Tydvil. He was born in 1787, and 

 died in 1847. Like his father, he wrote both Welsh and English poetry. 

 Aneurin Owen, the son of William Owen Pughe, never took the name 

 of Pughe, assumed by his father. His edition of the ' Laws of Wales,' 

 already mentioned, is a lasting title to remembrance. He was born in 

 1792, and died in 1851. The son of Owen Jones, still living, is Owen 

 Jones the eminent architect, who produced, in conjunction with Goury 

 and < iayangos, the finest work on the Alhambra of Granada ; and after- 

 wards reproduced, with signal magnificence, the Alhambra itself at 

 Sydenham, where he employed, in the decoration of a second Crystal 

 Palace, the talents which had largely contributed to the success of the 

 first. 



One of the most eminent writers on Welsh antiquities of the com- 

 mencement of the century, was the Rev. Edward Daviea, born in Rad- 

 norshire in 1 756, who died, after a long illness, on the first day of the 

 year 1831. He first essayed his powers in works of imagination 

 ' Aphtharte,' a poem, and ' Eliza Powell, or the Trials of Sennibility," a 

 novel ; but his chief productions were ' Celtic Researches,' published 

 in 1804, and the 'Mythology of the Druids,' published in 1809, two 

 volumes of no inconsiderable ingenmty and learning, employed in the 

 support of a singular theory. According to Davies the druidical 

 superstition was preserved and patronised in Wales, in an esoteric 

 fashion, down to the time of Edward I., and was a form of worship in 

 which the bull, the horse, and the element of fire were prominent 

 emblems. " If this be genuine British heathenism," he remarks, " it 

 will be expected that vestiges of it should be discovered in the oldest 

 bards now extant, and here, in fact, they present themselves in horrid 

 profusion." The translations of Davies are made in so peculiar a 

 fashion, that he turns the Gododin of Aneurin into a description, 

 not of a battle at Cattraeth, but 'of the massacre at Stonehenge; and 

 indeed in his hands, it is difficult to see what any passage may not 

 prove. He is, as might be expected, severe in his criticism on lolo 

 Morganwg and his ' Bardic Triads,' of the genuineness of which he 

 distinctly intimated his disbelief in 1809 ; but his own views are in 

 many cases evidently fanciful, though they have been supported, even 

 in later years, by writers of learning. Davies, towards the close of 

 his life, received one of the literary pensions of 100 guineas, paid by 

 George IV. to the nominees of the Royal Society of Literature. 



The Rev. Thomas Price, another eminent Welsh antiquary, was a 

 much safer and more candid guide than most of those who have been 

 equally enthusiastic in the cause of his country's language and litera- 

 ture. He observed, in his ' Hanes Cymru,' while praising the care 

 which had been taken to collect and print all the alleged productions 

 f.f the primitive bards in the Myvyrian Archaiology, that it was only 

 necessary to turn over the pages to see that some of the pieces did 



not, and could not, belong to the names they were ascribed to, and he 

 acknowledged the difficulties with regard to the ' Historic Triads ' and 

 other documents, which are often quoted by others without a hint of 

 unsoundness. Thomas Price was, like Edward Williams, the son of a 

 stonemason, but of a stonemason who, having formed an attachment to 

 a clergyman's daughter, had qualified hims-elf to become a clergyman, 

 and died a Welsh pluralist with a salary of fifty pounds a year. Mr. 

 Price himself, who was born in 1787, and died in 1848, at the age of 

 sixty-one, rose no higher in the church than to the vicarage of Cwmdu. 

 He was so indefatigable a writer in Welsh periodicals, chiefly under 

 the signature of " Carnhuanawc," that he contributed to fifteen, aud 

 wrote an article for one or the other of them every month. His chief 

 production in Welsh is the ' Hanes Cymru a chenedl y Cymry ' (pub- 

 lished in numbers between 1836 and 1842>, a ' History of Wales and 

 the Welsh nation from the earliest times to the death of Llewellyn,' 

 after which it is indeed continued, but on a very meagre scale. It is 

 the only history of Wales in Welsh at all commensurate in size and 

 importance with the histories of Wales in English by Warrington and 

 Woodward. It comprises not only a political, but a literary history of 

 the country during most of the period that it embraces, and well 

 merits a translation. The best of his English works are collected in 

 the ' Literary Remains of the Rev. Thomas Price, with a Memoir of 

 his Life by Jane Williams,' in two volumes (1854-55), the corre- 

 spondence in which presents, it has been remarked, the fullest picture 

 yet drawn of a Welsh literary life. 



One of the few instances of Welsh scholars who have obtained dis- 

 tinction in some other walk is afforded by the Rev. John Williams, 

 archdeacon of Cardigan, author of ' Homer' and ' Gomer,' the former 

 a treatise on the Greek poet, and the latter on the Welsh language. 

 Born in 1792, and sent from the school at Ludlow to Balliol College, 

 Oxford, Williams was fortunate enough to meet with Lockhart as a 

 fellow-student, and to form a friendship with him which influenced his 

 whole future career. Recommended by Lockhart as tutor to the second 

 son of Sir Walter Scott, he obtained, by Sir Walter's support, in 1824, 

 the rectorship of the new Edinburgh Academy, a sort of rival to the 

 old High School and formed one of the circle of the great poet and 

 romancer, over whose remains he finally read the funeral service in 

 Dryburgh Abbey. His success as a teacher was marked, and the first 

 ' Dux' in his school was Archibald Tait, the present bishop of London. 

 After twenty years of life in Scotland, he returned to Wales, to the 

 vicarage of Lampeter and the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and continued 

 a career of authorship till his death at Bushey Heath in December, 

 1858. His best known work was a life of Alexander the Great, and 

 as archdeacon of Cardigan, his ecclesiastical superior was the Bishop of 

 St. David's, Dr. Connop Thirlwall, author of the celebrated ' History 

 of Greece.' Both bishop and archdeacon: were also Welsh scholars ; 

 but Thirlwall acquired the language after his accession to the bishopric ; 

 Williams had always been noted for his attachment to his country's 

 language and literature, and was zealous in Scotland for the honour of 

 Wales. His writings on Welsh subjects, however, did not raise his 

 reputation. In Gomer,' a dissertation on the early forms and history 

 of the language, he expressed himself with such positiveness on doubt- 

 ful subjects, and such vehemence on unimportant ones, as to weaken 

 his authority. He had announced a translation of the poems of 

 Aneurin, Taliesin, and the other primitive bards, with a critical revision 

 and re-establishment of the text, which was looked for with much in- 

 terest; but though the announcement was made in 1841, nothing had 

 been done towards carrying it out at his death in 1858. 



Among the most eminent of living Welsh antiquaries is another John 

 Williams, the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel, rector of Llanymowddwy, 

 Merionethshire, and editor of the ' Cambrian Journal,' gainer of the 

 prizes at numerous Eisteddvods, and author of numerous works on 

 Cambrian subjects. Ab Ithel is an ardent believer in the discoveries 

 and disclosures of the last seventy years, with regard to Cambrian 

 history. In the year 1856 he edited, for the Welsh Manuscript 

 Society, the ' Grammar of Edeyrn the Golden Tongued,' said to be 

 composed about the year 1270, and to which Mr. Williams added a 

 translation and copious notes. The first note is as follows : " The 

 British alphabet is said to be of divine origin. God in the beginning 

 announced His name, and said /|\ , whereupon all things sprang simul- 

 taneously into life and being, and responded in a shout of extatic joy, 

 /|N. At the same time there appeared three rays of light, forming the 

 divine name and the three first letters, which were also the source of 

 all letters and sciences. Einigan Gawr, who was favoured with this 

 sight, took three rods of mountain ash, and inscribed upon them the 

 name of the Deity, but the people that saw them mistook the rods, 

 thus bearing His name, for God himself, which caused Einigan to die 

 of grief. (See Coelbren y Beirdd, pp. 6, 7, lolo Manuscripts, p. 424.) 

 After his decease, Menw ap y Teirgwaedd received a knowledge of the 

 primary alphabet, and developed it, as it would seem, to the extent of 

 ten letters. These letters, or, as they were originally termed, awgrym- 

 mau (signs), coelbrai (omen-marks), or ystorrynau (cuttings), were 

 kept a secret by the Bards until the time of Beli Mawr, or, as 

 Llywelyn Sion says, even unto his own day. (lolo Manuscripts, pp. 

 617, 618, 623.)" As Llewelyn Sion, of Llangewyd, of whom we have 

 so often had occasion to speak, died about the year 1616, it must be ac- 

 knowledged that this was the best kept secret on record. Mr. Williams, 

 it will be observed, speaks of these statements, in regard to the British 



