296 NATURAL HISTORY 
It treats of the PASSION in metre, but not in dramatick dialogue, 
entitled Mount Calvary r . 
The firft ordinak of the creation begins thus (God the Father 
fpeaking) : 
Cornifli. 
Englifhed. 
En Tas a Nef ym Gylmyr 
Formyer pub tra a vydh gwrys 
Onan ha tryon yn gwyr 
En Tas, han Mab, han Spyrys. 
Ha hethyn me a thefyr 
Dre ou grath dalleth an Bys 
Y lavaraf, nef, ha Tyr 
Formyys orthe ou brys. 
The Father of Heaven I the Maker, 
Former of every thing that {hall be made. 
One, and Three, truly. 
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, 
Yes — this day it is my will 
Of my efpecial favour to begin the world. 
I have faid it — Heaven and Earth 
Be ye formed by my counfel. 
This metre is not ill chofen or unmufical. 
The fcanning to be performed in the following manner : 
En Tas-a Nef-ym Gyl-wyr_ 
Formy-er pub-tra vyth-gwrys, &c. 
It is the Trochaic Heptafy liable, otherwife called the Trochaic 
Diameter Catale&ic s . It confifts of three trochees and a femiped. 
Ariftophanes was very fond of it at times 
In Latin, Horace adopts it, 
N5n ebur neque aureum. 
In Englifh, Shakefpeare frequently ufes it ; and Dryden for his 
tendereft numbers : 
Softly fweet in Lydian meafure, 
Soon he footh’d his foul to pleafure. 
The language fuits the metre ; as the fubject is fublime, the com- 
pofition is not unfuitable, as may be feen by the above and follow- 
ing ftanza : 
Yn pefwerc gwreys perfyth 
Then bys ol golowys glan, 
Haga hynwyn y a vyth 
An Houl, an Lor, h’an Steryan. 
Me a fet a hugh an gueyth 
Yn creys an Ebron avan. 
An Lor yn nos, Houl yn geyth 
May rollons y golow Splan. 
In the fourth [day] I Ihall make perfect 
For the world all the refplendent lights. 
And I will that they be called 
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. 
Them will I place on high 
In the midft of the firmament above. 
That the Moon by night, the Sun by day, 
May yield their glowing fplendour. 
The ftanza confifts of eight verfes with alternate rhymes ; fometimes 
this is changed for a ftanza of fix, of which the firft and fecond are 
of one rhyme, the fourth and fifth of another, and the third and 
fixth line of a third rhyme ; but the heptafyllable metre continues 
throughout with few deviations in this piece and all the others. 
r Mr. Scawen had a copy of this book in 1678, 
long before Mr. Ed. Lhuyd had his copy from Mr. 
Anftis, and gives a literal tranflation of it. The 
MS has been mentioned before, and is in the pof- 
feffion of the Reverend Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of 
Exeter. 
5 Upton on Shakefpeare, book hi. 
1 Ibid. 
The 
