374 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
subjected to Celtic usage, 1 and of French and Latin phrases, 2 are 
five in number. One is founded on legendary story, the others on 
Bible history. The existence of the first was not known till four 
years ago, when the manuscript containing it was found among 
the Welsh manuscripts at Peniarth, in Wales. It is called 
" Beunans Meriasek," the Life of S. Meriasek, 3 a Breton bishop, 
who visits Cornwall, makes a spring rise from the ground, performs 
several other miracles at Camborne, and founds a chapel there. Of 
the Bible mysteries, two are founded on the Old Testament story, 
and two on the New. One of the former, " Gwreans an Bys," 4 
the Creation of the World, is dated 1611; the other, " Ordinale 
de Origine Mundi," 5 the Origin of the World, written about two 
centuries earlier, carrying the Bible story from the six days' work 
of the creation to the completion of Solomon's temple. The more 
1 Thus mone — eng. "money," when grammatical position requires the 
change of initial m to its aspirate, becomes vone, "Passion, 486;" prys, 
"price," brys, " Ihid. 132." "To wander" is rendered literally the wandre, 
e final vocal being one of the signs of the infinitive mood in old Cornish, 
and, in the modern provincial dialect, many nouns are turned into verbs by 
adding y = final e; thus there is faggoty, "to bind sticks in bundles or 
faggots." 
2 Thus, when a lame man asks to be healed, Jesus says 
" me agas saw yn lowen 
in nomine patris et filii 
et spiritus sancti amen 
transite a me sani." 
That is, in Cornish, " I cure you gladly ; " and then in Latin, in the regular 
Church formulary, "in the name of the father and of the son and of the 
holy ghost amen go from me healed." No points are used in the MS., 
and very few capital letters. 
3 This mystery was edited and translated by Mr. Whitley Stokes, and 
published by the Philological Society in 1872. The MS. ends, "Finitur 
per Dominum Hadton, anno domini mccccciiii." 
4 The original MS. is in the Bodleian Library. Mr. Davies Gilbert published 
this with an old translation by Mr. Keigwyn. A more correct copy of the 
text with an improved translation by Mr. Whitley Stokes, was published by 
the Philological Society in 1864. The MS. ends with the following note : 
" Heare endeth the Creacon of the worlde w th Noyes flude, wry ten by 
William Jordan, the xiith of August, 1611." 
5 This is one of three mysteries published by Mr. Norris in 1859, with the 
title, " The Ancient Cornish Drama ; " the other two are the " Passio Domini 
nostri Jhesu Christi," and the " Ordinale de Eesurrexione Domini nostri 
Jhesu Christi." The stage directions are in Latin. The original MS. is in 
the Bodleian Library. 
