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MANX LITERATURE]
See also:long run of See also:necessity proved adverse to the vitality of the See also:language. The best See also:standard of Gaelic is by See also:common consent the language of the Scriptures.. See also: Macleod's See also:style is racy and elegant, and his work is deservedly popular.
In conclusion we must take See also:notice of the more important collections of See also:folklore. Gaelic, like Irish, is extraordinarily See also:rich in See also:proverbs. The first collection of Gaelic proverbs was published in 1785 by Donald See also:Macintosh. This work was supplemented and enlarged in 1881 by See also: G. Campbell, D. Maclnnes, J. Macdougall and See also:Lord See also:Archibald Campbell, have been published (1889–1895) by Nutt under the title Waifs and Strays of See also:Celtic Tradition. These collections contain a See also:good See also:deal of See also:matter pertaining to the old heroic cycles. Seven See also:ballads dealing with the See also:Ulster See also:cycle were collected and printed by See also:Hector Maclean under the title Ultonian See also:Hero-ballads (See also:Glasgow, 1892). See also:Macpherson gave a fillip to collectors of Ossianic See also:lore, and a number of See also:MSS. going back to his See also:time are deposited in the See also:Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. J. F. Campbell spent twelve years searching for variants, and his results were published in his Leabhar na Feinne (1872). This volume contains 54,000 lines of heroic See also:verse. The Edinburgh MSS. were transcribed by Alexander See also:Cameron, and published after his See also:death by Alexander Macbain and John See also:Kennedy in his Reliquiae Celticae. This work is therefore a See also:complete corpus of Gaelic heroic verse. Finally the charms and incantations of the Highlands have been collected and published by Alexander Carmichael in two sumptuous volumes under the title Carmina Gadelica (r900). James Macpherson, An See also:Episode in Literature (See also:London, 1905) ; L. C. Stern, " See also:Die Ossianischen Heldenlieder " in Zeitschrift See also:fur vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte (1895), translated by J. L. See also:Robertson in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, See also:xxv. 257-325; G. Dottin, Revue de synthese historique, viii. 79-91; M. C. Macleod, See also:Modern Gaelic Bards (See also:Stirling, 1908). (E. C. Q.)
IV. WELSH LITERATURE.—The See also:oldest documents consist of
glosses of the 9th and loth centuries found in four MSS.—Oxoni-
ensis See also:prior and posterior, the See also:Cambridge See also:Juvencus
See also:Early and Martiantis See also:Capella. These glosses were published MSS.
by J. Loth in his Vocabulaire vieux-See also:breton (1884), but their value is entirely philological. In addition, we possess two short verses, written in Irish characters, preserved in the Juvencus See also:Manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge (printed in See also:Skene's Four See also:Ancient Books of See also:Wales). This manuscript is a versification of the Gospels dating from the 9th See also:century. The value of these two verses is threefold: they give us, in the first See also:place, a specimen of the Welsh language at a time when the modern See also:laws of euphony were in a comparatively elementary See also:stage; secondly, they are of the utmost importance to the historian tracing the development of Welsh versification, and, in future See also:research, they must be taken into See also:account by the historian of modern metres in other See also:languages; and, thirdly, the similarity of their See also:form and diction to other verses, attributed to Llywarch See also:Hen, and preserved in a much later See also:orthography, will be a serious See also:consideration to the higher critic in Welsh literature.
All the prose and verse of the succeeding centuries, that is to say from the loth to the beginning of the 14th, is preserved in "See also:Black four important See also:manuscripts, written during the latter Book of See also:half of the See also:period. The first of these manuscripts is carmar- the Black Book of See also:Carmarthen, a small See also:quarto vellum
then." manuscript of fifty leaves, written in See also:Gothic letters by various hands during the reign of See also: (published in facsimile by Gwenogvryn See also:Evans, See also:Oxford, 1907). This book belonged originally to the priory of Black Canons at Carmarthen, from whom it passed to the See also: F. Skene with a tentative See also:English version in his Four Ancient Books of Wales. The other Welsh manuscripts, ranging down from the 15th to the 18th century, are far too numerous to notice, and it is outside the See also:scope of this See also:article to deal minutely with the original See also:sources of the See also:text of Welsh writings. We will now only endeavour to See also:sketch the history of Welsh literature from these early centuries down to our own times, and to show how the Celtic See also:people of Wales have See also:developed a literature true to their own See also:genius, and how that literature stands to this See also:day both a See also:minister to the culture of the Welsh people and a sure indication of it. 1. Early Latin Writers.—The works now known as those of See also:Gildas (q.v.) and See also:Nennius (q.v.) are written in Latin; they throw considerable light on the origin of Welsh romantic literature and on the history of the earlier poems. Gildas was See also:born at Ailclyd, the modern See also:Dumbarton, that part of See also:Britain which iscalled by Welsh writers Y Gogledd, or the See also:North. Several See also:dates have been assigned for his See also:birth and death, but he probably flourished between 500 and 58o, and his book, De Excidio Brilanniae seems to have been written about 56o. This work is a sketch of See also:British history under the See also:Romans and in the Gildas. period after their withdrawal from the See also:country, and includes the period of the See also:wars of the Britons with the Picts, Scots and See also:Saxons. Mr Skene suggests very reasonably that the well-known See also:letter of the Britons to See also:Aetius, asking for See also:Roman aid, is misplaced, and that if put in its own place some of the anachronisms of Gildas will disappear. This work, which contains some spirited attacks on the leaders of the Britons for their sins, is strangely full of contradictions. It seems to be the work of some See also:person well versed in the facts of that part of British history, to which he had an easy See also:access, but who supplemented them with traditional details and with dates which were See also:mere guess-work. Mr Skene thinks that the work of Nennius was originally written in Welsh in the north and was afterwards translated into Latin. To this See also:nucleus was added the genealogies of the Saxon See also:kings down to 738. Afterwards some person, called Marc in theVatican manuscript, appended probably about 823 the life of St Germanus and the legends of St See also:Patrick, which were subsequently incorporated with the history. Some South Welshman added to the oldest manuscript of the history in these countries, about g77, a See also:chronicle of events from 444 to 954, in which there are genealogies beginning with Owain, son of Hywel Dda, king of South Wales. This chronicle, which is not found in other manuscripts, has been made the basis of two later See also:chronicles brought down to 1286 and 1288 respectively. It is consequently not the work of one author. A learned Irishman named Gilla Coemgin, who died in 1072, translated it into Irish and added many things concerning the Irish and the Picts. The Historia Britonum is more valuable for the legendary matter which it contains than for what may be accepted as history, for it gives us the British legends of the colonization of See also:Great Britain and See also:Ireland, the exploits of King See also:Arthur and the prophecies of See also:Merlin, which are not found elsewhere before the 12th century. The date of the book is of the greatest importance to the history of medieval See also:romance, and there can be no doubt that it is earlier than the Norman See also:Conquest and that the legends themselves are of British origin. 2. The Epic Period, qoo–gso.—The higher See also:criticism of the early poetry of Wales contained in the four ancient manuscripts already mentioned has undergone a good many changes since their contents first excited the curiosity of English scholars. In turn Welshmen, with more zeal than discretion, have displayed an amazing charlatanism in the extraordinary theories which they put forth, and Englishmen have shown an utmost meanness in belittling what is undoubtedly a most valuable See also:monument of the past. But now the labours of Zeuss and others who have made a study of Celtic See also:philology furnish us with much safer canons of criticism than existed in 1849, when even a learned Welshman, the See also:late Thomas See also:Stephens, who did more than any one else to establish the claims of his country to a real literature, doubted the authenticity of a large number of the poems said to have been written by Taliessin, Aneirin, Myrddin and Llywarch Hen, who are supposed to have lived in the 5th century. A great service was done to Welsh literature by the publication of the texts of those poems from the four ancient manuscripts by W. F. Skene. In addition to the text, See also:translations of the poems were furnished by Dr Silvan Evans and the Rev. Robert See also:Williams, but the translation, though on the whole a very creditable work, is full of mistakes which few men, See also:writing at that time, could have avoided. The publication of the text of the Black Book, with notes by Dr Gwenogvryn Evans, will be of great service towards clearing up the mist which envelops this older literature. Most of the poems in these four manuscripts are attributed to four poets, Aneirin, Llywarch Hen, Taliessin and Myrddin, who are said to have lived and written in Cumbria or Y Gogledd, where the actors in the events referred to also lived. The greater part of this region enjoyed substantial See also:independence down to the end of the 9th century, with the exception of the See also:interval from 655, when they were subjected to the kingdom of See also:Northumbria by Oswy after the defeat of Cadwallawn and See also:Penda, to the See also:battle of Dunnichen in 686, when Ecfrid, king of Northumbria, was defeated. From the 7th to the 9th century Cumbria, including under that name all the British territory from the Ribble to the See also:Clyde, was the See also:principal See also:theatre of British and Saxon conflict. The rise of the See also:dynasty of Maelgwn Gwynedd, who, according to Welsh tradition, was a descendant of Cunedda Wledig, one of the Picts of the north, brought Wales into See also:close connexion with the Cumbrian kingdom, and prepared both North and South Wales for the reception of the See also:northern traditions and the rise of a true Welsh literature. Whether the poets of the north really wrote any of the poems which in a modified form have come down to us or not, there can be no doubt that a number of See also:lays attributed to them lived in popular tradition, and that under the sudden burst of See also:glory which the deeds of Cadwallawn called forth and which ended in the disastrous defeat of 655, a British literature began to See also:spring up, and was nourished by the hopes of a future resurrection under his son Cadwaladr, whose death was disbelieved in for such a long time. These floating lays and traditions gradually gathered into North Wales, brought thither by the See also:nobility and the bards who fled before advancing hosts of the victorious Saxon kings of the north. The heroes of the north became now the heroes of Wales, and the sites of the battles they fought were identified with places of similar name in Wales and See also:England. By far the longest and the most famous poem of this See also:series is attributed to See also:Aneurin. This spelling of his name is compara- tively modern, and in the old manuscripts it is given as Aneirin. The later form seems to have been affected bythe form eurin, " See also:golden," and to owe the continuation of the misspelling to a belief that the poet and Gildas, whose name is supposed to be the Latin form of the Old English gylden, were one and the same person. This poem, called the Gododin (with notes by T. Stephens and published by Prof. Powel for the Cymmrodorion Society, London, 1888), is extremely obscure, both on account of its vocabulary and its See also:topography and allusions. It deals mainly with " the men who went to See also:Cat- traeth," which is supposed to have been fought between the Britons and the Scots under Aedan, king of See also:Dalriada, and the See also:pagan Saxons and their British subjects in Devyr (See also:Deira) and Bryneich (See also:Bernicia), and the half-pagan Picts of Guotodin, a See also:district corresponding to the northern half of the Lothians along the See also:Firth of Forth. Critics have attempted with partial success to See also:cast some light on its obscurity by supposing that the poem as a whole is made up of two parts dealing with two distinct battles. This may or may not be, but there is no doubt that many of the stanzas of the poem as found in the manuscript are not in their proper places, and a See also:critical readjustment of the different stanzas and lines would do much towards solving its problem. It seems probable, too, that the original nucleus of the poem was handed down orally, and recited or sung by the bards and minstrels at the courts of different noblemen. It
thus became the common stock-in-See also:trade of the Welsh See also:rhapsodist,
and in time the bards, using it as a See also:kind of framework, added to
it here and there pieces of their own See also:composition formed on the
original See also:model, especially when the heroes named happened to
be the traditional forefathers of their patrons, and occasionally
introduced the names of new heroes and new places as it suited
their purpose; and all this seems to have been done in early
times. Older fragments dealing too with the legendary heroes
of the Welsh were afterwards incorporated with the poem, and
some of these fragments undoubtedly preserve the orthographical
and grammatical forms of the 9th century. So that, on the whole,
it seems as fruitless to look for a definite See also:record of See also:historical
events in this poem as it would be to do so in the Homeric
poems, but like them, though it cannot any longer be regarded
as a correct and definite account of a particular battle or See also:war,
it still stands to this day the epic of the warriors of its own
nation. It matters not whether these heroes fought at far
Cattraeth or on some other forgotten See also: In most of the poems attributed to Llywarch Hen and in some of the Myrddin poems, the verses begin with the same line, which, though it has no See also:direct reference to the subject of the poem itself, is used as a refrain or catch-word, exactly like the refrains employed by Mr See also:Swinburne and others in their ballads. These lines generally refer to some natural See also:object or See also:objects, as, for instance, " the See also:snow of the See also:mountain " or " See also:bright are the tops of the See also:broom." The first period, then, of Welsh literature lies between 70o and 950. It is in most respects the epic period, the period in which poets wrote of great men and their deeds, the legendary and the historic heroes of the Cyrnry, men like Urien Rheged, and heroes like Hyveidd Hir. Even in the next period the epic note had not quite died out. 3. The Prose Romances and the Poet Princes, 11oo-z29o.—It will be seen that there is a considerable See also:gap between the first and second period of Welsh literature. It must not be supposed, however, that nothing was composed or written during these years. Indeed, it may well be that some of the poetry attributed to the minor bards of the last period was composed between 900 and r roo, and that some other poetry too was written and lost. But there are abundant reasons for believing that Welsh poetry was at a very See also:low ebb during those years. The progress of Wales as a See also:political unit had suffered a check after the battle of See also:Chester in 613. The effects of this defeat were not immediate, as the Welsh had still enough of their characteristic hopefulness to expect ultimate victory; we therefore have reasons for believing that the Gododin series of poems were still used—or perhaps used then for the first time—to See also:spur on " the aTododie See also:hawks of war " to greater efforts. Gradually, however, series. the Angles, hemming them in on all sides from the Clyde to the See also:Severn, began to See also:press nearer and nearer; the Welsh at last seem to have lost See also:heart, and no one any longer " had the See also:desire of song." Content with their old epics and their older myths, which owe perhaps to these years a darker and more sombre tinge, they allowed their song to be hushed. The great lords had hardly chosen their final abodes; the smaller lords had all been killed in war and their places taken now by one, now by another, so that the See also:warrior See also:prince himself had not the leisure, and hardly the See also:inspiration necessary, for song, and the bards found but scanty patronage among such a diminished and poverty-stricken nobility. The only See also:order that seemed to prosper was that of the monks, and we owe them our gratitude for 1 It is indeed probable that Myrddin is a purely fictitious See also:character, whose name has been made up from Caer Fyrddin (=Maridunum), which was certainly not a See also:personal name. II Aneurin. preserving the ancient writings and the ancient traditions; but they were simply copyists, though they had undoubtedly some See also:hand in giving the Gododin its final form and in setting in its convenient framework the names of the forefathers of their aristocratic abbots. In the See also:year 1044 Gruffydd ab See also:Llewelyn conquered Hywel ab See also:Edwin and became king of Wales. By means of his See also:diplomacy and his arms he succeeded in stemming the See also:tide of Saxon invasion that was threatening to overflow even the little remnant of land that was See also:left to the Welsh, and his strong See also:rule gave the Welsh muse another opportunity. Gruffydd, however, died in 1063, and was eventually succeeded in 1073 by Trahaern in North Wales, and Rhys ab See also:Owen in South Wales. The rule of these two princes was destined to be the last period of See also:literary inertness in the long interval following the confinement of Wales to her inaccessible highlands. During these years a See also:man was hiding in Ireland, called Gruffydd ab Cynan, a See also:scion of the old See also:branch of Welsh kings. In See also:Brittany, too, Rhys ab Tewdwr, a claimant to the See also:throne of South Wales, had sought the See also:protection of his Breton kinsmen. In 1073 Rhys ab Tewdwr obtained the throne of Rhys ab Owen, and, after many years of hard fighting, Gruffydd ab Cynan, with the help of Rhys ab Tewdwr, defeated Trahaern at the battle of Myrydd Carn in 1081. On the See also:accession of these two powerful princes the whole country See also:broke forth into songs of praise and jubilation, and the long See also:night was at an end. It is important to remember that both Gruffydd and Rhys had a direct personal See also:influence on the literary revival of their times. Gruff ydd ab Cynan while in See also:exile had seen how the Irish Oenach was held, and had seen prizes given for poetry and song. We have it on the authority of Welsh writers that he reorganized the bards and improved the music, and in many other ways gave a great and beneficial impulse to Welsh literature. He may have brought over some of the later Irish legends which have had such a powerful effect on the literature of Wales. Rhys ab Tewdwr, too, brought with him from Brittany an See also:enthusiasm for the old Celtic tales, and perhaps some of the tales themselves which had been by that time forgotten in Wales, tales of the See also:Round Table, and Arthur " begirt with British and Armoric knights," of knightly deeds and magical metamorphoses, which were destined to influence profoundly all the literatures of the West. We find, therefore, in this period that poetry flourished mostly in the North under Gruffydd ab Cynan, and prose in the south under Rhys ab Tewdwr, where the new enthusiasm for the old Welsh legends resulted in the History of Britain of See also:Geoffrey of See also:Monmouth, which Geoffrey is an expansion of the books attributed to Gildas and of Mon- mouth. Nennius. It was written in Latin sometime before 1147, and is dedicated to Robert, See also:earl of See also:Gloucester, the See also:grandson of Rhys ab Tewdwr. In the See also:introductory See also:epistle, Geoffrey states that See also:Walter, See also:archdeacon of Oxford, had given him a very ancient book in the British See also:tongue, giving an account of the kings of Britain from See also:Brutus to Cadwaladr, and that he had translated it into Latin at the archdeacon's See also:request. The book, however, is a compilation and not a translation, but the materials were probably See also:drawn from British sources. In this history Geoffrey asserts that the deeds of Arthur " were commonly related in a pleasing manner." He was perhaps originally but the hero of some popular ballad, or of a forgotten See also:stanza of the Gododin, and the importance of his name in the literature of the See also:world seems to be due to an See also:accident. We cannot, however, in this article consider the Arthurian See also:Legend (q.v.) as a whole; we must be content with dealing with the most important of the romantic tales which are contained in the Red Book of Hergest. They may be divided into four classes: (i.) The Mabinogi proper, containing (1) Pwyll, prince of Dyvet; (2) Branwen, daughter of Llyr; (3) Manawyddan, son of Llyr; (4) Math, son of Mathonwy. (ii.) Old British tales referring to Roman times, viz. (1) Lludd and Llevelys; (2) The See also:Dream of Macsen Wledic. (iii.) British Arthurian tales, viz. (1) Kilhwch and Olwen; (2) The Dream of Rhonabwy. (iv.) Later tales of See also:chivalry, viz. (1) The See also:Lady of the See also:Fountain; (2) Peredur, son of Evrawc; (3) Geraint, son of Erbin. The See also:group of four romances in the first class forms a cycle of legends and is called in the manuscript Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi —the Four Branches of the Mabinogi; so it is only The Mehl-these four tales that can, strictly speaking, be called nogion. See also:Mabinogion. In these stories we have the See also:relics of the ancient Irish See also:mythology of the Tuatha De Danann, some-times mixed with later myths. The Caer Sidi, where neither disease nor old See also:age affects any one, is the Sid of Irish mythology, the See also:residence of the gods of the Aes See also:Side. It is called in one of the old poems the See also:prison of Gweir, who no doubt represents Gaiar, son of Manandan MacLir, the See also:Atropos who cut the See also:thread of life of Irish mythology. Llyr is the Irish See also:sea-See also:god Lir, and was called Llyr Liediaith, or the half-tongued, implying that he spoke a language only partially intelligible to the people of the country. See also:Bran, the son of Llyr, is the Irish Bran MacAllait, Allait being one of the names of Lir. Manawyddan is clearly the Manandan or Manannan MacLir of Irish mythology. These tales contain other characters which may not have been borrowed from Irish mythology but which are common to both mythologies; for example; Rhiannon, the wife of Pwyll who possessed marvellous birds which held warriors spell-See also:bound for eighty years by their singing, comes from A nnwn, or the unseen world, and her son Pryderi gives her, on the death of Pwyll, as a wife to Manawyddan. Of the second class the first story relates to Lludd, son of See also:Bell the Great, son of Manogan, who became king after his See also:father's death, while his See also:brother Llevelys becomes king of See also:France and shows his brother how to get rid of the three plagues which devastated Britain:—first, a See also:strange See also:race, the Coranians, whose knowledge was so great that they heard everything no matter how low soever it might be spoken; second, a shriek which came into every See also:house on May See also:eve, caused by the fighting of two dragons; and third, a great See also:giant who carried off all the See also:pro-visions of the king's See also:palace every day. The second See also:tale relates how Maxen, See also:emperor of See also:Rome! has a dream while See also:hunting, in which he imagines that he visits Britain, and in Caer Seint or See also:Carnarvon See also:sees a beautiful damsel, See also:Helen, whom he ultimately finds and marries. Both tales are British in origin and are founded on traditions referring to Roman times. The most important of these tales are undoubtedly those contained in the first class, and the story of Kilhwch and Olwen. The form in which they are found in the Red Book of Hergest is, as we have already said, comparatively speaking, modern. But it is apparent to any one See also:reading these tales that the writers or compilers, as See also:Matthew See also:Arnold has suggested, are " pillaging an antiquity, the See also:secret of which they do not fully possess." The See also:foundations of the tales are the old Celtic traditions of the gods and the older heroes, and they clearly show Goidelic influence both in the persons they introduce and in their incidents. The tales would at first exist only in oral tradition, and after the See also:advent of See also:Christianity the characters they contain lost their title of divinity and became simply heroes—warriors and magicians. In time the monks began to write these ancient traditions, embellishing them and suppressing no doubt what they considered to be most objectionable. These then are the tales which we now possess—the traditional doings of the old heroes as set in order by Christian writers. The changes which these later copyists wrought in the sub-stance of the tales fall into two main divisions. In the first place, they attempted to find some connexion between tales or cycles of tales which originally had no connexion whatever, and were therefore forced to invent new incidents or to introduce other incidents from the outside in order to establish this connexion; and secondly, as in the See also:case of the Gododin, the tales were See also:twisted and altered to support references to and explanations of names known to the writer. So we find in the tale of Math vab Mathonwy the incident of the pigs is See also:expanded to explain some place-names which the writer knew. It is this also that gives a See also:local See also:interest to the tales; for instance, Dyvet, the land of Pwyll, has come to be regarded as the See also:home of Hud a Lledrith, of magic and enchantment. Some places in North Wales, especially in the vicinity of Carnarvon, seem to be well known to the writers, and, therefore, to' have associated with them to all time the glamour of the Mabinogion. Besides the scholastic efforts of the monks, which in course of time so greatly changed these old legends, there was another class of men who had no little influence on the form and matter of Welsh; and consequently of See also:European, romance. These were the Welsh jongleurs—the professional story-tellers, against whom the bards proper nursed a deadly hatred because, presumably, their tales See also:drew larger audiences and won greater rewards than the awdlau of the poets. There is little doubt that this order existed in Wales at a very early period, being quite a natural See also:evolution of the older poet who sang in comparatively free metres of the deeds of the great dead. It is these men who invented the See also:term Mabinogi, which is supposed to mean a " tale for See also:young people "; but whatever the word may mean, the fact that they were the stock-in-trade of the professional story-See also:teller will explain a good many of their structural peculiarities. Thus there existed two distinct classes of tales, though it is to be supposed that the subject matter of both was more or less common; there are, in the first place, the " four branches " and the tales of the second class, and, secondly, tales like those of the third class. With the exception of the Irish influence, which we have already referred to, and some later additions from early See also:continental romance in the third class, we may take it that these three classes are of purely British origin. The pedair taint are the old tales which were first committed to writing at an early period before the influence of the Armoric Arthur began to be See also:felt, that is to say, about the beginning of the reign of Rhys ab Tewdwr in 1073. The other tales, that is those we have put in the third class, remained for a much longer time unwritten and were not set in writing before the early Arthur of Armoric and British romance had been evolved. This will account for the fact that Arthur is not mentioned in the first class of tales, and that in the third class he is simply a British Arthur. The third class is, therefore, in a sense later than the first and second, but its materials are as old as the oldest of the Mabinogion proper, and they show the influence of Irish mythology to the same extent. In the first class Irish names like Penardim, which have not been assimilated, show conclusively that the tale is a written one, while the eloquence of the descriptions in Kilhwch ac Olwen seem to point to the fact that it was up to a late period a spoken tale. Other such tales there were once, but they have now been lost. The romances of the fourth class do not claim much notice. They are mostly imitations or translations of Norman See also:French originals, and they belong to the history of European chivalry rather than to the history of Welsh literature. As literature the Mabinogion may See also:rank among the world's See also:classics. We cannot here point out their beauties, but it will be sufficient to notice that the unknown writer who gave them their final form was a true artist in every sense of the word. In Branwen verch Lyr, for instance, the whole setting of the story is that of a great tragedy, a tragedy neither Hellenic nor Shakespearean, but the strong and ruthless tragedy of the Celts, the tragedy of nature among unnatural surroundings, the tragedy which in our times Mr Thomas See also:Hardy has so successfully developed. In this tale, Branwen is introduced as the See also:sister of Manawyddan, the king of all Britain, and as the " fairest maid in the world." But as the tragedy deepens we read how this woman, dowered with beauty and goodness and nobility of lineage, is simply used as a See also:pawn in a political See also:game, and the full force of the tragedy falls on her own undeserving See also:head. She is subjected to all kinds of indignities in her See also:husband's court in Ireland, but throughout all her severe trials she preserves the See also:cold and detached haughtiness which characterizes the full-bosomed heroines of the northern sagas; and, in the end, when her brother has delivered her and punished the Irish, and when she has safely reached the shores of her own Mon, she raises her eyes and beholds the two islands,Britain and Ireland. " `Ah God!' said she, ` is it well that two islands have been made desolate for my See also:sake?' And she gave a deep groan and died." So was hertragedy consummated, and the-writer, with a superb tragic See also:touch, mentions the very shape of the See also:grave in which they left her on the See also:bank of the Alaw in Mon.
One of the earliest poets of this period whose productions we can be certain of is Meilir, See also:bard of Trahaern, whom Gruffydd ab Cynan defeated at the battle of .See also:Carp, and afterwards of the conqueror Gruffydd himself. His best piece is the Death-See also:bed of the Bard, a semi-religious poem which is distinguished by the structure of the verse, poetic feeling and religious thought. Meilir was the head of a .See also:family of bards; his son was Gwalchmai, one of the best Welsh poets; the latter had two sons, Einion and Meilir, some of whose poetry has reached us. In Gorhoffedd Gwalchmai, Gwalchmai's Delight, there is an appreciation of the charms of nature, medieval See also:parallels to which are only to be found in Ireland. His Arwyrain i Owain is an See also:ode of considerable beauty and full of vigour in praise of Owain Gwynedd, king of North Wales, on account of his victory of Tal y Moelvre, part of which has been translated by See also: The second was also a prince; he was the eldest of the many sons of Owain Gwynedd, and ruled for two years after his father until he See also:fell in a battle between himself and his step-brother Dafydd. He was a young man of conspicuous merit, and one of the most charming poets of Wales, his poems being especially free from the conceits, trivial commonplaces, and complicated metres of the professional bards, while full of a See also:gay See also:humour, a love of nature and a delicate appreciation of See also:women. The Welsh poets went on See also:circuit like their Irish brethren, staying in each place according as hospitality was extended to them. When departing, a bard was expected to leave a See also:sample of his versification behind him. In this way many manuscripts came to be written, as we find them in different hands. Llywarch ab Llywelyn has left us one of those departing eulogies addressed to Rhys Gryg, prince of South Wales, which affords a favourable specimen of his style.
The following are a few of the poets of the 13th century whose poems are still extant. Davydd Benvras was the author of a poem in praise of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth; his works, though not so verbose or trite as bardic poems of this class usually are, do not rise much above the bardic level, and are full of See also:alliteration. Elidir See also:Sais was, as his name implies, able to speak the English language, and wrote chiefly religious poetry. Einiawn ab Gwgawn is the author of an extant address to Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of considerable merit. Phylip Brydydd, or See also: Prydydd Bychan, the Little Poet, was a South Wales bard whose extant work consists of short poems all addressed to his own princes. The chief feature of his Englynion is the use of a I3th century poets. kind of assonance in which in some cases the final vowels agreed alternately in each See also:quatrain, and in others each line ended in a different vowel, in both cases with alliteration and consonance of final consonants or full See also:rhyme. Llygad Gwr is known by an ode in five parts to Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, written about the year 1270, which is a good type of the conventional flattery of a family bard. Howel Voel, who was of Irish extraction, possessed some poetical merit; his remonstrance to Llywelyn against the imprisonment of his brother Owain is a pleasing variety upon the conventional eulogy. It has many lines beginning with the same word, e.g. Or, man. The poems of Bleddyn Vardd, or Bleddyn the Bard, which have come down to us are all short eulogies and elegies. One of the latter on Llywelyn ab Gruffydd is a good example of the elaborate and artificial nature of Welsh versification. The most illustrious name among the poets of this century is Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch, " Gruffydd, son of the Red See also:Justice," who wrote many religious poems of great merit. His greatest work, however, is the See also:elegy to Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, the last prince of Wales. It is easily first among all the elegies written in the Welsh language. We do not find in it that artficial grief which is too evident in the Marwnadau of the Welsh poets; it re-echoes an intense personal grief, and throughout the whole piece the poet feels that he stands at the end of all things,—the end of his own ideals, the extinction of all Cymric hopes. So poignant is his grief, and in so universal a manner does the See also:catastrophe of Llywelyn's death present itself to him, that he imagine9 that all the natural features of the Welsh fatherland know that the last great Welshman is dead; the winds howl over the mountains, the See also:rain-clouds gather thick, the waves rage with grief against the Welsh coasts, and far away on the hills the giant See also:oak-trees See also:beat against each other in the fury of their See also:passion. Sadly, in this manner, closes the second period of Welsh literature. 4. The Golden Age of the Cywydd, 1,340-1440.—Just as, after the loss of the North, the Welsh muse was hushed, so after the final subjugation of Wales in 1282, hardly a note was heard for many a long year. The ancient patrons of literature were dead, and the country had not yet settled down to the steady rule of England. Indeed, the conquest of Wales effectively put an end to the older Welsh poetry of that type which we noticed in the last period. These older bards were without exception subjects of the princes of North Wales, where the old heroic poetry was still popular, and when the See also:power of these princes came to an end the old poetry too ceased. When the Welsh muse emerges again from the darkness of this interval she is no longer of the North; the new poets are drawn from the Welshmen of the South, a land which had practically ceased to be a part of an See also:independent Wales shortly after the Norman conquest of England. We find, too, that the poetry which poured forth from the Welsh bards of the south is of an altogether different type; it is modern in all its essentials, in diction, in language, and, comparatively speaking, in sentiment. Indeed, there is an infinitely greater difference between Dafydd ab Gwilym and Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch than there is between him and any poet writing in the alliterative metres in the 19th century. So that we must suppose that at the time when the poets of North Wales still sang of war and See also:mead-drinking in a style and diction that was an See also:inheritance from the times of the Gododin, the poets of the South, unharassed by wars, were developing a new poetry of their own, a poetry that had relinquished for ever the Old Welsh See also:models and was at last in line with the great poetical movements of See also:Europe. And, judging from the fact that the earliest of these poets whose works are accessible to us are in the full See also:zenith of their poetical development, we must believe that their work is the consummation of a period, that is to say, that they must have had a long line of predecessors whose works were lost during the period intervening between the loss of Welsh independence and the rise of Dafydd ab Gwilym. These men wrote, as we have already said, in South Wales, a country which was then under the rule of the Norman lords, who, with the See also:lapse of years and the rise of new systems, were fast becoming Welsh. It .is no wonder, then, that the poets who wrote under their patronage should show unmistakable traces of Norman influence. Most of the barons still spoke French, and it was only natural that they should be well versed in French poetry. The poets followed the See also:lead of their patrons, and their work was modelled to a very great extent on French and Provencal poetry. Nor does this account altogether for the wonderful similarity between Welsh cywyddau and other poems of this period and the French lays; we must remember that the Welsh poets lived under conditions similar to those under which the troubadours and the trouveres lived, and it was natural that the same environments should produce the same kind of work. The Provencal See also:Alba and the French See also:aube, the See also:serenade and other forms, became well known in South Wales and were of course read by the Welsh poets. We find continual references in the poets to books of love " under the name of llyfr Ofydd, or the " book of See also:Ovid," and a reference in one of Dafydd all Gwilym's poems shows conclusively that one particular llyfr Ofydd was a work of the French poet See also:Chrestien de See also:Troyes. Indeed, one of the commonest names among the poets of this period—the llatai,' or love-messengermay be a Romance word borrowed through the Norman-French from the See also:Italian Galeotto, originally the name of the book of the loves of Galahaad, but afterwards the See also:ordinary word for a go-between. This book of Galeotto, by the way, was the book which taught See also:Paolo and Francesca da See also:Rimini, in, See also:Dante's Divine Commedia, the tragic secret of love. Another See also:movement also was favourable to the rise of the new Welsh poetry. The See also:iron hand of the church, which had' been the See also:censor of poetry for so many centuries, was slowly relaxing its grasp, and the men who a few years before would have sung religious See also:hymns to the Virgin, now laid their tributes at the feet of divine womanhood as they saw it in the Welsh maidens and matrons living among them. The See also:pale See also:queen of See also:heaven no longer held See also:hearts See also:captive; they had transferred their See also:allegiance to the " brow that was as the snow of yesternight," and " the cheeks that were like the passion-See also:flower." The Iolo MSS. assert that some time between See also:January 1327 and See also:November 1330 there were held, under the patronage of Ivor Had, Dafydd ab Gwilym's patron, and others, the three Eisteddfodau Dadeni, or the Eisteddfods of the Revival of the Muse, to reorganize the bards, and to set in order all matters pertaining to Welsh poetry. The most important bards who are reported as present at some or all of these meetings were Dafydd ab Gwilym, See also:Sion Cent, Rhys See also:Goch of Eryri, and Iolo Goch. It is now, however, generally agreed that this account is a fabrication and that the date of all the poets is later. Dafydd ab Gwilym is certainly the most distinguished of all the Welsh poets, and were it not for the See also:absolute impossibility of adequately translating his cywyddau he would rank Dafydd ab amongst the greatest poets of medieval times. By aw,i~ym. far the greater part of his poetry is written in the See also:metre called cywydd, with heptasyllabic lines rhyming in couplets. It was he who imparted so much lustre to this metre that it became the vehicle of all the most important poetry from his time to the 19th century, and he is generally referred to by his contemporaries as the See also:special poet of the cywydd—Dafydd gywydd gwin, "Dafydd of the See also:wine-sweet cywydd." Most of his poems deal with love in the spirit of the medieval writers of France and of See also:Provence, but with this very important difference, that the French writers must See also:base their reputation on their treatment of love as a theme, whereas Dafydd's claim to fame is based on his treatment of nature and of out-See also:door life. In many cases, indeed, love is only a conventional peg whereon he may hang his observations on nature, and Welsh literature may claim the distinction of having had its See also:Wordsworth in the 14th century. His treatment of nature is not merely realistic and See also:objective, it has a certain See also:quaint and elusive symbolism and a subjectiveness which come as a See also:revelation to those who are acquainted with the medieval poetry of other nations. Many i Another derivation of this word is from llad, " profit " + See also:hai, a suffix denoting the See also:agent. Others derive it from or connect it with the Irish sled-. of the poems attributed to him are undoubtedly the work of later hands, but even after making all possible deductions, there is still an See also:infinite variety among what remains, ranging as his poems do from a sturdy denunciation of monkish fraudulence to the most delicate and pathetic recollections of departed joys. He has, besides, considerable importance as a teacher, as when, for instance, he invites the See also:nun " to leave her watercress and paternosters of Romish monks," and to come with him " to the See also:cathedral of the See also:birch to listen to the See also:cuckoo's sermons," for, " were it not an equally worthy See also:deed to See also:save his (Dafydd's) soul in the birch-See also: Like many of his contemporaries,See also:Dunbar,See also:Villon, Menot and See also:Manrique, his dominant note is that of sadness and regret.
Rhys Goch Eryri had a sprightly muse which deals with fanciful subjects. His themes are often similar to those of Dafydd ab Gwilym, but whereas the subject of Dafydd's muse was nature and his treatment universal, Rhys Goch's are simply natural objects which he treats in a vigorous but narrow and cold manner.
Iolo Goch, that is, Iorwerth the Red, deserves a special mention as the poet who voiced the aspirations of a new Wales when Owen Glyndwr began to rise into power, and it is to one of his poems that we owe a most See also:minute description of Sycharth, Owen Glyndwr's home. His poetry is slightly more archaic in diction than that of his contemporaries, as his subject—war and the glory of Welsh heroes—belonged more properly to the age before his own. In one very striking cywydd composed after Glyndwr's downfall, he calls upon this hero to come again and claim his own, and addresses himself fancifully to all the countries of the world where his hero may be in hiding. He died after 1405, and, if the dates generally given for his birth be even approximately correct, he must have lived to a prodigious age (cf. Gweithiau Iolo Goch, by See also: Dafydd Nanmor is chiefly famous for two exquisite cywyddau, Cywydd Marwnad Merch, or Elegy of a See also:Maiden, and Cywydd i wallt Llio, or Cywydd to Llio's See also:Hair. In both these poems he shows elegance rather than See also:depth, and a See also:fancy as bold as that of his great master Dafydd. In the first of these cywyddau his grief is so great that he wishes that he were but the See also:shroud around his dead sweetheart, and, in the second, Llio Rhydderch's golden hair over her See also: This law, however, like its predecessor in the reign of See also:Edward I., failed utterly in its purpose. By prohibiting the Welsh noblemen from giving their patronage to the bards, and, therefore, from distinguishing between the real bards and the mendicant rhymesters, this law took away the only safeguard against the latter class, with the result that by about 1450 they had become a pest to the country. About that time there flourished a poet called Llawdden, who, noticing the very unsatisfactory See also:state of poetry in Wales, induced his kinsman, Gruffydd ab See also:Nicolas, a nobleman living in Y Drenewydd (See also:Newtown), to See also:petition Henry VI. for permission to hold an See also:eisteddfod similar in purpose to the three Eisteddfodau Dadeni of the last period. This famous eisteddfod Eisteddfod was held at Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen) in 1451, and of 145/. shortly before the actual eisteddfod was held a " See also:statute " was drawn up under the direction of Llawdden, regulating the different orders of bards and musicians and setting in order the cynghaneddion a mesurau, the different kinds of alliterative verse to be presented to the assembled bards at the See also:meeting. Among those present at that eisteddfod the most distinguished was Dafydd ab Edmwnd, who then made famous the dictum that the purpose of an eisteddfod was " to bring to mind the past, to consider the present, and to deliberate about the future." He, therefore, proposed emendations in the rules of Welsh verse," making them more strict, so as to keep the unlearned rhymesters from the privileged bardic class. This measure had a most important effect on Welsh literature. It effectively put an end to the charming spontaneity which distinguishes the poetry of Dafydd ab Gwilym and his See also:con-temporaries, and by introducing an arbitrary set of rules gave an artificial See also:tone to almost all the poetry of the next two See also:hundred years. It had, indeed, exactly the same retarding effect on Welsh poetry as the Unities had on the French See also:drama. So that, whereas the poems of Dafydd ab Gwilym, though written in the difficult alliterative metres, are nearly all light and have a sweet lyrical re-See also:echo, the poetry of Dafydd ab Edmwnd and his successors is often heavy and nearly always artificial. After making, however, all these deductions, it is a debatable point whether the hard and fast rules which now regulated Welsh poetry did not eventually justify their existence. They have helped, by inciting to carefulness, to keep the idiom and the language pure and undefiled, and to this day style in Welsh poetry is not necessarily a striving after the uncommon as it too often is in English. There are some poets included in this period who belong more properly to the last, but even these show signs of the See also:attempt at correctness and distinction which was supplanting the old simplicity. Ieuan ap Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd, who is supposed to be a brother of the Llio Rhydderch of Dafydd Nanmor's poem, is the author of some cywyddau and other poems addressed to the Virgin, the structure of which shows great skill accompanied by force and clearness. He flourished about 1425. Dafydd ab Meredydd ap Tudur, who flourished about 1420, is the author of a cywydd " to Our Saviour." About the same time lived Rhys Nanmor, Ieuan Gethin ab Ieuan, and Ieuan Llwyd ab Gwilym. Among the earliest of the poets who belong properly to this period is Meredydd ap Rhys, whose cywyddau are a See also:fair specimen of the generality of poems written in these years. Among the most famous of his works is a cywydd " begging for a fishing-See also:net," and another giving thanks for the same. We shall find that many of his con-temporaries were able to write long and interesting poems on such seemingly dry and uninteresting subjects, but it is vain to look for anything beyond good verse in such compositions. Of poetry, as generally understood, there is none. The commanding figure in this period is, of course, Dafydd ab Edmwnd, who was a See also:disciple of Meredydd ap Rhys. He Dafydd ab bears somewhat the same relation to his contemporaries Edmwnd. as Dafydd ab Gwilym does to his, and to See also:strain an See also:analogy, we might say that as See also:Dryden was to See also:Milton, so Dafydd ab Edmwnd was to Dafydd ab Gwilym. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the greatest poet that North Wales had ever produced, and some would set him up as a See also:rival even to Dafydd ab Gwilym himself. He would probably have produced much greater poetry had he understood that the cywydd and the other metres were strait and shackled enough without the cymeriadau and other devices which he introduced, or at least sanctioned and made popular. He begins many of his cywyddau and odes with the same letter; he is the chief among Welsh formalists, but in spite of his self-imposed restrictions he is a great poet also. His most famous poems are three Cywyddau Merch or " Poems to a Lady," and his Cywydd i Wallt See also:Merck, " cywydd to a lady's hair." He is the author of the lines already quoted: " thy brow," he sings, " is as the snow of yesternight, and thy cheeks like a shower of See also:roses." He died about 1480. Dafydd ab Edmwnd's disciples were Gutyn Owain and Tudur Aled, who was also his See also:nephew. Gutyn Owain lived between 1420 and 1500, and was one of the men appointed by the king's commissioners to trace, or perhaps to manufacture, the Welsh See also:pedigree of Henry VII. He belonged entirely to the school inaugurated by Dafydd ab Edmwnd, and though he was by no means wanting in See also:imagination, the highest distinction of his verse is its intricacy of form and very often the felicity of his couplets. Just as the rise of Owen Glyndwr in the beginning of the century had given a new impulse and a new interest to poetry, so in 1485, when Henry VII.—the " little See also:bull " as he is called by the poets—ascended the throne of England, a particular kind of poetry called brud, half history and half prophecy, became popular, and we have in the manuscripts much writing of this description, a good deal of it worthless as poetry. Occasionally, however, some of these " bruts " may claim to be called poetry, especially the compositions of See also:Robin Ddu o Fon, who wrote poems in praise of the Tudors and hailed them as the deliverers of the nation, even before Henry VII. had landed in England, and Dafydd Llwyd ab Llywelyn, whose works deserve to be much better known than they are at present. One of the best cywyddau among his works is the " Address to the See also:Raven," to whom he promises a right royal feast when the hero whom all Wales is expecting has met his royal enemy. Tudur Aled, too, was a zealous See also:partisan of Henry VII. and wrote many cywyddau in praise of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, the great See also:champion of Henry's cause in South Wales. He is also famous as having supplemented and made a new recension of Dafydd ab Edmwnd's rules ofpoetry in the eisteddfod held at Caerwys in 1524. Tudur Aled has always been more widely known in Wales than almost any other of the earlier poets except Dafydd ab Gwilym. This it perhaps due to the quotability and sententiousness of his couplets. There is a certain refreshing dryness about his poetry which partly makes up for his want of imagination. One of the most interesting poets of this century is See also:Lewis Glyn Cothi, who lived between 1410 and 1490. During the Wars of the Roses he was a zealous Lancastrian, and his bitterest enemies were the men of Chester, who had treated him scurvily while he was there in hiding, and his awdl, satirizing the men of that city, is one of the most vigorous compositions in the language. Indeed, among so many cywyddau of this period in conventional praise of different patrons, it is most refreshing to find such an outburst of sincere personal feeling, boldly and fiercely expressed. He wrote an awdl also rejoicing in the victory of Henry VII. Most of his work, however, consists of cywyddau mawl—praise of patrons—containing weary and unpoetical pedigrees. Gruffydd Hiraethog, who flourished about 1540, was a disciple of Tudur Aled. A fierce poetical dispute raged between him and Sion Brwynog of See also:Anglesey, who was a contemporary of his. About this time there were many poets in Wales who were imitators of Dafydd ab Gwilym, and who did not follow implicitly the lead of Dafydd ab Edmwnd, like those whom we have mentioned. Much of their poetry is feeble, but Bedo Brwynllysg especially stands out from among the See also:rest, and his poetry, though highly imitative and often over fanciful, is of a much higher order than the genealogical poems of Lewis Glyn. Cothi and others. In the same way the only poem of any merit of Ieuan Denlwyn printed in the Gorchestion is written in this imitative strain. Other poets of the middle of this period are Deio ap leuan Du, Iorwerth Fyngiwyd, Lewys Morganwg, Ieuan Brydydd Hir, and Tudur Penllyn, who wrote a superb cywydd to Dafydd ab Siencyn, the outlaw. Towards the end of the period we begin to breathe a literary See also:atmosphere that is gradually but surely changing,—it is the See also:change from the misty Wales of Roman See also:Catholic times to the modern Wales of ter the See also:Reformation. The poetical incoherencies of the old metres and the tricks of fancy of the old stylists occasionally form a somewhat incongruous See also:dress for the thoughts of later poets. The old spirit and the glamour were gradually wearing away, only to be momentarily revived in the poetry of Goronwy Owen, nearly two centuries later. Two or three figures, indeed, stand out prominently during these years, among whom are some of the bards ordained penceirddiaid (master-poets) in the second Caerwys Eisteddfod held in 1568, viz. See also: He is a realist, and delights in giving vivid word pictures in a less fanciful strain than his predecessors. Sion Phylip (1543–1620) wrote a famous marwnad to his father and a cywydd " to a sea-See also:gull," which is a superb piece of nature-See also:painting in the style of Dafydd ab Gwilym. While dealing with this second Eisteddfod at Caerwys, we may note that Simwnt Fychan's " Laws of Poetry " were accepted at this festival.
Two poets of this period, whom an English writer describes a " the two filthy Welshmen who first smoked publicly in the streets," were captains in Queen See also: His most famous cywyddau are those written in the literary quarrel between him and Wiliam Cynwal. " Wiliam Cynwal," says Goronwy Owen, " though the greater poet, was like a man fighting with See also:bare fists against complete See also:armour," and it may be freely granted that in this, the most famous quarrel in Welsh literature, the palm of victory rested with the contentious old ecclesiastic. We shall deal with the rest of Edmwnd Prys's literary work in the See also:section on the rise of popular poetry. Here the age of the cywydd and the awdl, as the chief forms of verse, ends. They appear again in the succeeding centuries, but as aliens among a nation that no longer paid them See also:homage. The distinctly Welsh See also:fashion in song was dying out. 6. Prose, 1550-1750.—One of the most striking features of Welsh literature is the almost entire See also:absence of prose between 1300 and 1550. The genius of the people has always been an eminently poetical and imaginative one, and the history of Wales, politically and socially, has always been a fitter subject for poetry than for prose. During this period, Wales enjoyed a rest from propagandists and revolutionaries which has seldom been the happy See also:lot of any other nation—they See also:lay content with their own old traditions, acquiescing proudly in their separation from the other nations of Europe, and in their aloofness from all the movements which shook England and the See also:continent during those years. Dynasties came and went, one See also:religion ousted another religion, a new learning exposed the absurdities of the old, but the Welsh, among their hills, knew nothing of it; and when new ideas began to brood over the consciousness of the nation, they never got beyond the stage of providing new subjects for cywyddau. The See also:Peasant Revolt, for instance, had but little effect on-Welsh history, its most important contribution to the heritage of the nation being Iolo Goch's superb " Cywydd to the Labourer." Even the Reformation, which helped to change the whole fabric of English literature, had little effect on that of Wales, and the age of the cywydd dragged out wearily its last years without experiencing the slightest quickening from the great movement which was remaking Europe. Hardly a See also:prophet or reactionary raised his See also:voice in See also:defence or condemnation, and the Welsh went on serenely making and reading poetry. The two political movements in which Wales was really interested, the revolt of Glyndi r and the accession of Henry VII., paid their See also:tribute to its poetry alone, and both enterprises had sufficient of romance in them to repel the historian and to See also:capture the poet. Naturally, therefore, we have no prose in this period, because there was no cause strong enough to produce it. What prose the nation required they found in the tales of romance, in the legends of Arthur and See also:Charlemagne and the See also:Grail, and, as for pedigrees and history, were they not written in the cywyddau of the poets? The little prose that was produced during this period (1300-1550) was of an extraordinary kind. It was simply an exercise in long sentences and in curiously built compounds, and therefore more nearly allied to poetry. It generally took the form of dewisbethau, a See also:list of the " choice things " of such and such a person, or of the later triads (trioedd), which, starting from an ancient nucleus, gradually See also:grew till, at the present day, Wales has a gnomic literature out of all proportion to the rest of its prose. Modern Welsh prose, however, is only very indirectly connected with these compositions. It is almost altogether a product of the Biblical literature which began to appear after the Reformation, and we shall proceed to give here the main facts and dates in its development. The first Welsh book was printed in 1546. It consisted of extracts in Welsh from the Bible and the See also:Prayer Book, and .a See also:calendar. The author was Sir John Prys (1502-1555) • The most important name in the early part of this period is William See also:Salesbury (1520 ?-1600 ?). His chief books were, A See also:Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe (printed in 1547, and published in facsimile reprint by the Cymmrodorion Society), Kynniver Llith a See also:Ban (1551), the Prayer Book in Welsh (1567), and the most important of all his works, the translation of the New Testament (1567). It is difficult to form any estimate, at this distance of time, of the impetus which William Salesbury gave to Welsh prose, but it must be regretfully admitted that his great work was marred by many defects. He had a theory that Welsh ought to be written as much like Latin as possible, and the result is that his language is very poor Welsh, both in spelling and idiom; it is an artificial See also:dialect. It is a striking testimony, however, to his influence that many of the constructions and words which he manufactured are found to this day in correct literary Welsh. In 1567 was published a Welsh See also:Grammar by Dr Gruffydd See also:Roberts, a Roman Catholic See also:priest living at See also:Milan (reprinted in facsimile, See also:Paris, 1883), and in 1583, under the direction of Dr Rhosier See also:Smyth, his Drych Cristionogawl was published at See also:Rouen. Many other important Welsh books were produced during these years, but the work which may be regarded as having the greatest influence on the subsequent literature of Wales was the translation of the Welsh Bible (1588) by Dr William See also:Morgan (1547?-1604), See also:bishop ,of See also:Llandaff, and afterwards of St Asaph. The Authorized Version (1620) now in use is a revision of this work by Dr See also:Richard See also:Parry, bishop of St Asaph (1560-1623). In 1592 the Welsh Grammar of Sion Dafydd Rhys (1534-1609) was published—a most valuable See also:treatise on the language and on the rules of Welsh poetry. It was followed in 1621 by the Welsh Grammar, and in 1632 by the Welsh Dictionary of Dr John See also:Davies o Fallwyd (1570 ?-1644). There are two prose compositions which stand entirely by themselves in this period of Bibles and grammars—the History of See also:Ellis Gruffydd, and See also:Morris Kyffin's Deffyniad y Ffydd. The former was a soldier in the English See also:army during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and wrote a long history of England from the earliest times to his own day. This document, which has never been published, and which lies hidden away among the Mostyn MSS., is a most important and valuable original contribution to the history of the author's contemporaries, and it sheds considerable light on the inner life of the court and the army. It is written in a delightfully easy style, contrasting favourably with the stiff diction of this period of translations. The work of Morris Kyffin (1555 ?-1598 ?) which we have mentioned is a translation of Bishop See also:Jewel's Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae (1562) and was published in 1595. This work is the first piece of modern Welsh prose within reach of the ordinary reader, written in the rich idiom of the spoken Welsh. It is a precursor of many other books of its kind, a long series culminating in the immortal Bardd Cwsc. In this sense Morris Kyffin may with perfect justice be hailed as the father of modern Welsh prose. Most of the works which were afterwards written in the strong idiomatic Welsh of Morris Kyffin were on religious subjects, and many of them were translated from the English. The first was Ymarfer o Dduwioldeb (1630) by See also:Rowland Vychan o Gaergai (a translation of See also:Bailey's Practice of Piety), which was followed in 1632 by Dr John Davies's Llyfr y See also:Resolution, and in 1666 by Hanes y Ffydd Ddiffuant (A History of the True Faith) by Charles See also:Edwards. All these authors and many of their successors were strong adherents of the Established Church, which was then intensely Welsh in sentiment. But in the midst of these church-men, a See also:flame-bearer of dissent appeared—Morgan Llwyd o Wynedd, who published in 1653 " a See also:mystery to be understood of some, and scorned of others "—Llyfr y Tri Aderyn (The Book of the Three Birds). It is in the form of a discussion between the See also:eagle (See also:Cromwell), the See also:dove (Dissent) and the raven (the Established Church). This book is certainly the most important original composition published during the 17th century, and to this day remains one of the widely-read classics of the Welsh tongue. Morgan Llwyd wrote many other books in- Welsh and English, all more or less in the vein of the first book. During the remaining years of this period, the prose output of the Welsh press consisted mainly of devotional books, written or translated for or at the instigation of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Established Church, with the help of this society, made a gallant attempt to lighten the darkness of Wales by See also:publishing books of this description, and it is mainly due to its exertions that the See also:lamp of Welsh prose was kept burning during these years. Among the See also:clergy who produced books of this description were Edward See also:Samuel (1674-1748), who published among other works See also:Holl Ddyledswydd Dyn, a translation of The Whole See also:Duty of Man (1718); See also:Moses Williams (1684-1742), a most diligent searcher into Welsh MSS. and translator; See also:Griffith Jorles of Llanddowror (1683-r761), the father of Welsh popular See also:education; Iago ab Dewi (1644 ?-1722) and See also:Theophilus Evans (1694-1769), the famous author of Drych y Prif Oesoedd (1716 and 1740). This book, like Llyfr y Tri Aderyn and Y Bardd Cwsc, has an established position for all time in the See also:annals of Welsh literature.
We come now to the greatest of all Welsh prose writers, Ellis Wyn o Lasynys (1671-1734). His first work was a translation of See also:Jeremy See also: See Stern, Z. f. See also:celt. Phil. iii. 165 if. 7. The Rise of Popular Poetry, 7600-1750.-When Henry VII. ascended the throne, the old hostility of the Welsh towards the English disappeared. They had realized their wildest See also:hope, that of seeing a Welshman wearing " the See also:crown of London." Naturally enough, therefore, the descendants of the old Welsh gentry began to look towards England for recognition and preferment, and their interest in their own little country necessarily began to wane. The result was that the traditional patrons of the Welsh muse could no longer understand the language of the poets, and the poets were forced to seek some more profitable employment. Besides, the old conditions were changing; the medieval traditions were indeed dying hard, but it gradually and imperceptibly came about that the poets of the older school had no See also:audience. The only poets who still followed the old traditions were the rich farmers who " sang on their own land," as the Welsh phrase goes. A new school, however, was rising. The nation at large had a vast See also:store of folk-poetry, full of all the poetical characteristics of the Celt, and it was this very poetry, despised as it was, that became ultimately the groundwork of the new literature. The first landmark in this new development was the publication in 1621 of Edmwnd Prys's metrical version of the Psalms (followed by later See also:editions in 1628, 1630, 1638 and 1648), and of the first poem of the Welshmen's See also:Candle (Cannwyll y Cymry) of Rhys See also:Pritchard, See also:vicar of See also:Llandovery (1569-1644). This was published in 1646. These works were not written in the old metres See also:peculiar to Wales, but in the free metres, like those of English poetry. The former work is of the utmost importance, as these Psalms were about the first metrical hymns in use. They are often rugged and uncouth, but many of the verses—such as the 23rd See also:Psalm—have a haunting See also:melody of their own, which grips the mind once and for ever. The second work, the first complete edition of which was published in 1672, consisted of moral verses in the metres of the old folk-songs (Penillion Telyn), and for nearly two centuries was the " See also:guide, philosopher and friend " of the common people. Many other poets of theearly part of this period wrote in these metres, such as Edward Dafydd o Fargam (fl. 1640), Rowland Fychan, Morgan Llwyd o Wynedd and William Phylip (d. 1669). Poetry in the free metres, however, was generally very crude, until it was given a new dignity by the greatest poet of the period, Huw Morus o Bont y Meibion (1622-1709). Most of his earlier compositions, which are among his best, and which were influenced to a great extent by the See also:cavalier poetry of England, are love poems, perfect marvels of felicitous ingenuity and sweetness. He fixed the poetic canons of the free metres, and made what was before homely and uncouth, courtly and dignified. He wrote a cywydd marwnad to his contemporary, Edward Morus o'r Perthi Llwydion (d. 1689), who was also a poet of considerable merit. Most of his work is composed of " moral pieces " and carols. Other poets of the period were Sion Dafydd See also:Las (1650-1691), who was among the last of the family bards, and Dafydd See also: But he was in no way a representative of his age; he, like Milton, sang among a See also:crowd of inferior poets themes quite detached from the life of his time, so that he also, like his English brother, lacks" human interest." After Dafydd ab Gwilym, he is the greatest poet who sang in the old metres, and the influence of his correct and fastidious muse remains to this day. William Williams, however, wrote in the free metres in a way that was astoundingly fresh. It is not enough to say of him that he was a hymnologist; he is much more, he is the national poet of Wales. He had certainly the loftiest imagination of all the poets of five centuries, and his influence on the Welsh people can be gauged by the fact that a good deal of his idiom and dialect has fixed itself indelibly on modern literary Welsh. Besides the hymns, he wrote a religious epic, Theomemphus, which is to this day the national epic of evangelical Wales. Even as Goronwy Owen is the father of modern Welsh poetry in the old metres, so William Williams is the great fountain-head of the free metres, because he set aflame the imagination of every poet that succeeded him. With two such pioneers, it is natural that the rest of this period should contain many great names. Thomas Edwards (Twm o'r Nant) (1739-1810) has been called by an unwarrantably bold See also:hyperbole, " the Welsh Shakespeare." Most of his works are interludes and ballads, and he used to be very popular with the common people; he is, to this day, probably the oftenest quoted of all the Welsh poets. William See also:Wynn, See also:rector of Llangynhafal (1704-1760), is the author of a " Cywydd of the Great See also:Judgment," which bears comparison with Goronwy Owen's masterpiece. Evan Evans (Ieuan Brydydd Hir) (1731-1789) was famous both as a poet and as a scholar and antiquarian. Edward Rhisiart (1714-1777), the schoolmaster of Ystradmeurig, was a scholar and a writer of pastorals in the manner of See also:Theocritus. Most of the other poets who flourished towards the end of this period —Dafydd Ddu Eryri (1760-1822), Gwallter Mechain (1761-1849), Robert ab Gwilym Ddu (1767-1850), Dafydd Ionawr (1751-1827), Dewi Wyn o Eifion (1784-1841)—were brought into prominence by the Eisteddfod, which began to increase in influence during this period until it has become to-day the national festival. They all wrote for the most part in cynghanedd, and the work of nearly all of them is marked by correctness rather than by poetical inspiration. 9. Prose after 1830.—In the preceding periods, we have seen that Welsh prose, though abundant in quantity, had a very narrow range. Few writers See also:rose above theological controversy or moral See also:treatises, and the humaner side of literature was almost entirely neglected. In this period, however, we find a prose literature that, with the exception of scientific works, is as wide in its range as that of England, and all departments are well and competently represented, though by but few names. Dr Lewis Edwards (1809–1887) struck a new note when he began to contribute his literary and theological essays to the See also:periodicals, but, though many have equalled and even surpassed him as theological essayists, few, if any, of his followers have attempted the literary and critical essays on which his fame as writer must mainly rest. Together with Gwilym Hiraethog (1802–1883), the author of the inimitable Llythyrau Hen Ffarmwr, he may be regarded as the See also:pioneer of the new literature. Samuel Roberts (i800–i885), generally known as S.R., wrote numerous tracts and books on politics and See also:economics, and as a political thinker he was in many respects far in advance of his English contemporaries. It was in this period, too, that Wales had her national novelist, See also:Daniel Owen (1836–1895). He was a novelist of the See also:Dickens school, and delighted like his great master " in writing mythology rather than fiction." He has created a new literary atmosphere, in which the characters of Puritanical and plebeian Wales move freely and without See also:restraint. He can never be eclipsed just as Sir Walter See also:Scott cannot be eclipsed, because the Wales which he describes is slowly passing away. He has many worthy disciples, among whom See also:Miss Winnie Parry is easily first. Indeed, in her finer taste and greater firmness of touch, she stands on a higher See also:plane than even her great master. The inspiring genius of the latter part of this period is Owen M. Edwards (b. 1858), and, as a stylist, all writers of Welsh prose since Ellis Wynn have to concede him the See also:laurel. His little books of travel and history and See also:anecdote have created, or rather, are creating a new school of writers, scrupulously and almost pedantically careful and correct, an ideal which, on its philological side is the outcome of the scientific study of the language as inaugurated by Sir John Rhys and See also:Professor Morris Jones. One of the earliest, if not the ablest writer of this " new Welsh " was the independent and original Emrys ap Iwan (d. 1906), whose Homiliau was published in 1907. 10. Poetry after 1820.—The origins of this period are really placed in the last period. Its great characteristics are the development of the lyric, and the influence of English and continental ideas. Just as the cywydd was among the older writers the favourite form of poetry, so the lyric becomes now See also:paramount, almost to the exclusion of other forms. The first great name, after those already mentioned in the development of this form of poetry, is that of See also:Anne Griffiths (1776–1805). Her poetry is exclusively composed of hymns, but to the English mind, the word " hymn " is entirely inadequate to give any See also:idea of the passion, the See also:mysticism and the rich symbolistic See also:grace of her poems. She gave to the Welsh lyric the depth and the rather See also:melancholy intensity which has always characterized it. Evan Evans (Ieuan Glan Geirionydd) (1795–1855) was also a hymnologist, but he wrote many See also:secular lyrics and awdlau—among the former being the famous Morfa Rliuddlan. Ebenezer Thomas (Eben Fardd) (1802–1863) was a famous Eisteddfodwr; his best work is his awdlau, and no one will deny him the distinction of being the master poet of the awdl in the 19th century. Gwilym Cawrdaf (1795–1848), also a writer of awdlau, has the gift of See also:simple and direct expression, well exemplified in Hiraeth Cymro am ei wlad. Daniel Ddu (1792–1846) was a scholar who wrote some touching lyrics and hymns. Gwilym Hiraethog (1802–1883) attempted an epic, See also:Emmanuel, with indifferent success. His shorter works and some of his awdlau are of a much higher order. Caledfryn (1801–1869) was a direct successor of Dewi Wyn and the earlier writers of awdlau, but his Drylliad y Rothsay See also:Castle is See also:superior to anything which his master wrote. Similar in genius, though not on quite as high a plane, were See also:Nicander (1809–1874), Cynddelw (1812–1875), Gwalchmai (1803–1897) and Tudno (1844–1895). John See also:Blackwell (Alun) (1797–1840) was a lyricist of the first order. With Ieuan Glan Geirionydd, he is the pioneer of the secular lyric of the 19th century. Succeeding to this group of lyricists, we have another later group, Ceiriog (1832–1887), Talhaiarn (1810–1869) and Mynyddog (1833–1877), who certainly had the advantage over their predecessors in freshness, in vigour and in human interest, but they lacked the scholastic training of the earlier group, and so their work is often uneven, and cannot therefore be fairly compared with that of the earlier poets. Ceiriog, of course, is the greater name of the three, and is to Wales what Robert See also:Burns was to See also:Scotland, sharing with him his poetical faults and merits. He is called the national poet of Wales, because he was the first to sing of the land and the nation he knew, and he cast the glamour of his genius over the life of the gwerin, the peasants of Wales. Somewhat higher flights were essayed by Gwilym Marles (1834–1879) and Islwyn (1832–1878). Their poetry is Wordsworthian and mystical, and well exemplifies the love of See also:meta-physics and See also:speculation which is growing in Wales. Islwyn's Ystorm, though uneven, is full of powerful passages, and he was a master of See also:blank verse. Of the remaining poets of the period living in 1908, the most distinguished was the Rev. Elvet Lewis in the older See also:generation, and Eifion Wyn in the younger—both writers of lyrics. Other lyrical poets of the first class are Gwylfa and Silyn Roberts. In the old metres, two poets stand out prominent above all others—J. Morris Jones and T. Gwynn Jones. The Awdl i Famon of the former, and the Ymadawiad Arthur of the latter, gave See also:reason to believe that Welsh poetry was only entering on its golden period. Anthologies, Selected Prose and Verse, &c.— W. F. Skene, The Four Ancient Books of Wales (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1868) ; W. Owen (Pughe), Iolo Morganwg and Owen Jones (Myfyr), Myvyrian Archaialogy of Wales (3 vols., London, i8oi; 2 See also:Denbigh, 187o, in i vol.); Dr John Davies (o Fallwyd), See also:Flores Poetarun2 Britannicorum (Shrews-See also:bury, 1710; See also:Swansea, 1814; reprinted London, 1864); Iolo Morganwg, Iolo Manuscripts (Llandovery, 1848) ; E. Evans, Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards translated into English, &c. (London, 1764) ; See also:Hugh Jones, Dewisol Ganiadau yr Oes Hon (See also:Shrewsbury, 1759; 5 Merthyr, 1827), Diddanwch Teuluaidd (London, 1763) ; David Jones, Blodeugerdd Cymry (Shrewsbury 2, 1779) ; Owen Jones, Ceinion Llenyddiaeth Gymreig (2 vols., London, 1876) ; W. Lewis Jones, Caniadau Cymru (Bangor2, 1908) ; W. Jenkyn Thomas, Penillion Telyn (Carnarvon, 1894) ; Myrddin Fardd, Cynfeirdd Lleyn (1905) ; Cyfres See also:Lien Cymru, vols. i.-vi. (Cardiff, 1900–1906) ; W. J. Gruffydd, Y Flodeugerdd Newydd (Cardiff, 1908) ; O. M. Edwards, Beirdd y Berwyn (See also:Conway, 1903). Versification, &c,—Dafydd Morganwg, Yr Ysgol Farddol (Cardiff 2, 1887) ; lolo Morganwg, Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (Merthyr, 1829; 2 Carnarvon, 1874); Simwnt Vychan and Dafydd Ddu Athraw, Dosparth Edeyrn Davod Aur, ed. by J. Williams ab Ithel (Llandovery, 1856) ; J. Morris Jones, " Welsh Versification," Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil. iv. pp. 106-142. Collected Works, Editions and Reprints,—J. Gwenogvryn Evans and John Rhys, Y Llyvyr Coch o Hergest (2 vols. Oxford, 1887–189o), Pedeir Kainc y Mabinogi (Oxford, 1897) ; J. Gwenogvryn Evans, The Black Book of Carmarthen (Oxford, 1907; also in facsimile, Oxford, i888), Llyvyr See also:Job trans. by Dr Morgan, 1558 (reprinted 1888), 011 Synwyr See also:pen [Salesburyj (See also:Bangor, 1902); J. Morris Jones and John Rhys, Llyvyr Agkyr landewivrevi (Oxford, 1894); Aneurin Owen, Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (2 vols., London, 184,), See also:Brut y Tywysogion (London, 1863) ; J. Williams ab Ithel, Gododin with Notes and Translation (Llandovery, 1852) ; T. Stephens,
Gododin with Notes and Translation, ed. by T. Powel (London, 1888) ; R. Williams, Selections from the Hengwrt MSS. (2 vols., London, 1876–1892) ; T. Powel, Ystorya de Carolo Magno (London, 1883), Psalmau Dafydd trans. by W. Morgan (facsimile, 1896) ; Owen Jones (Myfyr) and W. Owen (Pughe), Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym (London, 1789) ; Walter Davies and J. Jones, Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi (1837); Prince See also: J. Gruffydd, Cywyddau Goronwy Owen (See also:Newport, 1906); T. E. Ellis, Gweithiau Morgan Llwyd (Bangor, 1899) ; J. H. Davies, Yn y Llyvyr hwn (Bangor, 1902) ; S. J. Evans, Drych y Prif Oesoedd gan Th. Evans (Bangor, 1902) ; W. P. Williams, Deffyniad Ffydd Eglwys Loegr gan Morys Kyf n (Bangor, 19o8); N. Cynhafal Jones, Gweithiau W. Williams Pantycelyn (2 vols., 1887–1891) ; O. M. Edwards, Gweithiau Islwyn (1897). (W. J. G.) V. BRETON LITERATURE.—Unlike the literature of Wales, the literature of Brittany is destitute of originality, and we find nothing to compare with the Mabinogion. Till the 19th century all the monuments which have come down to us are copies of French models, though the retention down to the 17th century of that intricate system of versification found in Welsh and Cornish may indicate that what was really Breton in spirit has not been preserved (v. J. Loth, La Metrique galloise, ii. 177-203). It is usual to See also:divide the literature into three periods in conformity with the language in which the monuments are written—Old, Middle, and Modern Breton. No connected monuments of the first period (8th to 1th centuries) have come down to us: For our knowledge of the language of this period we must have recourse to the manuscripts containing glosses and the names occurring in ancient documents. The chief collections of.glosses are (I) the Oxford glosses on Eutychius; (2) the See also:Luxemburg glosses; (3) the See also:Bern glosses on See also:Virgil; (4) the glosses on Amalarius (Corpus Christi, Cambridge); (5) five Collationes Canonum, the chief manuscripts being at Paris and See also: 56). The earliest Breton printed work is the Catholicon of See also:Jean Lagadeuc, a Breton-Latin-French dictionary, dated 1464 but printed first in 1499 (reprinted by R. F. Le Men, See also:Lorient, 1867). Modern Breton begins with the orthographical reforms of the Jesuit, See also:Julien Maunoir, whose grammar (Le Sacre College de Jesus) and dictionary appeared in 1659. Throughout the modern period we find numerous collections of religious poems and manuals of devotion in prose and verse, which we cannot here attempt to enumerate. But the bulk of Breton literature before the 19th century consists of mysteries and See also:miracle plays. This class of literature had a tremendous vogue in Brittany, and the native stage was only killed about 185o. It is stated, for instance, that no less than 15,000 copies were sold of the Tragedy of the Four Sons of Aymon, first published in 1815. It is impossible to give the titles of all the dramas which have come down to us (about 120). The manuscript collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris is described in the Revue celtique, xi. 389-423 (many since published) and Le Braz gives a useful list of other manuscripts in the See also:bibliographical appendix to his Thedtre celtique. A few of these plays belong to the Middle Breton period. The Life of St Nonn, the See also:mother of St David, belongs to the end of the 15th century, and follows the Latin life (published by Ernault in the Revue celtique, viii. 230 if., 405 ff.). Le Grand Mystere de Jesus (1513) follows the French See also:play of Arnoul Gresban and Jean See also:Michel (published by H. de la Villemarque, Paris, 1865). A French original is also followed in the Mystere de Sainte Barbe (1st ed., 1557, 2nd ed., 1647, reprinted by Ernault, See also:Nantes, (1885). These mystery plays may be divided into four categories according to the subjects with which they deal: (1) Old Testament subjects; (2) New Testament subjects; (3) lives of saints; (4) romances of chivalry. There is occasionally a dash of local colouring in these plays; but the subject matter is taken from French sources or, in the case of the third See also:category, from Latin lives. Even when the life of a Breton See also:saint, e.g. St Gwennole, is dramatized, the treatment is the traditional one accorded to all saints of whatever origin. Amongst the most favourite subjects in addition to those already mentioned we may note the following: See also:Vie See also:des quatre fits Aymon, Ste Tryphine et be roi Arthur, Huon de See also:Bordeaux, Vie de Louis Eunius, Robert be Diable. These mysteries commonly contain from 5000 to 9000 lines of either 12 or 8 syllables apiece. For the sake of completeness we may add the names of three farces, described by Le Braz: Ar Farvel goapaer (Le bouffon moqueur), Ian Melarge (Mardi-gras), La Vie de Mardi-gras, de triste Mine, sa femme, et de ses enfants. The actors, who were always peasants, came to be regarded with an unfavourable See also:eye by the clergy, who finally succeeded in killing the Breton stage. We look in vain for any manifestation of originality in Breton literature until we reach the ,9th century. The consciousness of See also:nationality then awakened and found expression in verse. The movement led by Le Gonidec (described above in the section on Breton language) caused ardent patriots to endeavour to create a national literature, more especially when the See also:attention of the whole world of letters was directed to Brittany after the publication of the Barzas Breiz. The most prominent of these pioneers were Auguste See also:Brizeux, F. M. Luzel and Prosper Proux. Brizeux (1803-1858), better known as a French poet, wrote a collection of lyrics entitled Telen Arvor, or the Armorican See also:Harp (Lorient, 1844, reprinted Paris, 1903). Luzel's original compositions were published under the title of Bepred Breizad, Toujours Breton (See also:Morlaix, 1865), and Prosper Proux is known as the author of Canaouenno gret gant eur C'hernewod (1838) and Ar See also:Bombard Kerne, or The Hautboy of Cornouailles (See also:Guingamp, 1866). Dottin also mentions Telenn Remengol, by J. Lescour (See also:Brest, 1867) ; Telenn Gwengam, by the same writer (Brest, 1869), a volume of Chansoniou by Y. M. Thomas (See also:Lannion, 187o), and another by C. Rannou. This was a very creditable beginning, but the themes of these writers are See also:apt to be somewhat conventional and the See also:constant recurrence of the same situation or the same idea grows monotonous. An See also:anthology of poems connected with this movement appeared at Quimperle in 1862 under the title of Bleuniou Breiz, Poesies anciennes et modernes de la Basse-Bretagne (reprinted, Paris, 1905). Several of La See also:Fontaine's fables were published in a Breton dress by P. D. de Goesbriand (Morlaix; 1836), and a collection of fables in verse which is thought very highly of by cultivated Bretons appeared under the title of Marvaillou Grac'h koz by G. Milin (Brest, 1867). A book of Georgics in the dialect of See also:Vannes appeared under the title of Levr al labourer (The See also:Farmer's Book) by 1'See also:Abbe Guillome (Vannes, 1849), and Le Gonidec prepared a translation of the Scriptures, which was revised by Troude and Milin, and published at St Brieuc in 1868. But the real literature of Brittany consists of legends, folk-tales and ballads. The first to tap this source was Hersart de la Villemarque (1815–1895), who issued in 1839 his famous collection of ballads entitled Barzas Breiz, but which cannot be regarded as an anthology of Breton popular poetry. The publication of this work gave rise to a controversy which is almost as famous as that caused by Macpherson's forgeries. De la Villemarque was endowed with considerable poetic gifts, and, coming as he did at a time when folk-poetry was the fashion, he determined to collect the popular literature of hisowncountry. However, he was not content to publish the poems as he found them circulating in Brittany. With the aid of several, collaborators he transformed his material, eliminating anything that was crude and See also:gross. The poems included in his collection may be divided into three classes: (1) Poems rearranged by himself or others. These consist mainly of love-songs and ballads. (2) Modern poems transferred to medieval times. (3) See also:Spurious poems dealing with such personages as Nominoe and Merlin. The compiler of the Barzas Breiz unfortunately laboured under the delusion that these Breton folk-songs were in the first instance the work of medieval bards corresponding to Taliessin and Llywarch Hen in Wales, and that it was possible to make them appear in their See also:primitive dress. The very title of the collection indicates the artificial nature of the contents. For Barzas (in the 2nd edition of 1867 spelt Barzaz) is not a Breton word at all but is formed on Welsh barddas (bardic poems). For the whole controversy the reader may consult H. Gaidoz and P. Sebillot, " Bibliographie des traditions et de la litterature populaire de la Bretagne " (Revue celtique, v. 277 if., and G. Dottin in the Revue de synthese historique, viii. 95 ff.). In Brittany it is usual to divide the popular poetry into gwerziou and soniou. The gwerziou (complaintes) deal with local history, folk-lore, religious legends and superstitions, and are in general much more original than the other class. The soniou consist of love-songs, satires, carols and See also:marriage-lays, as well as others dealing with professional occupations, and seem in many cases to show traces of French influence. The first scholar who published the genuine ballad literature of Brittany was F. M. Luzel, who issued two volumes under the title of Gwerziou Breiz-Izel, chants populaires de la Basse-Bretagne (Lorient and Paris, 1868, 1874). This collection contains several of the originals of poems in the Barzas Breiz. Luzel is also the author of a collection of Breton tales in French translation, Conies bretons recueillis et traduits See also:par F. M. Luzel (Quimperle, 1870). The same author published See also:Les Legendes chretiennes de la Basse-Bretagne (Paris, 1881) and Veillees bretonnes, mceurs, chants, contes et recits populaires des Bretons-Armoricains (Morlaix, 1879). Another indefatigable See also:collector of Breton legends is Anatole le Braz, who was commissioned by the minister of public instruction to investigate the stories current with reference to An Ankou (death). Le Braz's results are to be found in his La Legende de la mort (19022). A well-known collection of stories with a French translation was issued by the lexicographer Troude under the title of Ar marvailler brezounek (Brest, 1870), and one of the most popular books at the present day is Pipi Gonto, by A. le Moal (St Brieuc, vol. i. 1902, vol. ii. 1908). A See also:recent collection of stories with a religious tendency is C. M. le Prat's Marvailhou ar Vretoned (Brest, 1907). The modern movement, which started in the 'nineties of last century, has already produced numerous dramas and volumes of lyrics, and it may now be affirmed in all seriousness that Brittany is producing something really national. The scope of the writers of the earlier movement was very limited and little originality was displayed in their productions. The literary output of the last ten years in Brittany may truly be termed prodigious, and much of it reaches quite a high level. The dramas which are being produced are mainly propagandist in the interests either of the See also:Union Regionaliste Bretonne or of See also:temperance reform. These are for the most part very crude, but they have been received with great enthusiasm, and this has led to the revival of the old mysteries, though in a somewhat modified form. The foremost living writer is Fanch Jaffrennou, who writes under the name of " Taldir " (Brow of See also:Steel) and is the author of two very striking volumes of lyrics—An Hirvoudou or Sighs (St Brieuc, 1899) and An Delen See also:Dir or The Harp of Steel (St Brieuc, 1900). The latter is the most interesting out-come of the modern movement. Among other poets we may mention N. Quellien (Annaik, Paris, 1880; Breiz, Poesies bretonnes, Paris, 1898), Erwan Berthou (Dre an Delen See also:hag ar c'horn-boud, Par la harpe et par le See also:cor de guerre, St Brieuc, 1904), C. M. le Prat, who writes under the name of Klaoda (Mouez Reier Plougastel, " The Voice of the Cliffs of Plougastel," St Brieuc, 1905), J. Cuillandre (Mouez an Aochcu, La Voix des greves, See also:Rennes, 1903), abbe Lec'hvien, Gwerziou ha soniou (St Brieuc, 1900), and, further, two See also:anonymous volumes of verse, An Tremener, Gwerziou ha soniou (Brest, 1900), and Kanaouennou Kerne (Brest, 19oo). Two older collections are mentioned by Dottin—J. Cadiou, En Breiz-Izel (Morlaix, 1885) and Ivona (Morlaix, 1886). An anthology of latter-day lyrics appeared at Rennes in 1902 under the title of Bleuniou Breiz-Izel, Dibab Barzoniezou. Of the numerous plays those most deserving of mention from a literary point of view are perhaps Ar Vezventi by T. le Garrec; the See also:comedy Alanik at Louarn by J. M. See also:Perrot (Brest, 1905) based on the See also:farce of Pathelin; Tanguy Malmanche, Le See also:Conte de l'dme qui a faim, in which Breton superstitions connected with the See also:spirits of the dead are introduced with strange effect; J. le Bayon, En Eutru Keriolet (Vannes, 1902), which deals with the life and death of a blaspheming Breton nobleman of the early part of the 17th century; F. Jaffrennou, Pontkallek (Brest, 1903), which tells of the betrayal of a noble Breton who was put to death by the French in 1720; and the farce Eur Pesk-Ebrel by L. Rennadis (Morlaix, 1900). from time to time in the Annales de Bretagne. (E. C. Q.) VI. CORNISH LITERATURE.—The literature of See also:Cornwall is more destitute of originality and more limited in scope than that of Brittany, and it is remarkable that the medieval drama should occupy the most prominent place in both. The earliest Cornish we know consists of proper names and a vocabulary. About 200 Cornish names occur among the manumissions of See also:serfs in the See also:Bodmin Gospels (loth century). They were printed by Whitley Stokes in the Revue celtique, i. 232. Next comes the See also:Cotton ian Vocabulary, which seems to follow a similar Anglo-Saxon collection and is contained in a 12th-century MS. at the British Museum. It consists of seven pages and the words are classified under various headings, such as heaven and See also:earth, different parts of the human body, birds, beasts, fishes, trees, herbs,. ecclesiastical and liturgical terms. At the end we find a number of adjectives. This vocabulary was printed by Zeuss 2, p. ro65, and again in alphabetical order by See also:Norris in the Ordinalia. The language of this document is termed Old Cornish, although the forms it contains correspond to those of See also:Mid. Welsh and Mid. Breton. The first piece of connected Cornish which we know consists of a poem, or portion of a play (?), of forty-one lines discovered by See also:Jenner in the British Museum. This fragment was probably written about 1400 and deals with the subject of marriage (edited by W. Stokes in the Revue celtique, iv. 258). A little later is the Poem of See also:Mount See also:Calvary or the Passion, of which five MSS. are in existence. The poem has been twice printed,*
first by Davies See also: Many of the events are represented as having taken place in well-known Cornish localities, but apart from this scarcely any traces of originality can be discovered. The same remark holds good in the case of another play, Beunans Meriasek or the Life of St Meriasek. This deals in an incoherent manner with the life and death of Meriasek (in Breton Meriadek), the son of a See also:duke of Brittany, and interwoven with this theme is the legend of St See also:Silvester and the emperor See also:Constantine, quite regardless of the circumstance that St Silvester lived in the 4th and St Meriasek in the 7th century. The MS. of this play was written by " See also:Dominus Hadton " in the year 1504, and is preserved in the Peniarth library. The language is more recent than that of the Ordinalia, and there is a certain admixture of English. The Life of St Meriasek falls into two parts, and at the end of each the spectators are invited to carouse. St Meriasek was in earlier times the patron saint of See also:Camborne, where his fountain is still to be seen and pilgrims to it were known by the name of Merrasickers. In this play, consequently, we might expect to find something really Cornish. But le Braz has shown that the author of this See also:motley drama was content to draw his materials from Latin and English lives of saints. The story of Meriasek himself was taken from a Breton source and closely resembles the narrative of the 17th-century Breton hagiographer, See also:Albert le Grand. The last play we have to mention is Gwreans an Bys (The Creation of the World), of which five complete copies are known. Two of these are in the Bodleian and one in the British Museum, which also possesses a further fragment. The oldest text was revised by William See also:Jordan of See also:Helston in 1611, but there are indications that parts of it at any See also:rate are older than the Reformation. This play bears a great resemblance to the first part of the Origo Mundi, and may have been imitated from it. It was printed first by Davies Gilbert in 1827 with a translation by John Keigwin, and again by W. Stokes in the Transactions of the London Philological Society for 1864. The language shows considerable signs of decay, and See also:Lucifer and his angels are often made to speak English. The only other original compositions of any length written in Cornish are Nebbaz Gerriau dro tho Carnoack (A Few Words about Cornish), by John Boson (printed in the See also:Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, 1879), and the Story of John of Chy-an-Hur (See also:Ram's House), a folk-tale which appears in Ireland and elsewhere. The latter was printed in Lhuyd's Grammar and in Pryce's Archaeologia. See also:Andrew Borde's Booke of the Introduction of Knowledge (1542) contains some Cornish conversations (see Archiv f. cell. Lexikographie, vol. i.), and in See also:Carew's Survey of Cornwall a number of words and phrases are to be found. Apart from the Cornish See also:preface to Lhuyd's Grammar, the other remains of the language consist of a few songs, verses, proverbs, epigrams, epitaphs, See also:maxims, letters, conversations, mottoes and translations of chapters and passages of Scripture, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Commandments, King Charles's Letter, &c. These fragments are to be found (1) in the Gwavas MS. in the British Museum, a collection ranging in date from 1709 to 1736; (2) in the See also:Borlase MS. (1750); (3) in Pryce's Archaeologia See also:Cornu-Britannica (1790); (4) in D. Gilbert's editions of the Poem of the Passion (1826) and the Creation of the World (1827). They are enumerated, classified and described by Jenner in his Handbook. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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