THE ANCIENT WELSH BARDS***


Transcribed from the [1862] John Pryse, Llanidloes edition by David
Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org





                                   SOME
                         SPECIMENS OF THE POETRY
                                    OF
                         THE ANCIENT WELSH BARDS.


                         Translated into English,

WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE HISTORICAL PASSAGES, AND A SHORT ACCOUNT OF
                  MEN AND PLACES MENTIONED BY THE BARDS.

                                  BY THE
                  REV. EVAN EVANS, (IEUAN PRYDYDD HIR.)

    "Vos quoque, qui fortes animas belloque peremptas
    Laudibus in longum, Vates, dimittitis aevum,
    Plurima securi fudistis carmina Bardi."

                                                                  LUCANUS.

    --"Si quid mea carmina possunt
    Aonio statuam sublimes vertice Bardos,
    Bardos Pieridum cultores atque canentis
    Phoebi delicias, quibus est data cura perennis
    Dicere nobilium clarissima facta virorum,
    Aureaque excelsam famam super astra locare."

                                           LELANDUS in Assertione Arturii.

                REPRINTED FROM DODSLEY'S EDITION OF 1764.

                                * * * * *

             PUBLISHED BY JOHN PRYSE, LLANIDLOES, MONTGOMERY;
                       AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.




TO
SIR ROGER MOSTYN,
OF
MOSTYN AND GLODDAITH, BART.,


Representative of the County, Lord Lieutenant, and Lieutenant Colonel of
the Militia of Flintshire.

SIR,

I hope you will pardon my presumption in prefixing your name to the
following small collection of British poems, to which you have a just
claim, as being lineally descended from those heroes they celebrate, and
retain in an eminent manner the worth and generous principles of your
renowned ancestors.  The British Bards were received by the nobility and
gentry with distinguished marks of esteem, in every part of Wales, and
particularly at Gloddaith and Mostyn, where their works are still
preserved in your curious libraries.  I hope, therefore, an attempt to
give the public a small specimen of their works will not fail of your
approbation, which the editor flatters himself with, from the generous
manner with which you treated him, particularly by lending him some of
your valuable books and manuscripts.

That you may long continue to be an ornament to your country, and a
pattern of virtuous actions, and a generous patron of learning, is the
sincere wish, of,

                                                                      Sir,
                                                              Your obliged
                                                           Humble Servant,
                                                               EVAN EVANS.




PREFACE.


As there is a natural curiosity in most people to be brought acquainted
with the works of men, whose names have been conveyed down to us with
applause from very early antiquity, I have been induced to think, that a
translation of some of the Welsh Bards would be no unacceptable present
to the public.  It is true they lived in times when all Europe was
enveloped with the dark cloud of bigotry and ignorance; yet, even under
these disadvantageous circumstances, a late instance may convince us,
that poetry shone forth with a light, that seems astonishing to many
readers.  They who have perused the works of Ossian, as translated by Mr.
Macpherson, will, I believe, be of my opinion.

I mean not to set the following poems in competition with those just
mentioned; nor did the success which they have met with from the world,
put me upon this undertaking.  It was first thought of, and encouraged
some years before the name of Ossian was known in England.  I had long
been convinced, that no nation in Europe possesses greater remains of
ancient and genuine pieces of this kind than the Welsh; and therefore was
inclined, in honour to my country, to give a specimen of them in the
English language.

As to the genuineness of these poems, I think there can be no doubt; but
though we may vie with the Scottish nation in this particular, yet there
is another point, in which we must yield to them undoubtedly.  The
language of their oldest poets, it seems, is still perfectly
intelligible, which is by no means our case.

The works of Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, Aneurin Gwawdrydd, Myrddin Wyllt,
Avan Verddig, who all flourished about the year 560, a considerable time
after Ossian, are hardly understood by the best critics