

Transcribed from the 1897 Welsh National Press Company edition by David
Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

                          [Picture: Book cover]

            [Picture: Glasynys, The Birthplace of Ellis Wynne]





                               THE VISIONS
                                  OF THE
                              SLEEPING BARD


                                  BEING

                              ELLIS WYNNE’S

                     “_Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc_”

                              TRANSLATED BY

                         ROBERT GWYNEDDON DAVIES

                                * * * * *

                LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARHSALL & CO., LIMITED.

           CARNARVON: THE WELSH NATIONAL PRESS COMPANY, LIMITED

                                * * * * *

                                MDCCCXCVII

                                * * * * *

                                    TO
                     PROFESSOR JOHN RHŶS, M.A., LL.D.
                    PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD
                                   AND
                 VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
                             OF NORTH WALES,
                               IN TOKEN OF
               HIS DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP AND UNRIVALLED
                                 SERVICES
                                    TO
                            CELTIC LITERATURE
                             THIS TRANSLATION
                                    IS
                          RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED




PREFACE


AT the National Eisteddfod of 1893, a prize was offered by Mr. Lascelles
Carr, of the _Western Mail_, for the best translation of Ellis Wynne’s
_Vision of Hell_.  The Adjudicators (Dean Howell and the Rev. G. Hartwell
Jones, M.A.), awarded the prize for the translation which is comprised in
the present volume.  The remaining Visions were subsequently rendered
into English, and the complete work is now published in the hope that it
may prove useful to those readers, who, being unacquainted with the Welsh
language, yet desire to obtain some knowledge of its literature.

My best thanks are due to the Rev. J. W. Wynne Jones, M.A., Vicar of
Carnarvon, for much help and valuable criticism; to the Rev. R Jones,
MA., Rector of Llanfair-juxta-Harlech, through whose courtesy I am
enabled to produce (from a photograph by Owen, Barmouth) a page of the
register of that parish, containing entries in Ellis Wynne’s handwriting;
and to Mr. Isaac Foulkes, Liverpool, for the frontispiece, which appeared
in his last edition of the _Bardd Cwsc_.

                                                      R. GWYNEDDON DAVIES.

_Caernarvon_,
      _1st July_, _1897_.




CONTENTS.

                                                  PAGE
Frontispiece
Genealogical Tables                                xii
Introduction:—
                       I.  The Author’s Life        xv
                      II.  The Text                 xx
                     III.  The Summary            xxiv
Facsimile of Ellis Wynne’s Handwriting
Vision of the World                                  3
Vision of Death                                     43
Vision of Hell                                      67
Notes                                              123




GENEALOGICAL TABLES. {0}


ELLIS WYNNE’S PEDIGREE.


*** (_I am indebted to E. H. Owen_, _Esqr._, _F.S.A._, _Tycoch_,
_Carnarvon_, _for most of the information compiled in the following
tables_.)

                    [Picture: Ellis Wynne’s Pedigree]



THE RELATION BETWEEN ELLIS WYNNE & BISHOP HUMPHREYS.


      [Picture: The Relation between Ellis Wynne & Bishop Humphreys]




INTRODUCTION.


I.—THE AUTHOR’S LIFE.


ELLIS WYNNE was born in 1671 at Glasynys, near Harlech; his father,
Edward Wynne, came of the family of Glyn Cywarch (mentioned in the second
Vision), his mother, whose name is not known, was heiress of Glasynys.
It will be seen from the accompanying table that he was descended from
some of the best families in his native county, and through _Osborn
Wyddel_, from the Desmonds of Ireland.  His birth-place, which still
stands, and is shown in the frontispiece hereto, is situate about a mile
and a half from the town of Harlech, in the beautiful Vale of Ardudwy.
The natural scenery amidst which he was brought up, cannot have failed to
leave a deep impression upon his mind; and in the Visions we come across
unmistakeable descriptions of scenes and places around his home.
Mountain and sea furnished him with many a graphic picture; the
precipitous heights and dark ravines of Hell, its caverns and its cliffs,
are all evidently drawn from nature.  The neighbourhood is also rich in
romantic lore and historic associations; Harlech Castle, some twenty-five
years before his birth, had been the scene of many a fray between
Roundheads and Cavaliers, and of the last stand made by the Welsh for
King Charles.  These events were fresh in the memory of his elders, whom
he had, no doubt, often heard speaking of those stirring times; members
of his own family had, perhaps, fought in the ranks of the rival parties;
his father’s grand-uncle, Col. John Jones, was one of those “who
erstwhile drank of royal blood.”

It is not known where he received his early education, and it has been
generally stated by his biographers that he was not known to have entered
either of the Universities; but, as the following notice proves, he at
least matriculated at Oxford:—

    WYNNE, ELLIS, s. Edw. of Lasypeys, co. Merioneth, pleb. Jesus Coll.
    matric. 1st March 1691–2, aged 21; rector of Llandanwg, 1705, & of
    Llanfair-juxta-Harlech (both) co. Merioneth, 1711.  (_Vide_ Foster’s
    _Index Eccles_.)

Probably his stay at the University was brief, and that he left without
taking his degree, for I have been unable to find anything further
recorded of his academic career. {0a}  The Rev. Edmund Prys, Vicar of
Clynnog-Fawr, in a prefatory _englyn_ to Ellis Wynne’s translation of the
“_Holy Living_” says that “in order to enrich his own, he had ventured
upon the study of three other tongues.”  This fact, together with much
that appears in the Visions, justifies the conclusion that his scholarly
attainments were of no mean order.  But how and where he spent the first
thirty years of his life, with the possible exception of a period at
Oxford, is quite unknown, the most probable surmise being that they were
spent in the enjoyment of a simple rural life, and in the pursuit of his
studies, of whatever nature they may have been.

According to Rowlands’s _Cambrian Bibliography_ his first venture into
the fields of literature was a small volume entitled, _Help i ddarllen yr
Yscrythur Gyssegr-Lân_ (“Aids to reading Holy Writ”), being a translation
of the _Whole Duty of Man_ “by E. W., a clergyman of the Church of
England,” published at Shrewsbury in 1700.  But as Ellis Wynne was not
ordained until 1704, this work must be ascribed to some other author who,
both as to name and calling, answered to the description on the
title-page quoted above.  But in 1701 an accredited work of his appeared,
namely, a translation into Welsh of Jeremy Taylor’s _Rules and Exercises
of Holy Living_, a 12mo. volume published in London.  It was dedicated to
the Rev. Humphrey Humphreys, D.D., Bishop of Bangor, who was a native of
the same district of Merionethshire as Ellis Wynne, and, as is shown in
the genealogical table hereto, was connected by marriage with his family.

In 1702 {0b} he was married to Lowri Llwyd—_anglicè_, Laura Lloyd—of
Hafod-lwyfog, Beddgelert, and had issue by her, two daughters and three
sons; one of the daughters, Catherine, died young, and the second son,
Ellis, predeceased his father by two years. {0c}  His eldest son, Gwilym,
became rector of Llanaber, near Barmouth, and inherited his ancestral
home; his youngest son, Edward, also entered the Church and became rector
of Dolbenmaen and Penmorfa, Carnarvonshire.  Edward Wynne’s son was the
rector of Llanferres, Denbighshire, and his son again was the Rev. John
Wynne, of Llandrillo in Edeyrnion, who died only a few years ago.

The following year (1703), he published the present work—his _magnum
opus_—which has secured him a place among the greatest names in Welsh
Literature.  It will be noticed that on the title-page to the first
edition the words “_Y Rhann Gyntaf_” (“The First Part”) appear; the
explanation given of this is that Ellis Wynne did actually write a second
part, entitled, _The Vision of Heaven_, but that on hearing that he was
charged with plagiarism in respect of his other Visions, he threw the
manuscript into the fire, and so destroyed what, judging from the title,
might have proved a