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 Hên, 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 and antiquarians in Wales, though our language has not undergone more changes than the Erse. Nay, the Bards that wrote a long while after, from the time of William the Conquerer to the death of Prince Llewelyn, are not so easy to be understood; but that whoever goes about to translate them, will find numerous obsolete words, not to be found in any Dictionary or Glossary, either in print or manuscript.
What this difference is owing to, I leave to be determined by others, who are better acquainted, than I am, with such circumstances of the Scottish Highlands, as might prove more favourable towards keeping up the perfect knowledge of their language for so many generations. But, be that as it may, it is not my intent to enter into the dispute, which has arisen in relation to the antiquity of Ossian’s poems. My concern is only about the opinion the world may entertain of the intrinsic value of those which I offer. They seem to me, though not so methodical and regular in their composition as many poems of other nations, yet not to be wanting in poetical merit; and if I am not totally deceived in my judgment, I