Elphin gynneddfau hynod
Na sorr ar dy gyffaelod
Cyt bwyf gwan ar lawr fy nghod
Mae rhinwedd ar fy nhafod
Tra fwyf fi yth gyfragod
Nid rhaid yt ddirfawr ofnod
Drwy goffau enwau’r Drindod
Ni ddichon neb dy orfod.
It may not be improper to inform the Reader that the Orthography used in these Poems is the Orthography of the MSS. and not that of the Welsh Bible.
APPENDIX.
1. A method how to retrieve the ancient British language, in order that the Bards of the sixth century may be understood, and that the genuineness of Tyssilio’s British History, which was translated from the Armoric language into Latin by Galfridus Arturius of Monmouth may be decided; and concerning a new edition of Gildas Nennius’s Eulogium Brittanniæ, with notes, from ancient British MSS. This old British writer has been shamefully mangled by Dr. Gale, his editor, in the Scriptores Brittannici; and not much mended by Mr. Bertram in his late edition of it at Copenhagen.
Whether the ancient British language can be so far recovered as to understand the most ancient British writings now extant, is, I think, a consideration by no means beneath the notice of a society of Antiquarians, and of all learned men in general. There has been, it is true, an attempt of this nature made by the very learned Mr. Edward Llwyd, of the Museum, and in part laudably executed in his Archæologia Britannica, which reflects honour on those worthy persons who supported him in his five years travels into Ireland, Scotland, Cornwal, Basse Bretagne, and Wales. But as his plan was too extensive to bring every branch of what he undertook to perfection, I think a continuation of the same, restrained within certain limits, might still be useful.—Natural history is itself a province sufficient to engross a man’s whole attention; but it was only a part of this great man’s undertaking: and the learned world is abundantly convinced of the uncommon proficiency he made in natural philosophy; and how industrious he was in tracing the dialects of the ancient Celtic language. But still it must be acknowledged that he did very little towards the thorough understanding the ancient British Bards and historians. And indeed he owns himself that he was not encouraged in this part of his intended work, as appears by his proposals. Far be it from me to censure those very learned men who generously contributed to support the ingenious author in his travels, and dictated the method he was to persue. But, after all, I cannot help lamenting that he did not pay more attention to the old MSS. and compile a glossary to understand them. What he has done of this nature is very imperfect, few words being added to what there are in Dr. Davies’s Dictionary, and those chiefly from writings of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. Indeed it appears he had not seen the works but of one of the Bards of the sixth century, and that in the red book of Hergest, in the Archives of Jesus’s College, Oxon. He complains
he could not procure access to the collections at Hengwrt and Llan Fordaf, and without perusing those venerable remains, and leisure to collate them with other copies, it was impossible for him to do anything effectual.—Now the method I would propose to a person that would carry this project into execution, is, that as soon as he is become master of the ancient British language, as far as it can be learned, by the assistance of Dr. Davies’s dictionary, and Moses Williams’s glossary at the end of Dr. Wotton’s translation of Howel Dda’s laws, he should endeavour to procure access to the great collections of ancient British MSS. in the libraries of the Earl of Macclesfield, Lady Wynne of Wynstay, the Duke of Ancaster, Sir Roger Mostyn at Gloddaith, John Davies, Esquire, at Llannerch, Miss Wynne of Bod Yscallen, William Vaughan, Esquire, at Cors y Gedol, and in other places both in South and North Wales in private hands. By this means he would be enabled in time to ascertain the true reading in many MSS. that have been altered and mangled by the ignorance of transcribers. I am satisfied there are not many copies of the Bards of the sixth century extant, nor indeed of those from the conquest to the death of Llewelyn. But two or three ancient copies on vellom, if such can be met with, will be sufficient; for in some transcripts by good hands that I have seen, they are imperfect in some copies. This would in a great measure enable our traveller to fill up the blanks, and help him to understand what, for want of this, must remain obscure, if not altogether unintelligible. We should by the means of such a person have a great many monuments of genius brought to light, that are now mouldering away with age, and a great many passages in history illustrated and confirmed that are now dark and dubious. Whole poems of great length and merit might be retrieved, not inferior, perhaps, to Ossian’s productions, if indeed those extraordinary poems are of so ancient date, as his translator avers them to be. The Gododin of Aneurin Gwawdrydd is a noble heroic poem. So are likewise the works of Llywarch Hen about his battles with the Saxons, in which he lost twenty-four sons, who all were distinguished for their bravery with golden torques’s. Aurdorchogion.
Taliesin’s poems to Maelgwn Gwynedd, to Elphin ap Gwyddno, to Gwynn ap Nudd, and Urien Reged, and other great personages of his time, are great curiosities. We have, besides these, some remains of the works of Merddin ap Morfryn, to his patron Gwenddolau ap Ceidis, and of Afan Ferddig to Cadwallon ap Cadfan; and, perhaps, there may be in those collections some besides that we have not heard of. All these treasures might be brought to light, by a person well qualified for the undertaking, properly recommended by men of character and learning: and I think, in an age wherein all parts of literature are cultivated, it would be a pity to lose the few remaining monuments now left of the ancient British Bards, some of
which are by their very antiquity become venerable. Aneurin Gwawdrydd above-mentioned is said, by Mr. Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, to be brother to Gildas ap Caw, author of the Epistle de excidio Britanniæ which is the most ancient account of Great Britain extant in Latin by a native.—No manner of estimate can be made of the works of our Bards and Historians that have been destroyed from time to time; nay some very curious ones have been lost within this century and a half. I think, therefore, it would be an act becoming the Antiquarian Society, and all patrons of learning in general, to encourage and support such an undertaking, which would redound much to their honour, and be a fund of a rational and instructive amusement.—Nor would those benefits alone accrue from a thorough knowledge of our Bards, but still more solid and substantial ones. For who would be better qualified than such a person to decide the controversy about the genuineness of the British History, by Tyssilio, from the oldest copies of it now extant, which differ in a great many particulars from the Latin translation of Galfrid, who owns that he received his copy from a person who brought it from Armorica; and why may there not be some copies of it still behind in some monasteries of that country, and of other works still more valuable? Mr. Llwyd, of the Museum, intended to visit them all, in order to get a catalogue of them to be printed in his Archæologia Britannica; but he was prevented by the war which then broke out, of which he gives an account in a letter to Mr. Rowlands, author of Mona Antiqua restaurata, and which is published at the end of that treatise. Who can be better qualified to succeed in such an undertaking than a person that is thoroughly well versed in all the old MSS. now extant in Wales. I find that the Armoric historians, particularly Father Lobineau, quote some of their ancient Bards to confirm historical facts. This is demonstration that some of their oldest Bards are still extant; and who knows but that some of the books they took with them when they first went to settle in Gaul, under Maximus and Conau Meiriadoc, may be still extant, at least transcripts of some of them; for that some were carried over is plain, by what Gildas himself says, “quæ vel si qua fuerint, aut ignibus hostium exusta, aut civium exulum classe longins deportata non compareant.” So that I would have our traveller pass two years at least in Basse Bretagne, in order to make enquiry after such ancient monuments, and I make no doubt but he would make great discoveries.—Thus furnished, he might proceed to the British Museum, the Bodleian library, and the library of the two Universities, and elsewhere, where any ancient British MSS. are preserved. We might then have better editions of British authors than we have had from the English antiquaries, though in other respects very learned men; but, being unacquainted with our language, Bards, and antiquities, they have nothing but bare conjectures, and some scraps from the Roman writers to produce. No one
likewise would be better qualified to fix the ancient Roman stations in Britain, as they are set down in Antoninus’s intinerary, and their ancient British names.—I wish learned men would think of this ere it be too late; for one century makes a great havoc of old MSS. especially such as are in the hands of private persons, who understand not their true value, or are suffered to rot in such libraries, where nobody is permitted to have access to them.
2. The following curious Commission published and inserted in some of the copies of Dr. Brown’s Dissertation on the Union &c., of Poetry and Music, and communicated from a Manuscript Copy in my possession, having so near a Relation to the Family of the noble Patron of these Poems, I thought it right to reprint it on this occasion.