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Oedd wedi addewidion

Ei bwys o Aur, er byw Sion.
Sorrais wrth gyvraith farrug,
Swydd y Waun, Eos a ddug;
Yfwydd, pa'm na roit dan fel
I'th Eos, gyvraith Hywel?
Ar bwn, wedi cael o'r rhai'n
Wrth lawnder cyvraith Lundain,
Ni mynen am ei einioes,
Noethi crair, na thòri croes!

Y gwr oedd dâd y gerdd dant,
Yn oefwr a farnafant!
Deuddeg yn un od oeddyn',
Duw deg! ar vywyd y dyn.
Wedi Sión, nid oes fynwyr

Da 'n y gerdd, na dyn a'i gwyr.
Tores braich, twr oes, a brig,
Tored mefur troed miwfig:
Tored yfgol tir defgant,
Torwyd dyfg fal tòri tant.

Oes mwy rhwng Euas a Môn,
O'r dyfg abl i'r disgyblion?
Reinallt, ni 's gwyr ei hunon,
Ran gwr, er hynny e gán:

Ve aeth ei gymmar yn vûd,
Durtur y delyn deirtud!

Ti fydd yn tewi a fón,
Telyn aur telynorion!

Bu'n dwyn dan bôb ewin dant,
Byfedd llev gwr a bwyfant;
Myvyrdawd rhwng bawd a bys,
Mên a threbl, mwy na thribys.
Oes dyn wedi Eôs deg,
Gyftal a gan y gofteg?
Na phroviad neu ganiad gwr,
Na chwlwm, bron uchelwr.
Pwy'r awr bon mewn puroriaeth,
Mor ddivai, a wnai a wnaeth?
Ac atgas ni wnant gytgerdd,
Eifiau gwawd Eôs y Gerdd!"
Nid oedd nag Angel na dyn,
Nad wyl, pan ganai delyn!

45

To avert the fate of Sion, his weight in gold was offered as a ransom. How am I enraged! Indignation fires my breaft, that the fevere laws of Chirk should deprive music of its Nightingale! O thou revengeful tribunal!-thou bribed court! why hadft thou not tried the warbling chorifter, by the impartial laws of Howel? When the court of Westminster adopted the rigid fentence, penance nor any other punishment could mollify, nor interfere with thy refractory verdict. The jury, with one united voice (O Heavens!) confented his death.

Thou wert worthily called the father of mufic, and, during life, honoured with that appellation. After thee, charming Nightingale, there is no harmony in mufic, nor any mortal that is capable of restoring it.

Mufic is torn up, root and branch; its pedestals and ornaments ruined: genuine skill is diffolved in an inftant, and harmony difcorded like the breaking of a ftring.

Is there any from Euas to diftant Mona, that are worthy of being called his difciples? Reinallt, though his inferior in excellency of fkill, yet he prefumed to be his competitor for the laurel.

O, Reinallt! thy rival is dumb, the turtle of the triple-ftringed harp.

Alas! thou haft configned to filence the golden harp of musicians.

As each of thy fingers ftruck the well-adapted string, O! how far the fonorous melody furpaffed human description!

After the most pleasant Nightingale, is there any that dares pretend to fuch univerfal skill and knowledge in the elements and concord of mufic? Or who can affay, proceed, and conclude his piece of mufic, with fuch judgement and tafte as he did, in the presence of his fuperiors? Who is his rival in harmony? who can attempt his performances? I find at prefent no concord in mufic, for want of the fublime theme which the Nightingale of genius warbled, which caused transporting raptures in the feelings of his furrounding admirers. Neither the paffions of man, nor the virtue of an angel could efcape being affected by the melody of his harp, which whirled the foul upon wings of extasy.

*Euas, is a diftrict in Herefordshire, on the borders of Brecknockshire.

N

Alas!

Och beno, rhag ei chanu,

- Wedi'r varn ar awdur vu!

Eu barn уп mborth Nev ni bydd,

Wyr y Waun ar awenydd:

Am y varn a vu arno,.

Yr un varn arnyn' a vo.
Eve a gaiff ei vywyd,
Ond o'u barn newidio byd;
Ac yn ol ei varwolaeth,

A'i gân i dduw gwyn, ydd aeth.
Iganu mawl didawl dlos,
Oes y Ne' i Siôn Eôs!

ed

Alas! beware, ye harpers, touch not the mournful ftrings! O! how difagreeable the found to my grievears, whilft the remembrance of Nightingale's unparalleled performance is ftill in my perplexed me mory!--What have I faid?—They deprived him of life: he has life; their verdict only changed the scene of mortality for that of immortality.-O, the jury of Chirkland! defpifers of genius! their wilful judgement will have no efficacy in that court of equity which is held at the gates of heaven.-The fatal fentence that he underwent, let them undergo the fame. He fung-he excelled; he now after death fings before the throne of Mercy, with an incorruptible harp. His mortal life has funk into eternal night; but may he enjoy an everlafting one with God!

The acceffion of a Tudor to the throne was the happy era deftined to recall the exiled arts of Wales; and Henry VII. was referved to be the patron and reftorer of the Cambro British Mufes. If during the former inaufpicious reigns the Eifteddvods had been discontinued, they were now re-established; and the Bards were employed in the honourable commiffion of making out from their authentic records the pedigree of their king'. Henry VIII. the ftern and cruel fon of a mild father, did not, however, refuse to the Bards his aid and favour. I infert, as an inftance, the following fummons to an Eifteddvod by his authority..

"Be it known to all perfons, both gentry and commonalty, that an Eisteddvod of the profeffors of Poetry and Mufic will be held in the town of Caerwys, in the county of Flint, the 20th day of July, 1523, and the 15th year of the reign of Henry the VIIIth, king of England, under the commiffion of the faid king, before Richard ab Howel ab Ivan Vaughan Efq. by the confent of Sir William Griffith, Knight, and Chamberlain for North Wales, and Sir Roger Salfbri, Sheriff for the county of Denbigh, and the advice of Griffith ab Ivan ab Llywelyn Vychan, and the Chair-Bard, Tudur Aled, and feveral other gentlemen and scholars, for the purpose of inftituting order and government among the profeffors of Poetry and Mufic, and regulating their art and profeffion, according to the old ftatute of Gruffydd ab Cynan, Prince of Aberffraw 3."

After a long interval of anarchy among the Bards, commiffioners were appointed by Queen Elizabeth to affemble another Eifleddvod at Caerwys in 1568+. They were inftructed to advance the ingenious and skilful to the accustomed degrees, and reftore to the graduates their ancient exclufive privilege of exercising their profefiion. "The reft not worthy" were by this commiffion commanded to betake themselves to fome honeft labour and livelihood, on pain of being apprehended and punished as vagabonds.

In a private collection of MSS. I fortunately met with the following beautiful extempore ftanzas on the Nightingale, which were the fruit of the poetical conteft of the Bards of North-Wales, and South-Wales, for the chair, in a pofterior Eifteddvod at Caerwys, in the fame reign. They are a curious relic; they fhow the poetry of our country in its utmost extent of alliterative and mufical refinement; and are the only fpecimens of the kind that have ever been exhibited from the prefs.

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Wynne's Hiftory of Wales, p. 325. edit. 1774.

2 See Mr. Evans's addrefs At y Cymry. Specimens of Welsh Poetry, p. 107.

3 Rhydlerch's Welsh Grammar, p. 186.

4 "This Commiffion," fays Mr. Pennant (Tour, p. 433.) "is the last of the kind which was granted." If he understands that this was the laft Eisteddvod, he is mifinformed. For the commiffioners here mentioned, having in 1568 conftituted Symmwnt Vychan Chief Bard, appointed another Eifteddvod to be held in 1569, the tenth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign. See Evans's Specimens of Welsh Poetry, p. viii, before the preface.

Rhyddereb's Well Grammar, p. 187. Evans's Specimens of Welsh Poetry, p. v. before the preface. And Pennant's Tour in Wales, p. 434. At this Eifteddvod the number of the poetical Bards was 17, and of their mufical brethren 38.

As in the reigns of the Princes Aberffraw, Dinevawr, and Mathraval, had been the feats of Eifteddvods; Caerwys, a town' in Flintshire, received in later times that honourable diftin&tion. It was chofen for this purpofe, in compliance with the ancient of Llywelyn the last. See Pennant's Tour, p. 427. cuftom of the Welfh, because it had been the princely refidence

ENGLY NION

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ENGLY NION I'R E O S'.

O waith amravael Brydyddion o Wynnedd a'r Deheudir, yn yr Eisteddvod yn Nhre Gaerwys.

"There ev'ry bush with Nature's mufic rings,
"There ev'ry breeze bears health upon its wings."

Clywais dêg eurllais wedi gorllwyn— nôs,

I'maros a morwyn:

Ar lawes maes irlaes mwyn,

Eos glwyflais is glaflwyn.

Jach lawen ydwyv o chlywais-ar vedw,
Arvodi pereiddlais;

Edn llwyd adwaen y llais,`

Eos gevnllwyd yfgavnllais.

Miwfig mîn coedwig mewn ceudawd - llwyn;
Llawenydd hyd ddyddbrawd ;
Mae'r Eos veindlos vwyndlawd

O, mewn gwŷdd yn mân wau gwawd.

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Dyfgedig viwfig voefawl-gerdd Eos,
Gradd Awen yfbrydawl,

7 Thefe elegant Englynion have fuch peculiar and fimple brevity, that I have forborne to tranflate them, left I fhould degrade them by an inadequate reprefentation. The Eifteddvod which produced them was held, I conclude, between the year 1569 and 1580; as the Bards who compofed them, flourished before or at this latter period.-Some of the contending Bards took degrees in the Eifteddvod in 1568: William Llyn was admitted to the degree of Pencerdd, or Doctor; and Sion Tudur, William

2

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Dr. Johnson.

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47

Cynwal, and Huw Llyn, commenced Difgyblion Penceirddiaid,
Masters of the art of Poetry.

tranflators of the New Teftament into Welsh, 4to, London,
8 Richard Davis, D. D. Bishop of St. David's, one of the
1567. See an Historical Account of the Welth Tranflations of
the Bible. By Thomas Llewelyn, LL.D. 8vo. London, 1768. We
| did not disdain to be enrolled among the Bards.
fee that the Eifteddvod was ftill very refpectable, when bishops

Cnithiad

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48

Clau chwiban vel cloch aberth

Cnithiad gwir argiad croywgerdd, -- clau chwiban,
Cloch aberth eglwysgerdd;

Clîr organ claiar irgerdd,

Cân (natur gwych) cnott ar gerdd!

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Da driphwnc di drafferth;

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A Lift of Muficians, and the time wherein they flourished. See also p. 26. 29. 35. and 38. and P. 13, 14, 15. and 16.

Th' old British Bards, upon their Harps,

For falling flats, and rifing fharps,

That curioufly were ftrung;

To ftir their Youth to warlike rage,
Or their wild fury to affuage,

In their loofe numbers fung.

Gwalchmai ab Meilir, of Anglefey, a Harper and
Poet. He went with Richard the First to the Holy
War, and flourished about the year 1180. MS.
Jeffrey, Harper to the Benedictine Abbey of Hide
near Winchester, about the year 1180, in the reign of
Henry the IId. See Madox's Hift. of the Exch. p. 251.

Richard, Harper to King Henry the Third. It
appears by a pipe-roll, ann. 36 of Henry III. that
Richard the Harper was allowed a pipe of wine, and
alfo a pipe of wine for Beatrice his wife. Hawkin's
Hift. vol. IV. p. 14.

Rhys ab Tudor, a noted Harper of Anglesey, about
1380. See his Elegy in Davydd ab Gwilym's Works,
P. 474.

Balchnoe, a noted compofer of facred mufic.
Mentioned by Davydd ab Gwilym.

Tudur Góch, a celebrated Mufician. Mentioned
by Davydd ab Gwilym.

Reinallt, Harper, of Dôlgelly, who contended for the laurel with Sión Eôs, about the year 1450. See p. 45.

5

Drayton.

Owain Dwn, Bard, and Captain of a regiment of cavalry. He diftinguished himself when he was in Ireland, about the year 1469; and is faid to have been Lord Lieutenant there afterwards. MS.

A Chadpen llawen y llú,

Eu Telyn a'u bardd teulu.

William Moore, and Bernard de Ponte, Harpers to King Edward the IVth, about A. D. 1465. Haw. kins's Hift. vol. III. p. 480.

Lewis ab Howel Gwyn, Harper, about A.D. 1479.
Davydd, vab Howel divai,
Grythor ai ragor ar rai.
Lewis duliw lwys delyn

Apla gur ab Howel Gwyn.

Edward Chirk, Bard of the Harp, who obtained the jewel of the British Olympics, about A. D. 1480. Davydd ab Gwilym, Pencerdd Telyn, Doctor of Mufic, or chief profeffor of the Harp, about 1480.

Dai Llwyd, of Cwm Bychan, in Meirionyddfhire, Harper and Warrior, about 1480. There is a ce

lebrated

lebrated Welsh tune, called Ffar wel Dai Llwyd,
which was compofed on his departure from Wales,
when he went with Jasper Tudor, and Owen Lawgóch
to the battle of Bofworth Field.

Jeuan Delynior, flourished about 1480.

Gwilym Whifyn, performer on the Crwth to the Abbot of Llan Egwefil Abbey, in Denbighshire, about the year 1500.

John Gwynedb, fecular prieft, and compofer of church mufic, about 1531.

Rhydderch Deuwaidd, Harper of Coity, in Glamorganshire, 1540.

Shon Trevor, of Trev-alyn, Harper, about A.D. 1560.

The following perfons were graduated profeffors, or chief Muficians of the Harp, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, about the year 1568.

49

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Humphrey Wynn, Harper of Ynys y Maengwyn,

Sion ab Rhys Bencerdd,) Chief Bards and teachers of Meirioneth fhire, 1580.

Wiliam Penllyn,

Hwlcyn Llwyd,

Thomas Anwyl,

inftrumental fong*.

D". Llwyd ab Sion ab Rhys, Chief Muficians (but

Edward ab Evan,

Robert ab Howel Llanvor,
Humphrey Gôch,

not teachers) of in-
ftrumental fong.

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* "The east part of the parish of Bód-varry, in Flintshire, dwelleth Howel, a gentleman, that by ancient accuftom was wont to give the badge of the Silver Harp to the best Harper of North Wales, as by privilege of his ancestors. He lives at Penrhyn, and hath alto a ruinous caftle, called Caftell Jolo, or Eulo, near Hawarden." Leland's Itinerary, vol. V. p. 56.

Hugh Davies, Batchelor of Mufic, and Organist of Hereford Cathedral, celebrated for his skill in Church Music, about 1625.

Two Englyn in praife of Robert Maclor, the noted Harper, who flourished about 1680.

Maelor gerdd Bencerdd bynciau, urddedig

Ar ddidwyl vefurau;

Mayn ganiad tyniad tannau,

Mwyn a gwych y mae `n i gwau.

Will. Byrchinshaw.

Mewn cyvedd mawredd o 'maros, y cair

Cywrain wawd o'i achos;

Mynyn ar y Delyn dlös,

Maelor yw mal yr eos!

Edward Kyffin.

Evan Mailan, Harper to Queen Anne, and performer in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, about 1706.

Grifith Evan, Harper to Thomas Powel, Efq. of Nant-éos, Cardiganfhire, where his portrait ftill remains. It is written

upo

n

Thomas Anwyl, Telynior, 1580.

In the establishment of Queen Elizabeth there appear two Harpers, two Lutifts, befides Minfrels. Peck's Defiderata Curiofa, p. 225.

At St. Donat's Caftle, Glamorganfhire, there is a picture of Sir Edward Stradling's Harper, who lived in the reign of Elizabeth.

Jones, Mufician to Henry Prince of Wales, about 1604.

John Caerwarden, Violift and Composer to King Charles the First, in 1630.

Robert Jones, an eminent Compofer of Mufic, and performer on the Lute, about 1609. See Sir John Hawkins's Hift. of Mufic.

William Llwyd, Pencerdd, of Llangedwyn.

For the musicians after this period, fee note.

it, that he played 69 Chriftmaffes at Nant-êos, and aged 80. Flourished about A. D. 1700.

An

Elis Eos is fpoken of by old people as a wonderful performer on the Welsh harp. There are fill verfes remembered of his having charmed the queen with his playing, (probably Queen Mary.)

Richard Elias, who came after Elis Eos, was the best player in his time, 'till Elis Sión Siamas, who was a younger perfon, furpaffed him, which Richard Elias took fo much to heart, that he did not long furvive after he heard fome verfes fung, extolling Elis Sion Siamas, a fragment of which is as follows:

Mae Elis Sion Siamas,
Yn amgenach i Bwrpas,

Na Richard Elias o lawer.

Elis Sion Siamas, a famous Harper of Llanvachreth in Meirionethfhire. Some fay that he was Harper to Queen Anne. He was fo much capacitated over the common muficians, that Robert Edward Lewis, a noted poet of his time, compofed the following pennill upon him,

Parch yw y mbwrpas, i Flis Siôn Siamas,
Telyniwr mawr urdelas dda vwynwas hÿd vêdd;
Pen miwfic holl Gymru, am gweirio ac am ganu,
Ve ddaron i Dduv rannu iddo Rinwedd.

"There

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