An Elegy in commemoration of twenty-one Muficians, and Poets; and foretelling the decline of Mufic, and Poetry in Wales. Written by Sión Tudur, of Wicwair in Denbighshire, who flourished about the year 1580. Some of these Bards took their degrees, and contended for the Laurel of Fame, at the Seffion of the Bards, held at Caerwys in the ninth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Tywyll vrau vradog twyll-vrith Yw'r bywyd brwnt a'r byd brîth; Bywyd tawdd yw'r byd diddim, Ac Angau drwy ing a droes, "There were two perfons of the name of Powel, father and fon, who played finely on the Harp. The elder was patronized by the Duke of Portland, and when that nobleman was appointed Governor of Jamaica, went with him thither. The younger stayed in England; and Mr. Handel being delirous to make him known, compofed for him a leflon, which is the fifth organ concerto of the first fet, and introduced him in three or four of his oratorios, where there are accompaniments for the Harp, fee p. 52. Befides the Powels, there was at the same time in London a performer on the Harp, who merits to be had in remembrance. His name was Jones, a Welfhman, and blind. The old Dutchefs of Marlborough would have retained him with a penfion; but he would not endure confinement, and was engaged by one Evins, who kept a home-brewed alehouse of great refort, the fign of the Hercules Pillars, opponite Clifford'-Inn Paffage, in Fleet Street, and performed in a great room upftairs during the winter feafon. He played extempore voluntaries, the fugues in the fonatas and concertos of Curelli, as alfo most of his folos, and many of Mr. Handel's opera fongs, with exquifite neatnefs and elegance. He alfo played on the violin; and on that inftrument imitated fo exactly the irregular intonation, mixed with fobs and paufes, of a Quaker's fermon, that none could hear him and refrain from immoderate laughter. Jones died about the year 1738, and was buried in Lambeth Church-yard; and his funeral, which was celebrated with a dead march, was attended by a great number of the musical people." Hawkins's Hiftory of Mufic, vol. V. p. 357. Claudius Phillips, the Harper, died about 20 years ago, whose fame is recorded by Dr. Johnson, in the following epitaph: Phillips! whofe touch harmonious could remove The pangs of guilty power, or hapless love, Reft here! opprefs'd by poverty no more, Here find that calm thou gav'it fo oft before: Sleep undiflurb'd within this humble shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine! Harry Parry, of Caernarvonfhire, who lived about the beginning of this century, was the most celebrated Harper of his time. There is an anecdote told of him, when he was on a mufical excurfion at Liverpool, where he was extremely well received, and from thence was going to Manchester; and fome gentleman wrote a letter of recommendation to fend by him, 6 This disagreeable state, and verfatile universe are uncertain, variable, and deceitful. How fhort and tranfitory is this diffipating life, and trifling world! This world is an uneftablished encampment, a deceiver on every trial; a traitor that ftabs every one who trufts his existence in him. Wicked Death, that wily robber of lives, brought diftrefs upon us the ruthlefs churl fnatched away a which was in the following laconic manner: Do but hear him? Evan Edwards, of Creigiau 'r Bleiddiau, was a natural genius, and a sweet player on the Harp. He died in June 1766, and in the 32d year of his age. His epitaph I have copied from his tomb in Cerrig Drudion hurch-yard, Denbighshire, which is as follows: Dy goffa vydd dryma dro, gan vonedd Am ganiad mae trwm gvyno, Dy vwynder dyner dannau, oedd velns Blith ydoedd dy blethiadau, Ymbob cwr a phirion ceu. Hugh Elis, of Trawivynydd, had fome talent on the Harp, and was etteemed one of the best performers of the national Welsh tunes of his time. He was buried in Towyn Church-yard, Meirionyddflure, and the infcription on his tomb-stone is as fol lows; (and faid to have been written by William Nanney Wynn, Efq. of Maes y Neuadd :) To the memory of Hugh Elis, Harper, who was drowned in the Difynni, Auguft 5th, 1774, in the 60th year of his age. The Nymphs of the flood were rutting, plague rot 'em, With the Genius of Mufic when he went to the bottom; Their care and attention would elfe have fupported, The Child of the Harp, whom the Mufes all courted. Mr. John Parry, of Rhiwabon, who died about ten years ago, was Harper to the late Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, and to his father. There was a mutical conteft on the Harp, be tween blind Parry and Hugh Shin Prys of Llanddervel, and Foulk Jones, the Trumpeter, was appointed to be the judge; in which Parry proved victor. Parry and Evan Williams the Harper, jointly published the firit book of Welsh tunes; but the original melodies were very much mutilated. This Evan Williams accompanied the pfalms on the Harp, as a fubftitute for an organ, in fome fmall Church in London. The moft diftinguished performers of the prefent day, on the Triple Harp, or Welsh Harp, are Thomas Jones, Eq. late of Richmond, and native of Corauen; and Sackville Gwynn, Esq. of Glanbrán. abo of t 13 יר Dug yr Angau, dig wrengyn, Nen bren goed nen gwawd a'i nerth. Od aeth hwnt mae 'n adwyth hyn, Ab Reinallt; Nev bo 'r enaid! Riffart ab Sion o Vôn vazer, Hwyl groyw iaith Hywel Grythawr. Davydd vab Hywel, divai, Lewys dilwyr lwys Delyn, Apla gwr, ab Hywel Gwyn; A Thomas, uddas harddwych, Glyn Gwy, oedd Grythor glân gwych. Rhobert a ddiharebwyd, Heb van liefg, ab Jevan Llwyd : lovely company from this country; the performers on all lively mufical inftruments, and their comrades, the courteous encomiats: the fkilful poets, and the harmonious chief muficians; the fweet handed Crowthers, and Harpers perfect in their art. The pillars of learning are gone. A band of Mafters of Mufic! God deprived us in a lamentable manner of our most agreeable diverfion. Wales will mourn a long time for Griffith Hiraethawg. John Brwynog, that prompt fupporter of pure language and poetry. The fmart, eloquent, and knowing Lewis ab Edward. The growing fund of poetry is fallen by the death of Richard Jorwerth. It is a great distress that Dai Nantelyn is departed ; God took away a melodious musician; indeed he deferved a filver Harp. Rhobert ab Rhys wr hybarch, Rhwydd bwnc, mawr yr haeddai barch; Duw a'i gyrchodd dég orchwyl, Nawdd Dduw hyn, ni ddaw eu hail; Yno ar hynt awn ar eu hól. The deferving and worthy Robert ab Rhys quickly followed them to the bleffed habitation. He contentedly refigned this world with fuch worthy companions, quietly, righteously, spotless, and pure. It was God's pleasure to fend for these men, to hold a feaft with him in heaven. Adieu skill! no fuch men will be fetched again from our country! All people may lament; the world is impoverished, the art will be on the decline! Mufic and Poetry will fuffer diminution; the fcience will be neglected, and harmony ceafe! May their fouls enjoy the heavenly manfion! peace to their manes! their like will never be feen again. They are gone to the celestial abode, let us haften to follow them. "There is a curious anecdote recorded of Arnaud Daniel, a Troubadour, who made a voyage into England about the year 1240, where, in the Court of King Henry the Third, he met a Minstrel, who challenged him at difficult rhymes. The challenge was accepted, and a confiderable wager was laid; and the rival Minstrels were shut up in feparate chambers of the palace. The king, who appears to have much interested himself in the dispute, allowed them ten days for compofing, and five more for learning to fing their respective pieces; after which, each was to exhibit his performance in the prefence of his majesty. The third day the Englifo Minstrel announced that he was ready. The Troubadour declared he had not written a line; but that he had tried, and could not as yet put two words together. The following evening he overheard the Minstrel practising his fong to himself. The next day he had the good fortune to hear the fame again, and learned the air and words. At the day appointed they both appeared before the king. Arnaud defired to fing firft. The Minstrel, in a fit of the greatest furprize and astonishment, fuddenly cried out, This is my fong! The king faid it was impoffible. The Minstrel ftill infifted upon it; and Arnaud, being clofely preffed, ingenuously told the whole affair. The king was much entertained with this adventure, ordered the wager to be withdrawn, and loaded them with rich prefents. But he afterwards obliged Arnaud to give a Chanfon of his own compofition 3." About the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, flourished Twm Bach, (or Thomas Pritchard,) who was the Orpheus on the Harp at that time. He was born at Coity in Glamorganfhire; died (anno 1597) in London, and was burid in St. Sepulchre's church. That Poetry fympathized with the fifter Art for the lofs, we be convinced by the following bipartite Englyn, written upon his death, the two first lines by Hugh Griffith, the fequel by Rhys Cain. may Yn iach i Dwm Bách, aeth i'r bedd; - bellach E' ballodd Cynghanedd: Ni wn i'w ôl, yn un wedd, A wyr viwfig ar vyfedd. Ah, fee! our laft, beft harper goes: In the reign of George II. Powel, a Welsh Harper, who ufed to play before that Monarch, drew fuch tones from his inftrument, that the great Handel was delighted with his performance, and compofed for him several pieces of Mufic, fome of which are in the first set of Handel's Concertos, particularly the fecond, and fixth, which are admirably well calculated for the Harp. He alfo introduced him as a performer in his Oratorios, in which there are fome fongs, Harp obligato, that were accompanied by Powel: fuch as, 3 Millet, ut fupr. tom. II. p. 491. and Warton's English Poetry, vol. II. p. 235 4 A MS. of Englynion in the library of Jefus College, Oxford. 2 Praife "Fraise the Lord with chearful voice," in Efther: "Hark! he firikes the golden lyre," in Alexander Balus : and "Fly, malicious fpirit," in Saul, &c. Having now conducted nearly to our own times the short history I intended; I make a little pause, before I bring it to its conclufion, and examine fomewhat more minutely the causes that conferred fuch peculiarity and excellency on the Poetry and Mufic of Wales. The laws, manners, and fortunes of nations have a principal influence in giving an original character to national arts. The first care of the Welsh laws was the freedom of the people. They were free, and their manners accordingly were at once generous and impetuous; gentle, hospitable, and social among their friends, and full of refentment and revenge against their enemies. They inhabited a country where they found, in the works of nature, what they afterwards copied into their own, the beautiful and the fublime. They were equally addicted to love and war: when they forfook the camp, they did not return to agriculture, commerce, or the mechanic arts, but paft their leifure in hunting, and other manly fports and games, in converfe with the fair, and in recounting their exploits, amidst libations of mead, at the tables of lords and princes. Hence they learnt to write verfe and found the Harp. Another cause, which operated with equal power on our poetry, was the ftrength and beauty of the language in which it was conveyed; if it may not with greater truth be said, that by the Poetry those inherent properties of the language were called forth. The character of Welsh Poetry, and its dependence on the language, have been fo well displayed in a differtation on the subject by the Reverend Mr. Walters, that I am unwilling to make use of his fentiments in any other words than his own. "The Welsh language (he obferves,) is poffeffed of native ornaments and unborrowed treasures. It rivals the celebrated Greek in its aptitude to form the most beautiful derivatives, as well as in the elegance, facility, and expreffiveness, of an infinite variety of compounds, and deferves the praise which has been given it by an enemy 3, that, notwithstanding the multiplicity of gutturals and confonants with which it abounds, it has the foftness and harmony of the Italian, with the majesty and expreffion of the Greek." Ni phrovais, dan ffurvaven, Gwe mor gaeth a'r Gymraeg wen 4. Of all the tiffues ever wrought On the Parnaffian hill, Fair Cambria's web, in art and thought, "The glory of a language is a copious rotundity, a vigorous tone, and a perfpicuous and expreffive brevity; of which a thousand happy inftances might be produced from the Cambro-British MSS. Their compafs reaches from the fublimity of the ode to the conciseness of the epigram. Whoever explores these ancient and genuine treasures will find in them the most melodious numbers, the moft poetical diction, the most nervous expreffion, and the most elevated fentiments, to be met with in any language." A language, however fortunate in its original conftruction, can never attain fuch perfection without a very high degree of cultivation. It is evident therefore that at fome remote period the Welsh themselves were highly cultivated, and had made great progrefs in learning, arts, and manners; fince we discover fuch elegance, contrivance, and philosophy, in their language. Some authors have attributed this refinement of the Cambro-British dialect to the Druids. From this opinion I diffent: because I obferve that Taliefin and his contemporaries, by whom they were followed and imitated, do not afford fuch fpecimens of polished numbers and diction as the Bards who lived under the later princes have exhibited. The Eifteddvod was the school in which the Welsh language was gradually improved, and brought at last to its unrivalled perfection. "The Bards," fays the ingenious critic I have before quoted, "have been always confidered by the Welsh as the guardians of their language, and the confervators of its purity." The metre of Welsh poetry is very artificial and alliterative; poffeffing fuch peculiar ingenuity, in the felection and arrangement of words, as to produce a rhythmical concatenation of founds in every verse. To an English reader it may seem a laborious way of trifling: but every language has peculiar laws of harmony, The ancient languages of Greece and Rome were not clogged with a fuperabundance of confonants, and were chiefly composed of polyfyllabic words and vocal terminations. Their poets therefore made their metre confift in quantity, or the artful diftribution of long and fhort fyllables. The old Britif language abounded with confonants, and was formed of monofyllables, which are incompatible with quantity; and the Bards could reduce it to concord by no other means than by placing at fuch intervals its harfher confonants, fo intermixing them with vowels, and so adapting, repeating, and dividing, the feveral founds, as to produce an agreeable effect from their structure. Hence the laws of poetical compofition in this language are fo strict and rigorous, that they must greatly cramp the genius of the Pard, but that there is, in the language itself, a particular aptitude for that kind of alliterative melody, and is as effential as harmony in Mufic, which constitutes the great beauty of its poetry. To the ears of natives, the Welsh metre is extremely pleafing, and does not fubject the Bard to more restraint than the different forts of feet occafioned to the Greek and Roman Poets. There are traces of Cynghanedd, or rhythm, in the poetical remains of the Druids. It was known to the Bards of the fixth century, but they used it fparingly, and were not circumscribed by the rules, that were afterwards adopted. From the Norman conqueft to the death of Llywelyn the laft, they were more frict. From Llywelyn to Elizabeth the laws of alliteration were prefcribed and obferved with the most scrupulous exactnefs. A line not perfectly alliterative was condemned as much, by the Welsh grammarians, as a falfe quantity by the Greeks and Romans. The Bards, like other poets, were oftentatious of their wealth; for, they had no fooner learnt the extent of their power than they began to wander at will through all the mazes of Cynghanedd. They gave other relative proofs of an unrivalled profody. Not content with the mellifluence of this couplet, written on a harp, Mae mil o leifiau melyfon, Mae mêl o hyd ym mola hon9: Within the concave of its womb is found, they fought after more liquid measures, and produced fuch fpecimens as the following Englyn gorcheftel i Brýv Sidan, or skilful Epigram on the Silk-worm, compofed entirely of vowels, Such specimens deserve not to be read with ridicule or disgust: they were not defigned to display the skill of the poet, but the powers of the language. Something now remains to be faid of Welsh Mufic. Though the fupernatural power and effects, fabulously ascribed to the Music of antiquity, are now held in just derifion; it is not difficult to conceive, that (notwithstanding its known fimplicity) by its affociation with poetry, which it rendered more articulate and expreffive, it might operate with much greater fuccefs, on the mind and affections, than the artificial melody and complicated harmony of modern times. The ancient fragments of melody and poetry are beautiful, because they resemble the beauties of nature; and nature will ever be beautiful while it refembles thofe beauties of antiquity. 7 Northern Antiquities, 8vo, London, vol. I. p. 401, &c. harmony. Northern Antiquities, vol. II. p. 197, &c. 9 Walters's Differtation on the Welth Language, p. 52. nioufly answered in another, compofed in like manner of vowe's, 11 Walters's Differtation, p. 53. There |