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Having now conducted nearly to our own time the short history I intended; I make a little pause before I bring it to its conclufion, to examine fomewhat more minutely the causes that conferred fuch peculia_ rity and excellency on the Poetry, and Music 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 impe. tuous; gentle, hofpitable, 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 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 lei fure in hunting, and other manly sports, and games, in converse with the fair', and in recounting their exploits, amidst libations of mead, at the tables of lords, and princes. Hence they learnt to write verse and found the Harp. "Love first invented verfe, and form'd the rhime,

"The motion measur'd, harmoniz'd the chime."

Another caufe, which operated with equal power on our poetry, was the strength and beauty of the language in which it was conveyed; if it may not with greater truth be faid, 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 so well displayed in a differtation on the fubject 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 exprefliveness, 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 softness and harmony of the Italian, with the majesty and expression of the Greek. "

Ni phrovais, dan furvaven,

Gwe mor gaeth a'r Gymraeg wen*.

Of all the tiffues ever wrought

On the Parnaffian hill,

Fair Cambria's web, in art and thought,
Displays the greatest skill.

"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 compass reaches from the fublimity of the ode to the concifeness of the epigram. Whoever explores these ancient and genuine treasures will find in them the most melodious numbers, the most poetical diction, the moft 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 such 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 progress in learning, arts, and manners; fince we discover fuch elegance, contrivance, and philofophy, 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 specimens of polished numbers and diction as the Bards who lived under the later princes have exhibited. The Eisteddvod was the school in which the Welsh language was gradually improved, and brought at last to its unrivalled' perfection. co 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 selection and arrangement of words, as to produce a rhythmical concatenation of founds in every verfe. To an English reader it may seem a laborious way of trifling: but every language has peculiar laws of harmony.

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HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE WELSH POETRY, AND MUSIC.

The ancient languages of Greece and Rome were not clogged with a fuperabundance of confonants, and were chiefly compofed 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 British 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 fo adapting, repeating, and dividing, the several 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 Bard, 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 subject 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 last, they were more ftrict. From Llywelyn to Elizabeth the laws of alliteration were prescribed and obferved with the most scrupulous exactness. 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 hon ? :

Within the concave of its womb is found,
The magic scale of foul-enchanting found:

they fought after more liquid measures, and produced fuch specimens as the following Englyn gorchestol i Brjv Sidan, or fkilful Epigram on the Silk-worm, compofed entirely of vowels,

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Such specimens deserve not to be read with ridicule or difguft: they were not defigned to display the skill of the poet, but the powers of the language.

Something now remains to be faid of the Welsh Mufic. Though the fupernatural power and effects, fabu lously afcribed to the Mufic of antiquity, are now held in juft derifion; it is not difficult to conceive, that (notwithstanding its known fimplicity) by its afsociation 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 those beauties of antiquity.

There is a certain ftyle of melody peculiar to each mufical country, which the people of that country are apt to prefer, to every other kind. Some of the dignified old Welfh Tunes convey to our ideas, the 7 Northern Antiquities, 8vo, London, vol. I. p. 401, &c. The Welsh had fix or feven different kinds of this confonant harmony. Northern Antiquities, vol. II. p. 197, &c.

Walters's Differtation on the Welsh Language, p. 52.
Tlyfau yr hên Oefoedd, by Lewis Morris. See this Englyn in-

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geniously anfwered in another, compofed in the like manner of vowels by the Rev, Mr. Gronw. Owen; Diddanwch Teuluaidd, Gwaith Beirdd Men, 8vo, London; 1763 p. 35.

11

Walters's Diflertation, p. 53. "From a Manufcript.

ancient

ancient manners and conviviality of our ancestors. There are others that recal back to our minds, certain incidents which happened in our youth, of love, rural sports, and other paftimes; they likewife excite in us a longing defire of a repetition of thofe juvenile pleasures; and perhaps it is on account of these effects they produce, that they are fo well remembered, and continue to be fung with fuch delight by the natives. The attachment to national tunes, when once established, instead of offending by repetition, is always upon the increafe. The mufic, as well as the poetry, of Wales, derived its peculiar and original character from the genius of the country: they both fprang from the fame fource; its delightful valleys gave birth to their foft and tender measures, and its wild mountainous fcenes to their bolder and more animated tones 13. And where could the Muses have chofen a happier refidence? Here the eye is delighted with woods and valleys at once wild and beautiful: in other parts, we are astonished with a continued tract of dreary cloud-capt country, "hills whofe heads touch heaven "dark, tremendous, precipices-rapid rivers roaring over disjointed rocks-gloomy caverns, and rufhing cataracts. Salvator Rofa's extravagant fancy never indulged itself in grander, or more wild prospects! Nor has Claude Lorraine's inimitable pencil ever delineated scenes that excelled fome of the valleys of Wales!

13

It is not to be wondered at, that the venerable Cambrian fongs poffeffed fuch influence on the minds of our ancestors, when we confider their beautiful, and various change of ftyle, and time; tranfitions abrupt as the rocky profpects of the country, and sudden as the paffions of the people :

"Mankind it forces to be gay, or grave,

"Amorous, Religious, Effeminate, or Brave.”

The most ancient style of Welsh mufic is the grave, and folemn, which was confecrated to religious purposes 14. The next, diftinct from the former, is ftrikingly martial and magnificent. Another is plaintive, and expreffive of forrow, being appropriated to elegies, and the celebration of the dead 16. Another is of the pastoral kind, and of all, perhaps, the most agreeable; coming nearest to nature, and poffeffing a pleafing melancholy and foothing tranquillity, fuitable to genial love ". There are alfo, dancing Tunes, or jigs, which are extremely gay and infpiring 18.

Of these ancient melodies I have recovered fome genuine remains; and their effects are not wholly loft or forgotten. A new era of Cambria-British harmony has rifen in our times, and the wonderful things related of it in former ages have been already realised.

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The harp in the hands of the British fair, has acquired new honours, and a more irresistible influence; and never produced fuch transport and enthusiasm when struck by a Cybelyn, or a Cadwgan, as it now excites, affifted by the liquid voice, and distinguished beauty of our modern female Bards.

13 Whoever defires to fee this idea purfued to fome length, may find it ingenioufly and philofophically developed, with reference to the native mufic of Scotland, in Dr. Beattie's Effays on Poetry and Mufic.

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Hoffedd Modryb Marged, Ceffylyn Rhygyngog, Gyrru'r Byd 'm blaen, Fiddie Fadale, Tri hanner Ton, Confet Davydd ab Gwilym, Hob y Dyliv, &c.

19The harp is the favorite inftrument of the fair fex, and nothing fhould be spared to make it beautiful: for, it fhould be a principal object of mankind to attach them by every means

The fine old Pfalms, which are chanted in fome of the churches in Wales, particularly in those where modern finging is not introduced. Likewife, Côr-Aedan, Côr vînvain, Córwrgog, Côr-Alchan, Côr-Ffiniwr, Côr y golovn, Côr-Elvyw Hobderi Danno, Hai Down, &c. Some fpecimens of thefe Choral Songs, are carefully displayed from an ancient manufcript into mufic, as it is the only amufement that may be enjoyed to the original mufical notes, fuppofed to be Druidical, which the reader will fee a fpecimen engraved on a bock, delineated in the print, or trophy of the mufical inftruments, further on in page 89, of this volume.

is Triban, or the Warrior's Song, Triban Morganwg, Gorhoffedd Gwyr Harlech, Rhyvelgyrch Cadfen Morgan, Dewch i'r Vrwydr, Erddigan troi'r tant, Shenkin, Syr Harri Ddu, Sibyl, Ffarwel trwy'r Full, Torriad y Dydd, Cudyn Gwyn, Blodau'r Grûg, Urfula, Tyl y Tywyfog, &c.

16 Morva Rhuddlan, Y Galon Drom, Davydd Garreg wen, Gorddinen, Diddanwch Gruffydd ab Cynan, Cwynvan Brydain, Anhawdd ymadael, Mwynen Món, Symien ben Bys, Yr Hen Dôn, Gadael y Tir, &c.

"Nos Gulan, Ton y Ceiliog Dû, Mwynen Cynwyd, Winifreda, Yr Eos lais, ir lyd y Nos, Codiad yr Hedydd, Blodau'r Dyffryn, Creigiau'r Eryri, Diffyll y Donn, Serch Hudol, Ffarwel Viengélid,

excefs, and the heart ftill remain virtuous and uncorrupted." Dr. Burney's Hiflory of Mufic, vol. I.

"Their bufinefs fhould be to practife merely for the amufement of themselves, their own family, and particular friends, or rather for domestic comfort, which they were by Providence defigned to promote; viz. To calm the boisterous paffionto relieve the anxieties and cares of life-to infpire chearfulnefs-to appease the nerves, when irritated with pain, fickness, orlabour of mind orbody-ro foothe the peevifhnefs of infancy and old age-and to raise the mind to a feeling and love of order. She who fhall improve the natural talents, with which women are born, of doing all these things, will not have mis-spent her time by applying a few years to mufic."

Stillingfleet's Frinciple and Power of Harmony, p. 151.. 20 Cybelyn, and Cadwgan, were celebrated performers on the Harp, and composers of Welsh Mufic. See p. 38.

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The following curious narrative, defcribing the principal profeffion of the Bards, is extracted from an ancient folio manufcript which was pointed out to me in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by the Rev. Mr. Price; marked KKK, and page 207, &c. I did not think myself at liberty to make any alterations in this tranfcript, further than to modernize the old uncouth orthography, fo as to make it more intelligible to the generality of readers.

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HE office, or function of the British or Cambrian Bards, was to keep and preferve y Tri Chov Ynys Pry -dain: that is, the Three Records, or Memorials of Britain, otherwife called the British Antiquities; which confift of three parts, and are called Tri Chov for the preservation whereof, when the Bards were graduated at their commencements, they were trebly rewarded; one reward for each Cóu, as the ancient Bard Tudur Aled recites, and also his reward for the fame, at his commencement, and graduation at the royal wedding of Evan ab Davydd ab Ithel Vychan, of Northop in Inglefield, Flintshire, which he, in the Cerdd Marinad of the faid Evan ab Davydd ab Ithel Vychan, records thus:

Cyntav neuadd i'm grâddwyd,

Vu oror llys v' Eryr llwyd;

Am dri chov i'm dyrchavodd,

Yn neithior-llyma 'r tair rhodd.

The first Hall, wherein I was initiated,

Was the Court of the Grey Eagle;

For by the Tri Chov, I was elevated,
In the Nuptial Feaft: behold, the three Gifts!

Which shews that he was exalted, and graduated at that wedding for his knowledge in the faid Tri Chôv, and was rewarded with three feveral rewards.

The first of the three Cov, is the history of the notable acts of the Kings, and Princes of Britain, and

Cambria.

The Second of the three Cov, is the language of the Britons, of which the Bards were to give an account of every word, and fyllable therein, when demanded of them; in order to preserve the ancient language, and to prevent its intermixture with any foreign tongue, or the introduction of any foreign words in it, to the prejudice of their own, whereby it might be corrupted or extirpated.

The Third Cov, confifted of the pedigrees, or descents of the nobility, their divifion of lands, and the blazoning of arms 2.

"Arms took their origin from the example of the Patri- | archs: for, holy writ informs us, that the 12 Tribes of Ifrael were diftinguifhed by fignets. See Exodus, chap. 28, and chap. 39; Numbers, chap. 2; Pfalm 20; and Daniel, chap. 6.

Coats of Arms were in ufe among the Old Britons from the remoteft period; although arms were not generally diffused among different nations until the Holy Wars.

The Cymbri, or Britons, had their bodies and shields decorated with various colours, animals, birds, &c. which at first denoted valour, afterwards the nobility of the bearer; and in process of time, gave origin to armorial enfigns. See Tacitus IV. Cafar's Commentaries, Book V. chap. 10; and Plutarch's Life of Marius. Also it is recorded that K. Arthur bore on his fhield, in the battle of Coed Celyddon, the image of the Vir-a gin Mary. See Lewis's Ancient Hift. p. 182; and pp. 7, 8, 9, and 10, of this work; alfo Gwilym's Heraldry.

The Arwyddwardd, Enfign-Bard, or Herald at Arms: his

The duty was to declare the genealogy, and to blazon the arms of nobles and princes, and to keep the record of them; and to alter their ar.ns according to their dignity and deferts. Who were with the kings and princes in all battles and actions. As for their garments, I think, they were fuch as the Prydyddion had; that is, a long apparel down to the calf of their legs, or fomewhat lower, and were of divers colours. Alfo, the Song of Victory describes, that the Ancient Chiefs wore divers co. lours. Judges, chap. 5, ver. 30.

According to the primitive law of Dyanwal Moelmûd *, the Ancient Britons divided this land according to this manner; Tri hyd y gronun haidd, or thrice the length of one barley-corn, maketh a modvedd, or inch; three mod vedd, or inches, maketh pal, or palm of the hand; three palo, or palms, maketh a troedvedd, or foot; three feet, or troedvedd, maketh a cam, pace, or ftride; three cam, or ftrides, to the naid, or leap three naid, or leaps, to the gran; that is the breadth of a butt

Dyvnwal Moelmud, (or Dunwallo Molmutio,) was fupreme king of Britain and the first monarch that constituted laws in this island, and the first that wore a crown of gold. He reigned about 440 years before the time of Chrift. Ponticus Verunnius fays, that Dyonwal was a very comely perfon, and had yellow hair, curling down to his thighs. Lewis's Ancient Hift. of Britain, p. 39: and Brompton Menach. Jo, v. inter Hift. Angl. Script, Antiq, Col. 956. 5.–

57

The ancient Bards had a ftipend out of every plow-land in the country, for their maintenance; and also a perambulation, or a vifitation, to make once every three years, to the houses of all the gentlemen in the country, which was called Cylch Clera, being for the preservation of the faid Tri Chov: at which perambulation they collected all the memorable things that were done and fell out in every country that concerned their profeffion to take notice of, and wrote them down; so that they could not be ignorant of any memorable acts, the death of any great perfon, his descent, division or portion of lands, coat of arms, and children, in any country within their district. At these perambulations, the Bards received three rewards, being a fixed and certain ftipend, from every gentleman in whofe house they were entertained; and this reward was called Clera.

Cerdd Voliant, is a poem of laud, or praise, compofed in commendation of a gentleman, or lady, in his or her life-time.

Cerdd Varwnad, is an elegiac poem, compofed to record the actions, and to lament the death of renowned perfons.

Those men, that are termed above by the name of gentlemen, are called Gwŷr Bonheddig; and there is no man by the law entitled to the appellation of Gwr Benheddig, but he that is paternally defcended from the Kings, and Princes of Britain; for Bonheddig is equivalent to Nobilis in Latin: and the paternal genealogy of every gentleman must afcend to fome royal perfonage, from whom he orignally held his land, and his arms. A gentleman, fo defcended by father, and mother, is ftyled, or entitled by the law, Bonbeddig Cynhwynawl, which fignifieth, a perfect nobleman by father, and by mother. This title, Bonheddig, is the highest that a man can have; and remaineth in his blood from his birth to his death; and cannot be conferred by any man whatever, nor any, that hath it really, be deprived of it. All other titles may be taken from man, may become extinct by his death, or other cafualties, but this remaineth in his blood to his pofterity, fo that he cannot be fevered from it. Common perfons of late years have taken upon them the title of Bonhedd, or Noble; but they are not really fo, though so called by courtesy, by reafon of their wealth, offices, or merit; these, however, being only perfonal, and Bonhedd being permanent. You may understand hereby that the gentry of the country had a special intereft in the Tri Chov, or the hiftories where the acts and deeds of their ancestors and kinfmen, and the prefervation of the language, arms, descents, and divifions of lands, were recorded; and therefore, the stipend paid by them to the Bards was not inftituted without good caufe ; nor their entertainments in their perambulations allowed them without good reason; as all the histories and

of land, or tir: and mil of thofe tir, maketh a milltir, that is, a | goeth to Powys, which is the name of another country and thousand tîr, or a mile: and that was their measure for length, prince's dominion, which containeth ten other cantreds, he is which has been used from that time to this day: and yet, and gone from one country, or dominion, to another, and the law for fuperficial measuring, they made three hyd gronun haidd, or cannot be executed upon him; for, he is gone out of the barley-corn length to the modvedd, or inch; three modvedd, or country. Tegings is a country, and containeth but one caninches, to the palv, or hand's-breath; three palo to the troed-tred; and Dyffryn Clwyd was a country, and did contain but vedd, or foot; four troedvedd, or feet, to the veriau, or the fhort one cantred. And when any did go from Tegings to Dyffryn yoke; eight troedvedd, or feet, to the mai-iau, and twelve Clwyd, for to fly from the law, he went out from one country troedvedd, or feet in the geffeiliau; and fixteen troedvedd in the to another: and fo every prince or lord's dominion was hiriau; and a pole, or rod fo long, that is, fixteen feet long, is Gwlád, or country of that lord or prince; fo that Gwlad is the breadth of an acre of land; and 30 poles, or rods of that Pagus in my judgment. Sometimes a cantred doth contin length is the length of an erw, or acre by the law; and four two comots, fometimes three, or four, or five; as the Cantrev erw, or acre, maketh a tyddyn, or mefuage; and four of that of Glamorgan, or Morganwg, containeth five comots. And after tyddyn, or meffuage, maketh a rhandir; and four of those rban- that the Normans had won fome parts of the country, as one diredd maketh a gavel, or tenement, or hould; and four gavel lord's dominion, they conftituted in that fame place a Senescal, maketh a trev, or townfhip; and four trev, or townships, or Steward, and that was called in the British tongue Swy maketh a maenol, or maenor; and twelve maenol or maenor, and ddog, that is, an Officer; and the lordship that he was steward dwy drêv, or two townships, maketh a cwmwd, or Comot; and of, was called Swydd, or Office, and of thefe Swyddeu two cwmwd or Comot maketh a cantrev or cantred, that is, a hun- were made fhires. And Swydd is an Office, be it great, or dred towns, or townships: and by this reckoning, every tyddyn mall; and Swyddog is an Officer alfo of all states, as a Sheriff 'containeth four erw; every rhandir containeth fixteen erw; is a Swyddog, his Sheriffalty, or Office, and the thire whereof and every gavel containeth fixty-four erw. Every town or town-he is Sheriff is called Swydd: fo that Swydd doth contain as fhip containeth two hundred and fifty-fix erw, or acres; thefe well the fhire as the office of Sheriff, as Swydd Amwythig erws being fertile arable land, and neither meadow, nor paf- is the fhire or office of the Steward, Senescal, or Sheriff of ture, nor woods; for there was nothing measured but fertile Salop, &c. arable land, and all others were termed waltes. Every maenol containeth four of thefe townships; and every cwmwd con taineth fifty of these townships; and every cantred a hundred of these townships, whereof it hath its name. And all the countries and lord's dominions were divided by cantreds, or cantrev; and to every one of these cantreds, comois, maenors, towns, gavels, were given fome proper names. And Gwlad, or country, was the dominion of one lord or prince, whether the Gwlad were one cantred, or two, or three, or four, or more; fo that when I fay, he is gone from gwlâd to gwlad, that is, from country to country, is meant, that he is gone from one lord or prince's dominion to another prince's dominion; as, for example, when a man committeth an offence in Gwynedd, or North Wales, which containeth ten cantred, and fleeth or

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2

See pp. 26, and 33 of this work.

The greatest and highest degree was Brenin, or Teyrns that is, a King; and next to him was a Twyfog, or a Duke, and next to him was a Iarll, or an Earl; and next to him was an Arglwydd, or a Lord; and next to him was a Barwn, or Baron; and next to that is the Breir, or Uchelwr, which may be called the Squire; next to this is a Gwr-eäng, that is, a Yeoman; and next to that is an Alltud; and next to that a Caeth, which is a Slave, and that is the meanest amongst these nine feveral degrees. And thefe nine degress had three feveral tenures of lands, as Maerdir, Uchelordir, Priodordir. There be also other names aud degrees which be gotten by birth, by office, and by dignity; but they all are contained under the nine aforefaid degrees. See Leges Wallicae, p 155, and Silas Taylor, on Gavel-kind.

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