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CHRONOLOGY OF THE BARDS, AND POETS.

The Names of fome of the early Bards, Poets, and Authors, which were omitted in pp. 13, 14, 15, and 16.

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Elor Gôch, a Poet,

Robert Leiaf, a Herald Bard,

Davydd ab Edmund, a Poet,

Rhys Nanmor, a Poet, near St. David's,
Davydd Nan'mor, a Poet, of Nanhwynan,

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1400 John Gwilym, of Herefordshire, a Herald,
1450 and Rouge Croix purfuivant; he published his
1460 celebrated work, entitled, "The Display of
1460 Heraldry," in folio, about

1460

1660

1660

1610

Myles Davies, of Tre 'r abbat, in Flintshire, wrote Athena Britannica, or Critical History of the Oxford and Cambridge Writers, about 1690 1460 Dr. John Davies, Canon of St. Asaph, (was 1460 the fon of a weaver at Llanverres, in Denbighfhire ;) he was a famous linguift, and author of 1460 Antiqua Lingua Britannica, a Welsh and Latin, 1480 and Latin and Welfh, Dictionary; which he published in the year 1632. He affifted alfo in tranflating the Bible into Welsh, which was correctly published in the year 1620

1490

1490

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1480 Dû, Rector of Ffestiniog and Maentwrog, and
Edmund Prŷs, of Trawfvynydd, or Tyddyn
1480 Archdeacon of Meirionydd; was interred under
the Communion-table at Maentwrog, in the
year 1623. He was the most celebrated Bard
1500 of his time, and one of the tranflators of the
1500 Bible into Welsh, and verfifier of the Pfalms.
1500 John Phylip, of Llan-Enddwyn,
William Phylip, of Llan-ddwywe, Merioneth. 1669
Rowland Vychan, of Llanuwchllyn, Merion-

1590

Evan Dyvi, a Meirionyddfhire Poet,

Rhys Brychan, a Poet,

Rhys Gele, y Prydydd Brîth.

Richd. Davis, Bard, and Bifhop of St. Asaph, 1560

Tr. ab Gr. ab H. y Gadair, of Anglesey,
Bedw Havhefp, a Poet, about

ethfhire,

1668

1580

1590

Rhys Gôch, a Lyn Dyvrdwy, a Poet,

Hugh Cadwaladr, of Llanuwchlyn,
Siôn Davydd, Lâs, of Penllyn, Bard to the
1540 Nannau Family,

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1667

1691

For the lift of fucceeding Bards, I refer my readers to the end of Dr. Davies's Dictionary, and to Mr. Ed. Llwyd's Archaolo.p.255

The

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In Arandlws. Jowel or Price of nonor; the subject of contest at a Congress of the Bands, which was won by the shif Bard the warp and afterwards worn on his breast as a lady of ment and superior dignity, the al ve delineation is the exact size of the original the possesion of M. Holland of Hanchester and as the forenet which adorns it resembles that of a Prince of Wales, is supp nt in have bolnant formerly to a hopal Bard or a supreme Bard of Miles, & natives the neoldboathood of water, in acinarienshire this. Hedallion is male of alver, and gitt It income tared to be three expose hundred years old; and the translation of the motte upon it. Liberty, Firmness, and Friendthip.

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A Print of the "Ariandlwser Jewel which is in the pofs sawon af bir hoger

Herdyn in Flintature; and has been prom time immemorial, the gift of his Ancestors, to bestow on the chief of the Faculty. This emblem of tame, which in ordered with Cal, is about six inches and a half tong, and furnished with strings equal to the number of the uases. It was gained at a public contest of the Bards in the Reign of Elizabeth, by Sion ab Rhys, Pencerdd, principal. Unsician of the warp for Fodor of Music. in paars 32.35.46.47.49.58, and 85, if this work

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The mufical inftruments, anciently used in Wales, are as different from thofe of other nations as their mufic and poetry '.-Thefe inftruments are fix in number, the Telyn, or harp; the Crwth; the Pibgorn, or Horn-pipe; the Pibau-cód, or Pib-braich; that is, the Bag-pipes, or the arm-pipes: the Tabwrdd, Tabret, or Drum; and the Corn buelin Cornet, or Bugle-horn. Of these an accurate representation is attempted in the oppofite trophy.

The Harp, the principal of those I have enumerated, which appears to be the most ancient, and indeed the queen of all musical instruments, derives its origin from the remoteft period. The Seventy 3, as well as Jofephus, have rendered Kinnor to be the fame as the Harp: and we find, in facred history, that Jubal, the feventh from Adam, is ftyled, The Father of all fuch as handle the Kinnor, (or Harp,) and the Hugab, (or ancient Organ,) which were before the flood; and the origin of any invention cannot well be carried higher. Job, who lived among the Idumeans, about 1520 years before Chrift, does not only speak of mufic and finging, but also gives us the names of the mufical inftruments then in use. Ezekiel' and Isaiah reprefent Tyre as a city wholly given up to mufic. The antiquity of mufic appears also from the history of Jacob; who, having stole away from his uncle Laban without acquainting him of his defign, was pursued and overtaken by him on the mount of Gilead, where he upbraided him for what he had done, in this manner, Wherefore didst thou flee away fo fecretly, and steal away from me? and didst not tell me, that Imight have fent thee away with mirth and with fongs, with Tabret, and with Harp'?

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It will be neceffary to obferve, that the musical inftruments of the Greeks, and Latins came to them from the Hebrews. The Greeks, a vain glorious boasting people, pretended that the greatest part of their mufical inftruments were the invention of their gods, or their ancient poets. They seldom represented Mercury, Apollo, Orpheus, Arion, or Pan, without some musical inftrument in their hands: but this false pretenfion of theirs is fufficiently contradicted by the Holy Scriptures themselves, Religion, the gods, music, or poetry, owe not their origin to Greece, but are the growth of a far more diftant foil. The Latins are more fincere and ingenuous; they acknowledge they received their musical instruments from the Eaft.

Jam pridem Syrus in Tyberim defluxit Orontes,

Et linguam, et mores, et cum tibicine chordas
Obliquas, nec non gentilia tympana fecum vexit".-

Juvenal says,

It is very extraordinary, that all authors who have treated on this fubject, have not difcerned that the Harp, and the Grecian Lyra were two diftin&t inftruments; and it is evident, that neither the Greeks, nor the Romans ever had our Harp, nor is it to be found on their coins, nor sculptures. Another proof may be educed from Venantius Fortunatus, (the bishop of Poitiers, about A. D. 609,) who says, that both the Harp, and the Crwth, were inftruments of the Barbarians, or Britons.

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Venantius Fortunatus, Lib. 7, Carm. 8.

"Thou God of Wit (from Atlas fprung) "Who by perfuafive power of tongue, "And graceful exercife, refin'd "The favage race of human kind; "Hail, winged meflenger of Jove, "And all th' immortal powers above, "Sweet parent of the bending lyre, "Thy praise fhall all its founds infpire, &c. "O Mercury, (fince the ingenious Amphion moved rocks by

They fend forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice" his voice, you being his tutor,) and thou, my Teftudo, expert at the found of the organ. Job XXI. verse 11, and 12. Ezekiel, chap. XXVI. verse 13.

"to refound with feven ftrings, formerly neither vocal nor "pleafing, but now agreeable to the tables of the wealthy, and the temples of the Gods," &c.-Horace, book III. ode 11.

* Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that haft" been forgotten; make fweet melody, fing many fongs, that thou mayeft be remembered. Ifaiah, chap. XXIII. verfe 16. 9 Genefis, XXXI. verse 27.

ΤΟ

Ecclefiafticus, chap. 44; and in the account of Seth, and Enos, &c.

"Juvenal, fatire III.

72

Mercury is called the parent of the lyre, becaufe having found the fhell of a tortoife, and fitted ftrings to it, he firit formed an idea of that kind of mufic. Hence teftudo fignified a lyre, by reafon that it was originally made of the black or hollow fhell of the teflude aquatica, or fea-tortoife which Mer

"In Horace's Hymn to Mercury, book 1. ade the 10th. The cury found on the banks of the Nile. origin of the lyre is faid to be as follows:

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OF THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE HEBREWS, &c.

The antiquity of poetry is another argument for that of mufic; as they are both fuppofed to be coeval with man. Nature furnishes art with all her materials, and lays the foundations of all her improvements. As Poetry and Music were inseparable among the ancients', who knew no poet that was not at the fame time a musician, and who called making verse finging, and verses fongs. What has been faid of poetry, may likewise be applied to mufic. There is a natural mufic which preceded, and gave birth to the artificial: both tend to the same end, namely, to express the sentiments of the poet in such sounds and terms, as have a correspondence to what he feels within himself, and would inspire others with.

David, the second King of Ifrael, was the greatest master of the Harp of his time, as well as a poet; he compofed a great number of the pfalms, or hymns, both for voices and inftruments; which he instituted in the tabernacle of the Lord, to inspire men's hearts, and to enliven their affections towards God 2. (This accomplished prince, may truly be called a prieft, prophet, and Bard.) The prophet Elisha, likewise, thought mufie neceffary to excite him to a fit disposition, for receiving the impreffion of the spirit of God; and said, “but now bring me a Minstrel; and it came to pass, when the Minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him 3.

We have every reason to believe that mufic was in a high degree of perfection among the Hebrews towards the latter part of David's reign, and in the time of King Solomon, &c; and, we are informed that Asaph, Heman, and jeduthun, were the princes, or presidents, of all the temple-mufic, in those reigns, Asaph had four sons, Jeduthun fix, and Heman fourteen. These four and twenty Levites, fons to the three grand presidents of the mufic, were set over four and twenty bands, or companies of musicians. Each of them had under him eleven officers of an inferior rank, who prefided over the other fingers, and inftructed them in their art. These feveral companies seem to have been distinguished from one another, by the inftruments on which they played, and by their places in the temple. Those of the family of Kohath stood in the middle; thofe of Merari, on the left; and those of Gershon, on the right hand. The fons of Jeduthun played on the Kinnor, or Harp; the fons of Afaph, on the Nebel, or Pfaltery; and the fons of Heman on the Metfilothaim, a kind of tinkling bells, or Cymbals. "The number of them, with their brethren that were

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of what fize foever it be, having fix ftrings; and the violin, whether it be the treble, the tenor, the violoncello, orthe bafs, having uniformly four. In fhort, all the inftruments of that genus are characterized by the appellation of the Cithara, whether a lute, a guitâr, a viol, a fiddle, or a kit.

The English make use of a fimilar loose and vulgar term, when they want to express any musical instrument which they do not well know the name, by the term hurdy gurdy; which in fact is, an old English inftrument that confifts of a bladder upon a ftick, with a ftring or two ftretched across the bladder, which are fastened to each end of the stick, and played upon with a bow.

The rebeck is a three-ftringed fiddle. The cithern has fix ftrings: alfo, a mandolin, or a fmall guitar played with a quill, is fometimes called a cittern. The lute is efteemed to be a very ancient inftrument, as being mentioned in Pfalm lxxxi. &c. it

Virgil defcribes Dido's feast to Æneas, Lib. I. v. 744, &c. In which, the fame inftrument is termed Cithara. "The "long-haired Topas founded on the gilded Cithara what great Allas had taught; he fang of the changing moon, and the "courfe of the fun; the origin of mankind and other ani"mals; the nature of the elements, the heavenly conftella-originally had fix ftrings, but now has a much greater number. The theorba, or arch-lute, fometimes called cithara bijuga, from tions, and the causes which operate the change of feafons." -Homer calls the inftrument, on which Achilles played, the Spanish lute, and the guitar, are called cithara Hifpanica. The its having two necks, with a great number of ftrings: the Phorminx, which implies the fame as Teftudo. Iliad, book IX.-lute is always ftrung with gut, and played upon with the finThe Greeks call the Lyra; Kithara; Barbitos; Phorminx ; and Chélyst. The Romans have made ufe of the fame terms, to which they have added Teftudo; all of which imply a tortoife, a fhell, or an inftrument made of that form. (The back of the lute and the guitar are frequently carved in that fhape). The lyra of Mercury had at firft but three ftrings; Orpheus is faid to have added a fourth; and Pindar mentions his lyre as

of

wire, and moftly played with a quill. (Salinas afferts, that the gers. The orpharian, bandore, or guitar, are generally @trung with inftruments of the above clafs take the name of lute, from their halieutic, or boat-like form.) The crwth; the fiddle; viol d'amour; viol de gamba ; the bariton ; &c. are all played with a bow.13 Cafar, in his Commentaries, book IV. chap. 22, &c. calls the Britons, barbarians; and Tacitus the fame. The appellation having feven. It is evident from Maccabees, that the kinnor, barbarians was given by the Greeks to all the world but or harp, and the cithara, or guitar, are not the fame, fince they themselves; the Romans gave it to all the world but the Greeks. are mentioned in the fame as two different inftruments. IT." A note from Mr. Beloe's tranflation of Herodotus. Maccabees IV. v. 54; and XIII. v. 51.-Notwithstanding all the accounts, given by the Greeks and Romans, it is not im- ftudies; Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, on the Religion of the GenTimagenus fays, that mufic was the most ancient of all probable but the cithara, or guitâr, is derived from the Cithern tiles page 204. Plutarch, Libello de Muficâ.—Quintil. Lib. I. of the Hebrews; (which according to Mercennus, is a kind of fiddle with fix ftrings). See alfo Maccabees, as before quoted, -Galilie ufes the term lyre for the lute, and other inftruments of that clafs : but the true diftinction between the viol and the violin fpecies arifes from the difference of fize, and the number of their strings, respectively, the viol, meaning that for concerts,

+ Pliny mentions a fish called Cithara or a folie. And another called phorcus! -Pliny, XXXII, and 11,

1

or 10, L.

2 1 of Chronicles, chap. XXV. v. 6 and 7.-II. Chronicles, chap. XXIX. chap. V. v. 12. Of the dreffes of the Levites, &c. fee Exodus, chap. XXVIII. chap. XXXIX. and Ifaiah. chap. III. I. Chronicles, chap. XXIII. v. 5. & 8.

II. Book of Kings, chap. III. v. 15.

4 I. Chronicles, XXV. 1, 3, 5, 6, II, Chron, chap. V. v. 12. s I, Chronicles VI. 33, 34, 39.

instructed

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