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later years of the century. The evidence, as yet imperfectly assessed in published work, may perhaps qualify the interpretation of the period in terms of mounting tension among the uchelwyr. Goronwy Fychan's brothers, partisans of Richard II in his final adversities, were, as the author notes, adherents of Owain Glyndwr in his early ventures. The account of the beginnings of the rebellion in 1400 needs to be revised at one point, where reliance is placed upon authorities who did not subject the sources to adequate critical examination. It is certain that three letters attributed to 1400 by Henry Ellis, and consequently regarded by J. E. Lloyd and many others as evidence of disorder in the northern march before the outbreak of the rebellion, concern a late stage in the conflict. The memorandum concerning Maredudd ab Owain's negotiations with the Scots and preparations for war in Meirionnydd, placed in 1400 by Ellis and about 1410 by Lloyd, should be attributed to 1417. It forms part of the evidence relating to Maredudd's attempt to raise rebellion anew in alliance with the Lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle. Some of these suggestions may perhaps be incorporated in the successive re-issues which this volume undoubtedly deserves. The chronological narrative, which appropriately forms the main part of the text, is set out with exemplary clarity. The account is enriched with discerning but unobtrusive comment upon a range of matters which will excite scholarly inquiry again. Thirty-five years ago Lloyd's Owen Glendower was prefaced with the author's admission that, in the absence of new evidence from Welsh sources, he could offer 'no startling departures from the traditional portrait'. The accessions of the intervening years have been modest, but this short work raises new and valid questions. The portrait drawn gains much from the author's circumspection and his evident determination to abstain from speculative and analogical treatment of a rebellion launched and sustained by a figure who, happily perhaps, remains as elusive as ever. J. BEVERLEY SMITH Aberystwyth MEDIEVAL WELSH LYRICs. Edited by Joseph P. Clancy. Macmillans, 1965. Pp. 289. 30s. Gradually the aura of mystery which has for so long surrounded the vernacular literature of medieval Wales is being dispelled. As more and more texts are being translated it becomes possible for the majority of scholars to study them and to apply to them the canons and criteria which have become standard when dealing with other medieval literatures. In a very obvious way, this is a healthy development, since Welsh literature will now have to stand or fall under the scrutiny of critics who are not prejudiced by any feelings of national pride. Since the publication of the Everyman translation of The Mabinogion (London, 1949) by Professors Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, readers of