Welsh Journals

study of the reign though, in fact, it comes near to being one; such a book would have to make more, for instance, of international politics or of London. While some of Dr. Horrox's interpretations of particular events will be debated, we have for Richard's reign probably as complete an understanding of the political dynamics of non- metropolitan England as we are likely to get. Perhaps it is time to apply the same massive scholarly bombardment to the reigns of Edward IV and Henry VII. C. S. L. DAVIES Wadham College, Oxford A WELSH BESTIARY OF LOVE, being a translation into Welsh of RICHARD de Fornivals Bestiaire d Amour. Edited by Graham C. G. Thomas. Medieval and Modern Welsh Series, Vol. IX, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988. Pp. xliii, 84. IRf8.00. The history of Welsh prose between 1350 and 1500 remains virtually unchartered territory. Any standard edition of a text which stems from that period is therefore to be welcomed. This edition contains three Welsh versions of a translation of the Bestiaire d' Amour found in manuscripts written between 1400 and 1600, together with a comprehensive Introduction. The Bestiaire damour was compiled by Richard de Fornival, canon and later chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame at Amiens who died c. 1260. Summarising current scholarship on the French text and its place in the bestiary tradition, Mr. Thomas describes the bestiary as being in the 'form of a letter from a lover to his beloved in which he analyses his love for her and his relationship with her and makes observations on the relationship between man and woman with reference to the nature of animals'. Animals and love translated into a Welsh context immediately bring to mind the name of the poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym, and although the editor denies that there is any direct influence of the bestiary to be perceived in Dafydd's poetry, the themes of both are certainly alike. The fact that the Bestiary is referred to in two manuscripts as Llyfr Ofydd underlines its affinity with the ethos of Dafydd's work and illustrates the kind of material circulating in Wales in the late Middle Ages which might have influenced the poet's thought. The three versions of the Welsh translation are preserved in four manuscripts: A, Llanstephan 4, containing a fragmentary text, was written by one of the scribes of the Red Book of Hergest, c. 1400; B, Peniarth 51 was written by the Glamorgan scribe, Gwilym Tew, c. 1460; C, NLW, Add. 13075 was written by another Glamorgan scribe, Llywelyn Sion, c. 1600, and D, BL, Add. 15038 was probably written c. 1580 by Dauid ap Jenkin Amhredydd of Machynlleth. C and D contain virtually the same text. The D text was published by Dafydd Jones in his Cydymaith Diddan in 1766. The discussion of the Welsh manuscripts is rich, as befits an editor who is also a