Welsh Journals

WELSH IN THE WELSH COLLEGES By R. WILLIAMS PARRY. MA. THE writer does not in the present article propose to put forth a case for the propagation of the Welsh language amongst monoglot Englishmen in bilingual areas, or to write anything in the nature of a reproach to the unnatural Welshman who, in dubs and assemblies," deprecates his proper literary inheritance. He purposes rather to plead for the saner, nay the sane, teaching of Welsh in the very citadels of Welsh learning; and to disclose much of what seems to him to be radically wrong with certain of the methods at present obtaining in closets and libraries, schools and colleges." For it is a fact that at this late day the pupils of schools in Welsh- speaking centres are taught the mother-tongue not only on the lines of a foreign language, but even so in the old bad way which gave Dent and others their opening. That an incongruity so monstrous should be allowed to slumber on peacefully during what has been termed the Welsh Awakening is truly astounding; for it is inconceivable that teachers of Welsh can have been blind to the defects of a system that has numbed their truer impulses for two decades. And here we could wish it to be understood that what follows is a denunciation not of the teacher but of the syllabus. We are sadly mistaken if there be any lecturers or students who will not heartily subscribe to most of the criticism offered below, and who will not recognise the pressing need of some at least of the reforms suggested. In the first place there is very little doubt that the treatment of certain aspects and periods of Welsh literature in the University Colleges is gravely in- adequate. With a syllabus that is consistently scrappy and meagre, the methods are antiquated and stupid to a degree. We have before us the prospectuses of the three Colleges for the three years, 1913-1916. A careful study of these discovers the following interesting, if lamentable, facts:- (a) The Welsh Syllabus in each year is calcu- lated to give the student a most commendable fluency in the writing of English. (b) The prescribed History of Welsh literature ends with the year 1800, thus precluding the voluminous writings of our Victorian authors, good or bad. These include our best lyricist, our finest essayists, our only considerable novelist, our nearest approach to Drama, and the most thoughtful of our poets. (c) The list of prescribed books to be read conjointly with the history of our general literature is infinitesimal. A comparison of the Welsh Syllabus with the only other with which it is fair to compare it is nothing short of staggering. For greater dearness, let us take the case of two freshmen entering College in 1913. The first will take the Honours Welsh Course in his third year, the second will take Honours Eng- lish. We find that the work at the Intermediate Stage in Welsh will be as follows 1913-14: 1. Grammar.-Modern Welsh Grammar (phon- ology, accidence and syntax). 2. Unprepared translation. — Translation of un- prepared passages from Welsh authors of the post-reformation period. 3. Composition.-Translation into Welsh of continuous English prose. 4. Prescribed books Prose— Lludd and Llevelys: Morgan Uwyd, Llyfr y Tri Aderyn. Verse-Gronwy Owen selected poems (nine in number). 5. Literature.-outlines of the History of Welsh literature from 1550-1800. The English Syllabus for the same year is as follows 1. Literature. — Outlines of the history of English literature from the Elizabethan to the Victorian Age, together with the study of the following prescribed works: Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Macbeth. Selected English Essays (pp. 1-151). Milton, Paradise Lost, Books I and II. Pope, Rape of the Loch. Burke, On Conciliation with America. Wordsworth, four poems. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Tennyson, five poems. Carlyle, On Heroes. 2. Language 1. Grammar.- The elements of Old English and historical English Grammar. 2. Prescribed books.- Cook, First Book in Old English, Extracts I-XII. Bradley, The Making of English. Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. We claim to be justified in drawing the following conclusions from even a superficial examination of the above