Welsh Journals

savours of a provincial university rather than of the Doric for which one looks. Too much thought, study and practice cannot be given to this matter of simplified and original stage-methods for village plays of all sorts and the Caldey Passion and Nativity are full of sug- gestions; but I must emphasise the undesira- Borrow's "Wild Wales." SUPPRESSED CHAPTERS.* Edited by Professor H. Wright. THE WELSH BARDS. D AFYDD Ab Edmund flourished about 1450. He was a native of Hanmer in Tegeingyl, in North Wales. The name of the place where he lived was Pool Gweppra. He was a gentleman and a landed proprietor and the best poet of Gwynedd, and it is said that there was no one in the whole of Wales during the time he flourished, who could be compared with him for making an ode. During his time an Eisteddfod1 was held at Carmarthen in 1450 in South Wales under the auspices of Gruffydd Ab Nicholas, by attending which Dafydd Ab Edmund derived considerable honor. Gruffydd was a powerful chieftain, descended from the kings of southern Wales. Seeing with regret that there was much confusion and dissention amongst the bardic order and that the rules of bardism were neglected and nearly forgotten, he wished to hold an eisteddfod like those held by the ancient Welsh princes, in order to revive bardic enthusiasm and to replace bardic matters on a proper footing. He accordingly procured permission from Edward the Fourth, the British sovereign of the time, to hold an eisteddfod, and caused a notice to be pub- lished in every church and market-place that a year and a day after the date of the notice a con- gress of bards would be held at Carmarthen. He also caused Lawdden, a priest of Machynlleth, one of the most learned of the bards of southern Wales, to draw up certain statutes with respect to bardic discipline, which it was intended the bards should subscribe and observe. No sooner did Dafydd Ab Edmund hear of the proclamation than he determined to attend the congress, to try not only to obtain the prize, a small chair of silver, but to induce the [eisteddfod] to sanction certain alterations which he had been in the habit of making in the four and twenty measures, which he considered would be improvements. When the time of congress was nearly at hand he accordingly set off. Of an adventure of his on the road and of his success at Carmarthen there is an amusing account in Welsh, from which we shall translate some passages. Published by kind permission of Mr. Clement Shorter and Mr. T. J. Wise. 1 The spelling of the word eisteddfod worried Borrow and he uses various forms which I have normalised.-ED. bility of mere imitation, especially of the fluid modernism which is the fad of the moment. Craig and Appia and Jouvet are greatly talented and very amusing fellows, but their only use to Puddleton-in-the-Pool should be to give ideas for the Puddletonians to work out in their own way. Whilst journeying with his servant to Car- marthen he arrived at the seat of a gentleman in Cardigan and asked for a night's lodging. On being told that he was welcome, he alighted and went in. Now there chanced to be another poet in the house on his way to Carmarthen, whose name was John Ab Howel Surdwal; this person suspected Dafydd to be a poet and communicated his suspicion to the gentleman of the house, who requested John Ab Howel Surdwal to ask the strange man some question in rhyme, in order that they might judge by his answer whether he was a poet or not. John then asked Dafydd the name of his horse. On his answering "Dobbin," John said Which wouldst thou choose, 0 stranger, say, Two fillies pied or Dobbin grey? Then Dafydd replied without any hesitation Which is the best, 0 God decide, Grey Dobbin or two fillies pied. John conveyed this reply to the gentleman and they both clearly saw that the stranger was a learned poet of a ready muse. So they conducted him into the hall and showed him every kind of respect and his servant too, for they shrewdly suspected that he was a poet also, as indeed he was. John observing that the servant was much better dressed than his master, having on a silken gown, while Dafydd was in a wool[l]en coat, addressed him in the following couplet: What gallant's this in silken vest, Who serves a clerk in wool[l]en drest? and received for answer No fool is he in silken vest, Who wisdom serves in wo[o]Uen drest. The gallant shows a judgment good, Who chooses happy servitude. "Which is the master and which the man I really do not know" said John to the gentleman, "but one thing I am sure of, which is, that the chair will not be gained at Carmarthen, save by one or the other of them." Shortly afterwards it was known that Gutyn Owain, the disciple of Dafydd Ab Edmund, was the servant. "I will go to Carmarthen with the strange man and his servant" said the gentleman, and so he did, and John went along with them. The ser- vant was a gentleman of as high a station as his master, and indeed the whole four was quite equal in rank. When they arrived at Carmarthen, [Dafydd Ab Edmund] must needs go in his wo[o]llen coat into the hall where the poets were assembled, and on one of them asking the one