ony wyr yn llwyr holl jaith da vy r dockdor kyngor kall da duw jr gwyr daidiau gwaith,' duw dalo i daed eilwaith. MAIRIG DAVYDD ai kant. 75 80 The preceding composition is printed exactly as it appears in the MS., with only the addition of the bracketed letters in lines 55, 56, and 58, suggested by Mr. Reynolds; the word "pob", in line 59; and the punctuation, there being no stops in the MS. copy. It will be seen that the transcriber's orthography is not consistent : thus he uses v for the present u, and for the consonantal sound of the English v, for which he also uses f, as we now do. Again the sound of i consonans he variously represents by i, and by j, while he uses the latter occasionally as a pure vowel also, as in lines 29, 51, etc. In this cywydd the author has "enriched" the language with a number of unrecorded words. These are syth-waew (1. 2), rhadlafn (1. 4), mawrvwyn (1. 10), iaunfuyn (1. 11), grasfwyn (1. 15), grymiaith (1. 17), brauvwyn (1. 18), clennig (1. 28), cerynt (1. 36: this word appears in Pugh's Dict., 3rd edition, in a quotation of the present couplet under cyfiachyddiaeth, but is not recorded in its proper place in the body of the work), aurnod (1. 52), hoewddawn (1. 58), holljawn (1. 60), gwiwddawn (1. 69), cywirddysg (1. 71), daed (1. 82). L. 6, Sain Dynwyd St. Donat's, the residence of the Stradlings. L. 29, jpo doubtless means Hippocrates, with whom the grammarian, as a Doctor of Medicine of Sienna, and a very able physician, is naturally compared. L. 30, gorav is for gorau, not goraf, as the alliteration proves. L. 35, kyviaithyddiaeth. The reading in Pugh's Dict. is cyfiachyddiaeth. L. 36, kair i bo, etc. Bo is a clerical error for bob. L. 41, mewn is here used before the definite article contrary to the rule set down by modern grammarians, who would say "yn y gramer". L. 82, daed is probably a noun, ،، God repay them their goodness". A HISTORICAL POEM BY IOLO GOCH. IN the year 1877, the publication of "The Works of Iolo Goch", with a sketch of his life, was commenced in the first volume of the Cymmrodor, by its first able and lamented editor, the Reverend Robert Jones, Vicar of All Saints, Rotherhithe, and was subsequently continued in the second volume, when the work was interrupted by the necessity for the introduction of more urgent matter after the completion of thirteen of the poems. It is greatly to be hoped that the undertaking, thus auspiciously begun, may not, for lack of means or opportunity, be eventually allowed to drop. In the brief outline of the poet's life, by the late Canon Robert Williams, in that most useful work, the Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, it is said that more than fifty of his poems are still extant in manuscript, and obviously the publication of these in their entirety will be needed to enable the present generation to form an adequate judgment of the genius and capacity of the bard, and to appreciate to the full the value of the allusions they contain to the important historical events which were passing around him, and in some of which, in his capacity of a vates sacer, he would appear to have borne personally no insignificant a part. The compositions may be classified roughly under the headings of 1. Religious; 2. Historical; 3. Encomiastic. Of these, those comprised under the second must naturally attract the first attention; while the third class will be looked to by those who would view society in those troublous times in its more private and social relations; and the state of religious knowledge and practice can scarcely fail to derive point and illustration from the quaint and often obscure language of the first. To the philologist, the frequent occurrence of terms and forms of speech, current in the poet's day, but scarcely intelligible now, cannot but prove highly instructive; a remark for the truth of which sufficient evidence has been furnished by the poems already in our hands. In the form as well as the matter of Cymric poetry, the works of Iolo may be said to bridge over the period between the ruder, if more majestic, metrical productions of his predecessors, and the more finished performances of those who came after him. During his acme, comprising the earlier half of the fourteenth century, the form of verse known as the "Cywydd" became more recognised as a legitimate expression of poetical feeling than heretofore, when, speaking generally, it had been for some time but sparsely introduced, or was working its way very gradually into use; while in Davydd ab Gwilym, who so prominently occupied the public attention in Wales during the last part of the century, it attained to an ease, a grace, and a perfection, never reached before, and certainly never since surpassed. Iolo Goch, then, may be said to have occupied as a poet an intermediate position between the last of the "Gogynfeirdd", properly so called, and Dafydd ab Gwilym and the bards who adopted the more modern style, metre, and diction of the Cywydd and Awdl writers of the fifteenth and subsequent centuries, with little or no intermission, down to our own day. Nor was this all. He made his mark also as a man of letters, whose attainments in classical, historical, and general learning were at least equal to, and probably far superior to those of most of his lay contemporaries. To his knowledge of Latin, a Dialogue between the Soul and the Body, translated from that language, and extant among his works in MS., will testify. Possessed of independent means, and born of a good family, and maternally of English blood, his mother, it is said, being Countess of Lincoln,1 he received an excellent education, and took the degree of Master of Arts at one of the Universities. As Lord of Llechryd, and residing at his own mansion of Coed Pantwn in Llannefydd, and, in later life, at Sycharth, that of his royal patron Owain Glyndower, he had ample opportunity for the cultivation of his favourite studies. Not only, therefore, in his official character as bard, but also from his own social position, he had ready access to intercourse with the highest in the land, and might have attained to any height of eminence and court favour, had his patriotism permitted him, for the sake of private advancement, to choose the winning side. Of this there is ample testimony in the poem perhaps best known of all his compositions to modern readers, through its publication in the collection entitled "Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru", of Cymric chef-d'œuvres, as they appeared to be in the judgment of their spirited editor, Rhys Jones, printed in 1773, and paraphrased in his book, called Wild Wales, by the late Mr. Borrow. That poem, with another from the same collection, has been reproduced in the present year, in the History of Powys Fadog, by J. Y. W. Lloyd, Esq. of Clochfaen, an esteemed member of our Cymmrodorion Society; but unaccompanied with any translation. This, in the case of the latter of the two poems, the following is an attempt to supply, so far as that may be possible, through the medium of a metrical interpretation, by adhering as closely as may be to the diction as well as spirit of the original. It is entitled "An Ode to Owain Glyndwr after his Disappearance", and is couched in a strain of lamentation for his absence, and of invitation to return with forces gathered from among the nations of Europe, and restore their sovereignty, together with their laws and liberty, to the Cymry. The immediate occasion of the poem is próbably an episode in the story of Query, a De Lacy? 1 VOL. IV. R the Cymric hero, which has been involved in some obscurity, and on which it appears to throw no inconsiderable reflection of light. The battle of Shrewsbury was fought on the 21st of June 1403, in which the first division only of Glendower's army was defeated in his absence. Detained by the siege of Kidweli, he had marched no nearer to the scene of that famous conflict than Oswestry. He then confined his operations to devastating the English borders, and possessing himself of the enemy's castles, among them those of Caermarthen and Emlyn. In 1404, he entered into a treaty with the French King, Charles VI, then at war with Henry IV, and defeated an English army at Craig y Dorth, near Monmouth. This was his last success. The next year his partizans sustained two defeats in Monmouthshire and Brecknockshire. In the latter conflict his brother Tudor, Lord of Gwyddelwern, was slain. All Glamorgan submitted to the King, Owain's followers were dispersed, and himself obliged to hide in caves. and other retreats. The rest shall be told in the words of the historian of Powys Fadog. A cavern near the seaside in the parish of Llangelynen in Merionethshire is still called 'Ogof Owain', in which he was supported by Ednyfed ab Aaron. King Henry again entered Wales with an army of 37,000 men, but, owing to the tempestuous weather, he was obliged to make a hasty retreat with considerable loss. Owain's affairs were again improved by the aid of his ally, the King of France, who sent a fleet to Milford Haven with an army of 12,000 men, whom Owain joined with 10,000 more at Tenby; and the combined armies marched into Worcestershire, where they encamped, and were opposed by the English King. For eight days they respectively presented themselves in order of battle, but, beyond skirmishes, in which many were slain, nothing more decisive occurred, and the |