Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards Part 15

had he stopped here, as many an inferior poet would have done, should we have had so great an idea of the hero's strength or vigour, as when he adds the following particular and striking circ.u.mstances?

- ? ?? d?? y' a?d?e fe???e?, ???? ??? ???t?? e?s, ? de ?? ?ea pa??e ?a? ????.

Iliad E. 1.304.

On the other hand, it is the essence of ode to neglect circ.u.mstance, being more confin'd in its plan, and having the sublime equally for its object. In order to attain this, it is obliged to deal in general terms, to give only such hints as will forcibly strike the imagination, from which we may infer the particulars ourselves. It is no demerit or disparagement in your bard to have neglected the minute circ.u.mstances of the battle, because it would have been impossible for him to have described them within the narrow limits of his ode. Here lies his great merit, that he hints, he drops, and the images he throws out, supply the absence of a more minute detail, and excite as grand ideas as the best description could have done. And so far I agree with your critical friend, that no poet ever hit upon a grander image than that of "_A Menai heb drai o drallanw_," &c., nor could take a n.o.bler method to excite our admiration at the prodigious cause of so amazing an effect. So much for criticism.

Soon after I received your letter I was down at Cambridge, where I had the good fortune to meet with Mr. Gray, the poet, and spent an afternoon with him at his chambers. Our discourse turned on you and the Welsh poetry: I shewed him your letter, and he desired leave to transcribe the pa.s.sage relating to King Edward's ma.s.sacre of the Welsh bards. All the authority he had before, it seems, was only a short hint in Carte's history: he seemed very glad of this authentic extract. We both join'd in wis.h.i.+ng a speedy conclusion to your historical labours, that you might be at leisure to enter upon this far more n.o.ble field of ancient British poetry. Excuse me if I think the recovery of particular facts from oblivion, any further than as they contribute to throw light upon compositions, not half of so much consequence to the world, as to recover the compositions themselves.

Your nation and ours are now happily consolidated in one firm indissoluble ma.s.s, and it is of very little importance, whether Llewelyn or Edward had the advantage in such a particular encounter. At least very few (even learned and inquisitive readers) will interest themselves in such an enquiry,-whereas the productions of genius, let them come from what quarter they will, are sure to attract the attention of all. Every reader of taste, of whatever country or faction, listens with pleasure, and forms a higher or meaner opinion of any people, in proportion as they are affected by this exertion of their intellectual powers. To give an instance, that is parallel to your own case, the Danes and Swedes have, for this century past, been rescuing their ancient writings from oblivion; they have printed off their Icelandic Histories, and collected what they could of their ancient Runic Poems. The latter have attracted the attention of all Europe; while the former are no otherwise regarded, than as they contribute to throw light on the latter. A very celebrated Frenchman has lately translated some curious specimens of them into his own language; and Mr. Dodsley will soon print a curious Spicilegium of the same kind in English, of which I will procure a copy and send you when printed off. But who will be at the pains (except a few northern antiquaries) to give a careful perusal to the other? I have this moment a voluminous _corpus_ of them (lately borrowed) before me. Even curious and inquisitive, as you are yourself, into historical facts, let me ask you if you would be willing to read 800 pages folio, in a barbarous literal Latin version, concerning the exploits of King Haquin Sarli; the mighty achievements of Ghorfinne Harlecefni, and of twenty other valiant barbarians? Yet, when you come to read the native undenied poetic descriptions of the ancient Runic Bards, their forcible images, their strong paintings, their curious display of ancient manners, I defy the most torpid reader not to be animated and affected; and then we are content to make some enquiry after the history of these savage heroes, that we may understand the songs of which they are the subjects. In like manner, with regard to your own Owain Gwynedd, without intending the least disrespect to so valiant a prince, I believe few readers will desire to know any further of his history, than as it will serve for a comment to Gwalchmai's very sublime and animated Ode. After all, I would not have any historical monuments perish, or be totally neglected. They may come into use upon a thousand occasions, that we cannot at present foresee, and therefore I am glad, that the northern nations have been careful to secure even the above (to us uninteresting) narratives from destruction. And I should be very glad to have the same care taken of those of the ancient Britons. But I think the first care is due to these n.o.ble remains of ancient genius, which are in so much greater danger or peris.h.i.+ng, because so much harder to be understood.

How strongly is our curiosity excited by the mention you make (in your letter to Mr. Williams), of the Epic Poem, written in A.D. 578, and the other works of Aneurin Gwawdrydd. What a n.o.ble field for literary application to rescue such a fine monument of antiquity from oblivion: to which every revolving year of delay will most certainly consign it, till it is lost for ever! _Hic Labor_, _hoc opus_. I hope, dear Sir, you will take in good part the freedom, with which I have ventured to advise you on a subject, of which you are so much a better judge than myself; but my zeal, though it may be blind, is well meant. I would fain excite you to direct that application, which you so laudably bestow on your ancient language, in such a manner as may be most profitable to yourself, and most reputable to your country.

Macpherson goes on furiously in picking up subscriptions for his proposed Translation of the ancient Epic Poem in the Erse Language; though hardly one reader in ten believes the specimens produced to be genuine. Much greater attention would be due to an editor, who rescues the original itself from oblivion, and fixes its meaning by an accurate version. I entirely agree with you, that a Latin version, as literal as possible, should accompany such ancient pieces, but then I would also have you subjoin at the same time a liberal English translation. By this means your book will take in all readers, both the learned and the superficial.

This method of publication has been attended with great success among the northern nations, where all their Runic Pieces have been confronted both with a literal version in Latin, and a more spirited one in the modern languages either of Sweden or Denmark. Were you to endeavour to collect into a corpus all the remains of your ancient poetry, and print it by subscription begun among your own countrymen, and warmly recommended by them to us, it would certainly pay well, and be a very valuable present to the public; but then you ought to send forth a few select pieces into the world, previous to such an undertaking, to bespeak the good opinion of mankind, and this, whenever you please to execute it, shall be attended with my warmest services. In the mean time I hope you will continue to favour me with specimens of your ancient poetry as often as your leisure will permit; and, if any thing else that is curious should occur in the course of your studies, you will confer a great pleasure by imparting it to,

Dear Sir, your very faithful and obedient servant, THOMAS PERCY.

_Easton Maudit_, _Oct._ 15, 1761.

N.B. I shall defer sending a specimen of Runic Poetry till I send you the whole collection printed, which you may depend on. May I hope to see your Latin Essay on British Poetry?

The same to the same.

DEAR SIR,

I know not whether the favour you have done me, in having wrote to me once or twice, ent.i.tles me to address you with the familiarity of a near acquaintance; but I have ventured to trouble you with a voluntary letter.

I presume you have received a very long one from me through the medium of Mr. Williams. In that I requested to know if you had any good old popular ballads in the Welsh language on historical and romantic subjects. This was not a random question. I have in my possession a very ancient MS. collection of such pieces in our own language, some of which will throw great light on our old poets. I have selected two for your inspection, which, when perused, do me the favour to return, and inform me whether you can remember any on the same subjects in the Cambrian tongue. I have reason to believe both the inclosed pieces are of great antiquity. The fragment is certainly more ancient than the time of Chaucer, who took his Old Wife Bath's tale from it, as any one upon perusal will be convinced, and consequently that the song was not taken from Chaucer. I cannot help thinking many of these pieces, about King Arthur, translations from the ancient British tongue; and it is in order to receive information on this subject, that I now apply to you. I am going to print a select collection of these old pieces, not only on account of the merit of the poetry which they contain, (and even these display proofs of great invention,) but also as conducing to ill.u.s.trate our best old poets who frequently allude to these compositions. As the press waits, I would intreat the favour of a speedy answer. I shall soon be able to send you a specimen of some Runic poetry; which, you will find, bears a surprising similitude to your own Welsh songs, more specimens of which, at your leisure, will oblige,

Dear Sir, your most faithful servant, THOMAS PERCY.

_Easton Maudit_, _Nov._ 22, 1761.

The same to the same.

DEAR SIR,

I received the favour of your obliging letter and the valuable present of the two British Odes translated into English. They have afforded me great pleasure, and they display a rich vein of poetry. I think a select collection of such pieces, thrown into a s.h.i.+lling pamphlet, would not fail to prove as acceptable to the public as the Erse Fragments, and would be far more satisfactory, because you could remove all suspicions of their genuineness, which, I am afraid, Mr. Macpherson is not able to do. I observe with you a remarkable similarity between our Runic and your British pieces. As our Runic Poetry will be fit for publication towards Michaelmas, I wish you could get ready such another Collection of British Poetry to follow it in due time, while the curiosity of the public is fixed on these subjects. And, when all these pamphlets have had their day, then throw them into a volume under some such t.i.tle as this, "Specimens of the Ancient Poetry of different Nations." I have for some time had a project of this kind, and, with a view to it, I am exciting several of my friends to contribute their share. Such a work might fill up two neat pocket volumes. Besides the Erse Poetry, the Rune Poetry, and some Chinese Poetry, that was published last winter, at the end of a book called "Han Kirn Choaan," or the Pleasing History, 4 vols.,-besides these, I have procured a MS. translation of the "Tagrai Carmen," from the Arabic; and have set a friend to translate Solomon's Song afresh from the Hebrew, with a view to the Poetry. This also is printing off, and will soon be published in a s.h.i.+lling pamphlet. Then I have myself gleaned up specimens of East Indian Poetry, Peruvian Poetry, Lapland Poetry, Greenland Poetry; and inclosed I send you a specimen of Saxon Poetry. The subject is a victory gained by the Anglo-Saxon, Athelstan, over the Dane Anlafe and his confederate Constantius King of Scotland. If you compare it with the Runic Ode of Regner Lodbrog, you will see a remarkable affinity between them, some of the phrases and imagery being common to both, as the play of arms, &c., &c. The Latin version falls from the pen of my very learned friend Mr. Lye, who has made many important emendations in the original. The English was a slight attempt of my own, to see if one could not throw a little spirit into a literal interlineary version, but I have no reason to boast of my success. I believe the best way would be to publish the English by itself, like the Runic Odes, and throw the two columns of Latin and Saxon to the end. Give me your opinion of my proposal, with regard to the various specimens mentioned above, and the share I would recommend to yourself in particular. Be pleased also to return my Saxon Ode, when perused, for I have kept no copy.

I suppose you have no British Poetry extant, that was written before the conversion to Christianity, as we have of the Runic, and as they affect to have of the Erse; if not, then the most ancient you have is to be chosen. Could not you give some of the Poetry of Taliesin and Merddin?

I must observe one thing, that your Odes will require a few explanatory Notes, chiefly with regard to the proper names; and, if you would not think it too great an innovation, I could wish you would accommodate some of your ancient British names somewhat more to our English p.r.o.nunciation.

This is what the Erse translator has done, and, I think, with great judgment. The word might be a little smoothed and liquidated in the text, and the original spelling retained in the margin. Thus Macpherson has converted Lambhdearg into Lamderg, Geolchopack (a woman's name) into the soft word Gealcossa, &c. This is a liberty a.s.sumed in all languages; and indeed, without it, it would not be possible for the inhabitants of one nation to p.r.o.nounce the proper names of another.

You tell me you have read Bartholinus's book of Danish Antiquities; it is a most excellent performance. There is a celebrated Frenchman, the Chevalier Mallet, historiographer to the present King of Denmark, who has lately published a work in French on the same subject, at the end of which he has given a French translation of the famous Edda or Alcoran (if you suffer me to use the word) of the ancient Teutonic nations. If I have health and leisure, I intend to translate this book into English, though it is a formidable undertaking, being a quarto of no small size.

I have got the book, which is a capital performance.

I should have one advantage over most others for such an attempt, which is, that my learned neighbour, Mr. Lye, has got the Islandic original of the Edda, and would compare my version with it. I have one thing still to mention, and then I have done. I have lately been employed in a small literary controversy with a learned friend, about the original and antiquity of the popular notion concerning Fairies and Goblins. My friend is for fetching that whimsical opinion from the East, so late as the time of the Crusades, and derives the words Elf and Goblin from the Guelfe and Gibbeline factions in Italy. But I think it would be impossible for notions so arbitrary to have obtained so universally, so uniformly, and so early (see Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale), if they had not got possession of the minds of men many ages before. Nay, I make no doubt but Fairies are derived from the _Daergar_ or Dwarfs, whose existence was so generally believed among all the northern nations. Can you, from any of your ancient British writers, enable me to ascertain any of these disputed points, or any resemblance to the name of Fairy, Elf, Goblin, in your language? I should think, that these popular superst.i.tions are aboriginal in the island, and are remains of the ancient Pagan creed. Favour me with your opinion on this subject when you write next, which, as your letters are so extremely curious and fraught with entertainment, I beg may be soon.

I remain, Sir, your very faithful servant, THOMAS PERCY.

The same to the same.

DEAR SIR,

I received your obliging letter, which is so curious, that I cannot but request the repet.i.tion of such valuable favours. I am going to draw up a short Essay on the origin and progress of our English poetry, in which I shall have occasion to be very particular in my account of our metrical Romances; and, as I believe many of these are drawn from old British fables, if not downright translations from the ancient British language, I should be extremely obliged to you, if you would give the t.i.tles, and, if possible, a short account of the subjects, of all such Romances, as are contained in the vellum ma.n.u.script, which you mention, or any other, which you may remember to have seen. I have a notion, that we have many of them translated into English and thence into French and other southern languages.

Inclosed I send you a little Essay on the origin &c. of the English drama. Bishop Warburton has handled the subject before me in the 5th vol. of his Shakespeare; but, as he derives all his information from the French critics, and his instances from the French stage, you will conclude, that he is often wide of the mark and generally superficial.

Yet he has one extract from Carew's Survey of Cornwall, relating to the old Cornish plays, which I recommend to your notice; because I could wish to know, (not now, but at any future leisure,) whether you have any thing similar in Wales. The pa.s.sage from Carew is this. "The Guary Miracle, in English, Miracle-Play, is a kind of interlude compiled, in Cornish, out of some scripture history. For representing this they raise an earthen amphitheatre, in some open field, having the diameter of this inclosed plain some 40 or 50 feet. The country people flock from all sides to see and hear it: for they have therein devils and devices to delight as well the eye as the ear. The players conne not their parts without books, but are more prompted by one called the Ordinary, who followeth at their heels, with the book in his hand." In an act of Parliament, 4th Hen. IV., mention is made of certain _Wastours_, Master Rimours (Rimers) and Minstrels, who infested the land of Wales, to make commorths or gatherings upon the people there. Query the meaning of this? I am afraid, lest I should be too troublesome with my queries, and, therefore, reserve what you please to answer at any future hour; only send me an account of your romances now, which will oblige, dear Sir, your affectionate and faithful servant,

THOMAS PERCY.

_Easton Maudit_, _March_, 20, 1763.

The same to the same.

DEAR SIR,

I have been many months indebted to you for a very obliging letter. I delayed to answer it, in expectation of seeing your curious Specimens of the Ancient British Poetry, advertised, from the press before this time.

Permit me to enquire, what forwardness that intended publication (which you gave me hopes in your last of seeing speedily printed) is in? From the translations, you have already favoured me with a sight of, I conceive a very favourable idea of the merits of your ancient bards, and should be sorry to have their precious relics swallowed up and lost, in the gulph of time; a danger which they will incur, if you, that are so well acquainted with their beauties, and so capable of making them understood by others, neglect this opportunity of preserving them. I can readily conceive that many of their most beautiful peculiarities cannot possibly be translated into another language, but even through the medium of a prose translation one can discern a rich vein of poetry, and even cla.s.sical correctness, infinitely superior to any other compositions of that age, that we are acquainted with. Certain I am, that our own nation, at that time, produced nothing that wears the most distant resemblance to their merit.

I have lately been collecting specimens of English poetry, through every age, from the time of the Saxons, down to that of Elizabeth, and am ashamed to show you what wretched stuff our rhimers produced at the same time that your bards were celebrating the praise of Llewelyn with a spirit scarce inferior to Pindar. Inclosed I send you a specimen of an Elegy on the death of Edward I.-that cruel Edward, who made such havoc among the Cambrian poets. I know not whether you will be able to decipher these foul scrawls or distinguish them from the marginal explications, with which I have accompanied them. But you will see enough to be convinced of the infinite superiority of your own bards; nor do I know, that any of the nations of the continent (unless perchance Italy, which now about began to be honoured by Dante) were able at that time to write better than the English. The French, I am well a.s.sured, were not. One thing is observable in the Elegy on Edward the First, which is, that the poet, in order to do the more honour to his hero, puts his eulogium in the mouth of the Pope, with the same kind of fiction as a modern bard would have raised up Britannia or the genius of Europe, sounding forth his praises. Considering the destruction which our merciless monarch made among the last sons of ancient genius, it may be looked upon as a just judgment upon him, that he had no better than these miserable rhimes to disgrace his memory.

With regard to your Specimens, should they not yet be put to the press, I should take it for a great favour if you would indulge me with a sight of them in MS., or at least the Dissertation to be prefixed to them; an indulgence that would not be abused, and which, under whatever restrictions you please, would oblige, dear Sir,

Your very affectionate and faithful servant, THOMAS PERCY.

_Eastern_ _Maudit_, _Dec._ 31, 1763.

The same to the same.