part i

. 1908), contains no less than sixty-nine Ossianic ballads, amounting in all to some ten thousand lines. Other Ossianic poems of dates varying from the 15th to the 18th century have been published in the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_ (Dublin, 1854-1861), including amongst others "The Battle of Gabhra," "Lamentation of Oisin (Ossian) after the Fenians," "Dialogue between Oisin and Patrick," "The Battle of Cnoc an Air," and "The Chase of Sliabh Guilleann." These ballads still survive amongst the peasants at the present day. We further possess a number of prose romances, which in their present form date from the 16th to the 18th century; e.g. _The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne_, _Finn and Grainne_, _Death of Finn_, _The Clown in the Drab Coat_, _Pursuit of the Gilla Decair_, _The Enchanted Fort of the Quicken-tree_, _The Enchanted Cave of Ceis Corann_, _The Feast in the House of Conan_.

At the present moment it is impossible to give a complete survey of the other branches of medieval Irish literature. The attention of scholars has been largely devoted to the publication of the sagas to the neglect of other portions of the wide field. An excellent survey of the subject is given by K. Meyer, _Die Kultur der Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1. pp. 78-95 (Berlin-Leipzig, 1909).

Nature poetry.

We have already pointed out that as early as the Old Irish period nameless Irish poets were singing the praises of nature in a strain which sounds to our ears peculiarly modern. At the present time it is difficult to say how much of what is really poetic in Irish literature has come down to us. Our MSS. preserve whole reams of the learned productions of the _filid_ which were so much prized in medieval Ireland, but it is, generally speaking, quite an accident if any of the delightful little lyrics entered in the margins or on blank spaces in the MSS. have remained. The prose romances sometimes contain beautiful snatches of verse, such as the descriptions of Mag Mell in _Serglige Conculaind_, _Tochmarc Etaine_, and the _Voyage of Bran_ or the _Lament of Cuchulinn over Fer Diad_. Mention has also been made of the exquisite nature poems ascribed to Finn, which have been collected into a pamphlet with English renderings by Kuno Meyer (under the title of "Four Old Irish Songs of Summer and Winter," London, 1903). The same writer points out that the ancient treatise on Irish prosody published by Thurneysen contains no less than 340 quotations from poems, very few of which have been preserved in their entirety. To Meyer we also owe editions of two charming little texts which sufficiently illustrate the lyrical powers of the early poets. The one is a poem referred to the 10th century in the form of a colloquy between Guaire of Aidne and his brother Marban. Guaire inquires of his brother why he prefers to live in a hut in the forest, keeping the herds and swine of the king, to dwelling in the king's palace. The question calls forth so wonderful a description of the delights of nature as viewed from a shieling that Guaire exclaims, "I would give my glorious kingship to be in thy company, Marban" (_King and Hermit_, ed. with trans. by K. Meyer, London, 1901). Another text full of passionate emotion and tender regret ascribed to the 9th century tells of the parting of a young poet and poetess, who after plighting their troth are separated for ever (_Liadain and Curithir_, ed. with trans. by K. Meyer, London, 1902). In the _Old Woman of Beare_ (publ. K. Meyer in _Otia Merseiana_) an old hetaira laments her departed youth, comparing her life to the ebbing of the tide (10th century).

Professional literature.

We must now step aside from pure literature and turn our attention to the various productions of the professional learned classes of Ireland during the middle ages. The range of subjects coming under this heading is a very wide one, comprising history, genealogies, hagiology, topography, grammar, lexicography and metre, law and medicine. It will perhaps be as well first of all to deal with the learned _filid_ whose works have been preserved. Irish tradition preserves the names of a number of antiquarian poets of prehistoric or early medieval times, such as Amergin, one of the Milesian band of invaders; Moran Roigne, son of Ugaine Mor, Adna and his successor Ferceirtne, Torna (c. 400), tutor to Niall Noigiallach, Dallan Forgaill, Senchan Torpeist, and Cennfaelad (d. 678), but the poems attributed to these writers are of much later date. We can only enumerate the chief of those whose works have been preserved. To Maelmura (d. 887) is attributed a poem on the Milesian migrations. About the same time lived Flanagan, son of Cellach, who wrote a long composition on the deaths of the kings of Ireland, preserved in YBL., and Flann MacLonain (d. 918), called by the Four Masters the Virgil of Ireland, eight of whose poems have survived, containing in all about 1000 lines. Cormacan, son of Maelbrigde (d. 946), composed a vigorous poem on the circuit of Ireland performed by Muirchertach, son of Niall Glundub. A poet whose poems are most valuable from an antiquarian point of view is Cinaed Ua h-Artacain (d. 975). Some 800 lines of his have been preserved in LL. and elsewhere. Contemporary with him is Eochaid O'Flainn (d. c. 1003), whose chief work is a long chronological poem giving a list of the kings of Ulster from Cimbaeth down to the destruction of Emain in 331. A little later comes MacLiac (d. 1016), who celebrated in verse the glories of the reign of Brian Boroime. His best-known work is a lament over Kincora, the palace of Brian. Contemporary with MacLiac is MacGilla Coim Urard MacCoisi (d. 1023). To Cuan ua Lothchain (d. 1024), chief poet in the reign of Maelsheachlainn II., are ascribed poems on the antiquities of Tara. Sixteen hundred lines of his have come down to us. A writer who enjoyed a tremendous reputation in medieval Ireland was Flann Mainstrech (d. 1056), who in spite of his being a layman was head of the monastery school at Monasterboice. He is the author of no fewer than 2000 lines in LL., and many other poems of his are contained in other MSS. His best-known work is a _Book of Synchronisms_ of the kings of Ireland and those of the ancient world. We have also poems from his pen on the monarchs descended from Niall Noigiallach and on the chronology of the high-kings and provincial kings from the time of Loigaire. Flann's successor, Gilla Coemgin (d. 1072), gives us a chronological poem dealing with the annals of the world down to A.D. 1014. He also is the author of the Irish version of Nennius which contains substantial additions dealing with early Ireland. Minor writers of the same nature whose works have come down to us are Colman O'Sesnain (d. 1050), Neide ua Maelchonaire (d. 1136), Gilla na noem ua Duinn (d. 1160), Gilla Moduda O'Cassidy (1143). In the 13th century these historical poems become very rare. In the next century we again find antiquarian poets of whom the best-known is John O'Dugan (d. 1372). His most valuable composition treats of the tribes of the northern half of Ireland at the time of the northern conquest. This work, containing 1660 lines in all in debide metre, was completed by his younger contemporary Gilla na naem O'Huidhrin. From the beginning of the 13th century the official poets began to give way to the hereditary bards and families of scribes. Among the chief bardic families we may mention the O'Dalys, the MacWards, the O'Higinns, the MacBrodys and the MacDaires. We must here content ourselves with glancing at a few of the more prominent names. Muiredach Albanach (c. 1214-1240), whose real name was O'Daly, has left behind in addition to the religious verses a considerable number of poems in praise of various patrons in Ireland and Scotland. He is said by Skene to be the first of the Macvurrichs, bards to Macdonald of Clanranald. A number of his compositions are preserved in the Book of the Dean of Lismore. Gilla Brigde MacConmidhe was a contemporary of the last-mentioned bard. He wrote a number of poems in praise of the O'Neills and O'Donnells. We may next mention the name of an abbot of Boyle, Donnchad Mor O'Dalaig (d. 1244), a writer whose extant poems are usually of a religious character. Many of them are addressed to the Virgin. Most of them appear in late MSS., but some few are preserved in the Book of the Hy Maine. Donnchad Mor is said to be the greatest religious poet that Ireland has produced. Many other members of the O'Daly family belonging to the 14th and 15th centuries have left poems behind them, but we cannot mention them here. Angus O'Daly, who lived in the second half of the 16th century, was employed by the English to satirize the chief Gaelic families in Ireland. Two members of the O'Higinn family deserve mention, Tadg mor O'Higinn (d. 1315). and Tadg Og O'Higinn (d. 1448), a voluminous writer who eulogized the O'Neills, O'Connors and O'Kellys. Tadg Og also composed a number of religious poems, which enjoyed enormous popularity in both Ireland and Scotland. A _duanaire_ was inserted into YBL., which contains some forty poems by him.

Closely connected with the compositions of the official poets are the works of native topography. Most of the sagas contain a number of explanations of the origins of place-names. The _Dindsenchus_ is a compilation of such etymologies. But its chief value consists in the amount of legendary matter it contains, adduced in support of the etymologies given. The _Dindsenchus_ has come down to us in various forms both in prose and in verse. Irish tradition ascribes it to Amergin MacAmalgaid, who lived in the 6th century, but if the kernel of the work goes back as early as this it must have been altered considerably in the course of the centuries. Both prose and verse forms of it are contained in LL. A kindred compilation is the _Coir Anmann_ (Fitness of Names), which does for personal names what the _Dindsenchus_ does for geographical names. We further possess a versified compendium of geography for educational purposes dealing with the three continents, from the pen of Airbertach MacCosse-dobrain (10th century).

History.

No people on the face of the globe have ever been more keenly interested in the past of their native country than the Irish. This will already have been patent from the compositions of the _filid_, and now we may describe briefly the historical works in prose which have come down to us. The latter may be divided into two classes, (1) works containing a connected narrative, (2) annals. Closely allied to these are the sagas dealing with the high-kings. Even in the serious historical compositions we often find the manner of the sagas imitated, e.g. the supernatural plays a prominent part, and we are treated to the same exaggerated descriptions. The earliest of these histories is the wars of the Gael and Gall (_Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib_), which gives an account of the Viking invasions of Ireland, the career of Brian Boroime and the overthrow of the Norsemen at the battle of Clontarf. This composition, a portion of which is contained in LL., is often supposed to be in part the work of MacLiac, and it is plain from internal evidence that it must have been written by an eye-witness of the battle, or from materials supplied by a person actually present. Numerous shorter tracts dealing with the same period exist, but as yet few of them have been published. _Caithreim Cellachain Caisil_ treats of the conflicts between the Vikings and the Irish, and the _Leabhar Oiris_ gives an account of Irish history from 979 to 1027. Compilations relating to local history are the Book of Fenagh and the Book of Munster. Another ancient work also partly preserved in LL. is the Book of Invasions (_Leabhar Gabhala_). This deals with the five prehistoric invasions of Ireland (see IRELAND: _Early History_) and the legendary history of the Milesians. The most complete copy of the _Leabhar Gabhala_ which has been preserved was compiled by Michael O'Clery about 1630. The _Boroma_ or History of the Leinster Tribute contained in LL. belongs rather to romance. Another history is the _Triumphs of Turlough O'Brian_, written about the year 1459 by John MacCraith, a Munster historian (edited by S.H. O'Grady, Camb. Press). This inflated composition is an important source of information on Munster history from the landing of the Normans to the middle of the 14th century. We also possess several documents in Irish concerning the doings of the O'Neills and O'Donnells at the close of the 16th century. A life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, by Lughaidh O'Clery, has been published, and a contemporary history of the _Flight of the Earls_, by Tadhg O'Cianan, was being prepared in 1908. But the most celebrated Irish historian is certainly Geoffrey Keating (c. 1570-1646), who is at the same time the greatest master of Irish prose. Keating was a Munster priest educated in France, who drew down upon himself the displeasure of the English authorities and had to go into hiding. He travelled up and down Ireland examining all the ancient records, and compiled a history of Ireland down to the Norman Conquest. His work, entitled _Forus Feasa ar Eirinn_, was never published, but it circulated from end to end of Ireland in MS. Keating's history is anything but critical. Its value for the scholar lies in the fact that the author had access to many important sources of information now lost, and has preserved accounts of events independent of and differing from those contained in the Four Masters. In addition to the history and a number of poems, Keating is also the author of two theological works in Irish, the Defence of the Mass (_Eochairsgiath an Aifrinn_) and a collection of sermons entitled the Three Shafts of Death (_Tri biorghaoithe an Bhais_), which are models of Irish prose.

From the writers of historical narrative we turn to the annalists, the most important sources of information with regard to Irish history. We have already mentioned the _Synchronisms_ of Flann Mainistrech. Apart from this work the earliest collection of annals which has come down to us is the compilation by Tigernach O'Braein (d. 1088), abbot of Clonmacnoise. Tigernach, whose work is partly in Latin, partly in Irish, states that all Irish history previous to 305 B.C. is uncertain. No perfect copy is known of this work, but several fragments are in existence. The _Annals of Innisfallen_ (a monastery on an island in the Lower Lake of Killarney), which are also in Latin and Irish, were perhaps compiled about 1215, though they may have begun two centuries earlier. The invaluable _Annals of Ulster_ were compiled on Belle Isle on Upper Lough Erne by Cathal Maguire (d. 1498), and afterwards continued by two different writers down to 1604. This work, which deals with Irish affairs from A.D. 431, exists in several copies. The _Annals of Loch Ce_ (near Boyle in Roscommon) were copied in 1588 and deal with Irish events from 1014 to 1636. The _Annals of Connaught_ run from 1224 to 1562. The _Chronicon Scotorum_, one copy of which was transcribed about 1650 by the famous antiquary Duald MacFirbis, deals with Irish affairs down to 1135. The _Annals of Boyle_ extend down to 1253. The _Annals of Clonmacnoise_, which come down to 1408, only exist in an English translation made by Connell MacGeoghegan in 1627. The most important of all these collections is the _Annals of the Four Masters_ (so christened by Colgan), compiled in the Franciscan monastery of Donegal by Michael, Conary and Cucogry O'Clery and Ferfesa O'Mulconry. The O'Clerys were for a long period the hereditary ollams to the O'Donnells. Michael O'Clery (1575-1643), the greatest of the four, was a lay brother in the order of St Francis, and devoted his whole life to the history of Ireland. He collected all the historical MSS. he could find, and was encouraged in his undertaking by Fergal O'Gara, prince of Coolavin, who paid all expenses. The great work, which was begun in 1632 and finished in 1636, begins with the arrival in Ireland of Ceasair, granddaughter of Noah, and comes down to 1616. Nearly all the materials from which O'Clery drew his statements are now lost. O'Clery is also the author of a catalogue of the kings of Ireland, the genealogies of the Irish saints, and the Martyrology of Donegal and the Book of Invasions.

Of less interest, but every whit as important, are the lists of genealogies which occupy a great deal of space in LL., YBL. and BB., and two Trinity College, Dublin, MSS. (H. 3.18 and H. 2.4). But by far the most important collection of all is that made by the last great shanachie Duald MacFirbis, compiled between 1650 and 1666 in the college of St Nicholas at Galway. The only portions of any considerable length which have as yet been published deal with two Connaught tribes; viz. the Hy Fiachrach from Duald mac Firbis and the Hy Maine (O'Kellys), and a Munster tribe, the Corcalaidhe, both from YBL. Valuable information with regard to early Irish history is often contained in the prophecies or, as they are sometimes termed, _Baile_ (_raptures, visions_), a notable example of which is _Baile in Scail_ (Vision of the Phantom).

Religious literature.

When we turn from secular to religious themes we find that Ireland is also possessed of a very extensive Christian literature, which is extremely valuable for the comparative study of medieval literature. Apart from the martyrologies already mentioned in connexion with Oengus the Culdee, a number of lives of saints and other ecclesiastical literature have come down to us. One of the most important documents is the Tripartite Life of St Patrick, which cannot very well have been composed before the 10th or 11th century, as it is full of the extravagant miracles which occur in the later lives of saints. The work consists of three separate homilies, each complete in itself. A later version of the Tripartite Life was printed by Colgan in 1647. The _Leabhar Breac_ contains a quantity of religious tracts, most of which have been published. R. Atkinson issued a number of them under the title of _Passions and Homilies from Leabhar Breac_ (Dublin, 1887). These are not original Irish compilations, but translations from Latin lives of saints. Nor do they deal with the lives of any Irish saints. Stokes has published nine lives of Irish saints from the Book of Lismore, including Patrick, Brigit, Columba, Brendan, Findian (Clonard), Ciaran, Senan, Findchua and Mochua. They are written in the form of homilies preceded by short explanations of a text of scripture. These lives also occur in the _Leabhar Breac_. Other lives of saints have been published by O'Grady in _Silva Gadelica_. The longest life of St Columba was compiled in 1536 at the command of Manus O'Donnell. This tedious work is a specimen of hagiology at its worst. The _Leabhar Breac_ further contains a number of legends, such as those on the childhood of Christ, and scattered through many MSS. are short anecdotes of saints which are very instructive.

But the most interesting Irish religious text is the _Vision of Adamnan_ (preserved in LU.), which Stokes assigns to the 11th century. The soul of Adamnan is represented as leaving his body for a space to visit heaven and hell under the conduct of an angel. The whole treatment of the theme challenges comparison with Dante's great poem, but the Irish composition contains many ideas peculiar to the land of its origin. Later specimens of this kind of literature tend to develop into grotesque buffoonery. We may mention the _Vision of Fursae_, the _Vision of Tundale_ (Tnugdal), published by V. Friedel and K. Meyer (Paris, 1907), Laisren's _Vision of Hell_ and the _Vision of Merlino_. A further vision attributed to Adamnan contains a stern denunciation of the Irish of the 11th century. Another form of religious composition, which was very popular in medieval Ireland, was the prophecy in verse, but scarcely any specimens have as yet been published. Kuno Meyer edited a tract on the Psalter in his _Hibernica Minora_ from a 15th century Oxford MS., but he holds that the text goes back to 750. A number of collections of monastic rules both in prose and verse have been edited in _Eriu_, and the MSS. contain numerous prayers, litanies and religious poems.

In LU. are preserved two sermons, _Scela na esergi_ (Tidings of Resurrection) and _Scela lai bratha_ (Tidings of Doomsday); and a number of other homilies have been published, such as the "Two Sorrows of the Kingdom of Heaven," "The Penance of Adam," the "Ever-new Tongue," and one on "Mortals' Sins." All the homilies contained in LB. have been published by R. Atkinson in his _Legends and Homilies from Leabhar Breac_ (Dublin, 1887), and E. Hogan, _The Irish Nennius_ (Dublin, 1895). The popular "Debate of the Body and the Soul" appears in Ireland in the form of a homily. A collection of maxims and a short moral treatise have been published by K. Meyer.

For the religious literature in general the reader may refer to O'Curry, _Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_ (pp. 339-434), and G. Dottin, "Notes bibliographiques sur l'ancienne litterature chretienne de l'Irlande," in _Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuses_, v. 162-167. See also _Revue celtique_, xi. 391-404. ib. xv. 79-91.

Here we may perhaps mention an extraordinary production entitled _Aisling Meic Conglinne_, the Vision of Mac Conglinne, found in LB. and ascribed to the twelfth century (ed. K. Meyer, London, 1892). Cathal MacFinguine, king of Munster (d. 737), was possessed by a demon of gluttony and is cured by the recital of a strange vision by a vagrant scholar named MacConglinne. The composition seems to be intended as a satire on the monks, and in particular as a travesty of medieval hagiology. Another famous satire, entitled the Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution, holds up the professional bards and their extortionate methods to ridicule. This curious work contains the story of how the great epic, the _Tain bo Cualnge_, was recovered (see _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_, vol. v.).

Gnomic literature.

Collections of pithy sayings in the form of proverbs and maxims must have been made at a very early period. Not the least remarkable are the so-called Triads (publ. K. Meyer, Dublin, 1906), which illustrate every statement with 3 examples. Over 200 such triads were brought together in the 9th century. There are also two documents attributed to 1st-century personages, "The Testament of Morann MacMoin to his son Feradach," which is quoted as early as the 8th century, and "The Instructions of Cuchulinn to his foster-son Lugaid." K. Meyer has published _Tecosca Cormaic_ or the Precepts of Cormac MacAirt to his son Cairpre (Dublin, 1909). Other collections such as the _Senbriathra Fithail_ still await publication.

Classical stories.

With that enthusiasm for the classics which is characteristic of the Irish, it is not strange that we should find medieval versions of some of the better-known authors of antiquity. It is interesting to note that only those works are translated that could be utilized by the professional story-teller. So much so, that in the ancient (10th century) catalogue of sagas enumerated by Urard MacCoisi we find mention of _Togail Troi_ and _Scela Alexandir maic Pilip_. We get descriptions of battle weapons and clothing similar to those occurring in the native sagas. _Togail Troi_ is taken from the medieval prose version, _Historia de Excidio Troiae_ of Dares Phrygius. The oldest Irish copy is found in LL. This version is exceedingly valuable, as it enables us to determine the meaning of words and formulas in the sagas which are otherwise obscure. An Irish abstract of the _Odyssey_, following an unknown source, and part of the story of Theseus have been published by K. Meyer. _Scela Alexandir_ is preserved in LB. and BB. _Imthechta Aeniusa_, taken from the _Aeneid_, is contained in BB. A number of MSS. contain the _Cath Catharda_, a version of books vi. and vii. (?) of Lucan's _Pharsalia_, which has been published by Wh. Stokes. There is further at least one MS. containing a version of Statius's _Thebaid_ and of Heliodorus's _Aethiopica_. Somewhat later, the medieval literature of western Europe comes to be represented in translations. Thus we have Irish versions, amongst others of the _Gesta Romanorum_, the _Historia Brittonum_, the Wars of Charlemagne, the History of the Lombards, Sir John Maundeville's Travels (trans. by Fingin O'Mahony in 1475), the Book of Ser Marco Polo (abridged), Guy Earl of Warwick, Bevis of Southampton, the Quest of the Holy Grail, Octavian, the chronicle of Turpin, Barlaam and Josaphat, and the story of Fierabras. The Arthurian cycle is developed in independent fashion in the Adventures of the Eagle Boy and the Adventures of the Crop-eared Dog. For translation literature see M. Nettlau, _Revue celtique_, x. pp. 184, 460-461.

Philology.

Hand in hand with the interest of the medieval Irish scholars in the history of their island goes the cultivation of the native tongue. Owing to the profound changes produced by the working of the Irish laws of accent and initial mutation, it is doubtful if any other language lends itself so well to wild etymological speculation. By the beginning of the Middle Irish period a good part of the cumbrous Old Irish verb-system had become obsolete, and texts which were at all faithfully copied had to be plentifully supplied with glosses. Moreover, if, as is probable, all the historical and legal lore was in verse, a large part of it must have been unintelligible except to those who knew the _berla fene_. But even before this Cormac mac Cuillenain, the bishop-king of Cashel (d. 903), had compiled a glossary of archaic words which are accompanied by explanations, etymologies, and illustrative passages containing an amount of invaluable information concerning folk-lore and legendary history. This glossary has come down to us in various recensions all considerably later in date than the original work (the oldest copy is in LB.). Later collections of archaic words are O'Mulconry's Glossary (13th century), the Lecan Glossary (15th century), which draws principally from the glosses in the _Liber Hymnorum_, O'Davoren's Glossary (16th century), drawn principally from the Brehon Laws, a 16th century list of Latin and Irish names of plants employed in medicine, and O'Clery's Glossary (published at Louvain, 1643). BB. contains a curious tract on Ogamic writing. An Irish treatise on grammar, called _Uraicept na n-eces_, the Poet's Primer, traditionally ascribed to Cennfaelad and others, is contained in BB. and YBL. It appears to be a kind of medley of Donatus and the notions of the medieval Irish concerning the origin of their language. The St Gall glosses on Priscian contain Irish terms for all the nomenclature of the Latin grammarians, and show how extensive was the use made of Irish even in this department of learning.

Prosody.

Thurneysen had edited from BB., Laud 610 and a TCD. MS. three treatises on metric which give an account of the countless metres practised by the _filid_. It is impossible for us here to enter into the question of Irish prosody in any great detail. We have seen that there is some reason for believing that the primitive form of Irish verse was a kind of rhythmical alliterative prose as contained in the oldest versions of the sagas. The _filid_ early became acquainted with the metres of the Latin church hymns, whence rhyme was introduced into Ireland. (This is the view of Thurneysen and Windisch. Others like Zeuss have maintained that rhyme was an invention of the Irish.) In any case the _filid_ evolved an intricate system of rhymes for which it is difficult to find a parallel. The medieval metres are called by the general name of _Dan Direch_, "Direct Metre." Some of the more general principles were as follows. The verses are grouped in stanzas of four lines, each stanza being complete in itself. Each line must contain a fixed number of syllables, whilst the different metres vary as to the employment of internal and end rhyme, assonance and alliteration. The Irish elaborated a peculiar system of consonantal correspondence which counted as rhyme. The consonants were divided with a considerable degree of phonetic accuracy into six groups, so that a voiceless stop (c) rhymes with another voiceless stop (t, p), a voiced stop (b) with another voiced stop (d, g), and so forth. The commonest form of verse is the four-line stanza of seven syllables. Such a verse with rhymes _abab_ and monosyllabic or dissyllabic finals belongs to the class _rannaigecht_. A similar stanza with _aabb_ rhymes is the basis of the so-called _debide_ (cut in two) metres. A peculiarity of the latter is that the rhyming word ending the second line must contain at least one syllable more than the rhyming word which ends the first. Another frequently employed metre is the _rindard_, consisting of lines of six syllables with dissyllabic endings. In the metrical treatises examples are given of some 200 odd metres. The result of the complicated technique evolved in Ireland was an inclination to sacrifice sense to musical harmony. See K. Meyer, _A Primer of Irish Metrics_ (Dublin,1909).

Law.

We can conclude this survey of medieval Irish literature by mentioning briefly two departments of learning to which much attention was paid in Ireland. These are law and medicine. The so-called Brehon Laws (q.v.) are represented as having been codified and committed to writing in the time of St Patrick. There is doubtless some grain of truth in this statement, as a fillip may have been given to this codification by the publication of the Theodosian Code, which was speedily followed by the codes of the various Teutonic tribes. The Brehon Laws were no doubt originally transmitted from teacher to pupil in the form of verse, and traces of this are to be found in the texts which have been preserved. But the Laws as we have them do not go back to the 5th century. In our texts isolated phrases or portions of phrases are given with a commentary, and this commentary is further explained by some later commentators. Kuno Meyer has pointed out that in the commentary to one text, _Crith Gablach_, there are linguistic forms which must go back to the 8th century, and Arbois de Jubainville, who apart from Sir Henry Maine is the only scholar who has dealt with the subject, has attempted to prove from internal evidence that part of the oldest tract, the one on _Athgabail_ or Seizure, cannot, in its present form, be later than the close of the 6th century. Cormac's Glossary contains a number of quotations from the commentary to _Senchus Mor_, which would therefore seem to have been in existence about 900. The Irish Laws were transcribed by O'Donovan and O'Curry, and have been published with a faulty text and translation in five volumes by the government commissioners originally appointed in 1852. A number of other law tracts must have existed in early times, and several which have been preserved are still unedited. Kuno Meyer has published the _Cain Adamnain_ or Adamnan's Law from an Oxford MS. Adamnan succeeded in getting a law passed which forbade women to go into battle. An interesting but little-investigated text in prose and verse called _Leabhar na gCeart_ or Book of Rights was edited with an English translation by O'Donovan (1847). It deals with the rights to tribute of the high-king and the various provincial kings. The text of the Book of Rights is preserved in YBL. and BB. In its present form it shows distinct traces of the influence of the Viking invasions, and cannot go back much beyond the year 1000. At one time it was incorporated in a larger work now lost, the Psalter of Cashel. We also possess a 9th-century treatise on Sunday observance (_Cain Domnaig_).

Medicine.

The medical profession in Ireland was hereditary in a number of families, such as the O'Lees (from Irish _liaig_, "a leech"), the O'Hickeys (Irish _icide_, "the healer"), the O'Shiels, the O'Cassidys, and many others. These families each had their own special leech-books, some of which are still preserved. In addition to these there are many others. The medical literature which has come down to us is contained in MSS. ranging from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The Irish MSS. are translations from the Latin with the invariable commentary, and they further contain additions derived from experience. YBL. contains four of these tracts, and amongst others we may mention the Book of the O'Hickeys, a translation of the _Lilium Medicinae_ of Bernard Gordon (written 1303), the Book of the O'Lees (written in 1443), the Book of the O'Shiels, transcribed in 1657, and the Book of MacAnlega, transcribed in 1512. Of these texts only two have been published as yet from MSS. in Edinburgh. O'Curry drew up a MS. catalogue of the medical MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, and many more are described in O'Grady's catalogue of Irish MSS. in the British Museum. Some few MSS. deal with the subject of astronomy, but up to the present no description of the texts has been published.

Later Irish literature.

With the steady advance of the English power after 1600 it was only natural that the school of bardic poets should decline. But at the beginning of the 17th century for the last time they gave a great display of their resources. Tadhg MacDaire, the ollam of the earl of Thomond, composed a poem in elaborate verse exalting the line of Eber (represented by the reigning families of Munster) at the expense of the line of Eremon (represented by the reigning families of the other provinces). In a body of verse attributed to Torna Eces (c. 400), but obviously of more recent origin, the Eremonian, Niall Noigiallach, is lavishly praised, and Tadhg's attack takes the form of a refutation of Torna's pretensions. The challenge was immediately taken up by Lughaidh O'Clery. The recriminations of the two bards extend to nearly 3000 lines of verse, and naturally drew down the attention of the whole Irish world of letters. Soon all the hereditary poets were engaged in the conflict, which raged for many years, and the verses of both parties were collected into a volume of about 7000 lines in _debide_ metre, known as the _Contention of the Poets_. Amongst the prominent poets of the period may be mentioned Tadhg Dall O'Higinn (d. shortly before 1617) and Eochaidh O'Hussey, who between them have left behind nearly 7000 lines in the classical metres, Bonaventura O'Hussey and Ferfesa O'Cainti. The intricate classical measures gradually broke down. Dr Douglas Hyde gives it as his opinion that the exceedingly numerous metres known in Middle Irish had become restricted to a couple of dozen, and these nearly all heptasyllabic. Nevertheless they continued to be employed till into the 18th century. However, during the 17th century we find a new school arising with new principles and new methods. These consisted in (1) the adoption of vowel rhyme in place of consonantal rhyme, (2) the adoption of a certain number of accents in each line in place of a certain number of syllables. Thus, according to what we have just said, the accented syllables in a line with four accents in one line will fall on, say, the following vowels e, u, u, e, and the line rhyming with it will have the same sounds in the same or a different sequence. (For English imitations see Hyde, _A Literary History of Ireland_, pp. 548 ff.)

The consequences of the changed political conditions were of the greatest importance. The bards, having lost their patrons in the general upheaval, threw behind them the old classical metres and turned to the general public. At the same time they had to abandon the countless chevilles and other characteristics of the old bardic language, which were only understood by the privileged few. But to compensate for this much more freedom of expression and naturalness were possible for the first time in Irish verse. The new metres made their appearance in Ireland about 1600, and the learned Keating himself was one of the first to discard the ancient prosody. During the latter half of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century the body of verse produced in Ireland voices the sorrows and aspirations of the whole nation, and the literary activity in almost every county was correspondingly great. It is only during the last few years that the works of any of the poets of this period have been published. Pierce Ferriter was the last chieftain who held out against Cromwell's army, and he was hanged in 1653. His poems have been edited by P.S. Dinneen (Dublin, 1903). The bard of the Williamite wars was David O'Bruadar (d. 1697-1698). From this period date three powerful satires on the state of affairs in Munster, and in

## particular on the Cromwellian settlers. They are of a coarse and savage

nature, for which reason they have never been printed. Their titles are the Parliament of Clan Thomas, the Adventures of Clan Thomas, and the Adventures of Tadhg Dubh (by Egan O'Rahilly). A description of the parliament of Clan Thomas is given by Stern in the _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ v. pp. 541 ff.

A little later we come across a band of Jacobite poets. The gallant figure of Charles Edward was so popular with Irish bards that a conventional stereotyped form arose in which the poet represents himself as wandering in a wood and meeting a beautiful lady. We are treated to a full description of all her charms, and the poet compares her to all the fair heroines of antiquity. But she replies that she is none of these. She is Erin seeking refuge from the insults of foreign suitors and looking for her mate. The idea of such poems is a beautiful one, but they become tedious when one has read a dozen of them only to find that there are scores of others in exactly the same strain. Besides the Visions (_Aisling_), as they are termed, there are several noteworthy war-songs, whilst other poems are valuable as giving a picture of the state of the country at the time. We can do no more than mention the names of John O'Neaghtan (d. c. 1720; edition of his poems by A. O'Farrelly, Dublin, 1908), Egan O'Rahilly, who flourished between 1700 and 1726; Tadhg O'Naghten, Andrew MacCurtin (d. 1479), Hugh MacCurtin, author of a grammar and part editor of O'Begley's _Dictionary_; John Clarach MacDonnell (1691-1754), John O'Tuomy (d. 1775); Andrew Magrath, Tadhg Gaolach O'Sullivan (d. c. 1795), author of a well-known volume of religious poems, a valuable source of information for the Munster dialect; and Owen Roe O'Sullivan (d. 1784), the cleverest of the Jacobite poets (his verses and _bons mots_ are still well known in Munster). These poets hailed mostly from the south, and it is chiefly the works of the Munster poets that have been preserved. Ulster and Connaught also produced a number of writers, but very little beyond the mere names has been preserved except in the case of the Connaught poet Raftery (1784-1835), whose compositions have been rescued by Hyde (_Abhrain an Reachtuire_, Dublin, 1903). Torlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), "the last of the bards," was really a musician. Having become blind he was educated as a harper and won great fame. His poems, which were composed to suit his music, are mostly addressed to patrons or fair ladies. His celebrated "Ode to Whisky" is one of the finest bacchanalian songs in any language. Michael Comyn (b. c. 1688) is well known as the author of a version based upon older matter of "Ossian in the Land of Youth." This appears to be the only bit of deliberate creation in the later Ossianic literature. Comyn also wrote a prose story called "The Adventures of Torlogh, son of Starn, and the Adventures of his Three Sons." Brian MacGiolla Meidhre or Merriman (d. 1808) is the author of perhaps the cleverest sustained poem in the Irish language. His work, which is entitled the _Midnight Court_, contains about 1000 lines with four rhymes in each line. It describes a vision in which Aoibhill, queen of the Munster fairies, is holding a court. A handsome girl defends herself against an old man, and complains to the queen that in spite of all her charms she is in danger of dying unwed. Merriman's poem, which was written in 1781, has recently been edited with a German translation by L.C. Stern (_Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie_, v. 193-415). Donough MacConmara (Macnamara) (d. c. 1814) is best known as the author of a famous lyric "The Fair Hills of Holy Ireland," but he also wrote a mock epic describing his voyage to America and how the ship was chased by a French cruiser. He is carried off in a dream by the queen of the Munster fairies to Elysium, where, instead of Charon, he finds Conan, the Thersites among the Fenians, acting as ferryman (_Eachtra Ghiolla an Amarain, or The Adventures of a Luckless Fellow_, edited by T. Flannery, Dublin, 1901).

During the first half of the 19th century nothing new was produced of a high order, though the peasants retained their love for poetry and continued to copy the MSS. in their possession. Then came the famine and the consequent drain of population which gave Irish the death-blow as a living literary force. The modern movement has been dealt with above in the section on Irish language.

It remains for us to glance briefly at the later religious literature and the collections of folk-tales. The translation of the New Testament made by William O'Donnell and published in 1603 was first undertaken in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who sent over to Dublin the first fount of Irish type. Bishop Bedell, one of the very few Protestant clergymen who undertook to learn Irish, translated the remainder of the Scriptures with the help of a couple of natives, but the whole Bible was not translated and published until 1686. This version naturally never became popular, but it is a valuable source of information with regard to Modern Irish. It is perhaps of interest to note that the earliest specimen of printing in Irish is a ballad on Doomsday (Dublin, 1571). A version of the English Prayer Book was published in 1716.

The scholars of the various Irish colleges on the continent were

## particularly active in the production of manuals of devotion mainly

translated from Latin. We can mention only a few of the more important. _Sgathan an chrabhaidh_ (The Mirror of the Pious), published in 1626 by Florence Conry; _Sgathan sacramente na h-Aithrighe_ (Mirror of the Sacrament of Penance), by Hugh MacCathmhaoil, published at Louvain, 1618; _The Book of Christian Doctrine_, by Theobald Stapleton (Brussels, 1639); _Parrthas an Anma, or The Paradise of the Soul_, by Anthony Gernon (Louvain, 1645); a book on _Miracles_, by Richard MacGilla Cody (1667); _Lochran na gcreidmheach, or Lucerna Fidelium_, by Francis O'Mulloy (Louvain, 1676); O'Donlevy's _Catechism_ (1742). O'Gallagher, bishop of Raphoe, published a collection of sermons which went through twenty editions and are still known at the present day. He is one of the earliest writers in whom the characteristics of the speech of the north are noticeable. The only Catholic version of any considerable portion of the Scriptures up till quite recently was the translation of the Pentateuch by Archbishop MacHale, who also turned six books of the _Iliad_ into Irish. It is only within recent years that attention has been paid to the collection of folk-songs and tales in Irish, although as long ago as 1825 Crofton Croker published three volumes of folk-lore in the south of Ireland which attracted the attention of Sir Walter Scott. Nor do the classic stories of Carleton fall within our province. We may mention among others Patrick O'Leary's _Sgeuluidheacht Chuige Mumhan_ (Dublin, 1895); Hyde's _Beside the Fire_ (London, 1890) and _An Sgeuluidhe Gaedhealach_, reprinted from vol. x. of the _Annales de Bretagne_ (London, 1901); Daniel O'Fogharta's _Siamsa an Gheimhridh_ (Dublin, 1892); J. Lloyd's _Sgealaidhe Oirghiall_ (Dublin, 1905); and Larminie's _West Irish Folk-Tales_ (London, 1893). The most important collections of folk-songs are _Love-Songs of Connaught_ (Dublin, 1893) and _Religious Songs of Connaught_ (Dublin, 1906), both published by Hyde. The most extensive collection of proverbs is the one entitled _Seanfhocla Uladh_ by Henry Morris (Dublin, 1907). See also T. O'Donoghue, _Sean-fhocail na Mumhan_ (Dublin, 1902).

AUTHORITIES.--In the absence of a comprehensive history, the best manual is Eleanor Hull's _Text Book of Irish Literature_ (2 parts, London, 1904-1908; vol. 2 contains a bibliographical appendix). D. Hyde's larger _History of Irish Literature_ (London, 1899) is only trustworthy as regards the more _modern_ period. A full bibliography of all published material is contained in G. Dottin's article "La litterature gaelique de l'Irlande" (_Revue de synthese historique_, vol. iii. pp. 1 ff.). Dottin's article has been translated into English and supplemented by Joseph Dunn under the title of _The Gaelic Literature of Ireland_ (Washington, 1906, privately printed). The following are important works:--W. Stokes and J. Strachan, _Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus_ (2 vols., Cambridge, 1901-1903); J.H. Bernard and R. Atkinson, _Liber Hymnorum_ (London, 1895); E. O'Curry, _Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_ (Dublin, 1873) and _Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_ (3 vols., Dublin, 1873); P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (2 vols., London, 1903); E. O'Reilly, _Irish Writers_ (Dublin, 1820); S.H. O'Grady, _Catalogue of Irish MSS. in the British Museum_ (London, 1901); H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, _Introduction a l'etude de la litterature celtique_ (Paris, 1883), _Essai d'un catalogue de la litterature epique de l'Irlande_ (Paris, 1883), _L'Epopee celtique en Irlande_ (Paris, 1892), _La Civilisation des Celtes et celle de l'epopee homerique_ (Paris, 1899); E. Windisch, _Tain Bo Cualnge_, ed. with an introd. and German trans. (Leipzig, 1905); L. Winifred Faraday, _The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge_ (London, 1904); the Irish text according to LU. and YBL. has been published as a supplement to _Eriu_; Eleanor Hull, _The Cuchulinn-saga_ (London, 1899); W. Ridgeway, "The Date of the First Shaping of the Cuchulinn Cycle," _Proceedings of the British Academy_, vol. ii. (London, 1907); A. Nutt, _Cuchulin, the Irish Achilles_ (London, 1899); H. Zimmer, "Keltische Beitrage" in _Zeitschrift f. deutsches Altertum_, vols. 32, 33 and 35, and "Uber den compilatorischen Charakter der irischen Sagentexte in sogenannten Lebor na hUidre," Kuhn's _Zeitschr._ xxviii. pp. 417-689. We cannot here enumerate the numerous heroic texts which have been edited. For texts published before 1883 see d'Arbois's _Catalogue_, and the same writer gives a complete list in _Revue Celtique_, vol. xxiv. pp. 237 ff. The series of _Irische Texte_, vols. i.-iv. (Leipzig, 1880-1901), by E. Windisch (vols. ii.-iv. in conjunction with W. Stokes), contains a number of important texts. Others, more particularly those belonging to the Ossianic cycle, are to be found in S.H. O'Grady's _Silva Gadelica_ (2 vols. London, 1892). See also R. Thurneysen, _Sagen aus dem alten Irland_ (Berlin, 1901); P.W. Joyce, _Old Celtic Romances_ (London[2], 1901).

For the Ossianic cycle see H. Zimmer, "Keltische Beitrage III." in vol. 35 of the _Zeitschr. f. deutsches Altertum_, also _Gottinger Gelehrte Anzeigen_, 1887, pp. 153-199; A. Nutt, _Ossian and the Ossianic Literature_ (London, 1899); L.C. Stern, "Die ossianischen Heldenlieder," in _Zeitschr. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte_ for 1895, trans. by J.L. Robertson in _Transactions of the Inverness Gaelic Society_, vol. xxii.; J. MacNeill, _Duanaire Finn_ (London, 1908); _Book of the Dean of Lismore_, ed. by T. Maclauchlan (Edinburgh, 1862), and in vol. i. of A. Cameron's _Reliquiae Celticae_ (Edinburgh, 1892); _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_ (6 vols., Dublin, 1854-1861); Miss Brooke, _Reliques of Ancient Irish Poetry_ (Dublin, 1789).

Keating's _History_ was translated by John O'Mahony (New York, 1866). The first part was edited with Eng. trans. by W. Halliday (Dublin,1811) and the whole work in 3 vols. for the Irish Texts Society by D. Comyn and P. Dinneen (London, 1901-1908). Comparatively few specimens have been published of the older bards. Several from a Copenhagen MS. were printed by Stern in the _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ vol. ii.; J. Hardiman, _Irish Minstrelsy_ (2 vols., Dublin, 1831); J.C. Mangan, _The Poets and Poetry of Munster_ (Dublin^4, no date); G. Sigerson, _The Bards of the Gael and Gall_ (Dublin, 1906). Editions of the poems of Ferriter, Geoffrey O'Donoghue, O'Rahilly, John O'Tuomy, Andrew Magrath, John Claragh MacDonnell, Tadhg Gaolach and Owen Roe O'Sullivan by Dinneen, Gaelic League, Dublin, and Irish Texts Society, London, 1900-1903. (E. C. Q.)

II. SCOTTISH GAELIC LITERATURE.--It is not until after the Forty-five that we find any great manifestation of originality in the literature of the Scottish Highlands. The reasons for this are not far to seek. Just as the dialects of Low German in the middle ages were overshadowed by the more brilliant literary dialect of the south, so Scotch Gaelic was from the outset seriously handicapped by the great activity of the professional literary class in Ireland. We may say that down to the beginning of the 18th century the literary language of the Highlands was the Gaelic of Ireland. During the dark days of the penal laws and with the extinction of the men of letters and their patrons in Ireland, an opportunity was given to the native Scottish muse to develop her powers. Another potent factor also made itself felt. After Culloden the causes of the clan feuds and animosities of the past were removed. The Highlands, perhaps for the first time in history, formed a compact whole and settled down to peace and quietude. A remarkable outburst of literary activity ensued, and the latter half of the 18th century is the period which Scottish writers love to call the golden age of Gaelic poetry. But before we attempt to deal with this period in detail, we must examine the scanty literary products of Gaelic Scotland prior to the 18th century.

"Book of Deer."

The earliest document containing Gaelic matter which Scotland can claim is the _Book of Deer_, now preserved in the Cambridge University Library. This MS. contains portions of the Gospels in Latin written in an Irish hand with illuminations of the well-known Irish type. At the end there occurs a colophon in Irish which is certainly as old as the 9th century. Inserted in the margins and blank spaces are later notes and memoranda partly in Latin, partly in Gaelic. The Gaelic entries were probably made between 1000 and 1150. They relate to grants of land and other privileges made from time to time to the monastery of Deer (Aberdeenshire). The most interesting portion deals with the legend of Deer and its traditional foundation by St Columba. The language of these entries shows a striking departure from the traditional orthography employed in contemporary Irish documents. The Advocates' Library in Edinburgh contains a number of MSS. probably written in Scotland between 1400 and 1600, but with one exception the language is Irish.

"Book of the Dean of Lismore."

The solitary exception just mentioned is the famous codex known as the _Book of the Dean of Lismore_. The pieces contained in this volume are written in the crabbed current Roman hand of the period, and the orthography is phonetic, both of which facts render the deciphering of this valuable MS. a task of supreme difficulty. The contents of this quarto volume of 311 pages are almost entirely verse compositions collected and written down by Sir James Macgregor, dean of Lismore in Argyllshire, and his brother Duncan, between the years 1512 and 1526. A disproportionate amount of space is allotted to the compositions of well-known Irish bards such as Donnchadh Mor O'Daly (d. 1244), Muiredhach Albanach (c. 1224), Tadhg Og O'Higgin (d. 1448), Diarmaid O'Hiffernan, Torna O'Mulconry (d. 1468). But native bards are also represented. We can mention Allan Mac Rorie, Gillie Calum Mac an Ollav, John of Knoydart, who celebrates the murder of the young lord of the isles by his Irish harper in 1490, Finlay MacNab, and Duncan Macgregor, the transcriber of the greater part of the volume. The poems of the last-mentioned writer are in praise of the Macgregors. A few other poems are by Scottish authors such as Campbell, Knight of Glenorchy (d. 1513), the earl of Argyll and Countess Isabella. A number consist of satires on women. These Scottish writers are still under the influence of Irish metric, and regularly employ the four-lined stanza. They do not appear to adhere to the stricter Irish measures, but delight rather in the freer forms going by the name of _oglachas_. The Irish rules for alliteration and rhyme are not rigidly observed.

The linguistic peculiarities of the Dean's Book await investigation, but among the pieces which represent the Scottish vernacular of the day are the _Ossianic Ballads_. These, twenty-eight in number, extend to upwards of 2500 lines, and form by far the most important part of the collection. Thus the Dean's Book was compiled a full hundred years before the earliest similar collection of heroic ballads was made in Ireland. In Scotland the term Ossianic is used loosely of both the Ulster and the Fenian cycles, and it may be as well to state that three of the pieces in the volume deal with Fraoch, Conlaoch and the Bloody Rout of Conall Cearnach. It is interesting to note that nine of the poems are directly attributed to Ossian, two to Ferghus File, one to Caoilte Mac Ronan, and one to Conall Cearnach, whilst others are ascribed to Allan MacRorie, Gillie Calum Mac an Ollav and Caoch O'Cluain, who are otherwise unknown. The Dean's Book was first transcribed by Ewen MacLachlan in 1813. Thomas MacLauchlan published the text of the Ossianic ballads with modern Gaelic and English renderings in 1862. In the same volume W.F. Skene gave a useful description of the MS. and its contents. Alexander Cameron revised the text of the portion printed by MacLauchlan, and his amended text is printed in his _Reliquiae Celticae_, vol. i. (See also L.C. Stern, _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ i. 294-326.)

"Book of Fernaig."

Between the Book of the Dean and the Forty-five we find another great gap, which is only bridged over by a collection which presents many points of resemblance to Macgregor's compilation. The _Book of Fernaig_, which is also written in a kind of phonetic script, was compiled by Duncan Macrae of Inverinate between 1688 and 1693. The MS. contains about 4200 lines of verse of different dates and by different authors. The contents of the collection are mainly political and religious, with a few poems which are termed didactic. As in the Dean's Book love-songs and drinking-songs are conspicuously absent, whilst the religious poetry forms about one-half of the contents. In state politics the authors are Jacobite, and in church politics Episcopalian. The Ossianic literature is represented by 36 lines. There are a number of poems by 16th-century writers, among whom is Bishop Carsewell. Mackinnon has pointed out that the language of the _Book of Fernaig_ corresponds exactly to the dialect spoken in Kintail at the present day. The text of the _Book of Fernaig_ is printed in its entirety in vol. ii. of Cameron's _Reliquiae Celticae_, and many of the poems are to be found in standard orthography in G. Henderson's _Leabhar nan Gleann_. The metres employed in the poems show the influence of the English system of versification. (See Stern, _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ ii. pp. 566 ff.)

"Red and Black Books of Clanranald."

Two other Highland MSS. remain to be noticed. These are the _Red_ and _Black Books of Clanranald_, which are largely taken up with the histories of the families of Macdonald and with the achievements of Montrose, written in the ordinary Irish of the period by the Macvurichs, hereditary bards to the Clanranald chiefs. The _Red Book_ was obtained by Macpherson in 1760 from Neil Macvurich, nephew of the last great bard, and it figured largely in the Ossianic controversy. In addition to poems in Irish by Neil Macvurich, who died at a great age some time after 1715, and other bardic matter, the MSS. now contain only three Ossianic poems, and these are in Irish. During the Ossianic controversy the _Red Book of Clanranald_ was supposed to contain the originals of much of Macpherson's famous work; but, on the book coming into the hands of the enthusiastic Gaels of the closing years of the 18th century, and on its contents being examined and found wanting, the MS. was tampered with.

Mary Macleod.

Mackenzie's _Beauties of Gaelic Poetry_ contains poems written by a number of writers who flourished towards the end of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th. These are Mary Macleod, John Macdonald (Iain Lom), Archibald Macdonald, Dorothy Brown, Cicely Macdonald, Iain Dubh Iain 'Ic. Ailein (b. c. 1665), the Aosdan Matheson (one of his poems was rendered in English by Sir Walter Scott under the title of "Farewell to Mackenzie, High Chief of Kintail"), Hector Maclean (also known through a translation by Scott called "War-song of Lachlan, High Chief of Maclean"), Lachlan Mackinnon, Roderick Morrison (an Clarsair Dall), and John Mackay of Gairloch, but we can here only notice the first two. The famous Mary Macleod, better known as Mairi Nighean Alastair Ruaidh (c. 1588-1693), was family bard to Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, and later to John "Breac" Macleod of Macleod, in honour of whom most of her poems were composed. Like very many of the Highland poets Mary had little or no education, and it would seem that none of the poems which have come down to us were composed before 1660. Her pieces are composed in the modern Irish metres with the characteristic vowel rhymes of the accented syllables. As might perhaps be expected it was only the Macvurichs (the professional bards of the Clanranald) who went on practising the classical _debide_ metre. This they still continued to do during the first quarter of the 18th century. Mary Macleod's best-known pieces comprise a dirge on the drowning of Iain Garbh (Mac'Ille Chalum) in the Minch, a song "An Talla 'm bu ghnath le MacLeoid," and an ode to Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, produced during her exile in Mull, which begins "'S mi'm shuidhe air an tulaich." For the details of her career, which are the subject of some dispute, the reader may be referred to a paper by Alexander Mackenzie in the _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, vol. xxii. pp. 43-66. Mary Macleod is accounted one of the most musical and original of the Highland bards.

"Iain Lom."

John Macdonald, better known as Iain Lom (d. c. 1710), was a vigorous political poet whose verses exercised an extraordinary influence during his lifetime. He is said to have received a yearly pension from Charles II. for his services to the Stuart cause. His best-known poems are _Mort na Ceapach_, on the murder of the heir of Keppoch, who was eventually avenged through the poet's efforts, and a piece on the battle of Inverlochay (1645). However great the inspiration of Mary Macleod and Iain Lorn, they were after all but political or family bards. In succession to them there arose a small band of men with loftier thoughts, a wider outlook and greater art. The literature of the Scottish Highlands culminates in the names of Alexander Macdonald, Duncan Ban MacIntyre and Dugald Buchanan.

Alexander Macdonald.

Alexander Macdonald, commonly called Alasdair MacMaighstir Alasdair (b. c. 1700), was the son of an Episcopalian clergyman in Moidart. He was sent to Glasgow University to fit himself for a professional career. But an imprudent marriage caused him to abandon his studies, and about 1729 he received an appointment as a Presbyterian teacher in his native district. He was moved from place to place, and from 1739 to 1745 he taught at Corryvullin on the Sound of Mull, the scene of some of his most beautiful lyrics. About 1740 he was invited to compile a Gaelic vocabulary, which was published in 1741. Macdonald has thus the double distinction of being the author of the first book printed in Scotch Gaelic and of being the father of Highland lexicography. The news of the landing of the Pretender brought visions of release to the poverty-stricken poet, who was by this time heartily sick of teaching and farming. He turned Roman Catholic, and was present at the unfurling of the Stuart standard. He was given the rank of captain, but rendered greater services to the Jacobite cause with his stirring poems than with the sword. After Culloden he suffered great privations. But in 1751 he visited Edinburgh and brought out a collection of his poetry, which has the honour of being the first original work printed in Scotch Gaelic. His volume was therefore entitled _Ais-eiridh na Seann Chanain Albannaich_ (Resurrection of the Ancient Scottish Tongue). Till the day of his death he led a more or less wandering life, as he was dependent on the generosity of Clanranald. Only a small part of Macdonald's compositions have been preserved (thirty-one in all). These naturally fall into three groups--love-songs, descriptive poems and patriotic and Jacobite poems. In his love-songs and descriptive poems Macdonald struck an entirely new note in Gaelic literature. His _Moladh Moraig_ and _Cuachag an Fhasaich_ (also called _A'Bhanarach Dhonn_) are his best-known compositions in the amatory style. But he is distinctly at his best in the descriptive poems. We have already seen that even as early as the 8th century the poets of Ireland gave expression to that intimate love of nature which is perhaps the most striking feature in Celtic verse. Macdonald had a wonderful command of his native Gaelic. His verse is always musical, and his skilful use of epithet, often very lavishly strewn, enables him to express with marvellous effect the various aspects of nature in her gentler and sterner moods alike. His masterpiece, the _Birlinn of Clanranald_, which is at the same time, apart from Ossianic ballads, the longest poem in the language, describes a voyage from South Uist to Carrickfergus. Here Macdonald excels in describing the movement of the ship and the fury of the storm. In _Allt an t-Siucair_ (The Sugar Brook) we are given an exquisite picture of a beautiful scene in the country on a summer morning. Other similar poems full of melody and colour are _Failte na Mor-thir_ (Hail to the Mainland), _Oran an t-Samhraidh_ (Ode to Summer), and _Oran an Gheamhraidh_ (Ode to Winter). When this gifted son of the muses identified himself with the Stuart cause he poured forth a stream of inspiring songs which have earned for him the title of the Tyrtaeus of the Rebellion. Among these we may mention _Oran nam Fineachan Gaelach_ (The Song of the Clans), _Brosnachadh nam Fineachan gaidhealach_ (A Call to the Highland Clans), and various songs to the prince. But incomparably the finest of all is _Oran Luaighe no Fucaidh_ (Waulking Song). Here the prince is addressed as a young girl with flowing locks of yellow hair on her shoulders, and called Morag. She had gone away over the seas, and the poet invokes her to return with a party of maidens (i.e. soldiers) to dress the red cloth, in other words, to beat the English red-coats. The song contains forty-seven stanzas in all, with the characteristic refrain of the waulking-songs. _Am Breacan Uallach_ is a spirited poem in praise of the kilt and plaid, which had been forbidden by the English government. Macdonald is also the author of a number of poems in MS. which have been called the quintessence of indecency. His works have gone through eight editions, the last of which is dated 1892.

In connexion with Macdonald's Jacobite songs it will be well to mention here the name of a kindred spirit, John Roy Stuart (Iain Ruadh Stiubhart). Stuart was a gallant soldier who was serving in Flanders with the French against the English when the rebellion broke out. He hurried home and distinguished himself on the field of battle. After Culloden he gave vent to his dejection in two pathetic songs, one on the battle itself, while the other deals with the sad lot of the Gael.

Duncan Ban.

The only poet of nature who can claim to rival Macdonald is a man of a totally different stamp. Duncan Ban Maclntyre (Donnachadh Ban, 1724-1812) was born of poor parents in Glenorchy, and never learned to read and write or to speak English. He was present on the English side at the battle of Falkirk, on which he wrote a famous ode, and shortly afterwards he was appointed gamekeeper to the earl of Breadalbane in Coire Cheathaich and Ben Dorain, where he lived for many years until he accepted a similar appointment from the duke of Argyll in Buachaill-Eite. Stewart of Luss is credited with having taken down the 6000 lines of verse of his own composition which MacIntyre had carried about with him for many years, and his works were published in 1768. In his later years he was first a volunteer and afterwards a member of the city guard in Edinburgh. In addition to his poems descriptive of nature MacIntyre composed a number of Jacobite martial songs, songs of love and sentiment, and comic and satiric pieces. The poem _Mairi bhan og_ addressed to his wife is, on account of its grace and delicate sentiment, generally held to be the finest love-song in the language. But it is above all as the poet of ben and corrie that MacIntyre is remembered. He has been called the Burns of the Highlands, but the bitterness and intellectual power of the Ayrshire poet are absent in MacIntyre. Duncan Ban describes fondly and tenderly the glories of his native mountains as only one can who spends his life in daily communion with them. His two great compositions are styled _Ben Dorain_ and _Coire Cheathaich_. The former is a long poem of 550 lines divided into eight parts, alternating with a sort of strophe and antistrophe, one slow called _urlar_ in stately trochees, the other swift called _siubhal_ in a kind of galloping anapaests; the whole ending with the _crunluath_ or final quick motion. It is said to follow very accurately the lilt of a pipe-tune. The poem, which might be called the "Song of the Deer," has been well done into English by J. S. Blackie. _Coire Cheathaich_ (The Misty Corrie), a much shorter poem than Ben Dorain, gives a loving description of all the prominent features in the landscape--the flowers, the bushes, the stones, the hillocks with the birds and game, and the whirling eddies with the glistening salmon. MacIntyre's works went through three editions in his lifetime, and a twelfth was issued in 1901.

Rob Donn.

John MacCodrum.

From Duncan Ban we pass on to consider the compositions of two men who hailed from the outlying parts of Gaeldom. Robert Mackay, or, as he is generally called, Rob Donn (1714-1778), was a native of Strathmore, Sutherlandshire, who, like Duncan Ban, never learned to read or write. His life, which was uneventful, was spent almost entirely within the confines of the county of his birth. He left behind a large number of poems which may be roughly classified as elegiac, love and satiric poems. His elegies are of the typical Highland kind. The singer is overwhelmed with sadness and despairing in his loss. His best-known composition in this style is "The Death-Song of Hugh." Having just heard of the death of Pelham, the prime minister, Mackay finds a poor friend of his dying alone amid squalor in the heart of the mountains. In a poem composed on the spot the poet contrasts the positions of the two men and reflects on the vanity of human existence. Among his love-poems the "Shieling Song" is deservedly famous. But it was above all as a satirist that Mackay excelled during his lifetime. Indeed he seems to have had the sharpest tongue of all the Highland bards. We have already seen what powers were attributed to satirical poets in Ireland in medieval times, and though bodily disfigurements were no longer feared in the 18th century, nothing was more dreaded, both in Ireland and Scotland, than the lash of the bard. Hence many of Rob Donn's compositions have lost their point, and opinions have been greatly divided as to his merits as a poet. His collected poems were first published in 1829, a second edition appeared in 1871, and in 1899 two new editions were issued simultaneously, the one by Hew Morrison, the other by Adam Gunn and Malcolm Macfarlane. Another satirical poet who enjoyed a tremendous reputation in his own day was John MacCodrum, a native of North Uist and a contemporary of the men just mentioned. It is related of MacCodrum that the tailors of the Long Island refused to make any clothes for him in consequence of a satire he had directed against them. He was encountered in a ragged state by the Macdonald, who on learning the cause of his sorry condition promoted him to the dignity of bard to his family. Consequently a number of his compositions are addressed to his patrons, but one delightful poem entitled _Smeorach Chlann-Domhnuill_ (The Mavis of Clan Donald) describes in verses full of melody the beauties of his beloved island home.

Dugald Buchanan.

In the lyrical outburst which followed the Forty-five it was only to be expected that religious poetry should be represented. We have seen that much of the space in the Dean's Book and in the _Book of Fernaig_ is allotted to verse of a pious order, though apart from the works of such Irish singers as Donnchadh O'Daly the poems do not reach a very high pitch of excellence. The first religious poem to be printed in Scotch Gaelic was a long hymn by David Mackellar, published in 1752. But incomparably the greatest writer of hymns and sacred poems is Dugald Buchanan (1716-1768). Buchanan was born in Strathyre in Perthshire and was the son of a miller. He received a desultory kind of education and tried his hand at various trades. In 1753 he was appointed schoolmaster at Drumcastle near Kinloch Rannoch. He was selected to assist Stewart of Killin in preparing the first Highland version of the New Testament for the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge (published 1767), and at the same time he issued an edition of his own poems. Of all Gaelic books this has been far and away the most popular, having gone through no less than forty editions. Buchanan seems to have been very susceptible to religious influences, and the stern Puritan doctrines of retribution and eternal damnation preached around him so worked on his mind that from his ninth to his twenty-sixth year he was a prey to that mental anguish so eloquently described by Bunyan. The awful visions which presented themselves to his vivid imagination find expression in his poems, the most notable of which are "The Majesty of God," "The Dream," "The Sufferings of Christ," "The Day of Judgment," "The Hero," "The Skull," "Winter" and "Prayer." In the "Day of Judgment," a poem of about 120 stanzas, we are given in sublime verses a vivid delineation of the crack of doom as the archangel sounds the last trumpet. The poet then goes on to depict the awful scenes consequent upon the wreck of the elements, and pictures the gathering together of the whole human race before the Throne. But Buchanan's masterpiece is admittedly "The Skull." Traces of the influence of English writers have been observed in all the poet's writings, and it seems certain that the subject of his greatest poem was suggested by Shakespeare. The poet seated by a grave espies a skull. He takes it up and muses on its history. This poem in 44 stanzas concludes with a picture of the torments of hell and the glories of heaven.

Macpherson's "Ossian."

The writers whom we have been discussing are practically unknown save to those who are able to read them in the original. Now we have to turn our attention to a man whose works have never been popular in the Highlands, but who nevertheless plays a prominent part in the history of European literature. Though the precise origin of the Fenian cycle may remain a moot-point to all time, the development of the literature centring in the names of Finn and Ossian is at any rate clear from the 11th century onwards. The interest taken in Celtic studies since the middle of the 19th century in Ireland and Scotland and elsewhere has accumulated a body of evidence which has settled for all time the celebrated dispute as to the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian. James Macpherson (1736-1796), a native of Kingussie, showed a turn for versification whilst yet a student at college. Whilst acting as tutor at Moffat he was asked by John Home as to the existence of ancient Gaelic literature in the Highlands. After some pressing Macpherson undertook to translate some of the more striking poems, and submitted to Home a rendering of "The Death of Oscar." Blair, Ferguson and Robertson, the foremost men in the Edinburgh literary circles of the day, were enthusiastic about the unearthing of such unsuspected treasures, and at their instance Macpherson published anonymously in 1760 his _Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland and translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language_. This publication contained in all fifteen translations, preceded by a preface from the pen of Blair. Published under such auspices, Macpherson's venture was bound to succeed. In the preface it was stated that among other ancient poems an epic of considerable length existed in Gaelic, and that if sufficient encouragement were forthcoming the author of the versions would undertake to recover and translate the same. A subscription was raised at once, and Macpherson set out on a journey of exploration in the Highlands and islands. As the result of this tour, on which he was accompanied by two or three competent Gaelic scholars, Macpherson published in London in 1762 a large quarto containing his epic styled _Fingal_ with fifteen other smaller poems. In the following year a still larger epic appeared with the title of _Temora_. It was in eight books, and contained a number of notes in addition to _Cath-Loda_ and other pieces, along with the seventh book of _Temora_ in Gaelic as a specimen of the original. Ten years later a new edition of the whole was issued. The authenticity of Macpherson's translations was soon impugned by Dr Johnson, Hume and Malcolm Laing, and the author was urged by his friends to publish the originals. Macpherson prevaricated, even though the Highlanders of India sent him a cheque for L1000 to enable him to vindicate the antiquity of their native literature. Macpherson at different times, and particularly towards the end of his life, seems to have had some intention of publishing the Gaelic of his Ossian, but he was naturally deterred by the feeling that his knowledge of Gaelic was becoming shakier with his continued absence from the Highlands. At any rate he left behind a quantity of Gaelic matter in MS. which was ultimately published by the Highland Society of London in 1807. This MS., however, was revised and transcribed by Ross and afterwards destroyed, so that we are ignorant of its nature. The Highland Society also instituted an inquiry into the whole question, but their conclusions were somewhat negative. They succeeded in establishing that the characters introduced by Macpherson were familiar in the Highlands and that Ossianic ballads really existed, which Macpherson had utilized. Macpherson's claims still found ardent advocates, such as Clark, in the 'seventies, but the question was finally disposed of in papers by Alexander Macbain (1885) and L.C. Stern (1895). We can here only summarize briefly the main lines of argument. (1) Macpherson's Ossian is full of reminiscences of Homer, Milton and the Hebrew prophets. (2) He confuses the Ulster and the Fenian heroic cycles in unpardonable fashion. (3) The Gaelic text of 1807 only represents one-half of the English versions (11 poems out of 22 poems). Some Gaelic fragments from different pens appeared prior to 1807, but these differ considerably from the "official" version. (4) In the Gaelic text of 1807 the version of the passage from _Temora_ is quite different from that published in 1763. (5) Macpherson's Gaelic is full of offences against idiom and unnaturally strained language. (6) The names Morven and Selma are entirely of his own invention (see also MACPHERSON, JAMES). As a result of the stir caused by Macpherson's work a number of men set about collecting the genuine popular literature of the Highlands. A few years before the appearance of _Fingal_, Jeremy Stone, a schoolmaster at Dunkeld, had collected ten Ossianic ballads and published one of them in an English versified translation. For this collection see a paper by D. Mackinnon in the _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, vol. xiv. pp. 314 ff. Unfortunately other persons were led to follow Macpherson's example. The chief of these imitators were (1) John Clark, who in 1778 published, along with several others, an English poem _Mordubh_, later translated into Gaelic by Gillies; (2) R. Macdonald, son of Alexander Macdonald, who is the author of _The Wish of the Aged Bard_; (3) John Smith of Campbeltown (d. 1807), author of fourteen Ossianic poems styled _Seandana_, published in English in 1780 and in Gaelic in 1787; (4) D. MacCallum of Arisaig, who in 1821 published _Collath_ and a complete _Mordubh_ "by an ancient bard Fonar."

Later poets.

We have now reviewed in turn the greatest writers of the Scottish Highlands. The men we have dealt with created a kind of tradition which others have attempted to carry on. Ewen Maclachlan (1775-1822), the first transcriber of the Dean's Book, was assistant librarian of King's College and rector of the grammar school of Aberdeen. Amongst other things he translated the greater part of seven books of Homer's _Iliad_ into Gaelic heroic verse, and he also had a large share in the compilation of the Gaelic-English part of the Highland Society's _Dictionary_. A number of Gaelic poems were published by him in 1816. These consist of poems of nature, e.g. _Dain nan Aimsirean, Dan mu chonaltradh, Smeorach Chloinn-Lachuinn_, and of a well-known love-song, the _Ealaidh Ghaoil_. William Ross (1762-1790), a schoolmaster at Gairloch, is the typical Highland poet of the tender passion, and he is commonly represented as having gone to an early grave in consequence of unrequited affection. His finest compositions are _Feasgar Luain_ and _Moladh na h-oighe Gaelich_. Another exquisite song _Cuachag nan Craobh_, is usually attributed to this poet, but it seems to go back to the beginning of the 18th century. A fifth edition of Ross's poems appeared in 1902. The most popular writer of sacred poems after Buchanan is undoubtedly Peter Grant, a Baptist minister in Strathspey, whose _Dain Spioradail_ (first published in 1809) reached a twentieth edition in 1904, Sweetness, grace and simplicity are the characteristics which have endeared him to the heart of the Gael. Two other well-known hymn-writers spent their lives in Nova Scotia--James Macgregor (1759-1830) and John Maclean, a native of Tiree. The compositions of the latter have been published under the title _Clarsach na Coille_ (Glasgow, 1881). But John Morrison (1790-1852), the poet-blacksmith of Rodel, Harris, is the most worthy of the name of successor to Buchanan. His works have been carefully edited in two volumes by George Henderson (2nd edition, 1896). His poems are remarkably musical and imaginative. Two of the most characteristic are _An Iondruinn_ and _Tha duin' og agus seann duin' agam_. William Livingston or MacDhunleibhe (1808-1870) was a native of Islay. He received scarcely any education, and was apprenticed as a tailor, but he early made his way to the mainland. He was ever a fierce Anglophobe, and did his best to make up for the deficiencies of his early training. He published in English a _Vindication of the Celtic Character_, and attempted to issue a _History of Scotland_ in parts. His poems, which have been at least twice published (1858, 1882), are equally powerful in the expression of ruthless fierceness and tearful sorrow. In _Fios thun a' Bhaird_ he sings pathetically of the passing of the older order in Islay, and another powerful poem entitled _Duan Geall_ deals with the campaign of the Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell in the Crimea. Livingston's contemporary, Evan Maccoll (1808-1898), the son of a small farmer on Lochfyneside, in his early years devoured eagerly all the English literature and Gaelic lore that came in his way. In 1836 he issued a volume of songs called the _Mountain Minstrel_, containing his productions in Gaelic and English. Two years later two volumes appeared, one entirely in Gaelic, styled _Clarsach nam Beann_, the other in English under the old title. A third edition of the Gaelic collection was published in 1886. Maccoll acted for many years as clerk in the custom-house at Liverpool, and afterwards he filled a similar post at Kingston, Canada. He has been called the Moore of Highland song. His spirit is altogether modern, and his poems are much nearer the Lowland type than those of the older bards. Among his best-known pieces are _Bas Mairi_ and _Duanag Ghaoil_. We can do no more than mention the names of John Maclachlan of Rahoy (1804-1874), James Munro (1794-1870), well known as a grammarian, Dugald Macphail (b. 1818), Mrs Mary Macpherson, Angus Macdonald (1804-1874), Mrs Mary Mackellar (1834-1890) and Neil Macleod (b. 1843), author of a popular collection _Clarsach an Doire_ (1st ed., 1883; 3rd ed., 1904). Neil Macleod is also the writer of the popular song _An Gleann's an robh mi og_. Others whom we cannot mention here are known as the authors of one or more songs which have become popular. It is natural to compare the state of affairs at the beginning of the 20th century with that obtaining in 1800. In the dawn of the 19th century every district in the Highlands had its native poet, whilst a century later not a single Gaelic bard of known reputation existed anywhere within its borders. It is only too evident that the new writers prefer English to Gaelic as a medium of literature, partly because they know it better, but also because in it they appeal to a far wider public.

Prose writers.

It will have been observed that we have said nothing about prose works written in Gaelic. Original Gaelic prose is conspicuous by its absence. The first printed work is the translation of Knox's _Liturgy_ by Bishop Carsewell, published in 1567 (reprinted in 1873). Calvin's Catechism is said to have been issued in 1631. The Psalms and Shorter Catechism appeared in 1659, while two other psalters saw the light before the end of the century, one by Kirke (1684), the other issued by the Synod of Argyll (1694). The language of all these publications may, however, be termed Irish. Apart from reprints of the catechism and psalter, the only other Gaelic matter which appeared in print before 1750 were Kirke's Irish version of the Bible in Roman type with a vocabulary (1690), and the _Vocabulary_ by Alexander Macdonald (1741). But from the middle of the 18th century translations of the works of English religious writers streamed from the various presses. Alleine, Baxter, Boston, Bunyan, Doddridge and Jonathan Edwards were all prime favourites, and their works have gone through many editions. Apart from a well-meant but wholly inadequate version of Schiller's _Tell_, the only non-religious work which can be termed literature existing in a Gaelic translation is a portion of the _Arabian Nights_, though fragments of other classics such as Lamb's _Tales from Shakespeare_ have appeared in magazines. The one-sided character of Gaelic literature, in addition to exercising a baneful influence on Highland character, has in the long run of necessity proved adverse to the vitality of the language. The best standard of Gaelic is by common consent the language of the Scriptures. James Stewart of Killin's version of the New Testament, published by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, was followed by a translation of the Old Testament in four parts (1783-1801), the work of John Stewart of Luss and John Smith of Campbeltown. The whole Gaelic Bible saw the light in 1807. But the revision of 1826 is regarded as standard. The translators and revisers had no norm to follow, and it is difficult to say how far they were influenced by Irish tradition. Much in the Gaelic version seems to savour of Irish idiom, and it is a pity that some competent scholar such as Henderson has not investigated the question. Of original prose works we can mention two. The one is a _History of the Forty-five (Eachdraidh a' Phrionnsa, no Bliadhna Thearlaich_), published in 1845 by John Mackenzie, the compiler of the _Beauties of Gaelic Poetry_ (1806-1848). A second edition of this book appeared in 1906. The other is the more famous _Caraid nan Gaedheal_, by Norman Macleod (new edition, 1899). This volume consists mainly of a number of dialogues dealing with various departments of Highland life, which were originally contributed to various magazines from 1829 to 1848. Macleod's style is racy and elegant, and his work is deservedly popular.

In conclusion we must take notice of the more important collections of folklore. Gaelic, like Irish, is extraordinarily rich in proverbs. The first collection of Gaelic proverbs was published in 1785 by Donald Macintosh. This work was supplemented and enlarged in 1881 by Alexander Nicolson, whose book contains no fewer than 3900 short sayings. A large collection of Gaelic folk-tales was gleaned and published by J.F. Campbell under the title of _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_ (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1862). Alexander Carmichael published a version of the _Tain Bo Calnge_, called _Toirioc na Taine_, which he collected in South Uist (_Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, ii. 25-42), also the story of Deirdre and the sons of Uisneach in prose taken down in Barra (ib. xiii. 241-257). Five volumes of popular stories, collected by J.G. Campbell, D. MacInnes, J. Macdougall and Lord Archibald Campbell, have been published (1889-1895) by Nutt under the title _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_. These collections contain a good deal of matter pertaining to the old heroic cycles. Seven ballads dealing with the Ulster cycle were collected and printed by Hector Maclean under the title _Ultonian Hero-ballads_ (Glasgow, 1892). Macpherson gave a fillip to collectors of Ossianic lore, and a number of MSS. going back to his time are deposited in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. J.F. Campbell spent twelve years searching for variants, and his results were published in his _Leabhar na Feinne_ (1872). This volume contains 54,000 lines of heroic verse. The Edinburgh MSS. were transcribed by Alexander Cameron, and published after his death by Alexander Macbain and John Kennedy in his _Reliquiae Celticae_. This work is therefore a complete corpus of Gaelic heroic verse. Finally the charms and incantations of the Highlands have been collected and published by Alexander Carmichael in two sumptuous volumes under the title _Carmina Gadelica_ (1900).

AUTHORITIES.--The standard work is Magnus Maclean, _The Literature of the Highlands_ (London, 1904); see also various chapters in the same writer's _Literature of the Celts_ (London, 1902); L.C. Stern, _Die Kultur der Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1, pp. 98-109; Nigel MacNeill, _The Literature of the Highlanders_ (Inverness, 1892); J.S. Blackie, _The Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands_ (Edinburgh, 1876); P.T. Pattison, _Gaelic Bards_ (1890); L. Macbean, _Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands_ (Edinburgh, 1888); John Mackenzie, _Sarobair nam Bard Gaelach_, or _The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry_ (new ed., Edinburgh, 1904); A. Sinclair, _An t-Oranaiche_ (Glasgow, 1879); _The Book of Deer_, edited for the Spalding Club by Dr Stuart (1869); Alexander Macbain, _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, vols. xi. and xii.; _The Book of the Dean of Lismore_, edited by T. Maclauchlan (1862); Alexander Cameron, _Reliquiae Celticae_ (Inverness, 1892-1894); John Reid, _Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica_ (Glasgow, 1832); _Catalogue_ of the books in the Celtic department, Aberdeen University Library (1897); George Henderson, _Leabhar nan Gleann_ (Inverness, 1898); D. Mackinnon, "The Fernaig MS." in _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, xi. 311-339; J.S. Smart, _James Macpherson, An Episode in Literature_ (London, 1905); L.C. Stern, "Die Ossianischen Heldenlieder" in _Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte_ (1895), translated by J.L. Robertson in _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, xxv. 257-325; G. Dottin, _Revue de synthese historique_, viii. 79-91; M.C. Macleod, _Modern Gaelic Bards_ (Stirling, 1908). (E. C. Q.)

III. MANX LITERATURE.--The literary remains written in the Manx language are much slighter than those of any other Celtic dialect. With one small exception nothing pertaining to the saga literature of Ireland has been preserved. The little we possess naturally falls under two heads--original compositions and translations. With regard to the first category we must give the place of honour to an Ossianic poem contained in a MS. in the British Museum (written in 1789), which relates how Orree, Finn's enemy, was tormented by the women of Finn's household when the latter was away hunting, how he in revenge set fire to the house, and how Finn had him torn in pieces by wild horses. Most of the existing literature of native origin, however, consists of ballads and carols, locally called carvels. These used to be sung on Christmas eve in the churches, the members of the congregation each bringing a candle. Any one who pleased could get up and sing one. These carvels deal largely with the end of the world, the judgment-day and the horrors of hell. About eighty of them were published under the title of _Carvalyn Gailckagh_ (Douglas, 1891). An attempt is being made by _Yn Cheshaght Gailckagh_ to revive the _Oiel Voirrey_ (=Irish _Oidhche Fheile Mhuire_), "the feast of Mary," as the festival used to be called, and gatherings in the old style have been held in Peel for the last two or three years. Apart from the carvels there are other ballads in existence, the most important of which were printed in vol. xvi. of the _Publications of the Manx Society_. The earliest is an 18th-century song of Manannan Mac y Lheir, traditionally supposed to have been written in the 16th century, and which tells of the conversion of the island by St Patrick. Then comes _Baase Ittiam Dhone_ (The Death of Brown William), dealing with the death of William Christian, who was shot as a traitor in 1662. The best-known Manx song is _Mylecharaine_ (=Irish _Maolchiaran_). It is directed against a man of this name who was the first to give a dowry to his daughter, the custom having previously been for the bridegroom to pay money to the father of the bride. Others are _Ny Kirree fo Sniaghtey_ (The Sheep under the Snow), a song about the loss of the Douglas herring fleet in 1787 (reprinted at Douglas, 1872), and _O Vannin Veg Veen_ (Dear little Mona). A further ballad was taken down by J. Strachan and is published in the _Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie_, i. 79. In 1760 Joseph Bridson wrote a "Short Account of the Isle of Man" in Manx (_Coontey Ghiare jeh Ellan Vannin ayns Gailck_), which was reprinted in vol. xx. of the _Publications of the Manx Society_. The translated literature is almost entirely of a religious character. Jenner prints a list of twenty-three volumes in his article referred to below, but we can only here mention the most important. The first is the translation of the English Prayer-Book by Bishop Phillips, 1610 (published by A.W. Moore, Oxford, 1895). The _Sermons_ of Bishop Wilson in 3 vols. (1783) are a very rare work, highly important for our knowledge of Manx prose, and it is to be hoped that _Yn Cheshaght Gailckagh_ will see their way to reprint it. A translation of parts of Milton's _Paradise Lost_ (_Pargys Caillit_) by Thomas Christian, 1796, is reprinted in vol. xx. of the _Publications of the Manx Society_. The later translation of the Church of England Prayer-Book was printed in 1765 and again in 1777 and 1840. But by far the most important of all is the translation of the Bible. The energetic Bishop Wilson managed to get parts of the Scriptures translated and the Gospel of St Matthew was printed in 1748. Wilson's successor, Bishop Hildesley, completed the work, and in 1775 the whole Bible appeared. The last reprint of the Bible appeared in 1819, that of the New Testament in 1810 (?). As a curiosity it may be mentioned that recently _Aesop's Fables_ have been translated into the vernacular (Douglas, 1901).

AUTHORITIES.--H. Jenner, "The Manx Language: its Grammar, Literature and Present State," _Transactions of the London Philological Society_ (1875), pp. 172 ff.; _Publications of the Manx Society_, vols. xvi., xx., xxi.; L.C. Stern, _Die Kultur d. Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1, pp. 110-11.

Early MSS.

IV. WELSH LITERATURE.--The oldest documents consist of glosses of the 9th and 10th centuries found in four MSS.--Oxoniensis prior and posterior, the Cambridge Juvencus and Martianus Capella. These glosses were published by J. Loth in his _Vocabulaire vieux-breton_ (1884), but their value is entirely philological. In addition, we possess two short verses, written in Irish characters, preserved in the Juvencus Manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge (printed in Skene's _Four Ancient Books of Wales_). This manuscript is a versification of the Gospels dating from the 9th century. The value of these two verses is threefold: they give us, in the first place, a specimen of the Welsh language at a time when the modern laws of euphony were in a comparatively elementary stage; secondly, they are of the utmost importance to the historian tracing the development of Welsh versification, and, in future research, they must be taken into account by the historian of modern metres in other languages; and, thirdly, the similarity of their form and diction to other verses, attributed to Llywarch Hen, and preserved in a much later orthography, will be a serious consideration to the higher critic in Welsh literature.

"Black Book of Carmarthen."

"Book of Aneirin."

"Book of Taliessin."

"Red Book of Hergest."

All the prose and verse of the succeeding centuries, that is to say from the 10th to the beginning of the 14th, is preserved in four important manuscripts, written during the latter half of the period. The first of these manuscripts is the _Black Book of Carmarthen_, a small quarto vellum manuscript of fifty leaves, written in Gothic letters by various hands during the reign of Henry II. (published in facsimile by Gwenogvryn Evans, Oxford, 1907). This book belonged originally to the priory of Black Canons at Carmarthen, from whom it passed to the church of St David; at the suppression of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. it was presented by the treasurer of that church to Sir John Price, one of the king's commissioners, and from him it passed eventually into the hands of Sir Robert Vaughan, the owner of the famous Hengwrt collection. It is now among the Peniarth Manuscripts, undoubtedly the most valuable collection of Welsh manuscripts in the United Kingdom. The second manuscript is the _Book of Aneirin_, a small quarto manuscript of nineteen leaves of vellum, written about 1250. It was at one time in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillips of Middlehill, and now belongs to the free library of the city of Cardiff. The third is the _Book of Taliessin_, in the Hengwrt and subsequently in the Peniarth collection. It is a small quarto manuscript containing thirty-eight leaves, written in Gothic letters, about the early part of the 14th century. The fourth manuscript, and in some respects the most important, is the _Red Book of Hergest_, so called from Hergest Court, one of the seats of the Vaughans. It is a folio volume of 360 leaves written by different hands between the beginning of the 14th and the middle of the 15th century. This manuscript, which is the most extensive compilation of the medieval prose and verse of Wales, is now in the possession of Jesus College, Oxford, and is kept in the Bodleian Library of that university. The main body of the poems contained in these four MSS. was printed by W. F. Skene with a tentative English version in his _Four Ancient Books of Wales_.

The other Welsh manuscripts, ranging down from the 15th to the 18th century, are far too numerous to notice, and it is outside the scope of this article to deal minutely with the original sources of the text of Welsh writings.

We will now only endeavour to sketch the history of Welsh literature from these early centuries down to our own times, and to show how the Celtic people of Wales have developed a literature true to their own genius, and how that literature stands to this day both a minister to the culture of the Welsh people and a sure indication of it.

Gildas

1. _Early Latin Writers._--The works now known as those of Gildas (q.v.) and Nennius (q.v.) are written in Latin; they throw considerable light on the origin of Welsh romantic literature and on the history of the earlier poems. Gildas was born at Ailclyd, the modern Dumbarton, that part of Britain which is called by Welsh writers _Y Gogledd_, or the North. Several dates have been assigned for his birth and death, but he probably flourished between 500 and 580, and his book, _De Excidio Britanniae_ seems to have been written about 560. This work is a sketch of British history under the Romans and in the period after their withdrawal from the country, and includes the period of the wars of the Britons with the Picts, Scots and Saxons. Mr Skene suggests very reasonably that the well-known letter of the Britons to Aetius, asking for Roman aid, is misplaced, and that if put in its own place some of the anachronisms of Gildas will disappear. This work, which contains some spirited attacks on the leaders of the Britons for their sins, is strangely full of contradictions. It seems to be the work of some person well versed in the facts of that part of British history, to which he had an easy access, but who supplemented them with traditional details and with dates which were mere guess-work. Mr Skene thinks that the work of Nennius was originally written in Welsh in the north and was afterwards translated into Latin. To this nucleus was added the genealogies of the Saxon kings down to 738. Afterwards some person, called Marc in the Vatican manuscript, appended probably about 823 the life of St Germanus and the legends of St Patrick, which were subsequently incorporated with the history. Some South Welshman added to the oldest manuscript of the history in these countries, about 977, a chronicle of events from 444 to 954, in which there are genealogies beginning with Owain, son of Hywel Dda, king of South Wales. This chronicle, which is not found in other manuscripts, has been made the basis of two later chronicles brought down to 1286 and 1288 respectively. It is consequently not the work of one author. A learned Irishman named Gilla Coemgin, who died in 1072, translated it into Irish and added many things concerning the Irish and the Picts. The _Historia Britonum_ is more valuable for the legendary matter which it contains than for what may be accepted as history, for it gives us the British legends of the colonization of Great Britain and Ireland, the exploits of King Arthur and the prophecies of Merlin, which are not found elsewhere before the 12th century. The date of the book is of the greatest importance to the history of medieval romance, and there can be no doubt that it is earlier than the Norman Conquest and that the legends themselves are of British origin.

2. _The Epic Period, 700-950._--The higher criticism of the early poetry of Wales contained in the four ancient manuscripts already mentioned has undergone a good many changes since their contents first excited the curiosity of English scholars. In turn Welshmen, with more zeal than discretion, have displayed an amazing charlatanism in the extraordinary theories which they put forth, and Englishmen have shown an utmost meanness in belittling what is undoubtedly a most valuable monument of the past. But now the labours of Zeuss and others who have made a study of Celtic philology furnish us with much safer canons of criticism than existed in 1849, when even a learned Welshman, the late Thomas Stephens, who did more than any one else to establish the claims of his country to a real literature, doubted the authenticity of a large number of the poems said to have been written by Taliessin, Aneirin, Myrddin and Llywarch Hen, who are supposed to have lived in the 5th century. A great service was done to Welsh literature by the publication of the texts of those poems from the four ancient manuscripts by W.F. Skene. In addition to the text, translations of the poems were furnished by Dr Silvan Evans and the Rev. Robert Williams, but the translation, though on the whole a very creditable work, is full of mistakes which few men, writing at that time, could have avoided. The publication of the text of the Black Book, with notes by Dr Gwenogvryn Evans, will be of great service towards clearing up the mist which envelops this older literature.

Most of the poems in these four manuscripts are attributed to four poets, Aneirin, Llywarch Hen, Taliessin and Myrddin, who are said to have lived and written in Cumbria or Y Gogledd, where the actors in the events referred to also lived. The greater part of this region enjoyed substantial independence down to the end of the 9th century, with the exception of the interval from 655, when they were subjected to the kingdom of Northumbria by Oswy after the defeat of Cadwallawn and Penda, to the battle of Dunnichen in 686, when Ecfrid, king of Northumbria, was defeated. From the 7th to the 9th century Cumbria, including under that name all the British territory from the Ribble to the Clyde, was the principal theatre of British and Saxon conflict. The rise of the dynasty of Maelgwn Gwynedd, who, according to Welsh tradition, was a descendant of Cunedda Wledig, one of the Picts of the north, brought Wales into close connexion with the Cumbrian kingdom, and prepared both North and South Wales for the reception of the northern traditions and the rise of a true Welsh literature.

Whether the poets of the north really wrote any of the poems which in a modified form have come down to us or not, there can be no doubt that a number of lays attributed to them lived in popular tradition, and that under the sudden burst of glory which the deeds of Cadwallawn called forth and which ended in the disastrous defeat of 655, a British literature began to spring up, and was nourished by the hopes of a future resurrection under his son Cadwaladr, whose death was disbelieved in for such a long time. These floating lays and traditions gradually gathered into North Wales, brought thither by the nobility and the bards who fled before advancing hosts of the victorious Saxon kings of the north. The heroes of the north became now the heroes of Wales, and the sites of the battles they fought were identified with places of similar name in Wales and England.

Aneurin

By far the longest and the most famous poem of this series is attributed to Aneurin. This spelling of his name is comparatively modern, and in the old manuscripts it is given as Aneirin. The later form seems to have been affected by the form _eurin_, "golden," and to owe the continuation of the misspelling to a belief that the poet and Gildas, whose name is supposed to be the Latin form of the Old English _gylden_, were one and the same person. This poem, called the _Gododin_ (with notes by T. Stephens and published by Prof. Powel for the Cymmrodorion Society, London, 1888), is extremely obscure, both on account of its vocabulary and its topography and allusions. It deals mainly with "the men who went to Cattraeth," which is supposed to have been fought between the Britons and the Scots under Aedan, king of Dalriada, and the pagan Saxons and their British subjects in _Devyr_ (Deira) and _Bryneich_ (Bernicia), and the half-pagan Picts of Guotodin, a district corresponding to the northern half of the Lothians along the Firth of Forth. Critics have attempted with partial success to cast some light on its obscurity by supposing that the poem as a whole is made up of two parts dealing with two distinct battles. This may or may not be, but there is no doubt that many of the stanzas of the poem as found in the manuscript are not in their proper places, and a critical readjustment of the different stanzas and lines would do much towards solving its problem. It seems probable, too, that the original nucleus of the poem was handed down orally, and recited or sung by the bards and minstrels at the courts of different noblemen. It thus became the common stock-in-trade of the Welsh rhapsodist, and in time the bards, using it as a kind of framework, added to it here and there pieces of their own composition formed on the original model, especially when the heroes named happened to be the traditional forefathers of their patrons, and occasionally introduced the names of new heroes and new places as it suited their purpose; and all this seems to have been done in early times. Older fragments dealing too with the legendary heroes of the Welsh were afterwards incorporated with the poem, and some of these fragments undoubtedly preserve the orthographical and grammatical forms of the 9th century. So that, on the whole, it seems as fruitless to look for a definite record of historical events in this poem as it would be to do so in the Homeric poems, but like them, though it cannot any longer be regarded as a correct and definite account of a particular battle or war, it still stands to this day the epic of the warriors of its own nation. It matters not whether these heroes fought at far Cattraeth or on some other forgotten field of disaster; this song still reflects, as a true national epic, the sad defeats and the brave but desperate rallies of the early Welsh. Like the music of the Welsh, its dominant note is that of sadness, expressing the exultation of battle and the very joy of life in minor notes. To a great extent Welsh poets are to this day true and faithful disciples of this early master.

Taliessin.

Many of the poems attributed to Taliessin are undoubtedly late. Indeed, both Taliessin and Myrddin,[2] the one as the mythological chief of all Welsh bards and the other as a great magician, seem pre-eminently suited to attract a great deal of later Welsh poetry under their aegis; but the older poems attributed to them are worthy of any literature. Sometimes, as in the verses attributed to Llywarch Hen beginning _Stafell Cynddylan_, an early specimen of poetic grief over departed glory, we find that gentle elegiac note which is so common in early English poetry. In the Taliessinic poems, the _Battle of Argoed Llwyvain_ and others, we have that boldness of portraiture which is found in the _Gododin_, whilst in many a noble line we seem to hear again the ravens screaming shrilly over their sword-feasts, and the strong strokes of the advancing warriors.

Merlin.

It was but natural that all the pseudo-prophetic poems, written of course after the events which they foretold, should be attributed to the chief among seers, Myrddin, or, as his name is written in English, Merlin; so that all the poems accredited to him, with the exception perhaps of the _Avallenau_, were not written before the 12th century.

In most of the poems attributed to Llywarch Hen and in some of the Myrddin poems, the verses begin with the same line, which, though it has no direct reference to the subject of the poem itself, is used as a refrain or catch-word, exactly like the refrains employed by Mr Swinburne and others in their ballads. These lines generally refer to some natural object or objects, as, for instance, "the snow of the mountain" or "bright are the tops of the broom."

The first period, then, of Welsh literature lies between 700 and 950. It is in most respects the epic period, the period in which poets wrote of great men and their deeds, the legendary and the historic heroes of the Cymry, men like Urien Rheged, and heroes like Hyveidd Hir. Even in the next period the epic note had not quite died out.

The Gododin series.

3. _The Prose Romances and the Poet Princes, 1100-1290._--It will be seen that there is a considerable gap between the first and second period of Welsh literature. It must not be supposed, however, that nothing was composed or written during these years. Indeed, it may well be that some of the poetry attributed to the minor bards of the last period was composed between 900 and 1100, and that some other poetry too was written and lost. But there are abundant reasons for believing that Welsh poetry was at a very low ebb during those years. The progress of Wales as a political unit had suffered a check after the battle of Chester in 613. The effects of this defeat were not immediate, as the Welsh had still enough of their characteristic hopefulness to expect ultimate victory; we therefore have reasons for believing that the Gododin series of poems were still used--or perhaps used then for the first time--to spur on "the hawks of war" to greater efforts. Gradually, however, the Angles, hemming them in on all sides from the Clyde to the Severn, began to press nearer and nearer; the Welsh at last seem to have lost heart, and no one any longer "had the desire of song." Content with their old epics and their older myths, which owe perhaps to these years a darker and more sombre tinge, they allowed their song to be hushed. The great lords had hardly chosen their final abodes; the smaller lords had all been killed in war and their places taken now by one, now by another, so that the warrior prince himself had not the leisure, and hardly the inspiration necessary, for song, and the bards found but scanty patronage among such a diminished and poverty-stricken nobility. The only order that seemed to prosper was that of the monks, and we owe them our gratitude for preserving the ancient writings and the ancient traditions; but they were simply copyists, though they had undoubtedly some hand in giving the _Gododin_ its final form and in setting in its convenient framework the names of the forefathers of their aristocratic abbots.

In the year 1044 Gruffydd ab Llewelyn conquered Hywel ab Edwin and became king of Wales. By means of his diplomacy and his arms he succeeded in stemming the tide of Saxon invasion that was threatening to overflow even the little remnant of land that was left to the Welsh, and his strong rule gave the Welsh muse another opportunity. Gruffydd, however, died in 1063, and was eventually succeeded in 1073 by Trahaern in North Wales, and Rhys ab Owen in South Wales. The rule of these two princes was destined to be the last period of literary inertness in the long interval following the confinement of Wales to her inaccessible highlands.

During these years a man was hiding in Ireland, called Gruffydd ab Cynan, a scion of the old branch of Welsh kings. In Brittany, too, Rhys ab Tewdwr, a claimant to the throne of South Wales, had sought the protection of his Breton kinsmen. In 1073 Rhys ab Tewdwr obtained the throne of Rhys ab Owen, and, after many years of hard fighting, Gruffydd ab Cynan, with the help of Rhys ab Tewdwr, defeated Trahaern at the battle of Myrydd Carn in 1081. On the accession of these two powerful princes the whole country broke forth into songs of praise and jubilation, and the long night was at an end.

It is important to remember that both Gruffydd and Rhys had a direct personal influence on the literary revival of their times. Gruffydd ab Cynan while in exile had seen how the Irish _Oenach_ was held, and had seen prizes given for poetry and song. We have it on the authority of Welsh writers that he reorganized the bards and improved the music, and in many other ways gave a great and beneficial impulse to Welsh literature. He may have brought over some of the later Irish legends which have had such a powerful effect on the literature of Wales.

Geoffrey of Montmouth.

Rhys ab Tewdwr, too, brought with him from Brittany an enthusiasm for the old Celtic tales, and perhaps some of the tales themselves which had been by that time forgotten in Wales, tales of the Round Table, and Arthur "begirt with British and Armoric knights," of knightly deeds and magical metamorphoses, which were destined to influence profoundly all the literatures of the West. We find, therefore, in this period that poetry flourished mostly in the North under Gruffydd ab Cynan, and prose in the south under Rhys ab Tewdwr, where the new enthusiasm for the old Welsh legends resulted in the _History of Britain_ of Geoffrey of Monmouth, which is an expansion of the books attributed to Gildas and Nennius. It was written in Latin sometime before 1147, and is dedicated to Robert, earl of Gloucester, the grandson of Rhys ab Tewdwr. In the introductory epistle, Geoffrey states that Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, had given him a very ancient book in the British tongue, giving an account of the kings of Britain from Brutus to Cadwaladr, and that he had translated it into Latin at the archdeacon's request. The book, however, is a compilation and not a translation, but the materials were probably drawn from British sources. In this history Geoffrey asserts that the deeds of Arthur "were commonly related in a pleasing manner." He was perhaps originally but the hero of some popular ballad, or of a forgotten stanza of the _Gododin_, and the importance of his name in the literature of the world seems to be due to an accident. We cannot, however, in this article consider the Arthurian Legend (q.v.) as a whole; we must be content with dealing with the most important of the romantic tales which are contained in the _Red Book of Hergest_. They may be divided into four classes:--

(i.) The _Mabinogi_ proper, containing (1) _Pwyll_, prince of Dyvet; (2) _Branwen_, daughter of Llyr; (3) _Manawyddan_, son of _Llyr_; (4) _Math_, son of Mathonwy.

(ii.) Old British tales referring to Roman times, viz. (1) _Lludd_ and _Llevelys_; (2) The Dream of _Macsen Wledic_.

(iii.) British Arthurian tales, viz. (1) _Kilhwch_ and _Olwen_; (2) The Dream of _Rhonabwy_.

(iv.) Later tales of chivalry, viz. (1) The Lady of the Fountain; (2) _Peredur_, son of _Evrawc_; (3) _Geraint_, son of _Erbin_.

The Mabinogion.

The group of four romances in the first class forms a cycle of legends and is called in the manuscript _Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi_--the Four Branches of the Mabinogi; so it is only these four tales that can, strictly speaking, be called _Mabinogion_. In these stories we have the relics of the ancient Irish mythology of the _Tuatha De Danann_, sometimes mixed with later myths. The _Caer Sidi_, where neither disease nor old age affects any one, is the _Sid_ of Irish mythology, the residence of the gods of the _Aes Side_. It is called in one of the old poems the prison of _Gweir_, who no doubt represents _Gaiar_, son of Manandan MacLir, the Atropos who cut the thread of life of Irish mythology. _Llyr_ is the Irish sea-god Lir, and was called _Llyr Llediaith_, or the half-tongued, implying that he spoke a language only

## partially intelligible to the people of the country. _Bran_, the son of

Llyr, is the Irish Bran MacAllait, Allait being one of the names of Lir. _Manawyddan_ is clearly the Manandan or Manannan MacLir of Irish mythology. These tales contain other characters which may not have been borrowed from Irish mythology but which are common to both mythologies; for example, Rhiannon, the wife of Pwyll who possessed marvellous birds which held warriors spell-bound for eighty years by their singing, comes from _Annwn_, or the unseen world, and her son Pryderi gives her, on the death of Pwyll, as a wife to Manawyddan.

Of the second class the first story relates to Lludd, son of Beli the Great, son of Manogan, who became king after his father's death, while his brother Llevelys becomes king of France and shows his brother how to get rid of the three plagues which devastated Britain:--first, a strange race, the Coranians, whose knowledge was so great that they heard everything no matter how low soever it might be spoken; second, a shriek which came into every house on May eve, caused by the fighting of two dragons; and third, a great giant who carried off all the provisions of the king's palace every day. The second tale relates how Maxen, emperor of Rome, has a dream while hunting, in which he imagines that he visits Britain, and in _Caer Seint_ or Carnarvon sees a beautiful damsel, Helen, whom he ultimately finds and marries. Both tales are British in origin and are founded on traditions referring to Roman times.

The most important of these tales are undoubtedly those contained in the first class, and the story of _Kilhwch_ and _Olwen_. The form in which they are found in the _Red Book of Hergest_ is, as we have already said, comparatively speaking, modern. But it is apparent to any one reading these tales that the writers or compilers, as Matthew Arnold has suggested, are "pillaging an antiquity, the secret of which they do not fully possess." The foundations of the tales are the old Celtic traditions of the gods and the older heroes, and they clearly show Goidelic influence both in the persons they introduce and in their incidents. The tales would at first exist only in oral tradition, and after the advent of Christianity the characters they contain lost their title of divinity and became simply heroes--warriors and magicians. In time the monks began to write these ancient traditions, embellishing them and suppressing no doubt what they considered to be most objectionable. These then are the tales which we now possess--the traditional doings of the old heroes as set in order by Christian writers.

The changes which these later copyists wrought in the substance of the tales fall into two main divisions. In the first place, they attempted to find some connexion between tales or cycles of tales which originally had no connexion whatever, and were therefore forced to invent new incidents or to introduce other incidents from the outside in order to establish this connexion; and secondly, as in the case of the _Gododin_, the tales were twisted and altered to support references to and explanations of names known to the writer. So we find in the tale of _Math vab Mathonwy_ the incident of the pigs is expanded to explain some place-names which the writer knew. It is this also that gives a local interest to the tales; for instance, _Dyvet_, the land of _Pwyll_, has come to be regarded as the home of _Hud a Lledrith_, of magic and enchantment. Some places in North Wales, especially in the vicinity of Carnarvon, seem to be well known to the writers, and, therefore, to have associated with them to all time the glamour of the Mabinogion.

Besides the scholastic efforts of the monks, which in course of time so greatly changed these old legends, there was another class of men who had no little influence on the form and matter of Welsh, and consequently of European, romance. These were the Welsh jongleurs--the professional story-tellers, against whom the bards proper nursed a deadly hatred because, presumably, their tales drew larger audiences and won greater rewards than the _awdlau_ of the poets. There is little doubt that this order existed in Wales at a very early period, being quite a natural evolution of the older poet who sang in comparatively free metres of the deeds of the great dead. It is these men who invented the term _Mabinogi_, which is supposed to mean a "tale for young people"; but whatever the word may mean, the fact that they were the stock-in-trade of the professional story-teller will explain a good many of their structural peculiarities.

Thus there existed two distinct classes of tales, though it is to be supposed that the subject matter of both was more or less common; there are, in the first place, the "four branches" and the tales of the second class, and, secondly, tales like those of the third class. With the exception of the Irish influence, which we have already referred to, and some later additions from early continental romance in the third class, we may take it that these three classes are of purely British origin. The _pedair cainc_ are the old tales which were first committed to writing at an early period before the influence of the Armoric Arthur began to be felt, that is to say, about the beginning of the reign of Rhys ab Tewdwr in 1073. The other tales, that is those we have put in the third class, remained for a much longer time unwritten and were not set in writing before the early Arthur of Armoric and British romance had been evolved. This will account for the fact that Arthur is not mentioned in the first class of tales, and that in the third class he is simply a British Arthur. The third class is, therefore, in a sense later than the first and second, but its materials are as old as the oldest of the Mabinogion proper, and they show the influence of Irish mythology to the same extent. In the first class Irish names like _Penardim_, which have not been assimilated, show conclusively that the tale is a written one, while the eloquence of the descriptions in _Kilhwch ac Olwen_ seem to point to the fact that it was up to a late period a _spoken_ tale. Other such tales there were once, but they have now been lost.

The romances of the fourth class do not claim much notice. They are mostly imitations or translations of Norman French originals, and they belong to the history of European chivalry rather than to the history of Welsh literature.

As literature the Mabinogion may rank among the world's classics. We cannot here point out their beauties, but it will be sufficient to notice that the unknown writer who gave them their final form was a true artist in every sense of the word. In _Branwen verch Lyr_, for instance, the whole setting of the story is that of a great tragedy, a tragedy neither Hellenic nor Shakespearean, but the strong and ruthless tragedy of the Celts,--the tragedy of nature among unnatural surroundings, the tragedy which in our times Mr Thomas Hardy has so successfully developed. In this tale, Branwen is introduced as the sister of Manawyddan, the king of all Britain, and as the "fairest maid in the world." But as the tragedy deepens we read how this woman, dowered with beauty and goodness and nobility of lineage, is simply used as a pawn in a political game, and the full force of the tragedy falls on her own undeserving head. She is subjected to all kinds of indignities in her husband's court in Ireland, but throughout all her severe trials she preserves the cold and detached haughtiness which characterizes the full-bosomed heroines of the northern sagas; and, in the end, when her brother has delivered her and punished the Irish, and when she has safely reached the shores of her own Mon, she raises her eyes and beholds the two islands, Britain and Ireland. "'Ah God!' said she, 'is it well that two islands have been made desolate for my sake?' And she gave a deep groan and died." So was her tragedy consummated, and the writer, with a superb tragic touch, mentions the very shape of the grave in which they left her on the bank of the Alaw in Mon.

One of the earliest poets of this period whose productions we can be certain of is Meilir, bard of Trahaern, whom Gruffydd ab Cynan defeated at the battle of Carn, and afterwards of the conqueror Gruffydd himself. His best piece is the _Death-bed of the Bard_, a semi-religious poem which is distinguished by the structure of the verse, poetic feeling and religious thought. Meilir was the head of a family of bards; his son was Gwalchmai, one of the best Welsh poets; the latter had two sons, Einion and Meilir, some of whose poetry has reached us. In _Gorhoffedd Gwalchmai_, Gwalchmai's Delight, there is an appreciation of the charms of nature, medieval parallels to which are only to be found in Ireland. His _Arwyrain i Owain_ is an ode of considerable beauty and full of vigour in praise of Owain Gwynedd, king of North Wales, on account of his victory of Tal y Moelvre, part of which has been translated by Gray under the name of "The Triumphs of Owen." Kynddelw, who lived in the second half of the 12th century, was a contemporary of Gwalchmai, and wrote on a great number of subjects including religious ones; indeed some of his eulogies have a kind of religious prelude. He had a command of words and much skill in versification, but he is pleonastic and fond of complicated metres and of ending his lines with the same syllable.

Among the other poets of the second half of the 12th century may be mentioned Owain Kyveiliog and Howel ab Owain Gwynedd. The first named was prince of Powys, and was distinguished also as a soldier. The _Hirlas_, or drinking-horn, is a long poem where the prince represents himself as carousing in his hall after a fight; bidding his cup-bearer fill his great drinking-horn, he orders him to present it in turn to each of the assembled warriors. As the horn passes from hand to hand he eulogizes each in a verse beginning _Diwallaw di venestr_, "Fill, cup-bearer." Having thus praised the deeds of two warriors, Tudyr and Moreiddig, he turns round to challenge them, but suddenly recollecting that they had fallen in the fray, and listening, as it were, to their dying groans, he bursts into a broken lamentation for their loss. The second was also a prince; he was the eldest of the many sons of Owain Gwynedd, and ruled for two years after his father until he fell in a battle between himself and his step-brother Dafydd. He was a young man of conspicuous merit, and one of the most charming poets of Wales, his poems being especially free from the conceits, trivial commonplaces, and complicated metres of the professional bards, while full of a gay humour, a love of nature and a delicate appreciation of women. The Welsh poets went on circuit like their Irish brethren, staying in each place according as hospitality was extended to them. When departing, a bard was expected to leave a sample of his versification behind him. In this way many manuscripts came to be written, as we find them in different hands. Llywarch ab Llywelyn has left us one of those departing eulogies addressed to Rhys Gryg, prince of South Wales, which affords a favourable specimen of his style.

13th century poets.

The following are a few of the poets of the 13th century whose poems are still extant. Davydd Benvras was the author of a poem in praise of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth; his works, though not so verbose or trite as bardic poems of this class usually are, do not rise much above the bardic level, and are full of alliteration. Elidir Sais was, as his name implies, able to speak the English language, and wrote chiefly religious poetry. Einiawn ab Gwgawn is the author of an extant address to Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of considerable merit. Phylip Brydydd, or Philip the poet, was household bard to Rhys Gryg (Rhys the hoarse), lord of South Wales. One of his pieces, an apology to Rhys Gryg, is a striking example of the fulsome epithets a household bard was expected to bestow upon his patron, and of the privileged domesticity in which the bards lived, which, as in Ireland, must have been fatal to genius. Prydydd Bychan, the Little Poet, was a South Wales bard whose extant work consists of short poems all addressed to his own princes. The chief feature of his _Englynion_ is the use of a kind of assonance in which in some cases the final vowels agreed alternately in each quatrain, and in others each line ended in a different vowel, in both cases with alliteration and consonance of final consonants or full rhyme. Llygad Gwr is known by an ode in five parts to Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, written about the year 1270, which is a good type of the conventional flattery of a family bard. Howel Voel, who was of Irish extraction, possessed some poetical merit; his remonstrance to Llywelyn against the imprisonment of his brother Owain is a pleasing variety upon the conventional eulogy. It has many lines beginning with the same word, e.g. _gwr_, man. The poems of Bleddyn Vardd, or Bleddyn the Bard, which have come down to us are all short eulogies and elegies. One of the latter on Llywelyn ab Gruffydd is a good example of the elaborate and artificial nature of Welsh versification.

The most illustrious name among the poets of this century is Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch, "Gruffydd, son of the Red Justice," who wrote many religious poems of great merit. His greatest work, however, is the elegy to Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, the last prince of Wales. It is easily first among all the elegies written in the Welsh language. We do not find in it that artficial grief which is too evident in the _Marwnadau_ of the Welsh poets; it re-echoes an intense personal grief, and throughout the whole piece the poet feels that he stands at the end of all things,--the end of his own ideals, the extinction of all Cymric hopes. So poignant is his grief, and in so universal a manner does the catastrophe of Llywelyn's death present itself to him, that he imagines that all the natural features of the Welsh fatherland know that the last great Welshman is dead; the winds howl over the mountains, the rain-clouds gather thick, the waves rage with grief against the Welsh coasts, and far away on the hills the giant oak-trees beat against each other in the fury of their passion. Sadly, in this manner, closes the second period of Welsh literature.

4. _The Golden Age of the Cywydd, 1340-1440._--Just as, after the loss of the North, the Welsh muse was hushed, so after the final subjugation of Wales in 1282, hardly a note was heard for many a long year. The ancient patrons of literature were dead, and the country had not yet settled down to the steady rule of England. Indeed, the conquest of Wales effectively put an end to the older Welsh poetry of that type which we noticed in the last period. These older bards were without exception subjects of the princes of North Wales, where the old heroic poetry was still popular, and when the power of these princes came to an end the old poetry too ceased. When the Welsh muse emerges again from the darkness of this interval she is no longer of the North; the new poets are drawn from the Welshmen of the South, a land which had practically ceased to be a part of an independent Wales shortly after the Norman conquest of England. We find, too, that the poetry which poured forth from the Welsh bards of the south is of an altogether different type, it is modern in all its essentials, in diction, in language, and, comparatively speaking, in sentiment. Indeed, there is an infinitely greater difference between Dafydd ab Gwilym and Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch than there is between him and any poet writing in the alliterative metres in the 19th century. So that we must suppose that at the time when the poets of North Wales still sang of war and mead-drinking in a style and diction that was an inheritance from the times of the _Gododin_, the poets of the South, unharassed by wars, were developing a new poetry of their own, a poetry that had relinquished for ever the Old Welsh models and was at last in line with the great poetical movements of Europe. And, judging from the fact that the earliest of these poets whose works are accessible to us are in the full zenith of their poetical development, we must believe that their work is the consummation of a period, that is to say, that they must have had a long line of predecessors whose works were lost during the period intervening between the loss of Welsh independence and the rise of Dafydd ab Gwilym. These men wrote, as we have already said, in South Wales, a country which was then under the rule of the Norman lords, who, with the lapse of years and the rise of new systems, were fast becoming Welsh. It is no wonder, then, that the poets who wrote under their patronage should show unmistakable traces of Norman influence. Most of the barons still spoke French, and it was only natural that they should be well versed in French poetry. The poets followed the lead of their patrons, and their work was modelled to a very great extent on French and Provencal poetry. Nor does this account altogether for the wonderful similarity between Welsh _cywyddau_ and other poems of this period and the French lays; we must remember that the Welsh poets lived under conditions similar to those under which the troubadours and the trouveres lived, and it was natural that the same environments should produce the same kind of work. The Provencal _alba_ and the French _aube_, the _serenade_ and other forms, became well known in South Wales and were of course read by the Welsh poets. We find continual references in the poets to "books of love" under the name of _llyfr Ofydd_, or the "book of Ovid," and a reference in one of Dafydd ab Gwilym's poems shows conclusively that one particular _llyfr Ofydd_ was a work of the French poet Chrestien de Troyes. Indeed, one of the commonest names among the poets of this period--the _llatai_,[3] or love-messenger--may be a Romance word borrowed through the Norman-French from the Italian _Galeotto_, originally the name of the book of the loves of Galahaad, but afterwards the ordinary word for a go-between. This book of Galeotto, by the way, was the book which taught Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, in Dante's _Divina Commedia_, the tragic secret of love.

Another movement also was favourable to the rise of the new Welsh poetry. The iron hand of the church, which had been the censor of poetry for so many centuries, was slowly relaxing its grasp, and the men who a few years before would have sung religious hymns to the Virgin, now laid their tributes at the feet of divine womanhood as they saw it in the Welsh maidens and matrons living among them. The pale queen of heaven no longer held hearts captive; they had transferred their allegiance to the "brow that was as the snow of yesternight," and "the cheeks that were like the passion-flower." The Iolo MSS. assert that some time between January 1327 and November 1330 there were held, under the patronage of Ivor Hael, Dafydd ab Gwilym's patron, and others, the three _Eisteddfodau Dadeni_, or the Eisteddfods of the Revival of the Muse, to reorganize the bards, and to set in order all matters pertaining to Welsh poetry. The most important bards who are reported as present at some or all of these meetings were Dafydd ab Gwilym, Sion Cent, Rhys Goch of Eryri, and Iolo Goch. It is now, however, generally agreed that this account is a fabrication and that the date of all the poets is later.

Dafydd ab Gwilym.

Dafydd ab Gwilym is certainly the most distinguished of all the Welsh poets, and were it not for the absolute impossibility of adequately translating his _cywyddau_ he would rank amongst the greatest poets of medieval times. By far the greater part of his poetry is written in the metre called _cywydd_, with heptasyllabic lines rhyming in couplets. It was he who imparted so much lustre to this metre that it became the vehicle of all the most important poetry from his time to the 19th century, and he is generally referred to by his contemporaries as the special poet of the cywydd--_Dafydd gywydd gwin_, "Dafydd of the wine-sweet cywydd." Most of his poems deal with love in the spirit of the medieval writers of France and of Provence, but with this very important difference, that the French writers must base their reputation on their treatment of love as a theme, whereas Dafydd's claim to fame is based on his treatment of nature and of out-door life. In many cases, indeed, love is only a conventional peg whereon he may hang his observations on nature, and Welsh literature may claim the distinction of having had its Wordsworth in the 14th century. His treatment of nature is not merely realistic and objective, it has a certain quaint and elusive symbolism and a subjectiveness which come as a revelation to those who are acquainted with the medieval poetry of other nations. Many of the poems attributed to him are undoubtedly the work of later hands, but even after making all possible deductions, there is still an infinite variety among what remains, ranging as his poems do from a sturdy denunciation of monkish fraudulence to the most delicate and pathetic recollections of departed joys. He has, besides, considerable importance as a teacher, as when, for instance, he invites the nun "to leave her watercress and paternosters of Romish monks," and to come with him "to the cathedral of the birch to listen to the cuckoo's sermons," for, "were it not an equally worthy deed to save his (Dafydd's) soul in the birch-grove as to do so by following the ritual of Rome and St James of Compostella"? Even in his old age, when he is beginning to repent of his rash and merry youth, nature has not deserted him,--the very tree under which in the old days he used to meet his sweetheart has become bent and withered in sympathy with him. Though Dafydd yields not the palm to any poet of his class throughout the world, and though his influence is still a potent factor in the literature of Wales, we are certain of hardly a single fact about his life. He flourished between 1340 and 1390. His works were published in London in 1789. This edition was reprinted by Ffoulkes of Liverpool in 1870. See L.C. Stern, _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ vol. vii.

Sion Cent was chaplain to the Scudamores of Kentchurch in Herefordshire, and though, therefore, in orders, was a most bitter opponent of the pretentious and the evil life of the monks of his time. All his writings show signs of the influence of the moralists of the middle ages, and treat of religious or of moral subjects. His poetry is strong and austere, interfused here and there with the most biting satire. He died about 1400. Like many of his contemporaries, Dunbar, Villon, Menot and Manrique, his dominant note is that of sadness and regret.

Rhys Goch Eryri had a sprightly muse which deals with fanciful subjects. His themes are often similar to those of Dafydd ab Gwilym, but whereas the subject of Dafydd's muse was nature and his treatment universal, Rhys Goch's are simply natural objects which he treats in a vigorous but narrow and cold manner.

Iolo Goch, that is, Iorwerth the Red, deserves a special mention as the poet who voiced the aspirations of a new Wales when Owen Glyndwr began to rise into power, and it is to one of his poems that we owe a most minute description of Sycharth, Owen Glyndwr's home. His poetry is slightly more archaic in diction than that of his contemporaries, as his subject--war and the glory of Welsh heroes--belonged more properly to the age before his own. In one very striking _cywydd_ composed after Glyndwr's downfall, he calls upon this hero to come again and claim his own, and addresses himself fancifully to all the countries of the world where his hero may be in hiding. He died after 1405, and, if the dates generally given for his birth be even approximately correct, he must have lived to a prodigious age (cf. _Gweithiau Iolo Goch_, by Charles Ashton, London, 1896).

Rhys Goch ap Rhiccert claims to be named with Dafydd ab Gwilym as a writer of lyrics in praise of beautiful women. He has one advantage, however, over his more famous contemporary in the variety of his metres. The musical lilt and the delicate workmanship of his poems, with their recurring refrain, give him a unique position among his medieval contemporaries as the first purely lyrical poet. His _floreat_ is probably a little later than that of Dafydd ab Gwilym, for we must not be misled by the late orthography of his poems.

Dafydd Nanmor is chiefly famous for two exquisite cywyddau, _Cywydd Marwnad Merch_, or Elegy of a Maiden, and _Cywydd i wallt Llio_, or Cywydd to Llio's Hair. In both these poems he shows elegance rather than depth, and a fancy as bold as that of his great master Dafydd. In the first of these cywyddau his grief is so great that he wishes that he were but the shroud around his dead sweetheart, and, in the second, Llio Rhydderch's golden hair over her white brow is compared to the refulgence of lightning over the fine snow. He is supposed to be a younger contemporary of Rhys Goch Eryri, but there are many facts to warrant a supposition that he lived much later, even as late as 1490.

Llywelyn Goch ap Meurig Hen deserves to be mentioned as the author of the famous _Marwnad Lleucu Llwyd_, an elegy which is far more convincing in its sincerity than Dafydd Nanmor's _cywydd_. Few of his compositions are extant, but the one already mentioned is sufficient to place him in the first rank of the poets of the period. He lived approximately from 1330 to 1390.

The other poets of this period who deserve some mention are Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug, who wrote poems on religious subjects, and who is supposed to have translated part of the _Officium Beatae Mariae_ into Welsh; Gruffydd Grug, between whom and Dafydd ab Gwilym a most fierce poetic quarrel raged, but who is the author of a beautiful elegy on his opponent; Gruffydd Llwyd ab Dafydd, who was the poet of Owen Glyndwr, and whose cywydd in praise of his patron is one of the best of that type; Hywel Swrdwal and Gwilym ab Ieuan Hen.

Eisteddfod of 1451.

5. _The Silver Age of the Cywydd, 1440-1550._--The insurrection of Owen Glyndwr, though originally the result of a private quarrel, was the general revolt of a nation against the conquerors whom it hated, and the English king knew well enough that the discontent with his rule was fanned by the older and more national Welsh institutions, and by none more than by the system of wandering bards. The conditions which had given rise to this system were fast dying out, but the noblemen, who fortunately were still intensely Welsh, were loth to give up their family bards, and the bards themselves, never a too industrious class, were too glad of their freedom and easy life to turn to more profitable work. We find, therefore, that a law was passed in 1403, the fourth year of Henry IV.'s reign, prohibiting bards "and other vagrants" from exercising their profession in Gwynedd or North Wales. This law, however, like its predecessor in the reign of Edward I., failed utterly in its purpose. By prohibiting the Welsh noblemen from giving their patronage to the bards, and, therefore, from distinguishing between the real bards and the mendicant rhymesters, this law took away the only safeguard against the latter class, with the result that by about 1450 they had become a pest to the country. About that time there flourished a poet called Llawdden, who, noticing the very unsatisfactory state of poetry in Wales, induced his kinsman, Gruffydd ab Nicolas, a nobleman living in Y Drenewydd (Newtown), to petition Henry VI. for permission to hold an eisteddfod similar in purpose to the three _Eisteddfodau Dadeni_ of the last period. This famous eisteddfod was held at Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen) in 1451, and shortly before the actual eisteddfod was held a "statute" was drawn up under the direction of Llawdden, regulating the different orders of bards and musicians and setting in order the _cynghaneddion a mesurau_, the different kinds of alliterative verse to be presented to the assembled bards at the meeting. Among those present at that eisteddfod the most distinguished was Dafydd ab Edmwnd, who then made famous the dictum that the purpose of an eisteddfod was "to bring to mind the past, to consider the present, and to deliberate about the future." He, therefore, proposed emendations in "the rules of Welsh verse," making them more strict, so as to keep the unlearned rhymesters from the privileged bardic class. This measure had a most important effect on Welsh literature. It effectively put an end to the charming spontaneity which distinguishes the poetry of Dafydd ab Gwilym and his contemporaries, and by introducing an arbitrary set of rules gave an artificial tone to almost all the poetry of the next two hundred years. It had, indeed, exactly the same retarding effect on Welsh poetry as the Unities had on the French drama. So that, whereas the poems of Dafydd ab Gwilym, though written in the difficult alliterative metres, are nearly all light and have a sweet lyrical re-echo, the poetry of Dafydd ab Edmwnd and his successors is often heavy and nearly always artificial. After making, however, all these deductions, it is a debatable point whether the hard and fast rules which now regulated Welsh poetry did not eventually justify their existence. They have helped, by inciting to carefulness, to keep the idiom and the language pure and undefiled, and to this day style in Welsh poetry is not necessarily a striving after the uncommon as it too often is in English.

There are some poets included in this period who belong more properly to the last, but even these show signs of the attempt at correctness and distinction which was supplanting the old simplicity. Ieuan ap Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd, who is supposed to be a brother of the Llio Rhydderch of Dafydd Nanmor's poem, is the author of some cywyddau and other poems addressed to the Virgin, the structure of which shows great skill accompanied by force and clearness. He flourished about 1425. Dafydd ab Meredydd ap Tudur, who flourished about 1420, is the author of a cywydd "to Our Saviour." About the same time lived Rhys Nanmor, Ieuan Gethin ab Ieuan, and Ieuan Llwyd ab Gwilym. Among the earliest of the poets who belong properly to this period is Meredydd ap Rhys, whose cywyddau are a fair specimen of the generality of poems written in these years. Among the most famous of his works is a cywydd "begging for a fishing-net," and another giving thanks for the same. We shall find that many of his contemporaries were able to write long and interesting poems on such seemingly dry and uninteresting subjects, but it is vain to look for anything beyond good verse in such compositions. Of poetry, as generally understood, there is none.

Dafydd ab Edmwnd

The commanding figure in this period is, of course, Dafydd ab Edmwnd, who was a disciple of Meredydd ap Rhys. He bears somewhat the same relation to his contemporaries as Dafydd ab Gwilym does to his, and to strain an analogy, we might say that as Dryden was to Milton, so Dafydd ab Edmwnd was to Dafydd ab Gwilym. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the greatest poet that North Wales had ever produced, and some would set him up as a rival even to Dafydd ab Gwilym himself. He would probably have produced much greater poetry had he understood that the cywydd and the other metres were strait and shackled enough without the _cymeriadau_ and other devices which he introduced, or at least sanctioned and made popular. He begins many of his cywyddau and odes with the same letter; he is the chief among Welsh formalists, but in spite of his self-imposed restrictions he is a great poet also. His most famous poems are three _Cywyddau Merch_ or "Poems to a Lady," and his _Cywydd i Wallt Merch_, "cywydd to a lady's hair." He is the author of the lines already quoted: "thy brow," he sings, "is as the snow of yesternight, and thy cheeks like a shower of roses." He died about 1480. Dafydd ab Edmwnd's disciples were Gutyn Owain and Tudur Aled, who was also his nephew. Gutyn Owain lived between 1420 and 1500, and was one of the men appointed by the king's commissioners to trace, or perhaps to manufacture, the Welsh pedigree of Henry VII. He belonged entirely to the school inaugurated by Dafydd ab Edmwnd, and though he was by no means wanting in imagination, the highest distinction of his verse is its intricacy of form and very often the felicity of his couplets.

Just as the rise of Owen Glyndwr in the beginning of the century had given a new impulse and a new interest to poetry, so in 1485, when Henry VII.--the "little bull" as he is called by the poets--ascended the throne of England, a particular kind of poetry called _brud_, half history and half prophecy, became popular, and we have in the manuscripts much writing of this description, a good deal of it worthless as poetry. Occasionally, however, some of these "bruts" may claim to be called poetry, especially the compositions of Robin Ddu o Fon, who wrote poems in praise of the Tudors and hailed them as the deliverers of the nation, even before Henry VII. had landed in England, and Dafydd Llwyd ab Llywelyn, whose works deserve to be much better known than they are at present. One of the best cywyddau among his works is the "Address to the Raven," to whom he promises a right royal feast when the hero whom all Wales is expecting has met his royal enemy. Tudur Aled, too, was a zealous partisan of Henry VII. and wrote many cywyddau in praise of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, the great champion of Henry's cause in South Wales. He is also famous as having supplemented and made a new recension of Dafydd ab Edmwnd's rules of poetry in the eisteddfod held at Caerwys in 1524. Tudur Aled has always been more widely known in Wales than almost any other of the earlier poets except Dafydd ab Gwilym. This is perhaps due to the quotability and sententiousness of his couplets. There is a certain refreshing dryness about his poetry which partly makes up for his want of imagination. One of the most interesting poets of this century is Lewis Glyn Cothi, who lived between 1410 and 1490. During the Wars of the Roses he was a zealous Lancastrian, and his bitterest enemies were the men of Chester, who had treated him scurvily while he was there in hiding, and his _awdl_, satirizing the men of that city, is one of the most vigorous compositions in the language. Indeed, among so many _cywyddau_ of this period in conventional praise of different patrons, it is most refreshing to find such an outburst of sincere personal feeling, boldly and fiercely expressed. He wrote an _awdl_ also rejoicing in the victory of Henry VII. Most of his work, however, consists of _cywyddau mawl_--praise of patrons--containing weary and unpoetical pedigrees. Gruffydd Hiraethog, who flourished about 1540, was a disciple of Tudur Aled. A fierce poetical dispute raged between him and Sion Brwynog of Anglesey, who was a contemporary of his. About this time there were many poets in Wales who were imitators of Dafydd ab Gwilym, and who did not follow implicitly the lead of Dafydd ab Edmwnd, like those whom we have mentioned. Much of their poetry is feeble, but Bedo Brwynllysg especially stands out from among the rest, and his poetry, though highly imitative and often over fanciful, is of a much higher order than the genealogical poems of Lewis Glyn Cothi and others. In the same way the only poem of any merit of Ieuan Denlwyn printed in the _Gorchestion_ is written in this imitative strain. Other poets of the middle of this period are Deio ap Ieuan Du, Iorwerth Fynglwyd, Lewys Morganwg, Ieuan Brydydd Hir, and Tudur Penllyn, who wrote a superb _cywydd_ to Dafydd ab Siencyn, the outlaw.

Towards the end of the period we begin to breathe a literary atmosphere that is gradually but surely changing,--it is the change from the misty Wales of Roman Catholic times to the modern Wales after the Reformation. The poetical incoherencies of the old metres and the tricks of fancy of the old stylists occasionally form a somewhat incongruous dress for the thoughts of later poets. The old spirit and the glamour were gradually wearing away, only to be momentarily revived in the poetry of Goronwy Owen, nearly two centuries later. Two or three figures, indeed, stand out prominently during these years, among whom are some of the bards ordained _penceirddiaid_ (master-poets) in the second Caerwys Eisteddfod held in 1568, viz. William Llyn, William Cynwal, Sion Tudur, and Sion Phylip. William Llyn (1530?-1580) was a pupil of Gruffydd Hiraethog. His complicated _awdlau_ are marvels of ingenuity, but many of them are on that very account almost unintelligible. He was, however, a complete master of the _cywydd_, in which he sometimes displays a sense of style and a sweetness of imagery allied to a melodiousness of language unequalled by the other poets of the period. His best-known work is the famous _marwnad_ to his master, Gruffydd Hiraethog. Sion Tudur (d. 1602), also a disciple of G. Hiraethog, was connected in some capacity or other with the cathedral at St Asaph. He is a realist, and delights in giving vivid word pictures in a less fanciful strain than his predecessors. Sion Phylip (1543-1620) wrote a famous _marwnad_ to his father and a _cywydd_ "to a sea-gull," which is a superb piece of nature-painting in the style of Dafydd ab Gwilym. While dealing with this second Eisteddfod at Caerwys, we may note that Simwnt Fychan's "Laws of Poetry" were accepted at this festival.

Two poets of this period, whom an English writer describes as "the two filthy Welshmen who first smoked publicly in the streets," were captains in Queen Elizabeth's navy, viz. Thomas Prys (d. 1634) of Plas Iolyn, and William Myddleton (1556-1621), called in Welsh Gwilym Canoldref. The former wrote, among other things, humorous _cywyddau_ descriptive of life in London and in the English navy of those days, in a style which was afterwards attempted by Lewys Morys. The work of Myddleton, by which he is best known, is his translation of the Psalms (1603) into Welsh _cywydd_ metre, a difficult and profitless experiment.

With Edmwnd Prys (1541-1624), the famous archdeacon of Merioneth, we come to distinctly modern times. He is hardly a great poet, if we judge him by the canons which are now popular. His gift was a gift of terse and biting statement, and his _cywyddau_ on the whole have more of literary than of poetical merit. He was a man of vast learning, and his works are full of scholastic and often difficult allusions. His most famous _cywyddau_ are those written in the literary quarrel between him and Wiliam Cynwal. "Wiliam Cynwal," says Goronwy Owen, "though the greater poet, was like a man fighting with bare fists against complete armour," and it may be freely granted that in this, the most famous quarrel in Welsh literature, the palm of victory rested with the contentious old ecclesiastic. We shall deal with the rest of Edmwnd Prys's literary work in the section on the rise of popular poetry.

Here the age of the _cywydd_ and the _awdl_, as the chief forms of verse, ends. They appear again in the succeeding centuries, but as aliens among a nation that no longer paid them homage. The distinctly Welsh fashion in song was dying out.

6. _Prose, 1550-1750._--One of the most striking features of Welsh literature is the almost entire absence of prose between 1300 and 1550. The genius of the people has always been an eminently poetical and imaginative one, and the history of Wales, politically and socially, has always been a fitter subject for poetry than for prose. During this period, Wales enjoyed a rest from propagandists and revolutionaries which has seldom been the happy lot of any other nation--they lay content with their own old traditions, acquiescing proudly in their separation from the other nations of Europe, and in their aloofness from all the movements which shook England and the continent during those years. Dynasties came and went, one religion ousted another religion, a new learning exposed the absurdities of the old, but the Welsh, among their hills, knew nothing of it; and when new ideas began to brood over the consciousness of the nation, they never got beyond the stage of providing new subjects for _cywyddau_. The Peasant Revolt, for instance, had but little effect on Welsh history, its most important contribution to the heritage of the nation being Iolo Goch's superb "_Cywydd_ to the Labourer." Even the Reformation, which helped to change the whole fabric of English literature, had little effect on that of Wales, and the age of the _cywydd_ dragged out wearily its last years without experiencing the slightest quickening from the great movement which was remaking Europe. Hardly a prophet or reactionary raised his voice in defence or condemnation, and the Welsh went on serenely making and reading poetry. The two political movements in which Wales was really interested, the revolt of Glyndwr and the accession of Henry VII., paid their tribute to its poetry alone, and both enterprises had sufficient of romance in them to repel the historian and to capture the poet. Naturally, therefore, we have no prose in this period, because there was no cause strong enough to produce it. What prose the nation required they found in the tales of romance, in the legends of Arthur and Charlemagne and the Grail, and, as for pedigrees and history, were they not written in the _cywyddau_ of the poets?

The little prose that was produced during this period (1300-1550) was of an extraordinary kind. It was simply an exercise in long sentences and in curiously built compounds, and therefore more nearly allied to poetry. It generally took the form of _dewisbethau_, a list of the "choice things" of such and such a person, or of the later triads (_trioedd_), which, starting from an ancient nucleus, gradually grew till, at the present day, Wales has a gnomic literature out of all proportion to the rest of its prose. Modern Welsh prose, however, is only very indirectly connected with these compositions. It is almost altogether a product of the Biblical literature which began to appear after the Reformation, and we shall proceed to give here the main facts and dates in its development. The first Welsh book was printed in 1546. It consisted of extracts in Welsh from the Bible and the Prayer Book, and a calendar. The author was Sir John Prys (1502-1555). The most important name in the early part of this period is William Salesbury (1520?-1600?). His chief books were, _A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe_ (printed in 1547, and published in facsimile reprint by the Cymmrodorion Society), _Kynniver Llith a Ban_ (1551), the Prayer Book in Welsh (1567), and the most important of all his works, the translation of the New Testament (1567). It is difficult to form any estimate, at this distance of time, of the impetus which William Salesbury gave to Welsh prose, but it must be regretfully admitted that his great work was marred by many defects. He had a theory that Welsh ought to be written as much like Latin as possible, and the result is that his language is very poor Welsh, both in spelling and idiom; it is an artificial dialect. It is a striking testimony, however, to his influence that many of the constructions and words which he manufactured are found to this day in correct literary Welsh.

In 1567 was published a _Welsh Grammar_ by Dr Gruffydd Roberts, a Roman Catholic priest living at Milan (reprinted in facsimile, Paris, 1883), and in 1583, under the direction of Dr Rhosier Smyth, his _Drych Cristionogawl_ was published at Rouen. Many other important Welsh books were produced during these years, but the work which may be regarded as having the greatest influence on the subsequent literature of Wales was the translation of the _Welsh Bible_ (1588) by Dr William Morgan (1547?-1604), bishop of Llandaff, and afterwards of St Asaph. The Authorized Version (1620) now in use is a revision of this work by Dr Richard Parry, bishop of St Asaph (1560-1623). In 1592 the _Welsh Grammar_ of Sion Dafydd Rhys (1534-1609) was published--a most valuable treatise on the language and on the rules of Welsh poetry. It was followed in 1621 by the _Welsh Grammar_, and in 1632 by the _Welsh Dictionary_ of Dr John Davies o Fallwyd (1570?-1644).

There are two prose compositions which stand entirely by themselves in this period of Bibles and grammars--the _History_ of Ellis Gruffydd, and Morris Kyffin's _Deffyniad y Ffydd_. The former was a soldier in the English army during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and wrote a long history of England from the earliest times to his own day. This document, which has never been published, and which lies hidden away among the Mostyn MSS., is a most important and valuable original contribution to the history of the author's contemporaries, and it sheds considerable light on the inner life of the court and the army. It is written in a delightfully easy style, contrasting favourably with the stiff diction of this period of translations. The work of Morris Kyffin (1555?-1598?) which we have mentioned is a translation of Bishop Jewel's _Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae_ (1562) and was published in 1595. This work is the first piece of modern Welsh prose within reach of the ordinary reader, written in the rich idiom of the spoken Welsh. It is a precursor of many other books of its kind, a long series culminating in the immortal _Bardd Cwsc_. In this sense Morris Kyffin may with perfect justice be hailed as the father of modern Welsh prose.

Most of the works which were afterwards written in the strong idiomatic Welsh of Morris Kyffin were on religious subjects, and many of them were translated from the English. The first was _Ymarfer o Dduwioldeb_ (1630) by Rowland Vychan o Gaergai (a translation of Bailey's _Practice of Piety_), which was followed in 1632 by Dr John Davies's _Llyfr y Resolution_, and in 1666 by _Hanes y Ffydd Ddiffuant_ (A History of the True Faith) by Charles Edwards. All these authors and many of their successors were strong adherents of the Established Church, which was then intensely Welsh in sentiment. But in the midst of these churchmen, a flame-bearer of dissent appeared--Morgan Llwyd o Wynedd, who published in 1653 "a mystery to be understood of some, and scorned of others"--_Llyfr y Tri Aderyn_ (The Book of the Three Birds). It is in the form of a discussion between the eagle (Cromwell), the dove (Dissent) and the raven (the Established Church). This book is certainly the most important original composition published during the 17th century, and to this day remains one of the widely-read classics of the Welsh tongue. Morgan Llwyd wrote many other books in Welsh and English, all more or less in the vein of the first book.

During the remaining years of this period, the prose output of the Welsh press consisted mainly of devotional books, written or translated for or at the instigation of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Established Church, with the help of this society, made a gallant attempt to lighten the darkness of Wales by publishing books of this description, and it is mainly due to its exertions that the lamp of Welsh prose was kept burning during these years. Among the clergy who produced books of this description were Edward Samuel (1674-1748), who published among other works _Holl Ddyledswydd Dyn_, a translation of _The Whole Duty of Man_ (1718); Moses Williams (1684-1742), a most diligent searcher into Welsh MSS. and translator; Griffith Jones of Llanddowror (1683-1761), the father of Welsh popular education; Iago ab Dewi (1644?-1722) and Theophilus Evans (1694-1769), the famous author of _Drych y Prif Oesoedd_ (1716 and 1740). This book, like _Llyfr y Tri Aderyn_ and _Y Bardd Cwsc_, has an established position for all time in the annals of Welsh literature.

We come now to the greatest of all Welsh prose writers, Ellis Wyn o Lasynys (1671-1734). His first work was a translation of Jeremy Taylor's _Holy Living_, under the title of _Rheol Buchedd Sanctaidd_ (1701). His next work was the immortal _Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsc_ (1703). The foundation of this work was L'Estrange's translation of the _Suenos_ of the Spaniard Quevedo. Ellis Wyn has certainly followed his original closely, even as Shakespeare followed his, but by his inimitable magic he has transmuted the characters and the scenery of the Spaniard into Welsh characters and scenery of the 17th century. No writer before or after him has used the Welsh language with such force and skill, and he will ever remain the stylist whom all Welsh writers will strive to imitate. The magic of his work has endowed the stately idiom of Gwynedd with such glamour that it has now become the standard idiom of Welsh prose. See Stern, _Z. f. celt. Phil._ iii. 165 ff.

7. _The Rise of Popular Poetry, 1600-1750._--When Henry VII. ascended the throne, the old hostility of the Welsh towards the English disappeared. They had realized their wildest hope, that of seeing a Welshman wearing "the crown of London." Naturally enough, therefore, the descendants of the old Welsh gentry began to look towards England for recognition and preferment, and their interest in their own little country necessarily began to wane. The result was that the traditional patrons of the Welsh muse could no longer understand the language of the poets, and the poets were forced to seek some more profitable employment. Besides, the old conditions were changing; the medieval traditions were indeed dying hard, but it gradually and imperceptibly came about that the poets of the older school had no audience. The only poets who still followed the old traditions were the rich farmers who "sang on their own land," as the Welsh phrase goes. A new school, however, was rising. The nation at large had a vast store of folk-poetry, full of all the poetical characteristics of the Celt, and it was this very poetry, despised as it was, that became ultimately the groundwork of the new literature.

The first landmark in this new development was the publication in 1621 of Edmwnd Prys's metrical version of the Psalms (followed by later editions in 1628, 1630, 1638 and 1648), and of the first poem of the _Welshmen's Candle_ (_Cannwyll y Cymry_) of Rhys Pritchard, vicar of Llandovery (1569-1644). This was published in 1646. These works were not written in the old metres peculiar to Wales, but in the free metres, like those of English poetry. The former work is of the utmost importance, as these Psalms were about the first metrical hymns in use. They are often rugged and uncouth, but many of the verses--such as the 23rd Psalm--have a haunting melody of their own, which grips the mind once and for ever. The second work, the first complete edition of which was published in 1672, consisted of moral verses in the metres of the old folk-songs (_Penillion Telyn_), and for nearly two centuries was the "guide, philosopher and friend" of the common people. Many other poets of the early part of this period wrote in these metres, such as Edward Dafydd o Fargam (fl. 1640), Rowland Fychan, Morgan Llwyd o Wynedd and William Phylip (d. 1669). Poetry in the free metres, however, was generally very crude, until it was given a new dignity by the greatest poet of the period, Huw Morus o Bont y Meibion (1622-1709). Most of his earlier compositions, which are among his best, and which were influenced to a great extent by the cavalier poetry of England, are love poems, perfect marvels of felicitous ingenuity and sweetness. He fixed the poetic canons of the free metres, and made what was before homely and uncouth, courtly and dignified. He wrote a _cywydd marwnad_ to his contemporary, Edward Morus o'r Perthi Llwydion (d. 1689), who was also a poet of considerable merit. Most of his work is composed of "moral pieces" and carols. Other poets of the period were Sion Dafydd Las (1650-1691), who was among the last of the family bards, and Dafydd Jones o Drefriw (fl. 1750). Towards the end of the period comes Lewys Morys (1700-1765). His poetry alone does not seem to warrant his fame, but he was the creator of a new period, the inspirer and the patron of Goronwy Owen. According to the lights of the 18th century, he was, like his brothers Richard and William, a scholar. His poetry, except a few well-known pieces, will never be popular, because it does not conform to modern canons of taste. His greatest merit is that he wrote the popular poetry then in vogue with a scholar's elegance.

8. _The Revival, 1750-1830._--The two leading figures in this period are Goronwy Owen (1722-1769) and William Williams, Pantycelyn (1717-1791). Goronwy Owen wrote all his poetry in the _cynghanedd_, and his work gave the old metres a new life. He raised them from the neglect into which they had fallen, and caused them to be, till this day, the vehicle of half the poetical thought of Wales. But he was in no way a representative of his age; he, like Milton, sang among a crowd of inferior poets themes quite detached from the life of his time, so that he also, like his English brother, lacks "human interest." After Dafydd ab Gwilym, he is the greatest poet who sang in the old metres, and the influence of his correct and fastidious muse remains to this day. William Williams, however, wrote in the free metres in a way that was astoundingly fresh. It is not enough to say of him that he was a hymnologist; he is much more, he is the national poet of Wales. He had certainly the loftiest imagination of all the poets of five centuries, and his influence on the Welsh people can be gauged by the fact that a good deal of his idiom and dialect has fixed itself indelibly on modern literary Welsh. Besides the hymns, he wrote a religious epic, _Theomemphus_, which is to this day the national epic of evangelical Wales. Even as Goronwy Owen is the father of modern Welsh poetry in the old metres, so William Williams is the great fountain-head of the free metres, because he set aflame the imagination of every poet that succeeded him. With two such pioneers, it is natural that the rest of this period should contain many great names. Thomas Edwards (Twm o'r Nant) (1739-1810) has been called by an unwarrantably bold hyperbole, "the Welsh Shakespeare." Most of his works are interludes and ballads, and he used to be very popular with the common people; he is, to this day, probably the oftenest quoted of all the Welsh poets. William Wynn, rector of Llangynhafal (1704-1760), is the author of a "_Cywydd_ of the Great Judgment," which bears comparison with Goronwy Owen's masterpiece. Evan Evans (Ieuan Brydydd Hir) (1731-1789) was famous both as a poet and as a scholar and antiquarian. Edward Rhisiart (1714-1777), the schoolmaster of Ystradmeurig, was a scholar and a writer of pastorals in the manner of Theocritus. Most of the other poets who flourished towards the end of this period--Dafydd Ddu Eryri (1760-1822), Gwallter Mechain (1761-1849), Robert ab Gwilym Ddu (1767-1850), Dafydd Ionawr (1751-1827), Dewi Wyn o Eifion (1784-1841)--were brought into prominence by the Eisteddfod, which began to increase in influence during this period until it has become to-day the national festival. They all wrote for the most part in _cynghanedd_, and the work of nearly all of them is marked by correctness rather than by poetical inspiration.

9. _Prose after 1830._--In the preceding periods, we have seen that Welsh prose, though abundant in quantity, had a very narrow range. Few writers rose above theological controversy or moral treatises, and the humaner side of literature was almost entirely neglected. In this period, however, we find a prose literature that, with the exception of scientific works, is as wide in its range as that of England, and all departments are well and competently represented, though by but few names. Dr Lewis Edwards (1809-1887) struck a new note when he began to contribute his literary and theological essays to the periodicals, but, though many have equalled and even surpassed him as theological essayists, few, if any, of his followers have attempted the literary and critical essays on which his fame as writer must mainly rest. Together with Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883), the author of the inimitable _Llythyrau Hen Ffarmwr_, he may be regarded as the pioneer of the new literature. Samuel Roberts (1800-1885), generally known as S.R., wrote numerous tracts and books on politics and economics, and as a political thinker he was in many respects far in advance of his English contemporaries. It was in this period, too, that Wales had her national novelist, Daniel Owen (1836-1895). He was a novelist of the Dickens school, and delighted like his great master "in writing mythology rather than fiction." He has created a new literary atmosphere, in which the characters of Puritanical and plebeian Wales move freely and without restraint. He can never be eclipsed just as Sir Walter Scott cannot be eclipsed, because the Wales which he describes is slowly passing away. He has many worthy disciples, among whom Miss Winnie Parry is easily first. Indeed, in her finer taste and greater firmness of touch, she stands on a higher plane than even her great master. The inspiring genius of the latter part of this period is Owen M. Edwards (b. 1858), and, as a stylist, all writers of Welsh prose since Ellis Wynn have to concede him the laurel. His little books of travel and history and anecdote have created, or rather, are creating a new school of writers, scrupulously and almost pedantically careful and correct, an ideal which, on its philological side is the outcome of the scientific study of the language as inaugurated by Sir John Rhys and Professor Morris Jones. One of the earliest, if not the ablest writer of this "new Welsh" was the independent and original Emrys ap Iwan (d. 1906), whose _Homiliau_ was published in 1907.

10. _Poetry after 1820._--The origins of this period are really placed in the last period. Its great characteristics are the development of the lyric, and the influence of English and continental ideas. Just as the _cywydd_ was among the older writers the favourite form of poetry, so the lyric becomes now paramount, almost to the exclusion of other forms. The first great name, after those already mentioned in the development of this form of poetry, is that of Anne Griffiths (1776-1805). Her poetry is exclusively composed of hymns, but to the English mind, the word "hymn" is entirely inadequate to give any idea of the passion, the mysticism and the rich symbolistic grace of her poems. She gave to the Welsh lyric the depth and the rather melancholy intensity which has always characterized it. Evan Evans (Ieuan Glan Geirionydd) (1795-1855) was also a hymnologist, but he wrote many secular lyrics and _awdlau_--among the former being the famous _Morfa Rhuddlan_. Ebenezer Thomas (Eben Fardd) (1802-1863) was a famous _Eisteddfodwr_; his best work is his _awdlau_, and no one will deny him the distinction of being the master poet of the _awdl_ in the 19th century. Gwilym Cawrdaf (1795-1848), also a writer of _awdlau_, has the gift of simple and direct expression, well exemplified in _Hiraeth Cymro am ei wlad_. Daniel Ddu (1792-1846) was a scholar who wrote some touching lyrics and hymns. Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883) attempted an epic, _Emmanuel_, with indifferent success. His shorter works and some of his _awdlau_ are of a much higher order. Caledfryn (1801-1869) was a direct successor of Dewi Wyn and the earlier writers of _awdlau_, but his _Drylliad y Rothsay Castle_ is superior to anything which his master wrote. Similar in genius, though not on quite as high a plane, were Nicander (1809-1874), Cynddelw (1812-1875), Gwalchmai (1803-1897) and Tudno (1844-1895).

John Blackwell (Alun) (1797-1840) was a lyricist of the first order. With Ieuan Glan Geirionydd, he is the pioneer of the secular lyric of the 19th century. Succeeding to this group of lyricists, we have another later group, Ceiriog (1832-1887), Talhaiarn (1810-1869) and Mynyddog (1833-1877), who certainly had the advantage over their predecessors in freshness, in vigour and in human interest, but they lacked the scholastic training of the earlier group, and so their work is often uneven, and cannot therefore be fairly compared with that of the earlier poets. Ceiriog, of course, is the greater name of the three, and is to Wales what Robert Burns was to Scotland, sharing with him his poetical faults and merits. He is called the national poet of Wales, because he was the first to sing of the land and the nation he knew, and he cast the glamour of his genius over the life of the _gwerin_, the peasants of Wales.

Somewhat higher flights were essayed by Gwilym Marles (1834-1879) and Islwyn (1832-1878). Their poetry is Wordsworthian and mystical, and well exemplifies the love of metaphysics and speculation which is growing in Wales. Islwyn's _Y storm_, though uneven, is full of powerful passages, and he was a master of blank verse. Of the remaining poets of the period living in 1908, the most distinguished was the Rev. Elvet Lewis in the older generation, and Eifion Wyn in the younger--both writers of lyrics. Other lyrical poets of the first class are Gwylfa and Silyn Roberts. In the old metres, two poets stand out prominent above all others--J. Morris Jones and T. Gwynn Jones. The _Awdl i Famon_ of the former, and the _Ymadawiad Arthur_ of the latter, gave reason to believe that Welsh poetry was only entering on its golden period.

AUTHORITIES.--_General_.--T. Stephens, _Literature of the Kymry_ (London[2], 1876); L.C. Stern in _Die Kultur d. Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1 pp. 114-130; Gweirydd ap Rhys. _Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, 1300-1650_ (London, 1885); C. Ashton, _Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, 1651-1850_ (Liverpool, 1893); J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (2 vols., Paris, 1889); E. Anwyl, _Prolegomena to Welsh Poetry_ (London, 1905), also on the Mabinogi in _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ i. 277 ff.; I.B. John, _The Mabinogion_ (London, 1901); T. Shankland, _Diwygwyr Cymru_, reprinted from _Seren Gomer_ (1899); W.J. Gruffydd, _Foreign Influences on Welsh Literature in the XIV. and XV. Centuries_, Guild of Welsh Graduates (1908); Gwilym Lleyn, _Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry_ (Llanidloes, 1867); Robert Williams, _Enwogion Cymru_ (Llandovery, 1852); Owen Jones, _Cymru_ (2 vols., London, 1875); D.W. Nash, _History of the Battle of Cattraeth_ (Tenby, 1861); _Encyclopaedia Cambrensis_ (10 vols.,[2] 1889-1896); C. Ashton, _Bywyd ac amserau yr Esgob Morgan_ (Treherbert, 1891); J. Foulkes, _J. Ceiriog Hughes, ei fywyd a'i waith_ (Liverpool, 1887); J.M. Jones, _Llenyddiaeth fy ngwlad_ (Holywell, 1893); H. Elvet Lewis, _Sweet Singers of Wales_ (London, 1889); H.W. Lloyd, _Welsh Books Printed Abroad in the XVI. and XVII. Centuries_ (London, 1881).

_Anthologies, Selected Prose and Verse, &c._--W.F. Skene, _The Four Ancient Books of Wales_ (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1868); W. Owen (Pughe), Iolo Morganwg and Owen Jones (Myfyr), _Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales_ (3 vols., London, 1801;[2] Denbigh, 1870, in 1 vol.); Dr John Davies (o Fallwyd), _Flores Poetarum Britannicorum_ (Shrewsbury, 1710; Swansea, 1814; reprinted London, 1864); Iolo Morganwg, _Iolo Manuscripts_ (Llandovery, 1848); E. Evans, _Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards translated into English, &c._ (London, 1764); Hugh Jones, _Dewisol Ganiadau yr Oes Hon_ (Shrewsbury, 1759;[5] Merthyr, 1827), _Diddanwch Teuluaidd_ (London, 1763); David Jones, _Blodeugerdd Cymry_ (Shrewsbury[2], 1779); Owen Jones, _Ceinion Llenyddiaeth Gymreig_ (2 vols., London, 1876); W. Lewis Jones, _Caniadau Cymru_ (Bangor[2], 1908); W. Jenkyn Thomas, _Penillion Telyn_ (Carnarvon, 1894); Myrddin Fardd, _Cynfeirdd Lleyn_ (1905); _Cyfres Lien Cymru_, vols. i.-vi. (Cardiff, 1900-1906); W.J. Gruffydd, _Y Flodeugerdd Newydd_ (Cardiff, 1908); O.M. Edwards, _Beirdd y Berwyn_ (Conway, 1903).

_Versification, &c_,--Dafydd Morganwg, _Yr Ysgol Farddol_ (Cardiff[3], 1887); Iolo Morganwg, _Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain_ (Merthyr, 1829;[2] Carnarvon, 1874); _Simwnt Vychan and Dafydd Ddu Athraw, Dosparth Edeyrn Davod Aur_, ed. by J. Williams ab Ithel (Llandovery, 1856); J. Morris Jones, "Welsh Versification," _Zeitschr.f. celt. Phil._ iv. pp. 106-142.

_Collected Works, Editions and Reprints_,--J. Gwenogvryn Evans and John Rhys, _Y Llyvyr Coch o Hergest_ (2 vols. Oxford, 1887-1890), _Pedeir Kainc y Mabinogi_ (Oxford, 1897); J. Gwenogvryn Evans, _The Black Book of Carmarthen_ (Oxford, 1907; also in facsimile, Oxford, 1888), _Llyvyr Job trans. by Dr Morgan, 1558_ (reprinted 1888), _Oll Synwyr pen_ [Salesbury] (Bangor, 1902); J. Morris Jones and John Rhys, _Llyvyr Agkyr Llandewivrevi_ (Oxford, 1894); Aneurin Owen, _Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales_ (2 vols., London, 1841), _Brut y Tywysogion_ (London, 1863); J. Williams ab Ithel, _Gododin with Notes and Translation_ (Llandovery, 1852); T. Stephens, _Gododin with Notes and Translation_, ed. by T. Powel (London, 1888); R. Williams, _Selections from the Hengwrt MSS._ (2 vols., London, 1876-1892); T. Powel, _Ystorya de Carolo Magno_ (London, 1883); _Psalmau Dafydd trans. by W. Morgan_ (facsimile, 1896); Owen Jones (Myfyr) and W. Owen (Pughe), _Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym_ (London, 1789); Walter Davies and J. Jones, _Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi_ (1837); Prince Louis Bonaparte, _Athrawaeth Gristnogavl by Morys Clynoc_ (facsimile London, 1880); Walter Davies, _Caniadau Huw Morus_ (2 vols., 1823); _Psalmau Dafydd gan W. Middleton_ (Llanfair, 1827); J. Morris Jones, _Gweledugaethai y Bardd cwsg gan Elis Wynne_ (Bangor, 1898); R. Jones, _The Poetical Works of Goronwy Owen_ (2 vols. London, 1876); W.J. Gruffydd, _Cywyddau Goronwy Owen_ (Newport, 1906); T.E. Ellis, _Gweithiau Morgan Llwyd_ (Bangor, 1899); J.H. Davies, _Yn y Llyvyr hwn_ (Bangor, 1902); S.J. Evans, _Drych y Prif Oesoedd gan Th. Evans_ (Bangor, 1902); W.P. Williams, _Deffyniad Ffydd Eglwys Loegr gan Morys Kyffin_ (Bangor, 1908); N. Cynhafal Jones, _Gweithiau W. Williams Pantycelyn_ (2 vols., 1887-1891); O.M. Edwards, _Gweithiau Islwyn_ (1897). (W. J. G.)

V. BRETON LITERATURE.--Unlike the literature of Wales, the literature of Brittany is destitute of originality, and we find nothing to compare with the _Mabinogion_. Till the 19th century all the monuments which have come down to us are copies of French models, though the retention down to the 17th century of that intricate system of versification found in Welsh and Cornish may indicate that what was really Breton in spirit has not been preserved (v. J. Loth, _La Metrique galloise_, ii. 177-203). It is usual to divide the literature into three periods in conformity with the language in which the monuments are written--Old, Middle, and Modern Breton. No connected monuments of the first period (8th to 11th centuries) have come down to us. For our knowledge of the language of this period we must have recourse to the manuscripts containing glosses and the names occurring in ancient documents. The chief collections of glosses are (1) the Oxford glosses on Eutychius; (2) the Luxemburg glosses; (3) the Bern glosses on Virgil; (4) the glosses on Amalarius (Corpus Christi, Cambridge); (5) five _Collationes Canonum_, the chief manuscripts being at Paris and Orleans. All these glosses have been published in one volume by J. Loth (_Vocabulaire Vieux-Breton_, Paris, 1884). From a linguistic point of view the Breton names in the Latin lives of saints are very important, particularly those of St Samson, St Paul, Aurelian, St Winwaloe, St Ninnoc, St Gildas and St Brieuc. Of even greater value are the names in the Charter of Redon, which was written in the 11th century, but dates largely from the 9th (published by A. de Courson, 1865); we may also mention the Charter of Landevennec (11th century). In the Middle Breton period, which extends from the 11th to the 17th centuries, we are obliged, down to the 15th century, to rely on official documents such as the Charter of Quimperle. French seems to have been the language of the aristocracy and the medium of culture. Hence the oldest connected texts are either translated or imitated from French, and are full of French words. We might mention a Book of Hours belonging to the 16th century, published by Whitley Stokes, and three religious poems bound up with the _Grand Mystere de Jesus_; further, the _Life of St Catherine_ (1576) in prose (published by Ernault, _Revue celtique_, viii. 76), translated from the _Golden Legend_, the _Mirror of Death_, containing 3360 verses, which was composed in 1519 and printed in 1576, the _Mirror of Confession_, a translation from the French in prose (1621), the _Christian Doctrine_, a translation in verse (1622), a collection of carols (_An Nouelou ancien_, 1650, _Rev. celt._ vols. x.-xiii.) and the _Christian Meditations_ of J. Cadec, 1651 (_Rev. Celt._ xx. 56). The earliest Breton printed work is the _Catholicon_ of Jean Lagadeuc, a Breton-Latin-French dictionary, dated 1464 but printed first in 1499 (reprinted by R.F. Le Men, Lorient, 1867). Modern Breton begins with the orthographical reforms of the Jesuit, Julien Maunoir, whose grammar (_Le Sacre College de Jesus_) and dictionary appeared in 1659. Throughout the modern period we find numerous collections of religious poems and manuals of devotion in prose and verse, which we cannot here attempt to enumerate. But the bulk of Breton literature before the 19th century consists of mysteries and miracle plays. This class of literature had a tremendous vogue in Brittany, and the native stage was only killed about 1850. It is stated, for instance, that no less than 15,000 copies were sold of the _Tragedy of the Four Sons of Aymon_, first published in 1815. It is impossible to give the titles of all the dramas which have come down to us (about 120). The manuscript collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris is described in the _Revue celtique_, xi. 389-423 (many since published) and Le Braz gives a useful list of other manuscripts in the bibliographical appendix to his _Theatre celtique_. A few of these plays belong to the Middle Breton period. The _Life of St Nonn_, the mother of St David, belongs to the end of the 15th century, and follows the Latin life (published by Ernault in the _Revue celtique_, viii. 230 ff., 405 ff.). _Le Grand Mystere de Jesus_ (1513) follows the French play of Arnoul Gresban and Jean Michel (published by H. de la Villemarque, Paris, 1865). A French original is also followed in the _Mystere de Sainte Barbe_ (1st ed., 1557, 2nd ed., 1647, reprinted by Ernault, Nantes, 1885). These mystery plays may be divided into four categories according to the subjects with which they deal: (1) Old Testament subjects; (2) New Testament subjects; (3) lives of saints; (4) romances of chivalry. There is occasionally a dash of local colouring in these plays; but the subject matter is taken from French sources or, in the case of the third category, from Latin lives. Even when the life of a Breton saint, e.g. St Gwennole, is dramatized, the treatment is the traditional one accorded to all saints of whatever origin. Amongst the most favourite subjects in addition to those already mentioned we may note the following: _Vie des quatre fils Aymon_, _Ste Tryphine et le roi Arthur_, _Huon de Bordeaux_, _Vie de Louis Eunius_, _Robert le Diable_. These mysteries commonly contain from 5000 to 9000 lines of either 12 or 8 syllables apiece. For the sake of completeness we may add the names of three farces, described by Le Braz: _Ar Farvel goapaer_ (_Le bouffon moqueur_), _Ian Melarge_ (_Mardi-gras_), _La Vie de Mardi-gras, de triste Mine, sa femme, et de ses enfants_. The actors, who were always peasants, came to be regarded with an unfavourable eye by the clergy, who finally succeeded in killing the Breton stage.

We look in vain for any manifestation of originality in Breton literature until we reach the 19th century. The consciousness of nationality then awakened and found expression in verse.

The movement led by Le Gonidec (described above in the section on Breton language) caused ardent patriots to endeavour to create a national literature, more especially when the attention of the whole world of letters was directed to Brittany after the publication of the _Barzas Breiz_. The most prominent of these pioneers were Auguste Brizeux, F.M. Luzel and Prosper Proux. Brizeux (1803-1858), better known as a French poet, wrote a collection of lyrics entitled _Telen Arvor_, or the _Armorican Harp_ (Lorient, 1844, reprinted Paris, 1903). Luzel's original compositions were published under the title of _Bepred Breizad, Toujours Breton_ (Morlaix, 1865), and Prosper Proux is known as the author of _Canaouenno gret gant eur C'hernewod_ (1838) and _Ar Bombard Kerne_, or _The Hautboy of Cornouailles_ (Guingamp, 1866). Dottin also mentions _Telenn Remengol_, by J. Lescour (Brest, 1867); _Telenn Gwengam_, by the same writer (Brest, 1869), a volume of _Chansoniou_ by Y.M. Thomas (Lannion, 1870), and another by C. Rannou. This was a very creditable beginning, but the themes of these writers are apt to be somewhat conventional and the constant recurrence of the same situation or the same idea grows monotonous. An anthology of poems connected with this movement appeared at Quimperle in 1862 under the title of _Bleuniou Breiz, Poesies anciennes et modernes de la Basse-Bretagne_ (reprinted, Paris, 1905). Several of La Fontaine's fables were published in a Breton dress by P.D. de Goesbriand (Morlaix, 1836), and a collection of fables in verse which is thought very highly of by cultivated Bretons appeared under the title of _Marvaillou Grac'h koz_ by G. Milin (Brest, 1867). A book of Georgics in the dialect of Vannes appeared under the title of _Levr al labourer_ (The Farmer's Book) by l'Abbe Guillome (Vannes, 1849), and Le Gonidec prepared a translation of the Scriptures, which was revised by Troude and Milin, and published at St Brieuc in 1868. But the real literature of Brittany consists of legends, folk-tales and ballads. The first to tap this source was Hersart de la Villemarque (1815-1895), who issued in 1839 his famous collection of ballads entitled _Barzas Breiz_, but which cannot be regarded as an anthology of Breton popular poetry. The publication of this work gave rise to a controversy which is almost as famous as that caused by Macpherson's forgeries. De la Villemarque was endowed with considerable poetic gifts, and, coming as he did at a time when folk-poetry was the fashion, he determined to collect the popular literature of his own country. However, he was not content to publish the poems as he found them circulating in Brittany. With the aid of several collaborators he transformed his material, eliminating anything that was crude and gross. The poems included in his collection may be divided into three classes: (1) Poems rearranged by himself or others. These consist mainly of love-songs and ballads. (2) Modern poems transferred to medieval times. (3) Spurious poems dealing with such personages as Nominoe and Merlin. The compiler of the _Barzas Breiz_ unfortunately laboured under the delusion that these Breton folk-songs were in the first instance the work of medieval bards corresponding to Taliessin and Llywarch Hen in Wales, and that it was possible to make them appear in their primitive dress. The very title of the collection indicates the artificial nature of the contents. For _Barzas_ (in the 2nd edition of 1867 spelt _Barzaz_) is not a Breton word at all but is formed on Welsh _barddas_ (bardic poems). For the whole controversy the reader may consult H. Gaidoz and P. Sebillot, "Bibliographie des traditions et de la litterature populaire de la Bretagne" (_Revue celtique_, v. 277 ff., and G. Dottin in the _Revue de synthese historique_, viii. 95 ff.). In Brittany it is usual to divide the popular poetry into _gwerziou_ and _soniou_. The _gwerziou_ (complaintes) deal with local history, folk-lore, religious legends and superstitions, and are in general much more original than the other class. The _soniou_ consist of love-songs, satires, carols and marriage-lays, as well as others dealing with professional occupations, and seem in many cases to show traces of French influence. The first scholar who published the genuine ballad literature of Brittany was F.M. Luzel, who issued two volumes under the title of _Gwerziou Breiz-Izel, chants populaires de la Basse-Bretagne_ (Lorient and Paris, 1868, 1874). This collection contains several of the originals of poems in the _Barzas Breiz_. Luzel is also the author of a collection of Breton tales in French translation, _Contes bretons recueillis et traduits par F.M. Luzel_ (Quimperle, 1870). The same author published _Les Legendes chretiennes de la Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1881) and _Veillees bretonnes, moeurs, chants, contes et recits populaires des Bretons-Armoricains_ (Morlaix, 1879). Another indefatigable collector of Breton legends is Anatole le Braz, who was commissioned by the minister of public instruction to investigate the stories current with reference to _An Ankou_ (death). Le Braz's results are to be found in his _La Legende de la mort_ (1902[2]). A well-known collection of stories with a French translation was issued by the lexicographer Troude under the title of _Ar marvailler brezounek_ (Brest, 1870), and one of the most popular books at the present day is _Pipi Gonto_, by A. le Moal (St Brieuc, vol. i. 1902, vol. ii. 1908). A recent collection of stories with a religious tendency is C.M. le Prat's _Marvailhou ar Vretoned_ (Brest, 1907). The modern movement, which started in the 'nineties of last century, has already produced numerous dramas and volumes of lyrics, and it may now be affirmed in all seriousness that Brittany is producing something really national. The scope of the writers of the earlier movement was very limited and little originality was displayed in their productions. The literary output of the last ten years in Brittany may truly be termed prodigious, and much of it reaches quite a high level. The dramas which are being produced are mainly propagandist in the interests either of the _Union Regionaliste Bretonne_ or of temperance reform. These are for the most

## part very crude, but they have been received with great enthusiasm, and

this has led to the revival of the old mysteries, though in a somewhat modified form. The foremost living writer is Fanch Jaffrennou, who writes under the name of "_Taldir_" (Brow of Steel) and is the author of two very striking volumes of lyrics--_An Hirvoudou_ or _Sighs_ (St Brieuc, 1899) and _An Delen Dir_ or _The Harp of Steel_ (St Brieuc, 1900). The latter is the most interesting outcome of the modern movement. Among other poets we may mention N. Quellien (_Annaik_, Paris, 1880; _Breiz, Poesies bretonnes_, Paris, 1898), Erwan Berthou (_Dre an Delen hag ar c'horn-boud, Par la harpe et par le cor de guerre_, St Brieuc, 1904), C.M. le Prat, who writes under the name of Klaoda (_Mouez Reier Plougastel_, "The Voice of the Cliffs of Plougastel," St Brieuc, 1905), J. Cuillandre (_Mouez an Aochou, La Voix des greves_, Rennes, 1903), abbe Lec'hvien, _Gwerziou ha soniou_ (St Brieuc, 1900), and, further, two anonymous volumes of verse, _An Tremener, Gwerziou ha soniou_ (Brest, 1900), and _Kanaouennou Kerne_ (Brest, 1900). Two older collections are mentioned by Dottin--J. Cadiou, _En Breiz-Izel_ (Morlaix, 1885) and _Ivona_ (Morlaix, 1886). An anthology of latter-day lyrics appeared at Rennes in 1902 under the title of _Bleuniou Breiz-Izel, Dibab Barzoniezou_. Of the numerous plays those most deserving of mention from a literary point of view are perhaps _Ar Vezventi_ by T. le Garrec; the comedy _Alanik al Louarn_ by J.M. Perrot (Brest, 1905) based on the farce of Pathelin; Tanguy Malmanche, _Le Conte de l'ame qui a faim_, in which Breton superstitions connected with the spirits of the dead are introduced with strange effect; J. le Bayon, _En Eutru Keriolet_ (Vannes, 1902), which deals with the life and death of a blaspheming Breton nobleman of the early part of the 17th century; F. Jaffrennou, _Pontkallek_ (Brest, 1903), which tells of the betrayal of a noble Breton who was put to death by the French in 1720; and the farce _Eur Pesk-Ebrel_ by L. Rennadis (Morlaix, 1900).

AUTHORITIES.--A history of Breton literature does not exist, though we possess ample materials for such a work. The following works and articles may be consulted: G. Dottin. _Revue de synthese historique_, viii, 93-104, contains a full bibliography; J. Loth, _Chrestomathie bretonne_ (Paris, 1890); L.C. Stern in _Die Kultur d. Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1, pp. 132-137; A. le Braz, _Le Theatre celtique_ (Paris, 1904); H. Gaidoz and P. Sebillot, "Bibliographie des traditions et de la litterature populaire de la Bretagne" (_Revue celtique_, v. 277-338; supplement by P. Sebillot_, Revue de Bretagne, de Vendee, et d'Anjou_, 1894); F.M. Luzel, "Formules initiates et finales des conteurs en Basse-Bretagne" (_Revue celtique_, iii. 336 ff.); L.F. Sauve, "Formulettes et traditions diverses de la Basse-Bretagne" (_Revue celtique_, v. 157 ff.); _Charmes_, "Oraisons et conjurations magiques," ib vi. 66 ff.; "Devinettes bretonnes," _ib._ iv 60 ff.; "Proverbes et dictons de la Basse-Bretagne," _ib._ i-iii. For Breton proverbs see also A. Brizeux, "Furnez Breiz," in _Oeuvres de A. Brizeux_ (Paris, 1903); J. Loth, "Chansons en bas-vannetais" (_Revue celtique_, vii. 171 ff.); N. Quellien, _Chansons et danses des Bretons_ (Paris, 1889); E. Ernault, "Chansons populaires" (_Revue celtique_, xxiii. 121 ff.); P. le Roux, "Une Chanson bretonne du xviii^e siecle" (_Revue celtique_, xix. 1). Since 1901 a complete bibliography of modern works pertaining to Breton language and literature appears from time to time in the _Annales de Bretagne._ (E. C. Q.)

VI. CORNISH LITERATURE.--The literature of Cornwall is more destitute of originality and more limited in scope than that of Brittany, and it is remarkable that the medieval drama should occupy the most prominent place in both. The earliest Cornish we know consists of proper names and a vocabulary. About 200 Cornish names occur among the manumissions of serfs in the Bodmin Gospels (10th century). They were printed by Whitley Stokes in the _Revue celtique_, i. 232. Next comes the Cottonian Vocabulary, which seems to follow a similar Anglo-Saxon collection and is contained in a 12th-century MS. at the British Museum. It consists of seven pages and the words are classified under various headings, such as heaven and earth, different parts of the human body, birds, beasts, fishes, trees, herbs, ecclesiastical and liturgical terms. At the end we find a number of adjectives. This vocabulary was printed by Zeuss[2], p. 1065, and again in alphabetical order by Norris in the _Ordinalia_. The language of this document is termed Old Cornish, although the forms it contains correspond to those of Mid. Welsh and Mid. Breton.

The first piece of connected Cornish which we know consists of a poem, or portion of a play(?), of forty-one lines discovered by Jenner in the British Museum. This fragment was probably written about 1400 and deals with the subject of marriage (edited by W. Stokes in the _Revue celtique_, iv. 258). A little later is the _Poem of Mount Calvary_ or _the Passion_, of which five MSS. are in existence. The poem has been twice printed, first by Davies Gilbert with English translation by John Keigwin (1826), and again by W. Stokes for the London Philological Society in 1862. It consists of 259 stanzas of eight lines of seven syllables apiece, and contains a versified narrative of the events of the Passion made up from the Gospels and apocryphal sources, notably the Gospel of Nicodemus. But the bulk of Cornish literature is made up of plays, and in this connexion it may be noted that there still exist in the west of Cornwall the remains of a number of open-air amphitheatres, locally called _plan an guari_, where the plays seem to have been acted. The earliest representatives of this kind of literature in Cornwall form a trilogy going under the name of _Ordinalia_, of which three MSS. are known, one a 15th-century Oxford MS. from which the two others are copied. The _Ordinalia_ were published by Edwin Norris under the title of _The Ancient Cornish Drama_ (Oxford, 1859). The first play is called _Origo Mundi_ and deals with events from the Old Testament down to the building of Solomon's temple. The second play, the _Passio Domini_, goes on without interruption into the third, the _Resurrectio Domini_, which embraces the Harrowing of Hell, the Resurrection and Ascension, the legend of St Veronica and Tiberius, and the death of Pilate. Here again the pseudo-Gospel of Nicodemus is drawn upon, and interwoven with the Scriptural narrative we find the Legend of the Cross. As the title _Ordinalia_ indicates, these plays are of learned origin and are imitated from English sources. The popular name for these dramas, _quari-mirkle_, is a literal translation of the English term miracle play, and Norris shows that whole passages were translated word for word. Many of the events are represented as having taken place in well-known Cornish localities, but apart from this scarcely any traces of originality can be discovered. The same remark holds good in the case of another play, _Beunans Meriasek_ or the _Life of St Meriasek._ This deals in an incoherent manner with the life and death of Meriasek (in Breton _Meriadek_), the son of a duke of Brittany, and interwoven with this theme is the legend of St Silvester and the emperor Constantine, quite regardless of the circumstance that St Silvester lived in the 4th and St Meriasek in the 7th century. The MS. of this play was written by "Dominus Hadton" in the year 1504, and is preserved in the Peniarth library. The language is more recent than that of the _Ordinalia_, and there is a certain admixture of English. The _Life of St Meriasek_ falls into two parts, and at the end of each the spectators are invited to carouse. St Meriasek was in earlier times the patron saint of Camborne, where his fountain is still to be seen and pilgrims to it were known by the name of _Merra-sickers._ In this play, consequently, we might expect to find something really Cornish. But le Braz has shown that the author of this motley drama was content to draw his materials from Latin and English lives of saints. The story of Meriasek himself was taken from a Breton source and closely resembles the narrative of the 17th-century Breton hagiographer, Albert le Grand. The last play we have to mention is _Gwreans an Bys_ (The Creation of the World), of which five complete copies are known. Two of these are in the Bodleian and one in the British Museum, which also possesses a further fragment. The oldest text was revised by William Jordan of Helston in 1611, but there are indications that parts of it at any rate are older than the Reformation. This play bears a great resemblance to the first part of the _Origo Mundi_, and may have been imitated from it. It was printed first by Davies Gilbert in 1827 with a translation by John Keigwin, and again by W. Stokes in the _Transactions of the London Philological Society_ for 1864. The language shows considerable signs of decay, and Lucifer and his angels are often made to speak English. The only other original compositions of any length written in Cornish are _Nebbaz Gerriau dro tho Carnoack_ (A Few Words about Cornish), by John Boson (printed in the _Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall_, 1879), and the _Story of John of Chy-an-Hur_ (Ram's House), a folk-tale which appears in Ireland and elsewhere. The latter was printed in Lhuyd's _Grammar_ and in Pryce's _Archaeologia_. Andrew Borde's _Booke of the Introduction of Knowledge_ (1542) contains some Cornish conversations (see _Archiv f. celt. Lexikographie_, vol. i.), and in Carew's _Survey of Cornwall_ a number of words and phrases are to be found. Apart from the Cornish preface to Lhuyd's _Grammar_, the other remains of the language consist of a few songs, verses, proverbs, epigrams, epitaphs, maxims, letters, conversations, mottoes and translations of chapters and passages of Scripture, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Commandments, King Charles's Letter, &c. These fragments are to be found (1) in the Gwavas MS. in the British Museum, a collection ranging in date from 1709 to 1736; (2) in the Borlase MS. (1750); (3) in Pryce's _Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica_ (1790); (4) in D. Gilbert's editions of the _Poem of the Passion_ (1826) and the Creation of the World (1827). They are enumerated, classified and described by Jenner in his _Handbook._

AUTHORITIES.--H. Jenner, _Handbook of the Cornish Language_ (London, 1904); A. le Braz, _Le Theatre celtique_ (Paris, 1905); E. Norris, _The Ancient Cornish Drama_ (2 vols., Oxford, 1859); T.C. Peter, _The Old Cornish Drama_ (London, 1906); L.C. Stern, _Die Kultur d. Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1, pp. 131-132. (E. C. Q.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] J. Loth gives it as his opinion that as late as 1400-1600 a Cornishman and a Breton might have been able to understand one another.

[2] It is indeed probable that Myrddin is a purely fictitious character, whose name has been made up from Caer Fyrddin (=Maridunum), which was certainly not a personal name.

[3] Another derivation of this word is from _llad_, "profit" + _hai_, a suffix denoting the agent. Others derive it from or connect it with the Irish _slad-_.

CELT, a word in common use among British and French archaeologists to describe the hatchets, adzes or chisels of chipped or shaped stone used by primitive man. The word is variously derived from the Welsh _cellt_, a flintstone (that being the material of which the weapons are chiefly made, though celts of basalt felstone and jade are found); from being supposed to be the implement peculiar to the Celtic peoples; or from a Low Latin word _celtis_, a chisel. The last derivation is more probably correct. The word has come to be somewhat loosely applied to metal as well as stone axe-heads. The general form of stone celts is that of blades approaching an oval in section, with sides more or less straight and one end broader and sharper than the other. In length they vary from about 2 to as much as 16 in. The largest and finest specimens are found in Denmark: one in an English collection being of beautiful white flint 13 in. long, 1-1/2 in. thick and 3-1/2 in. broad. Those found in Denmark are sometimes polished, but usually are left rough. Those found in north-western Europe are ground to a more or less smooth surface. That some were held in the hand and others fixed in wooden handles is clear from the presence of peculiar polished spaces produced by the friction of the wood. In the later stone adzes holes are sometimes found pierced to receive the handles.

The bronze celts vary in size from an inch to a foot in length. The earlier specimens are much like the stone ones in shape and design, but the later manufactures show a marked improvement, the metal being usually pierced to receive the handles. It is noteworthy that the celtmakers never cast their axes with a transverse hole through which the handle might pass. Bronze celts are usually plain, but some are ornamented with ridges, dots or lines. That they were made in the countries where they are found is proved by the presence of moulds.

A point worthy of mention is the position which stone celts hold in the folk-lore and superstitious beliefs of many lands. In the West of England the country folks believe the weapons fell originally from the sky as "thunderbolts," and that the water in which they are boiled is a specific for rheumatism. In the North and Scotland they are preservatives against cattle diseases. In Brittany a stone celt is thrown into a well to purify the water. In Sweden they are regarded as a protection against lightning. In Norway the belief is that, if they are genuine thunderbolts, a thread tied round them when placed on hot coals will not burn but will become moist. In Germany, Spain, Italy, the same beliefs prevail. In Japan the stones are accounted of medicinal value, while in Burma and Assam they are infallible specifics for ophthalmia. In Africa they are the weapons of the Thunder-God. In India and among the Greeks the hatchet appears to have had a sacred importance, derived, doubtless, from the universal superstitious awe with which these weapons of prehistoric man were regarded.

See Sir J. Evans's _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_; Lord Avebury's _Prehistoric Times_ (1865-1900) and _Origin of Civilization_ (1870); E.B. Tylor's _Anthropology, and Primitive Culture_, &c. For the history of polished stone axes up to the 17th century see Dr Marrel Bandouin and Lionel Bonnemere in the _Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris_, April-May 1905.