Cylchgronau Cymru

THE CAMBRIAN JOURNAL. SUPPLEMENTAL NUMBER, 1860. ANCIENT WELSH POEMS. The late Venerable Archdeacon Williams announced, many years before his death, his intention of publishing an edition of the Ancient Welsh Poems attributed to Taliesin, Aneurin, Llywarch Hen, &c, with a translation by himself. This edition was never published, and the reason given by the publisher was that a sufficient sub¬ scription list could not be obtained to guarantee him against loss. Although these poems occupied a large share of the Archdeacon's attention in his Cymric studies, I believe he never seriously prepared the materials for this edition; and I have heard him frequently give as a reason the great difficulty involved, and the time and labour re¬ quired, " in restoring the genuine text," which was neces¬ sary before a translation could be made. The Archdeacon did not therefore intend to adopt for this work the text in the Myvyrian Archaiology; and what he meant by " re¬ storing the genuine text" we can see from his Gomer, Part II., p. 33, et seq., where we have several specimens of how he meant to deal with the text. What he pro¬ posed to do was to restore the orthography of the words to what he conceived must have been their form when the poem was composed. Villemarque, in his edition of CAMB. JOUR., I860. 2 S