Cylchgronau Cymru

May 6, 1891. BYE-GONES. 75 Tri pheth sy'n hawdd eu siglo, Llong ar f 6r pan f o hi'n nolo, Llidiart newydd ar glawdd ceryg, A het ar goryn merch fonheddig. Sawl a feio arnaf beied, Heb fai arno nac arbeded; Sawl sy' dan eu beiau beunydd, Fe eill y rheiny fod yn llonydd. The pennillion range over all sorts of subjects—grave and gay, humorous and melancholy, life and death, love and hate. They form one of the most curious anthologies in any literature. For purity and beauty they deserve to be placed side by side with, if not even higher than, the Greek anthology. It is the duty of all Welshmen to bring what is best in their literature to bear on and to influence life—to have a share in the moulding of literary life in Europe, as Wales had in the Middle Ages—and to unite their own nation, scattered as it is throughout the world, in one bond for the common good. MAY 6, 1891. NOTES. MYVYRIAN LETTERS, Continued (Apr. 22, 1891). VI.—EDWARD WILLIAMS TO OWEN JONES.—A point of first interest in the following letter is the selection made by Mr Owen Jones of associating with him (and W. Owen) the Bard Iolo, in getting up the great projected work of printing and publishing the ancient literature of Wales, which proposal he accepted with great warmth. T.W.H. Flimston, near Cowbridge, Glamorgan, August 7th, 1798. My dear friend,—I have been informed some time ago that you intend publishing our ancient Welsh manuscripts; and Mr Owen has told me on what plan. I cannot help greatly admiring you, and wondering at your benevolent patriotism. You have aleady done more towards the revival of our ancient Bardic literature than any one living—than any one that ever lived since the commencement of its de¬ cline, which was coeval with the commencement of the seventeenth century : but the amazingly expen¬ sive undertaking that you now are going about, ex- ceedswhat all rationality could have expected from, not only one individual, but an association of several of the amplest fortunes. You will not have your name announced, I am told, lest you should be sneered at for your nationality, etc.; enjoy the humour, it shall not be crossed on my part; it springs, I must confess, from that most amiable of all virtues, Modesty—but a city on a hill cannot long remain unobserved or uncelebrated, for what¬ ever it may contain worthy of notice the name of Owen Myfyr must descend to future ages with tran- scendant fame. What our ancient Bards relate of Tydain Tad Awen.as the restorer of the almost lost Barddoniaethand Bardism of the ancient Gwyddon- iaid, and on whose principles our Tri-chyntefigion Beirdd Ynys Prydain found our splendidly beautiful Bardic and Druidic system, will be again verified in Owain Myfyr; from him a new era will commence ; future Bards will sing of him something similar to, but in a higher strain than, the following :— " Owain, yn firain adferwyd—gennyd Hen geiniaith a gollwyd, I adwedd ei dwyn ydwyd, Tad Awen ail Tydain wyd." I hope to live long enough to publish the History of the Bards ; have arranged it under eras or periods of time, and peculiarity of characteristics :—1. From the most ancient notices of the Bards and Druids to the middle of the Fifth century, or rather to the time the Romans quitted the island. 2. Thence to the time of Gruff'udd ap Cynan. 3. Thence to the death of Llewelyn ap Gruff'udd. 4. Thence to the middle of the Fourteenth century. 5. Thence com¬ mencing with Gorsedd Marchwiail to Eisteddfod Caerfyrddin. 6. Thence to the death of Queen Elizabeth. 7. Thence, when prevailed a new and degenerated kind of poetry, to the institution of the Gwyneddigion Society by Owain Jones, whence, 8, a new era commences. I cannot in this be impeached of either inj ustice or flattery, however I may be mistaken with respect to the preceding periods, but I will say no more on this subject. You have, I find, mentioned me as one of the editors ; I am under the greatest obligation to you for, I fear, your too high opinion of my abilities. I will endeavour to disengage myself from my present concerns in a short time, in the course of the autumn at farthest, so as to be able to be at your ser¬ vice. I showed Mr Wm. Owen last summer a copy that I had taken of Edeyrn Dafod Aur's grammar. I have completed, about a month ago, another copy, which I would have sent ere now to London, but .... informs me that he intends prepar¬ ing a parcel to be sent up in a short time, and in it Dosparth Edeyrn Dafod Aur shall be sent, with other things. I will do all in my power to collect whatever of ancient manuscripts may be found in Glamorgan and in the neighbouring counties. Let me know your commands, for I am preparing myself as well as I can to be at this service. I have some ideas on the subject of your intended publication, which shall intrude on your patience in a letter that shall be sent in the course of this month with Edeyrn. They are not dogmas but humble conjec¬ tures. I have a Cato Cymraeg that differs from, or is rather an amplification of yours ; also a copy of an old manuscript on the cultivation of orchards; both these manuscripts contain principles of agri¬ culture and horticulture that will, even in the pre¬ sent age of improvement, be adopted as soon as known, and which will do honour to the nation, language andage that produced them. I humbly con¬ ceive that our ancient literature in all its branches of poetry, history, grammar, agriculture, physic, morality, jurisprudence, etc., should be preserved. From the poets of the later ages, i.e., those who wrote after the death of Llewelyn, I conceive that selections will be sufficient; for to print their whole work would be attended with an enormous expense; and perhaps many things, at least some things of the Gogynfeirdd, should be taken in; the whole I im¬ agine of these will not exceed a good octavo volume. I think that we have been under some mistakes with respect to the authenticity of the poems of Taliesin, some of them at least. I will explain myself in my next. I think some of those to be genuine that have of late been deemed spurious.