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AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF

THE WELSH BARD S,

AND

B

THEIR MUSIC AND POETRY.

Y the Roman invafion, and the more barbarous incurfions of the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, and the emigration of the Britons to Armorica; by the frequent deftruction of MSS; and the maffacres of the Clergy 3, and the Bards; the Poetry and Mufic of Wales have fuffered a lofs, that has thrown a dark cloud over the hiftory of thofe native arts, and for a long time threatened their total extinction. Yet from the memorials ftill extant, and the poetical and mufical compofitions which time has fpared, we are enabled often to produce unquestionable evidence, and always to form a probable conjecture, concerning their rife and progrefs among us as there is no living nation that can produce works of fo remote antiquity, and at the fame time of fuch unimpeached authority as the Welsh *.

Blegywryd ab Seifyllt, the 56th fupreme King of Britain, who reigned 28 years, and died 2069 years after the Deluge, or about 190 before Chrift: of whom it is recorded, that he excelled all before him in the Science of Mufic; and was called, for his extraordinary fkill in Vocal and Inftrumental Melody, The God of Mufic. Also, Le Brut d'Angleterre, or Metrical Hiftory of Brutus, represents Gabbet, or Blegywryd, as the most able musician of his time; and specifies fix inftruments upon which that monarch could perform.

1 Little Britain, now Bretagne, in France, was called, in Cæfar's time, Ar-y-môr-ucha', i. e. on the upper Sea; and afterwards inhabited by Britons, about the year of Chrift 384; a hundred thoufand Britons, befides a numerous army of foldiers, went out of this Island under the command of Conan, Lord of Meriadoc, now Denbighland; to the aid of Maximus the Tyrant, against the Emperor Gratianus, and conquered the faid_country of Arymor-ucha; for this fervice Maximus granted to Conan and his followers Ar'morucha; where the Britons drove out all the former inhabitants, feated themselves, and erected a Kingdom, which lafted many years under feveral Kings; and where their fucceffors to this day speak the Welsh language; being the third remnant of the Ancient Britons. Connan of Meriadoc, was Nephew to Euddaf King of Britain. See Drychy Prif Oefoedd, by Theophilus Evans. Caradoc's Hift. of Wales, by Wynne, p. 8. and Lewis's Hiflory of Great Britain, p. 143 fol.

The Cymry, or the Welth, are defcended from Gomer, the eldeft fon of Japheth, fon of Noah; whofe offsprings were the Origin of nations, and who divided on the earth after the flood. Genefs, Chap. 10. ver. 32.

2 The Welsh nobles, who were captives in the Tower of London (formerly called the White Tower, and part of it now known by that name), obtained permiffion that the contents of their libraries fhould be fent them from Wales, to amufe them in their folitude and confinement. This was a frequent practice, fo that in procefs of time the Tower became the principal repofitory of Welsh literature. Unfortunately for our history and poetry, all the MSS. thus collected were burnt by the villainy of one Scolan, of whom nothing more is known. Gutto'r Glyn, an eminent Bard, who flourished in the 14th century, has in one of his poems the following paffage :

Llyfrau Cymru au llofrudd

I'r Twr Gwyn aethant ar gudd;

Yfceler oedd Yfcolan

Fwrw'r twrr lyfrau i'r tân.

The books of Cymru and their remains

Went to the White Tower, where they were hid.
Curfed was Ysgolan's act,

In throwing them in heaps into the fire.

De

(Leland fays, that King Belin, the fon of Dynywal, built the Tower of London, about 430 years before Chrift. Allo, Verunnius records, that when Belin died, his body was burnt, and put into a golden urn, upon the top of a tower that he had built, which was afterwards called by his name Belin's Gate. He alfo built Caer-wyfg now called Caer-llcon, on the river Ufk. Stow's Survey of Great Britain.)

Du ing the infurrection of Owen Glyndwr, the MSS then extant of the ancient British learning and poetry were so scattered and destroyed, "that there eicaped not one, (as William Salifbury relates) that was not incurably maimed, and irrecuperably torn and mangled." See Evans's Specimens of the Welsh Poetry, p. 160.

Gildas, the most ancient British author, who flourished about A. D. 580, bemoans the lofs of records in these words: "The monuments of our country, or writers, appear not, as either burnt by the fire of enemies, or tranfported far off by our banished countrymen." Gildas's Epiftle.

3" The univerfity of Bangor-is-Coed, founded by Lucius king of Britain, was remarkable for its valuable library. It continued 350 years, and produced inany learned men Congelus, a holy man, who died A. D. 530, changed the university into a monaftery, containing 1200 Monks. At the inftigation of Auftin the Monk, Ethelfred, king of Northumberland, maffacred twelve hundred of the British clergy of this monaftery: nine hundred, who escaped, were afterwards flain by pirates. This happened in the year 603. See Humphrey Lloyd's Britannica Defcriptionis Commentariolum. Lewis's Hiftory of Great Britain. Folio. p. 107. And Rowland's Mona Antiqua, 2d edition, p. 138. and 151

4 See Guthrie's Hiftorical Grammar, and the fequel of this history.

*There is a Catalogue of fome of the most ancient Welsh manufcripts in Leges Wallice, Fol. after the preface. And in Ed. Lhuyd's Archeologia Britannica, Fol. p. 254, &c. and in p. 225. Alfo in the Harleian Library, and in many other pri vate Libraries in Wales.

5 " Ac yn ol Seifill y daeth Blegywryd yn frenhim, ac ni bu erioed Gantor cyftal ag ef o Gelfyddyd Mufic, na chwrydd cyftal ag ef o budol, ac am hynny y gelwid ef Duw y Gwareu, A hwn a wladychawdd ar Ynys Brydein 28 mlynedd ag ynay bu farw : fef oedd bunny wedi diliw 2069 o flynyddoedd." Tyffilio's British History,

B

De tous eftrumens fot maistrie

Si fot de toute chanterie,

Molt fot de lais, molt fot de notes, &c.

De vieles fot et de rote,

De Harpe fot et dechorum,

De lire, et de pfalterium:

Por ce qu'il ot de chant tel fens,

Difoient la gent en fon tems,

Que il eft dieux des jongliours,

Et dieux de tous les chanteours, &c.

Ev'ry inftrument could play,
And in sweetest manner fing;
Chanting forth each kind of lay,
To the found of pipe or ftring.

He to pfaltry, viol, rote,

Harp, Crwth, and Lyre could fing;
And fo fweet was ev'ry note

When he touch'd the trembling ftring:

That with love and zeal inflam'd,

All who join'd the lift'ning throng,

Him with ecstasy proclaim'd

God of Minstrels, God of Song".

Before I enter on the account of the Druids, it is requifite to give a derivation of the names of the different claffes, by which they were formerly known. The Derwydd, Bardd, and Ovydd; or, as the English reader will better recognize them, the Druid, Bard, and Ovade, have been treated with great levity by etymologists; for they have been changed to almost every thing, in order to prop a tottering system, or to hasten the conception of a fanciful reverie. After making this remark, it will be neceffary to avoid incurring cenfure, and falling into the like error; which I hope to do, by giving the exact meaning of these words, ftrictly as they are found in British writings for twelve centuries paft, and without torturing them by altering a single letter; a plan that should always be adhered to in a language like the Welsh, that springs and expands from a regular fet of primitive roots; otherwise it ends in mere conjecture; and in that case a fruitful brain may guess a very plaufible idea, and yet be far enough from the truth.

Derwydd, means the Body of the Oak, and by implication the Man of the Oak; formed from Derw, Oak, and ydd, a termination of nouns; as Llywydd, and Darllenydd; anfwering to the English terminations in Governor, Reader, and the like.

Bardd, fignifies the Branching, or what fprings from; derived from Bár, a branch, or, the top; as Cardd from Car; Tardd from Tar, and Taren: also, the Misleto of the Oak is called Uchel-far, the High, or Lofty Shrub.

Ovydd, implies the Sapling, or Unformed Plant; from ov, raw, pure, and ydd, above explained; but when applied to a perfon, Ovydd means a Noviciate; or a holy one fet apart.

Thence it appears evident, that Derwydd, Bardd, and Ovydd, were emblematical names of the three orders in the system of Druidism, very fignificant of the particular function of each. The Derwydd was the trunk, or fupport of the whole; whofe prerogative it was to form, and prefide over rights and myfteries. The Bardd was the Ramification from that trunk, arrayed in foliage, which made it conspicuous; whofe office was to record, and fing to the multitude the precepts of their religion. And the Ovydd was the young Shoot growing up, ensuring a profpect of permanency to the facred Grove; he was confidered as a difciple, and confequently conducted the lightest and most trivial duties appertaining to the fpreading temple of the Oak".

The Bards were originally a conftitutional appendage of the druidical hierarchy, which was divided into three claffes, priests, philofophers, and poets. At Llanidan in Anglesey, formerly inhabited by the druidical conventual focieties, we at this day find veftiges of Tre'r Dryw, the Arch Druid's manfions; Bód-drudaû, the abode of the inferior ones; and near them Bôd-owyr, the abode of the Ovades; and Tre'r Beirdd, the hamlet of the Bards 9. Mr. Mafon, in his Caractacus, has adopted the ancient diftinction of three orders of Druids.

Hiftory, MS. Fabian alfo, fpeaking of Blegored, names him
"a conyng muficyan, called of the Britons God of Gleemen."
Chron. f. 32, ed. 1533. See alfo Lewis's Hiftory, b. 3. ch. 35.
Blegywryd was fucceeded to the Crown of Britain by his brother
Archmael. Blegywryd's daughter Agafia, married Durftus King of
Scotland, about the year of the world 864; and from her the
fucceeding race of Scottish Kings are defcended, George Owen
Harry's Book of Genealogy. Quarto.

Burney's Hift. of Mufic, Vol. II. p. 353.

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Having spoken of the arch Druid, he proceeds

His brotherhood

Poffefs the neighb'ring cliffs :

On the left

Refide the fage Ovades :- yonder grots
Are tenanted by Bards, who nightly thence,
Robed in their flowing vefts of innocent white,

Defcend, with harps that glitter to the moon,
Hymning immortal strains.

Of the Bards, however, and of their poetry and mufic, at those remote periods, little more than a faint tradition is preserved: and that little we either derive from the poetical remains of the British annals, or glean wherever it is scattered over the wider field of Roman history. There is no account indeed of Britain in any writer preceding Cæfar; but as it is incredible that its ancient arts fprung up under the oppreffion of the Roman yoke, and as it has never been pretended that any part of them was borrowed from the conquerors; whatever mention of them is found in the Greek and Roman authors, who fucceeded the first invafion, may fairly be produced as in fome measure defcriptive of their ftate before it.

Those nations could not furely be rude in the conftruction of their poetry and mufic, among whom, as Cæfar declares, the fupremacy and omnipotence of the gods was acknowledged, the immortality and tranfmigration of the foul was believed", opinions were formed concerning the motion of the planets and the dimenfions of the world, and whofe youth was inftructed in the nature and philofophy of things.

12

In all the Celtic nations we discover a remarkable uniformity of manners and institutes. It was the cufstom of the antient Germans, when they marched to battle, to animate themselves with finging verses, prophetic of their success, which they called Barditus 22. It was the honourable office of the Bards of Britain to fing to the harp; at their nuptials and funeral obfequies, their games and other folemnities, and, at the head of their armies, the praises of those who had fignalized themselves by virtuous and heroic actions 13. This entertainment made a deep impreffion on the young warriors; elevated some to heroifm, and prompted virtue in every breaft. Among the Celts, fays Diodorus Siculus 14, are compofers of melodies, called Bards, who fing to inftruments, like lyres, panegyrical, or invective strains: and in fuch reverence are they held, that when two armies, prepared for battle, have caft their darts, and drawn their fwords, on the appearance and interpofition of the Bards, they immediately defift. Thus, even among the rude barbarians, wrath gives place to wifdom, and Mars to the Mufes ".

Pofidonius of Apamea, who flourished about 30 years before Chrift, an author cited by Athenæus in his fixth book, has the following paffage: "The Celts always carry to battle with them people whom they maintain as Parafites. Thefe companions of the table celebrate their praises, either before the crowd which is affembled together, or before any individual who may be interested in these Eulogies. Their Singers they call, Bards; that is to fay, Poets who publifh the praises of Eminent Men with Songs

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worthy men, compofed in heroic verfe. But the Qvades, searching into the highest altitudes of Nature's work, endeavoured to lay open and declare the fame. Among thefe, the Druids of an higher wit and conceit, according as the authority of Pythagoras decreed, being tied unto focieties and fellowships, were addicted wholly unto questions of deep and hidden points, and they defpifing all human things, pronounced that men's fouls were immortal." Ammianus Marcellinus's Hift. by Holland, 15th Book, and Chap. 9th.

14 Ἐὶ καὶ παρ ̓ αὐτοῖς καὶ ποιηαὶ μελῶν, ὃς ΒΑΡΔΟΥΣ ὀνομάξεσι, ὗτοι δὲ μεθ ̓ ὀργάνων ταῖς λύραις ὁμοίων ἄδολες, ὃς μὲν ὑμνᾶσι, ὃς δὲ βλασ Onus. H. Steph. edit. 1559 P. 213.

Diodorus Siculus, Book 5. and Chap. the 2d.

15 Diodorus Siculus de Geft. Fabulos. Antiq. 1. vi. See alfo the notes on the fixth fong of Drayton's Polyolbion.

16 Τὰ δὲ ἀκάσματα αὐτῶν εἰσὶν ὁι καλέμενοι ΒΑΡΔΟΙ. ποιηταὶ δὲ ὗτοι τυγχάνεσι μετ' ᾠδῆς ἐπαίους λέγοντες. Pofidonius apud Atheneum, lib. 6.

A fragment

A fragment of Pofidonius, preserved in Athenæus ", enables us to exhibit the only fpecimen of the genius of the Bards, that can be afcribed with certainty to that early period. Defcribing the wealth and magnificence of Luernius, Pofidonius relates, that, ambitious of popular favour, he frequently was borne over the plains in a chariot, fcattering gold and filver among myriads of the Celts who followed him. On a day of banqueting and feftivity, when he entertained with abundance of choice provifions and a profufion of coftly liquors, his innumerable attendants; a poet of the Barbarians, arriving long after the reft, greeted him with finging the praife of his unrivaled bounty and exalted virtues, but lamented his own bad fortune in fo late an arrival. Luernius, charmed with his fong, called for a purfe of gold, and threw it to the Bard; who, animated with gratitude, renewed the encomium, and proclaimed, that the track of his chariot wheels upon the earth was productive of wealth and bleffings to mankind.

ΔΙΟΤΙ ΤΑ ΙΧΝΗ ΤΗΣ ΓΗΣ (ΕΦ ΗΣ ΑΡΜΑΤΗΛΑΤΕΙ) ΧΡΥΣΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΥΕΡΓΕΣΙΑΣ
ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙΣ ΦΕΡΕΙ.

The difciples of the Druidical Bards, during a noviciate of twenty years, learnt an immenfe number of verfes, in which they preferved the principles of their religious and civil polity by uninterrupted tradition for many centuries. Though the ufe of letters was familiar to them, they did not deem it lawful to commit their verses to writing, for the fake of ftrengthening their intellectual faculties, and of keeping their mysterious knowledge from the contemplation of the vulgar.

The metre in which these oracular inftructions were communicated to the people, was called Englyn Milwr, or the Warrior's Song; and is a kind of Triplet Stanza. To give the English reader an adequate idea of their conftruction, I have caufed them to be tranflated into the fame number of lines and feet as the original, and have endeavoured to preferve the fenfe as near as the confined limits of the metre would allow. The two first lines do not feem to have much connection with the laft; however, there appears to have been no small degree of art employed in their compofition. In the first lines the Druid describes either actions that are familiar to every one, or the appearance of vifible objects; he then concludes with a precept of morality, or a proverbial fentence; and by annexing it to undoubted fact, artfully implies, and engages the mind to receive the truth of the moral maxim, as equally clear and well established as the identity of material objects 19.

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17 See the Rev. Mr. Evans's Specimens of Welsh Poetry, in

Differt. de Bardis, p. 65, and 66.

18 Cæfar de Bello Gallico, 1. vi.

19 See Rowland's Mona Antiqua, p. 253, and Lhwyd's Arche

ologia Britannica, p. 251, and 221.

20 The following trees and plants, are mentioned in the Drudical verfes, of March-wiail Derw mwynllwyn, and in Eiry Mynydd.

Dár; Derw, and Deri: Oak, and Oaks.

Cyrawal, (Criavol); the Quicken berries, or Mountain-afh.
Avall, an apple-tree.

Coll, hazle-tree.

Celli, a grove of hazle.

Celyn, holly-tree.

Kelyg, willows.

Ysbyddad, a white thorn.

Berg, the juniper-tree.

Perth, a bush, or thorn-hedge.

Bedw, birch-trees.

Onn, afh-trees.

Banadl, broom.

Ysgaw, elder-trees; wall-wort, Dane-wort, or dwarf-elder. Dryfi a mwyar; briars and dew-berries; black-berries, or bramble-berries.

Eithin, furze, or gorfe.

Million, the trefoil, or clover.

In the Oak's high-tow'ring grove,

Dwells the liberty I love

Bablers from thy trust remove.

Cawn, the reed-grafs.

Efur (Efre), ever, darnel, or cockle.
Tafarul, a fort of dock.

Erwain, Goat's-beard, or elm-weed.
Rhedyn, fern, or polypody of the oak.
Erwyn, rushes.

Grúg, heath, or ling.

Eleftr, the herb called flower-de-luce.
Gwyddfyd, honey-fuckle.

Marchwiail

Y Dderwen fendigaid, '(Lyfiau'r hudol,) the vervain, or cowflip. It feems that the Druids venerated thefe trees, and plants, according to their beauty, and the ufe they made of them.

The fignal oak which the Druids made choice of, was fuch a one, on which Mifleto did grow; by which token, they conceived that God marked it out, as of fovereign virtue. Under this tree, on the fixth day of the moon, (wherein they began their year), they invocated their Deity, with many other ceremonies. When the end of the year approached, they marched with great folemnity to gather the Mifleto, in order to prefent if to God; inviting all the world to affift at the ceremony in these words: The New Year is at hand, gather the Mileto. The facrifices being ready, the priest afcended the Oak, and with a golden hook cut off the Milleto, which was received in a white garment fpread for that purpofe. This part of the ceremony being ended, the victims, two white bulls that never had been

yoked,

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