There are extant, says Owen Pughe, some thirty old treatises on Welsh grammar and prosody. The most important of these is one composed by Geraint (880 revised by Eiuiou (1200 A.D.), and regularly privileged by the sovereigns who then exercised author ity in Wales. It was first printed by the Welsh MS. society in 1856, under the editor ship of the rev. J. Williams ab Ithel. Among English grammars of the Welsh lan guage, the best is said to be that by the rev. Thomas Rowland (2d ed. 1857); among dictionaries, that of Owen Pughe, entitled Geiriddur Cymraeg a Saesoneg, a Welsh and English Dictionary (2 vols. 1793; 3 ed. 1861, et seq.). It is, however, only a Welsh-Eng lish dictionary; the most satisfactory English-Welsh dictionary is that published by Daniel Silvan Evans (2 vols. Denbigh, 1852-1858).
The literature of Wales has been arranged into four periods: the first extending from the earliest times of the Norman conquest (1066 A. D. ) ; the second, from the Norman con quest to the English reformation (circa 1536 A.D.); the third, from the English reforma tion to the beginning of the reign of George III. (1760 A.D.); and the fourth, from 1760 to the present day. To what date the oldest specimens of Welsh literature ought to be assigned, has been the subject of sharp dispute. These specimens are in verse and are rhymed. The chief of their alleged authors, with their supposed periods, are Aneurin (510-560 A.D.), Taliesin (520-570 A.D.), Llywarch Hen, or "the Old" (550-640 A.D.), and Myrddiu or Merlin (530-600 A.D.). According to Pinkerton (see his preface to Barbour) and Laing (Dissertation on Ossian), they are not authentic; but the vindication of their authenticity, first by Sharon Turner in 1803, and afterward and more critically, by Mr. Stephens of Merthyr-Tydvil, in his Literature of the Kymny (1849), and Mr. Nash. in his Taliesin, or the Bards and Druids of Britain (1858), is considered conclusive. The last two of these writers, however, may almost be said to meet their opponents half way. Of the seventy-seven poems ascribed to Taliesin in the illyryrian Arclaeology of Wales (a collection of all the most celebrated works in Welsh literature, 500-1400 A.D.), which appeared in 1801—under the auspices of Mr. Jones, Mr. Edward Williarns(better_ known as "Edward of Glamorgan"), and Dr. Owen Pughe-3Ir. Stephens considers fifty-seyen to be demonstrably spurious, and only twelve to be probably genuine, that is, belonging to the age of Taliesin. Mr. Nash enables us to form an independent judgment on the point, for he translates some fifty of these poems; and we find that, instead of their exhibiting an antique Welsh character, they abound in allusions to mediwval theology, and frequently employ medimval Latin terms. It is certainly unfortunate for the repu
tation of the "chief of the bards," that the specimens of his which are considered to be genuine possess exceedingly small poetic merit. The life of this famous but apparently over-rated genius is, of course, enveloped in legend. He is said to have been the son of a certain St. Henwg, and to have been educated at the college of St. Cadog. His life was spent successively at the courts of Urieu Rheged, Gywddno, prince of Cardigan, and king Arthur, and his sepulcher is shown near Aberystwith. It is still called Bedd Taliesin (Taliesin's grave). Of the poems whose authorship is ascribed to Aneurin, a prince of the Cumbrian Britons, the most notable is that entitled Gododin, in which lie pathetically laments a defeat of his countrymen by the Saxons. It is reckoned authentic. (Several English translations of the Gododin have been published, and a translation of the whole works of Aneurin was published by Mr. Probert in 1820). Llywarch Hen, also a Cum brian warrior, is regarded as the finest and most poetical of the semi-historical Welsh bards. Tradition reports that he lived to the age of 150. The burden of his verse is the miseries of old age, on which he descants with melancholy eloquence. (See The Ileroic Elegies and other Pieces of Llywarch Hen; Prince of the Cumbrian Britons, with a literal translation by William Owen, 1792). The pieces ascribed to Merddyn, in the ifyvyrzan Arc/urology, are in all probability spurious. Besides the names already mentioned, other poets of the first period are Gwyddno, Girilym ab Don, Go]yddau, etc.
The earliest specimen of Welsh prose now extant is the collection of the laws of king, Ilywel dda, or I lowel the good (died 748 A.D.)—a work of great value in illustrating the 1 manners and morals of early Welsh times, but it is very uncertain when or by Nv ho in the collection was made. The oldest extant MS. belongs to the 12th century. The late't and most critical edition (Welsh and English) is that published in. 1841 by the record commission, and edited by Aneurin Owen, son of Dr. Owen Pughe. Another work, entitled fame Wisdom of Cadog time Wise (a collection of proverbs pretending to be by a St. Cadog, who flourished in the 6th c., and was a friend of Taliesin), is of such doubt ful authenticity that its claim can only be noticed in our sketch.