Second Period, 1066-1536.—A few years after the date of the Norman conquest, anew spirit was imported into Welsh poetry by the influence of Gruffydd ab Cynan, prince of North Wales, and Ithys ab Tewdwr, prince of South Wales, particularly of the former. Gruffydd had been born during his father's exile in Ireland, and was brought up in that country, where lie appears to have acquired a familiarity with both the native Celtic lit erature and that of the Dano-Norse invaders. In the year 1100 he held a great Eistedd vod at Caerwys in North Wales, which was numerously attended by Irish bards and musicians. For the next 300 years, Wales is rich in native bards, a fact that conclu sively refutes the tragic story of Edward I. having caused them all to be slain, lest their patriotic songs should stir the Welsh to renew the struggle for independence. Nearly 60 names occur in the Archaiology between 1120 and 1380. The first is that of 3leilyr (1120-60), whose best piece is entitled The Death-bed of the Bard. Meilyr's son, Gwalehmai ab 3leilyr (1150-90), who is said to have accompanied Richard cur de .lion to Palestine, is a superior poet to his father. Fourteen of his productions are extant. Gwalchmai's son, Einion (1170-1220), also figures as a poet. Forty pieces are ascribed to Cyuddelw (1150-1206), a contemporary of Gwalchmai, of which probably the most interesting is The Death-bed of Cynddello, He has also some verses addressed to prince 3Iadog or Madoc of Powys, whom enthusiastic Welshmen conceive to have dis covered America before Columbus. Other bards of this second period are Llywarch ab Llewellyn (1160-1220); Hywel (1140-70), a brother of prince 3Iadoc, and writer chiefly of erotic odes; Owain Cyveilioc (1150-97), also of princely rank, whose firlas, or the Long Blue Horn, is a great favorite with more than and above all, Darydd ab Gwilymn (circa 1340-1400), who has been compared to Ovid, to Petrarch, and to Burns. In his verses, Welsh poetry undergoes a change—the bardic or Scaldic spirit disappears, and a more humane, if less patriotic spirit takes its place. Davydd sings of love and of social amusements; lie was likewise a fierce satirist, though at times very penitent and pious; while, to complete his resemblance to the Scottish poet, and also to justify the biblical name he bore, he showed an unmistakable preililection for illicit love. Day ydd's poems were first published in Welsh, with a biography of the author by Owen Jones and Owen Pughe (1789). An English translation of sonic of them by Mr. A. Johnes appeared in 1834. Besides the poets already mentioned, the following names are in high repute: Iolo the friend and bard of the famous Owen Glendower, who is said to have lived to the age of 120; Sion Cent (" John of Kent"), a name given him from Kent-church, in Hereford, where he resided (1380-1410), and who, having adopted the opinions of the Lollards, ultimately attained the reputation of a wizard; and Lewis Glyn Cothi, who flourished during the wars of the roses, and was bard to Jasper, earl of Pembroke, son of Owen Tudor and the widow of Henry V.
Prose.—The oldest Welsh chronicler of the second period is Caradoc, a monk of Llancarvan, who flourished in the first half of the 12th century. His work narrates in Welsh the history of his native country from the death of Cadwallader, 689, to the times of Caradoc himself. It is a dry, illiterate affair, like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Con temporary with Caradoc was the famous Geoffrey of Monmouth (q.v.),'bishop of St. Asaph, who died in 1154. He, however, though a Welshman, wrote in Latin, and belongs, therefore, rather to the general literature of England than to Welsh literature. His Chronicle commences with the fall of Troy, and ends with the death of Cadwalla der, so that it forms an introduction to that of his friend Caradoc. 'In it the legend of Arthur first assumes that romantic and chivalrous form in which modern readers are familiar with it. It is impossible here to enter into a discussion of the question where the materials of the Arthurian romance were first accumulated; suffice it to say, that evidence preponderates in favor of their Welsh 6rigin. To this second period must also be assigned that charming collection, the .3Iabinogion, or Children's Tales, of which a 31S. volume of more pages is preserved in the library of Jesus college, Oxford, and is known as the Red Book of Hergest, from the name of the place where it was dis covered. A beautiful edition of this work in IVels'i and English, with preface and notes, was published in 3 vols. (1833-49) by lady charlotte Guest. The age of these tales, which relate principally to Arthur and the Round Table, is doubtful. The tran scription in the Red Book of Hergest belongs probably to the 15th c.; but the date of their
composition may be safely held to be much earlier, perhaps somewhere in the 13th century.
The Triads may also be here noticed. They are collections of historical facts, max ims ethical and legal, mythological doctrines and traditions, and rules for the structure of verse; all expressed with extreme brevity, and regularly disposed in groups of three. They were a very popular species of composition among the Welsh, and are of all ages. Examples occur in the poems of Llywarch Hen, but the greater part are found in tran scripts and miscellanies of the 16th and 17th centuries. The " historical " triads are especially puzzling. They occur in a so-called collection, made by one Thomas Jones of Tregaron, about the close of the 16th century. This Jones was originally, it seems, an eminent robber—a Welsh " Rob Roy:" but in his later years he reformed, married an heiress, and became a justice-of-peace for the co. of Brecon. The peculiarity of his " collection" is, that it gives a totally different account of the origin of the Britons from Geoffrey of Monmouth, bringing them from a "summer land " (supposed to be Constan tinople or the Crimea) over a sea called the " Hazy sea." The question arises, and lies not t been settled: Whether are we to suppose Jones the fabricator of these "triads" or his account of the origin of the Britons the genuine record of an ancient tradition? In favor of the former hypothesis, unfortunately, is the circumstance that there is no trace of such an ancient tradition in the anterior literature of Wales.
Third Period (1536-1760).—This and the remaining period may be briefly sketched. The most notable fact in its commencement is the comparative ease with which the reformation made its way among the Celts of Wales. The Celts of the Highlands remained for a time, and those of Ireland remain to this day, obdurate adherents of the old faith; but those of Wales, on the whole, swiftly accepted the new religion. , The art of printing had been in operation in England for more than half a century before it was applied to the Welsh language. The first book printed in the Welsh or any Celtic language was an almanac, with a translation of the Lord's prayer and the ten command ments (Lond. 1546). The author, William Sa]esbury, was a scholar and a zealous Protestant. In 1547 ho published the first dictionary of English and Welsh, and exe cuted the greater part of the first translation of the New Testament into his native tongue (Loud. 1567). In 1588 appeared the earliest translation of the whole Bible into Welsh. The author was a Dr. William Morgan, afterward bishop of St. Asaph's. A revised edition of this, iu 1620, by Dr. Parry, ))organ's successor in the bishopric of St. Asaph's, is the translation still in use among the natives of the principality. Contem porary with Salesbury, but an adherent of the old faith, was Dr. Griffith Roberts, who lived ou the continent, and published at Milan a Welsh grammar in Another contemporary was Dr. John David Rhys, whose principal work, Cambrolowtannicce CymracaTe Ling we Institutiones et Budinienta, is a treatise on Welsh grammar. The suspicious Thomas Jones of Tregaron, possible author, rather than collector of the " historieal " triads, was a friend of Rhys, and died about 1620. In 1603 rapt. Myddle ton, one of the first three persons who smoked tobacco in England, published a metrical version of the Psalms in Welsh, partly executed while cruising about in the West Indies. The most celebrated poets of the third period are the rev. Rees Prichard, vicar of Llandovery (1579-1644), whose Cumuli y Cymry (Candle of the Cambrians) is a metrical version of his professional homilies or sermons, the eloquence of which had previously won for him a great reputation as a preacher; it is still popular, the 20th edition having appeared as late as 1858: How Mortis, or Hugh Morris (1622-1709), author of a variety of pieces, which his countrymen consider unsurpassed in humor, pathos, and even sub limitv—an edition in 2 vols. appeared at Wrexham (1823), under the title of Eos (the Nightingale of Ceiriog): and Goronwy Owen (1722—circa 1780), a gifted bard, but likewise an incurable drunkard, whose principal poems are contained in the first volume of a book entitled Diddanzech Teutuaidd (Domestic Amusement, Load. 1763). Of the prose writers, the only noteworthy are Ellis Wynne (d. 1734), author of the Bardd Cusg (Sleeping Bard, 1703), a series of visions of hell and Hades, written with great beauty of style; and the rev. Moses Williams (1685-1742). an antiquarian scholar of high mert, whose Repertorium Poeticism, or list of Welsh poems and catalogue of Welsh books, is very valuable.