In the publications of this society the second step was begun to be taken of the three which are requisite to bring the literature of Wales fairly before the world. The first is, the publication of its monuments, as indispensable materials for all that is to follow ; the second, the rendering of them accessible, by translations, to those who have not the opportunity of acquiring, in addition to the knowledge of the Welsh language as it now is, that of all its variations from the time of King Arthur. The third will be, that of applying a judicious criticism to these materials ; of comparing, elucidating, and investigating ; sepa rating the genuine from the spurious ; and deciding their value.' When all this has been done, and not before, it will be possible to take a satisfactory survey of the history of early Welsh literature, in which is involved the history of two of the most interesting points of modern literature in general, the origin of rhyme and the origin of romantic fiction. Under present circumstances many questions of interest must be left doubtful.
The history of Welsh literature may be divided into four periods: from the earliest times to the Norman conquest of England in 1066,— from the Norman conquest to the Reformation, which nearly coincides with the incorporation of Wales with England in the reign of Henry VIII., in 1536,—from the Reformation to the commencement of the reign of George III., in 1760,—and from 1760 to the present time.
The First Period, 1066.—The Welsh, it has been already stated, claim to be in possession of several poetic compositions of the date of the 6th century, and these compositions are in rhyme, which would be, as far as is at present known, the earliest instances of that kind of com position in Europe. The whole of them were printed in the Myvyrian Archaiology,' in which they occupy one hundred and eighty-eight pages of double columns, nothing of which beyond to few specimens had appeared in print before. The authors to whom they are attributed are — Aneurin, who is supposed to have lived from 510 to 560; Taliesin, the Chief of Bards, from 520 to 570 ; Llywarch Hen, or Llywarch the Old, from 550 to 640 ; and Myrddin, or Merlin, from 530 to 600; besides Gwyddno, Gwilym ab Don, Golyddan, and others of minor importance.
The authenticity of these poems having been impugned by two cele brated antagonists of the Celts, by Pinkerton, in his preface to Barbour, and by Laing, in a note to his 'Dissertation on °mien,' it was maintained by Sharon Turner, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, in his Vindi cation of the Genuineness of the Antient British Poems of Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, and 3Ierddin; first published separately in 1803, and since appended to the successive editions of his ' History of the Anglo-Saxons.'
In this treatise Mr. Turner asserted the genuineness of the ancient poems on both internal and external evidence. The oldest copy of any of them extant occurs in an ancient manuscript called The Black Book of Carmarthen,' formerly preserved in the library of the Vaughans at llengwrt in 3Ierionethahire, which was brought together by Robert Vaughan, who died in 1666. This book is believed, by competent judges, to be of the 12th century ; so that if forged at all the poems must have been forged as far back period, while in fact they are alluded to as ancient by writers of the centuries immediately following. If fabricated at that time, it is probable that they would have con tained allusions to the popular legends respecting King Arthur, whose name had then become known throughout Europe as that of the hero of romantic tradition ; while these compositions, professing to be written by contemporaries of Arthur, and frequently referring to his life and actions, always mention him in a sober, unexaggerated, strain, perfectly consistent with the light in which he is presented by authentic history. Finally the language is of an extremely antiquated cast, often obscure, and sometimes unintelligible, and altogether different from that of compositions known to be of the 12th century.
The weak point in Mr. Turner's argument is that it proves, or assumes to prove, too much. If all that he advances were valid, the whole of the poems ascribed to the primitive bards would be genuine, but in fact some are demonstrably otherwise. Thera Is a remarkable passage in Evans 's ' Specimens of the British Bards,' published in 1763, every word of which has been confirmed by the most recent investiga tions. Speaking of Taliesin, Evans says, " There are ninny spurious pieces fathered on this bard in a great many hands in North Wales, but the** are all forged, either by the monks to answer the purpose of the Church of Rome, or by the British bards iu the time of the later princes of Wales to spirit up their countrymen against the English, which any body versed in the language may easily find by the style and matter." These pieces are those made public in the 31yvyrien Archaiology; on the judicioua principle laid down by its editors, of putting in print and on record whatever was asserted to be of a certain degree of antiquity, without any preliminary inquiry into the justice of its claims. The opportunity thus afforded of subjecting them to criticism has been taken.