Welsh And Their Literature — Section 5 - to Griffith ap Nicholas

Dafydd ab Gwilym was born at Bro Gynan, in Cardiganshire, in 1293, about forty years after the whole of Wales had been subjected to the sway of England.

He was the Ovid of Wales, the poet of love and nature.

In his early years he was very dissipated, but towards the latter part of his life became religious.

He died at the age of sixty-three, and was buried within the precincts of the great monastery of Strata Florida.

{25b} Such was the power of his genius, that the generality of the poets who succeeded him for the next four hundred years were more or less his imitators.

Iolo Goch, or Red Julius, whose real name was Llwyd, was the bard of Owen Glendower, and, amongst other pieces, composed a graphic ode on his patron's mansion at Sycharth, and the manner of life there:-- 'Its likeness now I'll limn you out: 'Tis water-girdled wide about;

It shows a wide and stately door, Reach'd by a bridge the water o'er;

'Tis formed of buildings coupled fair-- Coupled is every couple there;

Within a quadrate structure tall Muster the merry pleasures all;

Conjointly are the angles bound, No flaw in all the place is found.

Structures in contact meet the eye Upon the hillock's top on high;

Into each other fasten'd they The form of a hard knot display.

There dwells the chief we all extol In timber house on lightsome knoll;

Upon four wooden columns proud Mounteth his mansion to the cloud.

Each column's thick and firmly bas'd, And upon each a loft is plac'd;

In those four lofts, which coupled stand, Repose at night the minstrel band.

Four lofts they were in pristine state, But now partition'd form they eight.

Tiled is the roof.

On each house-top Rise smoke-ejecting chimneys up.

All of one form there are nine halls, Each with nine wardrobes in its walls, With linen white as well supplied As fairest shops of fam'd Cheapside.

* * * * * What luxury doth this hall adorn, Showing of cost a sovereign scorn!

His ale from Shrewsbury town he brings;

His usquebaugh is drink for kings.

Bragget he keeps, bread white of look, And, bless the mark, a bustling cook.

His mansion is the minstrels' home, You'll find them there whene'er you come.

Of all her sex his wife's the best, The household through her care is blest;

She's scion of a knightly tree, She's dignified, she's kind and free.

His bairns approach me, pair by pair, O what a nest of chieftains fair!

Here difficult it is to catch A sight of either bolt or latch;

The porter's place here none will fill;

Here largess shall be lavish'd still, And ne'er shall thirst or hunger rude In Sycharth venture to intrude.'

Iolo composed this ode two years before the great Welsh insurrection, when he was more than a hundred years old.

To his own great grief he survived his patron, and all hopes of Welsh independence.

An englyn, which he composed a few days before his death, commemorates the year of the rising of Glendower, and also the year to which the chieftain lived:-- 'One thousand four hundred, no less and no more, Was the date of the rising of Owen Glendower;

Till fifteen were added with courage ne'er cold Liv'd Owen, though latterly Owen was old.'

Glendower died at the age of sixty-seven: Iolo, when he called him old, was one hundred and eighteen.

Gwilym ap Ieuan Hen flourished about 1450. He was bard to Griffith ap Nicholas, chieftain of Dinefor, in whose praise he wrote an ode, commencing with lines to the following effect:-- 'Griffith ap Nicholas!

who like thee For wealth and power and majesty?

Which most abound--I cannot say-- On either side of Towey gay, From hence to where it meets the brine, Trees or stately towers of thine?'

Griffith ap Nicholas was a powerful chieftain of South Wales, something of a poet and a great patron of bards.

Seeing with regret that there was much dissension amongst the bardic order, and that the rules of bardism were nearly forgotten, he held a bardic congress at Carmarthen, with the view of reviving bardic enthusiasm and re-establishing bardic discipline.

The result of this meeting--the only one of the kind which had been held in Wales since the days of the Welsh princes--to a certain extent corresponded with his wish.

In the wars of the Roses he sided with York, chiefly out of hatred to Jasper Earl of Pembroke, half-brother of Henry VI.

He was mortally wounded at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, which was gained for Edward IV.

by a desperate charge made by Griffith and his Welshmen at Pembroke's Banner, when the rest of the Yorkists were wavering.

His last words were: 'Welcome death!

since honour and victorie makes for us!'