Welsh And Their Literature — Section 6 - to Sion Tudor

Dafydd ab Edmund was born at Pwll Gwepra, in the parish of Hanmer, in Flintshire.

He was the most skilful versifier of his time.

He attended the Eisteddfod, or congress, at Carmarthen, held under the auspices of Griffith ap Nicholas, and not only carried off the prize, but induced the congress to sanction certain alterations in the poetical canons of Gruffudd ab Cynan, which he had very much at heart.

There is a tradition that Griffith ap Nicholas commenced the business of the congress by the following question: 'What is the cause, nature, and end of an Eisteddfod?'

No one appearing ready with an answer, Griffith said: 'Let the little man in the grey coat answer;' whereupon Dafydd made the following reply: 'To remember what has been--to think of what is--and to judge about what shall be.'

Lewis Glyn Cothi lived during the wars of the Roses.

He was bard to Jasper Earl of Pembroke, son of Owen Tudor and Catharine of France, and brother uterine of Henry VI.

He followed his patron to the fatal battle of Mortimer's Cross as a captain of foot.

His pieces are mostly on the events of his time, and are full of curious historical information.

Ieuan Deulwyn was bard and friend of Ryce ap Thomas, to whom he addressed a remarkable ode in stanzas of four lines on the principle of counter-change, by which any line in the quatrain may begin it.

His friend and patron Ryce ap Thomas was the grandson of that Griffith ap Nicholas who perished at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, fighting against Lancaster.

Ryce, however, when Richmond, the last hope of Lancaster, landed at Milford Haven, joined him at the head of 'all the Ryces,' and was the main cause of his eventually winning the crown.

He was loaded with riches and honours by Henry VII.

, and was an especial favourite with Henry VIII.

, who used to call him Father Preecc, my trusty Welshman.

He was a great warrior, a consummate courtier, and a very wise man; for whatever harm he might do to people, he never spoke ill of anybody.

His tomb, bearing the sculptured figures of himself and wife, may be seen in the church of St. Peter, at Carmarthen.

Sion Tudor was born about the middle of the sixteenth century.

He had much wit and humour, but was very satirical.

He wrote a bitter epigram on London, in which city, by the bye, he had been most unmercifully fleeced.

William Middleton was one of the sea captains of Queen Elizabeth; he translated the Psalms into several of the four-and-twenty measures whilst commanding a ship of war in the West Indian seas.

Twm Sion Cati lived in the days of James I. : he was a sweet poet, but--start not, gentle reader!

a ferocious robber.

His cave amidst the wild hills between Tregaron and Brecknock is still pointed out by the neighbouring rustics.

In the middle of the seventeenth century was produced a singular little piece, author unknown: it is an englyn or epigram of four lines on a spider, all in vowels:-- 'O'i wiw wy i weu e a,--o'i au, O'i wyau y weua;

E wywa ei we' aua,' A'i weuai yw ieuau ia.'

A proest, or kind of counterchange, was eventually added to it by one Gronwy Owen, so that the Welsh now can say, what perhaps no other nation can, that they have a poem of eight lines in their language, in which there is not a single consonant.

It is however necessary to state, that in the Welsh language there are seven vowels, both w and y being considered and sounded as such.

The two parts may be thus rendered into English: 'From out its womb it weaves with care Its web beneath the roof;

Its wintry web it spreadeth there-- Wires of ice its woof.