Llythyrau Goronwy Owen/Llythyr 15
| ← Llythyr 14 | Llythyrau Goronwy Owen golygwyd gan John Morris-Jones |
Llythyr 16 |
𝔏𝔩𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔶𝔯 15.
At RICHARD MORRIS.
DEAR SIR,
It is a very light thing with me, that my performances should be criticised upon: it is but what I must have expected, had they been really (as you would perswade me, and in this only I presume to 'question your Judgment,) the best that ever the world saw in that Language. How just their criticisms are I have no time to enquire; neither indeed could I, if I had time, because I have only above one or two of my Poems with me, or any where else in my possession; having I fear burnt them in haste among some old Letters and Papers at my parting from Donnington. But I verily believe that they may find all the variety of Cynghaneddau in most of them, especially Cywydd y Calan. But supposing, what they alledge, to be true in the main, viz. that llusg and Sain are oftner to be met with than any other Cynghanedd; I am not able to apprehend how that comes to be a fault. In every Latin Heroick or Hexameter verse there are four feet, that may be either Spondees or Dactyls, or some of both indifferently, at the pleasure of the Poet: but all the Critics on Virgil, that ever I saw, never enquired, whether he was more inclinable to one or the other, so that that he excluded neither; and I am perswaded had any one taken it in his head to carry on such a piece of criticism on one of his Eclogues in Mr. Pope's days, he should have had an honourable place in his Dunciad for it. But be that as it will, you might have told Mr. Wynne[1] how very little I know of those little niceties as yet, and then perhaps he would have been less severe. The few Essays that I have hitherto composed were never designed for publick view; neither do I think they are fit to appear in Publick: they are my Schoolboy's task, the mere foetus of uninstructed Nature without any the least assistance of Art. Whilst others have had their several learned Grammarians, their Davieses, their Middletons, their Gambolds, &c to consult I had no other Guide, but Nature uncultivated, no Critic but my own ear, no rule or Scale, but my own fingers end: 'till you out of mere pity were pleased to give me some usefull hints, which were far from being in folio; and tho' your instructions are far more valuable, than all our Grammarians put together, Yet at the great distance we were asunder I was obliged to be (as I am still) uninformed, unsatisfied, as to many of the most material points and most essential properties of our Poetry. Mr. Ellis indeed, by Mr. Wm Morris's recommendation was pleased to make me a present of Dr. John Dafydd Rhys's Grammar, but it was unforntunately sent to Shropshire, after I was come from thence hither, and by that means never came yet into my hands and perhaps never will. But if it comes with the rest of my Books, (which I shall endeavour to get hither as soon as possible) I fully intend to aim at something out of the common road, and try whether our Language will bear a Heroick Poem. I know owr Critics will have neither patience nor mercy with me; they will think it a rash and mad attempt, but what care I for that? I don't write for them, but for rational creatures such I mean as have sense enough to form a right judgment of things and candour enough to pass an impartial one. Ond beth a dâl bygwth! If I live, it shall be so. I can't discern that I have any natural inclination to llusg and Sain, any more than to Croes and Traws I flatter myself, that I am Master of a fluency of words, and purity of diction; and, if so, be the Poetical vein ever so slender, all the Cynghaneddau must be equall, if equally understood.—Cornelia, the Mother of the Gracchi, is commended in History for having taught her Sons, in their infancy the purity of the Latin Tongue. And I may say in Justice to the memory of my Mother, I never knew a Mother, nor even a Master, more carefull to correct an uncouth, inelegant phrase or vicious pronunciation; and that I must own, has been of infinite service to me
- Wyf eich ufuddaf Wasanaethwr
Nodiadau
[golygu]- ↑ Ychwanega'r llawysgrif rhwng romfachan Inte Rector of Llangynhafal