Llythyrau Goronwy Owen/Llythyr 18
| ← Llythyr 17 | Llythyrau Goronwy Owen golygwyd gan John Morris-Jones |
Llythyr 19 |
𝔏𝔩𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔶𝔯 18.
At MR WILLIAM MORRIS.
DEAR SIR,
DYMA ddau lythyr o'r eiddoch wedi dyfod i'm dwylaw yn llwyddiannus; a rhyfedd genyf pa fodd y tycciodd fy llythyr cyntaf innau, yr hwn a yrrais tu ag yna er ys chwech wythnos neu well. Un peth sydd dda, nid oedd ynddo ddim y bai waeth pwy a'i gwelai: cryn dipyn o glod i'r Aldramon ac i'm Patron, Mr. Brooke, oedd y rhan fwyaf o hono, a hynny yn Gymraeg loyw lân, chwedl Sion Lodwig.—Gwr mwyn, hael, bonheddig, yw'r hen Lew i'r sawl a fedro dynnu'r bara drwy'r drybedd iddo. Pa beth dybygech a gefais ganddo eisoes, mewn un chwarter blwyddyn? dim llai na chwech o gadeiriau tacclus, ac un easy chair i'w groesawu ef ei hun pan ddel i'm hymweled; ac yn nghylch ugain o bictiwrau mewn fframes duon.
My BOB is a very great favourite of his, and greatly admired for being such a dapper little fellow in breeches. The Vicar can never see him without smiling, and said one day, that if himself could be cut as they do corks, he would make at least a gross of Bobs. And being willing in some sort to try the experiment, he gave him a very good waistcoat of what they call silk camblet, to make him a suit of clothes, which it really did, and somewhat above. And the other day, when I had a couple of neighbouring Clergymen come to see me, he sent me a bottle of rum, and was pleased to favour me with his company, tho' he very seldom strays abroad to any friend's house. Whenever he goes to visit a friend (which he has done three or four times this summer,) he always desires my company and lends me a horse. Campau yw y rhai'n nad oes mon'ynt yn perthyn i bob Patron.
Beth, mor galetted a chigydded oedd yr Ysgottyn brwnt hwnnw gan Ddouglas? Mae'r gwalch hwnnw yn cynnyg yn awr 30ain punt, a'r tŷ, a'r ardd, &c. yn Donnington, ac er hynny yn methu cael Curad: byth na chaffo! pe rhoisai hynny i mi, nid aethwn led fy nhroed oddiyno, Amheuthyn iawn i mi y troiad yma ar fyd; Duw a gadwo ac a gynhalio i mi fy hen batron Brooke am y bawai gan Ddouglas gyrith, draen yn ei gap a hoel helyg. 'Rwy'n gweled yr awrhon, mai y goreu a gair oren (fel y dywedai fy mam,) mai hyspys y dengys y dyn, &c. Am y Cywyddau ni's gwn yn iawn beth i wneuthur o honynt; you know very well that authors never write notes on their own works. What notes should I write upon mine? To point out the beauties, (if there are any,) would bear too. hard upon my modesty, and even transgress the rules of common decency. On the other hand, to play the critic, and point out the faults would be unnatural, and indeed needless, for I am well aware there are a set of gentlemen that will do that for me, and faster perhaps than I would desire. All therefore that I can do with decency is, to correct the originals, and write them fairly and correctly over, and add in the margin an explanation of hard words, with Scripture proofs, allusions, &c. This I told Mr. Richard Morris, in my last, I was willing to do; and to go any further would be improper and indecent for an author. I wish any candid and fair critic would spare me even that trouble. The copies you sent me. are most strangely metamorphosed, so sorrily handled, (poor things,) that I scarcely know them; I am sure, if I could not restore them to their primitive state, I would be tempted to disown them. As to the Society, I suppose I would have been an unworthy member of it by this time if I had not been. dilatory in answering Mr. Richard Morris's letter, wherein that honour was intended me.
Mi gaf fy llyfrau yr wythnos yma 'rwy'n gobeithio, ac yno mi dorraf waith iddynt mewn barddoniaeth oreu y medrwyf, ac nid yw hynny ond digon sal o w'rantu. Mae gennyf yma gryn waith ar fy nwylaw, mwy nag yn Donnington; etto mi gaf weithiau ystlys odfa i weu rhywfaint wrth fy mawd, yn enwedig pan él y nos yn beth hŵy; oblegid gwell gan yr Awen hirnos gauaf (er oered yr hin) na moeldes ysplennydd hirddydd haf;-ac un cysur sydd gennyf, er oered yr hin yn y wlad oerllwm yma, ni bydd arnaf ddim diffyg am danwydd; oblegid mae gennyf eisoes ddau lwyth certwyn o lô a rowd i mi gan rai o'm plwyfolion; ac oddeutu Gwyl Fihangel fe fydd coal-pence plant yr ysgol yn dyfod i mi, yr hyn a fydd fwy na digon i'm bwrw dros flwyddyn; ac, ystgatfydd, mi gaf beth arian i'w poccedu, o herwydd fod rhifedi'r llangciau yn nghylch 60, neu 70, a phob un ei swllt a fyddant arferol a thalu. Os digwydd i chwi fod yn gydnabyddus â neb cyfrifol yn y wlad yna a ewyllysiai yrru ei blentyn i'r ysgol i Loegr er mwyn dysgu Saesoneg, mae fel y byddwch cyn fwyned a'i gyfarwyddo ef yma. I can undertake to board half a dozen as reasonably as any body else in this County, and no care or diligence shall be wanting. If I had ever so many boarders. they are entitled to Writing and Arithmetic gratis, which is taught to a good degree of perfection by my assistant, Edward Stokeley.
Gadewch wybod yn y nesaf pa amser o'r flwyddyn y bydd y cig moch a'r ymenyn rataf yn Môn. Well, to be sure, "Cynt y daw dau ddyn na dau fynydd." Dyma fi heddyw wedi taro wrth beth o'ch prydyddiaeth chwithau. You sent me in both your last letters some of my poetry that I had lost, and now, probably, I may be even with you. This very day was given me a book that was once yours, and may be again if you please. It is John Rhydderch's Dictionary, printed at Salop in 1725, on the title page is written by your own hand, "William Morris his Book, 1728." On the white leaves before it is a comparative list of Welsh and French words. In the white leaves after it are additions of some words omitted in the body of the book, all your own MSS; then follows the watch word, in eight different languages, viz., Welsh, English, French and Spanish, &c., as, Pwy sy yna? Who is there? Qui est la ? Qui a si? &c., &c.; then comes an Englyn, dated Chester, June, 1731, which is as follows—
Anrhydedd a mawredd i mi,—i'w goffa
Oedd gaffael ei gwmni,
Sion Rhydderch y sy'n rhoddi,
Diosg a wneiff, dysg i ni.
Wm. Morris, i'r Awdwr.
The Book was given me by one Tom Brownbill, a Roman Catholic gentleman that now lives at Kirkdale, alias Kerto, who knows you very well, and thinks the book was left at his mother's house at Liverpool by Mr. Fortunatus Wright. My compliments to Mr. Ellis kindly, and I hope he recovers apace. I beg I may have a line at your leisure, and am, Dear Sir, your most humble servant,
N. B.—I am glad you are a Poet if you will, and hope to see more of your work.
O.S.—Gan gael ohonof gyfle i sybergymmeryd gyda'm gwenllaw gynffon awr rhwng fy mhregeth a'm ciniaw, dyma i chwi hyn o mending neu sarrit. You seem disposed to be a proselyte to the doctrine of a possibility at least, of accommodating our language to an epic poem. This is more than I care to insist upon as yet; but I am confident it is not impracticable. For our language, I am certain, is not inferior for copiousness, pithiness, and significancy, to any other, ancient or modern, that I havo any knowledge of. Where then lies the mighty difficulty of writing such a poem in it? Truly, I cannot see, unless it be in finding a man of genius, that sufficiently understands it, to undertake such a work. That, indeed, is a real difficulty; but all others that I can think of, or ever heard alleged, are but mere bugbears. Our metres, it is true, are but short; not above nine or ten sylables to a line at the longest; mostly seven or eight; but what then? Is it not possible to alter that length, and so remove the inconvenience? or else to join two metres, a longer and a shorter, together? Twenty—four metres, surely, are plenty enough to pick out of. But you will say, "Any innovation in our poetry will not be suffered, much less generally received and imitated." Why so, I pray? Was there not a time when Epic poetry, nay, all poetry, was but a new thing amongst the Greeks and Romans, especially the latter? And how ancient is the date. of Epic poetry amongst our neighbours, the English and French? Not many centuries, I ween! You will say, "We had a poetry amongst us before either of them was a people, or their languages were even formed to what they now are, and therefore we ought not for shame to become imitators of such novices in poetry!" I own we were poets before they were a settled people; so we were Christians too, what then? These novices in Christianity, as well as in poetry, began to reform the errors of their forefathers; and we were not-and I hope are not at all ashamed to follow their example. Why should we not do the same in poetry? or what shame were it, if we did? For my part I think it a greater shame for a people that boast of having had poetry among them so long, to suffer such novices to bring poetry to its perfection so long before them. But we certainly are still Druids in our hearts, and envy posterity and grudge them the benefit of our labours. I have often thought that the freer and less confined to cynghanedd the metre is, the better a poem must be. All my reasons I have no room to give you; but I will just observe. that the Greek mode of versification is much freer from being confined to a number of syllables than that of the Romans; and the English more unconfined than either-it having neither a fixed number, nor quantity of syllables, nor even a rhyme. at the end, much less the letters of cynghanedd, which our language groans under, and which no other was ever acquainted with. In consequence of which, Homer is preferred to Virgil, and Milton to both.
But I would not adopt any metre to the English, nor any other language I know. I would have some resemblance of our present metres, but longer than any of them. I am always longer in laying my schemes how a thing should be done, than in doing it when a plan is laid. I have thought of several methods of settling and adjusting a proper metre for Epic poetry, but have not as yet fixed on one; and I am resolved not to fix till I receive my "Dr. John David Rhys."
Byddwch wych. Dyma'r gloch Osper yn canu.
Wyf eich Gwasanaethwr a'ch Gwladwr,