Llythyrau Goronwy Owen/Llythyr 30
| ← Llythyr 29 | Llythyrau Goronwy Owen golygwyd gan John Morris-Jones |
Llythyr 31 |
𝔏𝔩𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔶𝔯 30.
At RICHARD MORRIS.
DEAR SIR,
As you are fond of any piece of Antiquity, I here send you one which I look upon to be somewhat curious. The MSS it was copied from was so much defaced, that the title was almost illegible; but what is most to be regretted is that the date of this curious piece of History as well as Poetry, cannot be ascertained. You will please to observe that where the characters were illegible I put dots with the Pen thus ...... &c. The title runs thus, Kyggor i...... vap Hywel, & then as follows. Y Bart du a gant yr Awdyl hon yn y Lluyt y llas...... vap Hywel. In the margin there was a note in another hand to this purpose, viz. Eraill a ddywaid mai yr Bardd Glas or Gadair a'i cânt anno Domini..... 54. But whoever was the Author, the piece is of undoubted antiquity; & the want of a date to a Poem amongst us Antiquarians, you know, is no more than the want of a head to a Statue of Venus, or legs & arms to one of Hercules; that is, such a defect does not lessen, but greatly enhance the value of either. If every antient Medal was as legible as a King George's halfpenny, what room would be left for our learned conjectures? And I doubt not but the date of the present Poem will afford matter of profound speculation to our posterity in the faculty for many future generations. Et natis natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis. I cannot find, in my Davies's Dictionary in what century either of the above Bards flourished; & in vain have I turned over my Caradog of Llangarfan, & my. Geoffry of Monmouth, to find out when the memorable battle therein mentioned was fought. Camden knows nothing of it, & Carte is very far from being precise in point of time. What time Sibli lived, or where, is to me a mystery; & whether that venerable personage were Man, Woman, or hermaphrodite, would have been as great a one, but for this Poem. But then if this vast treasure of knowledge could have been gain'd by reading, I should have been deprived of the pleasure of making the conjecture which I am now going to offer; viz, that this Poem was written somewhere within that dark period of time that passed between Anno 600 & 1000. Ha! I smell you out Brother Antiquarians, you say. I care not a fig if you do, tho' methinks at that distance ....... My design, Sir is honest as ever entered into any Antiquarian pate; & if it does but take effect, I am persuaded it will be of infinite benefit to Posterity. Time, you know, is the grand enemy of our tribe, with whom our predecessors of everlasting memory have waged perpetual (or to speak more poetically, a never discontinued) war. What He hides we endeavour to find; what he would bury in eternal oblivion, we as strenously register in the eternal records of Fame. The success of this war has always been various; but to the immortal honour of the present age we have gained numberless advantages of the enemy. You know how our army sacked his Capital of Herculaneum ; & (to give merit its due praise) I myself received some glorious wounds in the brains at the Battle of Uriconium in Shropshire, when we retook from the enemy three Roman Officers whom he had kept close prisoners since the time of Claudius Caesar.[1] Why should we then, after such singular advantages, leave the enemy in quiet possession of (at least) three Centuries & a half? I mean from the time of Merddin Wyllt to that of Meilir Brydydd. My project then is to throw this present Poem, like a bomb, into the midst of that wide chasm, & so retake from the enemy (at least) one whole Century. One thing more I have to advise you of, viz. that in the copying I have not scrupulously kept the old orthography, because I thought it would be too puzzling even to an Antiquarian. Besides, what modern could remmember always to write t for dd, u for f, ss for s, gg for ng, &c. I have illustrated it with a few necessary notes out of my own critical headpiece, & every now & then put such a word in the Margin, in the original orthography with a Sic legitur in Mso; & all this to show my profound knowledge in Criticism. I should likewise let the courteous reader know that the Measure is the true genuine Audolical metre used by all the Ancients; but it concerneth neither him nor me to know how this Metre was called. The Cynghanedd is the old Braidd gyfwrdd, & in those times it made no great Matter, whether there was any Cynghanedd at all, if the number of Syllables were right, the words poetical, & the Prifodl kept inviolable. Braidd gyfwrdd is thus:
Arddwyreaf Hael o hil Yago.
Now hael & hil made a most exquisite delightfull jingle & harmony to primitive ears. Vale de fruere. Danghoswch hwn i'r Llew da chithau, a gofynnwch iddo pa faint gwaeth Cymraeg sydd yn Lloegr heddyw nag oedd ynGhymru saith gan mlynedd i heddyw? I'r Gwr o'r dollfa, sef Gwilym Cybi, y mae diolch am y pattrwm. Efe a yrrodd yma'n ddiweddar Lyfr yn cynnwys 58 o Awdlau, o waith amryw o'r hên Feirdd gorau yn y Blynyddoedd 1100, ag oddi-yno hyd 1300; a'r Llyfr hwnnw a ysgrifennasai yntau ai law ei hun allan o Lyfr Gwernygron. Gobeithio na elwir byth am hwnnw adref ac ni eilw yntau byth am hwn, oblegid dyna'r ammod mae'n addo benthyg ei Delyn Ledr yr hâf yma os byw a fyddwn. Afraid imi esponio yr Awdl i chwi; chwi ganfyddwch ei thueddiad hi ar y golwg cyntaf. Dywedwch i'r Llew fod fy ngweddi fi'n ddwys ag yn ddygn oi dy ef ddydd a nos, a gobeithio mai gwir Brut Sibli. Gadewch glywed, er mwyn Duw, yn union deg ar ol darfod y Gåd. Yr wyf agos a gwirioni rhwng ofn a gobaith—Am yr Horace Minelli, ni gawn siarad am hwnnw pan êl y mwstr heibio. Nid wyf i'n prisio draen mewn Arabaeg na dim arall weithion, oddigerth y medrwn ddyfod o hyd i Fold i wneud arian; felly na phoenwch am Eirlyfr na dim arall o hyn o dro. Y cebyst i'r Byd brwnt yma, a melldith eu mammau i'r Rhufeiniaid cybyddlyd a ddaeth ag Arian gynta i Frydain. Nid oes yma newydd yn y Byd, a dâl ei grybwyll.—Wyf yr eiddoch yn garedicaf.
Nodiadau
[golygu]- ↑ Meaning the three Roman Monuments, I should imagine that Poor Gronwy found in the Parish of Wroxeter near Salop, one being for Caius Mannius a Prætorian Legate of the 20th Legion, & another for Marous Patronius a Standard bearer of the 19th Legion.