𝔏𝔩𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔶𝔯 14.
At WILLIAM MORRIS.
ANWYL GYDWLADWR,
LLYMA'CH caredig lythyrau o'm blaen o fesur y cwpl. Digrif iawn oedd cael ail afael yn yr hen gydymaith diofal gan. Walchmai, aiê, aiê?
Gorloes rydiau a gorddyar caws? O'r goreu, gadewch iddo. Yn wir hen gorph go anhawdd ei ddeall yw Gwalchmai. Yet I doubt not, if I had the advantage of perusing him and some others, but I could find out the meaning of every word in him. As I have neither Dictionary nor any other help by me at present, I can't pretend to understand one half of what you sent me; I do, however understand too much [of it to think it has no beauties, and too little] to be able to point 'em all out. This I may say, that the part of Gorhoffedd which you now sent me, has fully confirmed me in the opinion I had of "Mochddwyreawg huan haf," &c. I observe that the word gorhoffedd itself signifies the same thing as we now call cynsêt, i.e. conceit, as cynset yr Arglwyddes Owen (hen gainc ar y delyn) &c. And certainly this was Gwalchmai's conceit, i.e. a liberty he indulg'd himself of making a poetical gasconade, or brag of his feats. Dyffestin is certainly the same as the Latian festino, perhaps derived from it, or rather festino from dyffestin, and that again from ffèst, which is the more simple word, and therefore to be look'd upon as the original. You know Monsieur Pezron's Rule. I wish some able hand would endeavour to improve the etymological knowledge of our language, by reducing the compound words into their simples, and derivatives into their primitives; it would open a wide door to the thorough understanding of our language, and the establishing of the critical parts of ancient and modern orthography. Edward Llwyd in displaying his vast treasure of European languages, has rather confounded than settled the etymology of ours. If the thing was once judiciously done we should view our fine language in a quite different light, and find it to be (as I am persuaded it is) more independent of all European languages than has
