The literature of the Kymry; being a critical essay on the history of the language and literature of Wales, during the twelfth and two succeeding centuries ... / By Thomas Stephens.

  • Stephens, Thomas, 1821-1875.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The literature of the Kymry; being a critical essay on the history of the language and literature of Wales, during the twelfth and two succeeding centuries ... / By Thomas Stephens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/528 (page 19)
    Welsh Poetry from a.d. 1080 to a.d. 1194. From the remarks in the preceding section, it would ap¬ pear that no poems of any great merit except those of the bards of the sixth century had appeared prior to the ap¬ pearance of Meilyr, and the very inferior character of the first poem we have belonging to Meilyr, will infallibly lead to the conclusion that at that time bardism was at a low ebb. It may therefore be safely inferred that no poems of any moment, belonging to the tenth or eleventh centuries, have been lost, for it was scarcely probable that any existed. The tranquillity of the reign of Ilowel, and the stormy period which succeeded, are both equally barren of literary fruit. Brighter times are now about to appear. Gruffydd ab Kynan returned from Ireland to claim the patrimony of his father from the usurper Trahaearn, whom he at length defeated in the battle of Carno; and Meilyr, the bard of the latter prince, in a lament upon his paton's fall composed soon after the battle, furnishes us with the first poem demanding cri¬ tical remark. He narrates briefly, and with evident since¬ rity, the fall of his patron; and though the poem possesses but little merit of a poetical character, it will be found useful for the facts it mentions, and as an illustration of the manner in which men and things were contemplated in his day. Meilyr was a man of some repute, and held in considerable estimation; but this short piece affords no trace whatever of the poetical capacity which he afterwards showed.—