The Visions of the Sleeping Bard Part 6

{00u} Richard Humphreys of Hendref Gwenllian, Penrhyndeudraeth.

Desceneded in male line from Marchweithian. An Officer in the Royal Army through Civil War. Died 1699.

{00v} . . . Lloyd of Trallwyn.

{00w} Catherine, Daughter of Griffith Wynne of Penyberth.

{00x} Robert Puw of Garth Maelan.

{00y} Robert Wynne of Gesail-gyfarch, Barr.-at-law. Ob. s. p. 1685.

{00z} Humphrey. Born 1648. Dean of Bangor, 1680, Bishop 1689. Bishop of Hereford, 1701. Died 1712.

{000a} Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Morgan Bishop of Bangor 1678, son of Rd. Morgan, M.P. for Montgomery Boroughs.

{000b} John Llwyd of Penylan, Barr.-at-law, son of Dr. W. Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich, deprived in 1691 as one of the Nonjurors.

{0a} "A Catalogue of Graduates in the University of Oxford between 1659 and 1850" contains the following entry: --"Wynne (Ellis) Jes. BA., Oct.

14, 1718, MA., June 13, 1722." But one can hardly suppose this to have been the Bardd Cwsr, as in 1718 he would be 47 years of age.

{0b} The following entries are taken from the register at Llanfair- juxta-Harlech: --"Elizaeus Wynne Generosus de Lasynys et Lowria Lloyd de Havod-lwyfog in agro Arvonensi in matrimonio conjuncti fuere decimo quarto die Feb. 1702."

{0c} "Elizaeus Wynne junr. de Lasynys sepultus est decimo die Octobris A.D. 1732."

{0d} "Owenus Edwards cler. nuper Rector hums ecclesiae sepultus est tricesimo die Maii A.D. 1711." (From the Llanfair parish register.)

{0e} "Lowria Uxor Elizaei Wynne cler. de Lasynys vigesimo quarto die Augti. sepulta est Ano. Dom. 1720."

"Elizaeus Wynne Cler. nuper Rector dignissimus huius ecclesiae sepultus est 17mo. die Julii 1734." (From the parish register at Llanfair.)

{0f} "The Visions of the Sleeping Bard. First Part. Printed in London by E. Powell for the Author, 1703,"

{1a} The opening lines.--Ellis Wynne opens his vision as so many early English poets are wont, with a description of the season when, and the circ.u.mstances under which he fell asleep. Compare especially Langland's Visions, prologus:

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne I went wyde in this world wondres to here, Ac on a May mornynge on Malvern hulles Me befel a ferly of fairy me thoughte, I was wery forwandred and went me to reste Under a brode bank bi a bornes side And as I lay and leued and loked in the wateres I s...o...b..ed in a slepyng it sweyved so merye.

{1b} One of the mountains.--The scene these opening lines describe was one with which the Bard was perfectly familiar. He had often climbed the slopes of the Vale of Ardudwy to view the glorious panorama around him from Bardsey Isle to Strumble Head, the whole length of rock-bound coast lay before him, while behind was the Snowdonian range, from Snowdon itself to Cader Idris; and often, no doubt, he had watched the sun sinking "far away over the Irish Sea, and reaching his western ramparts"

beyond the Wicklow Hills.

{1c} Master Sleep.--Cp.:

Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh'd My senses down.

--Dante: Inf. C.I. (Cary's trans.)

Now leaden slumber with life's strength doth fight.

--Shakespere: Lucrece, 124.

{4a} Such a fantastic rout.--Literally "such a battle of Camlan." This was the battle fought between Arthur and his nephew Medrod about the year 540 on the banks of the Camel between Cornwall and Somerset, where Arthur received the wounds of which he died. The combatants being relatives and former friends, it was characterised with unwonted ferocity, and has consequently come to be used proverbially for any fray or scene of more than usual tumult and confusion.

So all day long the noise of battle roll'd Among the mountains by the winter sea, Until King Arthur's table, man by man, Had fallen in Lyonness about their Lord.

--Tennyson: Morte d'Arthur.

{4b} To lampoon my king.--The Bard commenced this Vision in the reign of William III. (v. also p. 17, "to drink the King's health") and completed it in that of Queen Anne, who is mentioned towards the end of the Vision.

{7a} The Turk and old Lewis of France.--The Sultan Mustapha and Lewis XIV. are thus referred to.

{14a} Clippers.--The context seems to demand this meaning, that is, "those who debase coin of the realm," rather than "beggars" from the Welsh "clipan."

{20a} Backgammon and dice.--These games, together with chess, were greatly in vogue in mediaeval Wales, and are frequently alluded to in the Mabinogion and other early works. The four minor games or feats (gogampau) among the Welsh were playing the harp, chess, backgammon, and dice. The word "ffristial a disiau" are here rendered by the one word "dice"--ffristial meaning either the dice-box, or the game itself, and disiau, the dice.

{21a} This wailing is for pay.--Cp.

Ut qui conducti plorant in funere dic.u.n.t et faciunt prope plora dolentibus ex animo.

--Horace: Ars Poetica, 430-1.

{23a} The b.u.t.t of everybody.--Whenever a number of bards, in the course of their peregrinations from one patron's hall to another, met of a night, their invariable custom was to appoint one of the company to be the b.u.t.t of their wit, and he was expected to give ready answer in verse and parry the attacks of his brethren. It is said of Dafydd ap Gwilym that he satirized one unfortunate b.u.t.t of a bard so fiercely that he fell dead at his feet.

{24a} Congregation of mutes.--At the time Ellis Wynne wrote, the Quakers were very numerous in Merioneth and Montgomery and especially in his own immediate neighbourhood, where they probably had a burying-ground and conventicle. They naturally became the objects of cruel persecution at the hands of the dominant church as well as of the state; their meetings were broken up, their members imprisoned and maltreated, until at last they were forced to leave their fatherland and seek freedom of wors.h.i.+p across the Atlantic

{25a} Speak no ill.--A Welsh proverb; v. Myv. Arch. III. 182.

{26a} We came to a barn.--The beginning of Nonconformity in Wales. In the Author's time there were already many adherents to the various dissenting bodies in North Wales. Walter Cradoc, Morgan Llwyd and others had been preaching the Gospel many years previously throughout the length and breadth of Gwynedd; and it was their followers that now fell under the Bard's lash.

{28a} Corruption of the best.--A Welsh adage; v. Myv. Arch. III. 185.

{28b} Some mocking.--Compare Bunyan's Christian starting from the City of Destruction: "So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain. The neighbours came out to see him run, and as he ran, some mocked, others threatened and some cried after him to return."

{29a} Who is content.--Cp.

Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem Seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa Contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?

--Horace: Sat. I. i.

{34a} Increases his own penalty.--Cp.

--the will And high permission of all-ruling heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself d.a.m.nation, while he sought Evil to others.

- Par. Lost: I. 211-6.

{36a} Royal blood--referring to the execution of Charles I.

{37a} The Pope and his other son.--The concluding lines of this Vision were evidently written amidst the rejoicings of the nation at the victories of Marlborough over the French and of Charles XII. over the Muscovites

{43a} Glyn Cywarch.--The ancestral home of the Author's father, situate in a lonely glen about three miles from Harlech.