the benign impressions made upon them by the literature of their own language, that has nothing in it to counteract such impressions. One circumstance is greatly favourable to Welsh literature; we have only to acquaint ourselves with the power of the alphabet, pronounce every letter, and accent on the penultimate syllable; we have no quiescent letters, none that are used like the English C, G, S, Th, Ch, &c., to express very different sounds; the general radices of the language are so well known that all derivatives from them are readily understood; hence it is that the Welsh generally find it a very easy task to learn to read their native language-a month is generally supposed to be sufficient to acquire this knowledge in perfection. An old poetical adage says,— "Ni bu Cymro 'n dysgu darllain Pob Cymraeg yn ddigon cywrain, Many learn it in less; and we need no regular schools, for one neighbour gives another a few lessons two or three times a-week, for half an hour at a time, and the pupil is soon able to read his native language. It is a usual thing in Wales for a few young, and sometimes older, persons of both sexes to attend for an hour, twice or thrice a-week, at a place where a goodnatured neighbour-and such may always be foundwill give them some instructions in reading Welsh, and often in writing. A month of such instruction generally enables the pupil to proceed in his own strength. Reading parties are formed to exercise themselves, one correcting the other, and amongst other things Welsh songs in MS. are read by them; but immoral, or in anything indecent, songs are never written in Wales; and though pieces of harmless levity are common enough, such as have a tendency to corrupt the mind, and to violate morality, are seen but so rarely that they are hardly known. Religious and moral songs are very common-read and sung the most. Even the common love songs have generally a moral cast; we very seldom find any wherein some moral sentiment is not introduced. The authors of these are generally common mechanics, labourers in husbandry, sometimes women; and their songs in general have more of pure nature in them than can be generally found in the productions of more learned persons. There is a national passion for poetry amongst the Welsh, which has a very good effect upon the minds and general disposition. It would be an easy matter to impress on them, through the medium of song, the best principles of morality and civilization.MS. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH BARDS. By the Late IOLO MORGANWG, B.B.D. (Continued from p. 169.) RHYME, ANTIQUITY OF.' Ex Sharon Turner ut supra. 66 6 Pinkerton, in his preface to his edition of Barbour's Bruce, says, pp. 12, 13, whether rhyme originated from the Arabs, and, upon their conquest of Spain in the year 712, spread first to France, and thence to the rest of Europe, as Salmasius and Huet think; or whether it began among the monks of Italy in the eighth century, as some others suppose, (for these are the only two opinions which now divide the literati upon the subject,) certain it is, that this mode of versification may be regarded as foreign to the genuine idiom of any European language, and of very late appearance in most.' "In the Critical Review for January, 1800, p. 23, in 1 Ex. Archæologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, xiv. pp. 312, &c. In ibidem-Inquiry Respecting the Early Use of Rhyme, by Sharon Turner, Esq., Art. xxvi. p. 168, and Art. xxvII. p. 187. London. 1803. SECOND SERIES, VOL. I. 2 z an article attributed to the said Pinkerton, he asserts, with a small modification, that the only opinions which now divide the learned on this subject are, whether the use of rhyme originated from the Saracens, who took possession of Sicily in the year 828, or arose among the Italian monks in the eighth century;' and he also declares it to be certain that it was totally unknown to the ancient languages of Europe.' "The result of a research into all the authors of the centuries between the third and the ninth to which I could gain access, is my full conviction that the opinions of the learned above stated are erroneous, and that rhyme was in use in Europe before either of the periods above ascribed to it. "We find that there are rhyming poems in the Sanscrit and the Chinese. Sir William Jones says of the Moha Mudgara, that it is composed in the regular anapæstic verses, according to the strictest rules of Greek prosody, but in rhymed couplets. 2 "The specimens of the venerated Bede, as given by Colonel Dow before his History of Hindustan, exhibit rhyme.3 "The French missionary to China, who died in 1780, says, The most ancient Chinese verses are rhymed; there are some forty centuries old." "These facts of the ancient existence of rhyme in Hindustan and China completely destroy the theory which places the origin of rhyme in Arabia, because no one can suppose that the Arabs introduced it into China, or Hindustan, in those distant eras in which these countries used it. 666 Rhyme (it is said) was totally unknown to the ancient languages of Europe;' it appears to me that this opinion is inaccurate; I cannot indeed produce such decisive facts on this subject as I could wish, because we 2 Sir William Jones' Works, i. p. 207. 3 History of Hindustan, p. 27. • Memoire Concernant Hist. des Chinois, Jour. viii. p. 201. Edit. Paris, 1782. have no remains of our ancient languages, except of the Welsh, before the eighth century. "The Arabian poems in the Hamasa, some of which were written before Mahomet's time, exhibit rhyme. (We find it also in Persian poetry.) If rhyme had in ancient time thus extensively pervaded Asia, and if the stream of history be not false, which exhibits the European population as proceeding originally from Asia, I see nothing improbable in the supposition that some of the ancient languages of Europe were acquainted with it. 66 The most important specimen of rhyme in the ancient languages of Europe (excepting the Welsh) is Otfrid's paraphrase on the Gospels in the Franco-Theotisc language. The author lived about A.D. 850, or 870; it occupies 380 folio pages, and is all in rhyme.5 66 Otfrid, in a letter to Leuthbert, Archbishop of Mentz, says that he wrote the Gospels thus in rhyme, to supersede the obscene songs of the Laics in the vernacular Theotisc language, and that the Frankish nation might read the sacred word in their own tongue. "If such were the motives of Otfrid, is it not most probable that it was written not only in the vernacular language but in the popular form of his nation? If rhyme would have appeared as a novelty in his work, he would most probably have apologized for introducing it, and for departing from the popular style. One of his phrases in describing the peculiarities of the Franco-Theotisc language is, it perpetually seeks rhyme.' (See his letter prefixed to Schilter's edition.) "Hildegarius, who was cotemporary with Otfrid, wrote the life of St. Faron, Bishop of Meaux. He quotes in it a song on the successes of Chlotorius II. against the Saxons in 622. He says, 'On this victory a public song (juxta rusticitalem), according to the rustic manner, was in every one's mouth, the women joining in the chorus.' He then gives an extract of the song. 5 Schilter's Thesaurus, Ulm. 1728. 'De Chlotario est canere rege Franconum, Si non fuisset inclytus Faro de gente Burgundionum.' "He says, at the end of the song, 'Quando veniunt Missi Saxonum in terra Francorum, Instinctu Dei transeunt per urbem Meldorum, Ne interficiantur a rege Francorum.'6 "I submit that putting Franconum in the first verse to rhyme with Saxonum, and Francorum to agree with Meldorum in the last, is an undeniable proof of intended rhyme. 66 Hildegarius adds,- We choose to show in rustic verse (rustico carmine) how famous he was deemed.' These passages show that the rustic verse of the Franks in 622 was rhymed verse. "Irrimen, in the days of Otfrid, signified the act of poetical composition. Speaking of the Virgin Mary, he says, Ist ira lob ish giwaht Thaz thin irrimen ni maht.' Her praise is so commemorated "Rimen, in the Franco-Theotisc, is a verb signifying congruere, obvenire, contingere, to agree together, to meet; this very neatly describes rhyme, in which sounds are made to agree together, and to meet. It is therefore probable that the word rhyme comes from the ancient languages of Europe rather than from the Latin rhythmus, and that the Frankish rimen shows us the rationale of its use. "Rim, in Saxon, signifies numbers; riman signifies to number, also to sing and to chant; as the Latin word numerus signifies, besides number, poetic measure. "If not thus derived (i. e., from ancient European languages), how came rhyme' to be so called in all the 6 Vide Bouquet's Recueil des Historiens de la France, iii. p. 505. 7 Rhif in Welsh.--ED. CAMB. Jour. |