One of the most remarkable consequences of the conquest of Wales by Edward I. was the depression of that lofty poetical spirit which had previously distinguished the Welsh nation. Before that event the Cambro-British bards appear to have devoted their genius to the grand theme of national independence.
- ↑ For the materials of the following Life of Davyth ap Gwilym we are entirely indebted to the ingenuity and research of Dr. William Owen Pughe; they were first published by him in 1789, in the form of a biographical sketch prefixed to the original poems. In the present arrangement of them, I have for the most part adopted the memoir published by Mr. Humphreys Parry, in his Cambrian Plutarch.
I may here remark, that in spelling many Welsh names, such as ‘Morfydd Gwyn ab Nudd,’ &c.—‘Morvyth Gwyn ap Neath’ (according to the English mode of orthography), I have not been influenced by any disposition to build theories, but solely by the wish to convey to the English reader, for whom, in fact, these translations are intended, the sound of these names. By adhering to the Welsh style of spelling, I should have left him without any idea of the sound of these appellations, and thereby, in many instances, have given him false notions of the metre and the rhyme.
