OWAIN KYVEILIOG, PRINCE OF POWIS. (Circa 1162.) Owain Kyveiliog was the son of Griffith ap Meredith, prince of one of the three divisons of Wales called Powis. He seems to have taken an active part in the military and political affairs of his day. Upon the death of his father, his elder brother succeeded to the sovereignty, and he was busily engaged in the affairs of his district. He was in great favour with the English court, which may, in some measure, account for that regard for the Saxons which he shewed in his after-life. In the year 1165, Wales was threatened with an invasion by Henry II., in consequence of an incursion into Tegenyl, then in the possession of the king, by the son of Owain Gwynedd, king of North Wales. Henry came to Oswestry with his army, intending wholly to destroy the people of Wales. The princes of the three divisions, on their part, prepared to receive him. In the battle which followed the king's forces were defeated. It is generally considered that the Hirlas Horn was composed on the occasion of the battle of Crogen, as it was called; but this is highly questionable, because there is no mention made in it of the allied army, but merely of the Powysian chiefs. Owain afterwards owned the allegiance of Henry II., and died in 1197. His poem of the Hirlas Horn is one of the longest poems we have of the 12th century, and has more than ordinary merit. Its plan is as follows:-The prince fancies himself assembled with his followers in the evening after a bloody battle, which had been fought in the morning; he calls his cup-bearer, and bids him fill the "Hirlas Horn ;" and as each warrior drinks from the cup, he recounts his feats. He begins each verse with "Duvallaw di venestr". "Fill, cup-bearer!" First of all he orders the goblet to be presented to a chieftain named Rhys, and then narrates that warrior's actions. There is much ingenuity shown in diversifying the praise awarded to each. The "Hirlas horn" is a drinking-horn, long, blue, and rimmed with silver. Our poet has left us another poem, describing an interesting national custom, The Circuit through Powys, on which the king travelled through his dominions to receive his revenues and to hold courts. HOWEL AB OWAIN. (Circa 1165.) Howel ab Owain succeeded his father, Owain Gwynedd, as king of North Wales, in 1169, and was killed two years after in a battle with a relative, who contested the crown with him. His death is lamented in a noble elegy written by his foster-brother, Perif ab Kedifor, two of whose brothers were slain in the same battle, and buried with the king at Bangor; and who is also the author of a fine Englynion, printed in the Welsh Archaiology, and which commemorates the valiant deeds of the seven sons of Kedifor. The king himself is regarded by Mr. Stephens as a "most sprightly and charming poet. The short poems he has left us are the sweetest productions of the age, and free from verbal intricacies and affected images; while, full to overflowing of a love of natural scenery and gay humour, they are really very delicious little morsels." EINION AP GWALCHMAI. Einion ap Gwalchmai, son of the Gwalchmai already noticed, was the author of numerous poems, five of which have escaped the ravages of time. A selection from these may be found in Mr. Stephens's Literature of the Kymri. One of these is an elegy on Nest, the daughter of Howel ab Owain, the poet-king just noticed.. MADOC AP IDDON. Madoc ap Iddon, king of Gwent, in South Wales, a man who knew many arts and sciences, so that there was not found his equal in his time, and who was the best poet and wit of any in Wales," is identified by Mr. Stephens as the author of a predictive Welsh poem entitled Arymes Prydain Vawr (the Destiny of Great Britain), excelling in poetic fire, descriptive power, and elegance of diction. The subject is the war between the Saxons and the Kymri, and the final expulsion of the former from these islands. The poems have been attributed both to Goeyddon, a bard in the 7th century, and to Taliesin; but Mr. Stephens assigns sound reasons for rejecting the claims that have been asserted on their behalf. KYNDDELW BRYDYDD MAWR, &c. (Circa 1194.) Between the years 1194 and 1200 many bards of note flourished in Wales. Of their productions we have 12 poems by Davydd Benvras, 1 by Einion ap Gwan, 5 by Einion ap Gwalchmai, 6 by Einion Wan, 2 by Gwillym Ryvel, 2 by Gruffydd ap Gwrgeneu, 2 by Gwyrnvardd Brycheiniog, 7 by Llewellyn Vardd, 3 by Seisyll, 6 by Philip Brydydd, 32 by Llywarch ap Llywelyn, commonly called "Prydgdd y Moch," and 50 by Kynddelw Brydydd Mawr, or the great poet. The latter was a man of great and varied powers in other respects; but his poetry, as presented to us by Mr. Stephens, is far inferior to that of Llywarch ap Llewellyn. LLYWARCH LLEW CAD. This poet is the author of twelve Englynions in praise of Madoc ap Meredydd, prince of Powys, printed in the Myvyrian Archaiology, which Mr. Stephens considers " among the most interesting poems of the period. They throw much light upon the military history and habits of the country, shew the influence of the Norman manners in their proximity to the people of Powys, and of the intercourse of the Powysian princes with the English court. In the whole range of our literature we have not as lively a portrait of a chieftain; the minutest features are noticed, without the general effect being lost sight of; and Llewellyn ap Madoc stands as palpable before us as on canvas. In the easy flow of the language, the minuteness of the description, and the spirit of the whole delineation, we have a collection of merits not frequently to be met with in the works of the bards." HERMAN. Herman, an Anglo-Norman poet in the reign of Henry II., is the author of various religious poems, now scattered in manuscripts, partly in England and partly in France. They comprise La Vie de Tobit, in 1400 lines, which commence with the Creation Les Joies de Notre Dame, which contains, among other things, a curious account of ancient Rome; a poetical dissertation, in 800 lines, on the three words, smoke, rain, and woman, which, according to Solomon, drive a man from his house; a fabulous history of the preaching and miracles of the Magdalen at Marseilles; and a poem in 7000 or 8000 lines, on the history of the Virgin Mary. SERLO. (Circa 1220.) Serlo, who, from a canon of York, became a monk of Fountains Abbey, and then of Kirkstall Abbey, where he died about 1120, nearly one hundred years old, is the author of a Latin song or chant on the Battle of the Standard, printed by Twysden in the Decem Scriptores; of another chant on the death of Sumerled, king of Man (1164); and of three metrical treatises on diction. There was another Serlo, at about the same time, a monk of Dover, who wrote poems on various subjects. BOSON. (Circa 1180.) Boson or Bozun, identified by the Abbé de la Rue as the nephew and secretary of Pope Adrian IV., was an English trouvère, who wrote lives, in Anglo-Norman verse, of nine female saints, and an abridgment, in the same form and language, of the New Testament. DANIEL CHURCHE. Daniel Churche, called also, by a latinisation of his surname, Ecclesiensis, was a domestic, we know not of what particular description, in the court of Henry II. He wrote in Latin a book of moral distichs, which he called variously Cato Parvus, Facetus, and Urbanus; and which was intended for, and became, a sort of supplement to, or companion of, a poem exceedingly popular at that period, under the name of Disticha Catonis de Moribus ad Filium, or Cato's Morals, The Latin original, which is distributed into four books, under the name of Dionysius Cato, or frequently Magnus Cato, is of altogether uncertain authorship. It was not written either by Cato the Censor or by Cato of Utica (however perfectly in the character of the former, and though Aulus Gellius has quoted Cato's poem De Moribus), nor is it the work of Seneca or of Ausonius, to both of whom it has been absurdly attributed. It is more ancient than the time of the Emperor Valentinian III., who died 455; less so than Lucan's Pharsalia, since the author, in his second book, commends Lucan. The name of Cato probably became prefixed to these distichs, in a lower age, by the officious ignorance of transcribers, and from the acquiescence of readers equally ignorant, as Marcus Cato had written a set of moral distichs. Whoever was the author, this metrical system of ethics had attained the highest degree of estimation in the barbarous ages. Among Langbaine's manuscripts, bequeathed to the University of Oxford by Anthony Wood, it is accompanied with a Saxon paraphrase. John of Salisbury, in his Polycraticon, mentions it as the favourite and established manual in the education of boys. To enumerate no others, it is much applauded by Isidore the old etymologist, Alcuin, and Abelard; and we must acknowledge that the writer, exclusive of the utility of his precepts, possesses the merit of a nervous and elegant brevity. He is perpetually quoted by Chaucer, commended by Caxton (who also translated it into English) as the "beste boke for to be taught to yonge children in scole ;" and on the restoration of learning in Europe, was illustrated with a commentary by Erasmus, which is much extolled by Luther. THOMAS OF BEVERLEY. Thomas, a native of Beverley in Yorkshire, and a monk of the abbey of Fresmont in Picardy, is known as the author of a life, principally in verse, of St. Margaret of Jerusalem, a large portion of which was printed by Manriquez in his Annales Cistercienses, under the year 1187 and some following years. GUALO. (Circa 1180.) Gualo, surnamed Brito and Britannus, is the author of some poetical fables against the monks, printed by Flaccus Illyricus. |