her collection to Pope Alexander the Eighth, who, with the addition of his private library, deposited the whole in the Vatican." And he afterwards tells us that "The present manuscript varies not, as to general import, from the copies of the Historia Brittonum' already known. It differs from those edited by Gale (Scrip. xv.) and Bertram (Scrip. iii.) in certain transpotisions of the subject-in the omission of two introductory prefaces-in not acknowledging the assistance of Samuel Bewly, (the reputed master of Nennius,)—in detaching the life of St. Patrick from the body of the work, and placing it at the end." The rest of the Preface is occupied partially with a parallel between this translation and the copy of Nennius edited by Bertram, "not only as being the latest but because it exhibits marks of care and diligence superior to all others." To this parallel suc-. ceed some ingenious remarks on the "origin of romantic fiction, in Britain," a subject, unquestionably, of curious interest, and not wholly without its utility. But, as it is also one of peculiar uncertainty, a writer may reasonably be excused, if he should be. found occasionally to wander too far into the seductive lands of hypothesis. Thus it appears, that Mr. Gunn has perhaps gone somewhat astray in adopting the fancies of those authors, who have attempted to convert the simple and unadorned fabric of bardism into the wild and enchanted temple of magic. Romantic fiction, wherever it may have had its birth, formed no necessary part of the ancient system of Druidism, which, being emphatically founded in truth, could never have been the parent of fable and romance. That some traditions exist, which seem to. countenance a contrary supposition, is not to be denied ;-but it remains to be proved, that they were ever recognised by the bards in their institutional character. Among these are the Mabinogion, or Romantic Tales, the origin of which, however, there does not appear any substantial reason for ascribing, with Mr. Gunn, to the Druids, at least not as "Institutional Tales." Yet this diminishes nothing from their value; wherefore, the following account of these very curious remains of Welsh literature cannot fail to be in the highest degree interesting, and more especially as the English public seem, in general, to be wholly unconscious of their existence. The passage, here extracted, occurs in a note on that part of the Preface, which relates to the " origin of romantic fiction," and the name, by which it is sanctioned, must necessarily give it the stamp of authority. • See Cambro-BRITON, vol, i. p. 450. "I was some time since favoured by Mr. Owen Pughe with the perusal of translations of several of these tales, but, knowing he intended them for the press, did not ask his permission to make extracts from them. The result of a second application will not be unacceptable to the reader. "Agreeably to your request, I send some particulars of the Mubinogion. "The first list : "1. Ymarwar Lludd a Lleve lys: The contention of Lludd and Llevelys. "2. Breuddwyd Maxen Wle- The dream of the Emperor Maxi dig: "3. Brân Vendiged : 4. Pwyll Pendevig Dyved: 5. Manawydan ab Llyr: "6. Math ab Mathonwy: mus. Pwyll the chieftain of Dyved. "No. 1. Lludd, son of Beli, was the father of Caswallawn (Cassivellaunus :) he and Llevelys his brother had some game at ball, which, with the events it produced, and their reconcilement are the subject of the tale. “No. 2. The dream of Maximus is concerning his elevation to power, wherein are narrated the incidents leading to its accomplishment. "No. 3. The events in the tale of Brân arise out of the tale of Pwyll. Matholwch, the supreme King of Ireland, lands with a fleet at Harlech, in North Wales, where Bran kept his court, to demand Bronwen, the sister of Brân, in marriage. His request is granted, and he returns to Ireland. Events then arise, wherein Bronwen is insulted with a box on the ear, called one of the three fatal insults of Britain. For Brân invades Ireland to avenge his sister. Only seven return from the expedition, after having destroyed nearly all the people of Ireland; and Brân being mortally wounded, he orders his companions who survive, to carry his head to be interred in the White Hill, in London, as a protection against all future invasions, so long as the head remained there. The sequel of the tale recites their progress to London to bury the head. At Harlech, in their way, they are kept seven years listening to the birds of Rhianon, singing in the air; and in Dyved (Dimetia), by attending to the last words of Brân, they stay in a grand hall for eighty years, enjoying every kind of pleasing amusement, all their misfortunes and object of further progress being kept out of their minds; but, by opening a door looking towards Cornwall, their real condition breaks in upon their minds, which compels them to pursue their journey. Brân was the father of Caradawg (Caractacus), and according to the Triads, he with all his family were carried to Rome, and remained there seyen years as hostages for the son. Bran there meets with some Christians, and, being converted, he prevails on two Christians to ac company him to Britain, by which means the faith is introduced; which is the cause of the epithet of Blessed being given him. "No.4. Part of the tale of Pwyll has been given in the second volume of the Cambrian Register, and is continued in vol. 3, now printing. "No. 5. Manawydan is the brother of Brân, and is one of the seven, that carried his head to London. The events of this tale are a continuation of the former; and the end of it is the doing away some spells or enchantments laid upon Dimetia, arising out of events in the tale of Pwyll. "No. 6. This tale follows the other in connexion; but the incidents in it are distinct, so that it may be considered as a separate one. It opens with an embassy from Math, prince of Gwynedd, (Venedotia) to Pryderi the son of Pwyll, prince of Dyved (Dimetia). The ambassadors are twelve bards, with Gwydion the son of Don at their head, who had magic spells at command. The object was, by means of rich presents, to obtain a race of new animals, which Pryderi had possession of, and these were swine, being the first of the kind in the island. The request is refused; but Gwydion, by illusions, obtains the swine. "Pryderi, in revenge, invades Gywnedd; the consequence is the ruin of both countries; and the tale proceeds with a series of spells, often very fanciful and striking. "The above tales I class by themselves, as they contain not one incident connected with the adventures of Arthur and his warriors, who are the actors in the following class of tales. "Second List: "No. 1. Peredur ab Evrog: "No. 2. Culhwch ab Cilydd ab Celyddon Wledig : "No. 3. Geraint ab Erbin: "No. 4. Owain ab Urien : "I have not a copy of No. 4. tales in the Hengwrt collection. Peredur the son of Evrog. reign of Celyddon (Caledonia). I believe there are several other "With respect to the periods when these tales were composed, it would be difficult to say; but I have no hesitation in concluding them all to be anterior to the conquest of Wales by Ed. I. A. D. 1283. All the personages therein were real characters, most of whom are often mentioned by the earlier bards; and many are mentioned in the historical Triads. Many of the events in the tales are likewise in the Triads. Taliessin, who flourished in the sixth century, mentions several of the incidents of these tales; so also do the poets, who flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries." It is now time to turn from the preface to the work itself, in which, however, the only portion, that seems to come under cri tical cognizance are the notes, which are numerous and interesting, although not always conveyed in the happiest method. Indeed the general aim of the author appears to have been rather to condense at any rate the fruits of his learned researches than to study the lucidus ordo in their arrangement. Yet it is impossible not to feel indebted to him for the interesting and valuable matter he has thus brought together, and which evinces, at least, a great degree of laborious investigation in his laudable efforts to illustrate this obscure chronicle. The following note on the History of Brutus will exemplify the remark, that has now been made. "To investigate the rise of the fable of Brutus, it becomes necessary to extend our research beyond the traditions and written documents of this island. "The first notices on record of the people of Italy we receive from the Greeks of Sicily and Magna Græcia. Theagenes of Rhegium, who flourished in the reign of Cambyses, about the sixty-third Olympiad, is the oldest who makes mention of Italioti; for so the Greeks of lower Italy were denominated. (Hesych. Itahotng.) Hippius, his fellow citizen, contemporary with Xerxes, wrote also on the affairs of Italy, together with Antiochus of Syracuse, who is allowed to have flourished in the ninetieth Olympiad; and a catalogue of those, who employed their pens on the same subject, is to be found in the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius. But these writers, far from investigating vulgar traditions, injured the truth of their national memorials, by the introduction of fabulous details. In a country, where the national temper was ardent, and the imagination rendered more fervid by the relations of Hesiod and Homer, a poetic character was impressed on the early narratives of the Greeks, which procured the applause of the vulgar, and the contempt of the philosopher. In the gentile nations of antiquity, power and vanity were associates, and no sooner did they feel importance, than a divine origin was asserted. If we attend to the imperfect and mutilated details of the writers above cited, we shall find an enumeration of the Greek and Trojan heroes, who had shared and survived the glorious enterprises of the ten years' war, and who, as impelled by the fates, settled in Asia, Africa, or Italy. Among these was Æneas: though they might have been taught from a source of at least equal authenticity with any they had any opportunity of investigating, that he and his descendants reigned over the Trojans after the Greeks had destroyed the capital of their country. "The period, when the tradition of the Trojan extraction was assumed by the Romans, is to be ascertained with tolerable satisfaction. Before the fifth age of their city this people knew little beyond the confines of the divisions of their own state; we may believe, they had scarcely heard of the Greeks, and were little conversant in VOL. II. F their history and mythology. Neither were they otherwise than faintly visible to them, till the time of Alexander. Theopompus, who was contemporary with Philip, is the first writer by whom the Romans are mentioned, ' ante quem nemo mentionem habuit.' (Plin. 1. 3. c. 15.) So little were they known in the days of Aristotle, that his disciple Heraclides, of Pontus, mistook Rome for a Greek maritime city, which he says, was captured by an army of Hyperboreans; for so he styles the Gauls. (Plut. in Camil.) In fact, the uncertainty of the true origin of the Romans is acknowledged by themselves, and various traditions of it, in early times, are quoted by Płutarch*, (V. Romuli,) and Festus, (in Roman.) The earliest rumour of the Trojan approach is to be found in the fragments of Ennius, the first Latin author who wrote the annals of the Roman republic. (Apud Hessel.) In these Æneas is recognised in the island of Procida; the authority is from Nævius, in his poem on the first Punic war. Prochyta hanc Nævius, in primo belli Punici de cognata Æneæ nomen accepisse dicit.' In the sixth age of the city the inscriptions on the shields, presented by Titus Quintius Flaminius to Apollo at Delphi, after the first Macedonian war, assert the Trojan extraction of the Romans. (Plut. in Flamin.) "Virgil has been censured for countenancing a vulgar delusion, but surely without foundation; for, whatever his private sentiments were, time and opinion had sanctioned an error unsafe to controvert, since it was then interwoven with the established religion and the public annals of Rome. The pontifical college exercised a superior jurisdiction over all things, that related to the service of the gods, and the private rights and interests of individuals. The sacred character of the members of that association, (on whom additional lustre was reflected by rank and extraction,) was protected by the laws, opinions, and manners of their country, and they never failed rigorously to exercise the rights attached to their sacerdotal and civil jurisdiction. The tradition of a Trojan origin must have had the sanction of their approbation, for many of the most distinguished and ancient families in Rome, as the Lamiæ from Lamus, a king of the Lestrygones, (Hor. 1. 3. O. 17.) the Mamilli from Ulysses, (Vaillant. Num. Fam. Rom.) and it was the boast of Cæsar, a Venere Julii cujus gentis familia est nostra. Est ergo in genere et sanctitas regum, qui plurimum inter homines pollent: et ceremonia Deorum, quorum ipsi in potestate sunt reges.' (V. Jul. Cæs. 16. 6.) This tradition was never lost to posterity. 'So universal was this humour, and "He says, that the first Grecian writer, who adopted the legend of Romulus, was Diocles of Peparetus. He was followed by Ennius, whose work was composed in Greek, (Cic. de Div. 1. 1. c. 21.) as were those of C. Alimentus, P. Corn. Scipio Afric. (Son ofthegreat Scipio ) A. Post. Albinus, who was ridiculed by Cato, for composing a history in Greek, and afterwards offering apologies for the inaccuracy and inelegance of his expressions." |