content to tune his harp to themes of love and social festivity; and sportive allusions to objects of nature, and to the picturesque manners of that interesting period, were made to supply the place of lays in celebration of martial achievements. Whatever may have been lost in fire and sublimity by this transition was perhaps more than compensated by the superior polish, vivacity, and imaginativeness, which distinguish the bards of the new school. The dawn of the epoch here noticed was signalized by the birth of Davyth ap Gwilym, on whom the appellation of the Petrarch of Wales has, with some degree of propriety, been bestowed.
A full and authentic history of the life of Davyth ap Gwilym would be a great literary treasure; not only would it throw much light upon the poetry and manners of his age, it would no doubt add to our historical knowledge. Unhappily, however, the only materials extant for such a work, consist of a few traditionary anecdotes preserved in manuscript, and the allusions to his personal history contained in the bard’s own poems. The exact year of his birth is involved in obscurity, but we possess data from which it may be conclusively established that he began and ended his days within the fourteenth century. Even the spot of his nativity has furnished food for controversy; and our bard may be numbered among the men of genius whose birth-place has been a subject of patriotic rivalry; accordingly, on one hand we find the island of Anglesea[1]
- ↑ The ground on which it has been contended that the poet
