But, whatever may have been the inconstancy of Davyth ap Gwilym in his general conduct towards the fair sex, he appears, in two instances, to have entertained a sincere and honourable passion—the objects of which, under the names of Dyddgu and Morvyth, he has celebrated in some of his choicest effusions. But, in both cases, the result was equally unpropitious, though in different ways, to the hopes he had indulged.
The fair one first named, who is represented by the bard as endowed with every grace both of body and mind, seems to have proved inaccessible to all the overtures of his heart, enforced as they were by all the fascinations of his muse[1]. However gratified she may have been by the offerings of the bard, she appears to have paid no attention to the adorations of the lover.
Morvyth, our poet’s other favourite, received his addresses more graciously, and had it not been for untoward circumstances, over which she had no control, the event of this attachment might have equalled his most sanguine expectations. Morvyth was the daughter of Madog Lawgam, a gentleman of Anglesea, and was in every point of view the very Laura of our Cambrian Petrarch. His first view with this lady was at Rhosyr, in Anglesea, where, by some means, he attracted her notice. He says, in a poem on the occasion, that he sent a present of wine to her, and she slighted the offer so much as to throw it over the servant who brought
- ↑ The poems to Dyddgu now extant are seven in number, from No. 14 to 20 inclusive, in the original.
