Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

butter not forming in the churn. They are alfo believed to poffefs the power of inflicting any diforder they think proper on man or beast, and that they never neglect to do it, if they have been offended. There are now living two celebrated conjurors, or fortunetellers, who are confulted by all the neighbours, when their goods, or cattle are miffing; thefe are Sionet Gorn, of Denbigh, and Dick Smot, of Ofweftry.

The young people have many pretended modes of foretelling their future sweethearts, but moft of thefe being common alfo amongst the peafantry of our own country, it would be useless here to repeat them.

I have been informed, that a diforder fomething fimilar to St. Anthony's fire, called Yr Eryr, the eagle, is fuppofed by the labouring people to be always cured by the following kind of charm. A man or woman whofe father, grandfather, or great-grandfather, have eaten the flesh of that bird, is to fpit upon the part affected, and rub it, and they say that it will certainly go away. A fervant girl, belonging to a friend of mine, who refides in Wales, fays fhe was cured of this complaint by an old man, whofe grandfather had eaten of an eagle's flesh; he made use also of some words, to affift in the charm, which the did not comprehend.

'There is an opinion, very commonly received within the diocese of St. David's, in Pembrokeshire, that, a fhort time before the death of any perfon, a light is frequently feen proceeding from the house, and even fometimes from the bed, where the fick perfon lies, and purfues its way to the church where the corpfe is to be interred, precifely in the fame track in which the funeral is afterwards to follow. This light is called Canwyll Corph, or the corpfe candle.

'I have been told of a strange cuftom that prevails in some parts of North Wales, which no doubt the clergy ftudy to abolish, as much as lays [lies] in their power. When any perfon fuppofes himfelf highly injured, it is not uncommon for him to repair to fome church, dedicated to a celebrated faint, as Llan Elian, in Anglesea, and Clynog in Caernarvonfhire, and there, as it is termed, to offer his enemy. He kneels down on his bare knees in the church, and offering a piece of money to the faint, utters the most virulent imprecations, calling down curfes and misfortunes upon the offender and his family for generations to come, all which they have a firm belief will come to pafs. Sometimes inftead of a church they repair to fome of the facred wells, that are dedicated to the faints. Mr. Pennant mentions his being threatened by a fellow, who fancied he had been injured by him, "with the vengeance of St. Elian, and a journey to his well, to curfe him with effect."

Some of thefe wells are in great repute for the cure of diseases, by means of the interceffion of the faint. The faints are alfo applied to, when any kind of goods are loft, and are made the inftru

ments of recovering them, or of discovering the thief who has ftolen them.

St. George had formerly in the parish of Abergeley, in Caer narvonshire, his holy well, at which this British Mars had his offering of horses; for the rich were, at certain times, accustomed to offer one, to fecure his bleffing on all the reft. St. George was the tutelar faint of thofe animals; and all that were distempered, were brought to this well, fprinkled with the water, and had this bleffing bestowed: Rhad Duw a Saint Siors arnat, "the bleffing of God and St. George be on thee."

In the churches, when the name of the devil occurred, an univerfal spitting used formerly to feize the congregation, as if in contempt of that evil fpirit; and, whenever Judas was mentioned, they expressed their abhorrence of him, by fmiting their breasts.

If a Ffynnon Vair, or Well of our Lady, or any other faint, was near, the water for baptifin was always brought from thence; and, after the ceremony was over, old women were very fond of washing their eyes in the water of the font.

Upon Christmas day, about three o'clock in the morning, most of the parishioners affembled in the church, and, after prayers and a fermon, continued there finging pfalms and hymns with great devotion, till it was day-light; and if, through age or infirmity, any were disabled from attending, they never failed having prayers at home, and carols on our Saviour's nativity. The former part of the cuftom is still in fome places preserved, bu: too often perverted into intemperance. This act of devotion is called Pulgen, or the crowing of the cock. It has been a general belief among the fu perftitious, that inftantly

"at his warning,

Whether in fea, or fire, in earth, or air,
Th' extravagant, and erring fpirit, hies
To his confine.”

But during the holy feafon, the cock was fuppofed to exert his power throughout the night; from which undoubtedly originated the Welsh word Pulgen, as applied to this cuftom. Accordingly Shakspeare finely defcribes this old opinion:

"Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning fingeth all night long:

And then, they fay, no fpirit walks abroad:
The nights are wholesome: then no planets strike:
No fairy takes: no witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd, and fo gracious is the time."

The lower clafs of people of Caernarvonfhire, Anglefea, and part of Merionethshire, have a mode of courtship, which, till within the fe few years, was scarcely ever heard of in this kingdom... The lover

generally comes, under the fhadow of the night, and is taken, without any kind of reserve, into the bed of his fair one. Here, as it is generally understood, with part of his clothes ftill on, he breathes his tender paffion, and "tells how true he loves." This custom seems to have originated in the fcarcity of fuel, and in the difagreeableness of fitting together in cold weather without fire. Much has been faid of the innocence with which those meetings are conducted; it may be fo in some cases, but it is certainly not an uncommon thing for a son and heir to be brought into the world within two or three months after the marriage ceremony has taken place. No notice feems however to be taken of it, provided the marriage is over before the living witness is brought to light. As this cuftom is entirely confined to the labouring people, it is not fo pregnant with danger as it might otherwife be fuppofed, for both parties being poor, they are constrained to marry, in order to fecure their reputation, and, by that means, a method of getting a livelihood.' Vol. ii. P. 222.

The thirteenth chapter of this volume affords a very entertaining account of the druids and bards. The hiftory of the latter is brought down to our own times, and will amply repay the trouble of perufal. Fifteen fpecimens of Welsh mufic compofe an acceptable appendix to this fection.

In the fourteenth chapter we have a differtation on the Welsh language, which Mr. Bingley derives from the Hebrew, and confiders as the parent of the Cornish, Armoric, Irish, and Erfe dialects.

Having now given ample teftimony of our general approbation of this work, we must be excufed when we fay that it is by no means free from faults. We are forry to observe that Mr. Bingley has not taken fufficient pains to correct the ftyle of the memoranda from which thefe volumes are compofed. The little inelegancies which, in the distraction of travelling, every tourist will neceffarily crowd into his pocket book, ought to have been carefully weeded out before they were prefented to the public. Recurring to our first extract we find the following awkward fentence, which might have been very eafily amended: The windows are all very fmall, and, in addition to this, by far the greater part of them, with having been formerly broken, are blocked up with boards.' -The fudden showers, which the attraction of the mountains renders them liable to be taken in-is the clofe of a period fo deftitute of melody as to be fcarcely tolerable in the carelefsness of converfation.

Vol. i. p. 71, Its numerous beauties cannot fail in attracting the attention'-p. 86, The Welsh prince fortunately for himself got off-p. 118, Defpairing in the ftrength of his own army'-p. 241, It would have been utterly impracticable

for him, if he had defired ever fo, to cross from Cwm Llân immediately over Snowdon to Dolbadarn'-p. 303, 'flands the poor remains'-p. 307, when the Lavan fands was habitable'-p. 312, the narrow flip of meadow which lays along its bottom.' Of this vulgarifm, the use of the verb lay for lie, we have to our great surprise noted, in the courfe of our perufal of thefe volumes, upwards of a dozen inftances.

We must alfo lament that the work abounds in typographical errors. A long lift of errata is given at the end of each volume: but thefe lifts do not by any means include every miftake. For inftance, in p. 39, retiring ought to be retired; and in p. 44, at the beginning of the paragraph, by the infertion of and the confiftency of the fentence is deftroyed. In the thort Latin infcription given in Vol. ii. p. 87, no less than five typographic errors occur, none of which are noticed in the lift.

So great is the general merit of this work, however, that we doubt not a fecond edition will in procefs of time be called for. We trust that Mr. Bingley will avail himfelf of that opportunity to correct the errors both of style and of the prefs.

The views, defigned by Mr. Bingley and engraved in aquatinta by Alken, are four in number. They are well executed, and confer on the volumes an appropriate and elegant ornament."

Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum. Containing the Names and Characters of all the English Poets, from the Reign of Henry III. to the Clofe of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, By Edward Phillips, the Nephew of Milton. First pubLied in 1675, and now enlarged by Additions to every Article from fubfequent Biographers and Critics. 8vo. 85. Boards. White. 1800,

THE editor of this work, Mr. Egerton Brydges, has fhown confiderable tafte in its felection and arrangement. Perhaps, however, it would have been improved if it had included an abridgement of Dr. Warton's Hiftory of English Poetry, in the manner of Maflieu's Hiftory of French Poetry, Dr. Warton's work being too ponderous and minute for the general reader.

In an advertifement prefixed, the editor gives fome account of Phillips, the original author; but he should also have subjoined fome account of his work, which is conftructed in alphabetical order, and confifts of two parts or volumes, the firft of 192 pages, the fecond of 261. The first volume relates to the ancient poets; the fecond to the modern; and the work concludes with a fupplement of omitted characters, and

an account of the ladies who have devoted their time to the mufes.

[ocr errors]

The advertisement is followed by the preface of Phillips, which is full of Miltonifms, and was perhaps wholly written by his uncle, our immortal poet. To this fucceeds a preface by the editor, in which he fuppofes that the late learned poet-laureat was the first who started the idea that Milton re-touched Phillips's work, while the real fource of that notion may be found in the Maitland poems, published in 1785, p. cxxiii. Mr. Brydges juftly obferves that Dr. Johnson had no taste for the higher provinces of poetry; but our author's own difcrimination certainly flumbers, when he claffes the earl of Surry, fir Thomas Wyat, lord Buckhurft, lord Vaux, the earl of Oxford, fir Philip Sidney, and fir Walter Raleigh, among the fecondary poets who poffefs the most genuine merit, and retain to this day the moft permanent fame.' Upon this fubject we need only appeal to the judgement of the public; for, if this were the cafe, the poems of these authors would have been frequently printed, and have become the ornament alike of the library and the toilet, inftead of being only known to a few literary men. We must ingenuoufly confefs, that, whenever, from a ftrong and decided propenfity towards ancient poetry, we have attempted to read thefe metrical effufions, we have uniformly found that they only excelled in infipidity. There are no living images, no burning words, no elegance of metaphor: the vis poetica can fcarcely even be difcovered in their profaic pages.

Mr. Brydges gives fome account of the fucceffors of Phillips in the department of poetical biography. In mentioning Cib. ber's lives of the poets, he firft ftates the opinion of Dr. Johnfon, that it was the fole work of Shiels, and then fubjoins the more complete information given in the Monthly Review, that only the rough draught was compofed by Shiels, which was afterwards altered and corrected by Theophilus Cibber. We next meet with remarks on the collections by Dr. Johnfon and Dr. Anderfon, and on the ancient and modern felections of English poetry. The account of one ingenious editor we thall transcribe.

[ocr errors]

In 1787, Mr. Hervey Headley, A. B. of Trinity-college, Oxford, publifhed, Select Beauties of ancient English Poetry; with remarks,' in 2 volumes 8vo. He was, I believe, fon of the Rev. Mr. Headley, of North-Waltham, in Norfolk, and educated at Norwich under Dr. Parr. Before he was twenty, he published a volume of poems, which are faid to have great merit; and was a contributor to the Olla Podrida,' and a frequent correfpondent of the Gentleman's Magazine under the fignature T. C. O. but died at Norwish, on 15 Nov, 1788, at the early age of 23. He was an inti.

« AnteriorContinuar »