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ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 


BY ee 
MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE OF WALES 


VoL. XI 


_ PRICE THREE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE NETT 


_ PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES 
_ PRESS BOARD ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGE 
Ba 1929 


~ UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES 
; ABERYSTWYTH 
Vol. XI 


niversity Gotlege of Wates 


Hberystwyth. 
[ES 


With the 


Academic Secretary's Compliments. 


UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES 
ABERYSTWYTH 
Vol. XI 


ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 
VOL. XI 


ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 


BY 
MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE OF WALES 


VOL. XI 


| ‘PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES 
: PRESS BOARD ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGE 
1929 


Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and Londen 


CONTENTS 


3 PAGE: 
‘WILLIAM WILSON’? AND THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR 
ALLAN POE. By Grorce H. GREEN, M.A., Ph.D., B.Litt. i, 


THE CELTIC STRATUM IN THE PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 
OF EAST ANGLIA. By O. K. Scoram, M.A., Ph.D. . 23: 


DIALECTS AND _ BILINGUALISM. By Professor’ T. 
Gwynn JONES, M.A. : : ; : : : R 43. 


AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT 
TEACHING IN SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS 
IN WALES. By A. PrNsent, M.A., B.Sc. 5 ‘ . AD 


CORYDON AND THE CICADAE: A CORRECTION. By 
Professor H. J. Rost, M.A., and Miss WINSTANLEY, M.A. . 7D 


MUSEUM | 


27 JAN 30 | 
NATURAL | 


“WILLIAM WILSON’ AND THE CONSCIENCE 
OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


‘THE supposition that the book of an author is a thing apart from 
the author’s self is, I think, ill-founded. The soul is a cipher, in the 
sense of a cryptograph ; and the shorter a cryptograph is, the more 
difficulty there is in its comprehension—at a certain point of brevity 
it would bid defiance to an army of Champollions. And thus he 
who has written very little, may in that little either conceal his spirit 
or convey quite an erroneous idea of it—of his acquirements, talents, 
manner, tenor and depth (or shallowness) of thought—in a word, 
of his character, of himself. But this is impossible with him who 
has written much. Of such a person we get, from his books, not 
merely a just, but the most just representation. . .. What poet, 
in especial, but must feel at least the better portion of himself more 
fairly represented in even his commonest sonnet (earnestly written), 
than in his most elaborate or most intimate personalities ?’ 


Thus Poe writes in the essay on ‘Sarah Margaret Fuller,’ 
one of the Literati papers which he contributed to Godey’s Lady’ s 
Book during the year 1846 ; and what he says is sufficient warrant 
for the attempt to treat his story ‘ William Wilson’ as a cipher 
or cryptogram from which we may learn at least as much of the 
man as we may hope to do from the records of his life which have 
come down to us. 

On this particular story, ‘ William Wilson,’ Padraic Colum ! 
makes an interesting comment. After presenting a list of Poe’s 
greatest stories with the statement that these are amongst the 
world’s best examples of this literary form, he adds :—‘ “‘ William 
Wilson ”’ is perhaps the least impeccable of these tales ; one notices 
a certain staginess here—a theatricality that flaunts out in the 

Note.—In this essay the text of ‘ William Wilson’ which has been 
followed is that of the ‘Everyman’ Edition of the Tales of Mystery and 
Imagination (London: Messrs. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.). The page 
references are to this edition. 

1 Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, with an introduction by 
Padraic Colum (Everyman Library. London: Messrs. J. M. Dent & 
Sons, Ltd.), p. xii. 

1 


2 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


speech of the last encounter.’ The criticism is a just one, and 
the theatricality detracts from the merit of the story. How 
comes it that the blemish was not visible to Poe himself ? 

The obvious reply, that all men are a little blind to their own 
faults, does not apply here. Poe was unusually aware of weak- 
nesses in his own work, and constantly revised and altered it. 
The Philosophy of Composition, though it fails to explain—as it 
purports to explain—exactly how ‘The Raven’ was written, at 
least proves that Poe’s examination and criticism of his own 
work was so thorough that he was able to justify plausibly every 
element of it. We know, too, from Ingram’s memoir, that Poe 
revised ‘ William Wilson’ more than once. The theatricality, 
however, remained. : 

A certain degree of theatricality appeared in Poe’s behaviour 
at times when he was emotionally stirred. 


‘His conversation was at times almost supra-mortal in its 
eloquence. His voice was modulated with astonishing skill, and his 
large and variably expressive eyes looked repose or shot fiery tumult 
into theirs who listened, while his own face glowed, or was changeless 
in pallor, as his imagination quickened his blood or drew it back 
frozen to his heart.’ 2 


Griswold’s statement can be amply confirmed by evidence 
from other sources. Yet, though theatricality came easily to 
Poe in moments of even mild excitement, he is able, in his most 
perfect stories, to treat terrible and even horrible themes with 
an apparent calm which enhances their terror and horror. The 
theatricality of treatment, that is to say, is refined away till it 
no longer exists. We may justifiably regard ‘ William Wilson,’ 
therefore, as a story in which the operation of the creative 
imagination has come to an end, but one which is as yet un- 
finished, inasmuch as the final elaborations of literary technique 
have not been applied to it. And hence those who seek per- 
fection and finish of craftsmanship will turn to ‘ Ligeia’ (which 
Poe regarded as his own best tale) to ‘ The Cask of Amontillado ’ 
or to ‘ The Pit and the Pendulum’; whilst those who are curious 


1 Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters and Opinions. By John H. 
Ingram (London: John Hogg, 1880), Vol. I, p. 15. Re-issued in the 
Minerva Library (London: Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co., 1891), p. 12. 

* Rufus Griswold : Memoir of Edgar Allan Poe, prefaced to the Third 
Volume of the 1849 Edition of the Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 3: 


regarding the operations of the creative imagination will turn in 
the first instance to ‘ William Wilson.’ 

‘William Wilson’ was published in Burton’s Gentleman’s 
Magazine in August, 1839. In the earlier part of the same year 
Poe had compiled The Conchologist’s First Book, solely because 
he had to earn money. In 1839 he also published The Haunted 
Palace (afterwards introduced into The Fall of the House of 
Usher), The Man that was used up, The Fall of the House of Usher 
and The Conversation of Eiros and Charmian. Morella, too, was. 
published, though it had been written considerably earlier.! 

‘William Wilson’ has attracted a great deal of attention 
from those who emphasise the didactic aspect of literature, since 
they have considered the tale to be an allegory depicting the 
struggles of an evil man with his conscience. Obviously the 
tale is this, and that Poe deliberately intended it to be so is. 
suggested by the fact that he prefaces the whole with a quotation 
from Chamberlayne’s Pharronida :— 


‘What say of it? What say of CONSCIENCE grim, 
That spectre in my path ?’ 


The persons of the story are two in number: the hero, William 
Wilson, the narrator, and his ‘ double,’ who is a personification 
or objectivation of conscience. The story deals with the long 
conflict between the two, from the day when they enter 
the school at Stoke Newington, to that on which, many years. 
alter, they meet and fight a duel, and the double is 
killed. 

Evidently the story raises a number of problems. There is, 
for example, the question of why Poe should personify “ con- 
Science ’ in this particular way, rather than in another. There 
is the further question of the way in which the creative imagina- 
tion has operated in order to produce this particular figure : 
from what materials and by what methods. There is the very 
important question of the relation of the man’s life to his works, 
which must always propound itself when those works are so 
obviously bizarre as those of Poe. Apparently, then, ‘ William 
Wilson ’ offers itself as a crytograph—to use Poe’s own illustra- 
tion—which may, if we can discover the way it should be read, 
help us to answer these questions. If Poe’s own reasoning be 


1 Hervey Allen: Israfel: the Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe 
(New York: George H. Doran Company, 1927), Vol. II, p. 453. 


\ 


4 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


sound, the very bizarre character of the puzzle should make it 
easier of solution.! 

It is in the first place remarkable that Poe should head his 
tale with a quotation in which conscience is personified in a way 
altogether different from that which is followed in the story. 
In ‘ William Wilson’ conscience is not a spectre in the path: 
as will be shown in what follows, the ‘double’ who stands for 
the narrator’s conscience assumes a number of roles, but none of 
them corresponds to Chamberlayne’s image. This is, of itself, 
interesting. Was Poe unaware of the discrepancy between 
story and quotation ? Or does he realise it, but feel that the 
story and the quotation, taken together, express more completely 
what he is trying to say than either of them taken singly can 
do%... These are questions that cannot be definitely answered, 
though the study of the story may perhaps make one answer more 
probable than others. 

With a view to clearing up some of the issues raised by the fact 
that Poe personifies conscience in a very definite way, a number 
of people were asked ‘‘ Has this question any meaning for you— 
‘ How would you personify conscience ?’”’ A very few at once 
said ‘ No,” and the matter was pursued no farther. The general 
replies received took one of two forms ; those questioned replying 
that though they no longer personified conscience, they could 
remember having done so in childhood, or that though they 
could not remember ever having personified it, their experience 
of it made personification fairly easy. One woman said that 
conscience had always seemed to her like a dragon standing 
between her and everything she wished to do, and this image 
is fairly close to that of Chamberlayne. A man spoke of his 
experience of the operations of conscience as being “ as if someone 
grabbed me from behind and pulled me back from what I was 
going to do.’”’ A woman said that conscience was like a com- 
panion, older and more experienced than herself, who held her 
by the arm and gently forced her out of the direction she was 
taking of her own accord. Another woman spoke of an old 
man, with grey hair and beard, who stood before her, appearing 
to be grieved and disappointed on account of something she 
had done. A man said that conscience appeared to him as a 


1 See Poe’s Introduction to his story, ‘The Murders in the Rue 


Morgue,’ Tales of Mystery and Imagination, ‘Everyman’ Edition, pp. 
378-81. 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 5 


stern but kindly man who warned him of the consequences of the 
act he was about to commit, and threatened him with punish- 
ment if he should persist. In one case only was conscience 
personified as a ‘double’; and here a man stated that when he 
was in a state of indecision regarding actions, he sometimes 
seemed to become aware of himself, sneering and with folded 
arms, watching himself, with a great deal of amusement, ‘‘ about 
to make a fool of myself.’ Waguer references were made by 
some of the subjects to warning voices and watching eyes. 
Turning to other writers than Poe who have personified 

conscience in various ways, we find in Gifford’s translation of 
Juvenal’s satires the following :— 

‘Trust me, no tortures which the poets feign, 

Can match the fierce, the unutterable pain, 

He feels, who night and day, devoid of rest, 

Carries his own accuser in his breast.’ 
This personification recalls the proverb, ‘ It is always term time 
in conscience court,’ in which conscience is implicitly identified 
with the figure of a judge. In Publilius it is represented as a 
man bridling a horse— Frencs imponit linguae conscientia.’ For 
Wordsworth conscience is God : 


“Conscience reverenced and obeyed 
As God’s most intimate presence in the soul.’ } 


Wolcot (Peter Pindar) represents it less impressively : 


“Conscience, a terrifying little sprite, 
That batlike winks by day and wakes by night.’ ? 

In Grace Abounding Bunyan narrates his experience of 
hearing a voice from Heaven addressing him, so that he ‘ was, 
as if I had, with the eyes of my understanding, seen the Lord 
Jesus looking down upon me, as being very hotly displeased 
with me, and as if He did severely threaten me with some grievous 
punishment.’? St. Paul, too, gives accounts of conflicts he 
experienced, describing these as struggles between the ‘old 
man’ and the ‘new man.’ Socrates, too, spoke at times of a 
daemon within him who advised him. Nietzsche’s description 
of the ‘ bad conscience ’ recalls Poe’s in some respects, though it 
differs completely from it in others : 


1 Wordsworth: The Hxcursion, Book IV. 

2 The Lousiad, Canto 2. 

3 John Bunyan: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (London : 
The Religious Tract Society), p. 25. 


6 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


‘It was man, who, lacking external enemies and obstacles, and 
imprisoned as he was in the oppressive narrowness and monotony 
of custom, in his own impatience lacerated, persecuted, gnawed, 
frightened, and ill-treated himself; it was this animal in the hands 
of the tamer, which beat itself against the bars of its cage; it was 
this being who, pining and yearning for that desert home of which 
it had been deprived, was compelled to create out of its own self, 
an adventure, a torture-chamber, a hazardous and perilous desert.’ 1 


Some few years back, before efforts had been made to erect 
a structure of psychology upon scientific foundations, conscience 
was regarded as known universally to men through direct experi- 
ence, and its definition appeared to be a simple matter. The 
position to-day is different, since it appears that the experiences. 
which were regarded as manifestations of conscience are ana- 
lysable and capable of being related to other experiences. 
McDougall’s attitude towards the problem is probably repre- 
sentative : 

‘I do not maintain that conscience is an emotion, nor that any judg- 
ments, propositions, categories, ideas, notions, or concepts, are emotions, 
or can be analysed into emotion. But I maintain that conscience is 
identical with the whole moral personality, with moral character; that 


moral character is always a very complex mental structure, slowly built 
up in the individual under the influence of the moral tradition.’ 2 


_ Such a view as this enables us to approach the problems of 
‘ William Wilson’ in a different way from that in which they 
would have been approached some years ago. For if conscience 
be ‘identical with the whole moral personality,’ then the experi- 
ence of knowing it as something apart from the rest of the per- 
sonality—which is obviously the case in those who tend to 
personify it—implies some degree of ‘ dissociation of person- 
ality ’: a matter upon which the researches of Dr. Morton Prince 
especially have thrown a great deal of light.? 


1 Friedrich Nietzsche : The Genealogy of Morals. Trans. by Horace B. 
Samuel. (London: T. N. Foulis, 1910.) 

2 William McDougall in The Hibbert Journal, Vol. XIX, No. 2, p. 294. 
Quoted by W. B. Selbie: The Psychology of Religion (Oxford: The 
Clarendon Press, 1924), p. 233. 

3 Morton Prince: ‘ Awareness, Consciousness, Co-Consciousness and 
Animal Intelligence from the Point of View of the Data of Abnormal 
Psychology,’ Chapter X of Psychologies of 1925 (Worcester, Mass., U.S.A. 
Clark University Press, 1927). .See also My Life as Dissociated Personality, - 
by B. C. A., with an Introduction by Morton Prince (Boston : Richard G. 
Badger, 1909). 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 7 


The enquiries referred to in an earlier paragraph, and the 
references given to the work of other authors, show clearly that 
Poe is not unique—probably not exceptional even—in experienc- 
ing mental conflicts in ways which lead him to personify con- 
science. The problem set us by * William Wilson ’ is the problem 
of a specific personification and its relation to personal experi- 
ences. We evade the issue rather than face it when we speak 
of it in general terms—when we say that ‘ William Wilson’ 
is merely an instance of the personification of conscience probably 
resulting from partial dissociation of personality. The problem 
before us is that of an unusual personification, of a specific 
dissociation. 

Enquiries showed that the personifications of conscience 
already enumerated bore a very definite relation to earlier experi- 
ences. The figure and face of the man who admonished and 
threatened one subject proved, on examination, to be derived 
very largely from a particular schoolmaster; the stern and 
kindly old man of another subject was in part the superintendent 
of a Sunday school attended in childhood. The person who 
plucked another subject from behind appears to be derived from 
the mother who rescued him from a dangerous situation, in 
infancy, in this particular manner. ‘The dragon who bars the 
way to desires is, again, apparently derived from the legend of 
St. George by a woman who seems, wittingly or unwittingly, 
to have identified her brother with St. George and her mother 
with the dragon. In every case, the choice of the representative 
figure is no matter of chance; but is determined by early 
experience. 

Something of this seems to have been suspected by Poe him- 
self, for in ‘ William Wilson’ he says, speaking of the ‘ double’ : 

‘I discovered, or fancied I discovered, in his accent, his air and 
general appearance, a something which first startled, and then deeply 
interested me, by bringing to mind dim visions of my earliest infancy 
—wild, confused, and thronging memories of a time when memory 
herself was yet unborn. I cannot better describe the sensation which 
oppressed me than by saying that I could with difficulty shake off 
the belief of my having been acquainted with the being who stood 
before me, at some epoch very long ago—some point of the past 
even infinitely remote.’ } 

Unfortunately the majority of biographies are all but value- 

1 “William Wilson,’ p. 11. 


8 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


less for those who seek to discover in the early and formative 
years of life the beginnings of the achievements of the later years. 
The significant things in the lives of children are rarely recorded, 
and the scraps of narrative which appear in many biographies. 
as incidents of infancy are of dubious veracity, apparently either 
invented or edited till they are little better than mere inventions. 
The story of Poe’s childhood is little different from that of other 
great men—it is blank just where we most need it to be other- 
wise, and careful criticism has shown that a good deal of the little 
we have been told is probably untrue. For many years, practic- 
ally till Woodberry’s work appeared,! Poe’s biographers were 
content to put together a mass of uncritically considered material 
for the sake of presenting a particular point of view. Griswold’s 
‘Memoir’ was an attempt to obtain revenge for a slight. Ingram 
and others were moved through indignation at the obviously 
scurrilous character of Griswold’s work to present a favourable 
picture of Poe. Baudelaire’s memoir of Poe was intended to 
present Poe in Baudelaire’s own image to the French public. 
Of late years, however, the careful sifting of the accumulated 
matter and the examination of a mass of documents only recently 
accessible have made possible fairly reliable reconstructions of 
parts of Poe’s life about which we previously knew little.2 But, 
even so, of the important early years we know next to nothing. 

Consequently we are forced to adopt a method which, though 
it cannot be applied with the precision of the methods of chemical 
and physical science, may nevertheless be regarded as scientific. 
Since investigation has shown us that we can trace back the 
personifications of conscience in men and women to first- or 
second-hand experience during the early years of life, we appear 
to be justified in assuming that it is highly probable that the 
origins of the ‘double’ of ‘ William Wilson’ could be found 
in the history of the early years of the life of Edgar Allan Poe, 
had we the complete records: and that, in the absence of such 
evidence, it is permissible for us to infer it, with considerable 
probability, from the personification itself. The probability 
of the correctness of our inferences will be increased, if we are 


1 Woodberry: American Men of Letters—Edgar A. Poe (Boston 
and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1885); The Life of Edgar A. 
Poe, 2 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1910). — 

* Particularly Hervey Allen’s Israfel : the Life and Times of Edgar 
Allan Poe (New York: George H. Doran, 1927). 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 9 


able to confirm them in part from the scanty records of Poe’s 
childhood which we may accept with confidence; and from 
materials found in Poe’s works, other than ‘ William Wilson.’ 
We may expect that such an investigation will show us some- 
thing, not merely of the materials which have gone to the com- 
position of the ‘ double,’ but something also of the way in which 
they have been used: something, that is to say, of the creative 
imagination at work. 

Poe prefaces the story, which is written in the first person, 
with a number of apparently autobiographical details: all false. 
They are of a piece with the legend about himself which he 
utilises in other tales. ‘Hereditary wealth afforded me an 
education of no common order,’ he says at the beginning of 
‘MS. Found in a Bottle,’ 1 the real truth being that his parents 
lived in extreme poverty and died penniless. In ‘ Berenice’ the 
legend is more detailed : 


‘My baptismal name is Egaeus; that of my family I will not 
mention. Yet there are no towers in the land more time-honoured 
than my gloomy, grey, hereditary halls. Our line has been called 
a race of visionaries; and in many striking particulars—in the 
character of the family mansion . . . —in the fashion of the library 
chamber—and, lastly, in the very peculiar nature of the library’s 
contents, there is more than sufficient evidence to warrant the belief. 
The recollections of my earliest years are connected with that chamber, 
and with its volumes—of which latter I will say no more. Here 
died my mother. Herein I was born.’ 2 


Other instances might be cited, showing how industriously 
Poe endeavours to affirm a particular legend about his birth— 
a story of distinguished ancestors, of hereditary wealth, of 
magnificent life and great attainments. Yet he admits memories. 
which take him back to a period earlier than his ‘ birth ’—“‘ aerial 
forms—of spiritual and meaning eyes—of sounds, musical yet: 
sad—a remembrance which will not be excluded ; a memory like 
a shadow, vague, variable, indefinite, unsteady; and like a 
shadow, too, in the impossibility of my getting rid of it while the 
sunlight of my reason shall exist.’ There can be little doubt— 
and the story of * Ligeia’ is strong confirmatory evidence—that 
the memories of which he speaks are memories of his own mother, 
who died before he was three years of age. It may be said without: 


1 “MS. Found in a Bottle.’ Tales, ‘Everyman’ Edition, p. 258. 
2 “Berenice,’ Ibid., p. 175. 2 MOGih, 10. NAS 


10 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


injustice to Poe that he constantly, in his works, pretended 


erudition and scholarship which he did not possess, and which 
only an ‘education of an uncommon order’ would have given 
him. What education he received, in a tiny Scottish grammar- 
school, an English preparatory school, in the course of brief stays 
at the University of Virginia and at West Point, as well as in 
private schools in Richmond, Va., was provided through the 
bounty of John Allan: by wealth, that is to say, which was in 
no sense hereditary. 

Poe is not the only man who has lied about his early years or 
his education. Shelley lied to Godwin about his school career.! 
What is important to us, however, is not the fact of lying, but the 
function of the lie. What purpose does it serve? _ 

When, later, Poe enlisted in the American Army, he gave an 
age in excess of his real age, and a false name. Such lying is 
rational in character, and we can understand it, evenif we do not 
approve it. But in ‘ William Wilson’ he tells us, speaking of 
himself and his ‘double’: ‘assuredly if we had been brothers 
we must have been twins; for, after leaving Dr. Bransby’s, I 
casually learned that my namesake was born on the nineteenth 
of January, 1813, and this is a somewhat remarkable coincidence ; 
for the day is precisely that of my own nativity.’ 2 

The date of Poe’s own birth has now been ascertained with 
certainty : it was the nineteenth of January, 1809, four years 
earlier, that is to say, than the date given in the story. In 
1813 Poe was comfortably established in the Allans’ house in 


Richmond. His mother had been dead for a little more than a ~ 


year, his father, almost certainly, for a longer time. His elder 
brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, was living in Baltimore 
with relatives, and his baby sister, Rosalie, had been adopted 
by Scotch people of the name of Mackenzie and was living in 
Richmond. Poe makes his life begin, in ‘ William Wilson,’ at a 
time when he was completely cut off from the poverty-stricken 
family in which he originated. The falsification of the birth- 
date is, therefore, equally with the assumption of rich and titled 
ancestors, a repudiation of that family. 

To make Poe’s relation to the members of this family clear 

1 The letter to Godwin is followed by the account of the real facts 
in Hogg’s Life of Shelley. Quoted by Arthur Ransome: Edgar Allan 


Poe: a Critical Study (London: Methuen & Co., 1915). 
2 “William Wilson,’ Tales, p. 8. 


oe 0 = 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 1] 


a few dates are necessary.1 The elder brother, William Henry 
Leonard Poe, was born at some time in the summer or the early 
winter of 1807—most probably the latter—and was left in the 
care of his paternal grandparents at Baltimore. fPoe’s father, 
David Poe, disappeared in July, 1810, when Poe himself was 
about eighteen months old; it is extremely likely that he died 
shortly after, though on this point nothing is known with any 
certainty. On December 20, 1810, Mrs. Poe gave birth to a 
daughter, Rosalie ; and on December 8, 1811, died at Richmond. 

Apparently, then, Edgar Allan Poe never met his brother 
until, in 1825, William Henry Poe paid a visit to Richmond ; 
though between 1820 and 1825 the two boys had corresponded. 
But they knew of the existence of each other earlier than this, for 
in a letter written by Poe’s aunt in Baltimore the passage occurs : 
‘Henry frequently speaks of his little brother and expresses a 
ereat desire to see him, tell him he sends his best love tohim. . . .”? 

We know, as a result of the work of Freud and his followers 
and collaborators, the important role played by the family situa- 
tion of the earliest years in determining the course of sub- 
sequent development.*? Studies have been made, too, which show 
that any great divergences from the normal family situation 
result in differences of development.* Certainly the early family 
situation of Poe was an unusual one, and we cannot doubt that 
it contributed much to his undoubtedly abnormal develop- 
ment. 

The early part of the story of ‘ William Wilson ’ is the narrative 
of Poe’s own schooldays at Stoke Newington. A great part of this 
account we know to be literally true. Poe describes the head- 
master under his own name, though he speaks of him as Dr. 
Bransby, instead of as the Reverend Mr. Bransby. It is there 
that the narrator meets his “ double,’ a boy who, born on the same 
day and bearing the same name and physical appearance, enters 


1 These dates are taken from Hervey Allen’s work, Israfel : the Life 
and Times of Edgar Allan Poe. 

2 Hervey Allen, op. cit. Appendix IV, Poe’s Brother, p. 874. 

3 See particularly Flugel: The Psycho-Analytic Study of the Family 
(London, Vienna, New York, The International Psycho-Analytical Press, 
1921). 

4 Malinowski, in Sex and Repression in Savage Society (London : 
Kegan Paul, 1927), has studied the differences produced by the matriarchal 
family organisation. But cases of abnormal development resulting from 
unusual family situations abound in psycho-analytic literature. 

A.S.—VOL. XI. B 


12 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


the school on the same day. Then begins the conflict which 
endures till the ‘double’ is killed in a duel. 

The extraordinary resemblance of the two is vividly described 
in the final episode : 

* The brief moment in which I averted my eyes had been sufficient 
to produce, apparently, a material change in the arrangements at 
the upper or farther end of the room. A large mirror—so at first 
it seemed to me in my confusion—now stood where none had been 
perceptible before ; and, as I stepped up to it in extremity of terror, 
mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood, 
advanced to meet me with a feeble and tottering gait. Thus it 
appeared, I say, but was not. It was my antagonist—it was Wilson, 
who then stood before me in the agonies of his dissolution... . 
Not a thread in all his raiment—not a line in all the marked and 
singular lineaments of his face which was not, even in the most 
absolute identity, mine own!’ } 

Poe’s essay, ‘ The Philosophy of Furniture,’ deals in part with 
the décor of an ideal room. ‘There we read—‘* But one mirror— 
and this not a very large one—is visible. In shape it is nearly 
circular—and it is hung so that a reflection of the person can be 
obtained from tt im none of the ordinary sitting-places of the room.’ 2 
Here is a very definite expression of Poe’s reluctance of seeing 
his own reflection in a mirror. In another place he makes 
objections to the fashion of his day of partly covering the walls 
of rooms with large mirrors—with mirrors, that is to say, in which 
full-length or nearly full-length images might be seen—and 
endeavours to make out a case against them on esthetic grounds. 
And in The Island of the Fay and The Fall of the House of Usher, 
both published within a few months of the appearance of ‘ William 
Wilson,’ Poe deals with the idea of disaster to an object owing 
to the action of water upon its reflection. Instances might be 
given from his works, too, showing an almost superstitious atti- 
tude towards shadows. ‘These fears of reflections and of shadows. 
remind us strongly of similar attitudes held by barbaric peoples. 
towards portraits, images, shadows, reflections—towards all repre- 
sentations, that is to say, of living men and women. 

1 ‘William Wilson,’ p. 21. 

2 Edgar Allan Poe: The Philosophy of Furniture. First published. 
in Burton’s Magazine, May, 1840, 1.e. about seven months after publication 
of ‘Wiliam Wilson.’ (Italics not in original.) 

3 Poe has dealt with the case of a woman who fades away as her 


portrait is developing towards completion, and dies as it is finished. See 
‘The Oval Portrait,’ Tales, p. 187. 


| 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 13: 


The difference between Poe and the member of a barbaric 
group is that whilst the latter definitely holds and confesses to a. 
superstitious belief, the former defends his objection to mirrors. 
on esthetic grounds. The net result of the two attitudes is the 
same : it leads to conduct which prevents the appearance of the 
disturbing reflection, and enables the subject to avoid the dreaded. 
consequences of the formation of his own image. Precisely what. 
circumstances of early childhood led Poe to form this superstitious. 
attitude towards mirrors we do not know, but it must be remem- 
bered that he was brought up in a Virginian household, surrounded. 
by superstitious negro slaves. Certainly, repression developed in 
Poe’s later life, since when he is writing against mirrors, he 
believes apparently that his objection to them is to the ‘ glitter ’ 
they introduce into decorative schemes. We are forced to believe: 
that he is himself unaware of the motive underlying his objection, 
which we discover as an inference from what he says.} 

In ‘ William Wilson ’ Poe dwells upon the singular resemblance. 
which exists between the narrator and his ‘ double,’ a resemblance: 
which is extended from physical appearance to actions by the 
‘double’s ’ deliberate imitation. 


‘ His cue, which was to perfect an imitation of myself, lay both 
in words and in actions; and most admirably did he play his part. 
My dress it was an easy matter to copy ; my gait and general manner 
were, without difficulty, appropriated ; in spite of his constitutional 
defect, even my voice did not escape him. My louder tones were, 


1 Another interesting instance of Poe’s attitude towards superstitious. 
beliefs is given in a paragraph of a letter of Graham to W. F. Gill, one of 
Poe’s early biographers, under the date May 1, 1877: ‘He disliked the 
dark, and was rarely out at night when I knew him. On one occasion 
he said to me, “I believe that demons take advantage of the night to. 
mislead the unwary ’—“ although, you know,” he added, “I don’t 
believe in them.”’ ” 

Poe has used the theme of the mirror reflection in one of his minor 
stories, ‘ Mystification ’ (originally published in the American Monthly 
Magazine of June, 1837, under the title of ‘Von Jung: the Mystifier ’). 
Here a student who has been insulted explains that he is about to take 
an unusual course. He requests his adversary to ‘ consider, for an instant,, 
the reflection of your person in yonder mirror as the living Mynheer 
Hermann himself. This being done, there will be no difficulty whatever. 
I shall discharge this decanter of wine at your image in yonder mirror, 
and thus fulfil all the spirit, if not the exact letter, of resentment for 
your insult, while the necessity of physical violence to your real person. 
will be obviated.’ 


14. THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


of course, unattempted, but then the key, it was identical; and his 
singular whisper, it grew the very echo of my own.’ 4 


A glance through the contents of Poe’s * Pinakidia ’ is sufficient 
to reveal the tremendous interest Poe felt in the discovery that one 
writer is apparently imitating or borrowing from another. In 
these paragraphs, and frequently in the course of his reviews, he 
makes the charge of plagiarism: the matter obviously becomes 
with him an obsession. He speaks of HKmerson : 


‘When I consider the true talent—the real force of Mr. Emerson 
—I am lost in amazement at finding in him little more than a respect- 
ful imitation of Mr. Carlyle. Is it possible that Mr. E. has ever seen 
a copy of Seneca ? Scarcely—or he would long ago have abandoned 
his model in utter confusion at the parallel between his own worship of 
the author of Sartor Resartus and the aping of Sallust by Aruntius.’ 2 


Of Longfellow he writes: ‘Much as we admire the genius of 
Mr. Longfellow, we are fully sensible of his many errors of affecta- 
tion and imitation.’ ? Poe claimed and believed that Longfellow 
had plagiarised his own poem ‘The Haunted Palace’ in The 
Beleaguered City ; and went on, later, to charge Longfellow with 
wholesale borrowings from other American poets. In the course 
of a bitter review which appeared in the Hvening Mirror of January 
14, 1846, he wrote: ‘ These men Mr. Longfellow can continuously 
imitate (1s that the word ?) and yet never even incidentally 
commend.’ lLongfellow’s friends replied, though he himself was 
silent, and their protests led to Poe’s savage article, ‘ Longfellow 
and other Plagiarists.’ 

Poe’s grievances were largely imaginary ; and, in the case of 
Longfellow, wholly so. Longfellow said later, with characteristic 
benevolence mingled with priggishness, that he attributed Poe’s 
attacks to bitterness brought about by misfortune and poverty 
and a sense of wrong. That there is something of the truth in 
this statement may be admitted; but it nevertheless fails to 
explain the particular character of the charges, and their direction. 

On the other hand, Poe had a very real grievance against 
another man, which he appears never to have expressed. In 
1827, aiter a quarrel with his guardian, Poe ran away from 
Richmond to Boston, where he published anonymously his first 


1 ‘William Wilson,’ p. 10. 


2 Poems and Essays of Edgar Allan Poe, ‘ eee Edition, p. 317. 
S Toid., p. 269. 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 15 


volume of poems.! He apparently sent a copy to his brother, 
then still living in Baltimore. William Henry Poe sent selections. 
from the volume to the Baltimore North American, where they 
were published under his own initials. He published, too, under 
his own initials, a version of Edgar’s poem ‘ Dreams.’ It seems 
certain that, through the publication of his brother’s work and 
imitations of it, he gained a considerable reputation as a poet: 
amongst those who knew him; and the tradition has survived. 
Writing in 1923, Robertson said: ‘Several of his poems have 
been published, and, apparently, they compared favourably with 
Edgar’s productions of the same period.’ 2 Stoddard, in a sketch 
of Poe’s life, says that William Henry Leonard Poe ‘is described 
by those who knew him as possessing great personal beauty, and. 
as much genius as Edgar.’ And Poe’s cousin wrote of William : 
‘He was a man of taste and genius, and wrote many fugitive 
verses, which have been lost, but which are said to have exhibited 
poetical power of a high order.’ He appears, too, to have 
expanded his brother’s early love story, communicated to him 
in a letter, into a romantic tale, published as The Pirate. The 
question immediately arises—Was Poe, in his quarrels with 
Longfellow’s friends and his charges against a firmly established 
poet, in reality expressing against a metaphorical elder brother 
the resentment he felt against one who was in reality his elder 
brother ? 

There is a certain amount of evidence to show that Poe 
identified himself with his elder brother. When he ran away 
to Boston in 1827, he assumed the fictitious name of Henri le 
Rennet. Henri is obviously a form of the name by which his. 
brother was generally known, but ‘le Rennet’ is puzzling: the 
word is certainly not French. Henry was living at the time with 
his aunt, Mrs. Clemm (the woman who subsequently became 
Poe’s ‘more than mother ’) in Milk Street, Baltimore. There is 
an obvious connection between ‘ milk’ and ‘ rennet,’ and no one 


1 Tamerlane and Other Poems, by a Bostonian. Calvin F. 8. Thomas, 
.. . Printer, 1827. ‘A book which is now one of the most sought- 
after and most costly in the English language.’—Hervey Allen, op. cit., 
p. 201. 

2 Robertson: Hdgar A. Poe: a Psychopathic Study (New York: 
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923), p. 15. 

3 J. H. Ingram: Life and Letters of Edgar A. Poe (London: Ward, 
Lock, Bowden & Co., 1891), p. 441. 


16 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


who is familiar with Poe’s work—-with the stories in which he 
strives to be humorous—will find preposterous the conjecture 
that Poe arrived at his pseudonym by word-play of this kind.? 
Other material evidence of identification with the brother, who 
was for some years in either the mercantile marine or the navy, 
is to be found in the fictitious accounts of his voyages which Poe 
uses in his stories and which he occasionally communicated in 
conversation ; narrating his brother’s travels and adventures as 


his own. Exactly how far, in this instance, Poe’s identification 


with his brother was conscious, we do not know; but we know 
that Poe had experienced the phenomenon, and had employed 
to describe it the term which is now generally used—‘ idenizfica- 
tion—that dominion by volition exercised over imagination which 
enables the mind to lose its own, in a fictitious, individuality.’ ? 
His analysis goes no farther. ‘To-day we should speak of iden- 
tification as the process by which men experience the emotions 
proper to the activities of others; apart from the performance 
of those activities by themselves. Poe, that is to say, enjoys his 
brother’s adventures without sharing them. 

It is impossible to enter here into the full consideration of 
all the possible motives which led to this identification. It had 
taken place, almost certainly, many years before, and the follow- 
ing years—up to 1827—-had probably merely contributed ele- 
ments which served to make the identification more complete 
in detail. It is possible to understand the way in which the 
brother, whom he had not seen, made it possible for him to think 
of someone, very like himself. William’s entry into the literary 
field introduced an element which was new: and the figure of the 
‘double’ becomes a rival—one whose voice, owing to natural 
defects, cannot attain the loudness of Poe’s own, but which is, 
nevertheless, its echo ! 

Some consideration of the rdle of the ‘ double’ in the story 
becomes necessary. A great part of ‘ William Wilson’ is taken 
up with the story of the conflict between the rivals at school, 
and the narrative is, in part at least, a fairly faithful account of 
the years spent at the preparatory school at Stoke Newington 
in which Poe was educated from his fifth to his tenth year. The 
later versions of the story differ from the earlier, in that Poe 


1 The story The Man that was used up is one amongst many instances. 
King Pest is another. 


2 Poe: Marginalia (under heading ‘ Defoe ’). 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 7 


enlarges the ‘old, irregular and cottage-built ’’ dwelling into a 
‘large, rambling, Elizabethan house.’ ! But the story of the 
education of William Wilson, when he has left Stoke Newington, 
is pure fiction. After a ‘lapse of some months, spent at home in 
mere idleness,’ he goes on to Eton. Oxford follows, ‘ the uncal- 
culating vanity of my parents furnishing me with an outfit and 
annual establishment which would enabie me to indulge at will 
in the luxury already so dear to my heart—to vie in profuse- 
ness of expenditure with the haughtiest heirs of the wealthiest 
earldoms in Great Britain.’ 2 The facts were very different. 
In May, 1820, Poe was suddenly withdrawn from the school at 
Stoke Newington, and taken back to Richmond by his guardian, 
on account of financial difficulties. There followed some years 
at private schools in Richmond. Then, somewhere between 
February 1 and February 14, 1826, he matriculated in the 
University of Virginia, where he remained till the beginning of 
the Christmas vacation of the same year. 

Hervey Allan has carefully collated all the available evidence 
relating to Poe’s university career.? It is clear that, so far from 
Poe receiving the money for a luxurious establishment, he was 
not given sufficient money to pay his entrance dues. The story 
of the Eton and Oxford career is obviously all of a piece with 
the legend of noble birth, exceptional education and profound 
erudition. 

At Oxford William Wilson is successful at cards ; owing his 
success to his “ acquaintance with the vilest arts of the gambler 
by profession.’ 4 There is no record that Poe ever played other 
than fairly, but it seems highly probable that he resorted to play 
in the hope of winning the money he needed to take part in the 
ordinary activities of the undergraduates of his day; and in 
thus playing to win he violated the code of a Virginian gentleman.® 
Actually, Poe lost; not large sums, but nevertheless sums of 
money which he could not pay. His guardian refused to meet 
these ‘debts of honour,’ and hence, though Poe was neither 


tye El Imgram, op: cit, p- 12. 

2 Poe: ‘ William Waleo nye Tales, p. 15. 

3 Hervey Allen: op. cit. See Vol. I, chapter entitled ‘Israfel in 
‘Cap and Gown.’ 

' 4 * William Wilson,’ p. 14. 

® Hervey Allen, himself a Virginian, endeavouring to interpret Poe 
through an understanding of his environment, has made this point very 
clear. Loc. cit. 


18 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


expelled from the University nor threatened with expulsion, he 
found it impossible to return. His charges against himselfi— 
charges of extravagance and profligacy—are almost certainly 
reproductions of the accusations of his guardian, repeated ad 
nauseam during the dreary months that intervened between his 
return from the University and his flight to Boston. The under- 
standing of this introduces a second element into the construction 
of the figure of the ‘ double.’ | 

The rival of the Stoke Newington days does not accompany 
William Wilson to Eton or Oxford. He appears at Eton after a 
carousal, swiftly admonishes, and departs. At Oxford he enters 
the chambers just as William Wilson has, by skilful cheating, 
completely ruined Glendinning. ‘ Please to examine, at your 
leisure,’ he says, ‘ the inner linings of the cuff of his left sleeve, 
and the several little packages which may be found in the some- 
what capacious pockets of his embroidered morning wrapper.’ ! 
This careful exposure of the way in which a trick is performed 
is entirely in the manner of Dupin, the hero of ‘ The Murders in 
the Rue Morgue ’ 2 and of ‘ The Purloined Letter ’*: of Legrand, 
in ‘The Gold Bug’4: of Poe himself, in his exposure of 
‘ Maelzel’s Chess-Player,’ > his investigation of ‘ Cryptography,’ ® 
his alleged account of how ‘The Raven’ was written’ and his 
prediction of the development of the plot of Barnaby Rudge 
after seeing a first instalment of the work,’ then appearing in 
serial form. | 

The Oxford episode in ‘ William Wilson ’ is the confrontation 
of the Poe of the legend with the Poe of the detective stories 
and the ‘ Tales of Ratiocination.’ That Poe was conscious of a 
duality within himself cannot be doubted. He had experienced 
it early in life, and had experimented with it. Ingram quotes 

1 “William Wilson,’ p. 17. 

2 Poe: Tales, ‘Everyman’ Edition, p. 378. 

3 Ibid., p. 454. 4 Ibid., p. 69. 

° Edgar Allan Poe: Works, 12 vols. (New York and London: 
Harper Brothers), Vol. X, p. 83. 

6 Ibid., Vol. VIL, p. 230. 

“7 E. A. Poe: ‘The Philosophy of Composition,’ Poems and Essays 
of Hdgar Allan Poe, ‘Everyman’ Edition, p. 163. 

8 In Graham’s Magazine for February, 1841. The article led to corre- 
spondence between Poe and Dickens ; referred to in the opening paragraph 
of ‘The Philosophy of Composition.’ It is not to be confused with the 


review of Barnaby Rudge written later, when the complete work was 
published. 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 19 


the evidence of a former class-mate of Poe’s in the University of 
Virginia : 

‘Mr. Bolling remembers that when he was talking to his eccentric 
associate, Poe continued to scratch away with his pencil as if writing, 
and when his visitor jestingly remarked on his want of politeness, 
he answered that he had been all attention, and proved that he had 
by suitable comment, giving as a reason for his apparent want of 
courtesy that he was trying to divide his mind—carry on a conver- 
sation, and at the same time write sense on a totally different subject ! 
Several times did Mr. Bolling detect him engaged in these attempts. 
at mental division; and he says the verses handed to him as the 
part results of these dual labours certainly rhymed pretty well.’ + 

It is possible that already Poe, as a member of John Allan’s. 
household, had discovered the necessity of attending to advice 
and admonitions which had no relation to the poems he was trying 
to write ; since Allan had other plans than a poet’s career for his 
ward. Poe certainly suffered, as children brought up in a divided 
family always suffer, from the necessity of adapting himself, now 
to one, now to the other, of two people whose interests and 
outlooks were irreconcilable. 

It is not without significance that the dual tasks which Mr. 
Bolling noticed were the writing of poetry, on the one hand, and. 
rational discourse on the other. They are exemplified later on, 
when, after writing ‘The Raven,’ Poe attempted to prove in 
‘The Philosophy of Composition’ that the performance was. 
entirely rational. Poe harmonised the two aspects of himself, 
as completely as he was able, in ‘ Eureka,’ which he regarded as. 
the greatest work of his life—a great prose poem in which science 
as a means of investigation is transcended. 

After the Oxford episode, ‘ William Wilson’ becomes a 
summary statement of the frustrations of the narrator by the 
* double.’ 

* Could he, for an instant, have supposed that, in my admonisher 
at HKton—in the destroyer of my honour at Oxford—in him who 
thwarted my ambition at Rome, my revenge at Paris, my passionate 
love at Naples, or what he falsely termed my avarice in Egypt— 
that in this, my arch-enemy and evil genius, I could fail to recognise 
the William Wilson of my school-boy days—the namesake, the com- 
panion, the rival—the hated and dreaded rival at Dr. Bransby’s ? ’ ? 


1 Ingram: Hdgar Allan Poe : His Life, Letters and Opinions (London : 
John Hogg, 1880), p. 48. 
* ©William Wilson,’ p. 19. 


20 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


We can only speculate regarding the events of Poe’s life which 
are referred to here. Poe’s ambitions were certainly thwarted 
by Allan, and Poe blamed Allan, amongst others, for the unfor- 
tunate ending to his love affair with Elmira Royster! It is 
practically certain that the affair would have gone differently 
had Allan assured the girl’s parents that Edgar would be his 
heir.2 Allan stinted Poe of necessary expenses, and then accused 
him of greed and extravagance. Almost certainly these frustra- 
tions were the incitors of extravagant day-dreams which were 
afterwards shaped into the tales: tales of passionate love (as 
Poe conceived it), such as ‘ Ligeia,’ ‘ Eleonora,’ ‘ Morella’ and 
‘The Assignation’; tales of revenge, such as ‘ Hop-Frog’ and 
‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ and one tale of the discovery of 
wealth, ‘ The Gold-Bug.’ 

There appear, then, to be at least three persons who have 
entered into the composition of the “ double ’—the personification 
of the conscience of Edgar Allan Poe: William Henry Leonard 
Poe, John Allan, and one aspect of Poe himself. Together they 
make up a figure which competes with Poe, the hero of his own 
legend, for mastery ; which seeks to divert him from his plans ; 
which frustrates him. Itis a figure which is hated and dreaded— 
and in some way, about which we can only speculate, this figure 
seems to be related to some early experience with mirrors, which 
it is hopeless to attempt to reconstruct. 

If William Henry Poe is one element of the figure, we are at 
least able to frame a reasonable hypothesis as to why he should 
have been feared and dreaded. We know something of Poe’s 
frantic endeavours to get his poems published. His brother— 
whether he was publishing his brother’s work or his own imita- 
tions of it—seems to have had no such difficulty. There was the 
possibility of his brother outstripping him in fame, and he must 
have resented in silence what he afterwards outspokenly expressed 
when his rival was Longfellow. Later, after Poe’s army days, 
when he went to live in Baltimore with his relatives, he wrote of 


1 See Hervey Allen, op. cit., pp. 132 et seq. 

2 It seems probable to me that the name ‘ Wilson ’ is itself a play 
upon words (Wilson—Son of the Will, i.e. Allan’s will). The evidence 
an support of this is too long and involved to give here. But, if this 
be the case, the name William Wilson condenses a great mass of wish- 
formations—the wish to be the eldest son (i.e. the heir) of a wealthy 
man. Similar word-play, though obviously intentional, occurs in the 
Sonnets of Shakespeare. 


THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 21 


his brother : ‘ Henry (is) entirely given over to drink and unable 
to help himself, much less me.’ There was no longer anything 
to be feared or dreaded from him. John Allan was feared and 
dreaded as a stern father, who did not hesitate on occasion to use 
the rod, would naturally be dreaded. He was not always un- 
kind, but he was often a bully, and he did not fail to threaten 
or to fulfil his threats. 

The natural reaction towards what is feared and dreaded is 
hatred in the sphere of feeling, and killing in the sphere of action. 
In actual life Poe was the most gentle of men, but it is impossible to 
overlook the fact that violence is a favourite theme of his tales. 
His stories of murder are not merely tales about killing, but 
accounts of murders carefully planned in their minutest details ; 
the work, obviously, of a man who thought much and often about 
murder. This is in conformity with the hypothesis of an un- 
conscious ‘ death-wish’ directed against a father or father-sub- 
stitutes, of whom Allan was one, and perhaps, for reasons less 
obvious, William Henry Poe another. In the duel in which the 
“double ’ is killed, not merely are the feared and dreaded father- 
substitutes slain together in a single encounter, but Poe himself, 
as an element in the formation of the ‘ double,’ is also killed. Poe 
dealt with the theme of suicide in one of his earlier stories, 
‘The Assignation ’ ; towards the end of his life, when he was in an 
unbalanced state, he spoke of suicide; and at other times he 
achieved the stilling of a part of himself by the use of alcohol 
and of opium. Then, unrestrained, he might indulge his imagina- 
tion freely in daydreams and visions of grandeur, power and 
luxury ; such as those at which he hints in ‘ Berenice.’ 

The fear and hatred! which led to the climax of ‘ William 
Wilson’ are freely spoken of in the story, and it is easy to trace 
parallels between some of their occasions and the events of Poe’s 
lite— From his inscrutable tyranny did I at length flee, as from 
a pestilence ; and to the very ends of the earth, J fled in vain.’ ? 
Poe fled from Allan to Boston, hiding his identity by means of 
a pseudonym ; and then, under another name, enlisted in the 
United States Army. For all practical purposes, he had as com- 
pletely removed himself from Allan as if he had fled to Europe. 

'1 An interesting discussion of the relation between fear and hatred 
is to be found in TT. Kenrick Slade’s book, Our Phantastic Emotions 


(London: Kegan Paul, 1923), p. 36. 
2 © William Wilson,’ p. 20. 


22 THE CONSCIENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE 


And Poe partly understood, at least, that his lapses into intoxica- 
tion and his resort to drugs were due to his desire to escape from 
himself. 

The fear and hatred give unity to the composition. They 
result in the fusion of three disparate elements into a single 
figure in virtue of the fact that these elements agree in possess- 


ing the power to evoke a single emotional reaction. They agree ~ 


in that—whether they assume the role of imitator, admonisher 
or frustrator—they challenge supremacy and uniqueness. In the 
‘Philosophy of Furniture,’ the proprietor of the ideal room les 
asleep, alone, on his sofa. In ‘ Ligeia,’ ‘ Berenice,’ ‘ Morella ’ 
and ‘ Leonora,’ no rival enters—the dream-worlds of Poe are 
worlds in which he alone reigns—like Roderick Usher in his 
library. In the early years of his life, his uniqueness was chal- 
lenged by the existence of his brother. Later, it was challenged 
by John Allan. It was challenged, too, by the clear-headed Poe, 
who understood too well the dreamer and man of illusions : who 
could explain him so well to others, but could not always com- 
pletely delude himself. 

From such considerations we can arrive at some understand- 
ing of what it was that ‘ conscience’ meant to Poe. It is that 
aspect of himself which challenges his extravagant phantasies of 
supremacy and uniqueness, which led him at times, as is clearly 
implied in ‘ Eureka,’ to identify himself with God. It could be 
conquered, at times, apparently, with a single glass of wine, 
under whose influence Poe became theatrical, egotistic and boast- 
ful. It could be stilled with opium, so that Poe might revel 
unchecked in a world of grandiose imaginings. In the man’s 
ordinary life, the two selves strove—now the one, now the other, 
dominant. Sometimes a compromise was achieved, the rational 
self shaping and disciplining the other, giving order to riot—and 
thus, out of the conflict of the two, the ‘ Tales’ were born. 


GEORGE H. GREEN. 


Fy ee ee ee 


THE CELTIC STRATUM IN THE PLACE- 
NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


CHIEF ABBREVIATIONS 
Beds : Bedfordshire BM : Index to Charters and 


Bk : Buckinghamshire Rolls in the British 
C : Cambridgeshire Museum 
Ch 3 Cheshire Ch : Calendar of Charter Rolls 
Ess : Essex Cl : Calendar of Close Rolls 
Gl : Gloucestershire Cur : Curia Regis Rolls 
Ha : Hampshire DB : Domesday Book 
He : Herefordshire EHR : English Historical Review 
Hu : Huntingdonshire FA  : Feudal Aids 
i. isent Fees : Book of Fees 
L : Lincolnshire he een of, Hones 
La : Lancashire ICC : Inqusitio Comitatus Can- 
Lei : Leicestershire tabrigiensis 
Nb: Northumberland TE : Inquisitio Hliensis 
iINt = Norfolk Ipm : Inquisitiones Post Mortem 
Nth : Northamptonshire . IPN: Introd. to Survey of Engl. 
Sa : Shropshire JAA, INS. 
Diegueey utolk KCD : Kemble, Codex Diuplo- 
St: Staffordshire maticus Aivi Saxonicr 
Wao VWalltshire OET : Sweet, Oldest English Texts 
Wo _ : Worcestershire Pat : Calendar of Patent Rolls 
Y ; Yorkshire. PN(s) : Place-name(s) 
AC : Ancient Charters(Pipe Roll PR  : Pipe Rolls 
Soc.) RH =: Rotult Hundredorum 
AD : Catalogue of Ancient Deeds Saints: Liebermann, Die Heiligen 
in the Public Record Office Englands 
ASC : Anglo-Saxon Chronicle T : Thorpe, Diplomatarium 
Ass : Assize Rolls Angliicum Alvi Saxonict 
BCS : Birch, Cartulartum Saxon- VCH : Victoria County History 
acum 


THE material available for a detailed study of the Celtic stratum 

in the place-names of East Anglia is very small in bulk and very 

varied in value. As the systematic survey of the nomenclature 

of this part of eastern England proceeds, it is becoming more 

and more obvious that the percentage of place-names and place- 

name elements that can safely be regarded as ultimately Celtic 
23 


24 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


in origin, or as due to the presence at an earlier period of a Celtic 
element in the population, is a very minor one. The question 
is rendered no less difficult by the fact that but little documentary 
evidence is available for the study of the early history of the 
area. 

There can be no doubt that already in the Romano-British 
period many parts of Hast Anglia were fairly densely populated. 
A number of settlements must have had distinctive Celtic names. 
But few of these have survived, in however corrupt a form, to 
the present day. Along this eastern seaboard of England the 
Anglo-Saxon colonisation must have been exceedingly thorough. 
A consideration of such names as have survived the English 
invasions acquires therefore all the more interest. 

East Anglia was the home of the [cen or Ecent, the [kenor 
of Ptolemy and Caesar’s Cenimagni, who, as Dr. Wheeler has 
recently put it,4 may be said to have no history. They have 
left behind them few traces of their former occupation. Their 
only known town Venta Icenorwm, at Caister near Norwich,? 
is of a very average size; the total area occupied by the settle- 
ment does not amount to more than some thirty-four acres. The 
site is about to be excavated for the first time since it was aban- 
doned and may ultimately teil us a little more of the stage of 
civilisation at which its occupants had arrived at the beginning 
of the fifth century. The Iceni are perhaps best remembered 
from the association of their name with that of the Icknield Way. 
This appears in OE charters of the tenth century as I[cenhylte 
(903 BCS 603), Iccenhilde weg (903 BCS 601). The terminal in 
the name is still unexplained. Perhaps *Jcenhylt is for earler 
*Tcenhint ( < Celt. *sento-, OW. hint, W. hynt ‘ way’, found in some 
English place-names, e.g. Hints, Staffs., on the Watling Street). 
The change -hint) -hylt may have been occasioned by (i) a dis- 
similatory process n—n > n—I; (ii) confusion during the pre- 
historic OE period with the OE place-name element /velde, 
hylde ‘slope’, not uncommon in place-name formations. There 
is a further reference to the Jceni in the name /cinos (Iter V) 
of the Antonine Itinerary. This place was probably somewhere 


1 Antiquity, June, 1928, p. 184. 

2 A case has been made out by Crawford for Ad Taum (Tab. Peuting.) 
as an alternative name for Venta Icenorum. Caister is near the r. Tas. 
Ad Taum may thus contain the Romano-British form of the river-name. 
(Ch Journ. Kom. Stud.; xiv. V37 fs) 


a ee A ——— Ls 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 25 


in Suffolk, but its exact location is a matter of great difficulty ; 
it occurs in Iter V between Villa Faustint and Camboritum, dis- 
cussed below. No modern place-name will ‘fit’, either from 
linguistic or topographical evidence. Beyond these names no. 
other traces of the name of the /cenz appear to have survived.! 

From the period of the Roman occupation of East Anglia 
dates a small group of place-names recorded in contemporary or 
somewhat later documents. To these names we may safely 
ascribe a pre-English origin, although they need not all be Celtic. 
Some are clearly due to the Romans themselves. The names. 
of the Roman guard-stations along the east and south coasts. 
of Britain from the Wash to Southampton Water are recorded 
in the fifth century Notitia Dignitatum ; these are not likely to 
have been English, even if the term Lituws Saxonicum be given 
a different meaning from that now almost generally ascribed 
to it. Moreover, the majority of them admit of interpretation 
from Celtic sources. To these are to be added the further East. 
Anglian references, beside those already quoted, from the An- 
tonine Itinerary, the Tabula Peutingeriana and the anonymous 
geographer of Ravenna. The fortress of Branodunum (Notit. 
Dign.), on the north coast of Norfolk, was at Wrack Hill, Bran- 
caster. The latter preserves the first part of the Romano- 
British name. branodunum is explained as Brit. *Brano-dinon 
‘crow fort ’—‘ la ville au corbeau’, from Brit. *brana-, W., Ir., 
Bret. bran ‘raven’ and the common terminal -dunon ‘ town ’, 
later ‘fortress, stronghold’ (Stokes, Urkelt. Sprachsch. 182 ;. 
Loth, Chresthomathie bret. 33; Dottin, Langue gaul. 86 ; Zeitsch. 
f. celt. Phil. xiii. 164).2, Rooks and crows are still common along 
this part of the coast. The Rookery occurs no less than eight 


1 A recent suggestion by Ekwall (Hngl. River-Ns. 218) is worthy of 
note. He would connect the Iceni with Iken(Sf), a village on the r.. 
Alde, which perhaps retains the old name of the Alde, and with the r. 
Itchen(Ha). Jcinos cannot, however, have been anywhere near the 
Alde. The origin of Jcenz is still problematic. A base *itcen ‘ corner, 
angle’ has been suggested. An impossible theory is that of Wadstein 
(Origin of the English, Uppsala, 1928, p. 39), who connects Jcenzt with the 
OK Hngle and regards the latter as a Teutonic translation of Iceni: ‘ the 
dwellers in the corner that extends into the sea between the Wash and 
the Thames’; this is a view that can only have been formed by looking 
at a small-scale map of England. 

2 The first element may equally well be a personal name, *Branos 
(W. Bran), as suggested by Holder (Alicelt. Sprachsch. 512). 


26 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


times as a name for farms and woods in the neighbouring parishes ; 
further to the east along the coast is Cromer ( < crow-mere). 
There was probably another guard-post at, or near, Happisburgh, 
to the south of Cromer, but its name is not extant. At the con- 
fluence of the rivers Yare and Waveney, south-west of Yarmouth, 
stood the fortress of Gariannonum (Notit. Dign.), now Burgh 
Castle, Suffolk ; this gives us the pre-English form for the name 
of the Yare and confirms Ptolemy’s spelling Gariennos. Along 
the Suffolk coast there was a military station at Walton Castle, 
near the estuary of the Stour, but its Romano-British name is 
not recorded. Further south was the fortress of Othona, now 
St. Peter’s on the Wall (Ess), a name that at least survived the 
English invasions. It was known to Bede in the eighth century 
as Ythancestir (Hist. Eccl. iii. 22). Henry of Huntingdon, writing 
in the twelfth century with Bede’s text before him, calls it [tham- 
cestre.* 

In Suffolk, away from the coast, there was a settlement, 
probably of a non-military character, at Combretonium (Iter 1X), 
now Burgh near Woodbridge, representing a Brit. *Combretonion, 
the meaning of which is unknown. The Norfolk Ad Taum has 
a parallel in Suffolk in Ad Ansam (Iter LX and Tab. Peut.), 
now Stratford St. Mary, on the Lower Stour, near its estuary. 
Unlike Ad Taum the latter name seems to be purely Latin in 
origin: ‘ at the bay ’ (cf. McClure, Brit. PNs. in their hist. setting, 
110, n.3).. Somewhere in Suffolk also was the town of Sitomagus 
(Iter IX) or Sinomagus (Sinomagi Tab. Peuting.). It has been 
suggested that this was at or near Dunwich (q.v. infra) or, 
alternatively, at Thetford on the Norfolk boundary. The older 
antiquaries, in particular Camden and Stukeley, favoured the 
latter and sought to identify the first syllable of Thetford with 
Sito-. Thetford is well evidenced from OE sources and repre- 
sents a purely English formation Jéod-ford ‘the national ford ’ 
or ‘the ford on the highway’. It is impossible to connect it 
with Sitomagus on linguistic grounds. ‘There is reason to believe 


1 In the Evesham (D) version of the OE Chronicle, s.a. 952, we are 
told that king Eadred imprisoned archbishop Wulfstan in the fortress 
of Iudanbyrig (in Iudanbyrig on fam fexstenne). The older view that 
this place is Jedburgh is now generally abandoned. But the identifica- 
tion with Othona must still be regarded as doubtful, although if Florence 
of Worcester’s spelling, Juthanbirig, is of any value the equation may 
possibly be right. 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 27 


that Villa Faustina (Iter V) was the Roman name of Thetford 
(cf. VCH. Sf. i. 298). Sittomagus has been explained as ‘ corn- 
plain ’ (McClure, loc. cit.). If we take into account the alternative 
form Sinomagi, it is possible that the name is ultimately for Celt. 
*Sento-magos, from *sento- ‘way’ (u.s.) and *magos ‘ plain’ 
(W. ma ‘place’, Ir. magh ‘ field’), as in the neighbouring Caesaro- 
magus (Iter IX), now Chelmsford (Ess).1_ One other name be- 
longs to Hast Anglia, but its location cannot be definitely settled. 
This is Camboritum (Iter V), which is frequently identified with 
Castle Hill, at Cambridge. Whatever its modern site, the name 
is a good Celtic formation, composed of the elements *cambo- 
‘crooked, curved’ (W. cam) and *ritu- ‘ford’ (OBret. rit, W. 
rhyd, Old Corn. rid). There is more than one ‘ crooked ford ’ in 
East Anglia, although only one place-name implying such is to be 
traced at the present day. This is Cringleford, to the south of 
Norwich (earlier Kringelforda 1086 DB, Cringkelford 1228 FF), 
an Anglo-Scand. hybrid composed of ON kringla ‘ circle’ and 
OE ford. There is no reason to believe that Camboritum was 
anywhere near Cringleford, but one curious circumstance in 
connection with the latter may be noted. The modern village 
is a little to the west of the line of the supposed Roman road 
that ran from Caister by way of Stratton Strawless (Stratuna 
1086 DB) and Burgh by Aylsham almost due north to the coast 
near Cromer. A few miscellaneous finds are, however, all the 
evidence we have for a Romano-British settlement of any 
importance at Cringleford. 

This small group of Celtic names dating from the Roman 
period. can be supplemented with a few more that are only 
recorded in OE and post-Conquest sources.2. In the interpreta- 

1 Sitomagus occurs in Iter IX between Combretonium and Venta (sc. 
Icenorum). The distance from Combretonium to Sitomagus is given as 
22 Roman miles. This would place Sitomagus in the neighbourhood of 
either Thetford or Dunwich. From Sitomagus the road ran for another 
32 miles to Venta. A Roman road from near Thetford to Caister has 
never been definitely made out. On the other hand, there are distinct 
traces of a road linking Dunwich with Caister. It crossed the Waveney 
near Bungay, where the Stone Street (mentioned in DB as Stanestrada 
at this point) survives to the present day. In Norfolk it is less easy to 
trace. If it went by Bergh Apton, we can point to Street Farm in that 
parish as evidence; the street here is no longer recognisable as such, 
but in late OE times it is referred to as kinges strete (KCD 921). 

2 The famous list of the twenty-eight cities of Britain given in the 


tenth-century MS. of the Historia Brittonum ascribed to Nennius contains 
A.S.— VOL. XI. C 


28 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


tion of these names, some of them extremely doubtful examples, 
one is treading much more dangerous ground than with the 
earlier recorded place-names. A name difficult to explain from 
English material is the old name of the parish of St. Osyth (Hss) : 
Cicc c. 1000 Saints, Cice 1086 DB, Cice 1123 ASC(E), Chiche 
1303 FA. This may be the pre-English name of the place. A 
parallel to it occurs in Kent, in the parish of Hackington : 
Chicche al. Chyche 1541 BM. Anappreciable number of what 
are now names of places have been shown by Ekwall (Hngl. 
River-Ns. lxxxv) to be the old names of the rivers on which the 
places are situated. ‘To the examples he has quoted it is tempt- 
ing to add yet another from Suifolk; this is Candlets Farm, 
in the parish of Trimley, near the confluence of the rivers 
Orwell and Stour. Early forms (Candelente 1086 DB, Candelond 
(sic) 1807 Ipm, Candelent 1564 BM) suggest this was originally 
a river-name, containing an element allied to W. lliant ‘ flood, 
stream ’, found elsewhere in the river Lent (cf. Ekwall, op. 
cut. 249). . 

The evidence for pre-English origin is clearer in the case of 
Dunwich. The thoroughly English appearance of this name is 
belied by the earliest spellings : Domnoc c. 730 Bede (Hist. Kecl.. 
il. 15), Dammucae (civitas) 803 OET 441, Dommocceastre c. 1000 
OEBede, Domnoc 636, 653 ASC(F), on Domuce 798 ASC(F), 


Dommuc, Domuc twelfth cent. Will. Malmesb. i. 7, Dammucensis 
(adj.) ib. 11. 74; which represent Brit. *Dumndcon <*dumno-s 


(*dubno-s) ‘deep’ (W. dwfn), the base of Dumnonu, Damnonii, 


the tribe who inhabited Devon (‘named from the deep valleys 
characteristic of the regions they inhabited,’ Bradley, Coll. Papers: 


77), and the terminal -dcon, commonly used in names of towns. 
The reference may be, as Skeat (PWs. of Sf. 115) has suggested, 
to the port of Dunwich with its deep-water approach. The 


curious corruption of the name can be paralleled in the case of 
York (Hburdcon>>OEK Hoforwic) and perhaps also in the Norfolk 


villages of Hast and West Winch to the south of King’s Lynn. 
A purely English origin for Winch is not impossible. One might. 


only one name for the East of England. This is Cair Granth, the modern 
Grantchester near Cambridge. Lincoln does not occur in the list until 


the twelfth century. It is then equated by Henry of Huntingdon with 


the old name for Wall near Lichfield (St), i.e. Letoceton : Kair Loitchoitt, 
id est Lincolnia ; the same mistake is made by Ralph Higden who follows. 
him in his Polychronicon : Caerludcoit, id est Lincolnia sive Lindecolium. 


Se 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 29) 


postulate an unrecorded OE *winc, of which OE wincel ‘ nook, 
corner’, a common place-name element (OHG winkil, Du. 
winkel) would be a derivative. OK *winc would probably have: 
much the same meaning as OE wincel. Such an interpretation 
for Winch would also fit the topography. On the other hand, 
the numerous dissyllabic forms for this name which are among 
the earliest spellings found for either East or West Winch parishes. 
(Wenic, Winic 1086 DB, Wenich 1222 FF, Weniz 1199 FF, 1242-3. 
Fees, 1254 Pat, Winez 1203 Cur, Wenyz 1323 Pat) suggest that there 
was a second vowel in the name originally and that this is not. 
a mere svarabhakti sound due to Norman influence. One must. 
postulate an OE *Wvinic, with a terminal that suggests pre- 
English origin. We may compare OW. Guinnic (Lib. Landav. 
252), a tributary of the r. Pill at Pengelli, Monm. Celtic river- 
names with a -é suffix are fairly common in England; from 
W. sources may also be instanced Gulich Lib. Landav. 157, Ratec 
ib. 124, 126; cf. further Ekwall, op. cot. xxviii. The first element. 
is difficult to identify. It can hardly be *vindo- ‘ white’ (W. 
gwyn), a common place-name component ; cf. the Romano-Brit. 
Vindobala (Rudchester), Vindogladia (Woodyates), Vindolanda 
(Chesterholm), and the frequent *Vindo-magos, W. Gwynfe, -fa, 
Ir. Findmagh ; the base also of Guinnic above. If Winch con- 
tained this element we should expect the -d- to have been pre- 
served in the east of England, as in the case of Lincoln (OE 
Landcylnex<*Lindocolina ; Rom. Brit. Lindum<*lend- ‘ pool’). 
Against Celtic origin also tells the fact that in western Norfolk 
and in the fenlands Celtic names are very rare. The name of 
King’s Lynn here has often been held to be pre-English. Iden- 
tification of Lynn with W. llyn ‘ pool, lake, mere’ is as difficult. 
to justify as the presence of *vindo- in Winch. The earliest. 
forms never show any trace of a base *Lind- (Lena, Luna 1086 
DB, Lynna 1121-35 Norw. Cath. Reg. I. 54b. (MS. c. 1300), 
Lanna c. 1180 IK, 1200 Cur, Lenna 1160, 1181 PR, Len(n) 1198. 
FF, 1199 Cur, 1225 Pat, 1232-3 Fees, 1233 Cl; also on Lynware 
hundred eleventh century EHR, xliii. 381). Rather they point: 
to a pre-Conquest *Lyn(n) perhaps to be identified with OE 
hlynn ; this word usually has the meaning ‘ torrent, waterfall ’, 
which is hardly applicable for Lynn; but a meaning ‘ pool’ is. 
also recorded and may well be implied here. 

A final Norfolk example is Denver on the Great Ouse. Here 
too a Celtic origin must be regarded as at best very doubtful. 


30 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


The evidence is as follows: Danefella, Danefaela (sic) 1086 DB, 
Deneuere c. 1180 Cambr. Univ. Lib. MS. Add. E. 6006, fo. 51, 
Denever 1201 FF, 1275 RH, 1302 FA, Denneuere 1209 Ass, 
Denevere 1242-3 Fees, 1268 FF, 1275 RH, 1316 FA, Denver 
1346 FA, etc. From English sources might be adduced the 
elements denu ‘ valley’, a word otherwise rare in Kast Anglian 
place-names, and a terminal fer ‘passage, path through a wood’, 
found in Hollinfare (La), Laver, Walkfare (Ess). Or we may 
compare Kinver (St.) <Cynibre 736 OKT 429, Chenevare 1086 
DB (Duignan, PNs. of St. 87), which contains OW. bre (<c*briga) 
‘hill’. If this is also the terminal in Denver, one point in 
favour of Celtic origin is that the Roman road through the fen- 
lands of northern Cambridge which ran due east from Durobrivae 
(Castor on: the Nene) crossed the Ouse at Denver to join the 
Peddar’s Way at Castle Acre. The high ground between Denver 
Hall and Hill Farm may have been the site of a Celtic post 
which overlooked the surrounding lowlands along the Ouse, but 
no archeological evidence for this is forthcoming. 

In the fenlands themselves no Celtic place-names are trace- 
able with the possible exception of Chatteris, in the Isle of Ely: 
Ceteric 974 BCS 1310 (MS. ec. 1350), Chateriz 974 KCD 581 
(MS. fourteenth century), Ceateric c. 1060 T 382, Chaterith 1060 
KCD 809 (MS. ec. 1350), Cetric 1086 DB, c. 1180 ICC, Cateriz 
~-¢. 1180 IE, Chaterts 1271 Ipm, etc. The forms point to an OE 
*Ceateric which is not likely to be of English origin; we seem 
to have here a further instance of a -k derivative of a river-name 
or, alternatively, a Celtic formation in -dcon, as in Dunwich, ete. 
For the river-name we may point to an element *caé- found in 
some OW. names, e.g. the Catbrook, a tributary of the Wye at 
Tintern Parva (Catfrut Lib. Landav. 209-10); cf. also in the 
fenland the r. Muscat or Cats Water at Croyland (ust 963 
ASC), where the element Cat is used independently as a river- 
name (cf. further Forster, Kelt. Wortg. 1m Engl. 182). The early 
spellings of Catterick (Y) bear a striking resemblance to those of 
Chatteris, and the two names may well be identical. Ptolemy’s 
spelling is Katarrakton, that of the Antonine Itinerary Cataractone, 
Bede’s Cataractam, -tone, with later medieval forms Catrice 1086 
DB, Cateriz, Kateriz 1198-1208 Yorks. Deeds, Cheteriz 1241 Ch. 
‘The base of this is Brit. *catar-, >OW. *cater (Olr. cathair), 
W. cader ‘hill fort’, likewise the first element of Catterton (Y): 
‘Cadretone 1086 DB; and of Chatterton (La); cf. Smith, PNs. 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 31. 


of N. Rid. Yorks. 242-3, Ekwall, Hngl. River-Ns. Ixxii.n.1. An 
interpretation ‘hill fort’ is more applicable to Catterick than 
to Chatteris, but, as in the case of Denver, the ‘ hill’ at Chatteris 
may be merely the higher ground which rises here on this fen- 
land island above the neighbouring country. Unlike Catterick, 
too, Chatteris is not connected with any known Roman road 
system in the fens, although it may well have been a Roman 
military post of some kind which commanded the valley of the 
lower Nene. 

Considering the extent of the area over which these Celtic 
or supposedly Celtic place-names are scattered to-day, it would 
appear as if the Celtic settlements in East Anglia were almost. 
completely destroyed by the English. This raises the vexed 
question of what became of the inhabitants. The evidence to 
be derived from a further group of place-names suggests that 
an appreciable proportion of the native population was absorbed 
by the new-comers. A certain number of Celtic terms seems to 
have been adopted by the English and used as place-name 
elements in English formations. These terms are mostly des- 
criptive of natural features, such as hills, woods, marshes and 
streams. In Hast Anglia, as elsewhere in England, many of the 
rivers bear old Celtic names. Professor Ekwall’s recent study 
shows that names like Yare, Ouse, Stour, Nene, Granta, Kennet 
are recognisable Celtic formations. In the west and south-west 
of England the Celtic element in the local nomenclature is a 
well-known fact. That certain terms of Celtic origin were also 
preserved in East Anglia is perhaps less apparent, but the material 
now available indicates fairly clearly the extent to which such 
terms were known and used by the English in forming place- 
names of English origin. 

Names for hills here are the most prominent. A common 
element in hill names in various parts of England is OW. cruc, 
W. crug ‘hill, barrow’. The wide distribution of this word has 
recently been demonstrated by Professor Mawer (PNs. of Wo. 
106 ff.), who shows that it frequently occurs in early sources as 
Cric-. No certain example of it has been noted in East Anglia. 
In a charter of the time of Henry II we have mention of a piece 
of land at Frieston (L) situated between a place called Hareholm 
and a place called Cric- (ad Cricam, Danelaw Charters, ed. 
Stenton 105). As there are no hills in the parish of Frieston, 
which is within reach of the sea, it is more likely that we 


32 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


have here a reference to a ‘creek’ rather than to a ‘hill’ or 
* barrow ’.} 

A word possibly allied to OW. cruc is MW. creic, W. craig 
‘rock’. Thisis also a common term for a hill in English names. 
It occurs in Crayke (Y): earlier Creic (Smith, op. cit. 27) and 
Crick (Nth): Crec 1247 Ipm, Creyk 1322 Ch. In East Anglia 
it is found in the parishes of North and South Creake in Norfolk : 
Creic, Kreic(h) 1086 DB, Creic 1189-99 Fees, 1199 FF, 1230 Cl, 
Crec 1189 PR, 1196 FF, 1201 Cur, Creyke 1302 FA, etc. To 
these may be added the as yet undocumented Creak Hill, in 
Stow-cum-Quy (C) and Creak Hill, in Shelley (Sf); ef. further 
for traces of this word Ekwall, JPN 25, River-Ns. 102, s. n. 
Crake. 

Brit. *brigd-, OW. bre ‘ hill’, which may lie behind Denver, 
is also a prolific place-name component. It occurs outside East 
Anglia in Brill (Bk), Bredon (Wo), and Breedon (Lei) among 
others (Mawer and Stenton, PNs. of Bk. 118, [PN 25). Perhaps 
a Suffolk instance is found in Brewude (c. 1180 Cambr. Univ. 
Lib. MS. Add. E. 6006, fo. 121), the name of a wood near Bricett, 
which itself seems to be derived from this word (Brieseta 1086 
DB, Brisete 1235 FF, Bresete 1236 Fees, eae, et. Zevischn. fs 
Orisnamenforsch. ili. 208 f.). - 

Distinct from OW. bre, though no doubt nee allied to it 
in origin and meaning, is mod. W. brig ‘ top, summit’? (<c*brik-), 
which has been traced in Brickhill (Beds) and Bow Brickhill (Bk) 
as well as other English formations (cf. Mawer and Stenton, 
PNs. of Bk. 31, PNs. of Beds. and Hu. 12). From Norfolk three 
examples are instanced: le Brickehill 1648 NfDeeds, in the 
parish of Aylsham, and the modern Brick Hill, in Thursford as 
well as Brick Farm, situated on the highest point in the parish 
of Costessey. , 

Finally there is W. mynydd ‘ hill’ (Brit. *monzjo-), which 
occurs frequently in English compounds in the West of England ; 
e.g. Long Mynd and Myndtown (Sa), Mintridge (He); from the 
North Country an instance is Mindrum (Nb) ; a possible example 
from southern England is (on) mint byrge in a tenth-century 


1 If so, it may be noted that this is an instance of the word creek a 
century older than the earliest recorded example given in the New English 
Dictionary from the Nf text Genesis and Hxodus (date c. 1250). That 
the word creek is older than the Middle English period is further shown 
from Creeksea (Ess): Criccheseia 1086 DB. 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 33 


Surrey charter (BCS 955). This latter may provide important 
evidence for dating the sound-change -(2)j->-d-, -d- in early 
Welsh. The change has been dated c. 550 ; this, if right, renders 
it improbable that Brit. *monzo- should have survived in its 
unchanged form in East Anglia in some names of hills of English 
formation, unless we may assume that in this easternmost corner 
of Britain the term was adopted by the English at a sufficiently 
early date for the change to have been prevented. This could 
hardly be later than the beginning of the sixth century. The 
curious compound Mona Hill is the name of a prehistoric barrow 
in the parish of Necton (Nf); unfortunately no early spellings 
are available. It seems to belong with Money Hill, in Hasling- 
field (C) and Moneybury Hill, in Aldbury (Herts), called Money 
Barr Hill in 1672. At none of these places has any money ever 
been found or unearthed and the reappearance of the same type 
of name in different counties in eastern England at least gives 
some support to the suggestion that here Brit. *monijo- was 
actually borrowed before the change to OW. *minid, muned 
took place. But even if Money in these names does not represent 
the older Celtic term, the medial element in Money Barr Hill 
probably represents Brit. *barro- ‘top, summit’ (W. bar), as 
found in Barr (St.): #t Bearre 957 BCS 987; and Barrow-on- 
Soar (Lei): Barhow 1086 DB (with a terminal -hou<OE hoh 
‘hill-spur ’ or ON haugr ‘mound’). Berkshire derives its name 
from the wood called Berruc according to Asser (Life of King 
Alfred, ed. Stevenson 157) : ila paga, quae nominatur Berrocscire ; 
quae paga taliter vocatur a Berruc silva, etc. Berkshire in OE 
sources usually appears as Bearrucscir. Possibly Berruc or 
Bearruc represents earlier OW. *Bar(r)uc, a derivative of OW. 
bar. We may note that names for woods which are in reality 
the old names of the hills on which they were situated are not 
uncommon in Hngland; cf. Kinver Forest (supra) and Blean 
Forest (K): OF Blean (well-evidenced) <OW. blain ‘ tip, edge, 
spur *. 

As compared with terms for hills, words for valleys and dales 
of possibly Celtic origin are far less common in Hast Anglia. 


1 Skeat (PNs. of Berks. 9) would see in the name an -oc derivative of 
the OE bearu ‘ grove’, but this will not account for the double -r- forms. 
There seems little justification for the suggestion put forward by McClure 
(Brit. PNs. 10) that the tribe of the Bibroci have left their name in Berk- 
shire. 


34 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


Possibly this is due to the topography rather than to any lin- 
guistic peculiarities of the early Celtic borrowings in the speech 
of the East Angles. OE cumb ‘combe, valley’ from Brit. 
*vumb- (W.cwm) seems to be unrepresented in this part of Eng- 
land although it is exceedingly frequent in the south and south- 
west. A word that must have been actually borrowed by the 
English in East Anglia at an early date is W. pant ‘ valley, 
hollow, depression’. Itis the base of the old name for the upper 
Blackwater (Ess): Pentx#, Paente, Pante amnis c. 730 Bede 
(Hist. Eecl. iii. 22) etc.: ef. Ekwall, River-Ns. 39; but it also 
occurs in place-name formations ; e.g. in Panthurst, in Sevenoaks 
(K): Paunthurst 1407 BM. In Kast Anglia itself it has been 
traced so far only independently in lost names ; we have mention 
of a place called le Pant in the parish of Sherborne (c. 1300 
Binham Cartul. fo. 160) and of another le Pant in Brooke (temp. 
Ed. II Rental of the manor of Seething). The two parishes are 
far apart. In neither case is it possible to determine the situation 
of these places. At Brooke, the most significant ‘ valley ’ is the 
hollow through which the small stream flows (OE brdéc) from 
which the parish takes its name. 

In the south and west of England there is more than one 
river and parish called Corse. This word is another Celtic loan- 
word in Old English. It has retained in English compounds. 
much the same meaning as it has in W. cors ‘fen, bog’, corsen 
‘reed’. Itis one of the most prolific place-name terms in marshy 
country. It appears independently in the parish of Corse (Gl) ; 
as a river-name it lies behind the Corse (So) and the Gauze 
Brook (W), as shown by Ekwall (River-Ns. 95); its use in OK 
compounds has been pointed out for the south of England by 
Crawtord (Archeol. Journ. |xxvii. 139 ff.). In the east of Eng- 
land it is fairly common also. We have mention of a field called 
le Chors in the fifteenth century, in the parish of Fulbourne (C) ; 
this is no doubt the same as the field known as Corsfeld in the 
same parish a century earlier (c. 1300 AD iv). With this we 
may compare Coresfella (DB of Sf. vol. ii. fo. 392b.), a lost place 
in Babergh Hundred, and Gosfield (Ess): Corsfeld 1266 Ipm. 
Another English compound is Cosford (Sf): Corsforde 1086 DB, 
Corsford 1208 FF, 1220 Fees. The word was apparently inflected 
as a weak noun, to judge from Corston (So): et Corsantune 
BCS 767, unless we have here an OE form for W. corsen rather 
than cors. In any case, an exact East Anglian parallel occurs 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 35: 


in the Norfolk Corston, on the upper Yare: Corstune 1240 FF, 
Corstun 1275 RH, Corston 1338 Ch. 

This completes the list of possible Celtic elements traceable 
in English formations in Kast Anglia. That the Celtic stratum 
was a little more pronounced than this at an earlier time is sug-. 
gested by a further type of place-name. ‘The spread of Christi- 
anity in Britain during the Roman period is now an established 
fact. Although as yet no archeological evidence for Kast Anglia 
itself is forthcoming, we may note that at least two Romano- 
British temples have been reported from Essex, one at Harlow 
and another at Great Chesterford (cf. Antiquaries Journ. 1928, 
p. 318). The problem of what became of the Celtic church in 
Britain after the English invasions is still an unsolved one. That 
in some parts of the country it survived down to a fairly late 
date seems to be proved by the fact that a characteristically 
Celtic place-name is found in English counties as far apart as 
Kent and Yorkshire. Brit. *eclés- (Lat. ecclésia) ‘ church’ 
(W. eglwys) occurs independently in Kent and in Lancashire, and 
in compounds like Eccleston and Kccleshall is reported from 
Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire and 
Warwickshire. In East Anglia, there are two parishes called 
Kecles, in Norfolk, one near Cromer, the other in the south of 
the county. We seem to have traces of yet a third; in the 
parish of Colkirk a grant of land was made in the thirteenth 
century at a place called Hecles (Walsingham Cartul. fo. 119b.), 
now no longer traceable. It is just possible that this form has. 
an inorganic initial H-; in the same document the neighbouring 
parish of North Elmham is referred to as Helmham. Hecles may 
therefore be for Hcles and provide us with a third Norfolk ex- 
ample of the Celtic word. A further point of interest attaches. 
to this example, if itis one. The name Colkirk, earlier Colekirka, 
-chirca 1086 DB, Colechirche 1161 PR, Colekerca 1168 PR, Cole- 
kirke 1198-99 Fees, represents a Scand. formation *Kola-kirkja 
*Koli’s church’. Perhaps it is a mere coincidence that the 
older Celtic name of the place may also have referred to a church 
here. As the evidence for a Celtic origin is so slight, it is difficult. 
to consider the connection of (H)ecles with Colkirk as indicating 
a survival of the Celtic church down to Scandinavian times in 
Norfolk. But one cannot help wondering what the English 
name of the place was, if it ever had any. It is tempting to 
accept (H)ecles as a genuine instance of Celtic survival and to. 


36 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


imagine a part of the parish of Colkirk where as late as the 
thirteenth century the old pre-English name was still known. 

The interest attached to Eccles in south Norfolk is of another 
kind. It is again a curious coincidence, if nothing more, that 
the neighbouring parish should have the significant English name 
Hargham. The earliest forms of this latter (Hercham 1086 DB, 
1177 PR, Harhham 1198-99 Fees, Harham 1228 FF) show that 
this is a compound of OE ham ‘home, dwelling-place’ and OE 
hearh ‘ heathen temple, sacred grove’. Here we have a unique 
reference to the survival to an appreciably late date of paganism 
in East Anglia. That well within the historic period in OK 
times pagan and Christian rites were practised side by side at 
the court of the East Anglian king Redwald is related by Bede.! 
It would seem as if here again the survival of the name Eccles 
alongside of Hargham is a significant fact. 

There is one more piece of evidence from English sources 
which has often been adduced in favour of the survival of a 
Celtic population in East Anglia. Here it may be mentioned 
also in passing that Professor Fleure (Races of Engl. and W. 
1923, p. 20), working from ethnological data, is of opinion that 
the old Celtic stock still survives to the present day in Hast Anglia 
and is traceable in the Brandon district near the upper course 
of the Little Ouse. Place-names of the type Walton, Walcot, 
Walpole are well represented in Norfolk and Suffolk. They have 
‘been generally regarded as pointing to the presence among the 
English settlers of communities of Britons (OE wealh ‘ foreigner, 
Briton, slave’). This view has recently been challenged from 
two quarters. HEkwall (Studia Neophilologica, i. 106 ff.) suggests | 
that in most of the Waltons we have reference to a neighbouring 
piece of woodland (OE weald), although he confesses that for the 
other names of the group the evidence is not so clear. But for 
the Waltons Professor Ekwall’s interpretation is often supported 
by the topography of the places and it must be confessed that 
he has clearly proved his case. Zachrisson (Romans, Kelts and 
Saxons in Ancient Britain, 39 ff.) traces the Wal-element to OE 
weall ‘wall, Roman wall, walled stronghold’, and points in 
support of his view to the proximity of many of the Waltons, 


1 Reduald iamdudum in Cantia sacramentis Christianae fidei inbutus 
est, sed frustra ; nam rediens domum ab uxore sua et quibusdam peruersis 
doctoribus seductus est, atque a sinceritate fidei deprauatus habuit posteriora 
pevora prioribus ; .. . atque in eodem fano et altare haberet ad sacrificium 
Christi, et arulam ad uictimas daemoniorum (Hist. Ecel. ii. 15). 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 37 


and Walcots, to a Roman fort or Roman remains of some kind 
or other. In some cases, however, Professor Zachrisson seems 
to have over-stated his case. For instance, he explains Wallasey 
(Ch), earlier Walea 1086 DB, as ‘the wall-island ’, which, con- 
sidering the topographical conditions of this place, is not very 
convincing. As neither of the two theories has been as yet worked 
out in detail to embrace every name of this kind found in East 
Anglia, it may be worth while setting out the evidence in full, 
as follows : 
Walpole (Sf): Walepola 1086 DB, Walepol 1283 FF, thirteenth 
century BM, Walpol 1311 BM, 1316 FA. (ef. Zachrisson, 
op. cit. 74). 

From OE *weala-pol ‘pool of the Britons, foreigners ’. 
OE weall is impossible here. Although the neighbourhood 
is wooded, the forms forbid connection with weald. 

Walton (Sf): et Wealtune* late tenth century BCS 1306, Waletuna 
1086 DB, Waletone 1240, 1251 FF, Walton 1316, 1346 FA. 

Probably from OF weall, the reference being to the Roman 
fortress at Walton Castle; hence ‘farm near the Roman 
remains’ is specially apt here (cf. Zachrisson, op. cit. 68). 

Walton Hall, in Ludham (Nf): Waltona 1101-7 Hulme Reg. fo. 
205, 1186-1210 ibid. fo. 68b. (MS. c. 1280), Waltune twelfth 
century Hist. MSS. Comm. Var. Collect. vii., Waleton 1226-8 
Hees. 

From OK weald. The neighbourhood is still in part 
wooded ; cf. also the hamlet of Fritton in Ludham (Freton, 
-tone 1101-7 Hulme Reg. fo. 205, 1340 Ing; <ME frith, 
OK fyrhh * brushwood ’), and the lost Burwood (Burwde 
1155-68 Hulme Reg. fo. 55b, 60) in the neighbouring parish 
of Catfield (older Catefeld <OE feld ‘ open land’ as distinct 
from woodland), which has a hamlet called Wood Street. 

Hast Walton (Nf): Waltuna 1086 DB, twelfth century Lewes 
Cartul. fo. 106b, Walton(e) 1242-3 Fees, Waltun Hy. II 
BM, Hst Walton 1275 RH, 1302 FA, etc. 

From OE weald, as suggested by Ekwall (u.s.). The place 
is situated in an old forest area and still has wood and 
heathland. 

Walpole (Nf) : Walepole c. 1060 KCD 907 (MS. fourteenth century), 

- Walpola 1086 DB, twelfth century Lewes Cartul. fo. 106b. 
Walpole 1121 AC, Walpol? 1198 Ass, Walpol 1207 EFF, 


' 1 The identification is uncertain. 


38 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


1208-13 Fees, 1275 RH, 1302 FA, Walepol 1251 FF, Ch, 
1275, WH. 

Walsoken (Nf): Walsocna (m) 974 BCS 1310 (MS. fourteenth 
century), Walsoca 1086 DB, Walsocne 1203, 1219 FF, 1207 
PR, Walsokne 1209 Ass., 1251 FF, 1253 BM, 1316 FA, 1338 
Ch, Walesokene 1275 RH. 3 

West Walton (Nf): Waltuna 1086 DB, twelfth century Lewes 
Cartul. fo. 106b, Walton, -tone 1121 AC, 1275 RH, 1302 FA, 
Walctune, Walchtn (sic), Waltona, Waltuna all c. 1180 IK, 
Waleton 1254 Norf. Archeol. xvii. 103. 

These three names belong together. The places adjoin. 
Any interpretation suggested for one name will also have 
to fit the other two. The only spellings that might suggest 
a sing. OE wealh (adj.) ‘foreign, of the Britons’ are Walc- 
tune and Walchtn (with n for “%), but these may be corrupt. 
All other forms point to OE weall. Here the reference 
cannot be to a Roman stronghold of any kind. It must 
be to the Roman bank which is still traceable between 
Walpole and West Walton. These may therefore be ex- 
plained as ‘ the pool and farm near the Roman bank’. Wal- 
soken is a little further to the south, along the Nene. Its 
terminal is OE sdécn ‘ soken, i.e. right of jurisdiction, area 


over which such was exercised ’ (cf. Mawer, Chief Hlements 


om Hngl. PNs. 54 for further examples of this word). The 
soke from the tenth century onwards was in the possession 
of the abbot of Ramsey. 

Walcott (Nf): Walecota 1086 DB, Walkotes 1254 Lewes Cartul. 


fo. 238, -cotes 1308 BM, Walecote 1267 Ch, 1275 RH, Walcot’ 


1275 RH, Walekote 1280 BM. 

Probably from OE *weala-cot(u) ‘ cottage(s) of the Britons’. 
Although its situation in the near neighbourhood of Happis- 
burgh might suggest identification with weaill. The forms 
are rather in support of this than of OE weala. 

Walcote Green, near Diss (Nf): No early spellings are available. 
The place is still a hamlet of the town of Diss. It goes 
back some date. Whether manorial in origin or not, it may 


be noted that Blomefield (Hist. of Nf. i. 38) also speaks of 


it as a place. 
Walcote Hall, in Burlingham St. Andrew (Nf): Walecot 1199 FF, 
Walkote 1302 FA. 
May be manorial. Both forms are derived from surnames 


ee a a —s 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 39 


(de Walecote, etc.), although the occurrence of the name as 
early as the time of John in a parish as far distant from 
the other Walcot near Happisburgh argues in favour of its 
being a genuine place-name. 

Possibly from OE weala-cot(u), although OK weald is not 
impossible. The place is situated in an old woodland area. 
Neighbouring places are Southwood and Witton (earlier 
Widtuna ? <ON vwisr *‘ wood’). OE weall is impossible 
here. 

To these may be added a solitary field-name from the fen 
district : 
Walcroft (1316 Terrier of Fleet) in the parish of Fleet (L) ; probably 
from OE weall used in the sense of a ‘ sea bank.’ 

It will be seen that, so far as East Anglia is concerned at 
any rate, the cumulative evidence tends to suggest that few of 
the names in Wal- can be connected with Celtic settlements of 
any kind; clearly these names are not to be regarded as proof 
of a survival of the Celtic population in separate settlements. 
This is especially noteworthy in the case of the group Walpole- 
Walton-Walsoken. This group emphasizes a further point. We 
have seen that few Celtic names and name-elements are traceable 
in the fenlands; any theory that the Britons survived there 
after having been deprived of the better lands in Hast Anglia 
and Lincolnshire must therefore be considered as entirely wanting 
in proof. A case for the survival of the Celtic element in the 
population from historical sources has been made out by Gray 
(Proc. Cambr. Antiq. Soc. New Ser. ix. 42-52). It is based on 
three pieces of evidence. We are told by Felix, in his Life of 
St. Guthlac, that the saint’s father was called Penwall or Penwalh. 
The late Sir John Rhys argued (Celtic Folklore 676) that this 
name meant ‘ wall’s end’, and that it was an indication that the 
man who bore the name lived at a place called Wall’s End. In 
support of his contention Rhys quoted the name Pean-fahel, 
found in Bede, for the western end of the last-built of the Roman 
walls in Britain. But the alternative form Penwalh may be 
interpreted as an OE personal name containing the well-known 
name stem -wealh, which though originally derived from the 
word wealh ‘foreigner, Briton, slave’ need not have had this 
particular connotation in the personalname. Rhys also suggested 
that St. Guthlae’s father was a Briton. This is not impossible. 
But we can hardly draw from this single doubtful instance, almost 


40 PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA 


unparalleled in the East of England, a far-reaching conclusion 
as to the survival of strong Celtic elements in the fenland popula- 
tion. Besides, if St. Guthlac’s father was of Celtic extraction 
we are able to understand the better how the saint in his retreat. 
at Croyland was acquainted with the Celtic speech. 

Rhys’ further statement to the effect that the names Pybba, 
Penda and Peada argue Celtic origin for the Mercian royal family 
can hardly be used as evidence of Celtic survivals in the fen- 
lands. It is true that in Mercia, as in the other early English 
kingdoms, there occur names in the royal genealogy which are 
difficult to interpret from English sources. Most scholars are 
in fact agreed that we must assume Celtic influence if not Celtic 
origin for these names. But the selection of the names in P- 
is surely a false criterion. Too many names of this type occur 
independently in OE sources or can be postulated from place- 
name evidence for us to assume widespread Celtic influence 
wherever they occur. ; 

The next piece of evidence quoted by Gray is the often repeated 
story of the temptation of St. Guthlac by the Celtic devils. This. 
is explained as an indication that the indigenous fenland popula- 
tion much resented the settlement of an Englishman among their » 
fenland haunts. But the story admits also of another interpre- 
tation. The devils of Croyland, as they appeared to the saint, 
had all the appearance of degraded savages: great heads, lean 
necks, blubber lips, ragged hair and beards, bow legs and horses’ 
teeth. The very rarity of Celtic communities in the fens already 
in the seventh century must have led to such a fantastic vision.. | 
What St. Guthlac is reputed to have seen were creatures con- 
jured up by his own—or his biographer’s—imagination as. 
unknown terrors, not familiar, commonly-met figures. 

The stories of British brigandage in the forest areas around. 

1 There is a significant number of early place-name formations in the 
East of England where Celtic origin or a Celtic base for the personal 
names involved is highly improbable. From Norfolk may be instanced : 
Patt- (in Pattesley), Passa (in Paston), Pica (in Pickenham), Porra (in. 
Poringland) ; from Suffolk: Paca (in Pakenham), Px#ga (in Peyton),. 
Pila (in Pilebergh), Pottel (in Pottesford) ; from Essex: Pé&cel (in Pagles- 
ham), Perra (in Parndon), Pelta (in Peldon), Pic (in Pitsey), Plésa (in. 
Plesinghoe) ; from Hertfordshire: Patta (in Patmore), Péola (in Pelham),. 
Putita (in Puttenham); from Cambridgeshire: Papa (in Papworth). 
In a number of these cases the personal name is used in a formation in 


-ham ; note also Poringland (OE *Porringaland ‘land of the Porringas ’), 
an early compound. 


PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF EAST ANGLIA Al 


Therfield and Royston to the south of the fenlands in the time 
of Cnut (Gray, op. cit.) do not bear upon the question of Celtic 
survivals in the fens. Such stories were probably recorded on 
account of the very rarity of the occurrences. 

The late—tenth-century—evidence of the Thanes’ Guild at 
Cambridge further emphasizes the scarcity of Celtic settlers here. 
The Briton appears in this document as a serf, not as an outlaw. 
His wergeld is given as one Danish ora, whereas that of an English 
ceorl was two oras and that of a twelfhynde man half a mark. 

It is clear, therefore, that in the fen districts there was less. 
Celtic influence at any time than can be traced in East Anglia 
proper even at the present day. The final conclusions to which 
the study of the place-name material leads us would seem to: 
be as follows : 

(1) In Hast Anglia, as elsewhere in the east of England, the 
Celtic population was not exterminated wholesale, but absorbed. 
and probably in great part enslaved by the incoming English 
settlers. In the fens to the west of East Anglia what Celtic 
communities there were underwent exactly the same treatment: 
in that they were absorbed or displaced and certainly dispossessed 
of their main lands. 

(ii) Few Celtic settlements were permitted to remain undis- 
turbed by the English. Nowhere in the area were they able to 
form a group of detached communities holding out against the 
newcomers. At best they were subordinated to a large English 
manor and degraded in social status. 

(111) Celtic Christianity in so far as it had developed in East 
Anglia by the year 500 was wiped out, except in a few places 
where it may have succeeded in surviving the pagan OE period. 


O. K. SCHRAM. 


ae 
ee 


DIALECTS AND BILINGUALISM 


THE particulars given below include the most significant results 
of a series of systematic observations made years ago with regard 
to the subject of sound-production in the case of some young 
Welsh children learning to speak. The inquiry was the outcome 
of a discussion on the origin of dialectal variation and the problem 
of bilingualism, more especially among children. The procedure 
followed was in accordance with the principles observed in a 
similar inquiry pursued by a French phonetician, as reported 
in a French journal at the time. It may be added that in several 
particulars, notably in the matter of metathesis, the efforts of 
Welsh and French children yielded practically the same results. 
In view of the growing realisation in Wales of the importance 
of the subject of bilingual teaching in the schools, at least some 
of the conclusions may be of interest and significance. 

The Welsh children whose peculiarities were then studied, 
here denoted A, B and C, are now grown up, are good linguists, 
two of them speaking Welsh, French and English, and showing 
no abnormality in sound-production. Until they were from four 
to five years of age, A and B were not accustomed to speak or 
to hear. anything but Welsh spoken. At that age both were 
taught, though not systematically, to speak a little French. A 
little later, they learnt English at a school where that language 
was, necessarily and sensibly, taught as a foreign tongue. Both 
were able to speak English with some fluency before they were 
taught to read the language. While yet unable to read English, 
B had to attend a school where only English was taught. In 
less than three months, according to his teacher’s testimony, he 
was able to read English with a greater than average accuracy. 
In the case of both A and B, appreciation of idiomatic distinctions 
was found to be early and habitual. When, about four years 
later, they took up French again, it was observed that they had 
practically forgotten what they had previously learnt, but that 
they had no difficulty in producing the sounds. Generally their 

A.S.—VOL. XI. 43 D 


44 DIALECTS AND BILINGUALISM 


sounds showed a higher degree of firmness, compared with those 
of C, who had not been taught any French in infancy, but who, 
though accustomed to speak Welsh only at home, had learnt 
some English at an earlier age than A and B, mostly in playing 
with children of Welsh parentage, in an ineffectively bilingual 
community. Peculiarities in the case of each of the three 
children are given below. Phonetic symbols are used to denote 
their efforts, what is regarded as the standard pronunciation of 
the written forms being added in brackets. Only the main 
deflections from standard forms are here noted. 


A 


Began to talk in the ninth month, and developed the power 
quickly. ‘The following characteristics were observable up to 
about the third year :— 


VOWEL SOUNDS. 


A tendency to substitute a for e: pan (pen), gwan (gwen) ; 
fora and: tgad (legad), kisgi (kosgi), tenni (tonni). 

Simplification of diphthongs: a:6 (a#0); hibjo (hoibjo) ; 
0:8 (0:48); bu:d (busid). 


CONSONANTAL SOUNDS. 


Metathesis. k, p: pakal (kapal), pukan (kupan), pak (kap) ; 
d,g: eged (rhedeg). 

Substitutions. Aspirate for guttural: 7 hevn (i yevn), hubs 
(yw(9)0t) ; aspirate for nasal: 7 ham (i m(h)am); sibilant for 
dental: saiz (sai), w:43 (u:#0), si370 (sorOjo), ywer3in (ywerOin) 5 
liquids, interchange: r, 1: talo (taro), toli (torri) ; liquids, 
assimilation : al laul (ar laur). 

Non-production: rh (initial): eged (rhedeg); r (medial) : 
bivo (brivo), si470 (sorOjo). 

From the third to the fourth year: Repetition of 0: Oar0jo 
(sor0jo), and labio-dentalisation of w: glorjo (gloujo), boajo 
(boujo). 

B 
Began to talk in the eleventh or twelfth month. Up to the 


third or fourth year, the following points were noticeable :— 


1 See Stephen Jones, A Welsh Phonetic Reader, University of London 
Press, 1926. 


DIALECTS AND BILINGUALISM 45: 


VowEL SOUNDS. 

Substitution of a for ¢: pan (pen), gwan (gwen); 7 for a 
and 2: tigad (legad), kisgi (kosgi), anni (tonn:) ; a for ¢ (whether 
u or y in normal writing): Laned (Lined), mand (mind). 

Simplification of diphthongs: a:6 (a3:6), hibo (hoeibjo), pido 
(poidjo), o:s (0:38). 


CONSONANTAL SOUNDS. 


Metathesis. hk, p: pukan (kupan); with unvoicing of inter- 
vocalic 6 on transference to initial position: pogan (koban). 

Substitutions. h for y: hwave (yware); tfor k: todz (kodi) ; 
~g ford: giki (Diki), gagu (daku); g for k: gagu (daku); v for 
r, medial : hwave (yware), stovi (stori), avfev (Ar@ir) ; for final r: 
mo:v (mo:r), paptv (papin), avfiv (Aréir);! J for 7, with a singular 
vowel displacement: wir (tu:+); ?¢ for final r: kadat (kader), 
du:t (du:r) ; tfor final y: koalt (kily); yx for initial 7: yon (fon) ; 
nm for 7: yon (ton). 

Non-production: initial yw: ipo (ywipjo), alo (ywiljo); of 7: 
pido (peidjo), 7bo (hoibjo); of 1, with vowel lengthening, before 7: 
goxt (golyi), gway (gwaly); of l after p: pa:t (pla:t), pant (plant). 


C 


Began to talk about the twelfth month. The family at the 
time resided in the Powys dialect territory, but soon removed. 
to Gwynedd. Up to the third year the following peculiarities. 
were noted :— 


VOWEL SOUNDS. 


Preservation of final unaccented Powys e, yielding after a. 
time to uncertainty ; e tending to become ¢ followed by an e 
glide: pi: (pe:l); afore: ayan (beyan); a frequently substi- 
tuted for +: karo (kiro), mend (mind), gwant (gwint), tan (Hin). 
CONSONANTAL SOUNDS. 

Metathesis. vr, rv: garv (gavr), fervi0 (levri0); s, f: d3ofes 
(d3osef). 

Substitutions. n, y: ton (fon), drinno (drino); é for r with 
aspirant: adder (Ar6ir), ud0o (ur6o) ; t forfinal r: maut (maur). 

Non-production of v < mutated 6 in expressions like pi: 


1 Harlier progressive attempts were: alit, atil, aitil. 


46 DIALECTS AND BILINGUALISM 


ayan (pe:1 veyan). A tendency to unvoice some final consonants 
in English expressions (Monkey Brand so:b). 

An early removal to a third dialect territory complicated 
matters for C. A slight uncertainty in vowel sounds and an 
occasional tendency towards metathesis remained for some years. 
Some Gwynedd peculiarities persisted, mjaun (meun), for instance, 
but the Powys e remained dominant. Keenness of hearing was 
shown by accurate transcripts in Welsh spelling of spoken tests 
in an unknown tongue (cel yr e til = kel a:r e til), but the un- 
conscious functioning of the vocal organs remained less certain. 
‘The Welsh mutations were more a matter of rule than of instinct, 
by reason probably of a too early familiarity with English com- 
binations, tending to weaken the Welsh sense of sound—HEnglish 
-n + d-, for instance in such an expression as in Denbigh, 
were reproduced in Welsh, yn Dinbech, instead of yn Ninbech, 
without any sense of incongruity. 

Most of these peculiarities are observable in many children. 
Perhaps the most interesting fact noted in the case of A in the 
earlier stage was the confusion, even in some accented mono- 
syllables, of the vowels a and e.1. The family then resided in a 
Gwynedd district where the dialectal peculiarities are outstand- 
ing. ‘The father and mother were natives of the Powys dialect 
territory, and in the case of both the Powys vocalism was suff- 
ciently clear to attract the attention of native Gwynedd speakers. 
A young nurse employed by them, on the other hand, spoke 
the Gwynedd dialect, unaffected by school training or residence 
in any other territory. One of the main differences between 
these two dialects is that unaccented terminal ae, ait and au 
are simplified into a in one (Gwynedd) and into e in the other 
(Powys). It was soon observed that the child followed the nurse 
rather than the parents, making the Gwynedd reduction of the 
sounds indicated—’sglava0 (osglovai0), enwal (imwail), penna 
(pennat). ‘This interesting discovery led to the making of special 
tests. The child was, at intervals, asked to repeat book words 
unknown to the nurse and unused by the parents in any ordinary 
conversation. These words were carefully and distinctly articu- 
lated with the Powys e, and the child invariably reproduced 
them with the Gwynedd a. The following are examples of a 
large number of tests :— 

Elaeth, a proper name, distinctly articulated ele0, reproduced 


1 An infant daughter of A, aged 14 months, shows the same tendency. 


DIALECTS AND BILINGUALISM 47 


by the child, ela0 ; mirain, pronounced miren, reproduced miran ; 
glerfiau, pronounced glaivyje, reproduced glaivja. 

Repeated tests yielded regularly the same result. In this 
test, B was still more pronounced in the substitution, in the 
position indicated, of the Gwynedd a for the Powys e. A further 
test was employed, the words in this case being given according 
to the literary form. The result was the same, that is, the 
ae, ai and au were invariably reduced to a by A and B, as well 
as by the young nurse. 

The conclusions which seem to be substantiated by the ex- 
periment are (a) that young children will imitate the speech of 
younger rather than of older persons; (b) that this quickly 
affects the vocal organs; and (c) that once those organs have 
been accustomed to certain movements, the dominating sound 
will be produced in the positions involved even though the sound 
actually heard in a test be different. Although this does not: 
explain the origin of dialectal differences, it would seem to prove 
that the function of the vocal organs is not actually dependent 
upon the hearing, but that the character of the reproduction is. 
determined by the already established harmony between the 
organs concerned. This would account for the persistence of 
dialectal peculiarities. 

Krom these, and many other similar observations, which are 
not here given in detail, I conclude that quite early familiarity 
with mixed dialects and divergent phonal systems tends to 
unsettle the instinctive action of the vocal organs, and that the 
barely affected value of combined sounds in English, for instance, 
hampers: or destroys the development of the instinctive quality 
in Welsh mutation. In the later acquirement of French or 
English, at any rate, it would appear to be certain that the best: 
results are obtained where Welsh children have been taught 
exclusively in Welsh, at least until the harmonious function of 
the ear and the vocal organs has been firmly established. Where 
the organs are normal, this harmony is probably attained quite 
early in the life of the child. If, onthe other hand, the teaching 
of a second language be long delayed, the vocal organs seem to 
lose in responsive elasticity, so that the subsequently acquired 
sounds become uncertain. This conclusion is borne out in the 
ease of adults, preachers and other public speakers, natives of 
what may be described as the Welsh 1-territory, when they 
endeavour to produce the uw (¢) sound. Out of an extensive 


48 DIALECTS AND BILINGUALISM 


record, the following instances may be serviceable as showing 
the misplacing of the acquired sound :— | 

Ke (ki), mé (mi), nt (ni), pred (prid), tre (tri), beerd (beird), 
blino (blino), heraz0 (hirai0), ¢sod (isod), 20el (1@el), honne (honni), 
torre (torri). 

That the articulation in such cases is not instinctively con- 
trolled, and yet that the speakers are not conscious of its defec- 
tive character, is proved beyond doubt by the fact that even the 
variously represented English 7 sound (ee, ea, 7) is frequently 
given the value of Welsh wu (z) by such persons, as the following 
typical instances will show :— 

Mz (me), Ore (three), fefte (fifty), pe:t (peat). 


T. GWYNN JONES. 


AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CONDITIONS OF 
SUBJECT TEACHING IN SECONDARY 
AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 


I. PROBLEMS 


THE organisation of Elementary and Secondary Education is 
going through a fairly rapid and comprehensive change at the 
present time. ‘There is every indication that a fashion started 
by some Local Authorities some years ago will spread, and be- 
come general throughout HKngland and Wales. We have been 
accustomed to a division of the educational system into ‘ Elemen- 
tary ’, which provided for children from the age of four or five, 
to fourteen or fifteen; and ‘Secondary’ for children between 
about eleven and sixteen or eighteen. These divisions have 
arisen mainly as a series of historical accidents, and it is now 
felt that they are not economical in administration, psychologi- 
cally well founded, or logical. ‘The tendency now is to divide the 
system into two consecutive stages, Primary for the children up 
to eleven ; and Secondary for all children up to eighteen. The 
Secondary stage is likely to contain several types of schools and 
curricula to suit the needs of different types of pupils, and at 
the present degree of development there are the Senior Elementary 
Schools or Higher Tops; the Junior Technical Schools; the 
Central Schools ; and the normal Municipal Secondary, County 
Intermediate, and Grammar Schools. 

This reorganisation and consequent differentiation of function 
is likely to raise important problems of teacher training. Apart 
from the questions of special preparation for teachers in these 
different fields of service, there is the question of the academic 
preparation of graduate students, and it is becoming more and 
more important for the Heads of Training Departments to see 
that the courses and combinations of subjects taken by prospective 
teachers in their degree schemes are such as will be reasonably 
likely to enable the student to obtain posts in one type of 

49 


50 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


school or another at the end of their professional training. At 
present it is important that the qualifications of graduate students 
should be such as will open out to them the widest possible oppor- 
tunities of service. Twenty years ago the possession of even a 
good pass degree provided a student who had shown good pro- 
fessional capacity (and too often one who lacked this capacity) 
with a passport to the Secondary schools. With the lengthen- 
ing of the academic course, and the improved preparation pro- 
vided for the secondary school pupils entering the colleges, good 
honours degrees are now increasingly common, and are becoming 
far too frequent to be absorbed by the normal Secondary schools 
of the countries concerned. Consequently graduates even with 
honours are entering the service in Central and even Primary 
schools in increasing numbers. Thus the supervision of the 
academic preparation of graduates becomes increasingly neces- 
sary, for it by no means follows that what is best for the student 
who may teach in a highly specialised Secondary school, is also 
best for students who will teach in other types of institution. 
The first object of this survey was therefore to ascertain if pos- 
sible the actual conditions of specialisation and the subjects most 
in demand in schools of the two main types likely to absorb the 
graduates leaving college. 

A further object was to find the present position and import- 
ance of what may be called the accessory subjects, namely, 
Drawing, Handwork, Needlework, Music, and Physical Training. 
Public and professional opinion about the value of these subjects 
has also changed radically during the last two decades, and the 
change has affected the Secondary schools most of all. Formerly 
these subjects, with the possible exception of Physical Training, 
were taught to the older pupils either because they had some — 
possible vocational value, or like Drawing and Music they served 
ornamental purposes in the training of girls. Often they were 
considered entirely superfluous to a ‘ Liberal’ education and 
were not taught at all. It is now realised that these subjects 
are invaluable to the majority of pupils of all schools as educa- 
tional media through the aid of which the ‘ academic ’ subjects 
may best be conducted. Along with this increase in importance 
has gone a closer scrutiny into the psychology and pedagogy of 
these educational activities, and a demand for a higher standard 
in teaching them. Heads of Secondary schools nowadays are 
demanding that these subiects shall be taught with the skill and 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 51 


insight which has been considered necessary for the academic 
subjects, and this implies some definite preparation of the graduate 
student in the psychology and pedagogy of these activities. In 
the very large schools it is possible to employ full-time specialists 
economically, to take the accessory subjects. In the smaller 
schools this is impossible, and it is therefore desirable that the 
graduates who expect to teach academic subjects mainly, should 
be also qualified to take at least one accessory subject reasonably 
well. The Training Colleges catering for the Elementary schools 
more particularly have usually included some training in the 
accessory subjects as part of the professional equipment of every 
student. It is becoming increasingly necessary to include such 
preparation in the case of graduates, even those with good 
honours, who may be considered certain to enter the service of 
the Secondary schools. The second object of this survey was 
to ascertain the feeling of the Heads of the Secondary and Central 
schools about the extent to which they would welcome graduates. 
with qualifications in Drawing, Music, Handwork, etc., and to 
find which of the accessory subjects were in most demand. 


I], METHOD OF ENQUIRY 


A circular letter (similar to that used in a survey in the 
North of England, reported in the Forum of Education, vol. iii, 
No. 2, June 1925) was sent to all the Heads of Secondary and. 
Central schools in Wales. The accompanying blanks contained 
the following items : 


1. Form to indicate the combinations of subjects actually 
being taught in your school at the present time. 
Please put a cross under the number of each teacher, 

- indicating the subjects for which he or she is now 
responsible. 

2. What combinations of subjects would you recommend as. 
being most advantageous for your present (and probable 
future) requirements ? 

3. What is your opinion concerning the degree of specialisation 
most advantageous to graduate students both from the 
point of view of teaching efficiency, and general suit- 
ability for school work? E.g. are present-day graduates. 

(a) over-specialised, ; 
(b) not sufficiently specialised. 


52 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


4. Do you employ visiting teachers for Drawing, Handwork 
(woodwork, metalwork), Domestic Science, Physical 
Training ? 

Would you prefer to have these subjects taught by 
graduate members of the Staff if teachers with the 
necessary qualifications were available ? 

5. General remarks. 


Ill. STATISTICS AND RESULTS 

Replies were received from 83 Secondary and 22 Central — 
schools. The Secondary schools included 

19 Boys’ Schools with 267 teachers. 

28 Girls’ Schools with 395 teachers. 

36 Mixed Schools with 389 teachers. 
The Central schools contained 210 teachers. ‘The schools varied 
in size from small rural schools with an average attendance of 
about sixty to large urban schools with an average attendance 
of more than 400. The returns may therefore be considered to 
be representative of the conditions in Wales at the present time. 

In what follows the following abbreviations have been used: 
S.—Secondary, C.—Central, E.—English. For the sake of com- 
parison representative results from the North of England survey 
have been included in brackets. 


A. NUMBER OF SUBJECTS TAUGHT BY INDIVIDUAL TEACHERS 


Table I shows the distribution of subjects amongst the 
teachers in boys’, girls’, and mixed schools arranged according 
to the average attendance. In this way some interesting differ- 
ences in organisation are indicated, and their influence on speciali- 
sation. Table II gives a comparative form of the same figures. 
‘The following points may be noted :— 

(a) There are marked differences in the degree of specialisa- 
tion between the large secondary schools, and the small 
secondary and central schools. In the smaller schools, 
particularly mixed schools, by far the larger proportion 
of the teachers take two or more subjects. In the 
mixed schools with average attendance below 150 from 
which returns were made, nearly half the teachers had 
three subjects and nearly a quarter of the others have 
four or more. 

(6b) There seems to be a tendency to greatest specialisation 
in the girls’ schools and least in the mixed. This is 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 53 


to some extent accounted for by the comparatively large 
number of mistresses who specialise in these schools in 
Music, Art, and Physical Training. 

(c) In the central schools the numbers indicate clearly the 
presence of two types of organisation, namely the 
Central school proper with a specialist system approxi- 
mating to that common in the secondary schools, and 
the ‘ Higher Top’ in which the specialisation is little 
more marked than in the normal elementary school. 


TABLE I 
Showing Number of Teachers taking One, Two, Three or More Subjects. 


Secondary. Central 


Col. 12]: s|o| « gael: 10 | a1 | 22 


Av. Att.{ Below 150. 150 to 300. Totals. 


Sub g 1B) G. |Mx.| B. | G. Mx. aa (Go Mite ATI ts CH.) 


178 121] 394] (408) | 24 


1] 4/15} 2118/33; 34 
2 412/)18)11]17/36) 69 148 134] 387] (385) | 47 
3110/14/19] 8/15] 51 56, 99] 208] (161) 7 53 
ANNs) 61——| 1 |) 15 O23 ee 4139) th 32 
mee | Bi] 2 AN TON (20) |, 28 
@ |) 1 | =) ees 5 sy) Se) (0) 12 
oe || 26) Tl 1 (7) 4 
Se | Sf ae (2) 9 


Totals | 34 | 54 | 42743 87|1771190 254/170] 267 | 395 | 389] 1051 4(1042) | 210 


TABLE II 


Showing the Results in Table I reduced to Percentages of the Number of Teachers 
in each Type of School. 


Col. 6 a 8 9 W@ | all |) 13 14 15 
No. 
Subjects G. | Mx.] B. G. | Mx. | B. G. | Mx.] AIL. (E.) 
1 19 | 39 | 51 | 19 | 36 | 45 | 31 | 37 (39) 12 
2 39 | 40 | 37 | 32 | 40 | 37 | 35 | 37 (37) 23 
3 29119 | 11 | 17] 20/14] 26] 20 | (15) | 25 
4 So Wh Sele ol sre tea I (4) | 5 
9) 4 1 | —|— 2 1 3 2 (2) 13 
6 ee 2) 6 
7 a ee es Se SS — (1) 2 
+ 7 ess ff ees fe ep Pe — — 4 


The percentages are given to the nearest whole number. 


54 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


Table III shows the distribution of subjects amongst those 
teachers who take only one subject. For sake of comparison 
returns have been included for teachers taking one academic 
subject along with one or more accessory subjects. The subjects 
are listed in the order of frequency and the corresponding figures 
from the English survey are included. 


TABLE III 
Secondary. Central. 
Subject. | ia. j 

Mathematics .{]17| 32| 30| 79] (76)] 14 5 Al 4 
Hnaglishy. ty fl2 |, 201) 19 Por a(80)n a Le AL 3 5 7 
Hrenchig. a 5 Blo) 21 8s|olie a(65) 8 | — Sie seal a 
Chemistry: 9) | MP 12) 10338] s(20) 25) SP heel an 
astony: 1 ol. Peo | 13 7| 251° (14) 6 2 — |; 2 3 
Geography . .{ 6 I1 6| 237 (19) ] 12 o —— 3 — 
Welsh i OA) 8 1022) he) 7 1 _ 4 2 
Physics . 12 1 6) 19] (16) 3 — — 2 — 
Music 2| 16 1) 19] (384)) — —— ~— — — 
Physical Tavita: 5) 13} — |) 18] (44)7 — — 1 — — 
Drawing 3/8] 3| 14] (82)] — — — — — 
Latin 4), 3). 6) 13h (12). 5 — = ae Sas 
Domestic Science Be OPTI ey (IY) (eae -— 8 — — 
Needlework . —| 2 1 3) (—)] — = —— — — 
Rural Science 1) — 2; 3] (—)] — — — = | = 
Botany —/| 3;—| 8 (3), — 1 — I — 
Woodwork 2) — | —| 2) C)t — = 2 -— — 
Scripture = Eee re (6); — — -— — — 
Greek — | 1) 2) (+t — — — — — 

Commercial Soi | 
jects 2... J | — Lo al (1)] — — 2 — — 
Metalwork . . J—,— |— > —¥Jf (—~)] — — 1 —- — 
Totals . . [95 | 178 | 121 | 394] (408) | 85 25 24 | 26 17 


German, Economics, Biology, Geology—Nil. 


‘Lhe most noteworthy points about this table are : 

(a) The comparative absence of Physics specialists, and the 
preponderance of specialists in Music, Physical Training, 
and Drawing, in girls’ schools. 

(6) Mathematics, English, and Geography occur far more 
frequently in combination with one or more accessory 
subjects than do the other academic subjects. 

(c) The preponderance of English, History, Chemistry special- 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 55 


ists in Welsh schools and of French, Music, Drawing, 
and Physical Training specialists in the English schools. 

(d) The increased importance of the accessory subjects in the 
Central schools. More than half the specialists listed 
are taking an accessory subject. 


In connection with (c) above, one may note in passing that 
a few of the returns contained a complaint that there seemed 
to be too many English and History specialists at the present 
time. The table also shows clearly the relative preponderance 
of specialists in the girls’ schools. 

Table IV shows the distribution of subjects amongst teachers 
taking two subjects. In the case of the academic subjects, 
returns have been included to show the frequency with which 
two academic subjects were taken in combination with one 
accessory. 


TABLE IV 
Secondary. Central. 
Two academic subjects : ; . 261 ll 
One academic subject and one HRCaETSy : 85 26 
Two accessory subjects : ‘ : ‘ 41 JIL 
TOTALS : . : Sam GU 48 
Alone Access. 
Subjects. 
8. C. (E.) 8. | C. 
Maths. and Physics . MD) |) ==) (2S) Suing 
English and History Se L342) eta | 
English and French . 17 | I | (25) 4) 1 
Latin and Greek . : 17 | — f (18) 3 | — 
Physics and Chemistry . 16} 3 | (14) 1 | — 
English and Latin 15 | — } (26) 3) — 
Welsh and History 1l|—] — 2 | — 
Botany and Biology 1 | || @) pe 
French and German . 110 | —¥ (17) f—]| 1 
Welsh and English On ele |e YD 
Welsh and Latin 9;—]}] — 4) — 
Latin and French . 9};—Ff (2) }— |) — 
History and Geography 9/17 (14.7, 4); — 
Maths. and Chemistry 8 | — 7 (13) 3 | — 
Welsh and Geography 7|— Ff — eae! 
English and Geography . 7 | —q (11) bien 
Latin and History 7) G3) f= | — 
French and History . Cate cL) ee 
Maths. and Botany . i | i | 1 
4}—}y — BN es 


Welsh and Maths. 


56 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


Subjects. 


(E.) 


Latin and Maths. 

English and Maths. . 
Economics and History . 
Geography and Maths. 
French and Maths. 

Latin and Geography 
Chemistry and Botany . 
History and Maths. . : 
Geography and Chemistry . 
English and Economics . 
Welsh and Botany 

English and Botany 

Greek and French 

Greek and Maths. 

French and Geography . 
Geography and Botany . 
History and Botany 
Chemistry and Rural Science 
History and Chemistry . 
Biology and General Science 
Geography and Physics 
Geography and Biology 
Chemistry and Biology . 
French and Economics . 
German and Geography 
German and Maths. . 
Maths. and Rural Science 
Botany and Geology 
French and Biology . 
Welsh and French 

Maths. and General Science 


| 


os ees been |] ae 


Cet bisa eco || 


TABLE IV (continued) 
COMBINATIONS OF Two AccEssoRY SUBJECTS 


8. 
Domestic Science and Needlework . : 14 
Drawing and Woodwork . 
Woodwork and Metalwork 
Domestic Science and Physical Training 
Domestic Science and Scripture 
Drawing and Commercial Subjects 
Woodwork and Physical Training 
Drawing and Metalwork 
Drawing and Physical Training 
Domestic Science and Drawing : 
Commercial Subjects and Music 5 


pie | F bo & G9 & OL OL 


i=) 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 57 


TABLE IV (continued) 


COMBINATIONS OF Two ACCESSORY SUBJECTS 


Drawing and Needlework 
Physical Training and Needlework 
Drawing and Handcraft 

Domestic Science and Music 
Music and Scripture 

Physical Training and Hoe ienel 


Rees 
Bi a | ke 


TABLE IV (continued) 


COMBINATIONS OF ONE ACADEMIC AND ONE ACCESSORY SUBJECT 


‘Subjects. 3 5 2 Bs 25 : 3 

= R A ys Sea) eye as 
Seu lCs Sas (as ie S. | C.| S.| C.| S.| C.| 8.’ C.] S.) C.) Total. 
English and . Bi) Qi) sy ob Sener ato) hr ES oye ae 
Maths. and —|2); 5;1;—— 4/2]/2\-—2/2;1—\/——/14| 7 
Geography and . 4 2—| 4 a 2 |\—|_—— 3 Same 12) 3 
French and . ~ 2. | 2 BE] 1 — J} 1s 1 je 1h — —— —| 8) 1 
SiS BAC. sg gg Be et ee ee, ee ec 
History and . 2|—) 1 | 1) 1); —|-—— — 1 —-——|} 1/1] 6) 2 
Economics and . 1 |—| — —- —| 5 — = 6 | — 
Latin and Bo eG 1j— 4/;—— | Soothe —| 5|— 
Chemmmyand = . .|——|1)/—|—| 3 1 1 —=| 5 ll 
Physics and . I Lipp ee 1 SS SB 2 
Botany and . —| — + — | 1) — |---| ——|- ——}— + — | 1 
Totals . |19|6/19/1/16/5/10|5/9|0/7/7/4/0/]1 | 2) 85 | 26 


The combinations of three subjects are made up as follows :—. 


Secondary. Central. 
Three academic subjects . : ‘ : 81 12 
Two academic and one accessory } : a3 21 
One academic and two accessory : : 25 17 
Three accessory subjects . ; : : 23 3 
TOTALS ‘ : : 6) AUS) 53 


Only the combinations of academic subjects are shown in 
Table V. The details for two and one academic subjects. 
are shown previously in Table IV, page 55, and Table III, 
page 54. 


58 


English 
Maths. 
English 
English 
English 
English 
English 
English 
‘Welsh 
Welsh 
Latin 
Latin 
Latin 
Maths. 
Physics 


‘Chemistry 


French 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 


Latin 
Physics 
French 
History 
Geogr. 
Latin 
Latin 
History 
Latin 
English 
Geogr. 
Greek 
History 
Biology 
Chem. 
Botany 
German 
Latin 
French 
English 
English 
English 
Latin 
French 
Maths. 
History 
Geoer. 


English French 


Maths. 
Latin 

Welsh 
Welsh 
Welsh 


Physics 


Physics 
English 


TABLE V 


SECONDARY SCHOOLS 


History 
Chemistry 
Mathematics 
Mathematics 
Mathematics 
French 
Mathematics 
Geography 
History 
History 
History 
French 
Mathematics 
Botany 
Biology 
Rural Science 
Spanish 
Greek 
History 
Economics 
French 

Latin 
Botany 
Geography 
Physics 
Geography 
Rural Science 


6 


6 
+ 
4 
3 
3 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
I 
] 
I 
1 
1 
] 
1 
I 
1 
1 


CENTRAL SCHOOLS 


History 
Chemistry 


2 
2 


Mathematics 1 


French 


Mathematics French 


English 


History 


1 
1 
] 


CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


English French Economics 
English Physics Chemistry 
Latin Greek Mathematics 
Latin Greek History 
Latin Greek Mythology 
Latin French German 
Latin French History 
Latin Geogr. Botany 
Latin. History German 
French History Mathematics 
French History Geography 
History Geogr. Mathematics 
Geography . Physics Chemistry 
Geography Botany Chemistry 
Geography Botany Biology 
Physics Chem. Botany 
Maths. Chem. Metallurgy 
Maths. Physics Biology 
Maths. Chem. Botany 
Maths. Geogr. Gen. Science 
Chemistry Botany Biology 
Chemistry Rural 

Science Biology 
Botany | Biology Rural Science 

Toran 
Welsh Geography Geology 
Maths. Botany Biology 
Maths. Chemistry Botany 
Geogr. Botany Biology 
ToTaL 


fe fee ee eee ee eet et et et 


[eo ee 


lis || ft feet feet fa 


The most frequent combinations of three academic subjects 
reported in the English survey are :— : 


French 
Maths. 

English 
English 


Geography Chemistry 


English 
Physies 


History 
History 


Chemistry Physics 


History 13 
Chemistry 13 
Geography 12 
Latin 6 
Physics 6 
Botany 5) 


English 
English 
French 
English 
Maths. 


History 
Maths. 
English 
Maths. 


Maths. 
Chemistry 
Latin 
Physics 


Chemistry Geography 


oO PR RR 


Finally the frequencies with which the various subjects are 
listed irrespective of the combinations in which they occur are 
given in Table VI. 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 


83 SECONDARY SCHOOLS 


230 to 250 times 
Mathematics 
English 

100 to 160 tumes 
History 
French 
Latin 
Geography 
Welsh 

ft aeeicies 
Physics 
ee Training 
50 to 90 times 
- Drawing 
Music 
Scripture 
Needlework 
Domestic Science 
Botany 


30 to 50 tumes 
Woodwork 
Greek 
Biology 

10 to 20 times 


German 
( Economics 


| Commercial Subjects 


Rural Science 
Metalwork 


Less than 5 times 
(General Science 
| Geotos 
Spanish 


22 CENTRAL SCHOOLS 


80 to 90 tumes 
Physical Training 
English 

60 to 80 tumes 
Mathematics 
Scripture 


40 to 50 twmes 
Geography 
History 
Needlework 
Drawing 
Welsh 


20 to 40 times 
Music 
Physics 
10 to 20 times 
Chemistry 
ae 
Domestic Science 
eee 
Botany 


5 to 10 times 
Metalwork 
ee 
Latin 
Rural Science 
Biology 
Commercial Subjects 


Less than 5 times 
General Science 
Geology 
German 


B. Most FREQUENTLY OccURRING SUBJECTS AND 
COMBINATIONS OF SUBJECTS 


59 


It is now possible to say what are the most frequently occur- 
ring subjects and combinations and therefore to indicate what 
are likely to be the most profitable courses from the point of 
view of usefulness to the intending teacher. 


The most frequently occurring single subjects are :— 


A AS) -—VOL. XI ° 


60 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


Alone. eee) 
Subject. 

Sala Se tac: 

Mathematicsmsertis iene 1G 2. ee See Oe eee 19 | ll 
Einigdishoe ar ater erm eC. ns rc Renter ee ene 30 | 12 
French ENN Aes CAN e GI Mate Acne eee ne rw ars anaarcnee ry (day le s> Byes) 8 2 
Chemistry) 0. eet cupete ee SG eh oats es ee oom ie 6 iL 
MAIS TORY 6) lee hy ence cead tetera Ae la neh se rae a Ome le 8 5 
Geosrapliyei tee ec, ULI I ea Sa OP ete 16 3 
Welsh Mi am WPA eet ca wall Deg eae y hegre ete at 0 icc MO ee 8 6: 
PIR /SUC Sasa eee eee tee ep oe wel | Ree ce eM eee aS Lg 3 2 
Music 3 STUN ieee eae aes hie) onto ad cane ee OEM ates —_— | — 
Physical Training ai aot pu MeN eagnies eau Mrccemmis c=) [i abobe db’ | — | — 
Rawal ye oe. ee eet cape ea Nt een edison hog — | — 
Latin : ewe ata PO Me, (Pree Oh Wi aise reese ale oe ral 5 | — 
Domestic Scienee MB eae eee eek hoe tae omen Neen 8 | — | — 


It is worth noting that 16 of the 19 music specialists in the 
above list are teaching in girls’ schools. 

The most frequently occurring combinations of two academic: 
subjects are as follows :— 


With 
Access. 
Subjects. 

S. SiC 

Mathematicsand@ Physics) me en ee ee bP Sed 
‘Huglishvandvelstorya: sy) ene ee aS Eide 
Emelishvandobrenchic casero et ome eee ae ea ras ed eel 
Tatimiand?. Greeks veo te - eit ene genset: Meee ret Shela 1 3) — 
Enelishvand Waiting) a ae in eer ate reg cane) 3° |, — 
iPhysiestand: Chemistry neces 1) ao ee ee eel 1 | — 
Welsh-and History << ote ee eo ee 2 | — 
Botany and Biology ee eer CAN ira Sa enim) gery |) Ltt ;— | — 
FrenchrandiG.ermians site yale ei ee eee eet, ;— | l 
Welsh and Latin j 9 f 4 | -— 
History and Geography 9 (4 
Latin and French , 9 | == | — 
Welsh and English 9 BS Sicily 
Mathematics and Cnanaiatogr 8 | 3) — 
Latin and History ; 7 a 
English and Geography . Rare gals eae 7 fe 
Welshiand: Geograplny era iai een 7 Po 1S 
French and History . 6 pany © 
Welsh and Mathematics 4 2) — 
Mathematics and Geography 3 ¥— | 4 
English and Mathematics 3 ) 4) — 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 61 


The most frequently occurring combinations of three academic: 
subjects in the Welsh and English Schools are as follows :— 


WELsH SECONDARY SCHOOLS English History Geography 12 
English Latin History 6 English ae EUISCONy & 
Maths. Physics. Chemistry 6 Paige EUS Geozraphy, e 
English French Mathematics 4 | Phy Sey eae re ; : 
English History Mathematics 4 English OLY peo maUCS 
English Geogr. Mathematics 3 English Chemistry Mathematics 4. 
English Lati F h 3 

aa Be peeg WELSH CENTRAL SCHOOLS 
ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS English French History 


ay 


English French History 13 | Mathematics Physics Chemistry 
Maths. Physics Chemistry 13 


C. COMBINATIONS OF SUBJECTS RECOMMENDED BY HEADS 
OF SCHOOLS 


(a) Secondary Schools 


We may now consider the answers to question 2 on the 
blank. ... ‘ What combinations of subjects would you recom- 
mend as being most advantageous for your present and (probable), 
future requirements ?’ The replies to this may be summarised. 
as follows :— 


Welsh with English, Classics, French, History (both English and: 
Welsh). 
English with Classics, Modern Languages, History, Maths. 
Latin with Greek, English, French, Welsh, History, Maths. 
French and German with English, History, Latin, Maths. 
History with Geography, Latin, French, German, Maths. 
Geography with Biology, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Maths..,. 
and an accessory subject. 
Maths. with Physics, Chemistry, and possibly Geography or 
Botany. 
Physics with Pure and Applied Maths. and Chemistry. 
Chemistry with Botany, Biology, Rural Science, Physics, Maths.. 
Botany with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Maths. 
Biology with Chemistry, Botany, Physics, Geography, Maths. 


In addition to specific suggestions for combinations of courses,. 
some general suggestions were made, which are interesting from 
the practical point of view. The opinion was expressed that. 
English should be included in most if not all Arts degree schemes, 
and Mathematics in Science schemes. Further, in view of the 
wide distribution of these subjects, all Arts students should have. 


_ some preparation in the pedagogy of elementary English and. 


all Science students in that of elementary Mathematics. It was. 


62 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


further pointed out that some Arts subjects, notably English 
and History, involve a great deal of written work, particularly 


in the case of pupils preparing for examinations. This work is 


difficult to correct and needs more time in correction than written 


work in Mathematics, Science, and the grammar of a language. 


It is policy therefore to avoid taking English and History 
as the two main teaching subjects from the practical point of 


view, although otherwise the combination is sound. English and 


Latin are suggested as a good combination both from the practical 


and pedagogical aspects of the work. ‘The difficulty of correc- 


tion is eased, and in addition there is the very great advantage 
of having the grammar teaching in both languages vested in the 
same teacher. This secures a greater co-ordination between the 
subjects with a corresponding saving of time and increase in 
efficiency. In too many cases Latin appears to be taken without 


Greek, and there was strong support for the suggestion that all 


students taking Latin as a main subject should be able to offer 
Greek to a subsidiary stage. 


Summing up, one may say that the prospective secondary 


school teacher should select his degree scheme from the following 
range of academic subjects :— 


Arts— 
English, French (with German), History, Latin (with Greek), 
Welsh, Geography, Maths. 

Science— 
Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Biology, Geo- 
graphy. 

There seems to be very little combination of Arts with Science © 

subjects—Botany with some language, ancient or modern, for 


girls’ schools being most frequent. Geography in combination 


with History, a language, Maths., Physics, Chemistry, or a bio- 
logical science appears with more frequency. This combination 
appears 32 times in a total of 261 combinations of two academic 
subjects. In the schools covered by the English survey Geo- 
graphy combined with one of the above occurs no fewer than 
55 times in a total of 285 combinations of two academic subjects. 
Certain academic subjects at present have very little vogue in 
the secondary schools and a word of caution is necessary with 
regard to these. The list of subjects was taken from a report 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 63: 


of the Central Welsh Board, and contains therefore the subjects. 
which are recognised for teaching purposes in the secondary 
schools. From Table III, page 54, it appears that out of a total. 
of 394 cases of teachers in charge of a single subject, Rural 
_ Science and Botany appear three times each, Greek twice, German, 
Economics, Biology, and Geology nil. In combinations of two 
academic subjects Botany and Biology occur together eleven 
times, mainly in girls’ schools. If we include the cases in Table 
IV taking one accessory along with two academic subjects, 
Botany occurs 15 times out of a total of 338. Combining the 
results of Tables I and II, we find that Greek occurs 17 times 
with Latin, and German 10 times with French. For the rest, 
Economics occurs 9 times with Commercial Subjects such as. 
book-keeping, typing, and business methods, and 5 times in 
other combinations. Greek appears 4 times, German twice, 
Biology 3 times, Geology once, and Rural Science 4 times. It. 
would appear, therefore, that it is unwise for the prospective 
secondary school teacher to take Greek, Economics, German, 
Biology, Rural Science, and Geology, unless these courses. 
are strengthened very considerably by others more in demand 
in the schools. A student with any one of these courses in his. 
degree scheme should include at least two other subjects to. 
Final standard. This proviso raises an interesting point. It 
may be argued that these subjects are all valuable to a student 
from the point of view of his own personal culture, and that: 
intending teachers should be at liberty to study them if they are 
so inclined. It must be remembered however that the teacher’s. 
chance of employment depends largely upon his having the 
qualifications the schools demand. At present there is very little. 
demand for these subjects except as accessories to other academic 
pursuits, and those responsible for the supervision of intending 
teachers cannot ignore this fact. What applies to the secondary 
schools applies with as much force to the central schools. There 
is little room at present for specialists in any of these subjects. 
in either type of school. 
(6) Central Schools 

For teachers intending to take up service in Central schools. 

Classics loses its importance, and modern languages have only 


a secondary value at present. For Arts graduates some combina- 
' tion of the following is probably most useful :— 


64 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


Welsh, English, History (both English and Welsh), Geography, 
Maths. and French. 

For the Science graduate one may suggest some combination of 

Maths., Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics, Rural Science and 
General Science. 

Some specific combinations suggested by Heads as useful are :— 

Maths., Physics, Mechanics. 

Maths., Chemistry, Rural or General Science. 

Botany, Geology, Gardening. 

History, Geography, English. 

English, History. 

The intending Central school teacher should keep his attention 
on the more practical applications of his subjects, particularly 
in science, and should in every case be able to offer at least one 
accessory subject such as Drawing and Handwork with Physics 
and Chemistry ; Gardening with Botany and Biology; Music, 
Drawing, Needlework, Decorative Handwork (in the case of 
women students more particularly) ; and Physical Training with 
any of the academic subjects. 


D. ANALYSIS OF THE OPINIONS OF HEADS CONCERNING 
SPECIALISATION 


We may turn now to the answers to question 3... . ‘ What 
is your opinion concerning the degree of specialisation most 
advantageous to graduate students from the point of view of 
teaching efficiency and general suitability for school work. Are 
the present-day graduates over-specialised or not sufficiently 
specialised ? ’ 

There was some difference of opinion in the replies sent in, 
and much diffidence in making a definite statement. The answer — 
obviously depends upon the size and type of school. In the 
smaller schools Heads who would prefer highly specialised teachers 
are forced to give their teachers two or three or even more subjects 
in order to run the school economically. However, some definite 
points were yielded by the answers. Of the Heads who gave a 
specific answer to this question there was a clear majority who 
considered that the present-day graduate shows a tendency to 
be over-specialised. Very few indeed thought they were not 
sufficiently specialised. The replies show clearly that two factors 
are involved, the degree of specialisation necessary for Higher 
Certificate and Scholarship standards, and the effect of the 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 65 


effort to obtain this specialised knowledge on the personal culture 
and consequent breadth of outlook and sympathy of the teacher. 


‘ Present-day graduates are over-specialised, particularly those 
who come from the Elementary schools via the Secondary Schools, 
and have taken the Higher Certificate. College Entrance Exams. 
tend to increase this specialisation.’ 


‘There is a strong tendency to over-specialisation. They are 
afraid to tackle anything but their own special subject.’ 


‘ Present-day graduates are less adaptable than those of an earlier 
generation. A high degree of specialised knowledge is required for 
Higher Certificate classes, and in order to obtain this, breadth of 
interest is often sacrificed. Young teachers are afraid to venture 
out of narrowly defined paths.’ 


‘ Science eraduates are over-specialised. The teachers of Chemistry 
and Physics rarely know anything about Botany or Rural Science. 
A broader foundation for the science course seems desirable.’ 


‘Science and Maths. teachers lack a humanistic background and 
a romantic imagination. All graduates should be able to teach at 
least two subjects well. Present-day graduates cannot turn their 
hands to subjects outside their main degree subjects.’ 


‘Teachers of Botany and Biology are often weak in general elemen- 
tary science such as physics and chemistry.’ 


Apart from the disinclination of the highly specialised student 
to attempt any but his special subject, it would seem that the 
young teacher is showing a tendency to sacrifice his general 
development and lose breadth of vision and sympathy in con- 
sequence. 


‘ Present-day graduates are so highly specialised that they have 
little sympathy or patience with their middle or lower form work. 
They must realise their responsibility for all grades of their subject.’ 


‘A man who cannot teach outside his one subject is an incon- 
venient member of a staff. He cannot fill a gap in the time-table. 
He is also less effective in his own subject through lack of the extended. 
vision which comes from teaching something else quite different, 
and he is apt to under-estimate the difficulties of other members of 
the staff.’ 


‘The Welsh degree is altogether too specialised in scope, and the 
lecture system of tuition terribly over-done. There is a lack of the 
cultured type of graduate turned out by the older British and some. 
foreign Universities.’ 


‘There is a lack of general culture. Specialists are far too fre- 
quently ignorant of other subjects.’ 


66 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


‘Better qualifications in English are needed by specialists im 
most subjects.’ 


‘Present-day graduates are not over-specialised, but with rare 
exceptions there is a lack of general culture.’ 


The general tenor of the replies is epitomised in the following 
reply :— 

‘T am inclined to think that the present-day honours graduate 
is over-specialised and the graduate not sufficiently specialised. That 
is, the graduate does not go far enough in her subjects to take the 
responsibility of the work in the higher forms of a Secondary school 
and the honours graduate is sometimes somewhat narrow in outlook, 
believing that his or her subject is the only really vital subject in 
education. Wider vistas and broader channels for the “ Graduate ’” 
courses, and more compulsory complementary subjects for the 
‘‘ Honours ”’ courses are desirable I think from the point of view of 
the students themselves, and also from the point of view of the 
co-operation of different members of the Staff and of the correlation 
of subjects in the schools. Would it be possible to have a compre- 
hensive and more advanced degree course ranking equal with a. 
specialised Honours course ? Would not that meet a need especially 
in the smaller schools where economy of staffing will not allow of many 
specialists, and yet where higher work is essential 2’ 


Scope of the Degree Courses 


Some definite suggestions were made about the scope of the 
degree courses in relation to the present-day needs of the schools. 


‘The students entering the schools now do not seem to be so 
generally useful as the experienced teachers they replace. The 
advancement of the work in the Universities does not seem to have 
proceeded pari passu with the advancement of the work in the schools. ~ 
There should be an end to the controversy over the recognition of 
the Higher Certificate as qualifying for the Intermediate, and students. 
with Higher Certificates should be allowed to proceed to degree work 
and be encouraged to take Double Honours Degrees. This is the 
need of the school to-day. 

‘For example, double honours degrees in Latin and Greek, Welsh 
and Latin, Welsh and French, Physics and Mathematics and other 
combinations of the sciences including Geography, History and 
Economics, or Geography and Economics. Where this is impractic- 
able one honours plus two finals would be desirable. 

‘ There are too many history specialists. The old London system 
of three finals was preferable, e.g. Chemistry, Physics and Maths. ; 
or English History and Geography.’ 2 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 67 


It is interesting to find that a number of Heads strongly 
deplore the tendency of the older type of general form master 
to disappear from the secondary schools. 


‘The pass graduate with two or three finals should be used more 
in general form work.’ 

‘The old-fashioned form master who could take lower forms in 
two or three subjects was a source of strength in a school. The 
modern inspector is too keen on specialised teaching.’ 

‘ There is a real need for general form masters in the lower forms. 
Most candidates are either not sufficiently specialised to take good 
scholarship work, or not qualified to take a form in say four subjects. 
Good specialists and good form masters are needed.’ 

‘ Both kinds of graduates are needed. There is always room for 
two or three men well qualified to take three or four subjects in the 
middle school.’ 

‘ One mistress at least is needed (in a school of 160) to teach several 
subjects in junior and middle forms. There is a need for graduate 
mistresses with qualifications to teach four or five subjects to middle 
school standard and who can tackle the middle school dullform. The 
younger teachers do not know their subsidiary subjects well enough.’ 


‘T would put in a plea for broader courses. The old form master 
type is being missed. In the lower forms I am veering back to the 
man who can take three or four subjects. At present I find a tendency 
in young honours graduates to plead for one subject only.’ 


‘ More exact knowledge of the more elementary stages is needed. 
There are too many pupils of limited intellect dabbling at so-called 
Higher and Honours courses who would be better employed thoroughly 
learning the elementary work. They cannot eventually do the special 
subject well, and they claim exemption from all other subjects on 
account of their higher work.’ 


There is some difference of opinion as to the proportion of 
pass to honours graduates. The estimates vary from the pro- 
portion of one to one, through the proportion ‘ one mistress to 
take two or three subjects to two specialists in a school of three 
hundred’, to ‘an honours degree in one subject for the greater 
number and a pass degree in two or three subjects for the few’. 
There seems no doubt about the desire of a number of Heads 
for the graduate capable of teaching well three or four subjects 
to middle school standard. One may venture to suppose that 
if and when the satisfactory education of the average and non- 
academically minded child is accorded the importance it deserves 
the desire for the general form master or mistress who can teach 


68 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


will become still stronger. The emphasis on teaching capacity 
is not lacking in these returns, e.g. 


‘ Present-day graduates tend to put too much emphasis on aca- 
demic qualification, and too little on first-class teaching ability. More 
stress is put on scholarship for higher work than on the effective 
teaching of the backward boy.’ 


The Heads of the Central Schools are generally agreed that 
there is a tendency to over-specialisation from the point of view 
of their special needs. Moreover, the honours graduates tend 
to be too academic in their outlook, while their subject matter 
is not sufficiently connected with the out-of-school experience of 
the pupils. They tend to be ‘lecturers rather than teachers’. 
In particular the science graduate is ‘too much confined to 
Chemistry and Physics of the type taught in secondary schools. 
Students should be taught to see science everywhere.’ ‘ Speciali- 
sation begins too soon. It is a mistake for the science student 
to drop the Humanities at the matriculation stage.’ There is 
not sufficient Geography, French, and accessory subjects, and 
too much specialisation in English and History. Another Head 
complains that there are too many specialists in English, adding 
that graduates in Economics and Education are not very useful. 
It was suggested that all graduates should be able to teach either 
elementary English or Mathematics, or both of these subjects. 
All the returns from the Central schools emphasise the importance 
ot the accessory subjects in combination with academic. 


EK. THe Position oF THE ACCESSORY SUBJECTS 


By accessory subjects is meant for the purposes of this survey 
Domestic Science, Woodwork, Metalwork, Commercial Subjects ; 
Drawing, Music, Scripture, and Physical Training. The replies 
in connection with this part of the survey show that these sub- 
jects are considered in two distinct classes. This distinction is 
explicitly made by several of the Heads of Central schools and 
is implied in the replies from some Secondary schools, particularly 
for girls. Oneclassincludes Domestic Sciences, Commercial Sub- 
jects, Music in girls’ schools, Woodwork and Metalwork in 
Central schools. These subjects often have a direct vocational 
significance and are more readily influenced by principles inde- 
pendent of pedagogy. In all of these subjects there is a large 
element of special skill which is controlled by standards of per- 
formance and methods of execution depending on utilitarian or 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 69 


artistic rather than on educational principles. Many hold the 
opinion that if these subjects are to be taught well they must 
be taught with due regard to the external standards and methods. 
On this account, there is often a desire to have ‘ workshop 
experience ’ and a correlative distrust of the academically trained 
teacher owing to the fear that the ‘ practical’ value of the 
activities would be lost. Some replies from Heads of Central 
schools will illustrate this tendency. To the question ‘ would 
you prefer to have these subjects taught by graduate members 
of the staff, etc.?’ they reply :— 


‘No. Workshop experience is desirable, and though a good 
standard of general education is indispensable I don’t think a degree 
is essential.’ 


‘It is essential that persons taking these subjects should be good 
teachers and efficient in their crafts. It is not at all necessary for 
them to be graduates.’ 


‘No, if the practical side is to be sacrificed. Yes, otherwise. 
One of the needs of the Central schools is the training of craftsmen 
of ability, in English, Mathematics, and Art.’ 


A tendency, similar if not so explicit, is to be noticed in the 
replies of some of the Heads of girls’ schools in connection with 
Music, and to a less extent Art. Music in girls’ schools often 
includes instrumental training on piano and violin, and here the 
external standards become important. One finds that the Heads 
of the very large Secondary schools in the main prefer to have 
these accessory subjects taught by specialists in these particular 
activities. This is true also of Physical Training in the girls’ 
schools where good specialists can be obtained from the physical 
training institutes. The Heads of several Central schools are 
able to send the pupils to a special centre for Domestic Science, 
Woodwork and Metalwork, where specialist teachers are employed. 
‘These conditions are out of the scope of this survey. What one 
hoped to establish is the need for graduate students, in both 
Secondary and Central schools, who can offer the ordinary 
academic subjects and who at the same time can undertake the 
teaching of Physical Training, Vocal Music, Woodwork, Decora- 
tive Handwork and Needlework (in the case of women). These 
subjects may be considered to form a secondary class of acces- 
sory subjects whose main value is educational. 


We may now consider the replies first in connection with the 


70 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


work of visiting teachers, and secondly in connection with the 
demand for suitably qualified graduates on the staff. The 
following analysis is interesting :— 


No. of Heads employing visiting teachers who would prefer graduates on 
the staff 5 ; é : : . 5 6 6 5 . 42 

No. of Heads not employing visiting teachers who express a definite prefer- 
ence for graduates on the staff : 6 

No. of Heads who prefer specialists on the staff . 

No. of Heads who prefer not to have graduates .. 

No. not giving definite reply 


TOTAL : 


| | IOUS 


With regard to the visiting teacher :— 


‘It is time to do away with all visiting teachers. They cannot. 
deal so effectively with the children as the regular staff members. 
Practical subjects are allowed to be taught ineffectively by visiting 
teachers. This relegation to unqualified visiting teachers is the 
main weakness of the C.W.B. system.’ 


‘As far as possible visiting teachers are discouraged. Hence: 
the necessity of adding such training as Physical Exercises to Wood- 
work, and Domestic Subjects.’ 


‘ Visiting teachers are unsatisfactory in every way, hard to get,. 
poor discipline, no interest in the school.’ 


‘ A full-time teacher is part of the school, has a greater hold upon 
the pupils, and usually a much deeper interest in the school and its 
individual pupils.’ 


The opinions of the Heads about the question of adding 
accessory qualifications to the preparation of the graduate, are 
fairly represented by the following replies: 


‘Most certainly Yes!’ ‘ Emphatically Yes !’ 
‘Yes, with the exception of Domestic Subjects.’ 


‘Most desirable that every teacher should be a full-time member 
of the staff. Hence qualifications in these subjects in combination 
with a special subject are always looked for. Visiting teachers are 
not as a rule as efficient, or at any rate they cannot teach the children 
so effectively.’ 


‘I have the strongest possible objection to visiting masters. They 
have no grip on the school. Art, Handicraft, and Music teachers. 
should be educated to the pass degree standard in ordinary academic 
subjects.’ 


‘[ infinitely prefer members of my own stafi. But few graduates. 
seem to have any training in, or inclination to Physical Training, 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 71 


Woodwork or Drawing. One of the most useful combinations for a 
woman is Drawing and Physical Training, and for a man Physical 
‘Training, Handwork, and Games. Every graduate should be com- 
pelled to have these subjects.’ 


‘It would be a great advantage to students in the Training Depts. 
if they followed a compulsory course of training in Drawing, Wood- 
work, and Physical Training during their last year at College, and 
produced a certificate of proficiency in these subjects: There is some 
difficulty in getting men who can take these subsidiary subjects.’ 


‘It is difficult to get graduates with interest in Music, Gardening, 
Decorative Handwork, and Girl Guides. They are apt to be too 
exclusively interested in their own academic subjects. ‘The secondary 
teacher’s training year should include more training in artistic leisure 
pursuits.’ 


‘Travelling part-time teachers are far from satisfactory. They 
have no real interest in the school. The subsidiary subjects are the 
greatest problem in the ordinary-sized school (160 to 250), as it is 
difficult to obtain mistresses with a degree and good qualifications 
in subjects like Drawing, Needlework, Gymnastics, Music, Singing, 
etc. A graduate with a year’s training in Physical Exercises and 
Games is greatly needed in the ordinary-sized schools.’ 


The returns show that out of a total of 914 teachers taking 
academic subjects, 232 combine accessory subjects with them 
in the secondary schools. In the Central schools, out of 182 
teachers taking academic subjects no fewer than 147 take in 
addition some accessory subject. This is equal to about 80 per 
cent. It would seem almost a necessity for teachers intending 
to enter Central schools to be able to teach one or more of the 
accessory subjects. There seems therefore a very clear case for 
the graduate, particularly the honours graduate, to qualify in 
one or more of these accessory subjects. The chances of employ- 
ment are considerably increased, the field of opportunity for 
service is widened, and in addition the activity of the accessory 
subject, calling as it does upon different physical and mental 
resources, will provide that welcome change in the routine of 
school work which is ‘as good as a rest’. 


FE, ANALYSIS OF THE DEGREE SCHEMES OF 592 STUDENTS IN THE 
TRAINING DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
ABERYSTWYTH 


In view of the opinions expressed by several Heads concern- 
ing the scope of the degree, the courses of 592 students of this 


WZ CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


Training Department who have passed through the professional 
training since 1922 have been analysed. It will be remembered 
that it was stated that the minimum requirement of the secondary 
schools at the present time is an honours in one subject plus at 
least one final and one subsidiary in some different subjects, or 
alternatively three finals. In the analysis given here account 
has been taken only of those subjects which the student has 
passed at the final stage or above. The distribution of honours 
and finals is as follows :— 


Double Hons. and | final : : : : : : 2 
Double Hons. ; : : 3 : : : : 8 
Hons. in 1 subject plus 2 other finals. : : : 18 
Hons. in | subject plus 1 other final ; : . . 169 
Hons. in 1 subject only. : : ; ; : So LAG 
Double degree (B.A., B.Mus.) . : ; : : : 1 
Pass degree with 4 finals : ; 5 : : : 1 
Pass degree with 3 finals ; : : : ; Skee 28 
Pass degree with 2 finals é 3 : é : 5 LA 
Courses not completed . 5 ; : : ‘ ee, 

TOTAL a. ; ; : OO 2 


Of the Honours graduates there were in Economics 12, in Philo- 
sophy 3, in Education 2, in Geology 1, in Zoology 1, in German 3. 
That is, 22 of the Hons. students had as their main subject one 
for which there is little or no demand in the schools. If account 
is taken of students having degrees which come within the scope 
of the suggested minimum requirement, and then eliminate 
those whose courses include an honours or a final in one or more 
of the subjects Economics, Education, Philosophy, and Geology, 
we get the following results :— 


Eliminate Eliminate 
1 Subject. 2 Subjects. 
Double Hons. ; : : : 5 ; 10 25 — 
Hons. plus 2 finals : : ; : : 18 7 ] 
Hons. plus 1 final 5 : : , . 169 40 == 
Pass with 4 finals i , , ; ; 1 — — 
Pass with 3 finals : ; : : ; 28 wt I. 
Double degrees . ‘ : ; : : 1 — — 
TOTALS : Be part 64 2 


This process of elimination leaves within the scope of the sug- 
gested degree a total of 168 students. This represents a per- 
centage of approximately 30, of all the students passing through 
the Department. This would indicate that an average of 28 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 73 


students per year since 1922 have completed courses up to the 
criterion proposed. 

The following table gives the most frequent subjects taken 
to the Honours stage, Classes I, Ha, Ilb, and III included :— 


English . : : , - 68) Brench, =: 3 : ; Ser th 
Geography : : : . 45 | Botany . : : : sk S 
History . : é ; Oley SICcs =; : : : ts, IG: 
Welsh ; ‘ 5 ‘ . 29 | Mathematics . ‘ : Sri ig 
Chemistry : ‘ = 48) |) Ibeyana : : : ; shed 


Comparing these figures with the results given in Table ITI, 
page 54, it would appear that Maths. and French occupy a position 
much lower than they occupy in the frequencies occurring in 
the schools, Geography and Botany being relatively higher. Of 
the combinations of two subjects taken to final standard or beyond, 
the following are the most frequent :— 


English and French . : . 9389 | Geography and History 5 2 af 
English and History . : . 23 | Geography and Economics . eA 
History and Economics : . 18 | Physics and Chemistry : . 45 
English and Philosophy . . 12 | Botany and Geography : eral 
English and Welsh . 3 . 10 | Geography and Geology . . 1d 
Welsh and Economics 5 3 9 | Physics and Mathematics . eG: 
English and Economics 5 eS 


Of the combinations of three subjects taken to final stage or 
beyond, the following are the most frequent :— 


Physics Pure and Applied Maths. 6 | English French Education 2 
English History Economics 5 | Botany Geography Geology 2 
English History Philosophy 2 | Geogr. Geology Mathematics 2° 
Welsh History Economics 2 


SUMMARY OF MatIn PoINts 
(a) Specialisation 


i. Approximately three-fifths of the teachers in secondary 
schools, and eight-ninths of the teachers in Central 
schools represented in the returns, are responsible for 
teaching two or more subjects. 

ii. There is a tendency to greatest specialisation in the girls’ 
schools and least in the mixed schools. 

ii. The trend of opinion is toward the conclusion that the 
present-day graduate shows a tendency to over-speciali-. 
sation. It is agreed that for the Higher certificate and 
scholarship work which is becoming increasingly general. 


74 


CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


a high degree of specialised knowledge is necessary. At 
the same time the younger generation of teachers shows 
a narrower outlook and sympathy, a lack of adapt- 
ability, a disinclination for adventure in teaching beyond 
the limits of the main subject. This seems mainly due 
to the practice of pursuing one subject to the Honours 
stage and leaving all the other subjects in the scheme 
at the subsidiary stage. 


iv. The minimum qualifications for the secondary school 


should be one Honours subject plus one final and a 
subsidiary in some other subjects, or alternatively a 
pass degree with three finals. The student who pur- 
sues only one subject to the Honours stage, leaving the 
others at the subsidiary stage, tends to fall between 
two stools. He is not sufficiently qualified for higher 
certificate work in a smaller school where two subjects 
to the higher stage are desirable, nor is his course wide 
enough for him to undertake the work of form master 
in the lower and middle school. 


v. Several Heads express a strong opinion in favour of the 


old-fashioned type of general form master. It would 
appear that there is still a definite place for the student 
who can teach, and who has three finals in a pass degree, 
in the secondary schools. In the Central schools the 
graduate who can teach three or four subjects is probably 
more useful than the specialist. 


wi. The science graduate appears to be too highly specialised 


in the direction of Chemistry and Physics. Every 
science student should be able to take at least elementary 
Maths. There is an increasing tendency to desire ele- 
ments of biological science along with the traditional 
Maths., Physics and Chemistry. At the same time the 
returns show that this tendency to widen the scope of 


science, particularly in the boys’ schools, has not yet 


proceeded far, and any student wishing to teach one 


of the biological sciences and desiring a reasonable 
chance of employment should strengthen his biological 
science with a good course in one or more of Chemistry, 


Physics, and Maths. 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 75 


(6) Importance of the Accessory Subjects 


i. On the whole, specialist teachers with technical training 
are preferred in both types of schools for Domestic 
Science, Woodwork, Metalwork, Commercial Subjects, 
and in the case of girls’ schools, Music. 

ii. The balance of opinion is very strongly in favour of the 
accessory subjects such as Physical Training, Drawing, 
Music (Vocal), Handwork (Woodwork for boys and 
Decorative Craftwork for girls), and Needlework being 
taught by graduate members of the staff. In the 
Central schools graduates will find this condition almost 

a necessity for employment, and in the secondary 
schools an increasingly important factor. 


(c) Central and Secondary Schools compared 


i. The specialisation in Central schools is at present more 
marked in the accessory than the academic subjects. 

ii. The degree of specialisation is at present very much less 
in the Central than the secondary schools. Twenty-six 
per cent. of the teachers in the Welsh secondary schools 
represented in the survey take three or more subjects. 
In the Central schools 65 per cent. take three or more 
subjects, 40 per cent. four or more, and 25 per cent. 
five or more. 

iii. The subjects most in demand in the Central schools, apart 
from Classics and Modern Languages, are about the same 
as in the secondary schools. The accessory subjects 
occupy a much more prominent place in the Central 
school returns, and every graduate intending to seek 
service therein should be able to offer at least one, 

preferably two of the subjects, Handwork, Physical 
Training, Drawing, Needlework and Decorative Hand- 
work, Vocal Music, in addition to his academic qualifi- 
cations. 


A.S.—VOL. XI, Fr 


76 CONDITIONS OF SUBJECT TEACHING IN 


Form To INDICATE THE COMBINATIONS OF SUBJECTS ACTUALLY BEING 
TAUGHT IN YOUR SCHOOL AT THE PRESENT TIME 


Please put a cross under the number of each teacher, indicating the subjects 
for which he or she is now responsible. 


TEACHER. 


F | 
publ ect: 112/3/4/5|/61|71/8 {9 |10\11 12 13 |14 |15 |16 117 |18 [19/20 [21 


Welsh 

English 

Latin 

Greek 

French 

German 

Spanish 

Economics 

History 

Geography 

Mathematics 

Physics including 
Mechanics ~ 

Chemistry 

Botany 

Biology : 

Geologya yar) aie | 

Agriculture or Rural | 
Science : 

Domestic Science : 
Cookery 
Laundrywork 

Music ; | 

Drawing 40 A ae | | 

Woodwork 

Metal Work . 

Needlework . : 

Physical Training . | 

Scripture Knowledge | — 


SS SS ee 


| { 


2. What combinations of subjects would you recommend as being most advan- 
tageous for your present and (probable) future conditions and requirements ? 


3. What is your opinion concerning the degree of specialisation most advan- 
tageous to graduate students, both from the point of view of teaching efficiency, 
and general suitability for school work ? 
over-specialised ? 


H.g.: Are the present-day graduates | °° é culiicicat ly: gneetanicenat 


4. Do you employ visiting teachers for 
Drawing 
Handwork :— 
Woodwork 
Metal work, etc. 


SECONDARY AND CENTRAL SCHOOLS IN WALES 77 


Domestic Science :— 
Cookery 
Laundry work 
Physical Training ? 


Would you prefer to have these subjects taught by graduate members of the 
staff, if teachers with the necessary qualifications could be obtained ? 


5, General remarks, 


A. PINSENT, 


‘be 


ea iis 


© Asse ae 


CORYDON AND THE CICADA: A 
CORRECTION 


(See Aberystwyth Studies, Vol. 1X, p. 8.) 


Proressor D’Arcy WentwortH THompeson, of the University 
of St. Andrews, has pointed out an error in the natural history 
of the above passage. The reference to the grasshoppers which 
haunt Alpine meadows, while perfectly correct in itself, is not 
in point; for Corydon says (Kel. ii. 13)— 


sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis. 


Now the cicada is not a grasshopper, nor is it to be found at 
high levels. It does not bite the herbage on which it lives, but 
pricks it with its sharp proboscis, and sucks up the juice through 
a tiny orifice ; the ancient idea that it lives on dew is probably 
a false deduction from the correctly observed fact that its suction 
produces a drop of moisture on the surface of the plant. 
Corydon then has wandered down from his mountain pastures 
to a lower level, that of the olive-groves where cicade are to be 
found. At that lesser height it is no great wonder that he finds 
the noonday intolerably hot, and fancies that even the lizards 
must be in want of shade. 
H. J. ROSE. 
L. WINSTANLEY. 


79 


aaa | 
SRIiisH | 
t f ia ft 


27 JAN 30 | 


SSE EL TEREST 5, 


NATURAL | 
HISTORY. J 


q Porc: 


CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES—Continued. 


VoLuME V 


The Government of Nicolas de Ovando in Espanola (1501-1509), by Cecil » 
Jane, M.A. Arx Capitolina, by the late Professor G. A. T. Davies and 
Professor H. J. Rose. James Howell again, by Professor E. Bensly. | The 
Cauldron in Ritual and Myth, by J. J. Jones, M.A. Conduct and the 
Experience of Value, Part II, by L. A. Reid, M.A. Sir Henry Jones 
and the Cross Commission, by J. Hughes, M.A. Notes on the History 
of Cardiganshire Lead-mines, by Miss K. Carpenter, M.Sc. 


VotumeE VI. 


MHKO*® and XPONO2D: The ‘‘ Unity of Time” in Ancient Drama, by Professor 
H. J. Rose. James Howell once more, by Professor E. Bensly. Hamlet 
and the Essex Conspiracy (Part I), by Lilian Winstanley, M.A. Croce’s 
Doctrine of Intuition compared with Bradley’s Doctrine of Feeling, by 
Valmai Burdwood Evans, M.A. 


Votume VII. 


The Peacipics of Quaternions, by the late Assistant Professor W. J. Johnston. 
The descriptive use of Dactyls, by A. Woodward, M.A. Hamlet and the 
Hssex Conspiracy (Part II), by L. Winstanley, M.A. Sainte-Beuve and 
the English Pre-Romantics, by Eva M. Phillips, M.A. The General Theories 
of Unemployment, by J. Morgan Rees, M.A. The Intention of Peele’s 
*“ Old Wives’ Tale,’’ by Gwenan Jones, M.A., Ph.D. 


Votume VIII. 


The Tragedy of the Conventional Woman: Deianeira, by Professor H. J. Rose, 
Two Fragments of Samian Pottery, in the Museum. of the University 
College of Wales, Aberystwyth, by P. K. Baillie Reynolds, M.A. Additional 
Notes of the Familiar Letters of James Howell, by Edward Bensly, M.A. 
Some Arthurian Material in Keltic, by Professor T. Gwynn Jo ones. The 
Keltic God with the Hammer, by J. J. Jones, M.A. 


Votume IX. 


Scenery of Vergil’s Eclogues, by Professor H. J. Rose and Miss Winstanley, 
M.A. More Gleanings in James Howell’s Letters, by Edward Bensly 
M.A. St. Cadvan’s Stone, Towyn, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. The Influence 
of Valencia and its Surroundings on the Later Life of Luis Vives as a Philo- 
sopher and a Teacher, by Professor Foster Watson. The Philosophy of 
Giovanni Gentile, by Miss Valmai Burdwood Evans,.M.A,. The Problems 
of Psychological Meaning, by George H. Green, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt. 


Th 


® 


VOLUME X. 


THE HYWEL DDA MILLENARY VOLUME. 

Facsimiles of MSS. Hywel Dda: the Historical Setting, by Professor J. E. 
Lloyd, D.Litt. M.A. The Laws of Hywel Dda in the light of Roman and 
Early English Law, by Professor T. A. Levi, M.A. The Land in Ancient 
Welsh Law, by T. P. Ellis, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. Social Life as reflected in 
the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Professor T.GwynnJones,M.A. The Language 
of the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Professor T. H. Parry-Williams, M.A. A 
Bibliography of the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. 


Norr.—Vols. I-III, price 3/- each, Vol. IV, price 6/-, and Vols. V, VI, VII, 

VIII, IX, X and XI, price 3/6 each, may be obtained from the General 

_ Secretary, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, or from Humphrey 
Milford, Oxford. University Press Warehouse, London. 


2 eat SFAARS CYA 


f ; 
| NATURAL 4 
Whe ISTORT,. 


WT PES STE, 


CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES 


Votume I. 


The Anglo-Saxon Riddles, by G. A. Wood, M.A. An Analysis of the female 
characters of Grillparzer’s Dramas contrasted with those of Goethe’s 
and Schiller’s, by Miss Amy Burgess, M.A. Norman Earthworks near 
Aberystwyth, by F. S. Wright. A List of Research Publications by 
Members of the eee Staff for the Session 1910-11. 


Votume II. 


The Anglo-Saxon Riddles (continued), by G. A. Wood, M.A. Some Ancient. 
_ Defensive Earthworks near Aberystwyth, by F. 8. ae Whitman v; 
Verhaeren, by P. M. Jones, B.A. : 


Votume III... 


The Greek Agones, by Professor H. J. Rose. A few Notes on the Familiar 
Letters of James Howell, by Professor E. Bensly. Fable Literature in 
Welsh, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. Trajano Boccalini’s Influence upon. 
English Literature, by Richard Thomas, M.A. — 


VOLUME IV. 


Pagan Revivalism under the Roman Empire, by Sir Wilham M. Ramsay, 
F.B.A. The Bronze Age in Wales, by Harold Peake, F.8.A. Dionysiaca, 
by Professor H. J. Rose. The Clausule of Aischines, by R. A. Pope, M.A. 
Further Notes on the Familiar Letters of James Howell, by Professor 
Edward Bensly. Further Notes on ‘“‘the Owl and the Nightingale,” by 
Professor J. W. H. Atkins. The Arthurian Empire in the Elizabethan 
Poets, by Miss L. Winstanley, M.A. A Note on a passage in ‘‘ Beowulf,’’ 
by G. N. Garmonsway, B.A. Welsh Words from Pembrokeshire, by 
Professor T. Stanley Roberts. An English Flexional ending in Welsh, 
by Professor T. H. Parry-Williams. A ‘‘ Court of Love’’ poem in Welsh, 
by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. The Evolution of the Welsh Home, by 
Timothy Lewis, M.A. A Washer at the Ford, by Miss Gwenan Jones, 
M.A. An Outline History of our Neighbourhood, by Professor H. &. 
Fleure. Some Notes on the Industrial Revolution in South Wales, by 
J. Morgan Rees, M.A. Industrial Training in South Wales, by W. King,. 
M.A. Conduct and the Experience of Value, by L. A. Reid, M.A. Some 
sources of the English Trial, by Professor T. A. Levi. A Renascence Pioneer 
of Women’s Education, by Professor Foster Watson. Instruction in: 
Religion, by Professor C. R. Chapple. A new document bearing on the 
Welsh Education Commission of 1846—7,; by F. Smith, M.A. On Stokes’s 
Formula and the Maxwell-Lorentz Equations, by Professor W. H. Young. 
Recent Investigations of the scattering of X- and y-Rays, by Professor. 
G. A. Schott. The Addition of Hydrogen to Acetylenic Acids, by the late 
D. Emrys Williams, B.Sc., and Professor T. C.. James. The Action of - 
Reducing Agents on some Polynitrodiphenylamines, by N. M. Cullinane, - 
M.Sc. .Some Reactions of Tetranitroaniline, by C. W. Davies, B.Se, 
The Origin of the Seed-Plants (Spermophyta), by D. H. Scott, LL.D. 
Investigations into the Fauna of the Sea Floor of Cardigan Bay, by 
Professor R. Douglas Laurie. The Fauna of the Clarach Stream (Cardi- 
ganshire) and its Tributaries, by Miss K. Carpenter, B.Sc. Additions to 
the Marine Fauna of Aberystwyth and District, by Miss E. Horsman, — 
M.Se. The Bryophyta of Arctic-Alpine eigen Mice: in Wales, by C. V. B. 
Marquand, M.A. 


(Continued on page 3 of Cover.) 


BY 


MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE OF WALES 


VoL. XII 


- PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES 
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UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES 
ABERYSTW YTH 
Vol. XII 


ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 
VOL. XII 


\BERYSTWYTH STUDIES 


| BY 
MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 


COLLEGE OF WALES 


| 


VOL. XII 


PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES 
PRESS BOARD ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGE 
1932 


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Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London 


CONTENTS 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’. By GrorcE H. 
Green, MA Ph.D., B:.Se., B.Litt. . ; : ‘ 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION: A STUDY IN CELTIC FOLK- 
LORE. By J. J. Jonss, M.A. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER. By 
VALMAI BuRDWOOD Evans, M.A., B.Litt. : ; : 


A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL. By 
WaLtTeR Foae, M.A. 


PAGE 


47 


BRITISH | 


Carte as Wee ee TS 


MUSEUM | 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


Pot has himself pointed out to us, in his tales of ratiocination, 
that the situation which presents a number of bizarre characters 
to us is really more simple of solution than another which has 
no outstanding characters. If the statement be true, as within 
limits it undoubtedly is, the esthetic problems presented by 
Poe’s writings should be more easy of solution than those which 
are offered by the work of Longfellow or Tennyson. Indeed, a 
certain obvious character of the writings of these two last ensures 
that the majority of their readers, at least, will never realise 
that any essential esthetic problem is presented. 

Confronted by such stories as ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’ ‘ The 
Black Cat,’ ‘ Berenice’ or ‘ Ligeia,’ most readers, whether 
literary critics or not, will find themselves considering the problem 
—Why should any man choose to write about such subjects as 


these? They understand, or believe they understand, why 


poets should write of brooks and belfries, flowers and trees, and 
pleasant romances with happy endings ; not realising that ‘ The 
Brook ’ and ‘ A Psalm of Life ’ present precisely the same problem 
as “ Berenice ’ or ‘ The Purloined Letter.’ The bizarre subjects 
of Poe, that is to say, have served to make us realise a problem 
whose existence we overlook in the case of more ‘ ordinary ’ 
work. 

It is important to be quite clear as to what the problem really 
is. Professor Livingston Lowes has recently traced, with the 
aid of Coleridge’s notebooks, the origin of practically every 
allusion in ‘The Ancient Mariner,’ and has shown ! that the 
poem consists of a mass of materials gathered from varied sources, 
unified by what we must be content to speak of as ‘ The Creative 
Spirit.’ Just here arise the problems already mentioned. Why, 
of all the available material, is some chosen and other rejected ? 


1 John Livingston Lowes: The Road to Xanadu. The material of this 
work was the subject of a series of lectures, delivered by Professor Livingston 
Lowes at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, in January 1926. 

1 


2 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


Why is the material which is chosen fashioned into one particular 
form, and not another? The solution is not arrived at by 
speaking vaguely of the poet’s ‘ purpose ’: if Coleridge’s purpose 
is to tell a story of sin and penitence, we can only say that the 
same thing has been done by other men in other ways. 

Explanations—not only those of critics, but those of the poets 
themselves—have served in the main merely to obscure the issue. 
Poe lays down as an esthetic canon that the purpose of the 
writer is to produce a vivid single effect; and indeed it may 
be true that he always kept this aim consciously in mind. He 
held, too, that every other consideration should be sacrificed 
to this end. Nevertheless, the problem remains. Poe aimed 
constantly at a particular kind of effect, and generally by the 
use of material of a particular kind, worked out in ways peculiarly 
his own. If any one of the many aspects of Poe’s work has been 
selected for discussion rather than others, it is this deliberate 
choice of subjects which to the majority of people are repellent. 
Poe might have chosen differently, but refused to do so: this 
is the general view of critics, which Stoddard has expressed in 
the couplet :— 


‘He might have soared in the morning light, 
But he built his nest with the birds of night ! ’ 


Poe took pains to prove to his public—though more, as 
Hervey Allen surmises, to prove to himself—that his choice is 
not merely deliberate, but is also right; determined upon only 
after long consideration of alternatives. But, Poe being what 
he was, it would be clear to anyone who knew him sufficiently 
well that in the end his choice would be what it actually was, 
and that the meditation was nothing more than a means of 
justifying his choice to himself. For Poe, the highest beauty 
must present bizarre elements, and he seized with eagerness upon 
a statement of Bacon’s, quoting it over and over again, because 
he found in it a definition of beauty which was merely one to 
which he was already committed. Krutch has realised, with a 
sreat deal of insight, that Poe’s preoccupation with topics which 
are repellent to normal men and women must be correlated with 
the fact that the protagonists of his ideas are inhuman or non- 
human. ‘To Poe’s own contemporaries, there seemed something 
wrong and perverse about his work; something which led them 
to regard it, for reasons by no means clear to any of them, as 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 3 


wmmoral. Hence the legend, for which there was never any 
foundation of fact, that he was a past master in the arts of 
vice, was eagerly seized upon, since it seemed to explain much 
that could not be understood. To such men as Griswold Poe’s 
conversations and writing appeared Satanic, and we must believe 
that the biographer, malignant and unscrupulous as he is in 
many ways, is not the mere cur in the cemetery that Baudelaire 
considered him. Griswold is not perverting his facts from sheer 
malice and envy, but because he believes that he knows things 
truer of Poe than the facts themselves can be. The moral of 
Griswold’s memoir, and of other writings about Poe, is that 
biography cannot safely be entrusted either to the worshippers 
of a shrine which the new prophet violates or to beloved disciples. 
Mrs. Whitman’s angel is Mr. Griswold’s devil. 

The zsthetic problem forces itself upon us in connection with 
the work of Poe even more strongly on account of his own apparent 
attempts to solve it. He wrote an essay on ‘ The Poetic Principle ’ 
in which he attempts to show us the ways in which he achieves 
the effects after which he strives, and another, ‘ The Philosophy 
of Composition, in which, more specifically, he professes to 
detail the whole process of the composition of ‘The Raven.’ 
But, when he wrote these essays, he had already earned a well- 
deserved reputation through his capacity for hoaxing the public. 
‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’ had already been 
accepted for a time, in England at least, as a true account of an 
extraordinary adventure. ‘The Murder in the Rue Morgue’ 
earried with it such an appearance of fact that one writer thought 
it necessary to go to great pains to prove that there was no 
such street in Paris as the ‘Rue Morgue.’ ‘Hans Pfaal’ and 
‘The Great Balloon Hoax’ imposed upon the credulity of the 
public, and there can be little doubt that Poe was pleased by 
the fact. Indeed, the whole question of Poe’s love of hoaxing 
and mystification is a fit subject for detailed consideration, im- 
possible here. What is relevant is that Poe’s notorious talents 
in this field have led a great many people to suppose that his 
- accounts of his aims and methods are merely further attempts to 
impose upon his readers, and to enjoy a laugh at their gullibility. 
The greater number of critics, since Gill, appear to have accepted 
this view, with the result that Poe’s account of how he wrote ‘ The 
Raven’ has been generally discredited. But the larger and more 
important question is that of why Poe feels it necessary to explain 


4 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


how ‘The Raven’ came to be written, and why he chooses to 
explain its composition in any particular way. 

Gill, who is one of Poe’s earliest biographers, puts forward 
a suggestion which deserves attention, not merely for its futility, 
but because it is a particularly naive instance of the kind of 
‘explanation ’ so often given in similar cases. Gill says that 
he feels certain that Poe was merely exercising once more, in 
‘The Philosophy of Composition,’ his capacity for gulling the 
public, and goes on to give his own ‘theory. This is nothing 
more than a statement of the circumstances in which he imagines 
that the poem was written; mistaking, as is so frequently the 
case, the occasion for the cause. 

Whether Poe wrote sincerely or not when he penned his 
account of the writing of ‘The Raven,’ it is clear that he came 
to the poem as his hero Dupin came to the murder of Marie 
Roget or to the crime in the Rue Morgue. He saw something 
which had been effected by a series of events following each 
other, and was compelled to infer these events from their final 
result. But in working at the one as Dupin worked at the 
other, Poe makes an assumption which begs the whole question 
at issue. 

The detective story is, as Poe realised, written backwards. 
The writer begins with a series of events, and passes on logically 
to a conclusion. ‘This conclusion is, for the reader, the beginning 
of the story. The narrator passes back, step by step, from 
conclusion to premises. Apart from satisfactory treatment of 
narrative, all that the reader demands of the author is that 
there shall be a strict logical connection between the series of 
connected events. If we deal with a poem as the detective of 
fiction deals with a crime, we are making the assumption that 
the events which link the genesis of a poem—whatever that may 
be—and the poem itself are logically connected. Indeed, Poe 
found himself compelled, in the course of ‘The Philosophy of 
Composition,’ to assert that this was the case, and that artistic 
composition was, in essence, mathematical in character. The 
poem, Poe assumed and asserted, was wrought deliberately 
throughout, with an end in view. Jf we may believe this, and 
assume that ‘The Raven’ is throughout the result of a process 
of deliberation, then ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ is a 
credible account of the steps by which such deliberation might 
proceed. If, on the other hand, the assumption is wrong, then 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 5 


the essay becomes a mere exercise in logic, valuable for the 
light it throws on the workings of Poe’s mind, but worthless as 
an account of the composition of ‘ The Raven.’ 

Ingram, in his biography of Poe, quotes from a letter written 
by the poet :— 

‘Your objection to the tenkling of the footfalls is far more pointed, 
and in the course of the composition occurred so forcibly to myself 
that I hesitated to use the term. I finally used it, because I saw 
that it had, in its first conception, been suggested to my mind by 
the sense of the supernatural with which it was, at the moment, filled. 
No human or physical foot could tinkle on a soft carpet, therefore 
the tinkling of feet would vividly convey the supernatural impression.’ 


Nowhere in ‘ The Philosophy of Composition ’ is any ‘ sense 
of the supernatural ’ hinted at; nor the spontaneous occurrence 
to mind of appropriate epithets. The student, working at a 
problem in mathematics, or the Chevalier Dupin, accurately 
inferring the inevitable sequence of thoughts in the mind of his 
companion, is not ‘filled with a sense of the supernatural ’ ; 
and the mind of each is working, not freely and spontaneously, 
but under the restraints imposed by the demands of logical 
thought. The admissions contained in the letter quoted by 
Ingram are sufficient evidence of the worthlessness of ‘ The 
Philosophy of Composition’ as an account of the composition 
of ‘The Raven,’ though not necessarily of the accuracy of the 
opinion that the essay is a deliberate hoax on the part of Poe. 

Two sources of material used by Poe in the composition of 
“The Raven’ can be stated with certainty, though neither of 
them is referred to in ‘ The Philosophy of Composition.’ Poe 
had, some time before the poem was written, reviewed both 
Charles Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge and Elizabeth Barrett’s Lady 
Geraldine’s Courtship. It is remarkable, to say the least, that 
though the opening paragraph of ‘ The Philosophy of Composi- 
tion’ mentions Charles Dickens and Barnaby Rudge, there is 
throughout the essay no reference to the raven which was Barnaby’s 
pet. Yet we know, from Poe’s own review of the novel, that 
the introduction of the raven into the story had impressed him 
a great deal, and that he considered Dickens had failed to make 
effective use of the bird. ‘The raven, too,’ he writes, ‘ intensely 
amusing as it is, might have been made, more than we now see 
it, a portion of the conception of the fantastic Barnaby. Its 
croakings might have been prophetically heard in the course of 


6 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


the drama. Its character might have performed, in regard to 
the idiot, much the same part as does, in music, the accompani- 
ment in respect to the air.’ In ‘ The Philosophy of Composition ’ 
Poe writes: ‘The lover, startled from his original nonchalance 
by the melancholy character of the word itself, by its frequent 
repetition, and by a consideration of the ominous reputation 
of the fowl that uttered it, is at length excited to superstition, 
and wildly propounds queries of a far different character— 
queries whose solution he has passionately at heart—propounds 
them half in superstition and half in that species of despair that 
delights in self-torture—propounds them not altogether because 
he believes in the prophetic or demoniac character of the bird 
(which reason assures him is merely repeating a lesson learned 
by rote), but because he experiences a frenzied pleasure in so 
modelling his questions as to receive from the expected “‘ Never- 
more ”’ the most delicious because the most intolerable of sorrow.’ 

In ‘ The Raven’ we have the bird performing, in respect to 
the musings of the bereaved lover, much the same part as does, 
in music, the accompaniment in respect to the air. But this 
was, for Poe, precisely the role the raven should take in a drama : 
Poe saw the raven performing this particular part years before 
a line of ‘The Raven’ was written. 

Some reference might here be made, once more, to Gill’s 
theory of the origin of “ The Raven,’ which Graham had no doubt 
was ‘in the main correct.’1 Gill points out that, just before 
the appearance of the poem, Virginia Poe was prostrated by a 
serious illness, in the course of which animation was apparently 
entirely suspended, and she lay ‘ cold and breathless, apparently 
dead.’ He suggests that Poe, overcome by sorrow and remorse, 
picturing his wife as dead, felt that he had no hope of meeting 
her in the distant Aidenn of the future. Apart from the many 
assumptions, for which there is little or no evidence, necessitated 
by this hypothesis, we must realise that we have here, not an 
explanation of the composition of ‘The Raven,’ but merely an 
account of the circumstances in which it might have been com- 
posed. Already, as we have seen, the raven and the part it must 
play in any drama is in Poe’s mind. Again, Poe’s conception 
of the poem is very different from Gill’s, for he asserts in the 
course of a controversy with ‘ Outis ’ (published under the title 


1Gill: Life of Edgar A. Poe (London: Chatto & Windus, 1878), 
p. 140. 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 7 


of ‘ Mr. Longfellow and other Plagiarists ’) that * the lover lives 
triumphantly in the expectation of meeting his Lenore in Aidenn,’ 
and goes on to state that the raven is merely the allegorical 
emblem of Mournful Remembrance, out of whose shadow the 
poet is ‘lifted nevermore. We must not, however, rely too 
much on what Poe wrote in the course of controversy for the 
rebuttal of what Gill says, since ‘Mr. Longfellow and other 
Plagiarists ’ is a piece of special pleading, and since, like ‘ The 
Philosophy of Composition,’ it was written some time after the 
poem ; being merely another attempt to give a rational account 
of the stages of a process which was possibly, in the first instance, 
non-rational in character. The actual rebuttal of Gill must be 
made out from the poem itself, which is perhaps the only authentic 
document we possess from which we may learn anything of the 
actual facts of its composition. 

Before passing to the account of the composition of ‘ The 
Raven’ which Poe gives in the body of the poem itself, some 
reference should be made to Poe’s review of Lady Geraldine’s 
Courtship, by Elizabeth Barrett, who is referred to as the author 
of The Seraphim and other poems. Ingram mentions that 
Buchanan Read, in conversation with Robert Browning, asserted 
that Poe had told him that the suggestion of ‘ The Raven ’ arose 
from a line of Miss Barrett’s poem :— 


‘With a murmurous stir uncertain, in the air the purple curtain .. . 


and certainly there is a close resemblance between this line and 
the first portion of the third stanza of ‘The Raven ’ :— 


“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain 
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before ’ 


—and this resemblance is something more than a mere similarity 
of form. Poe had already pictured heavily curtained rooms, 
and had dealt with curtains in ways which showed clearly that 
they had for him some deep significance. In ‘ Ligeia,’ for instance, 
the bridal chamber is hung with heavy figured curtains, which 
move slowly to and fro as currents of air strike them. In ‘ The 
Conqueror Worm’ the heavy curtain, which falls as the cosmic 
drama ends, is a ‘ funeral pall.’ In‘ The Philosophy of Furniture ’ 
Poe pays great attention to the curtains which he regards as an 
important part of the decoration of the ideal room: they are 
to be of crimson velvet, and the details of their suspension and 


8 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


looping are given at some length. More instances might be 
given, but there is little point in over-elaborating the proof that 
Poe had already found curtains significant, and had used them 
in order to achieve the effects at which he aimed, long before 
he read Lady Geraldine’s Courtship. He had realised that for 
him the raven possessed peculiar significance before he came to 
write “The Raven ’—perhaps, though there is apparently no 
evidence of this, before he read a word of Barnaby Rudge. Before 
he wrote ‘The Philosophy of Furniture’ he had written * The 
Assignation,’ ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ and The Fall of 
the House of Usher, in all of which he details bizarre rooms in 
which his heroes, strange projections of himself, appropriately 
live and meditate. In ‘The Raven,’ then, he brings together 
into a new synthesis things which already possess significance 
—a raven, a room, and curtains. Indeed, he does much more 
than this—but this at least he does. The effecting of this new 
synthesis is the creative act, or, perhaps more correctly, a stage 
of the creative act. Is it possible to describe it in greater detail ? 
Poe has made attempts, sincere or otherwise, to explain the 
genesis of ‘The Raven.’ One, at least, of his critics has made 
an attempt to give a different account. But there is, in addition 
to these, a further statement by Poe himself in the body of 
‘The Raven.’ The first part of the twelfth stanza runs :— 


‘Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking 
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore— 
What this grim, ungainly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore 

Meant in croaking “ Nevermore.” ’ 


‘Linking fancy unto fancy, thinking . . .’ would be difficult 
to better as a description of reverie, day-dreaming, or ‘* un- 
directed thinking.’ We know that Poe was given to reveries, 
and there is reason to believe that in passive mental processes 
his stories and poems were incubated, however much they may 
have been worked over subsequently. However, though Poe 
tells us explicitly, in ‘The Raven,’ the reveries played a part 
in the poem’s composition, we are not justified in immediately 
accepting this statement to the exclusion of the accounts he 
gives us elsewhere. In some way or other the matter must be 
put to the only test we are able to apply—Which of all the 
contrasting theories of the composition of ‘The Raven’ can be 
supported by the evidence of the poem itself ? 


THE COMPOSITION OF *‘THE RAVEN’ 9 


Poe reaches the end of the first half of ‘ The Philosophy of 
Composition ’ before he has arrived at the conclusion that the 
topic of the poem he proposes to write shall be the death of a 
beautiful woman—‘ the death, then, of a beautiful woman is 
unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally 
is 1t beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are 
those of a bereaved lover.’ It is astonishing, to say the least, 
that the man who had already written ‘The Sleeper,’ ! ‘ The 
Assignation,’ ‘ Berenice,’ “ Morella,’ ‘ Eleonora,’ ‘ Ligeia,’ and 
‘The Oval Portrait,’ had nevertheless to assure himself by a 
long process of dialectics that ‘ the death of a beautiful woman ’ 
is the most suitable topic for his proposed poem. In truth the 
topic was already chosen, and Poe’s argument, apparently so 
rigorously logical, is nothing more than a circuitous route to a 
goal decided upon in advance. Poe follows, indeed, though 
perhaps all unwittingly, that method of Godwin’s to which he 
refers in the opening paragraph of ‘ The Philosophy of Composi- 
tion — he first involved his hero in a web of difficulties, forming 
the second volume, and then, for the first, cast about him for 
some mode of accounting for what had been done.’ Paraphrasing 
this somewhat, we may say that Poe, finding himself involved 
in a web of preoccupations about beautiful dead women, cast 
about him for some means of accounting for the ways in which 
he had arrived at them. The preoccupation had to be esthetic- 
ally and logically justified. 

The * beautiful, dead woman’ is mentioned for the first time 
in ‘ The Raven,’ in the second stanza, when Poe speaks of * sorrow 
for the lost Lenore.’ In the fifth stanza, too, he describes him- 
self as whispering the word ‘ Lenore’ and hearing it repeated as 
an echo in the silent room. But in these five stanzas, as in 
others which follow, there is no hint of the process described as 
‘linking fancy unto fancy.’ Rather, this section of the poem 
is the careful and deliberate, detailed description of the stage 
upon which the drama will presently unfold itself . . . and this 
_ drama is the confrontation of the poet with the raven. ‘The first 
eleven stanzas deal with the setting of the stage: the drama 
proper begins with the twelfth. Before the twelfth stanza, that 
is to say, everything is prologue, a necessary introduction for 
the uninformed reader, and in all probability this prologue was 
not written till the greater part of the remainder had at least 

1 First published as ‘ Irene.’ 


10 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


been drafted. Poe’s own assertion is that the fifteenth stanza 
was the first he actually penned, and, though we cannot alto- 
gether trust his accounts of his life and work, it is nevertheless 
remarkable that his own assertion should agree so nearly with 
a conclusion reached by a train of argument entirely different 
from that. presented in ‘ The Philosophy of Composition.’ 

The situation with which Poe deals is one which is not 
unfamiliar to readers of his work. Roderick Usher ! spends his 
days in a room which is similar in essentials to the room in 
which Poe’s heroes meditate ; interesting himself in the rituals 
of forgotten churches and in books whose names are incantations, 
but held all the time by a nameless fear. Aigeus,? too, abandons 
himself to reveries in a room of the same kind, haunted by 
mental states which he endeavours to analyse and understand. 
And in each case, seen—as a vision rather than a living person 
—in the background, is the beautiful woman who is to die: 
Madeline or Berenice. ; 

What distinguished ‘ The Raven’ from The Fall of the House 
of Usher and ‘ Berenice’ is precisely—the Raven. The fear in 
the one instance and the vague horror of the other have in the 
poem given way to an actual concrete object—the ominous 
bird. And thus we see why it was that Barnaby Rudge appealed 
so strongly and immediately to Poe, why it was that the idiot 
boy’s bird held his attention from the start. It visibly embodied 
something he had known and felt—making sharp and clear 
what had hitherto been vague. Yet it missed something: it 
should have been, Poe felt, more fearful, prophesying the inevi- 
table. Its croakings should through repetition have become 
more and more convincing, their meaning more and more definite 
—as the white hairs on the breast of the black cat * shaped them- 
selves into the form of a gallows. The raven, too, as a feeder — 
on carrion, is naturally associated with death, and this association 
is far more satisfactory than that which Poe has to establish in 
the story between the dead woman and the cat, by means of an 
event which strains a reader’s credulity. Poe, indeed, as has 
already been noted, stated in the course of controversy that the 
bird symbolised for him ‘ Mournful Remembrance.’ ... It is 
far more likely that though he appreciated its real significance, 
in so far as he was profoundly thrilled and moved by it, he did 


1See The Fall of the House of Usher. 2 See ‘ Berenice.’ 
3) the Black Cate 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 1 


not know what moved him or why he was stirred: had he known, 
and had he been able to express his knowledge in any other 
way, he would have been under no compulsion to write ‘ The 
Raven. Part, at least, of the problem of the poem’s genesis 
lies in the question of the real significance of the raven for Edgar 
Allan Poe. 

The drama really begins in the twelfth stanza of ‘ The Raven.’ 
The bird has entered the room, and perched himself on the bust 
of Pallas over the door. The lover has ‘ wheeled a cushioned 
seat in front of bird and bust and door,’ and sits, whilst the 
fiery eyes of the bird burn in his * bosom’s core “—trying to 
divine the riddle of the bird itself and its enigmatic utterance. 


‘This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining 
On the cushion’s velvet lining, that the lamplight gloated o’er, 
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o’er, 

She shall press, ah, nevermore ! ’ 


The collocation of ‘ violet’ and ‘ velvet’ is not peculiar to 
‘The Raven.’ It should be noted here that for Poe colours 
appear to have a great deal of meaning: evidence of this is to 
be found scattered through all his work, though especially in 
“The Philosophy of Furniture’ and ‘The Masque of the Red 
Death.’ In the latter story ‘violet’ and ‘ velvet’ have been 
brought together with some effect. The violet room is the last 
but one of the series of fantastic halls in which Prince Prospero 
entertained his guests, and serves as the sole entrance to the 
room—the black room—in which the final catastrophe occurs. 
Poe dwells upon the bizarre décor of the black room, hung with 
black velvet: he speaks of its sable tapestries, its booming 
clock of ebony. Once he refers to it as ‘ the hall of the velvet.’ 
In the climax of ‘ The Masque of the Red Death’ he speaks of 
the hurried passage of the two, the guest and the prince, from 
the ‘violet’ to the ‘velvet’ apartment ...to the room in 
which Death, brought to bay, kills Prospero. 

There is mention of the colour ‘ violet ’ in another connection 
in some of Poe’s earlier work. In a preface to ‘ Al Araaf,’ pub- 
lished in 1831, but omitted from later editions, the lines occur :— 


. 
6 


. . . dreamy gardens, where do lie 

Dreamy maidens, all the day ; 

While the silver winds of Circassy 

On violet couches faint away.’ 

-A.S—=VOL. XII. B 


12 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


The invocation to Ligeia, in the maiden’s song in ‘ Al Araaf,’ 
contains the lines :-— 


‘ Arise! from your dreaming 
In violet bowers, 

To duty beseeming 
These star-litten hours.’ 


Thus, in poems written fourteen or more years earlier than the 
composition of “The Raven,’ Poe had given to ‘ violet ’ a signifi- 
eance which linked the colour to maidens reclining—to women, 
to sleep, and to dreaming. In the twelfth stanza of ‘ The Raven,’ 
then, the sudden transition from the ‘ velvet violet ’ to thoughts 
of the dead Lenore is not so abrupt as it may seem in the first 
instance. The ‘fancy unto fancy linking’ is but the revival of 
trains of associated thoughts, linked together through past 
experience. 

The poem ‘ Lenore’ was published in 1844—earlier, that is 
to say, than ‘The Raven.’ In it appear the lines, describing 
the appearance of a dead woman :— 


‘,.. her, the fair and débonnaire, that now so lowly lies, 
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes— 
The life still there, upon her hair—the death upon her eyes.’ 


The collocation of ‘ debonair’ with ‘fair’ appears in Milton’s 
‘L’Allegro.’ Though there appears to be no specific mention of 
this poem in any of Poe’s essays, we know that Poe had read 
Milton closely and carefully, and much preferred the shorter 
works to the great epics: he suggests somewhere that Milton 
himself probably thought more of ‘Comus’ than of ‘ Paradise 
Lost.’ It is in the highest degree unlikely that he did not know 
‘L’Allegro’ well, or that he was not familiar with the well- 
known lines :— 2 

‘Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 

As he met her once a-maying ; 

There, on beds of violets blue, 

And fresh-blown roses washed with dew, 

Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 

So buxom, blithe and debonair.’ 


In this single passage are linked together, not merely ‘ debonair ’ 
and ‘ fair ’—epithets which, for Poe, stand for the ‘ lost Lenore ’ 
—but ‘ violets ’ also. 

We have already, then, it seems, found a starting-point— 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 13 


conjectural but reasonably probable—from which the linking 
of fancies might proceed. We can indicate ways in which Poe’s 
thought may have proceeded, and establish the probability that 
it really did proceed in this way by showing that it had formerly 
traversed such paths. If the chains of thought took their origin 
in Poe’s musings over the raven, the principal links in the chain 
would be :— Black—velvet—violet—the dead Lenore’ ...a 
sequence which is not likely to surprise anyone who has familiar- 
ised himself with the general character of the trains of thought 
which go to make up undirected thinking.! 

The mention of * black—velvet—violet ’ together suggests at 
once in the strongest possible manner the most usual association 
of velvet with these sombre colourings—that is to say, in funeral 
trappings. Let us remember that Poe has already given evidence 
of his interest in curtains, that in ‘The Masque of the Red 
Death’ he has already made much of black velvet curtains, 
and that in ‘ The Conqueror Worm ’ the great curtain that hangs 
in front of the stage proves at the end to be a funeral pall. This 
itself is a striking association, and at once prompts the question 
as to what type of experience may lead a man to link together 
objects so apparently different—curtains and palls—so that these 
two may be thought of together. True, a link may be found 
in the fact that the two are made of similar material. But in 
the case of Poe, something further existed. 

He was, as is fairly well known, the second child of his parents, 
who were travelling actors. The first child was sent, soon after 
his birth, to relatives at Baltimore, where he remained, so that 
Edgar Allan Poe never saw his brother till the two were youths. 
But Mrs. Poe declined to part with the second child, and it seems 
certain that he was taken to the theatre with her, and left in 
the care of someone whilst she was actually on the stage. The 
vague, colossal images of ‘The Conqueror Worm’ are entirely 
in agreement with the view that as a tiny child, a mere baby, 
Poe was familiar with the appearance of a stage as seen from 
the wings. There he saw the ‘vast forms that moved the 
scenery to and fro,’ and was impressed by the manner in which 
the curtain fell ‘ with the rush of a storm.’ The death of his 


1 The character of undirected thinking has been discussed in a number 
of places by Jung. An extremely detailed account of the ‘ chains’ and 
their relation to his own reveries is given by Varendonck in The Psychology 
of the Daydream. 


14 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


mother, too, occurred when he was still a tiny child: not long 
before his third birthday—and this occasion was, in all proba- 
bility, his first contact with palls. The pall and the curtain, 
then, are two immediate and close associations, forged in early 
infancy, with the dead actress, his mother. Some of the infant’s 
impressions and memories go to the making up of the picture 
of ‘ Ligeia ’“—whose image, in all probability, led to his approval 
of Bacon’s dictum, ‘ There is no exquisite beauty without some 
strangeness in the proportion.’ 4 

In ‘ The Raven ’ the mention of the ‘ Lost Lenore ’ is followed 
by a transition, astonishingly abrupt, to other imagery so 
extraordinary in its character that, as we have already seen, at 
least one correspondent challenged the fitness of the language. 
It does not, on the surface, seem to grow out of what has preceded 
it, nor indeed to be related to it in any way whatsoever. 


“Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen 
censer 
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.’ 


It is possible to trace out the associations to the majority of 
the allusions here in other works of Poe. Perhaps, however, in 
order not to make the argument wearisome, it will be sufficient 
to deal with the significance of a few only. Already, as we 
have seen, the previous stanza has forced on our attention the 
links existing in Poe’s mind between curtains and the colour 
violet. Poe had already admitted to a friend that some part 
of the genesis of ‘ The Raven ’ was due to a line in Lady Geraldine’s 
Courtship, a work which he had reviewed shortly before as a 
work by ‘ Elizabeth Barrett, author of The Seraphim and other 
Poems. He had written, years earlier, of the beauty of Eleonora 
—the beauty of the seraphim: the image was one with which 
he was familiar, the seraphim standing, that is to say, for the 
‘beautiful dead woman.’ What is equally important for our 
purpose is that Lady Geraldine’s Courtship contains a reference 
to ‘ Bells and Pomegranates,’ published a little earlier by Robert 
Browning. Poe thought highly of the Brownings, and Gill 
quotes a visitor to the Poes’ home as noticing that their work 


1 Quoted by Poe in ‘ Ligeia,’ as well as in other places. An examination 
of the portrait of Mrs. Poe makes it evident that the ‘ strangeness in the 
proportion ’ which Poe attributes to ‘ Ligeia’ was to be found also in 
his mother. 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 15 


was given a place of honour on a small pedestal, whilst the works 
of other poets were grouped together on the bookshelves. 

Bells and pomegranates were the ornaments of the robe of 
the priest of Israel, which he wore when he went into the Holy 
of Holies, in which was the mercy-seat over which the seraphim 
hovered. ‘A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and 
a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. And 
it shall be upon Aaron to minister ; and his sound shall be heard 
when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when 
he cometh out, that he die not.’ ! 

The poem, now generally known as ‘To One in Paradise,’ 
which was first published in 1835 as part of the tale * The 
Visionary ’ (later re-titled ‘ The Assignation ’) and again repub- 
lished separately as ‘To Ianthe in Heaven,’ opens thus :— 


‘Thou wert that all to me, love, 
For which my soul did pine: 
A green isle in the sea, love, 
A fountain and a shrine’ 


and the use of this word (not italicised in the original) recalls 
at once the passage in ‘ Ligeia’: ‘ When Ligeia’s beauty passed 
into my spirit, there dwelling as in a shrine, I derived from 
many existences in the material world, a sentiment such as I 
always felt around, within me, by her large and luminous orbs. 
Something of this feeling Poe perhaps owed to the fact that he 
did reproduce in himself, to some extent, the ° strange propor- 
tion ’ of his mother’s features—the lofty forehead and the large 
and brilliant eyes. But there is something of significance in the 
early title of this poem. Walter Savage Landor, regarding the 
name ‘ Jane’ as hardly suited to romantic poetry, had borrowed 
from Ovid the name ‘ Ianthe’ as a substitute, being the first 
English poet to use it, and had expressed considerable annoy- 
ance when Byron borrowed it from him. Poe had perhaps 
borrowed the name from Byron, or even directly from Landor, 
with whose work we may suppose him to have been acquainted. 
We know that Poe, disliking Mrs. Stanard’s name, Jane, had 
preferred to write of her as ‘ Helen’: in Landor’s or Byron’s 
_ work he found another substitute ready to hand. And thus 
we have the idea of the shrine—the Holy of Holies—the sanctuary 
—linked to Ligeia, his mother, and also to Mrs. Stanard, the 


1 Exodus xxviii. vv. 34-35 (A.V.). 


16 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


beautiful woman who was the mother-substitute and romantic 
love of his adolescence, whose tragic sudden death was so great 
a blow to him: who was his ‘ Helen’ and his ‘ Irene.’ 

There emerges thus a mass of material which gives significance 
and meaning to Poe’s verse. The room in which he confronts 
the raven assumes at once the character of the place in which 
the poet lives, and of a shrine as well. It becomes a holy of 
holies. And if rooms, in which a poet is to live and muse, are 
sanctuaries of the dead, we can understand something at least 
of the significance Poe attached to furnishings, since these must 
possess, not merely the meaning they have for ordinary people, 
but a symbolical one as well. The room of the visionary ? is 
one from which daylight is excluded: it is illumined by flaming 
censers, and its principal object is the heavily curtained portrait 
of the Marchesa Aphrodite. Roderick Usher’s room is one in 
which he may read the services for the dead from the altar-books 
of a forgotten church. The room described in ‘ The Philosophy 
of Furniture’ contains ‘a tall candelabrum, bearing a small 
antique lamp with highly perfumed oil. The ‘tufted floor’ 
of the room of ‘The Raven’ is foreshadowed by ‘ the carpet— 
of Saxony material—quite half an inch thick.’ For pictures for 
such a room Poe suggests ‘ chiefly landscapes of an imaginative 
cast—such as the fairy grottoes of Stanfield or the Lake of the 
Dismal Swamp of Chapman. There are, nevertheless, three or 
four female heads, of an ethereal beauty—portraits in the manner 
of Sully.’ In this picture is irresistibly suggested the linking of 
‘Psyche’ with the ‘region of Weir’ in ‘ Ulalume,’ the poem 
which Krutch surmises contains the whole secret of Poe ! 

The passage from the ‘ violet velvet ’ to the * unseen censer, 
swung by seraphim ’ might seem at first to imply the transition 
from the place where the woman reclines and lives to the place 
where she lives in death—to the world, that is to say, beyond 
death. The study of this hidden world Poe termed * metaphysics.’ 
Poe’s intense absorption in this world directed many of his 
activities and his thoughts. It explains the inspiration for ‘ The 
Assignation ’ which he found in the lines he twice quotes from 
Henry King’s ‘ Exequy ’; and the fascination for him of stories 
of those who recover from death-like trances or come living 
from tombs, since these have lived through experiences he 
passionately wishes to understand. It explains, too, something 

1 The Assignation.’ 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ ig 


of the underlying motive of those detective stories in which 
Dupin sets out to learn through ratiocination what has happened 
to dead women ; of the romances of hypnotism in which men, 
already dead, are interrogated ; or the dialogues in which shades, 
meeting in the underworld, speak of their experiences of dying 
and entombment. For all that dealt with death and the dead 
Poe had an intense and absorbing interest, shrinking from no 
detail: and some of his stories are, in part at least, an attempt 
to reconcile his intense love of beauty with interests which 
appear repellent to normal men and women. 

Yet, though Poe is so strongly attracted by the experiences 
of the dead, there is no record of any attempt at self-destruction. 
On one occasion, indeed, towards the very end of his life, a 
friend expressed the fear that Poe meditated suicide, at a time 
when he was undoubtedly temporarily insane. But, in imagina- 
tion, he died and was reunited with the dead. Death—like 
darkness—had very real terrors for Poe; and it may plausibly 
be argued that his intense desire to know every detail connected 
with it is an indication of the fact that it meant much more for 
him than for the majority of men and women. Yet, on occasion, 
he braved his very real terrors and spent some of the hours of 
darkness at the graves of Mrs. Stanard and Virginia. Towards 
the very end of his life, when he was happy in the mothering 
companionship of Annie Richmond, he was able to write of his 
own death without any feelings of terror or horror :— 

‘Thank Heaven! the crisis— 
The danger is past, 

And the lingering illness 
Is over at last— 

And the fever called “ Living ” 
Is conquered at last.’ 1 


We return to the word * tinkling,’ which seemed so inappro- 
priate to Poe’s correspondent, but to the poet—for reasons 
which, as he states them, seem inadequate—peculiarly fitting. 
The high priest of Israel passed into the Holy of Holies, the 
perilous place into which no other man might enter without 
meeting death: even the high priest himself could enter only 
on certain specified occasions and after proper precautionary 
ritual preparation. His emergence from the sanctuary, as a 
sign that the offerings had been accepted, was awaited eagerly 


1*To Annie.’ 


18 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


by the crowd without, who had no other assurance that the 
priest was living and offering the sacrifice, except the tunkling 
sound of the bells wpon his garment. In this fact is to be found 
the reason why, for Poe, the word ‘ tinkling ’ was so satisfactory. 
The ground of its peculiar fitness is not to be found in esthetic 
or rational considerations . . . but in the fact that it implies 
his reunion with the dead woman whilst he lives. 

It is not possible, in a single paper of this kind, to establish 
securely the fact that the ‘ beautiful dead woman,’ whose beauty 
was marked by ‘ strangeness in the proportion ’ was not Virginia 
Poe—as Gill surmised. Nor is the ‘ Lost Lenore’ either Mary 
Devereux, as Mordell insists, or Elmira Royster, as certain 
evidence goes to suggest. There are two women, who are con- 
trasted with each other in ‘ Ligeia,’ who are the archetypes of 
all the women of whom Poe writes: and, if his creations do 
not live, it is largely because these women never lived in his 
adult experience. His knowledge of them belongs to a body of 
infant memories, so that they are moving and speaking shapes, 
rather than persons; and his preoccupation with them is the 
expression of a mental set, wholly or partly unconscious, which 
may conveniently be termed ‘a wish for a return to the past.’ 
It is possible to regard this as a wish for a rebirth, as a desire 
for a return to infancy. In this connection it is interesting that 
Poe locates the reunion with the dead woman in ‘ Aidenn,’ rather 
than in Heaven or Paradise. 

It is a comparatively easy matter to show that a great deal 
of Poe’s life followed this pattern. It is very difficult to believe 
that a man so gifted had not the intellectual capacity to take 
‘care of his own affairs, or the very limited measure of ability 
which is needed for a moderately successful conduct of practical 
life—but the fact remains that he did not look after such matters. 
His career in the army, his success for brief periods as an editor, 
appear to be proof that he could and did conduct life with success 
—but it must be remembered that in the one case the institution 
removed from him a burden of responsibility and initiative which 
the civilian has to shoulder for himself, and in the other case, 
Mrs. Clemm, his wife’s mother, did exactly the same thing for 
him. Further evidence is to be found in the letters of appeal 
for assistance, and in the stories of his extraordinary ‘love’ 
affairs. It is very clear, from the letters which survive, and 
from the narratives of the women themselves, that the relation 


THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 19 


which Poe sought to establish was never a ‘romantic’ one, 
except in that extraordinary sense in which the relation between 
Ligeia and her lover was romantic. 

The circumstances of Poe’s life made harder for him than 
for most men any sort of successful adaptation to the life of his 
time. He had not been prepared by his early training to fight 
his way in the world, nor to be content with the kind of success 
that results from application to a profession or to business. 
“The desire for a return to infancy’ expresses the dislike for 
routine and application and struggle: it is a strategical retreat, 
which is very well symbolised by the retirement of the hero to 
a room which is a world out of the world. At the same time, 
we have his own admission that he wishes to stand at the highest 
pinnacle of the world’s opinion. The writing of poetry was, in 
his case, a compromise, enabling him to live within a world of 
his own creation and to make a bid for fame. 

The genesis of ‘ The Raven ’ is, then, to be discovered in the 
probably unwitting desire to return to infancy. The room 
itself, which is depicted in the poem, is at the same time the 
retreat from the world of the present, and also the womb and 
tomb sanctuary, the unknown world of ‘ metaphysics ’ whose 
gates are life and death. But to enter this world by either gate 
is to surrender the ego. Towards death or rebirth, then, there 
is the ambivalent attitude: it is desired, as the consummation 
of the reunion with the ‘ beautiful dead woman,’ and dreaded, 
since it means the surrender of the highly-valued ego. Con- 
comitant with the conflict of motives, with desire and dread, 
is the emotional state which Poe variously describes as terror, 
horror, or fear. 

The compromise between the desire for reunion with the 
beautiful dead woman and for ego-preservation found expression 
in other poems. One example may be quoted :— 


‘And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side 
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, 
In her sepulchre there by the sea.’ 


The cry of the bird ‘ Nevermore ! ’ is thus seen as an assurance 
of the preservation of the ego. The raven sits over the door, 
on the bust of Pallas Athene,! symbolically barring egress from 


11t is worth noting, in passing, how many of the attributes of Ligeia 
are those of Pallas Athene, rather than of Aphrodite ! 


20 THE COMPOSITION OF ‘THE RAVEN’ 


the room. The impression gained on reading the poem is that 
the bird’s utterance is final, nevertheless, Poe himself declared, 
in the essay entitled ‘Mr. Longfellow and other Plagiarists,’ 
that the lover lives trruamphantly on, assured of his reunion with 
the beloved Lenore in Aidenn. Im all probability, then, Poe 
really did, through writing ‘ The Raven,’ obtain some satisfaction, 
even if only a passing one, in the resolution of a mental conflict. 
A brief essay of this kind, it is evident, can deal with only 
a few of the principal considerations which arise out of the 
poem’s genesis. It can show, in the case of a few elements only, 
some part of the evidence which makes us believe that every 
element of a poem is rigorously determined; that nothing is 
haphazard, but is as it is because it could not be otherwise. It 
can deal with a small part only of the evidence which leads us 
to believe that the work of art is a particular type of compromise, 
arising from the effort to reconcile by means of a single synthesis 
the apparently. incompatible elements of an inner conflict : 
perhaps, too, that the artist is a particular type of man. 


GEORGE H. GREEN. 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 
A STUDY IN CELTIC FOLK-LORE 


Ir is intended in this short study to bring together the facts 
concerning the Celtic parallels to the familiar Midas-legend, and 
examine what relation they may have to primitive Celtic religion. 
In the study of primitive religion generally very great help has 
been obtained by the examination of folk-lore survivals. This 
line of approach to the problems of early beliefs has often 
served to correct the frequently fanciful conclusions of the solar 
mythologists, especially in the case of the primitive religion 
of the Indo-European family of peoples. This mythological 
theorising did a good deal of solid pioneer work in describing 
and comparing the great gods and goddesses of the various 
branches of the family. But it was a method that was too facile, 
and, largely based as it was on the often premature results of 
comparative philology, it concerned itself too much with verbal 
analogies. It was often remote from any consideration of facts 
of cult and belief. 

The sun-myth, with its various derivatives, seems to have 
had its main motive in the interpretation of the theology of the 
Vedic hymns. But all the religious conceptions found in these 
hymns are by no means primitive. They have all the appear- 
ance of priestly elaboration, whether by way of allegory or of a 
deliberate and almost poetic personification of the powers of 
nature. Here and there can be seen vestiges of cruder beliefs, 
and not all the Vedas have the same lofty conceptions as the 
Rigveda. Clearly, the same methods of interpretation will not 
apply to all tales told about the gods of other Indo-Europeans, 
even though the divine names appear to be philologically related. 
Besides, mythology is seldom handed down to us in its pristine 
purity. It tends to become mixed with legend or quasi-history. 
In this process gods and goddesses become more human, especially 
among certain European peoples. It thus often becomes difficult 
to know whether we are dealing with humanised gods or with 

21 


22 MARCH AP MEIRCHION 


the romantic exaggerations of the characters of men. The 
motive is no longer a hymn of praise or explanation of belief 
and cult. It is the desire to glorify traditional history by legend, 
or even to satisfy the story-loving nature of man. The mytho- 
peice faculty of man is devious and obscure in its workings. ‘To 
regard every hero in early legends, therefore, as a vague power 
of light, and every villain, whether human or monster, as a 
representative of the powers of darkness, is to lose sight of the 
complexity of the strands which go into the making of their fabric. 

It was the theory of the brothers Grimm and others that.. 
the class of folk-tales defined by the expressive German term 
Médrchen was directly derived from mythology. This theory is 
now no longer generally accepted. Mdrchen are held to be of 
independent origin, in many instances as old as the myths. 
themselves. Where, as often happens, plots or episodes char- 
acteristic of JM/drchen are found in mythology, that is due to a 
later mixing up of elements from two types of tales originally 
distinct. But this does not prevent the elements from being: 
isolated by analysis, and the mythological element is all the 
more apparent where it can be correlated with traces of a one- 
time religious belief surviving in folk-lore. 

Motifs borrowed from Mdrchen have in some episodes influ- 
enced the legend of Midas. But this influence is very faint, and 
obvious analogies to stock incidents of other tales are not easy 
to find. The story of how Midas came by his ass’s ears is Greek 
mythology. Other versions of the story, including the Celtic, 
are not concerned with this. There is a faint resemblance to 
the barber unable to keep a secret in Grimm’s story Die Gén- 
semagd.2 The mistress who has been forced by the faithless 
maid to swear not to reveal a secret, tells it to a stove, while 
the king listens at the stove-pipe. Elsewhere a stone is made 
the repository of a secret.2 The ‘ golden touch’ of Midas is, 
perhaps, a motif similar to that of such ‘ wishing-stories’ as 
those of Der Arme und der Reiche* and Hans Dumm.® Finally, 


1 Bolte und Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder-u. Hausmdrchen der 
Briider Grimm, IV, p. 166. 

2 Grimm, No. 89; Bolte und Polivka, op. cit., II, p. 274; H. J. Rose, 
Greek Mythology, p. 292. 

3 Bolte und Polivka, II, p. 276. 

4 Grimm, No. 87 ; Bolte und Polivka, II, p. 213; Rose, op. cit., p. 299. 

° Grimm, No. 54.4; Bolte und Polivka, II, p- 212; cf. Benfey, Pan- 
catantra, I, p. 497, and Bédier, Les Fabliaux (1895), pp. 212-28. 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 28 


Grimm’s story, Der Hisenhans, is a good parallel to the story of 
Midas catching Seilenos by mixing wine with the water of the 
spring from which that prophetic being used to drink, and so 
intoxicating him into a helpless condition. 

But the main characteristic of Midas, his having the ears 
of an ass, is prior to and independent of these Mdrchen motifs. 
Such a figure must be considered as more than human, and the 
explanation of it must be sought by way of mythology or primi- 
tive religion. Stories similar to that of Midas are widespread. 
Parallel versions are found in Celtic lands, in modern Greece, 
in India, and as far as Mongolia, while in Armenia a similar 
story seems to have attached itself to the legend of Alexander 
the Great, who in the Nearer Hast became traditionally known 
as Dhul Qarnain, ‘ He of the Two Horns.’ ? 

The Welsh version * is located at Castellmarch in the Lleyn 
peninsula. March ap Meirchion, the lord of the castle, and one 
of Arthur’s knights, according to a tradition maintained up 
to quite recent times had the ears of a horse. To prevent this 
fact from becoming known he used to have all the barbers who 
shaved him put to death. Over their burial-place reeds sprang 
up. Some of these were used by a shepherd to make a pipe, 
which, when played upon, sang out the secret of the king’s ears. 

A similar tale concerning the Cornish King Mark is suggested 
by Malory’s reference to ‘ the lay that sire Dynadan made Kynge 
Marke | the whiche was the werste lay that ever harper sange 
with harpe or with any other Instrumentys.’4 The earliest 
reference to Mark is in the ninth-century life of St. Paul of Léon 
in Brittany, where there is a story of Mark’s conversion by the 
saint.” The place-names in this part of the life are Welsh and 
Cornish, while the alternative name for Mark, Quonomorius, 
recalls the Cunomorus of a sixth-century Cornish inscription— 


cee ie (act «Cunomor(y) jlous. It Drus is for 

1Grimm, No. 136; Bolte und Polivka, III, p. 106; Rose, op. cit., p. 290. 

2 Revue de Vhistoire de religion, xliii, p. 346. 

3For the Welsh version, see Sir John Rhys, Y Cymmrodor, VI, pp. 
181—3, quoting the Brython (1860), p. 4381; Penarth MS., 134, p. 131 
(National Library of Wales), where the story is appended to the genealogy 
of larddur ap Egri ap Morien ap Mynaec ap March ap Meirchion. 

4 Morte d’ Arthur, x, 27. 

>The Vita Sancti Pauli is published by C. Cuissard in Revue Celtique, 
V, pp. 413ff. 

6 Hiibner, Inscriptiones Britanniae Christianae, pp. 7-8. Rhys, Lec- 
tures on Welsh Philology p. 403. 


24 MARCH AP MEIRCHION 


Drusitagnos, i.e. Tristan, the inscription would bear out a triad 4 
in which Tristan is the son and not the nephew of Mark.2 It 
is Lot’s opinion that Mark was a mythological being super- 
imposed on an historical personage of the name of Quonomorius.® 

In Brittany there was a legend current at the end of the 
eighteenth century about a King of Portzmare’h. This king 
had horse’s ears, and he killed all his barbers in order to safe- 
guard his secret. A friend of his, discovering the fact and not 
being able to keep it to himself, whispered it at the banks of a 
stream. In time reeds grew up there, and these were made by 
some bards into a musical instrument, and, as usual, the king’s 
secret was revealed.+ 

Another Breton version is located on a small island named 
Karn, near Portzall, where there dwelt a chieftain all by himself. 
Barbers were periodically taken out from the mainland to shave 
him, but none ever returned. A bold young man determined 
to go and find out why. While shaving the king he made the 
startling discovery that he had horse’s ears, and immediately, 
therefore, comprehended the reason of his predecessors’ dis- 
appearance. ‘l’o save himself from a like fate he took the earliest 
opportunity of cutting off the chieftain’s head.? In the museum 
at Quimper there is a stone bearing a bas-relief of a human head 
with horse’s ears, and the people call it the head of King March.® 

There is an interesting story about the Breton March, which, 
although it only very doubtfully refers to his equine character 
in the explanation of his name as due to the fact that he was 
as strong as a horse, may well be given here. The story is 
supposed to explain the origin of a cairn called Ar Bern Mein 
situated between the two chief summits of Ménez-Hom. March, 
owing to his sins, would have been damned on his death but for 
the intervention of his patron Sainte Marie du Ménez-Hom. 
Even so, his soul was doomed to dwell in the grave with his 
body, until the tomb was so high that from its top the belfry 
of the church of Sainte Marie could be seen. ‘The saintess, in 


1 Myvyrian Archaiology, p. 393, 89. 

2F. Lot, Romania, 25 (1896), pp. 19-21. 3 Ibid. 

4Cambry, Voyage dans le Finistére en 1794-5, II, p. 287; Sébillot, 
Folk-lore de la France, III, p. 527; cf. cbid., p. 527, the story of King 
Gwiware’h, of whom a bag-pipe sang—Ar roue Gwiwarc’h | En deuz diou 
scouarn merch, i.e. King Gwiware’h has two horse’s ears. 

5 Revue des Traditions Populares, I, pp. 327-8. 

O01d.. VL os 306% 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 25 


return for alms, prevailed on a beggar to place a stone on the 
grave whenever he passed that way, and also to persuade all 
passers-by to do the same. Thus, in time, the tomb acquired 
the necessary height.1 

In the Yellow Book of Lecan there is a story told of an Irish 
king named Labhraidh Lore, who had horse’s ears?. To keep 
the fact secret, Lore used to kill all those who shaved him. At 
last it became the turn of a widow’s son to do the task. In 
response to his mother’s entreaties, however, the young man’s 
life was spared on condition that he would not divulge the secret 
about Lore’s ears. But the youth suffered grievous physical 
discomfort as a result of the secret within him. He was then 
advised by a Druid to go to a cross-roads, turn round sunwise, 
and breathe his secret to the first object that met his gaze. 
This happened to be a willow, which was afterwards used by 
the harpist Craiftine to make a new harp. And so the secret 
became public property. 

In Keating’s History * the same story is told of Lore under 
his other name of Labhraidh Loingseach, and the saying, Ta dha 
chluais capaill ar Labhra Ua Loinsigh, * Labhra O’ Lynch has 
two horse’s ears,’ is still current in Irish-speaking districts.‘ 
According to one account ® Labhraidh Loingseach came as an 
invader from France at the head of the Gailidin *, A similar 
blend of mythology and legend is found in the stories concern- 
ing More, whose name betrays his equine character. It has been 
suggested,’ indeed, that Morc, otherwise called Margg, was 
another name for Labhraidh Lore or Loingseach, Labhraidh’s 
invasion being merely another version of Morc’s arrival with 
a fleet from Africa to aid the Fomori in Tory Island.8 

Whatever historical value these Irish stories of invasion may 
have, the supernatural traits assigned to some of the invaders 
can only be due to traditional Irish forms of belief. The Fomori, 
for instance, have been said to be from Scandinavia and to bear a 


1A. le Braz, La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons Armoricains, 5th ed., 
1928, Vol. II, pp. 56-60. 

2 See Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, II, p. 197. 

31, 30 = Vol. II, pp. 172-4, of Irish Texts Society edition. 

+P. S. Dineen, Keating, Vol. IV, p. 340. 

> O’Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, I, pp. 256-7. 

6 Cf. Keating, I, 29 = Vol. II, pp. 165 ff. 

? Rhys, Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom, pp. 590, 593. 

8 Book of Leinster, 160 4; Keating, I, 7, = Vol. I, pp. 178-82. 


26 MARCH AP MEIRCHION 


name of Scandinavian origin,! just as according to the Book of 
Leinster ? the Dubh-guill or Black Strangers came with Labhraidh 
Loingseach from Denmark. But the Fomori are grouped in the 
Book of the Dun Cow ? along with such evident mythological and 
monstrous figures as the Luchorpain and the Goborchinn. They 
are there said to be the accursed offspring of Ham, who was 
so punished for having made fun of his naked and drunken 
father, Noah, conid huad ro genatar luchrupain & fomoraig. & 
goborchind & cech ecosc dodelba archena fil for doinib, ‘so that 
of him were born Luchurpain and Fomoraig and Goborchinn 
and every unshapely appearance moreover that is on human 
beings.’ 4 Granting, therefore, an historical basis to these legends, 
there is also a heavy superposition of mythology due to the 
persistence of primitive religious beliefs. The story about the 
Luchorpain, modern Leprechaun, in the Senchas Mar ° uses abac, 
‘dwarf,’ as an equivalent term several times, and so bears out 
Stokes’s etymology of Luchorpain as being from lu, laghu, é-Aay?, 
and corpdn, diminutive of corp, ‘ body.’ As for the Goborchinn, 
the name has been variously interpreted. Cormac’s Glossary ® 
explains that gabur was a goat, and gobur, a horse. The former 
sense brings to mind the horned god of Gallic archeology.’ 
Trish tradition, however, would seem to make the second mean- 
ing more likely, though mythological fancy did not confine itself 
to equine monstrosities only. Witness Cairbre Chinn Cait, 
Cairbre Cat-Head, thus described by Keating *§—Da chlumis chait 
um a cheann cain, | Fionnfadh cait tré n-a chluarsaibh, ‘Two 
cat’s ears on his fair head, | cat’s fur over his ears.’ But the 
horse-form is met again in Kocha Eachcheann, EKocha Horse-head, © 
King of the Fomori.® 

The possibility must not be lost sight of that all these Celtic 
tales are etiological, being the efforts of folk-etymology to 
explain the equine denotation of the names of these chieftains. 


1 Timothy Lewis, Mabinogi, pp. 72-7. , Ch 18550) A 

32a. P.5 of the ed. by R. I. Best and O. Bergin, 1929. 

4 See Stokes, Revue Celtique, I, p. 257. 

5J, 70, 71. See Stokes, ibid., pp. 256-7. 

6 Hd. Stokes and O-Donovan, p. 83. 

* Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de la Littérature Celtique, II, p. 95; 
Dottin, Manuel d’Archéologie Celtique, pp. 206-7. 

Sa 38) Vol. iy ips ass. 

9 Annals of the Four Masters, a.m. 3520, vol. I, p. 5 of O’Donovan’s 
ed.; Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, etc., p. 593. 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 27 


This possibility would be strengthened did we have only the 
Celtic versions. But the similar tales in other countries seem 
quite free of the suspicion of being due to etiology. However 
this may be, the various tales referred to prove that there was 
at one time a belief in the existence of supernatural beings who 
had the ears of a horse. There is nothing strange in this to 
students of folk-lore. Far stranger things are to be found in 
plenty in popular belief, and contemporarily even with a high 
stage of civilisation. Indeed, it would seem that the cruder 
elements of primitive religion are more likely to be found sur- 
viving in folk-lore. The higher elements are capable of being 
assimilated with the march of culture. Even so, gods and 
goddesses of more grotesque forms than those under discussion 
were the actual objects of living cults in the heyday of the great 
civilisations of the past. No one should, therefore, be unwilling 
to allow the strange fancies of popular belief a place in the 
early legends of their country, even though these legends are 
enshrined in a highly perfected form of literature. Even if, as 
some would have it, the great figures of early Celtic legend are 
not mythological at all, but real historical figures, the fact that 
supernatural elements could become attached to them, only 
proves the strength and the persistence of primitive ideas. 

But almost all those who have studied this strange figure of 
a human being with the ears of an animal agree in seeking an 
explanation in some sort of religious belief. De Gubernatis 1 
identifies Midas with the ass, explaining the ‘ golden touch,’ of 
course, by his theory that the ass was the solar animal suffusing 
and fructifying all things with its golden rays. ‘To Benfey ? 
the tale was the only one known which had a Western rather 
than an Indian origin. In the modern Greek version the ass’s 
ears are replaced by a goat’s horns, and Benfey considers this 
to be the more primitive account. The goat’s horns are, accord- 
ing to him, reminiscent of the worship of the Phrygian Dionysos, 
with whose cult Midas was closely associated. 

In Folk-lore ? W. Crooke has made a detailed study of this 
class of tales, and he arrives independently at the same con- 
clusions already reached by A. B. Cook in his study on ‘ Animal 
Worship in the Mycenzan Age.’* Cook collects a large mass 


1 Zoological Mythology, 1, pp. 358 ft. 

2 Pancatantra, p. xxii, note. 3 Vol. XXII (1911), pp. 184 ff. 
4 Journal of Hellenic Studies, XIV (1894), pp. 81 ff. 

AS. VOL. XII. c 


28 MARCH AP MEIRCHION 


of archeological evidence proving the existence of zoolatry and 
its attendant theriomorphic cults in the Mycenean Age, and 
persisting more or less sporadically on to the historic age of 
Greece. Especially interesting is the fresco at Mycenze with 
figures bearing the heads of asses,1 probably, as Crooke suggests,? 
representing incidents in a primitive ritual. A lenticular carnelian 
shows a figure clothed in the skin of an ass, bearing a pole on 
his shoulder,? a still clearer illustration of some ritual scene. 
A gem from Phigaleia in Elis shows two upright figures dressed 
in the skins and heads of horses.4 At Phigaleia, according to 
Pausanias,°® there had been in old times two successive statues 
of Demeter with the head of a horse. The cult had become 
neglected and the first statue lost. Then in a time of famine 
the Delphic oracle ordered the cult to be re-established, and a 
new statue was built. But this, too, had been lost before Pau- 
sanias time. Finally, a Phigaleian coin shows a horse’s head 
wrought as an ornament at the end of Demeter’s necklace. °® 

The figures on the gem referred to probably represent wor- 
shippers masquerading in the form of the animal incarnation 
of the deity. The explanation of the legends, therefore, about 
men like Midas and March bearing animal attributes is, according 
to Crooke, that they are based on ritual in which the priest, 
generally in primitive times the chief or king, assumed the skin, 
wholly or in part, of the animal in whose form the divinity 
worshipped was conceived. 

That the Celts at one time worshipped gods and goddesses 
in equine form must be regarded as an undisputed fact. Sir 
John Rhys, in Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx,’ suggested that 
the key to the riddle of such sagas as those of March and Lab- 
hraidh Lorc is to be sought in the Celtic belief in supernatural beings 
with horse’s ears. It is no objection that, in the period when the 
legends or folk-tales were fashioned in the form we know them, 
these divinities may have degenerated into demons or monsters. 

Turning to the archeological monuments of Celtic antiquity 
in France we find what would appear to be definite evidence of 
zoolatry. And among the ‘divine’ animals is the horse. A 


1 Journal of Hellenic Studies, XIV (1894), p. 84. lay 10, 1S, 

3 Cook, ibid. “Cook, op. cit., p. 188: . * VIII, 42, 2, 5-6. 

6 See Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, II, p. 57. 

* Pp. 432-5; cf. id., Arthurian Legend, p. 70; Celtic Heathendom, 
p- 590. 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 29 


bronze image of a horse has been found at Neuvy-en-Sullias, 
between Orleans and Gien, dedicated to a divinity named 
Rudiobus.! The name teaches us nothing about his character, 
being derived from that of a locality.2 Reinach * considers 
Rudiobus to be a horse-god, but Toutain 4 argues that at the 
same spot were found votive offerings in the forms of bulls, cows 
and stags, animals difficult to associate with a horse-divinity. 
Against Toutain’s argument is the fact that the name Rudiobus 
is inscribed on one face of the bronze socket on which the image 
of the horse stands. Near Nuits, in the Cote-d’Or, an image 
of an ass was found dedicated to Segomo.® Reinach ® takes 
this to prove the existence in Gaul of a cult of the ass. Segomo 
is elsewhere an epithet of Mars, who himself is several times 
described as Mars Mullo.’ 

In the museum of Cluny in Paris there is a Gallic inscription, 
which Mowat, who first published it,* reads as follows : Bratronos 
Nantonic(nos) Hpadatextorigy Leucullo svovrebe locitor.. Leaving 
the last two words unexplained, Mowat interprets the inscription 
to indicate a dedication to Epadatextorix Leucullus, a god, 
that is, who had among his functions ‘ la protection des chevaux 
de transport et celle du personnel des équipages de guerre.’ For 
the epithet Leucullus is etymologically related to Loucetius (from 
the same root as Latin lux), an epithet of Mars,® who meets us 
again exercising the same function as Epadatextorix under the 
name of Mars Mullo.1° The name Epadatextorix clearly contains 
a stem equivalent to that of Welsh eb-ol, Irish ech and Latin 
equ-us, and we can at least assume that he was a divinity associated 
with horses, and conceived either theriomorphically or only as 
an anthropomorphic divine protector of horses and horsemen." 
Mars Mullo may have been such a patron god of muleteers,!? but 
Rudiobus would seem to be conceived in the form of a horse. 

1 Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs, etc., Tome IV., No. 2978. 

2 Holder, Altceltischer Sprachshatz, s.v. 

3 Cultes, Mythes et Religions, I, p. 64. 

4 Les Cultes Paiens dans VEmpire Romain, III, p. 390. 

°> Reinach, Répertoire de la Statuaire, II, p. 745. 

6 Cultes, etc., I, p. 64. 

* Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, XIII, Nos. 3101, 3148, 3149. 

8 Revue Archéologique, 1878 (1), pp. 94 ff. 

9 Holder, s.v. 10 See above. 

11 Kor a full translation of this inscription, see Stokes, Revue Celtique, V, 


pp. 116-19. 
12 Toutain, op. cit., p. 215, and Holder, s.v. 


30 MARCH AP MEIRCHION 


So far it has been a question of male divinities. Equally, 
if not more, important are the Gallic monuments attesting the 
cult of a female counterpart.1. These monuments are of two 
kinds. The great majority are bas-reliefs showing a goddess 
riding a mare, which is sometimes accompanied by a foal. 
Unfortunately, these figures have no inscriptions to proclaim 
their identity. The second group, much fewer in number, con- 
sists of figures of a goddess standing or seated between two 
horses. Now two of these bear inscriptions showing that they 
are dedicated to Epona. Not all are agreed that the riding 
goddess is also Kpona, but it should be noted that the attributes 
of both are the same. These are, generally, a horn of plenty 
in the left hand, a dish in the right, and fruits, sometimes in a 
basket at her feet, sometimes disposed in the folds of her robe. 

Such a female divinity, who, judging from her attributes, was 
a dispenser of the earth’s riches, and was, besides, a horse-goddess, 
or at least somehow associated with horses, reminds us of the 
Greek Demeter. In addition to the monuments referred to 
above as attesting the theriomorphic cult of this goddess, there 
is the well-known myth in which Demeter and Poseidon, both 
in equine form, are the parents of the horse Areion. In Celtic 
mythology, however, especially as handed down to us in the 
Mabinogion, it is never easy to disentangle the themes of a one- 
time religious belief from those of quasi-history or legend. The 
Mabinogion, indeed, provide good examples of the intermingling 
of mythic story and terrestrial topography, an intermingling 
made easier by the fact that the leading figures, in so far as 
they are mythological, may be survivals of divinities with a 
strictly local sphere of dominion. 

But here and there glimmerings can be discerned of what 
at one time was undiluted mythology, the expression of a living 
religious belief. And we can detect at one point a myth, very 
much faded, it is true, that is exactly parallel to the Greek 
myth just cited. For there are very good reasons for the sup- 
position that Rhiannon in the Mabinogi of Pwyll and of Mana- 
wydan was originally a horse-goddess.2. The story of the find- 
ing of Gwri Wallt Euryn by Teyrnon in the former Mabinogi 


1 See Reinach, Revue Archéologique, 1895 (1), pp. 163 ff., pp. 309 ff. ; 
1898 (11), pp. 187 ff. 

2T. Gwynn Jones, Welsh Folk-lore and Folk Custom, p. 17; W. J. 
Gruffydd, Y Cymmrodor, XLII, p. 147. 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 31 


is a bit confused, much as though the cyfarwydd was not quite 
sure of how to combine the supernatural and human elements 
in the story. Teyrnon’s mare used to foal on the eve of every 
May-Day, but was on each occasion mysteriously robbed of her 
colt. At last Teyrnon determined to watch when the mare 
foaled next, and on that night, after the colt was born, he saw 
an arm, with a claw for hand, stretched in through the window 
of his house, whither he had brought the mare for safety. With 
his sword he cut off the claw, which had already seized the foal 
by the mane. Then there was a great uproar outside, and 
Teyrnon went out to see what the cause might be. He saw 
nothing, but on returning found an infant in swaddling-clothes 
lying at the door. This infant was adopted as her own by 
Teyrnon’s wife and named Gwri Wallt Euryn. According to 
the story Gwri was afterwards found to be the lost Pryderi, 
son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, for whose alleged destruction his 
mother was at that time doing penance. 

If this tale was romance pure and simple there clearly should 
be no need for such a tortuous account. There is more than 
romance here. There is mythology, a tale of supernatural 
events. Romance has accounted for the finding of Pryderi, but 
it has neither understood nor totally forgotten his supernatural 
birth. Rhiannon, his mother, during the time he was at Teyrnon’s 
house, was standing by the horse-block in her own courtyard, 
offering to carry every visitor on her back up to the palace. 
This must be a faint reminiscence of the original horse-form of 
Rhiannon. When Pwyll had first seen her from his throne in 
Arberth she was a fairy riding on horseback, for the riding was 
not the riding of a mere mortal. Pwyll himself is made to feel 
the ystyr hud, the magic sense, of it. Perhaps we may recall 
here the riding goddess of the Gallic bas-reliefs. Again, in the 
Mabinogi of Manawydan, when the great spell of desolation 
laid on the land by Llwyd uab Cilcoed was removed it was found 
that Rhiannon in her bondage a uydei a mwereu yr essyn wedy 
bydynt yn kywein gweir am y mynwgyl hitheu,? ‘ Rhiannon had 
the collars of the asses after they have been carrying hay about 
her neck.’ ‘The story-teller goes on to say that this episode was 
ealled Mabinogi Mynweir a Mynord. Whether Mynweir contains 

1Cf. Gruffydd, Revue Celtique, XX XIII, p. 452; Id., Transactions of 


the Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 1912-13, p. 52. 
* Red Book Mabinogion, ed. Rhys & Evans, p. 58. 


32 MARCH AP MEIRCHION 


any allusion to the place Minwear, near Narberth, or whether 
the name of the lost tale was suggested by the strange nature 
of the imprisonment undergone by Rhiannon and Pryderi,? it 
is at least likely that in this lost tale an interesting item of Celtic 
mythology is for ever lost. Anyhow, it seems safe to regard the 
two penances suffered by Rhiannon as mythologically befitting 
her original equine character, for it is not easy to explain them 
by folk-tale motifs, in which usually, the punishment befits the 
crime. ? 

In any case, the intrusion of the birth of a foal into the story 
of the discovery of her son, becomes intelligible if it was due to 
the story-teller’s knowledge of a myth in which Rhiannon, like 
the Greek Demeter, had given birth to a foal. But the human, 
romantic element in the story prevents Gwri appearing in a 
horse-form, as Areion did in the Greek myth. He is needed to 
replace the missing Pryderi. Perhaps the story in its final 
form intended to imply that it was the cravanc who had stolen 
Pryderi and brought him to Teyrnon’s house to exchange with 
the foal. Ifso, the connection of Rhiannon with the foal becomes 
clear enough. for then the whole story is a rationalistic, matter- 
of-fact account of how the foal came to be, or, as the romance 
has it, would be but for Teyrnon’s intervention, and as it actually 
was in the original myth, mothered on Rhiannon.+ That, and 
not the accusation of having destroyed Pryderi, may have been 
the reason why Rhiannon appears as the * Calumniated Wife.’ ° 

The confusion of the story is, perhaps, helped by the fact 
that two local versions were being amalgamated, that of Gwent 
and that of Dyfed. Rhiannon, the great queen (Rigantona), 
would from her name be a fitting consort to Teyrnon, the great 
king (Tigernonos).6 In the Gwent version, the father of Pryderi, 
or, as the myth would seem to indicate, of him who is inter- 
changeable with the foal, would be Teyrnon. In fact the real 
Pryderi would seem not to belong to this section of Celtic myth- 
ology. As son of Pwyll and Rhiannon he belongs to the myth 

1 Anwyl, Zeitschrift fiir Celtische Philologie, III, p. 126. | 

2Ivor Williams, Pedeir Keinc, p. 248. For another explanation of 
Mynweir and Mynord see Gruffydd, Revue Celtique, XX XIII, p. 452. 

3 See Gruffydd, Math uab Mathonwy, p. 51. 

4W. J. Gruffydd, Math uab Mathonwy, p. 51 n. 

5 Ibid., p. 326. 

6 Anwyl, Zeitschrift fiir Celtische Philologie, 1, pp. 288-9; III, p. 126; 
W. J. Gruffydd, Revue Celtique, XX XIII, pp. 450 ff. 


MARCH AP MEIRCHION 33 


of the Wonder-child, the son of a mortal mother by an immortal 
father, as the Irish Mongdn was the son of Manannan mac Lir 
by the wife of the mortal Fiachna.1. Two myths are therefore 
merged in this part of the Mabinogion. One is the birth of 
Pryderi as a Wonder-child. The other is the birth of a son 
in the same form as herself to the horse-goddess Rhiannon. ‘The 
question whether the name of the mother, Rhiannon, belongs 
to the first or to the second myth is a matter of little importance 
here. 

This seems a long way off from the story of March ap Meirchion. 
But it should be clear now that a king or chieftain with the ears 
of a horse was possible in Celtic folk-lore, just because there was 
in primitive Celtic religion a belief in a horse-divinity. Rudiobus 
and Epadatextorix in Gaul suggest a male divinity. The myth 
of Rhiannon and the cult monuments of Epona, on the other 
hand, suggest a female. Both of course are possible. The 
male and female divinities could be consorts and associated in 
cult, or, equally possible, the sex could vary with the locality. 
March and his compeers, of course, as has been suggested, need 
not themselves have been faded divinities. They may have 
been due to traditions of priest-kings ritually masquerading in 
the guise of the divinity in whose service they were. 


J. J. JONES. 


1W. J. Gruffydd, Transactions, etc., pp. 72-4, quoting Nutt, Voyage 
of Bran, I, pp. 42-5, 72-7. 


sD) 


ea 
Ey 


11M he 
Weary 
AEE ay 


Vk 
sa 


ne 
viata tesa 
Eat 


1 is fe 
Payee) 


y 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 


CARDINAL MERCIER 1 was undoubtedly a great man, and a great 
priest in the Church. Was he also a great philosopher? Can 
his philosophic influence persist ? These are the questions to 
which I try to suggest an answer in this essay, by means of a 
brief account of his philosophy. 

The young abbé Mercier at the University of Louvain received 
no dogmatic philosophical teaching. ‘The University was recover- 
ing from the shock of the papal condemnation of traditionalism 
and ontologism: it had not yet discovered another philosophy 
compatible with the Catholic faith and with nineteenth-century 
science. Mercier’s aim was to show that the philosophy required 
was that of St. Thomas Aquinas. In his task he furthered the 
ideal of Pope Leo XIII, who had determined upon the revival 
of Thomist studies, and in spite of various difficulties in his 
early days Mercier did on the whole receive support from Rome.? 

Mercier’s task was heavy, because the philosophy of St. 
Thomas was unknown to or misunderstood by the young genera- 
tion whom he wished to influence. It was considered to be hope- 
lessly out of touch with modern thought, whether philosophic or 
scientific. He had to interpret St. Thomas in the light of con- 
temporary thought, and vice versa. By means of his persistent 
teaching and writing, his courses on philosophy, his articles in the 
Revue Néo-scolastique of which he was the director, Mercier was 
successful. His pupils at Louvain developed along various lines 

1Félicien Francois Joseph Désiré Mercier was born in Belgium at 
Braine-l’Alleud on November 21, 1851. He became a priest in 1874. 
In 1877 he was professor of philosophy at the seminary of Malines; in 
1880 he occupied a chair of philosophy at the University of Louvain 
where he was professor in 1882. In 1894 he presided over the new Institut 
Supérieur de Philosophie at Louvain, where he remained until 1906—7 
when he was made a cardinal. He died in 1926, the Cardinal-Archbishop 
of Malines, Primate of Belgium. 

2 The great Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII known as Aiterni Patris urges 
the study of St. Thomas. It wasissuedin 1879. Cf. Revue Néo-scolastique, 
HSO97 p. 9: 


395 


36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 


under his inspiration, so that the ‘School of Louvain’ has to be 
reckoned with in contemporary philosophy. 

Mercier had first to make it clear that no worship of the letter 
of St. Thomas was to be imposed upon his disciples, as the Pope 
in his Eneyclical had already stated. It is the spirit of the scho- 
lastic philosophy which makes ‘ neo-scholasticism.’1 Mercier is 
convinced that in the philosophy of St. Thomas, this Christian 
reconstruction of the philosophy of Aristotle, of Plato, and of the 
Church Fathers, are to be found the principles of a true philos- 
ophy, which will provide answers to the problems of the present 
and of the future as they arise. ‘ The point of view which we take 
is that of the philosophy of Aristotle and of the masters of Scholas- 
ticism. But, being penetrated with the true peripatetic spirit, 
we want to keep in permanent relation with the science and 
thought of our contemporaries.’ ? 

What are the characteristics of the scholastic philosophy ? 
From the point of view of Mercier, scholasticism is a doctrine 
taught by some, but not all, of the great medizval philosophers. * 
It reached its highest point in the thirteenth century in the 
teaching of St. Thomas. ‘ Fundamentally, writes Mercier, * the 
philosophy of St. Thomas offers these distinctive traits: (1) it 
faithfully respects the teachings of revelation ; (2) it prudently 
combines personal research with respect for tradition; (3) it 
harmoniously unites observation and rational speculation, 
analysis and synthesis.’ 4 

Let us consider these points. The first is likely to prove a 
stumbling-block to many modern thinkers, who will hastily sup- 
pose that St. Thomas sets out from certain ecclesiastical dogmas, 
and builds a philosophy—an arbitrary construction—upon these 
foundations. This is not the case. St. Thomas’ assumption, to 
be sure, is that there 7s a revelation of God, the Christian revela- 
tion, and that this is the truth; but he also makes another 
assumption which is the basis of his philosophy—that the natural 
reason gives real knowledge, that, therefore, since the truth must 
be one (self-contradiction is the very meaning of error) the con- 


Cf. Revue Néo-scolastique, 1894, La philosophie néo-scolastique, by 
Mercier, p.2 10: 

2 Origines de la psychologie contemporaine, Introd., p. vii, by Mercier. 

3 Some distinguished historians, e.g. M. Etienne Gilson, do not approve 
of this conception of scholasticism. 

4 Logique, Introd., p. 53, by Mercier. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER © 37 


sidered conclusions of our reason and the assertions of faith must 
be compatible. 

In an article written in 1900, Mercier distinguished two 
currents of thought which are almost directly opposed—the one 
is an attempt to emancipate reason ; the other, convinced of the 
weakness of reason, seeks a refuge in faith. Neither was accept- 
able to Catholicism, for which both reason and revelation are the 
gifts of God, natural and supernatural. The Catholic attitude is 
that of St. Thomas. 

The philosophy of St. Thomas ‘ prudently combines personal 
research with respect for tradition.’ St. Thomas said that the 
argument from authority is in philosophy the weakest of all 
arguments. Nevertheless it has, even in philosophy, some weight. 
Authorities often provide conflicting evidence. Reason weighs 
the evidence. ‘To despise tradition is to break with history, to 
refuse to learn from the past. This mistake is not so general in 
the twentieth century as it was in the positivist nineteenth, 
which had not felt the influence of the new, philosophic history 
then in the process of being conceived. At a period when more 
than one distinguished philosopher identifies philosophy with 
history, the importance of tradition is indeed in danger of being 
over-emphasised. Such philosophy then goes to swell the anti- 
intellectualist current of Bergsonism and pragmatism, which from _ 
a different source runs into the same sea of irrationalism. From 
this, St. Thomas. and those disciples who retain his spirit are 
saved by their confidence in human reason. They refuse to 
accept any of that ‘help’ to religion which is due to attacking 
reason ; they insist that the Christian faith is a reasonable faith 
—that it goes beyond reason but does not contradict it. 

Scholasticism ‘harmoniously unites observation and rational 
speculation, analysis and synthesis.. We might call observation 
its tribute to common sense, and speculation its tribute to philos- 
ophy. Observation alone yields merely description of facts, the 
raw material of science. In order to become science, the facts 
must be sorted according to principles and submit to the trial 
of hypotheses. Imagination and reason must play their part. 
Therefore, both observation and speculation are required in 
philosophy, which is a science . . . a rational consideration and 
interpretation of the order of the universe. 

Analysis is the work characteristic of the human intellect, 
namely, abstraction. When we reflect upon the individual things 


38 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER ~ 


presented to us by means of our senses, we separate character- 
istics and qualities of these things which thereby become * univer- 
sals,’ the proper objects of the intellect. Nevertheless, these 
universals in order to take a place in science must be reunited to: 
individual subjects by means of a scheme. Thus a science is not 
merely analytic but also synthetic. All knowledge, all experience, 
combines the work of both intelligence and sense. A fortiori, 
this is true of philosophy.! 

Mercier wished to present the scholastic philosophy in modern 
dress. He planned to write a Course of Philosophy founded upon 
his oral teaching. The Logic, Metaphysic or Ontology, Psychology, 
and Criteriology were published, but the T’heodicy which should 
have crowned them did not appear, and the Cosmology of the 
series was written by his pupil Nys.? 

‘The aim of logic,’ says Mercier, ‘is to assure the mind’s 
possession of the truth.’? It is a study of science which is itself 
a science. ‘A science,—physics, mathematics, metaphysics,— 
is formed as a relational whole, it realises a rational order. The 
science of this order is called rational or logical science, in a word, 
Logic.’ 4 Logic is concerned with reality so far as reality is the 
object of mind, and therefore with the nature of truth in general. 
‘ Kverything real is intelligible : nothing exists or is possible which 
cannot be made the object of thought.’ ° 

We recognise that faith in the power of reason to which I have 
referred above. Elsewhere, Mercier quotes the dictum, ‘ Il faut 

. aller a la philosophie avec toute son ame,’ but he adds“. . .- 
it is essential and inevitable that, in this concurrence of all the 
faculties upon the philosophic quest, reason must have the 
last word . . . in this sense, philosophy is and must be intellec- 
tualist.’ § 

The scholastic metaphysics is a rational refinement of the 
conclusions of common sense. It is common sense criticised by 
itself. “ Metaphysics,’ Mercier writes, ‘ has for its principal object 
the substance of individual things offered us by experience.’7 It 
considers nature ‘in all its generality, then it considers the 


i Psychologie, p. 6. Ci. p. 54. 2 See Bibliography. 

2 Logique,lntrod...ps) 63-0 Cf. p. Go: + Toid., Intred.,p. 31. 

° Ibid., pp. 69-70. 

6 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1900, p. 257, review, Léon Ollé-Laprune, by 
M. Blondel; criticism by Mercier. 

? Métaphysique, Introd., p. 12. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER _ 39 


principles which are immediately disengaged from the contempla- 
tion of being in general and upon which depend the demonstra- 
tions of science. 1 ‘ The deepest possible study of real being will 
therefore be that of substantial being.’ 2 

The notion of substance plays an important role in the 
scholastic philosophy. Since the Middle Ages it has undergone 
attacks which have not, however, banished it from common usage. 
Yet must we not in philosophy always be suspicious of a ‘ mani- 
festly,’ and ‘evidently’? ‘ Manitestly,’ Mercier affirms, ‘ among 
the realities to which we apply the transcendental * notion of 
being, there are some which exist only dependently upon another 
reality which is presupposed : such are the acts of walking, sitting, 
thinking, willing, etc. . . . the reality of these various acts does 
not exist and cannot be conceived except in dependence upon 
a presupposed being; inevitably we attribute them to some- 
thing or to someone who walks, sits, feels, thinks, wills..4 That 
which exists only in a subject is known as an accident. 

It should be pointed out that the scholastic notion of substance 
is not that useless ‘something, I know not what’ criticised by 
Locke and by later idealists. It has a function: together with 
the correlative notion of accident, the notion of substance stands 
for an aspect of the organisation of the universe—if the scholastics 
are right. 

They also make a distinction, familiar to those who have 
reflected upon the ‘ ontological’ argument for the existence of 
God, between ‘essence’ and ‘existence.’ In Mercier’s words, 
‘the essence or real being is then, as compared to existence or 
actual being, id quod as compared to id quo, the indeterminate, 
incomplete, imperfect subject as compared to the act which 
determines, completes it, gives it its final perfection.’ ° 

The correlative conceptions of matter and form are attained 
upon the reflection that substances can be analysed. ‘If natural 
bodies were simple, the first substances would be annihilated, 
a@ new substance created. There would be no substantial change. 
Admitting that there is not a creation, we must conclude that 


1 Métaphysique, Part I, p. 16. 2ibide bartels py aie 

3A ‘transcendental ’ notion is one applicable to reality as such, and 
therefore common to all reality or all being. 

4 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1901, Le phénoménisme et Vancienne méta- 
physique, by Mercier, p. 31. Cf. Métaphysique, pp. 278-9. 

° Métaphysique, Part I, p. 29. 


40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 


corporal substance is composed of two constitutive parts: one 
which remains, matter, one which succeeds to another, form .. . } 
‘The principle of individualisation is matter, the foundation of 
quantity. That which changes is, from another point of 
view, called potential being; the perfecting principle, actual 
being.? 

The modern philosopher may ask whether, in the world of 
actual beings, there are only substances and accidents. Are 
relations, for example, real or unreal ? 

According to the neo-scholastics, they are real, with a reality 
which is not that of substance or accident. ‘In order that the 
relation should be real,’ Mercier asserts, ‘it is not enough to 
affirm the reality of its bases. ... But although it is not an 
absolute reality, the real relation is none the less something.’ * 
‘. . . It consists only in that which one of the correlatives 7s for 
the other.’ ® ‘The real relation has a foundation in nature, for 
example, the same extension common to two quantities...’ 
and, besides, ‘the real relation exists before any operation of 
the intelligence ; the intelligence perceives it in nature, it does 
not put it there.’ ° 

The remaining volumes of Mercier’s Course of Philosophy are 
the Psychology and the Criteriology. Criteriology or treatise on 
knowledge is a part of psychology which has become so important 
in modern philosophy that, according to Mercier, it has won itself 
an independent place. 

The scholastics occupy a position between the extreme sub- 
jectivism of the group of psychologists who employ only intro- 
spective method, and the extreme objectivism of the continually 
increasing group who employ only the method of external 
observation—the ‘ behaviourists.’ 

Mercier explains that ‘for the greater number of modern 
psychologists, the method proper to psychology is that of intro- 
spection, of inner observation exclusively. Now this opposition, 
of Cartesian origin, between the ‘ psychical ’ and the ‘ physical ’ 
is inspired by an anti-scientific prejudice: Descartes and those 
who follow him suppose it given that there is in us a soul really 
distinct from the body. . . . Now, what do we know of this ? 


1 Métaphysique, Part I, p. 65. 2 Tbe... p.. 82. ‘Ch parades 
Sai bids. WeAVe.p. 30". 

4 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1926, Mercier, by Balthasar, p. 170. 

5 Métaphysique, III, p. 367. Sloid... p. 30a. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 41 


The immediate datum of consciousness is that the man thinks... . 


Only .. . reflection . . . allows us to conclude that there is in 
the human complex ... both psychical and physical.’! He 
continues: ‘ Reflection will make us understand, besides, that 


a man cannot be divided into a body in submission to mechanical 
laws and a thinking soul other than the organism. He is a 
single being who lives, feels, thinks.’ ? 

The neo-scholastic insistence on the unity of body-mind in 
man, its return to an Aristotelian conception, is a most valu- 
able contribution to contemporary philosophy. It suggests the 
rational way of dealing with ethical and sociological problems, 
as well as with purely psychological ones. 

In theory of knowledge, the neo-scholastics are all realists, 
in the sense that they hold that human beings really know, and 
therefore know reality,—not some creation of the mind, but 
reality at least in part independent of mind (other than the mind 
of God, which is God). 

They are also at one in declaring that knowledge is in some 
sense direct, even immediate or intuitive; but that there is a 
mechanism of knowing. It takes place by means of a mental 
instrument, but this instrument is not the object of knowledge, 
and therefore is not a screen or block between mind and subject. 
To it is given the name species. Those who emphasise the im- 
portance of the means in the act of knowing are accused of 
leaning toward subjectivism or idealism—among them Cardinal 
Mercier ; those who insist on the ‘immediacy’ of knowledge 
(though they do not deny that knowledge is by means of a species) 
are accused of a dangerous intuitionism for which human error 
becomes inexplicable.° 

Assuming, to begin with, that knowledge exists, as common 
sense would maintain, the scholastics analyse the given into a 
subject, an act and an object or reality: in the case of true 
knowledge, the object coincides with the reality, which is (in 
whole or in part) independent of the knowing mind. 

Mercier affirms that ‘Sensation does not occur without the 
reception by the senses of an impression from the external 
object which awakes its activity and gives it a special direction.’ 4 


1 Psychologie, Vol. I, p. 8. 2 Tbid., pp. 6-7. 

3 Cf. Léon Noél in the Revue Néo-scolastique, 1923. Cf. also his report 
in the Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy, 1926. | 

4 Psychologie, Vol. 1, p. 159. 


42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 


Knowledge is an immanent union of knower and thing known. 
‘Cognitum est 7 cognoscente.’ ‘Thus,’ Mercier continues, ‘ it 
is not the sense which externalises itself in order to project 
itself upon the outer object ; it is this object which, by becoming 
internal, unites itself to the subject.’ 4 

The object is assimilated by the subject, not as a material 
thing, but by means of an image. ‘ Omnis cognitio fit secundum 
sumilitudinem cogniti in cognoscente.’ ‘This image or species 
seems to make knowledge mediate, to make the final term of 
knowledge not the object itself, but a feeling state of the subject. 
But ‘ The scholastics had foreseen the objection. The “‘ inten- 
tional species,” they replied, is not the direct object of perception, 
it is the means by which the sense is made able to perceive the 
object: it is a means which is not objective, a sort of inter- 
mediary object which has to be grasped first in order to pass 
at once to the outside thing—a subjective means . . . not 2d quod 
percipitur, but.2zd quo percipitur objectum.’ ? : 

The modern philosopher will recognise in the species a notion 
which has had various adventures as the ‘idea.’ It is clear 
that for the neo-scholastics the species is not the crude copy of 
reality which it became in the work of Descartes and Locke. 
It is more nearly that functional idea familiar from the philosophy 
of Spinoza. It is a means of knowing. It is neither mental 
nor physical substance—the question what kind of substance 
it is does not arise, because it is not a substance but an activity. 
The solidification of the species as the ‘idea’ of Descartes was 
due to his forgetting a great thesis of scholasticism— Man is 
not an assemblage of two substances of which one would be the 
thinking mind and the other an extended body; it forms a 
single composite substance.’ ? The separation between them 
led, according to Mercier, to the ‘exclusive spiritualism’ and 
“mechanism ’ of Descartes.* 

The nature of subject and of species has been discussed. 
What is the nature of the object ? In the first place, why do 
we suppose that we know an external world 2? Some neo-scho- 
lastics consider that we have an intuitive, immediate knowledge 
of this world, and that therefore this question is without meaning ; 


1 Revue Néo-scolastique, I, p. 160. 2 Tbid. leap. ele 

3 Ibid., 1896. La psychologie de Descartes et Vanthropologie scolastique. 
Mercier, p. 241. 

*Tord., 1897... Op. cit., p. 386.— Ci. 1898, pp- 194-5. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 43 


but others, among them Mercier, hold that our knowledge of 
the external world as such is reflective. We are immediately 
acquainted with it in sense perception, but we know that it is 
independent of us or ‘external’ only by the application of the 
principle of causality to the impressions which the self feels.1 
Can we say that the act of feeling necessarily implies an impression 
caused by an outside thing—could it not be some unconscious 
projection of our own minds? It is a scholastic assumption 
that the cause must be at least adequate to its effect ; if, for 
the sake of argument, we grant this, is the adequate cause of a 
sensation an external object ? The existence of optical illusions 
seems to show that this is not the case. 

The neo-scholastics themselves hesitate with regard to the 
objectivity or rather independence of certain data—e.g. colours. 
It is a problem of epistemology or ‘ criteriology ’; and Cardinal 
Mercier was the first neo-scholastic to insist upon its importance. 
He does not ask the large question, Do we know anything or 
nothing ? but the more restrained one, What is the ground of 
our certainty that we know something ? ? 

The critique of knowledge implies a philosophic doubt. It 
is a methodic doubt; the philosopher does not become really 
uncertain of the truths of science, for example. It is not a 
universal doubt, such as that which Descartes attempted, because 
to doubt universally as a means to the investigation of knowledge 
is, Mercier explains, self-contradictory. ‘If the faculties them- 
selves are untrustworthy, how rely upon a single one of their 
acts ?’ 3 This reason for rejecting universal doubt goes deeper 
than that which affirms merely its conflict with common sense, 
which is not the ultimate court of appeal.4 

Mercier asserts that our intellectual knowledge is of two 
kinds, spontaneous, and reflective, the data of the problem, and 
that which controls the data.° 

Philosophy is reflective knowledge. It looks for the motives 
of judgments, and when satisfied with these is certain. ‘If I 


1 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1900. La notion de la vérité. Mercier, pp. 
195-7. Cf. Logique, Introd., p. 70. 

2 Critériologie, Introd., p. 1. Cf. p. 72. 

3 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1897, Pourquoi le doute méthodique ne peut étre 
universel, Mercier, p. 197. 

4 Critériologie, II, p. 76. 

5 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1895, Théorie des trois vérités primitives, 
Mercier, p. 7. 

AS: — VOL. XIt. D 


44 'THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 


can be aware that | have rational certainties, knowledge provided 
with the characteristics of objective evidence, I shall then have 
the right to affirm, through having seen it working, through 
having recognised it in a fact, in its act, my aptitude to know 
the truth.’ 4 

The motives of judgment are found in the existence of some 
judgments so certain, so “immediate ’ (not merely ‘ spontaneous ’) 
that they cannot be doubted.2 Mercier offers as an example 
‘the proposition that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts,’ 
and remarks that there is an indefinite number of similar proposi- 
tions.2 Among them is to be found the affirmation of the 
existence of the self.4 

Certitude, therefore, is rather of the intelligence than of the 
senses in spite of the forcefulness of the external world. The 
existence of immediate ideal principles is vital for an appreciation 
of the problem of knowledge,*® of which the first part deals with 
the objectivity of ideal relations, and the second part with the 
value of their terms. °® 

Truth, Mercier maintains, should realise some kind of con- 
formity between knowledge and the reality known. ‘ Veritas 
est conformitas rei et intellectus..7 But knowledge would be 
impossible, he affirms, if it required the presence of the ‘ thing 
as it is in itself’ in the judgment. 

This assertion has made some neo-scholastics reproach Mercier 
with subjectivism. He explains, however, that ‘to want to 
know the reality thus, i.e. to want to represent things “ a them- 
selves’ and without any assimilation of the thing to be known 
by the knower, is to want a thing doubly impossible.’& ‘In 
fact, to want to know a thing, is to will that there should be, 
beside the physical entity supposed natural, something other 
than this physical entity, that is, its representation by the mind ; 
but to will that the thing represented should be so in its absolute 
state, is to will that the representation should not be other than 
the physical entity.’ ° | 

Truth therefore is not a ‘conformity’ between knowledge 


1 Critériologie, p. 108. Cf. Revue Néo-scolastique, 1895, op. cit., p. 21. 
2 Critériologie, II, p. 119. 


3 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1895, op. cit., p. 14. 4 fod pe lie 
5 Critériologie, I, p. 41. 6 Tbid., pp. 48-9. 
? Ibid., pp. 16-17. Cf. pp. 18-19. 8 [bid., p. 42, 


9 Ibid., IV, p. 405. 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 45 


and a thing in itself, but a relation among the terms or concepts 
of a judgment. The ‘res’ is the thing already apprehended. 
If a predicate evidently belongs to a subject, the intelligence 
irresistibly affirms the connection. This state of the intelligence 
is certainty.2, A few words of Mercier wittily resume the situa- 
tion—‘ Consequently,’ he says, ‘the intelligible object is not 
other than the reality of experience apprehended by the mind, 
or =) “the thing in itself, n-us.”” 3 

The neo-scholastic theory of error can receive only a brief 
mention. It is clear that the element of difference between the 
object before the mind and the thing in itself or material thing 
makes error possible ; but it is the abnormal state of a thinking 
person.* 

Mercier concludes that in the Critériologie *. . . we have 
shown that the intelligence certainly possesses an inner, objective, 
and immediate criterion of truth ; we have been able to conclude 
that immediate ideal knowledge is objectively evident, and 
that, therefore, within these limits, certainty is motivated. . . . 
There remained the question of the objective reality of our con- 
cepts. Judgment applies to a subject, sooner or later to an 
individual, sensible subject, a predicate. . . . Sense experience 
grasps reality. Now, it finds the object of the predicate identical, 
it recognises it in the sensible forms of experience. Thus it 
is assured of the conformity of its ideas with objective 
reality. ... The human mind knows reflectively that it knows 
the truth.’ * 

An essay on Mercier’s philosophy can hardly be considered 
complete without some account of its orientation towards God ; 
it must suffice to point out that the motive for confidence in 
the existence of God and reliance upon His nature is found in 
the rational order of the world, which it seems to Mercier cannot 
have arisen by chance—finality implies intelligence. The im- 
portance of this concept is such that probably the reader will 
detect it throughout—perhaps it may seem to him that it plays 
too great a part in this philosophy. However this may be, I 
think that Mercier’s position among philosophers and his influence 


1 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1899, La notion de la vérité, by Mercier, p. 379. 
2 Logique, I, p. 171. 

3 Revue Néo-scolastique, 1900, op. cit., p. 198. Cf. pp. 194-5. 

4 Ibid., p. 201. Cf. Critériologie, I, p. 35. 

° Critériologie, IV, p. 413. 6 Métaphysique, IV. pp. 436-56. 


46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF CARDINAL MERCIER 


upon many students are worthy of more attention from non- 
Catholic philosophers than most of them have been willing to 
give. 

VALMAI BURDWOOD EVANS. 


SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Logique. First printed 1897. Edition quoted 4th, 1905. 
Métaphysique.  ,, a 1894. Bi 4 4th, 1905. 
Psychologie. 3 he 1892. me ae Ith, 1905. 
Critériologie. a Bh 1899. re a 5th, 1906. 


Articles in Revue Neéo-scolastique 1894-1926. 


I have made my translations from the French editions, the English 
version not being available. 
V. Bk. 


A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 


From the mouth of the Lekkous to that of the Bou Regreg, 
there is a narrow ribbon of mournful sand dunes, spreading, in 
monotonous undulations, between sea and lagoon in the north and 
sea and forest in the south. Itis broken only where the Merja Zerga, 
half-lake half-gulf, maintains, through its old river-worn channel, 
intermittent tidal connection with the Atlantic, and where the 
majestically sweeping Sebou forces a bar-obstructed exit from 
the marshy plains of its lower basin. From break to break, 
the inhospitable coast is boulder-strewn and cliff-faced, while 
offshore, rocky platform shallows, insufficient anchor-hold,? 
treacherous Atlantic swell, angry surf, and dangerous summer 
fog banks, intensify its forbidding character, and well earn for 
it the ominous name of ‘iron coast’. 
In the past, the more unscrupulous dwellers in the dune belt, 
have turned these adverse conditions to profit by lighting night 
beacon-fires, to lure stricken vessels to the rocks, for easy plunder. 

At the present time, there is a very striking lack of maritime 
activity along this coast. A few lightermen ply from the ports 
of Rabat-Sallee and Larache, to vessels which the coastal condi- 
tions compel to anchor distantly in the roadstead. But there are 
no true sailors among them.? Their calling is one that has been 
thrust upon them by the sailors of other peoples, who, standing 
knocking for trade at their dangerous doors, have been unable 
to cross the threshold. 

In the waters of the cool Canaries current which wash this 
shore, there is one of the richer of the world’s edible fish homes, 
and this must have been known for long in Morocco, for as early 


1 Pobeguin, E.: Sur la céte ouest du Maroc. Rabat, 1907. 

2 Michaux-Bellaire, E., and Salmon, G.: Les Tribus Arabes de la vallée 
du Lekkous, Archives Marocaines (Publication de la Mission Scientifique 
du Maroc). Vol. VI. Paris, 1906. 

3 Montagne, R.: Les Marins Indigénes de la zone frangaise du Maroc. 
Hespéris (formerly ‘ Archives Berbéres’). Tome III. Paris, 1924. 

ce Ae = 


48 A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 


as the sixteenth century Leo Africanus! drew attention to this 
teeming marine life. Yet sea-fish is in no sense a preferred food 
along this coast, and all the fishermen can be counted on one’s 
fingers.2 Further, even these few sea-goers are merely oarsmen, 
netting a small catch about the mouths of the Lekkous and Bou 
Regreg, and never venture much beyond the bars at the mouths 
of these rivers. 

Innate inaptitude for the life of the sea seems to have con- 
tributed to this insignificance of maritime activity, for the dazzling 
maritime past of this coast, which the exploits of the Sallee 
Rovers call to mind, merely strengthens this conviction when 
examined. These long-feared pirates, with their lair behind 
the bar of the Bou Regreg, were not Moroccan natives. They 
were partly expelled Andalusians, and partly renegade Kuropeans, 
who already had familiarity with the sea before reaching Morocco : 
it is well known that most of the ‘ Reis ’ or pirate captains were 
of Christian origin,? and the sixteenth-century pirates of Mehedya, 
who sheltered behind the Sebou bar, were Europeans, commanded 
by an Englishman named Mainwaring.* 

Certainly, there can never have been any permanent urge 
impelling these people to seek sea-food to supplement the food 
yielded by the land, for Morocco is a land of plenty : sheep and 
goats almost everywhere in both hills and plains; cattle in 
parts of the lowlands ; olives in the hills; wheat and barley in 
the plains; and however rigorous the flail of drought, locust 
Swarm, or sirocco, none of these have created permanent shortage. 
This lack of food-seeking urge, therefore, may also have con- 
tributed to the paucity of coastal maritime activity. 

But it is the unrelenting hostility of the ‘iron coast ’ which 
has mattered most: for men fear such a coast, and, fearing it, 
without the urge of necessity, venture little on the sea which 
lashes it. Moreover, no distant land horizons were there to 
entice them, perhaps through curiosity, to brave the dangers in 


1 Leo Africanus, Johannes: The History and Description of Africa, 
and of the Notable Things therein contained. Done into English, 1600, 
by John Pory, and now edited by R. Brown. Publication by Hakluyt 
Society. London, 1896. 

* Boucau, H.: ‘La Vie maritime indigéne sur la cOte Atlantique du 
Maroc,’ La Géographie. Tome XLII. Paris, 1925. 

3 Rabat et Sa Région (publication de la Mission Scientifique du Maroc), 
Tome I, pp. 129-40. Paris, 1918. 

4 Rabat et Sa Région, op. cit., p. 274. 


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A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 49 


spite of their fear. For, seaward, on even the clearest of days, 
there is visible nothing but the boundless plain of heaving 
waters, billowing out to the dome of the skies. 

Whatever overseas contacts this coast has had, have been 
maintained by peoples who were strangers to it, and who 
had acquired their sea skill elsewhere. Down the centuries, 
Pheenicians, Romans, medieval citizens of Venice and Genoa, 
Portuguese, Spaniards, and, during the nineteenth century, 
Europeans of all nations, especially British and French, have 
followed in each other’s wake. Further, with the exception 
of one, Mogador, every port on the Atlantic seaboard of 
Morocco, from the Straits of Gibraltar to where the High Atlas 
push their rugged knuckles into the sea, has been founded by 
people coming from overseas,! either to trade or to conquer. 
Repelled on the Mediterranean Coast by conditions equally in- 
hospitable, although for different reasons, and with the additional 
deterrent of a high mountain hinterland to cross, before reaching 
the richer parts of Morocco which they sought, they were driven 
to use the Atlantic seaboard in spite of its forbidding coast. 
Hence, although it is so repellent, with the exception of 
Tangier and Melilla, all the ports of Morocco have been on 
the Atlantic coast, and, as there are practically no shelter 
points away from the river mouths, most of them have been at 
the breaks cut by the rivers. 

On the south bank of the Bou Regreg, Chella, a Phoenician 
calling port, preceded Sala Colonia, its Roman counterpart on 
the north bank, the Moorish Rabat on its own side, and Sallee 
on the opposite bank. At the mouth of the Lekkous, the Roman 
Lixus preceded the present Larache (El Araish) and, at the 
mouth of the Sebou, the Phoenician Thymiateria preceded the 
Moorish Mamora, later, called Mehedya. When the Zerga channel 
has been passable at high tide, it, too, has sheltered some shipping. 

This concentration of past sea activity at the coastal breaks, 
has had a significant effect on present-day land activities in the 
dune belt. Related to the final expulsion of the Moors from 
Spain in 1610, and to the constant attacks on the Moroccan 
Atlantic seaboard by the Portuguese during the sixteenth century, 
the deepest of anti-Christendom feeling permeated Morocco. 
One expression of this was the rise of the Sallee Rovers in the 
seventeenth century. 

1 Goulven, J.: Le Maroc, p. 23, and Maroc (Guides Bleus), Paris, 1921. 


50 A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 


Numerous reprisals against the Rovers were undertaken by 
different powers of Western Christendom, and these were almost 
_ all directed to Sallee itself, or to near vantage points from which 
the pirates might be checked. To counteract these attacks, 
many Moslems were incited to oppose the infidel, under the 
impulsion of a flame of religious fervour, fanned by puritan 
Shareefs through the media of their confraternities and monas- 
teries.t The fighters for the crescent, the Moujahidin, camped 
in large numbers along the western coast generally, but especially 
at the river breaks, which afforded the only possible landing 
places for the enemy, the ‘ iron coast ’ being sufficient protection 
between these points. 

Larache, at the Lekkous break, succumbed to the Spanish 
in 1610, and was held by them for nearly a century. Rabat- 
Sallee never fell, but, guarded only by the small Moorish Kasba 
of Mamoura, the Sebou mouth became Spanish for most of the 
seventeenth century. The only other break in the ‘ iron coast ’ 
between the Bou Regreg and Lekkous, was the Zerga Channel, 
which, poor though it was, could sometimes afford a landing 
place. This break had attracted no permanent settlement in 
later history, due to its physical unsuitability for shipping activity, 
and was thus without the defences which such a settlement might 
have had. It was a vulnerable point therefore, and, as such, 
attracted large numbers of the Moujahidin. So too did the Sebou 
mouth. Almost of necessity, it was near the breaks in the coast 
that the majority of the combats took place, and that the majority 
of the slain fell. For the more notable of the slain, Koubbas 
(tomb houses) were frequently erected, and to-day, much of the 
west coastal region is still dotted with them, all being objects 
of veneration. Around the Zerga channel and Sebou mouth | 
they are particularly numerous, and some of them have acquired 
a special significance in the religious and commercial life of the 
country. In particular, that of Moulay Bou Selham near the 
Zerga channel, and that of Sidi Ahmed near the Sebou mouth, 
have given rise to vast annual pilgrimages and fairs, which have 
persisted to the present day. 

Thus, for a few brief days, parts of the coastal dune belt, 
which, for the rest of the year, are mournfully devoid of human 
activity, are athrob with the movement of some twenty thou- 


1 Rabat et Sa Région, op. cit. 


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A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 51 


sand people and their pack animals,! the dunes being littered for 
miles with tents and baggage. 

In the latter part of the twelfth century (A.D.) a part of the 
dune belt between the Sebou and the Bou Regreg, had acquired 
a special significance due to its proximity to Rabat. This town 
was the Rbat-el-Fath (Camp of Victory) of the powerful Yacoub 
el Mansouri, and the principal port of embarkation of his troops 
on the way to Spain.? Hence, neighbouring parts of the coastal 
dune belt, well-drained, where men and animals could move 
freely, and with ample space of unutilised land for the accom- 
modation of a host, became a vast mobilisation centre and 
military camping ground. 

Centuries later, as we have seen already, the period of the 
attacks and invasions by Christendom again saw considerable 
numbers of men, and presumably, their families, dwelling in the 
dune belt. 

But, for the peaceful tenor of man’s way, these wastes, with 
only brackish surface water, scanty pasture, poor soils, and 
no tree growth, offered little to attract men to establish their 
homes there. Hence, as to-day, it is probable that the dune 
belt has been always one of the most sparsely settled parts of 
Morocco. Yet, these undulating barrens are suited to sheep- 
and goat-raising and, in parts, to cultivation of inferior barley 
and millet, and Malet * cites olive, carob, almond and fig cul- 
tivation, also, as possible exploitations in a hypothetical future 
when pressure on the land may be much greater than now. But, 
in the past, as at present, the principal form of utilisation of 
the dunes has been nothing but poor pasturing of sheep and 
goats. The dune belt, therefore, has had no function as an 
economic ‘foyer d’appel ’. 

It has had one significant economic role, however, and that 
is aS a passage way. In this, there has been always an essential 
difference between the part north of the Sebou mouth, and that 
to the south of it. 

To the south of the Sebou mouth the dune belt is a narrow 
strip of open land between the Mamora Forest and the Atlantic. 
During the Roman occupation, this was followed by part of the 


1 Michaux-Bellaire, E., and Salmon, G.: Archives Marocaines, op. cit. 

*See Rabat et Sa Région, op. cit. 

3 Malet, F.: Mission d’études économiques au Maroc Rapport. Afrique 
Francaise (Bulletin). Paris, 1912. 


52 A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 


main track! between Sala Colonia, at the mouth of the Bou 
Regreg, and Tingis, on the Straits of Gibraltar, the chief port of 
Mauretania Tingitania. Later, the same track was almost 
always used by most Sultans when travelling between Rabat- 
Sallee on the one hand, and Meknes or Fez on the other, for the 
direct watershed route south of the Mamora Forest and between 
the tributaries of the lower Sebou and the lower Bou Regreg, 
was not often under the control of any Sultan. This track also 
formed part of the customary royal route between Fez and Mar- 
rakesh, the northern and southern capitals of Morocco, since the 
direct Tadla route across the Middle Atlas Foreland, was open 
only under Sultans of the calibre of Moulay Ismail? Similarly, 
for centuries, all commerce between Fez or Meknes, and Rabat- 
Sallee or the south, passed along this dune belt route to avoid 
the brigands of the Mamora Forest, and the politically uncertain 
lands at present occupied by the Zemmour and Guerouan tribes. 
In 1911, for much the same reasons, the Colonne Moinier used 
this route in its famous march on Fez.? Further, after the estab- 
lishment of the French Protectorate, with the creation and rapid 
rise of Kenitra as a port and town of importance, the light 
railway connecting Rabat-Sallee with Meknes and Fez, instead 
of taking the more direct watershed route, which was by then 
in pacified territory, was drawn north along the dune belt to 
serve Kenitra on the way.? 

Thus, this narrow strip of open land between forest and sea, 
has had a commanding role in the movements of people from 
the beginnings of recorded time. ‘Trim, helmeted Roman legion- 
aries in serried ranks; turbaned Sultans of Magreb el Aksa * 
with their motley trains; and sprightly gold-braided marshals 
with the disciplined army of the French republic, have passed 
along the same immemorial way, just as the swiftly moving © 
automobiles and railway trains of to-day race over the age- 


1See Besnier, H.: La Géographie Ancienne du Maroc, Archives Maro- 
caines, op. cit.. Tome I; and Harris, W. B.: *The Roman Roads of 
Morocco,’ Geographical Journal, Vol. X. London, 1897. 

2See Odinet: ‘La Grande Route Directe de Fez a Marrakesh’ au 
XVI¢e siecle.” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie du Maroc, Casablanca, 
1921. 

3 See Rabat et Sa Région, op. cit., Tome III, p. 109. 

4See appropriate sheets of Carte de Reconnaissance du Maroc au 
200,0008. 

> Farthest West Sunset Land. 


A PART OF THE WEST MOROCCAN LITTORAL 53 


worn tracks trodden out by the slow-moving asses and camels of 
ancient trade. 

The dune belt north of the Sebou, has also had its role as a 
passage way, although a much less important one. A narrow 
strip of high dry land between ocean and lagoon, it is also along 
the straight line between Rabat-Sallee and Larache. Hence 
this route was frequently used by pressed or belated travellers 
and caravans, but as it passed through few settlements on the 
way, it was never a main track of commerce. 

With the penetration of Morocco by Europeans, however, 
long before the French and Spanish protectorates were estab- 
lished in 1912, the mails from the outer world were landed at 
Tangier, and swift-footed native runners, the ‘rekkas’, dis- 
tributed them throughout Morocco, those making for Rabat- 
Sallee and the south, using the direct and shorter coastal dune 
belt route, to save time.! Thus, even the more isolated northern 
section of the dune belt has had its own peculiar economic role. 


Dunes, forest, lagoons ; cliffs, swell, surf; these have formed 
Nature’s challenge, along the West Moroccan shore. But the men 
brought hither, and hurried hence, in the relentless procession of 
time, unable to batter down their sinister affront, have yet 
imbued the dune belt with poignant human interest and glamorous 
romance, for the magnetical geographical position of this dreary 
ribbon of dunes has transcended the repellent power of its for- 
bidding physical detail. 


1See Mauran: La Société Marocaine. Paris, 1906. 


W. FOGG. 


CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES—Continued. 


Votume VI. 


- MHEOS and XPONOS: The “ Unity of Time” in Ancient Drama, by Professor 
H. J. Rose. James Howell once more, by Professor E. Bensly. Hamlet 
and the Essex Conspiracy (Part I), by Lilian Winstanley, M.A. Croce’s 
Doctrine of Intuition compared with Bradley’s Doctrine of Feeling, by 
Valmai Burdwood Evans, M.A. 


Voutume VII. 


The Prinsiplee of Quaternions, by the late Assistant Professor W. J. Johnston. 
The descriptive use of Dactyls, by A. Woodward, M.A. Hamlet and the 
Essex Conspiracy (Part II), by L. Winstanley, M.A. Sainte-Beuve and 
the English Pre-Romantics, by Eva M. Phillips, M.A. The General Theories 
ef Unemployment, by J. Morgan Rees, M.A. The Intention of Peele’s 
“ Old Wives’ Tale,” by Gwenan Jones, M.A., Ph.D. 


VoLuME Vill, 


The rbedpedss of the Conventional Woman: Deianeira, by Professor H. J. Rose, 
Two Fragments of Samian Pottery, in the Museum of the University 
College of Wales, Aberystwyth, by P. K. Baillie Reynolds,M.A. Additional 
Notes of the Familiar Letters of James Howell, by Edward Bensly, M.A. 
Some Arthurian Material in Keltic, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. The 
Keltic God with the Hammer, by J. J. Jones, M.A. 


Vortume IX, 


| The Scenery of Vergil’s Eclogues, by Professor H. J. Rose and Miss Winstanley, 
_ M.A. More Gleanings in James Howell’s Letters, by Edward Bensly, 
M.A. St. Cadvan’s Stone, Towyn, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. The Influence 

of Valencia and its Surroundings on the Later Life of Luis Vives as a Philo- 
sopher and a Teacher, by Professor Foster Watson. The Philosophy of 

_ Giovanni Gentile, by Miss Valmai Burdwood Evans, M.A. The Problems 

_ of Psychological Meaning, by George H. Green, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt, 


VoLUME X. 
THE HYWEL DDA MILLENABY VOLUME. 


z - Pocsimiles of MSS. Hywel Dda: the Historical Setting, by Professor J. E. 
— Lioyd, D.Litt. M.A. The Laws of Hywel Dda in the light of Roman and 
_.. Early English Law, by Professor T. A. Levi, M.A. The Land in Ancient 

_ Welsh Law, by T. P. Ellis, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. Social Life as reflected in 
‘the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones,M.A. The Language 
of the Lawe of Hywel Dda, by Professor T. H. Parry-Williams, M.A. <A 
ia Salama of the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. 


VOLUME XI. 


gee “Willem Wilson ’ ‘and the Conscience of Edgar Allan Poe, by George H. Green, 
ee M.A., Ph.D., B.Litt. The Celtic Stratum in the Place-Nomenclature of 
ee”. i East healins by O. K. Schram, M.A, Ph.D. Dialects and Bilingualism, 
by Professor T. Gwynn Jones, M.A. An Enquiry into the Conditions of 
_ Subject Teaching in Secondary and Central Schools in Wales, by A. Pinsent, 
" M.A., B.Sc. Corydon and the Cicadae: A Correction, by Professor H. J. 
< eae Hees M. A., and Miss sd lami M.A. 


; . Vi, IX, & aad XI, price 3/6 ae may be pence from the ‘Geeretary, 
ee _ University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, or from Humphrey Milford, 
_ Oxford Abe se — Warehouse, London. 


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ries peetc spree . 


VAs bm ‘ 

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ae i 


‘CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS| von 4 . 


: Votume I. ; . ike ea 
The Anglo-Saxon Riddles, by G. A. Wood, M.A. An eee ae the ‘fern 
characters of Grillparzer’s Dramas contrasted with those of Goeth 
and Schiller’s, by Miss Amy Burgess, M.A. Norman Earthworks 
Aberyatwyth, by F. S. Wright. A List of Research Publications 
Members of the College Staff for the Session 1910-11. ¥ es 
| Voxtume II. ie. ate, E 
The Anglo- Suen Riddles (continued), by G. A. Wood, M. A. Some Ancigng 
Defensive Earthworks near Aberystwyth, by F. 8. haat Pa: 
Verhaeren, by P. M. Jones, B.A. 
Votume Iil. . : ae 
The Greek Agones, by Professor H. J. Rose. A few Notes on the ‘fas ig 
Letters of James Howell, by Professor E. Bensly. Fable Literature in” 
Welsh, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. Trajano Boccalina’ s ; Influence upon 
English Literature, by Richard Thomas, M.A. 
Votume IV. <i Pi same! , 
Pagan Revivalism under the Roman Empire, by Sir William M. Raine 
F.B.A. The Bronze Age in Wales, by Harold Peake, F. ey. Dionysi: 
by Professor H. J. Rose. The Clausule of Auschines, by R. A. Pope, M 
Further Notes on the Familiar Letters of James Howell, by Profess 
Edward Bensly. Further Notes on ‘‘the Owl and the Nightingale,” b 
Professor J. W. H. Atkins. The Arthurian Empire in the Elizabeth 
Poets, by Miss L. Winstanley, M.A. A Note on a passage in “ Beowulf. 
by G. N. Garmonsway, B.A. Weish Words from Pembrokeshire, 
Professor T. Stanley Roberts. An English Flexional ending in Welsh,” 
by Professor T. H. Parry-Williams. A “Court of Love” poem in Welsh, : 
by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. The Evolution of ths Welsh Home, 
yal Lewis, M.A. A Washer at the Ford, by Miss Gwenan Jon 
M.A. An Outline History of our Neighbourhood, by Professor H.. 
Fleure. Some Notes on the Industrial Revolution in South Wales, 
J. Morgan Rees, M.A. Industrial Training in South Wales, by W. Ki 
M.A. Conduct and the Experience of Value, by L. A. Reid, M.A. So 
sources of the English Trial, by Professor T. A. Levi. A Renascence Pion 
of Women’s Education, by Professor Foster Watson. Instruction 
Religion, by Professor C. R. Chapple. A new document bearing on the 
Welsh Education Commission of 1846-7, by F. Smith, M.A. On Stokes’s © 
Formula and the Maxwell-Lorentz Equations, by Professor W. H. Young. 3 
Recent Investigations of the scattering of X- and y-Rays, by Professoi 
_G. A. Schott. The Addition of Hydrogen to Acetylenie Acids, by the lat 
‘D. Emrys Williams, B.Sc., and Professor T. C. James. The Action o: 
Reducing Agents on some Polynitrodiphenylamines, by N. M. Cullinan 
M.Sc. Some Reactions of Tetranitroaniline, by C. W. Davies, B.Sc, 
The Origin of the Seed-Plants (Spermophyta), by D. H. Scott, LL.D 
Investigations into the Fauna of the Sea Floor of Cardigan Bay, by 
Professor R. Douglas Laurie. The Fauna of the Clarach Stream (! a 
ganshire) and its Tributaries, by Miss K. Carpenter, B.Sc. Additions 
the Marine Fauna of Aberystwyth and District, by Miss EH. Horsme 
M.Se. The Bryophyta of Arctic-Alpine Associations in Wales, PY: C. Bh : 
Marquand, M.A. 


VoLuME V 

The Government of Nicolas de Ovando in Espanola (15011609), by € 
Jane, M.A. Arx Capitolina, by the late Professor G. A. T. Davies = 
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ABERYSTWYTH 
Vol. XIII 


ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 
VOL. Xi 


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CONTENTS 


PAGE 


1. ALLITERATION: WELSH AND SCAN DINAVIAN. Py 
Professor T. GwyNN JONES, M.A. ‘ 1 


2. WILLIAM DE VALENCE (ec. 1230- ree By Frank R. 
_ Lewis, M.A. s 3 4 ¢ ‘ 11 


3. A NOTE ON ‘HOP-FROG.’ By Grorct H. GREEN, 
M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt. : ° : : 37 


4. SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURN S. By 
Eva MARGARET Puituies, M.A., Docteur de l’Université 
de Paris. ‘ 5 . A x ‘ 5. 48} 


5. THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL. By E. G. 
Bowen, M.A. A A 5 A 5 5 61 


6. WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO. By WALTER 
Foae, M.A. j A : 69 


7. THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES IN THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. By J. Lurretys Daviss, 
M.Sc. e e e e e e ) 85 


ALLITERATION : WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN. 


PROBABLY the earliest reference to Welsh alliteration in any 
work designed to appeal to readers not acquainted with the 
language is that made by Giraldus Cambrensis in his ‘“‘ Descriptio 
Kambriz,’’ written before 1194.1 


An interesting poem written in English by a Welsh bard of 
the 15th century, said to have been an Oxford student at the 
time, has been conserved in a number of MSS. The poem is in 
Welsh metre, with the regular cynghanedd of the bards of the 
period. Some copies of the composition are written in Welsh 
orthography, and an edition based upon two of these was printed 
by Furnivall.2. This was regarded at the time as the earliest 
evidence of the sounds of the English speech of the period, a 
conclusion afterwards rejected on solid grounds by Dr. Max 
Forster.* The sole value of the composition lies in its regular 
illustration in English speech of the characteristics of Welsh 
metre and cynghanedd. 


In Welsh MSS of the 16th and 17th century quite a number 
of Latin and English englynion have been preserved, written by 
scholars, mostly unknown. In the Latin examples the cynghanedd 
is generally more perfect than in the English attempts, on account 
of the greater possibility of such effects in that language.* 


1 See Rolls Series, Ed. Dimeock, 1868. 
2 Transactions of the Philogical Society, 1880-81. 


3 Datierung u. Charakter des kymrische-englischen Marien-Hymnus. 
(Archiv fiir das Studium der neueren Sprache u. Interatur, 150). 
4From a successful series by one Moses Powell, an example may 
be quoted :— 
“$i verbis queris quorum—tu discas 
ne tentas ni tantum, 
sed in verbis tuis tum 
cura ut sit decorum.”’ 
The following attempt in English, “‘ written to a Bishop,”’ is among 
the most successful examples I have seen :— 
“A prelat, a sprat, a spring—a nod[d]y 
[or] an adder tripping ; 
a faithless, a thankless thing, 
an atheist or else nothing.”’ 


1 


2 ALLITERATION: WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN 


Drayton’s “ Polyolbion,” in the sections of the poem relating to 
Wales, reflects a degree of acquaintance with the customs of the 
Welsh bards, probably derived from the author’s friends, Hum- 
phrey Lluyd and John Williams, to whom he refers in a preface 
addressed “‘ To my friends the Cambro-Britons.’” 

A full exposition of the metrical and alliterative systems of 
the Welsh bards appears in Dr. Sién Dafydd Rhys’ highly original 
‘‘ Institutiones,’”’ the earliest printed grammar of the language.’ 
In the section on prosody, for the sake of comparison, Rhys 
quotes and fully analyses sixteen tercets of an Italian composition 
which he entitles “Circe figliuola de’l Sole 4 Vlisse Epistola 
decima.”’ In an introductory note he observes : 

‘* Erant olim apud Italos antiquiores in Carminibus, concentuum 
quedam genera, Cambrobrytannicis concentibus, non usque adeo 
absimilia; verium gratia et venustate Cambrobrytannicis multo 
inferiora ... Quze quidem carmina ne vix vmbram quandam 
Cambrobrytannicorum concentuum venuste pulchritudinis osten- 
dere videntur.’’ 

James Howell, author of the well-known “‘ Familiar Letters,” 
in his polyglot dictionary*, included, with others, a collection of 
Welsh proverbs, supplied by Richard Owen of Eltham, Kent, 
whose assistance in preparing the translation, along with that 
of W. Williams and R. Evans, he acknowledges. In an intro- 
duction to this collection Howell discusses the question of Welsh 
alliteration, stating that ‘“ besides the ordinary cadencies of the 
rime (wherein the English poetry chiefly consists) the British 
meeter hath a conceit almost in every second word, which love 
to lick one another by agnomination.” As other examples of 
alliteration he quotes three of the tercets printed by Rhys, with- 
out mentioning his source. In the translation of the proverbs 
there is a manifest effort to reproduce the alliterative sound-play 
of Welsh cynghanedd, of which also there are occasional examples 
in Howell’s own verse, as in earlier and later English poems by 
Welshmen. 


1See The Poetical Works of . .. Drayton. (Complete ed. of the 
Poets of Great Britain. Vol. III. London, 1793). 
2 Cambrobrytannice Cymraeceeve Lingue Institutiones etc. London, 
1592. 
31 quote the first tercet :— 
** Vlisse o lasso, o dolce amore i’ moro, 
Se porci parci, qui armento hor’ monta, 
In selua saluo & me piu caro coro.” 
4 Lexicon Tetraglotion . . English-French-ltalian-Spanish .. . 
London, 1660. 


ALLITERATION : WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN 3 


The so-called “ Celtic revival ’’ in England about the middle 
of the 18th century was mainly concerned with the supposed 
history of Druidism, and displays no acquaintance with either 
the language or the literature of Wales. Gray’s poems, however, 
indicate an interest both in Welsh and Scandinavian. ‘“ The 
Bard ”’ occasionally displays alliterative effects of a slightly more 
complex character than those usually found in English, but not 
sufficiently developed to prove any attempt to imitate the 
principles of the Welsh practice. It is, however, known that 
Gray corresponded with Evan Evans (Ieuan Brydydd Hir) a 
Welsh poet and scholar.* 


About this time, references of a general character to the 
supposed similarity of Welsh and Scandinavian alliteration begin 
to appear in English writings. Percy concluded that the Kelts 
borrowed their art from their Teuton or Scandinavian neighbours. 

A discussion indicating some attempt to obtain authoritative 
information on the Welsh practice occurs in a work by Henderson,? 
in an appendix devoted to the subject of Icelandic versification. 
The author gives an interesting but somewhat inadequate analysis 
of the alliterative elements characteristic of the poetry of the 
Skalds, adding that the nearest approach to their practice is to 
be found in Keltic verse. He gives a very brief summary of 
some of the peculiarities of Welsh versification, based upon some 
of the opinions expressed by Bishop Percy,’ and probably others, 
and subjoins a specimen, stated to have been taken “from 
Evans,” in order to ‘“‘ convey to the reader some idea of the 
Welsh assonances.” The specimen given is probably taken 
from a well-known work by Evan Evans.* It is known that there 
was a correspondence between Percy and Evans,’ but it does 
not appear that they can have discussed in any detail the affinities 
of Scandinavian alliteration and Welsh cynghanedd. In any 
case, it appears to me to be improbable that Evans, who was a 
master of Welsh cynghanedd, and whose work is still of distinct 
value, could have studied critically the structure of Icelandic 


1 See article by W. Lewis Jones, Y Beirniad, Vol. II. No. 1. 

2 Journal of a Residence in Iceland. London, 1819. 

3In his translation of Mallet’s Northern Antiquities. See Bohn’s 
ed., London, 1847. 

4Some Specimens of the Posiry of the ancient Welsh Bards. . 
London, 1764. 

5 Thomas Gray’s interest in Celtic. Edward D. Snyder, Modern 
Philology, Vol. XI. No.4, April 1914. _ 


4 ALLITERATION: WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN 


alliteration. Had he done so, even with no more than a super- 
ficial acquaintance with the language, he could not have failed 
to observe that Skaldic verse exhibits at least two or three types 
of consonantal harmony exactly following the principle observed 
in the Welsh bardic system. It also appears that no Welsh 
scholar thoroughly acquainted with the rules of Welsh prosody 
has since attentively studied the stanzas, for example, quoted in 
the Heamskringla of Snorri Sturluson. 

Henderson states that he found it “somewhat remarkable 
that Turner, in his history of the Anglo-Saxons, should have 
been insensible to the strikingly alliterative nature of their 
poetry, as the most palpable instances of it occur in the specimens 
which he has inserted in his work. Between these compositions 
and those of the Skalds, the agreement is most regular and com- 
plete.”?. 

Anderson himself had probably no acquaintance with Welsh, 
and had not realized that the Scandinavian practice, in its dis- 
tinctively Skaldic developments, conforms to a principle much 
more complex than that found in Anglo-Saxon generally. 

This conception of alliteration as involving only the repetition 
of two or three initial consonants in a line is already illustrated 
in the examples given by Giraldus Cambrensis in the twelfth 
century. Discussing the rhetorical powers and the “ exquisite 
invention of the rhymed songs and set-speeches ”’ of the Welsh 
people of his period, he quotes two lines (actually proverbs) as 
examples of Welsh cynghanedd :— 

Dychaun duw da i unic. 

Erbyn dibuilh puilh parawd. 
These examples show that his acquaintance with the subject was 
not intimate. The second line is an instance of the type of 
consonance commonly found in earlier Welsh verse, developed 
later in accord with the inherent possibilities of the language. 
The first line is merely an instance of simple initial-letter corres- 
pondence, which in this case may even have been unintended. 

This repetition of simple sounds, as found in Scandinavian 
and Anglo-Saxon, is quite an elementary matter compared with 
the principle of Welsh cynghanedd. For example, in the Ice- 
landic :— 

Sly durtungur lét slingra : svero leiks regin ferdir. 
Here the correspondence is si: sl: s (or sv)—the group sl-, 
occurring twice in the first helming, is answered in the second by 

1 Op. cit. pp. 553-4. 


ALLITERATION : WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN — 5 


a single s (or by a group sv). Similarly in Anglo-Saxon and early 
English :— 
Firum foldan frea zelmichtiga. 
(f:f: fr). 
That cardinales ben called and closing yates. 
(G56 acl 
{n this type of correspondence the appeal to the ear has mani- 
festly not attained the stage at which the sound-unity of a con- 
sonantal group followed by an accent-bearing vowel had been 
realized. In the Welsh system the inadequacy of a single 
consonant as an equivalent in such a case is recognized. 

It thus appears that early and modern writers on the subject 
failed to grasp the greater complexity of Welsh cynghanedd 
because they had not realized the exact perception of the laws 
of sound exhibited by its rules. 

Although he gives a full exposition of the “manner of com- 
posing practised by the premier Skalds,” Snorri Sturluson, in 
his ‘“ Skaldskaparmal,” explains not so much the practice of 
alliteration as the principles of the hevt: (defined as an “ appel- 
lation’) and the kenning (described as a “ designation” or a 
“way of making a thing known’’). These practices, as pointed 
out by M. Vendryes, show considerable resemblance to the 
periphrases of the Welsh court poets. There is however in this 
particular, as [ conceive, a somewhat important difference to be 
_observed—whereas in the matter of alliteration the system of the 
Welsh bards is of greater complexity and finer perception of 
sound-values, in the matter of the kenning the practice of the 
Skalds is more developed and more perceptibly standardized.? 

In the earlier type of Scandinavian verse which I have been 
enabled to examine—I do not here attempt to enter into the 
question of metrical structures—I have not found examples of 
what, for the sake of exactness, I shall henceforth describe as 
cynghanedd, conforming to the practice of the Welsh bards. On 
the other hand, in the Skaldic practices, as illustrated in the 
quotations comprised in the Heiwmskringla and the numerous 
specimens examined in Sievers’ admirable study of the verbal 


1La poésie galloise des XIIe—XIIle siécles dans ses rapports 
avec lalangue. Oxford, 1930. 

2 For illuminating discussions of the relation of the heii and the 
kenning, see Van der Merwe Scholtz, The Kenning in Anglo-Saxon 
and Old Norse Poetry, Oxford, 1929, and Krause, Die Kenning als 


typische Stilfigur der germanischen und keltischen Dichtersprache, 
Halle, 1930. 


6 ALLITERATION: WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN 
contractions and expansions in the Skaldic metres,’ I find that 
such examples are so plentiful that they cannot possibly be 
regarded as fortuitous. To realize the distinction here discussed, 
it is important to bear in mind the difference in principle between 
what is known as “alliteration’”’ in English or French, “Stabreim”’ 
in the Germanic languages, and the highly-developed system 
known in Welsh as cynghanedd. 

Generally, as already shown, alliteration is understood merely 
as being formed by identity of initial consonants in certain 
positions. Examples of this type are certainly to be found in 
earlier Welsh, but soon that somewhat elementary harmony is 
developed and acquires precision, finally attaining a minutely 
regulated system. Even were we unacquainted with the metrical 
codes, we could hardly fail to discover the detailed perfection of 
this system, the whole-line consonantal correspondences, with 
their dependence upon accent, sandhi, liaison, internal rhyme, 
vowel alternances and consonantal grouping, the latter parti- 
cularly in relation to an exact realisation of the function of the 
accent.” 

In the Skaldic verse to be found in the Heimskringla, analysed 
according to the sound-laws operating in the Welsh system, 
there is certainly a measure of analogous development which, so 
far as I am aware, has not been contrasted with Welsh examples. 

The type of cynghanedd of which I have found the larger 
number of examples in Scandinavian is that known in Welsh as 
cynghanedd lusg, a kind of penult-rhyme, as it has been aptly 
described by Professor Glyn Davies.? This, as it appears in 
Scandinavian, is treated as a type of rhyme, as in principle, of 
course, itis. In essence, it is found in what in French terminology 
is known as rume grammaticale.* This principle, regarded by the 
bards as a type of cynghanedd, characterizes Welsh verse of a date 


1See Bettrdge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 
5 Band, 1877-78. 

This point may be briefly illustrated. In the word gldn, the gl, 
followed by the accent, form a group, which must therefore be answered 
by a similar group. In a line such as gldn a theg yw et liw, the g in the 
third syllable and the / in the sixth form a group, accented after the 
l, because the two consonants are only separated by vowel sounds. 

2 Welsh Metrics. London, Constable, 1911. 

4See couplet end-rhyme examples (in a metrical formation 
strikingly similar to that of the Welsh Cywydd Deuair Hirion), in Hin 
neuentdeckter Niederléndischen Minnesdnger aus dem 13. Jahrhundert 
- « eRooth. Lund, 1928. 


ALLITERATION : WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN’ 7 


preceding the 12th century, and is significantly very common 
in the earlier verse material conserved in Breton, as for example :— 

En un ty dyfflas, en presep un asen.! 
I am aware that examples of the principle are complicated in 
Scandinavian. The definition of the term scothending seems to 
me to be inadequate as an explanation of all the examples given 
as such by Sievers, some of which certainly seem to involve the 
principle of the adalhending as well. I have found other examples 
which do not seem to correspond to the definition of the 
scothending while at the same time differing from the more perfect 
development of the adalhending. This seems to indicate a practice 
open to some individual variation or a lack of adequate definition 
on the part of the writers on prosody. Of the scothending 
generally there are no exact examples in Welsh. Of the type 
present in the following line, which answers in principle to 
internal rhyme, but with the first rhyming element in mid-word, 
there are no Welsh examples :— 

jalks briktgpué glikan (-2kt-: -ik-) 
The principle of the penult-rhyme is, of course, involved in this 
example, but an internal syllable, though accented, could not 
rhyme with the penult according to Welsh practice. Even when 
the first rhyming element is a final syllable, an end-group of con- 
sonants is not treated as indivisible, as witnessed by very numerous 
examples of the type of the following :— 

allsvangr gotur langar (-ngr-: -ng-) 
The rule in Welsh is represented by two practices. In one case, 
the principle of the indivisibility of a consonantal group is not 
obligatory, as in the Icelandic instance just quoted. In the other, 
the group is indivisible, and this principle was ultimately held 
to be the rule, even in a group resulting from the compounding 
of two words, as in the following line :— 

A’m tafod ffals gwamalsyth (-als : -als-) 

where the concluding expression is a compound of gwamal and 
syth. 

I have found in Icelandic numerous examples of both these 
forms. The ensuing instances of the strict observation of the 
principle will suffice :— 

Prottar ord, es pordi; (ord: ord-) 
Fylkis ord, at mordi (ord: ord-) 


Das sparn 4 m6 marnar (-arn : arn-) 
Sverd pj6dkonnungs ferdar (-erd: -erd-) 


1 Ernault, L’ancien vers breton, 1912, 


8 ALLITERATION: WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN 


The other type I have found extensively exemplified is known 
in Welsh as cynghanedd draws. In this type, the principle is 
not that of rhyme but of what, in the absence of a better term, may 
be called extended consonance, not merely initial-consonant 
repetition. The ensuing examples taken at random from a large 
number of instances, fully respond to the requirements of the 
Welsh rule :— 

Gumna vinr at gamnil(g-m-n: g-m-n-) 

Foldar rauo ok feldi (f-1-d: f-1-d-). 

Gripum vér i greipar (gr -p-:gr-p-). 

Sendir fella sandi (s-n-d- :s-n-d-) 
Of this exactly balanced type, in which the line, at least hypotheti- 
cally, falls into three portions, the correspondence being between 
the first and the third, I have counted over a hundred examples 
in the Heimskringla. I have also noted a few instances approach- 
ing the type known as cynghanedd groes, in which the line is divided 
into two portions. The following is an instance : | 

Hitt es mal pats mela (tt-s-m-1l: t-s-m-1-) 

These equivalences seem to occur mostly, though perhaps not 
exclusively, in strictly Skaldic verse. In the Voluspa, a poem of 
the 10th century,” the principle is found in a more elementary 
form, corresponding exactly to the earlier treatment of the 
identical nine-syllable line (normally 5+4 or 4+5) by the Welsh 
bards, in the type called cynghanedd fraidd-gyfwrdd, where the 
correspondence occurs in mid-line. The structure of the following 
examples, Scandinavian and Welsh, both in line-treatment and 
consonance, is identical :— 

Sol varp sunnan sinnt mana. 

La né let, né lita goda. 

Legjarn liki, Loka apekkjan. 

Can dydaw angeu angen drallawt. 

Yn ethryb caru Caerwys vebin. 

Gwr a wnaeth gwaedlif gwaedlafn gochi. 


There is also an example in the Voluspa which agrees with the 
mid-line type of cynghanedd sain, in which there are two rhyming 
elements, the second answered by consonance. This instance 
shows exact agreement with the Welsh practice, as will be seen :— 
Naor frann nedan fra Nidafjéllum (-ann: -an: fr-n-6:fr:n 0-) 
Gwawr cyhoed wisgoed wasgaroccaf (oed: -oed: w- sg-:w- sg-) 


1 This example would be contrary to the strict practice in Welsh 
because of the single-vowel ending of both elements (gumna : gamnt), 
complete vocal or consonantal equivalence in the terminal syllable 
of alliterated elements being avoided. 

2 Bugge, Bidrag til den cldste Skaldedigtnings historie. Christiania, 
1894, p. 121, ) 


ALLITERATION : WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN’ 9 


The question of the origin of cynghanedd, whether Welsh or Scan- 
dinavian, has many difficulties. The statement that there is a 
connection between Skaldic poetry and the art of the Irish court 
poets has often been made. No complete review of the discussion 
of the subject is attempted here, but the main problem—that of 
dating—may be indicated. In 1878, Edzardi published a con- 
tribution entitled “ Die Skaldischen Versmasse und ihr Verhaltniss 
zur Keltischen (Irischen) Verskunst.”! Discussing the over- 
alliterated and over-rhymed character of Skaldic verse, he states 
his belief that “in der tat hat sie sich nicht selbstandig aus der 
altgermanischen verskunst heraus entwickelt, sondern die an- 
regung ist von der keltischen dichtung ausgegangen, die in vielen 
punkten offenbar das vorbild der skaldischen kunstformen war.” 


As the result of examination, he holds that the metres known 
as drotikvett and runhenda exhibit Irish influence. Bugge (op. cit.) 
also admits Irish influence in matter and form, whereas Finnur 
Jénnson disagrees. The debatable point concerns the exact 
period of a skald named Brage and the date of the composition 
of the Ynglingaidl, attributed to Pjdddlfr. Jdénnson accepts the 
first half of the 9th century as the date of Brage. Bugge, on the 
other hand, claims that the poems attributed to Brage cannot be 
earlier than the second half of the 10th century, and contends 
that the composition of the Ynglingatal cannot be earlier than 
the middle of the tenth. He is also of the opinion that it was 
composed either in Northumberland or Dublin. He traces Irish 
influence in the form and content of the poem, and adds that other 
Scandinavian poems were composed in Britain, under the influence 
of Christianized Anglo-Saxons, Irish and Welsh (Cymrer).2, The 
meaning of these conclusions seems to be that Icelandic literature 
emerges in Britain. It is not for an outsider to express an opinion 
on questions the decision of which calls for an appreciation of 
minute details of style and feeling, rarely if ever possible outside 
the mother-tongue, but that court poets flourished in Ireland 
before the middle of the tenth century cannot be doubted. The 
evidence with regard to Wales is less certain, but it is now generally 
agreed that the Gododdin and many poems to be found in the 
Book of Taliesin, the Black Book and the Red Book, notably those 
attributed to Llywarch Hen, with the stanzas conserved in the 


1 See, Beitr. zur Geschichte des deutschen Sprache und Literatur 
(Paul uw. Braune) Band V. 
Op. cit. p. 36, 


10 ALLITERATION : WELSH AND SCANDINAVIAN 


Juvencus Codex, can be placed, at least in origin, somewhere 
between the seventh and the ninth century.' 

The character of the Ynglingatal is also significant. As the 
poem has come down to us, it contains 27 stanzas, each com- 
-memorating the death and recording the burial place of a king, 
each king an ancestor of the patron of the supposed author. It 
appears that this type of poem was not known in Icelandic before 
the appearance of this example and that it did not flourish after- 
wards.” In the works of the Welsh court poets, there is no pedigree 
poem corresponding in plan to the Ynglingaidl, but the motive is 
present in Englynion y Beddau, compositions of a period earlier 
than that of the court bards whose dateable works have come down 
tous. These stanzas, like poems of Irish bards and the Ynglingatal 
itself, record the death and burial places of the characters men- 
tioned in each stanza. Later instances of the motive occur to 
such an extent that one finds it difficult not to regard their pre- 
valence as evidence of the existence of a long-continued tradition. 

If the conclusion that the pedigree poem in Icelandic, with 
certain metrical formations as well, bear evidence of Irish models, 
then the strict cynghanedd elements, as distinguished from simple 
alliteration, may have some relation to the art of the Welsh 
bards—fraternisation of skald and bard would be quite likely at 
that period. The principle of cynghanedd is certainly present in 
Welsh verse which is now generally accepted as having been earlier 
than the tenth century, in some cases in a metrical form, the 
complexity and unique character of which show that it cannot 
have emerged without experimentation and development. In 
fact, as M. Vendryes points out, with unique perception, Welsh 
verse ‘‘ donne souvent l’impression de continuer une tradition qui 
remonte 4 l’époque ot la langue possédait encore ses finales” (op. 
cit. p. 24). Critical examination affords at least some evidence 
which suggests that cynghanedd may have already served in earlier 
stages of the language to link up metrical units, and the stark 
substantivity of style, the remnants of oblique forms and the 
peculiar employment particularly of the loose compound in the 
earlier periods, seem to owe their possibility and conservation, 
in face of the linguistic disintegration evidenced by the develop- 
ment of a new prose style, to a strong bardic tradition and a body 
of metrical material which has perished, but which was yet the 
source of the numerous archaisms of a traditional formalist like 
Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr. T. GWYNN JONES. 

1Loth, Rev. Celi, XXI et seq. See also Vendryes, La Poésie 


galloise, etc. 
2 Bugge, Op. cit. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE. 
(c. 1280—1296.) 


it. 

It is a customary practice in the writing of history to divide the 
main current of the nation’s story into sections. Certain well- 
marked periods in our history have already received distinguish- 
ing titles. The latter part of the XVIth century, for example, 
is called either the Elizabethan Age because of the glamour which 
irradiated the court of the Virgin Queen, or the Age of the Seamen 
because of the glorious triumphs of Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins, 
Frobisher, and Grenville, which make the pages of Hakluyt glow 
with breathless tales of daring and bravery, not only in the Spanish 
Main, but wherever our oak-built galleons could sail. The Seven- 
teenth Century could equally well be called the Age of the Lawyers. 
From Coke onwards, men possessing a legal acumen waged their 
long struggle for liberty against the royal prerogative. The contest 
is fundamentally one of the Common Law versus the Crown, rather 
than of Parliament versus the King. Parliament was merely the 
weapon used by the protagonists of the Common Law. The 
Highteenth Century is essentially the Age of the Country Gentle- 
man. Walpole, perhaps the most typical figure of the age, was 
himself a squire, and according to the well-known story he was 
accustomed to read the letters of his gamekeeper before State 
correspondence. It was an age of what Professor Trevelyan 
vividly calls “ port and pugilism ”, and the hard-drinking, hard- 
riding country squires ruled England, in the localities as Justices 
of the Peace, and in Westminster as Members of Parliament. 

The Thirteenth Century has been called by historians the period 
of the Dawn of the English Constitution. But the Thirteenth - 
Century is pre-eminently an age of one class of man; it is the 
Age of the Barons. For many reasons, indeed, this title would 
seem better than that of the era of the Dawn of the Constitution. 
There would have been no dawning of the constitution in the 
Thirteenth Century but for the work of the barons. Up to the 
year 1200, there was no check on the King’s government. The 
Church alone, fortified by the study of the Canon Law, had stood 


1 


12 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


up to challenge the ever-increasing jurisdiction of the King’s 
courts. And now some check was needed on the King’s power. 
Henry Il. had forged a machine of centralised absolutism which 
would become a menace to the barons and to the country in the 
hands of an unscrupulous King. The new King, John, proved to 
be the very type of man endowed with a character to make the 
barons realise the danger which threatened them. His reign has 
been called the “‘ culmination of Angevin despotism.” It was the 
culmination of unchecked royal power, for in the years of John’s 
misrule a tradition of baronial interference in the interests of 
themselves and of the nation was laid, and the King never enjoyed 
the same irresponsible absolutism again. On three occasions, 
separated by two intervals of approximately forty years, did the 
barons interfere in the XIIIth century, and each time with the 
most important political results. In 1215, King John had to 
sion Magna Carta ; in 1258, the barons secured Henry’s agreement 
to the Provisions of Oxford, and later to the Provisions of West- 
minster; and finally, in 1297, came the Confirmatio Cartarum 
when even the iron-willed Edward was forced to submit. The 
other shining ray of light in the Dawn of the Constitution was the 
summoning of Parliament. But the first true Parliament which 
met in England, the Parliament of 1265, was summoned by Simon 
de Montfort, the leader of the barons. So it is with some reason 
that we call the Thirteenth Century the Age of the Barons. 

Many historians believe that the history of a period can best 
be understood by the study of the life of one or more outstanding 
figures of that period. We may accept the belief of the biographi- 
cal method of historical study as being the best or not, yet 
the life of an outstanding character in any period must always 
be of intense interest to the student of history. To understand 
the life of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, is to understand most 
of the domestic history of the Elizabethan era ; perhaps the best 
approach to the study of the history of the later years of the Nine- 
teenth Century is found in the lives of Gladstone and Disraeli. 
The history of any reign, looked at as it is from different angles of 
vision, must perforce be divided into sections. On the contrary, 
if treated properly, there is a golden thread of continuity of 
personal interest in the biographical account of an eminent 
historical character. 

Since it is agreed that the barons came into prominence in 
the Thirteenth Century as never before and never afterwards in 
English history, the lives of the foremost barons are of absorbing 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 13 


interest and immeasurably assist an understanding of the period. 
A French scholar has said that there is no piece of medieval 
history to rival the life of Simon de Montfort in interest. Though 
the lives of Simon de Montfort and of the other barons who 
opposed the King are paramount in interest, upon consideration 
it seems a corollary that in an Age of the Barons the events 
connected with the lives of the chief of the King’s greatest sup- 
porters among the barons must be of almost equal interest. A 
Clarendon is second only to a Cromwell. 

William de Valence spent fifty years of his life in England, 
an outstanding type of the age. During the whole of the time 
he acted in close alliance with the two sovereigns who occupied 
the English throne. He was a trusted and imprudent counsellor of 
Henry III., and a trusted and prudent general of Edward I. His 
activities were of the widest nature. First he was a member of 
Henry III.’s body of counsellors who embarked on the rashest 
projects. Secondly, he showed his military qualities not only in 
England, but also in Wales and France. In the Barons’ Wars, in 
the Conquest of Wales, and in Gascony, William de Valence was a 
prominent figure. Thirdly, as the possessor of the Palatine 
Karldom of Pembroke, he was of considerable importance in 
Wales and the March, not only in time of war, but also in time 
of peace. 

Thus, in writing an account of William de Valence, the his- 
torian is forced to write much of the history of the years 
leading up to the Baronial Movement of 1258, and also much 
of the history of the Barons’ Wars. Then in later years it is 
necessary to describe Edward’s activities in France, and his con- 
quest of Wales, in order to evaluate the part played by William in 
these military adventures. Finally, because of the importance of 
the March in the Thirteenth Century, an importance which has 
been stressed by Professor Tout, no life of William de Valence is 
complete without touching upon some of the events connected 
with his county of Pembroke, one of the most powerful of the 
Marcher lordships.* 


Il. PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 


On the 19th October, 1216, died King John of England, 
lamented by none of his subjects. Even his widow, Isabella, 
1 Unfortunately there is no description of Pembrokeshire as accurate 


as H. J. Hewitt’s recent study of a Palatine Earldom: Medieval 
Cheshire, or G. T. Lapsley’s County Palatine of Durham. 


14 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


did not remain true to his memory for very long, for she returned 
to Angouléme in 1217, and married soon afterwards her former 
lover!, Hugh X., Count of Lusignan. He was one of the most 
powerful barons of Poitou, and the suitor from whom John had 
attracted her for his own wife. The family of Lusignan in 
power and dignity was a fit one for a Queen to marry into. It had 
provided the Kings of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia, besides 
other great barons who had become famous in various parts of 
Europe.2. Apparently, Isabella felt the need of justifying this 
marriage to her son, Henry III.* She insists on the isolation 
of Hugh X. after the death of the Counts of la Marche and of Eu, 
on the fact that the Princess Joan was very young, and on the 
danger of the Count’s marrying a French lady. These, however, 
do not seem very conclusive reasons. Since Hugh had waited 
for Isabella for so many years,* it was unlikely that he would 
marry anyone else now. But Henry was satisfied, and he wrote 
back saying “‘ gavisi sumus et plurimum laetati,’’® and merely 
asked that the custody and dowry of the Princess Joan should 
be sent to him immediately. Joan, however, was held as a hostage 
for certain lands in Poitou which Isabella claimed, and Hubert de 
Burgh was forced to surrender them before she was sent to 
England. 


From certain incidents which are related with regard to the 
married life of Hugh and Isabella, it appears certain that Hugh 
was a very uxorious husband. Isabella was of imperious temper 
and exercised complete domination over Hugh. She was a 
vigorous and passionate woman ;° she had borne five children 
to John, and Hugh was to be the father of another nine. Hugh 
was not a strong character, but he was shifty and deceitful, and 
seems to have played Macbeth to his wife’s Lady Macbeth through- 
out his married life. 


In 1241, Louis IX. sent his brother, Alphonse of Poitiers, to 
receive the homage of the barons of Poitou. In July of that year 
Hugh performed the necessary homage to Alphonse, but “il 
entre presque aussitot dans un complét qui éclate au mois de 


1 Cambridge Medieval History, VI. p. 251. 

2 Nouvelle Biographie Universelle XXXII. pp. 268-269. 
3 Bibliothéque de Vl’ Ecole des Chartes, IV. 2. pp. 539 seq. 
4W.H. Blaauw: The Barons’ War, p. 22. 

5 Rymer, Foedera, p. 160. 

6C.M.H. VI. p. 251. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 15 


décembre, 1241." Isabella, urged by feminine pique and 
jealousy, was the driving force in this rebellion, Léopold Délisle 
prints a letter from a burgess of La Rochelle to Blanche of Castile, 
which gives one an insight into the character of Isabella. The 
following conversation is supposed to have taken place between 
Hugh and his wife. Hugh: “‘ Domina precipite, quicquid potero 
faciam hoc sciatis’. “ Aliter ’, dixit illa, ‘nunquam a modo iacebitis 
mecum nec vos videbo’. Kt ipse tunc forcius anathemizabat 
se facere velle suum.’ Boissonade states the reason of Isabella’s 
anger.* “ Isabellis uxor Hugonis potestatem imminutam et Alnis- 
ium amissum aegre ferebat, atque comitisse Pictavensi, olim 
reginae Angliai inferiorem nunc vero superiorem locum occupanti 
invidebat.”” She urged Hugh to form a conspiracy, and since 
matters did not progress quickly enough, true to her word she 
left him suddenly and “Per tres dies Isabellis Hugoni se 
reconciliare noluit, eumque uxorem secutum in castrum urbis 
admittere recusavit.”* Hugh, driven into war, signed an offensive 
and defensive alliance with the Count of Toulouse in October, 
1241,5 and Comminges, Armagnac, Lautrec, and Narbonne also 
joined him.® 

But the war proved disastrous for the luckless Hugh. Louis 
raised an army in April, 1242, and the Poitevin strongholds were 
quickly taken. Henry III., on whose support Hugh X. had 
relied, proved a broken reed, and so completely defeated were the 
Poitevins that Hugh, Isabella, and their children had to kneel 
before Louis IX. and beg for mercy. The impetuous Isabella, 
furious at their defeat, became a nun in chagrin.’ She died in 
1246, and Hugh appeared to have died soon afterwards.® 

Such were the parents and such were the earliest years of 
William de Valence—a beginning in keeping with the stormy life 
that he was to lead, a life of constant warfare and fluctuating 
fortunes, It seems, moreover, that William inherited the charac- 
teristics of both his father and his mother, and that these early 
years exercised a considerable influence on his later mode of life. 
Reared in turmoil, the boy became the father to the man. 


1 B.E.C., IV. 2. p. 540. 

2 ibid. p. 526. 

3 P. Boissonade : Quomodo Comes Engolismenses, p. 44. 
4ibid. p. 45. 

5 Vic et Vaissette : Histoire de Languedoc, VI. p. 34. 

6 Lavisse: Histoire de France, III. 2. p. 55. 

7C.M.H. VI. p. 343. 

8 Layette du Trésor des Chartes II. pp. 623-624. 


16 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


Hugh and Isabella had nine children, five sons and four daugh- 
ters.1 William de Valence was the fourth of these sons, his elder 
brothers being Hugh, who became Hugh XI., Lord of Lusignan, 
and to whom Henry III. gave a grant of 400 marks in 1249 ;? 
Guy, who was one of the King’s Twelve in 1258°, and Geoffrey. 
William’s youngest brother was Aymer, afterwards Bishop- 
elect of Winchester. Of his four sisters, the best known is Alice, 
who married John, Earl Warenne‘. 


The date of William de Valence’s birth has never been definitely 
ascertained, Doyle merely says “ after 1220’. Professor Tout 
makes no attempt to assign a date.° But a more exact date than 
* after 1220’ can be given. William was knighted by Henry IIT. 
on October 13th, 1247.’ It is unlikely that William was twenty- 
one at this date; he was far more probably knighted in view of 
his recent marriage,® and had not attained his legal majority, the 
usual age for knighthood.® In cases of this kind a youth could 
be knighted long before reaching the age of twenty-one. Louis 
IX. knighted the Prince of Antioch when he was only sixteen.1° 
Other evidence would seem to confirm this view. In 1253, 
William de Valence was ridiculed by the French for his youth 
and effeminacy. If he had been twenty-one years of age in 
1247, in 1253 he would have been almost thirty and hardly likely 
to be derided on account of youth. Again, Teulet includes a 
letter of Hugh XI., Guy, and Geoffrey written in June, 1246, 
confirming a previous peace signed by Hugh X. and Isabella with 
St. Louis.!? It continues, after confirming the peace: “‘Promisimus 
insuper quod cum dilecti fratres nostri Guillemus de Valencia et 
Audemarus ad aetatem legitimam pervenerit omnia predicta 
concedent sicut et nos.” Since the brothers had probably 
acceded to their father’s lands according to a partition made in — 


1 Archeologia Cambrensis III. 6. p. 259. 
2-B.E.C. TV. 2.p. 542. 

3 Annales de Burton, p. 447. 

4Lib. de Ant. Leg. p. 12. She was proud, ugly, and ill-tempered, 

and died mad. 

5 Doyle: Official Baronage III. p. 8. 

6 Dictionary of National Biography. 

7 Chron. Maj. IV. 644. 

8 Infra p. 

9C.M.H. VI. p. 802. 

10 (bid. p. 802. 
11 Matthew Paris: Chronica Majora, V. p. 367. 
12 Layette de Trésor des Chartes, II. pp. 623-624. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 17 


1242,—for Hugh X. had left his lands for ever after the debacle 
of 1242,—if William had been over nineteen years of age, he 
would almost certainly have joined with his brothers in swearing 
to keep the peace. The most natural interpretation of this 
- evidence points to the fact that William was between sixteen and 
nineteen years of age in 1247 ; he cannot have been much younger 
or he would not have been married and knighted on his arrival 
in England in 1247. So we can say with reasonable accuracy 
that the date of his birth was between the years 1227 and 1231. 

William was born at Valence, a small town in Poitou, a few 
miles south of Lusignan and the site of a Cistercian abbey founded 
by the Count of la Marche in 1226.1 From his birthplace William 
obtained his cognomen.? 

In 1242, Hugh X. made a partition of his lands, as has been 
stated, assigning the various portions which should fall to his 
sons at hisdeath.? By this partition William de Valence obtained 
Montignac, Bellac, Rancon, and Champagnac. All these except 
Montignac were in the Basse-Marche and formed part of the 
demesne of the Crown.‘ 

William’s early life cannot have been happy amidst the in- 
trigues of his father and mother with the neighbouring lords 
against Louis IX. He probably took part in the humiliating 
experience of kneeling with his father and mother before the 
French King and begging for mercy. On the death of Hugh and 
Isabella the outlook was very gloomy until, as by the waving of 
a magic wand, Henry III. transformed the young man owning 
only seigniorial rights over four small districts in France into the 
recipient of countless royal favours at the Court of England, and 
of the hand of one of the richest heiresses in the kingdom. 

Henry had always shown a keen interest in his half-brothers 
of Poitou. In 1242 he had promised a yearly grant of 400 marks 
to the future Hugh XI. in a treaty with Hugh X.5 “Hugoni 
comitis filio, quem ‘fratrem’ vocabat, quadringentas marcas, 
illi et heredibus suis solvandis quotannis tribuit, Aimaro natu 
minori filio concessit litteras de presentacionem ad ecclesiam de 
Nortflete vacantem et ad donacione regis spectantem.”’ Henry 


1 Bémont: Simon de Montfort, p. 8 n. 

2 Flores Historiarum III. p.672.—William and his brothers— 
“omnes habentes cognomen a loco nativitatis.”’ 

3 Layette du T. des C. II. pp. 498-499. 

4 Champollion-Figeac. Lettres de Rois, I. p. 71. 

5 Shirley. Royal Letters II. p. 25, and Réles Gascons, I. 338, 342. 


18 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


III. fulfilled these promises later, and now in 1247 invited William, 
Guy, and Aymer together with their sister Alice to England, 
(ex mandato domini regis vocati.)' He received the Poitevins 
with great joy on their arrival ‘‘ et fraternos ruens in amplexus 
et oscula multiplicata promisit eisdem honores et possessiones 
amplissimas.”? How well Henry was to fulfil these promises 
the future would show. 


Til. In Enenanp 1247-1258. 

In the first year of his life in England, honours were showered 
upon William de Valence. A few of the more important grants 
may be mentioned here. On July 31, 1247, he was appointed 
Constable of Goderich Castle *, and on August 7, Constable of 
Pembroke Castle. On October 13, he was knighted by the 
King at an imposing ceremony in Westminster Abbey.’ On 
October 28, he was made keeper of the manors of Beyford and 
Essenden,® and on November 5, keeper of the Castle of Hereford.’ 
On November 16, he was appointed warden of the Town and 
Castle of Hertford,® and finally on March 24, 1249, he became 
lord of the towns of Ross, Carnbothe, and Clumene, Co. Wexford.® 

Above all these in value, however, was the grant of the lands 
of Joan de Montchensi to whom William de Valence was married 
on August 13, 1247.° Joan, the daughter of Joanna and 
Warin de Montchesny was the great-grand-daughter of the great 
Earl Marshal who died in 1219. Her five uncles, in succession 
Karls of Pembroke, all died without leaving descendants." Her 
mother had married Warin de Montchesny, a man held in great 
esteem; he is referred to as “inter omnes Angliae nobiles 
nobilissimus et sapientissimus,’” but his daughter does not 
appear to have been a woman of such noble character. Joan, 
however, brought various lands, very acceptable to William, for 
on the death of Anselm, the last Earl of Pembroke in December, 


1 Flores Historiarum, U1. p. 338. 

2 ibid. 

3C.P.R. (1232-1247), p. 506. 

4 ibid. 

° Chron. May. IV. 640-4. | 

6C.P.R. (1247-1258), p. 1. 

* ibid. 

8 ibid. p. 2. 

9 ibid p. 38. 

10 Flores Historiarum, II. p. 339. 
11 See Bémont : Simon de Monéfort, p. 31 n. 
12 Flores Hist. II. p. 410. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 19 


1245, the rich inheritance of the Earls Marshal had been divided 
among the numerous co-heirs who represented the daughters of 
the house.1 The share which Joan obtained through her mother 
included the castle and lands of Pembroke, “‘ possession of which 
gave her a sort of claim to the palatine earldom whose rights she 
was thus enabled to exercise.”* ‘The Marshal lands of Leinster 
were also partitioned into five lesser liberties, and of these Joan 
received the liberty of Wexford. Thus in a year William de 
Valence had become a wealthy man and a considerable landowner. 
With the wealth at his disposal he immediately commenced his 
plan of buying up wardships, escheats, and king’s debts in order 
to procure himself a place in the English nobility, an attempt which 
was strongly resented by the other barons.4| Henry III. actively 
helped William in his policy for he reserved any lucrative ward- 
ships or escheats for his half-brothers. For example, William 
was soon given all the debts which William of Lancaster owed to 
the Jews. The records of the time are full of similar grants. 
Even William de Bussay, the seneschal of William de Valence, 
entered into the royal favour for we read of the custody of an heir 
held by him as early as 1250.® 

It was impossible that the barons of England should see all 
these favours descending on the young Poitevin without a con- 
siderable amount of jealousy. Patriotic resentment was roused. 
William stood on dangerous ground from the moment of his 
arrival in England for the barons had many times previously 
shown their dislike of Henry’s friends from overseas. But he 
made no attempt to conciliate the great nobles and soon threw 
them into open hostility by reason of his insolence and haughtiness. 
The chronicles of the time are full of William’s little acts of 
oppression which quickly made him odious to the English. 

William found in Richard Clare, Earl of Gloucester, one friend 
among the barons, and the two were concerned in various ad- 
ventures which annoyed the rest of the magnates. The friendship 
probably arose and was cemented because of a common love of 
jousting. William was apparently very proud of his horses. On 
one occasion he rashly deemed his own horses far superior to those 
of the French, and even in 1277, William was still searching abroad 

1J. EH. Lloyd, History of Wales, II. p. 711. | 

2 D.N.B. 

3H. Curtis: Medieval Ireland. p. 152. 

4C.M.H. VI. p. 267. 


5 C.P.R. II. p. 29. 
§ Calendar of Inquisitions, I. p. 469. 


20 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


for choice steeds. A rogamus to the bailiffs of Whytsand 
demands that they should allow his men and twenty-five valuable 
horses (de pretio) to pass freely through their port. William 
retained his love of tournaments until the end of his life, for he is 
mentioned in the “statutum de armis,” together with the Earls 
of Gloucester and Lincoln, Prince Edward and Edmund Crouch- 
back as an overseer of tournaments.” On the day of William de 
Valence’s knighthood, Richard de Clare proposed a tournament 
at Northampton which the King forbade.® 


William, despite his love of tournaments, was not always 
successful. He was soundly drubbed in a tournament at Newbury 
on March 4, 1248.4 But in 1249 at Brackley his luck turned. 
Until 1249, Richard de Clare had been looked upon as one of the 
chief protagonists of the English against the foreigners in such 
tournaments. Now William persuaded Richard to join with him 
against his own compatriots and “in illo igitur confilicto cum 
prevaluisset Willelmus de Valentia frater domino regis, iuvante 
dicto comite, male tractavit Willelmus de Odingesseles, militem 

strenuum, qui bachelariis annumerabatur.’”® The ill-treatment 
_ of the respected Warwickshire gentleman by a foreigner infuriated 
the barons. 


In 1253 William de Valence thought of a suitable bride for his 
friend’s son, Gilbert of Clare. This was his own niece, Alice of 
Lusignan, daughter of his eldest brother, Hugh XI., Count of 
Lusignan. William’s own sister, Alice, had married John, Earl 
Warrenne, and now William thought that a marriage into the Clare 
family, one of the most powerful among the English baronage, 
would further increase the social status of the Poitevins in England. 
So William and Aymer together purchased this marriage for 5,000 
marks. And in 1253 William and Richard went to France to 
consummate the alliance of Gilbert and Alice. They also, un- 
fortunately for themselves, decided to take part in a certain tourna- 
ment announced at this time. The somewhat amusing result 
described by Matthew Paris was that William and Richard were 
so badly beaten that they had to undergo a lengthy course of hot 


1 Reports Commissioners XXXVIII., 1886, p. 1277. 
2 Arch. Camb. III. VI., p. 268. 

3 Chron. Maj. IV. p. 649. 

4 ibid. V. pp. 17-18. 

5 ibid. V. p. 83. 

6 Cal. Charter Rolls, I. pp. 438-439. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 21 


baths and fomentations.1 Matthew Paris also says that William 
was ridiculed by the French on account of his effeminacy, but this 
was almost certainly on account of William’s youthful appearance.’ 
The chronicler apparently regarded this beating as a retribution 
or poetic justice, for he remarks rather joyfully that they deserved 
little pity because they were hastening, puffed up by pride and 
vain boastings, to effect a marriage hateful to the English. 

In these years William joined Aymer in his quarrel with the 
Queen’s relative, Archbishop Boniface of Savoy. For his share in 
this attack, William was one of those who earned excommunica- 
tion. This did not improve his position in England for Boniface, 
although a foreigner himself, was never disliked in the same way 
as the Poitevins and was ‘“‘ a moderate man anxious for reform.’ 
It also earned for William the dislike of Queen Eleanor, Boniface’s 
niece, a dislike which was to have unpleasant consequences for 
William in a moment of dire need. Henry III., however, did not 
pay much attention to Eleanor’s hatred of the Poitevins and 
continued to shower grants on William. Because William had 
taken the cross in 1250, Henry now, in February, 1254, gave him 
2200 marks “de denariis crucesignatorum,” although William 
had no intention of becoming a crusader.*’ This grant was prob- 
ably made, however, to pay William for his expenses in Aquitaine. 

The misdeeds of William, also, which are referred to again and 
again in the chronicles of the time, increased his unpopularity. 
He and his brother, Aymer, made no attempt to understand 
English laws and customs and perpetrated the most flagrant 
injustices secure in the feeling of the protection of the King. 
We have proof of definite acts of oppression to which the 
chroniclers refer in general terms. Both William de Valence and 
his servants have acts of violence to their discredit. In fact 
William’s servants were worse than their master. William de 
Bussay, the Poitevin’s steward, was a special offender, who after- 
wards suffered in the Tower for his ill-deeds.® 

Whilst it was perhaps safe to steal from Bishops and attack 
young men who possessed no means of redress, in one of his law- 
less sorties William de Valence earned the lifelong hatred of a 


1 Chron. Maj. V. p. 367. 

2ibid. At a previous tournament he was mentioned as “aetate 
tener et viribus imperfectus.”’ ibid. IV. 649. V. 4. 

3C.M.H. VI. p. 266. Chron. Maj. V. pp. 351, 359. 

4 Réles Gascons, I. p. 388. 

5 Chron. Maj. V. p. 726. 


22 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


far more dangerous enemy. ‘This was a no less personage than 
Simon de Montfort. Wiliam invaded the lands of Simon in 
1256, but the “invasion ”’ was repulsed by Simon’s steward.! 
Matthew Paris notes a plea “ coram rege et magnatibus ”’ concern- 
ing this “invasion,” and it is evident that Simon was greatly 
incensed. The quarrel between Simon and William produced 
a scene in Parliament on either one or two occasions. Matthew 
Paris relates two similar scenes when William and Leicester were 
with difficulty prevented from coming to blows by the inter- 
vention of the King.2. The scenes resemble each other so much 
that Bémont is tempted to suggest that Matthew Paris was 
making the best of his material to dishonour the Poitevins.3 
But we know of the personal quarrel between the two men, and 
as William inherited his mother’s arrogant and imperious ways, 
two such scenes are quite possible, and the second scene would 
be a natural corollary of the first. In the first open quarrel in 
12574, William insulted the Earl of Leicester and called him 
traitor, the most unpardonable offence against a knight. Simon 
rushed at the Poitevin and would have pierced him with the sword 
but Henry placed himself between his brother-in-law and _ his 
brother. Again at the Hoketide Parliament, William declared 
that all the disasters in Wales were due to English traitors and 
called Simon himself a traitor. Then followed a repetition of 
the previous scene and Henry III. was forced to act as mediator 
again. ‘There was some truth in William’s allegation this time 
and it hurt Simon. “ Gloucester and Leicester himself bitterly 
resented a challenge which they had some reason for regarding 
as personal.’’6 
When all these instances of lawlessness have been critically 

examined, one is left with the impression that William de Valence 
has been judged too harshly. Certainly he wronged both the 
nobles and the common folk of England, and more of his crimes 
were to be revealed by the querelae of 1259. But far more crimes 
can be attributed to William’s servants than to their master ; 
William, himself, does not seem to have been guilty of any acts of 
surpassing cruelty. We must not judge him by the standards of to- 
day. He had been given lands in the March, the most lawless part 

1 ibid. V. p. 634. 

2 ibid. 

3 Bémont : Simon de Montfort, p 49, n. 2. 

4 Chron. Maj. V. 634. 

» ibid. pp. 676-677. 

67. F. Tout: Wales and the March, p. 86. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 23 


of England and Wales, and he had little example for lawful 
dealing. Moreover, he had spent his early years in the French 
March among similar conditions. Finally he was young and im- 
petuous, and had not yet settled down in his new country. In 
extenuation, too, we must add that after 1265 William amply re- 
paid England for all the wrongs that he had done her before that 
date. 


The position of William de Valence in England during the years 
from 1247 to 1258 may be summarised as follows. First he was 
an alien and per se odious to the native baronage. Secondly, 
his marriage to Joan de Montchesny made the barons jealous of 
him, angry that the hand of such a rich heiress had not fallen to 
one of their number. Thirdly, the jealousy of the barons was 

increased by the castles, lands, wardships, and grants of money 
_ which the King showered upon the aliens and upon William de 
Valence in particular, so that the young Poitevin had quickly 
become a very wealthy man. Fourthly, the Poitevins further 
enraged the barons by their contumely and haughtiness. M. 
Bémont has noted that the insolence of the Lusignans made a 
striking contrast to Peter of Savoy’s moderation!, and Peter of 
Savoy was not a model character. Henry III. lost the affection 
of his people very largely by his grants to the foreigners.? It 
was an accident of the manner in which Henry was forced to 
enrich his half-brother, giving him now a manor in one county, 
a wardship in another, now some King’s debts to collect in a 
third as the opportunity occurred, that William’s oppression was 
felt not in one corner of England, but all through the realm, and 
he was generally hated even as far north as Berwick-on-Tweed. 
Again the friendship of the Prince Edward with William was 
feared by the barons, and especially by the Marcher lords, par- 
ticularly after 1254, when Henry granted the Earldom Palatine of 
Chester to his son, because it was foreseen that Edward and 
William acting respectively from the north-east and the south- 
west could quickly make themselves masters of all Wales.* 
Indeed this was the plan adopted later in the Welsh Wars of 
Edward I.° 


1 Bémont: Simon de Montfort, p. 49. 
2 Rish. p. 2. 
3 Chron. Maj. V. p. 229. 

4Tout: Wales and the March, p. 83. 

5 Infra, Chapter vii. 


24 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


In these years from 1247 to 1258, the barons are all-important. 
Most of the greater nobles give voice to the general discontent 
with the mis-government of the time, and the Earls of Leicester, 
Gloucester, and Hereford lead the magnates against their ruler 
in 1258. But William de Valence is always loyal to the King. 
Although he was never formally made Earl of Pembroke,’ he 
may be counted among the barons; and during the years from | 
1253 to 1258, it is William on whom Henry relies as his chief 
supporter and adviser among the magnates. In an age when 
the barons are all-important, William is the most powerful of 
those who take the King’s side. Here in a word is his importance, 
while his position is further emphasised by his personal quarrel 
with the Earl of Leicester, the leader of the opposition. 


William was admitted to the secret Councils of the King, but he 
does not seem to have been a very prudent counsellor, for he 
advised Henry to undertake some of his rashest projects, notably 
the foolish Sicilian venture.” It is interesting to compare the list 
of counsellors mentioned in the memorandum concerning the 
Sicilian affair in 1255 with the King’s Twelve of 1258. The first 
list contains the names of Peter d’Aigueblanche, Aymer de Valence, 
William de Valence, Geoffrey de Lusignan, Richard of Gloucester, 
John de Warenne, John Mansel, Philip Lovel, Ralph Fitznicholas, 
five judges, and others of the royal council. M. Bémont calls 
this ‘‘a kind of secret council assembled behind closed doors to 
settle business which was to involve the revenues of the crown 
for years and to throw the country into confusion.’ 


In 1258 the list of the twelve councillors elected on the King’s 
side is as follows: Fulk Basset (Bishop of London), Aymer, 
Henry (son of Richard of Gloucester), John de Warenne, Guy of 
Lusignan, William de Valence, John du Plessis (Earl of Warwick), 
John Mansel, John of Derlington, Richard de Crokesleye (Abbot 
of Westminster), and Henry of Hengham.* 


If we compare these two lists we find that four names are 
common to both. These are Aymer, William de Valence, John de 
Warenne, and John Mansel. Of the four, Aymer was a bishop and 
John Mansel was a great Civil Servant. This leaves us with only 
two great barons who may be considered as continual supporters 


1 Infra. 

2 Rymer, I. 332. 

3 Bémont : Simon de Monifort, p. 131. 
4 Burt, p. 477. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 25 


of the King during these years.1. But William was a far stronger 
King’s man than John Warenne ; indeed after 1260, attracted by 
Simon’s personality, the young Earl of Surrey joined the baronial 
party. Richard of Cornwall never countenanced the wilder 
schemes of the King. Prince Edward, too, was only nineteen 
in 1258. So Henry naturally turned to William de Valence as a 
counsellor, both as a kinsman who could be trusted to keep 
royal secrets, and as a great baron and counterpoise to the oppos- 
ing nobles of England. 


TV.—Witi1amM De Vatence Durine THE PERIOD OF BARONIAL 
REFORM. 

In April, 1258, the long-foreboding storm broke over Henry III. 
and his brothers. In the Parliament of this date the King as 
usual asked for money for his foreign adventures, but he was met 
_ with astern resistance. The barons under Roger Bigod demanded 
the appointment of a committee for the reform of the kingdom. 
Henry was forced to submit to their demands, but William had no 
respect for the barons and even called Simon de Montfort an 
“old traitor.” Simon replied that his own father was a man of 
different character from that of Hugh X., and Henry was forced 
to throw himself between the two to prevent a fight to the death.? 
Despite this scene and the fact that the barons had demanded 
the expulsion of the Poitevins, William de Valence and his brothers 
were among the twelve councillors of reform elected on the King’s 
side.* Twelve councillors were also elected on behalf of the 
barons, and the committee of twenty-four evidently set to work 
before Parliament re-assembled at Oxford in June (1258), for their 
report is known as “ The Provisions of Oxford.” We do not know 
how the other councillors overcame the resistance of the Poitevins, 
but they advocated the appointment of English advisers for the 
King and recommended the appointment of a permanent council 
of fifteen to ensure better government in the future.* 

In June, 1258, the Parliament met at Oxford. The barons 
demanded two things of the Poitevins. First that they should 
give up the castles which they held, and secondly that they 


1 Other proof of William’s importance in the counsels of the King 
can easily be adduced ; e.g., a letter of the King to John Mansel (Shirley, 
II. p. 114) urging him to take the advice of William and Simon on an 
important matter in 1256. 

2 Supra, p. 22. 

3 Burt, p. 447. 

4C.M.H. VI. p. 277. 


26 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


should swear to keep the Provisions of Oxford. William de 
Valence protested loudly throughout the proceedings. He had 
no intention of giving up his castles. The amount of land which 
he had accumulated in England had made him a wealthy man ; 
only two months previous to the Parliament, Edward had given | 
his manors in charge to him. So William was not going to 
be despoiled by a set of barons whom he despised. But Simon de 
Montfort was of equal determination, and unfortunately for 
William he held the whip-hand. Turning upon William, the most 
insolent of all the Poitevins, Simon said: ‘‘ Certe et indubitantur 
scias vel castra quae de rege habes, reddes, vel caput amittes.’ 


Henry III. thought it wiser to swear to observe the Provisions 
of Oxford when they were placed before him. On the contrary, 
his half-brothers again refused to come to a compromise with the 
barons. Affairs, however, were becoming dangerous for them ; 
they were hated not only by the barons, but by all the people of 
the realm.? After refusing to swear to the Provisions of Oxford, 
therefore, the Poitevins and John Warenne suddenly fled from the 
city, and made for Hampshire where they found refuge in Wolves- 
ham Castle which belonged to Aymer.* 


The barons were not to be deprived of their prey, however, and 
at once followed the Poitevins eventually reaching Wolvesham 
Castle which they surrounded. Hugh Bigod was elected Justiciar 
by the barons, and negotiations took place with the King’s brothers. 
They were cited to the Parliament at Winchester to answer for 
their misdeeds. Apparently at this juncture the counsels of 
Aymer prevailed on the small band gathered together in the castle. 
He persuaded his brothers to submit quietly to a general sentence 
of exile against themselves and their adherents.* Aymer and 
William obtained permission to remain in England if they would 
answer the charges against them. But the Poitevins were too 
wise to accept these terms, and with the permission of the barons 
they crossed to France about July 18, 1258.7 We read of the 
Constable of Dover appropriating some of the treasure which 
the Poitevins were attempting to convey to France, and putting 


1 Chron. Maj. V. p. 679. 

2 ibid. V. pp. 698-9. 

3 ibid. 

4 Lib. de Ant. Leg. p. 38. Burt, p. 444., etc. 

5 Annales Londonienses, I. p. 51. 

6 ¢. H. Pearson, History of England, II. p. 223. 
? Chron. Maj. V. p. 702. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 27 


it to the use of the kingdom.’ But William de Valence, to meet 
his expenses, was officially given the sum of 3,000 marks, which 
was to be taken from his deposits at Waltham and given to him 
at Dover. It was alleged, too, that the Poitevins poisoned 
some of their opponents at a banquet?®, but this is not likely since 
one of these poisoned was the Abbot of Westminster, a friend of the 
Poitevins, and similar rumours of poison in rivers and wells were 
common in the kingdom.* 

On their arrival in France, however, the troubles of the 
Poitevins were not yet over. They reached Boulogne, when 
Louis IX. refused them passage through France to their native 
region of Poitou. He withheld his grant of safe-conduct at the 
instigation of his Queen, Margaret, who hated the Poitevins 
“quod enormiter scandalizaverant et diffamaverant sororem 
suam reginam Angliae.”® We do not know, except as already 
stated, in what way they had wronged Eleanor, but apparently 
Louis IX. was more respectful to the wishes of his wife than 
Henry III. 

When Henry de Montfort heard of the immobilised position of 
the Poitevins in France, he immediately crossed the Channel, 
probably without Simon’s knowledge. He decided to besiege 
William and his brothers in Boulogne and had no difficulty in 
gathering together adherents because of the esteem in which 
Simon was held.6 The position of the Poitevins was for a time 
desperate, but eventually in answer to their entreaties, Louis [X. 
allowed William and his brothers safe-conduct through France.’ 

Although William de Valence was now safe, the evil that he had 
done lived after him in England, and among the grievances 
examined by the justices in 1258 and 1259 were numerous allega- 
tions against the Poitevins. Above all the Council had possession 
of most of their wealth and no compunction about using it. The 
Winchester Parliament of 1258 had agreed that the possessions 
and wealth of the Poitevins should be kept intact until their return 
and should be administered by officials appointed by the Council. 
“This thinly-veiled confiscation gave the Council full control of a 
useful source of income, for the fifteen soon showed that they 

1 ibid. V. p. 704. 

2 O.P.R. (1247-1258), p. 641. 
3 Chron. Maj. V. p. 705. 

4. H. Pearson, II. p. 2238. 
> Chron. Maj. V. p. 703. 

6 ibid. 

* Chron. Maj. V. p. 710. 


28 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


intended to exercise very wide powers of discretion in acting as 
receivers for the aliens, and so long as the Council was a reality it 
never relaxed its hold on this reserve.” One can obtain an idea 
how useful this money was to the barons from the care which they 
took that none of it should slip through their hands. The money 
of the Poitevins had been deposited very largely in the New Temple 
and the abbeys of the south-east England. So on July 5, 1258, 
the Council sent out various envoys to these abbeys to forbid the 
taking away of any money from these funds without the Council’s 
command.” Later, too, when rumours arose that the Poitevins 
had taken large sums with them, the barons appointed the Karl 
of Gloucester and Nicholas of Haulo to see if there was any truth 
in the rumours.? The Council itself, however, soon took 3,900 
marks from William de Valence’s deposits at Waltham.* 


There is one somewhat amusing use of the Poitevins’ money 
which has to be recounted. One of the fears of the barons was 
that the Pope would take a hand in affairs, especially since Aymer 
was the Bishop-Elect of Winchester. So various letters were sent 
to Alexander IV. by the barons fearing that Aymer would bribe 
the Pope.® Matthew Paris includes three such letters. The 
first letter which described the crimes of Aymer and William 
de Valence was carried to Rome by four knights.° Apparently 
the envoys themselves added much by word of mouth to the 
evidence contained in the letter.” Yet the expenses of the 
embassy were paid out of Aymer’s own money.® Much of the 
money was used for allowances to the Poitevins, but this was not 
always the case. For instance, 900 marks were taken from the 
money left by Warin de Montchesny, which was in the keeping 
of William de Valence, and the Poitevins did not receive this sum.? 

The investigation of grievances by the judicial officers of the 
Council, and especially Hugh Bigod, proceeded in 1258 and 1259. 
The Rolls of the 1258-1259 enquiry show many cases where the 
Poitevins, owing to their consanguinity to the King, had been 


1 Professor R. F. Treharne: The Baronial Plan of Reform, p. 126. 
2 ibid. : 

3 O.P.R. (1247-1258), p. 651. 

4 ibid. p. 634. 

5 Rishanger, p. 6. 

6 ibid. 

? Chron. Maj. VI. p. 403, 405-6. 

8 Baronial Plan, p. 127. 

°C.P.R. 1247-1258, p. 643. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE : 29 


able to hinder the true course of justice.1_ The extension of pro- 
cedure by querelae proved a boon to people who had been op- 
pressed for so long, and this procedure was especially used against 
the Poitevins. William de Valence was the cause of many such 
querelae. For instance in April, 1259, Gilbert of Elsfield, at 
Reading, used a querela ‘in respect of disseisin committed 
“vi et armis’ by a bailiff of William de Valence.’ One of the 
best examples of seigniorial oppression was a complaint of wrong- 
ful distraint brought against Roger de Leyburn, where the plaintiff 
alleged that he could not get justice done owing to the favour in 
which Roger stood with William de Valence to whose household 
he belonged.? 

The methods of assize of novel disseisin and writ of inquisition 
were employed in other cases against the Poitevins. The Assize 
Rolls 1187 and 1188 give an indication of how many acts of law- 
lessness must have been perpetrated by William de Valence 
from 1247 to 1258. 

The trial of two men in particular, which occurred at this time, 
are of importance to our subject. First, Walter de Scotenay, a 
steward of the Earl of Gloucester, was tried and executed for 
poisoning Richard and William de Clare. The latter died, but 
Richard, Earl of Gloucester, recovered from the effects of the 
poison.* At the trial of Walter de Scotenay, it was alleged that 
William de Valence had given money to him to poison the Clare 
brothers.®° This allegation was, however, not proved. 

Secondly, in 1259, we see the end of William de Valence’s 
eruel steward, William de Bussay. It is indeed probable that 
much of the hatred of William de Valence was caused by the evil 
deeds of this man. In January, 1259, he was put on trial. He 
tried to plead benefit of clergy, but was prevented from doing so. 
After his crimes had been recounted, he was put back in the 
Tower, and this is the last that we read about him.® 

Despite the discovery by Hugh Bigod of so many of William’s 
evil deeds, praiseworthy justice was shown to his wife, Joan de 
Mentchesny. She approached the Justiciar and the barons for 


1 Baronial Plan, p. 49 n. (e.g. A.R. 1187 m.7 in the abduction of 
Joan of Badlesmere). 
_ * Baronial Plan, p. 151. 
3 E. F. Jacob, Studies, p. 61. 
4 Chron. Maj. V. p. 705. 
5 ibid. V. p. 747. 
6 ibid. pp. 726. 738. 


30 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


her dower, and they immediately gave her a part of it.1_ Then she 
received an annual grant of £400 from William’s money also.’ 
But apparently she loved her husband very much, for disdaining 
all this money she crossed to France to rejoin him and is said to 
have smuggled in wool packs as much money as she could carry 
for him.® 

In the administration of William’s lands and money the 
Council showed great fairness.4 The sums were checked by 
sheriffs appointed by the Council and by William’s bailiff jointly. 
Where William had been harsh, the Council showed clemency, 
William was still receiving the debts due to the Crown from 
Peter de Bruce and Walter de Lindsay as heirs of the Earl of 
Lancaster, and these sums amounted to 720 marks a year. On 
the complaint of Peter and Walter to the Council, the amount 
was reduced to 100 marks a year each.° 

The barons did not want the Poitevins to return despite the 
care that was taken of their lands. Henry III. was forced to 
write to Alexander IV. asking that Aymer should never return to 
Winchester.® But all the scheming of the barons was of no avail 
for Alexander took the side of Aymer, and Velascus was sent 
over to England to restore him to Winchester. Fortunately for 
the barons, Aymer died at Paris on December 4th, 1260, and 
‘England praised God for his goodness ””” 

The death of Aymer was advantageous to William de Valence, 
too, because it accelerated his return to England. Henry III. 
managed to reconcile William and Simon temporarily, and now 
that Aymer was dead the nobles were not so afraid of William’s 
return. In 1260 they had done their utmost to keep the Poitevins 
away from the country. In April, 1260, when it was rumoured . 
that the Poitevins, supported by the Viscount of Limoges, were 
going to descend on Cornwall, Henry was forced to write to Louis 
IX., and Richard of Cornwall to prevent their landing.® 

Henry III. was helped by the indult issued by Alexander IV. 
quashing the Provisions of Oxford and Westminster. His position 


1 Chron. Maj. V. p. 721. 

2 O.P.R. (1258-1266), p. 4. 

3 Chron. Maj. V. pp. 730-1. 

4 Baronial Plan, pp. 128-130. 

5 ibid. p. 129. 

6 Royal Letters, I1. pp. 150-2. 

* Osney, p. 125. Flor. Hist. II. p. 460. See also Baronial Plan, 
p. 250. 

8 Foed. p. 396. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 31 


thus strengthened, Henry recalled his brother to England. So 
about Easter, 1261, William de Valence returned to England, 
together with the Prince Edward and Joan of Brittany. But the 
barons had known William’s lawlessness so well that they de- 
termined to put some check on him in the future. He was re- 
quired to obey the Provisions and answer charges against him— 
““ qui tunc ingressum vix optinuit ita tamen ut praestito in ingressu 
sacramento baronum provisioni in omnibus obediret et singulis 
contra eum depositis querelis et deponendis, si neccesse fuerit, 
responderet.”* William may have had some intention of re- 
forming his ways in the future for he replied “ very humbly ” to 
the demands of the barons. Henry must have restored William 
to all his lands almost immediately on his arrival in England.* 

For the next two years William seems to have lived fairly 
quietly, perhaps in fulfilment of his promise. He went to France 
with Henry III. on July 14, 1262.2 William remained in 
France for a month oniy, but during this time he arranged a 
meeting between Gilbert, the young Karl of Gloucester (Richard 
having died recently) and Henry III.* This was supposed to be 
a meeting of reconciliation, but Henry treated the Karl with such 
coldness that he made an immediate enemy of him.’ William 
left France in August, 1262, and he was lucky to escape a dreadful 
epidemic which swept Henry’s court carrying off numbers of the 
King’s friends.® 

In October, 1262, Henry urged Basset and Merton to take 
counsel with William de Valence, Henry of Almain, and others 
as to how they should resist Simon de Montiort on his return to 
England in that month. 
' William does not appear to have played a very great part in 
the events of 1263. He was an ambassador to Louis IX. in 
February, 1263.° It is doubtful whether William was a member 
of the military force which operated in the Thames Valley against 
the barons (June, 1263). We know that Henry was allowed to 
make gifts to William de Valence and Geoffrey de Lusignan in 


1 ib. de Antiquis Legibus, p. 49. 
* Rishanger, p. 9. 


3 bid. 
4 0.P.R. (1258-1266), p. 33. 
> Foed. p. 422. 


6 Gervase of Canterbury, II. p. 216. 
7 Baronial Plan, pp. 285-286. 

8 ¢bid. p. 288. 

9 Roy. Lett. II. 239. 


32 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


1263.1 Again we know that William was one of those who re- 
mained with the King after the October Parliament of this year.’ 

It is in the year 1264 that William again emerges from com- 
parative obscurity. He was among those who advised the 
arbitration of Louis I[X., and after the rejection of the Mise of 
Amiens, William was one of the first to join Edward in arms. 
But an account of William’s part in the Baron’s War belongs to 
another chapter. 


V.—WILLIAM DE VALENCE DuRING THE BARONS’ WAR. 


The Mise of Amiens pronounced by Louis IX. on January 23rd, 
1264, made war the only solution to the questions at issue between 
Henry and Simon. Both armies were put into the field without 
delay. Simon announced a general meeting of the barons at 
Northampton, whilst Edward rapidly gathered a force together 
and suddenly attacked Northampton (April 5). William joined 
with Edward in this attack, and they were entirely successful.? 
Young Simon was taken prisoner as was also Peter de Montfort, 
many other adherents of Simon among the barons, and a number 
of Oxford students. Northampton was then completely sacked, 
great cruelty being shown by the royalists. William, however, 
suffered retribution for his attack on Northampton, for there 
followed almost immediately a general plunder of the property 
of William and other aliens by the citizens of London. London 
was in close alliance with Simon de Montfort, and in no part of the 
country were the Poitevins hated more. Apparently even 
William’s deposits of money at the Temple were robbed.’ 

Edward in the meantime continued his military successes in 
which he was assisted by William. Rochester and Tonbridge 
were quickly taken. At Tonbridge, William’s own niece Alice, 
whose marriage with Gilbert of Gloucester he had arranged, was 
taken prisoner. But Henry, who was with the royal army, soon 
released her. Edward thereupon applied to the Cinque Ports 
for assistance, but no help was forthcoming, and he continued his 
march to Lewes where he pitched his camp. Simon de Montfort 
raised an army in London and marched in search of the Royalists, 
coming within sight of them at Lewes. Before giving battle, 
Simon tried negotiations, protesting that he fought not against 
Henry, but against his evil counsellors. If Henry had submitted 

1 Baronial Plan, p. 213. 

2 O.P.R. (1258-1266), p. 291. 


3 Henry Knighton: Chronicon, p. 241. 
4Blaauw: Barons’ War, p. 130. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 33 


now, William de Valence would have found himself in desperate 
straits, for on a previous occasion (July 22, 1258), Simon at a 
meeting with the citizens of London in the Guildhall had threatened 
William with death.1_ Henry, however, was loyal to his half- 
brothers and sent back a scornful reply to Simon.? Soon on May 
14th, 1264, the two sides joined in battle. 

The Royalists were drawn up in an array of three squadrons. 
The one on the right was led by Prince Edward, and with him 
were William de Valence and the Earl of Warenne.* The result of 
the battle is well known; it was won like Nasby by “ prayer, 
psalm-singing and cold steel.” It was the very part of the royal 
army to which William belonged that lost the battle for the King. 
Simon massed round his banner the untrained, but enthusiastic 
Londoners. Edward fell into the trap of attacking these. Filled 
with panic they fled in confusion, and Edward pursued them for 
four miles, delighted to avenge the insults which the Londoners 
had shown to his mother. When Edward returned, Simon had 
already gained the victory. The next day the Mise of Lewes was 
drawn up, and the King, who had been captured, was forced to 
agree that Edward and Henry of Almain were to be given up as 
hostages for the good behaviour of the Earls Marcher. On May 
16th, Edward surrendered. Thus Henry and Edward were both in 
baronial hands. William de Valence was more fortunate, for 
together with John Warenne, Hugh Bigod, Geoffrey of Lusignan 
and others, he fled to his neighbouring stronghold of Pevensey 
Castle.* Realising the extreme danger of his position in England, 
William, after leaving a strong garrison at Pevensey,® again 
crossed to France with the fugitive Royalists. It does not seem 
that the chronicler’s suggestion of Henry’s desertion by William 
can be considered seriously. If William had remained in England 
he could have done nothing to assist Henry, for the royal fortunes 
were at their lowest ebb. By fleeing to safety in France, William 
yet retained the opportunity of striking a blow for Henry again, 
if matters should become brighter. That William did not intend 
to desert Henry may be proved by his return to Pembrokeshire 
as soon as possible. 

For almost a year exactly William remained in France. His 


1 Bérront : Simon de Montfort, p. 172. 

*Rymer, p. 440. Lib. de Ant. Leg. p. 62. 

3 Henry Knighton, Chronicon, p. 241. 

4 Nicholas Trivet, p. 260. Gervase of Canterbury, II. 237, etc. 
°> Bémont : Simon de Montfort, p. 221. 


34 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


possessions in England were, of course, sequestered. In June, 
1264, the Earl of Gloucester obtained possession of Pembroke 
Castle.1 The government of the country was placed in the hands 
of Simon de Montfort, and a series of acts of a radical nature 
followed. The King was placed under the tutelage of a Council 
of nine persons. The Provisions were confirmed and re-issued. 
Then came the famous Parliament of February, 1265, to which 
representatives of the shires and towns were summoned. 

Simon de Montfort turned increasingly in this period to his ally 
Llewelyn, and Gloucester noted this overture with disapproval. 
His possession of Pembroke had made him lord of the whole of 
South Wales, and he did not like, therefore, the augmented power 
of the Welsh Prince. “ It is certain that the ambition of Simon 
to divide Wales with Llewelyn determined Gloucester to break 
with him.’ 

In the dissensions between Simon and Gloucester, the dis- 
cerning William de Valence saw his chance. In May, 1265, 
William, together with John Warenne, his brother-in-law, landed 
in Pembroke with 120 men.? Gloucester’s bailiffs put no obstacle 
in the way of the men of Pembroke when they showed welcome 
to their ancient lord,* and all South Wales was soon arrayed against 
Simon. Meanwhile Warenne and William de Valence turned to 
the border where they could meet Gloucester. At this juncture 
came Edward’s remarkable escape when he out-distanced his 
guards at Hereford by skilful horsemanship. As a result, Edward, 
William de Valence, Roger Mortimer, Warenne, and Gloucester 
were all able to join together. The forces of the Marchers now 
had a unity of purpose and direction. 

Simon forthwith marched to Hereford. He ordered his sup- 
porters to assemble at Worcester, but the Marchers prevented 
their meeting. The assembly was then called for Gloucester, but 
Edward, with William accompanying him, hastened to the siege 
of Gloucester and soon took the town and castle. Following this, 
Edward and his uncle marched across the country towards 


1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1258-1266, p. 35. 

2 Tout: Wales and the March, p. 109. 

3 Flores Historiarum III. p. 264. On his arrival William boldly 
asked through the Prior of Monmouth for the restoration of his lands. 
He was summoned to Parliament but dared not appear and took to 
arms. Bémont. p. 233. 

4 Wales and the March, p. 111. 

5 ibid. 

6 Lib. de Ant. Leg. p. 73. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 35 


Kenilworth, receiving an account of the younger Simon’s un- 
guarded position from a woman named Margoth, who had been 
acting asa spy in male attire. [Kdward entered the town by night, 
and the first sign the barons obtained of the attack were the cries 
of the Royalists in the streets. William took part in the easy 
capture of the town.? 

Simon was confined on the Welsh side of the Severn for a time, 
but later he crossed the river to Evesham, where he fought his 
last battle (Aug. 4, 1265). Llewelyn’s Welsh proved to be useless 
in a definite fight, and the baronial army was crushed. But 
Llewelyn alone of Simon’s supporters gained from the Barons’ 
War. William de Valence assisted in the victory of Henry over 
Simon and the Welsh at Evesham. 

For two years, Edward was occupied in putting out the embers 
of the wars, namely, at Winchelsea, Alton, Ely, Chesterfield, and 
Kenilworth. William was at least present at Kenilworth for he 
witnessed a charter granted during the siege of Kenilworth, 
restoring Hugh de Nevill to favour.* After Evesham, too, many of 
the defeated rebels had fled to Bury St. Edmunds. So, in 1266, 
we read of William de Valence and Warenne marching to Bury 
St. Edmunds and charging the abbot and townsmen with sheltering 
the King’s enemies.* 

As is evident from the rolls of the time, William was well 
rewarded for his loyalty in the Barons’ War. Without entering 
into a discussion as to whether the cause of the King or that of 
the barons was the more justifiable, one can state definitely that 
William deserved all the favours he received at the close of the 
war for his unshaken adherence to the side of his brother. The 
part he had played in the overthrow of the barons was not a small 
one. In fact, one is tempted to regard William’s landing in Pem- 
broke in May, 1265, as the turning-point of the royalist fortunes. 


FRANK R. LEWIS. 


1 Blauaw, p. 268. 
2 Tab. de Ant. Leg. p. 74. 
3 ¢dbid. Pref. pp. LXI.-XLXVI. William was not one of those who 
_ devised the Dictum de Kenilworth. (Dunst. p. 242-243). 
4 Chron. Flor. Wyg. II. p. 197. 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG.”! 


[This essay is entitled ‘A Note,’’ since, though in a sense 
complete in itself, it is obviously no more than an introduction 
to a deeper study. It breaks off at the point where a psycho- 
analytical study of motives might properly begin. The deeper 
investigation would, however, call for the survey of so great a mass 
of material that there seemed no possible compromise between 
such an essay as is presented here and a book of several hundreds 
of pages]. 

In a letter to “ Annie”’ (Mrs. Richmond), Poe writes :—‘“* The 
five prose pages I finished yesterday are called—what do you 
think ?—I am sure you will never guess—* Hop-Frog!’ Only 
think of your Eddy writing a story with such a name as ‘ Hop- 
Frog!’ You would never guess the subject (which is a terrible 
one) from the title, I am sure. It will be published in a weekly 
paper, of Boston .. . . not a very respectable journal, perhaps, 
in a literary point of view, but one that pays as high prices as most 
of the magazines.’” 

This is apparently the first reference in Poe’s writings to the 
story, “ Hop-Frog,” published in “‘ The Flag of Our Union,” in 
1849. In a subsequent letter to Mrs. Richmond, bearing the 
date March 23rd, 1849, Poe asks :—“‘ By the way, did you get 
‘Hop-Frog’? I sent it to you by mail, not knowing whether 
you ever see the paper.” 

The outline of the story may be briefly given here, before 
proceeding to a discussion of its sources and construction. Hop- 
Frog, a crippled dwarf, and another dwarf, a graceful little 
dancer, have been carried off from their respective homes by a 
victorious general and sent as presents to the monarch in 
whose court they are living. 

The king is planning a masquerade, and seeks the help of 
Hop-Frog, who is always ready with suggestions on such occasions. 

1 The text of ‘“‘ Hop-Frog’”’ referred to throughout is that used 
in the Everyman Edition of Tales of Mystery and Imagination (London : 
Messrs. Dent & Co: Everyman Library, No. 336). . . pp. 234 ff. 

2Letter dated ‘‘ Thursday, 8th.’’: apparently February 8th, 


1849. Ingram, John H., Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters & 
Opinions (London: Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co.—1891). p. 403. 


37 


38 A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


But he cannot, even when asking assistance, forego the pleasure of 
tormenting the dwarf. He forces him to drink, though aware 
that a single glass of wine upsets him badly. The dancer makes 
a protest against the baiting of the little jester, and the king 
throws the glass of wine in her face. 

The suggestion Hop-Frog makes for the masquerade is that 
the king and his seven ministers shall disguise themselves as 
ourang-outangs. They are to enter the dance-hall, chained 
together, as if they were captive apes who had escaped from their 
keeper. They are to rush about with wild cries and terrify the 
gorgeously-dressed dancers. 

The scheme commended itself immediately to the king. Hop- 
Frog equipped the eight men with tight-fitting drawers and shirts 
of stockinette, coated with tar to which flax was made to adhere. 

The dance was held in a large room, circular and lighted by a 
single central window at the top during the daytime; and at 
night by a large chandelier suspended from the centre of the 
skylight. On the night of the ball the chandelier had been 
removed, and the hall was lighted by candles in sconces, and by 
torches, sixty or seventy altogether, placed in the right hands of 
the caryatides standing against the wall. 

The eight masqueraders burst in upon the assembled dancers 
at midnight. The confusion was great: so great that the dwarf 
was able to hook a chain which had been lowered through the 
skylight to the chain which bound together the king and his 
ministers. He whistled, and the chain, to which he himself was 
clinging, torch in hand, was drawn up above the heads of the 
crowd. Holding the torch down to the disguised men, he 
pretended to examine them while he addressed the crowd: then 
he deliberately held the flame to the flax and tar of their clothing. 
He clambered to the ceiling and disappeared through the sky- 
light. Neither he nor the little dancer, Trippetta, was seen again 
by anyone in the room. 

The story is by no means Poe’s best, although it must be 
admitted that the characters live more than is usual in-his narra- 
tives. Its interest for the student lies in the fact that it is possible 
to ascribe with certainty a source for the greater portion of the 
plot ; and thus to see with greater clearness than usual exactly 
what has been done by the writer to work up borrowed material 
into a story of his own. 

The undoubted source of the episode is a story in Froissart’s 
“‘ Chronicles.” In Berners’ translation this is entitled—‘ Of the 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 39 


adventure of a daunce that was made at Parys in lykenesse of 
wodehowses, wherin the Frenche kynge was in parell of dethe?”’. 
In Johnes’ translation the chapter heading runs—‘‘ The King of 
France in great danger of his life at a masked dance of men 
dressed like savages.’”? 

For convenience of reference, the versions of Johnes and 
Berners are reproduced below ; that of Berners being printed in 
Italics. 


There was in the king’s household, a Norman squire, called 
And there was a squyer of Normandy, called Hogreyman of 


-Hugonin de Gensay, a near relation of the bridegroom, who 
Gensay, 


thought of the following piece of pleasantry to amuse the king 
he advysed to make some pastyme. 


and ladies. This marriage was on a Tuesday before Candlemas- 
The daye of the maryage, which was on a Tuesday before Candle- 


day, and he had in the evening provided six coats of linen covered 
mas, he provyded for a mummery agaynst nyght. He devysed 


with fine flax, the colour of hair. He dressed the king in one 
siz cotes made of lynen clothe, covered with pytche, and thereon 


of them, the count de Joigny, a young and gallant knight, in 
flaxe lyke heare, and had them redy in a chambre. The kynge 


another, which became him well; sir Charles de Poitiers, son 
put on one of them, and therle of Jouy, a yonge lusty knyght, another 


of the count de Valentinois, had the third; sir Evan de Foix 
and syr Charles of Poicters the thyrde, who was sonne to the earle of 


the fourth ; the son of the lord de Nantouillet, a young knight, 
Valentenoys, and syr Yvan of Foiz another, and the sonne of the lorde 


had the fifth, and Hugonin dressed himself in the sixth. When 
Nanthorillet had on the fyfte, and the squyer hymselfe had on the 


1 The Chronicie of Froissart: Translated out of French by Sir 
John Bourchier, Lord Berners, Annis 1523-25. With an Introduction 
by William Paton Kerr. Volume VI. (London: David Nutt: 1903) 
ae pao ff. 

2 Chronicles of England, France Spain and the adjoining countries 
from the latter part of the reign of Edward II. to the Coronation of 
Henry IV. By Sir John Froissart. Translated from the French 
Editions with variations and additions from many celebrated MSS. 
In two volumes. (London: William Smith, 113, Fleet Street ; 
MDCCCXXXTIX). Vol. II. pp. 550 ff. 


40 A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


they were all thus dressed, by having the coats served round 
syxte. And when they were thus arayed in these sayd cotes, and 


them, they appeared like savages, for they were covered with hair 
sowed fast in them, they seemed lyke wyld wodehouses, full of heare 


from head to foot. This masquerade pleased the king greatly, 
fro the toppe of the heed to the sole of the fote. This devyse pleased 


and he expressed his pleasure to his squire. It was so secretly 
well the French kynge, and was well content with the squyer for it. 


contrived that no one knew anything of the matter but the 
They were aparelled in these cotes secretely in a chambre that no man 


servants, who had attended on them. Sir Evan de Foix, who 
knew thereof but such as holpe them. When syr Yvan of Foiz had 


seemed to have more foresight of what was to happen, said to the 
well advysed these cotes, he sayd to the kynge: Syr, commaud stray- 


king, ‘Sire, command strictly that no one come near us with 
tely that no man aproche nere us with any torches or fyre, for of the 


torches ; for, if a spark fall on the coats we are dressed in, the 
fyre fastened within any of these cotes, we shall all be brent without 


flax will instantly take fire, and we must inevitably be burnt ; 
remedy. The kynge aunswered and sayd: Yvan, ye speke well and 


take care, therefore, of what I say.’ “‘ Evan,” replied the king, 
wysely ; it shall be doone as ye have devysed ; and incontynent sent for 


“ you speak well and wisely, and your advice shall be attended to.” 
an ussher of his chambre, commandyng him to go into the chambre 


He then forbade his serjeants to follow, and, sending for one 
where the ladyes daunsed, and to commaunde all the varlettes holdinge — 


of the serjeants at arms that waited at the doors of the apart- 
torches to stande up by the walles, and none of them to aproche nere 


ments, said to him—‘“ Go to the room where the ladies are, and 
commande, in the king’s name, that all the torches be placed 
on one side of it, and that no person come near six savage men who 
are about to enter. | 

to the wodehouses that should come thyder to daunce. 


The serjeant did as he had been ordered by the king, and 

The ussher dyd the kynge’s commaundement, whiche was ful- 
the torch-bearers withdrew on one side and no one approached 
fylled. 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” eo ay 


the dancers, so long as the savages staid in the room. The 
apartment was now clear of all but ladies, damsels, and knights 
and squires, who were dancing with them. Soon after the 

Sone after, the duke of Orlyance entred into the hall, accompanyd 


duke of Orleans entered, attended by four knights, and six 
with four knyghtes and syxe torches, and knewe nothynge of the 


torches, ignorant of the. orders that had been given, and of the 
kynges commaundement for the torches, nor of the mummery that 


entrance of the savages. He first looked at the dancing, and then 
was commynge thyder, but thought to beholde the daunsynge, and 


took part himself, just as the king of France made his appearance, 
began hymselfe to daunce. Therwith the kynge with the fyve other 


with five others dressed like savages, and covered with flax, 
came in; they were do dysguysed in flaxe that no man knewe them. 


to represent hair, from head to foot. Not one person in the com- 
Fyve of them were fastened one to another; the kynge was lose, 


pany knew them ; and they were all fastened together, while the 
and went before and led the devyse. Whan they entred into the hall 


king led them dancing. On their entrance, everyone was so 
every man toke so great hede to them that they forgate the torches ; 


occupied in examining them, that the orders about the torches 
the kynge departed fro his company and went to the ladyes to sport 


were forgotten. The king, who was the leader, fortunately for 
with them, as youth requyred, and so passed by the quene and came 


him, quitted them to show himself to the ladies, as was natural to 
to the duchesse of Berrey who toke and helde hym by the arme to know 


his youth, and passing by the queen, placed himself near the 
what he was, but the kyng wolde nat shewe his name. Then the 


duchess of Berry, who though his aunt, was the youngest of the 
company. ‘The duchess amused herself in talking with him, and 
endeavouring to find out who he was; but the king, rising up 
from his seat, would not discover himself. The duchess said, 
“You shall not escape thus, for I will know your name.” 

duchess sayd: Ye shall nat escape me tyll I knowe your name. 


At this moment, a most unfortunate accident befel the 
In this meane season great myschyfe fell on the other, and by 


others, through the youthful gaiety of the Duke of Orleans, who, 
reason of the duke of Orlaynce; howbeit, it was by ignorance, and 


42 A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


if he had foreseen the mischief he was about to cause, it is to 
agaynst his wyll, for if he had consydred before, the myschefe that 


be presumed would not, for any consideration, have so acted. He 
fell, he wolde nat have done as he dyd for all the good in the worlde. 


was very inquisitive in examining them, to find out who they 
But he was do desyrous to knowe what personages the fyve were 


were ; and, as the five were dancing, he took one of the torches 
that daunced, he put one of the torches that his servauntes helde so 


from his servants, and, holding it too near their dresses, 
nere, that the heate of the fyre entred into the flaxe, wherein if fyre 


set them on fire. Flax, you know, is instantly in a blaze, and the 
take there 1s no remedy, and sodaynly was on a bright flame, and so 


pitch, with which the cloth had been covered to fasten the flax, 
eche of them set fyre on other; the pytche was so fastened to the 


added to the impossibility of extinguishing it. They were likewise 
lynen clothe, and their shyrtes so dry and fyne, and so jo0ynynge to 


chained together, and their cries were dreadful ; for, the fire was 
their flesshe, that they began to brenne and to crye for helpe. None 


so strong, scarcely any dared approach. Some knights indeed did 
durste come nere theym ; they that dyd, brente their handes, by reason 


their utmost to disengage them, but the pitch burnt their hands 
of the heate of the pytche. 


very severely ; and they suffered a long time afterwards from it. 


Nothing apparently would be gained by quoting further from 
the two translations. In the sequel Froissart tells that the king 
hurried off, and, at the advice of the duchess of Berry, changed his 
clothes and showed himself to his mother to reassure her; since 
the queen had learned that her son was one of the maskers, but 
had not known which of the group was he. One of the five, 
Nantouillet, saved himself by breaking the chain, running into the 
buttery, and throwing himself into the great tub of water kept 
there for washing dishes. Of the remaining four, two died on 
the spot; the other two, the bastard of Foix and the count de 
Joigny, were carried to their lodgings, where they died in great 
agony a day or two after. Excited rumours of an attempt on the 
life of the king circulated in Paris, but the populace was soon 
calmed. The duke of Orleans took all the blame for what had 
occurred upon himself, but was pardoned by the king. 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 43 


There can be no doubt whatever that the episode in Froissart 
is the main source of Poe’s tale. Ingram recognises this, and 
comments :—* The poet appears to have derived his knowledge 
of the incident from Lord Berner’s (sic) quaint old English 
version of the chronicler’s story.” 

Ingram gives no evidence of any kind for his suggestion that 
Poe made use of Berners’ translation. The probability is that 
Johnes’ version was used. Thomas Johnes (1748-1816) was a 
Cardiganshire landowner, who was successively member of Parlia- 
ment for the borough of Cardigan, the county of Radnorshire, 
and the County of Cardigan. He was lord-lieutenant of Cardigan- 
shire, colonel of the Cardiganshire militia, auditor for life of the 
land revenue of Wales, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society in 1800. He came to live at Hafod, about twelve miles 
from Aberystwyth, in 1783; and here his activities in beautifying 
the estate and carrying out schemes of rebuilding, and his simul- 
taneous occupation with literary interests, compel comparison 
with William Beckford’s life at Fonthill Abbey. But to describe 
Thomas Johnes as a “ Welsh Beckford ”’ would be to lose sight 
of much that was different and of real importance in Johnes, 
who appears never to have lost sight of the fact that his abilities 
and fortune involved social responsibility. He rehoused the 
peasantry on his estate, and set them to planting trees. Between 
1796 and 1801 over two millions of trees were planted, and from 
then on something like a further 200,000 were planted annually. 
He set up the Hafod Press, from which came, in 1800, his own 
work “A Cardiganshire Landlord’s Advice to his Tenants,” a 
book often praised for its vision and foresight. In 1801 he 
issued from the Hafod Press his own translation of Sainte-Palaye’s 
“Life of Froissart ’’’, and between 1803 and 1805 the successive 
volumes of his translation of Froissart’s chronicles. This last 
work was so popular, that another edition was called for in 1805, 
and further editions were published in 1808, 1839, 1847 and 
1848. The Hafod Press edition was reviewed in No. 10 of the 
Edinburgh Review, dated January, 1805. 

In the course of this review, Sir Walter Scott says :—“ We 
ought to view, with indulgent gratitude, the exertion of an in- 
dividual, who has drawn from obscurity the most fascinating 
of this venerable band ”’. (i.e. the works of the early British 
chroniclers and historians) ... “ Froissart, the most enter- 
taining, and perhaps the most valuable, historian of the middle 

1 Inpram—op. cit.—p. 408. 


4A A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


ages. ‘Till now, his Chronicles have only existed in three black 
letter editions printed at Paris, all we believe very rare; in that 
which was published by Denys Sauvage about 1560, and re- 
printed in 1574; and finally, in an English translation by 
Bourchier Lord Berners, which we believe sells for about twenty 
guineas, and 1s hardly ever to be met with.’ 

It is, therefore, far more likely that Poe took the materials 
of his story from Johnes’, rather than from Berners’ translation 
of Froissart. The date of “Hop-Frog” is very near to three 
successive editions of Johnes’ translation, those of 1839, 1847 
and 1848, and the fact that the final edition appeared within a 
year of its predecessor is proof enough of its popularity. 

Unfortunately, there is practically no evidence in the material 
content of the two translations which would justify dogmatism. 
Berners speaks of men dressed as “ wodehowses,’’ that is to say, 
satyrs; Johnes of “wild men.” The latter is obviously a 
great deal nearer to Poe’s “ ourang-outangs ’—the “ wild men ”’ 
of Borneo. Poe had already written earlier, in ‘‘ The Murders 
in the Rue Morgue” of “a very large, tawny Ourang-Outang 
of the Bornese species.” 2 Beyond this evidence there seems 
nothing in the two translations which can be adduced to prove 
that Poe made use of one rather than the other. Such as it is, 
however, it seems to be in favour of Johnes’ version. 

We are fortunate in being able to trace to a single source so 
much of the material used in the construction of a story, since 
we are able to see the precise use made of the borrowed matter ; 
and at the same time to observe the changes introduced by the 
author, and also the material which he finds it necessary, for his 
own purposes, to add. What is borrowed is the raw material, 
the clay ready to the modeller’s hand, the matter to which the 
creative process is to be applied. The modifications and additions 
inform us of the nature of the creative process, and enable us to 
make inferences of its intention. 

Hervey Allan regards “ Hop-Frog”’ as a® « little understood 
allegory”’; in which “sovereign Reality makes the cripple 
of Imagination, whom he keeps as a jester, hop as directed ”’ and 


1 Italics not in original. 


*The Murders in the Rue Morgue—pp. 404 of the Everyman 
Edition of Tales of Mystery and Imagination. (London—Dent— 
Everyman‘s Library—No. 336.) 


3 Hervey Allen—lIsrafel (New York—George H. Doran Company— 
1927). p. 806, . 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” | 45 


Imagination finally “escapes with Fancy.” 1! MHop-Frog will 
certainly bear such an interpretation ; but, even so, we are still 
left with the problem of its invention, with the question as to why 
the allegory is presented with the aid of such material rather than 
other, by means of such treatment rather than an alternative. 
From what experiences, from what contacts with actual people, 
does Poe arrive at the abstract representation of Reality, 
Imagination and Fancy—if indeed he consciously arrives at them ? 


A clue of some importance is furnished by other work which 
Poe produced at about the same date. On March 23rd, 1849, 
he sent to Mrs. Richmond, with a letter, the verses “‘ For Annie’”’ ; 
referring to them as “ much the best I have ever written.” ? 


The poem begins :— 
Thank Heaven! the crisis— 
The danger is past, 
And the lingering illness 
Is over at last— 
And the fever called “ Living ”’ 
Is conquered at last. 
Indeed, the whole poem is written from the point of the view of 
a dead man, lying in a tomb, grateful at last to be resting . . . 
For.man never slept 
In a different bed 
And, to sleep, you must slumber 
In just such a bed. 
The whole process of dying is represented, however, as the falling 
asleep of a child upon its mother’s breast; ‘Annie’ (Mrs. 
Richmond) taking in the poem the place of the poet’s mother. 
She tenderly kissed me, 
And fondly caressed, 
And then I fell gently 
To sleep on her breast— 
Deeply to sleep 
From the heaven of her breast. 


When the light was extinguished 
She covered me warm, 

And she prayed to the angels 
To keep me from harm— 

To the queen of the angels 
To shield me from harm. 


This is, obviously, a picture of a young child being put to bed by 
a mother, and the whole poem can be taken as evidence (even if 


1 Ibid. p. 641. 
*Ingram ... op. cit. pp 407-8. 


46 A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


no other existed) that some at least of Poe’s thinking about Mrs. 
Richmond represented her relation to Poe himself as that of a 
mother to her young child. We may, without going farther into 
the matter, look upon the poem as an expression of a demand for 
affection and loving attention. This it clearly is. It must be 
remembered, however, that Poe was forty years of age ; and that, 
though a grown man may without abnormality picture himself 
as an infant when his relation to supernatural powers or divine 
beings is in question, he does not so consider himself in relation to 
young women. He may demand affection, but not maternal 
affection. 


Again, early in January of the same year, 1849, Mrs. Clemm, 
writing to “ Annie,” says that Poe has written a story and sent 
it to a publisher.! Her references show that the work referred 
to is “‘ Landor’s Cottage,’’ which was not, however, published 
until after Poe’s death. It is an account of a journey which leads 
the pedestrian to a country house, the residence of Mr. Landor. 
Accidentally or intentionally, it appears to represent Poe’s 
situation at about this time in allegorical fashion. The pedes- 
trian has been touring in the neighbourhood of New York, and 
finds himself, “as the day declined, somewhat embarrassed 
about the path” he is pursuing. Throughout the day the sun 
has scarcely shone, though the day has been unpleasantly warm. 
““A smoky mist, resembling that of the Indian summer’’ has 
enveloped everything. ? The house is enclosed in a deep valley, 
inaccessible except through a single narrow pass closed by a gate. 
The door is opened by a woman of about twenty-eight years of 
age, who is described at length. The description contains a 
passage which recalls at once “ Ligeia,” a picture undoubtedly 
based on Poe’s recollections of the mother who had died just 
before his third birthday, preserved to some extent in the medallion 
she had bequeathed to him—“ So intense an expression of romance, 
perhaps I should call it, or of unworldliness, as that which gleamed 
from her deep-set eyes, had never so sunk into my heart of hearts 
before. I know not how it is, but this peculiar expression of the 
eye, wreathing itself occasionally into the lips, is the most power- 
ful, if not absolutely the sole spell, which rivets my interest in 


1Ingram ... op.cit. p. 400. 


2 See ‘“‘ Landor’s Cottage : a Pendant to The Domain of Arnheem— 
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Everyman Edition) pp. 45 ff. Italics 
not in original, 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 47 


woman.” ‘There can be no doubt whatever that “ Ligeia” is 
Poe’s own mother.’ 

But “ Annie” is addressed by Poe, in his letters to her, as 
“ My Sweet Friend and Sister’ ®, and this term recalls at once 
Poe’s own sister, Rosalie, from whom he was separated on the 
occasion of his mother’s death, just before he was three years 
of age. It was then that Rosalie was taken to the home of the 
Mackenzies, and himself to that of the Allans. There is the 
possibility, therefore, that John Allan himself is the person 
represented in ‘‘ Hop-Frog’”’ in the person of the King. 

It is in respect of this King that Poe has materially altered 
the narrative of Froissart. In the chronicle the king (Charles 
VI. of France) escapes, but it is clear in “‘ Hop Frog” that the 
whole motif of the story is the destruction of the king as a revenge 
for his treatment of the little jester. The seven ministers are 
_ mere servile echoes of the king. They are punished too, but as 
accomplices only : the death of the king is the essential element. 

Another alteration of the Froissart material, apparently 
trifling, is yet probably of considerable importance. The King 
of France and his courtiers were dressed in “‘coats of linen covered 
with fine flax, the colour of hair.” Poe’s king and his ministers 
are, on the other hand, “ first encased in tight-fitting stockinette 
shirts and drawers’’; in other words, in the theatrical tights of 
Poe’s day. Now Poe, whilst his mother was alive, was constantly 
taken by her to the theatre. His mother’s parts necessitated the 
wearing of tights; and he probably, as an infant, was present 
in the dressing-rooms where the players were changing into their 
stage costumes. He is thus, as the little dwarf supervising the 
“dressing up’ of the gross king and his ministers, repeating the 
infantile experience of the small child in the dressing room. 

It is possible, too, that some part of the fire episode in “ Hop 
Frog” is derived from memories of those early days, to which 
is added matter only learned when Poe grew older. For on 
December 11th, about a fortnight after Poe had been taken to 
the Allan home, the Richmond theatre caught fire, and was totally 


1Landor’s Cottage—Tales—Ed. cit.—pp. 54. The relevant 
passages in Ligeia ”’ are on pp. 157—8. 


27 worked this point out in detail some few years back, but have 
not yet published the material. It has been developed also by Princess 
Marie Bonaparte, in her Edgar Poe: Htude Psychanalytique. (Paris 
Denoel et Steele—1933). See especially pp. 290 ff. G.H.G. 


3 Ingram—op. cit. p.404. Italics not in original. 


48 A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


destroyed. Seventy-three persons were burned to death, in- 
cluding the Governor of Virginia. The theatre was one in which 
Poe’s mother had often acted. On at least one occasion later, 
Poe appears to have alleged, in explaining Allan’s standing in 
respect to himself, that his parents had perished in this fire.t 
Further, the cause of the conflagration was the stage chandelier. 
The Allans were out of Richmond at the time of the catastrophe, 
but many of their friends and acquaintances perished. There can 
be little doubt that the fire and frequent discussion about it, as 
well as his mother’s association with the theatre itself, developed 
in Poe a disposition which made the narrative in Froissart, when 
he first read it, interesting and significant. 

The figure of the little creature, Trippetta, “of exquisite 
proportions, and a marvellous dancer ’’ who is Hop-Frog’s fellow- 
captive at the court, calls for some comment. His mother was a 
dancer and singer rather than a player, though she possessed the 
versatility essential to a member of a touring company. The 
name, Trippetta, suggests at once “trip” and “ pet ’’—and it 
is by no means as trifling as it might seem to consider the 
possibility that the name was manufactured of these elements, 
when we consider the artifices of the period in which Poe lived and 
his own personal predilection for word-play and punning. We 
are reminded, too, of the preposterous name of Ligeia’s successor, 
the Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine, with its emphatic 
repetition of “ tre’, which like “ tri,’ may have the significance 
of ‘‘ three,’ and so refer to the third member of the household 
which was broken up by the death of Mrs. Poe—Rosalie. Poe, 
may, too, have found the name ready to his hand in Garrick’s 
farce “‘The Lying Valet,’ in which Beau Trippet and Mrs. 
Trippet appear. We are here dealing, in all probability, with a 
case of “ over-determination ’’: there is the likelihood that the 
name was invented or discovered without conscious intention or 
realisation of its implications, but that it immediately appeared 
psychologically satisfying because its unwitting associations 
made it perfectly suited to the naming of a figure who brought 
together memories of the mother and little sister of the years of 
infancy. 

The whole story appears to have as its psychological motive 
the desire to return again to the period of infancy, and the making 
possible of this by a destruction of all that lies between. Poe had 


1See Colonel House’s letter of March 30th, 1829, reproduced in 
Israfel, pp. 237 ff. 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 49 


idealised this period as the “ valley of many-coloured grass’’ in 
“EHleanora”’’; the happy place in which he dwelt apart with 
Eleanora and her mother. But in ‘“ Hop-Frog”’ little is said 
of the destination ; the emphasis being on the destruction of the 
period between the golden past and the drab present. 

For this return there may be many reasons. But the reason 
commonly present in consciousness is that of “reculer pour 
sauter mieux.” If one could but return to the years of childhood 
and live again, what goals could not be reached! Poe had began 
to realise, in all probability, that he could not hope to realise the 
aspirations which he had confided, not long before the writing 
of ‘‘Landor’s Cottage,” ‘“‘ Hop-Frog” and “For Annie,” 
to Mrs. Helen Whitman. He had spoken to her of founding 
an intellectual aristocracy in America and leading it..... 
‘* All this I can do, Helen, and will—if you bid me—and aid me.”’ } 
He was writing to Mrs. Richmond in a milder strain, but perhaps 
with the same meaning:—‘‘I am resolved: to get rich—to 
triumph”? Such extravagance itself speaks eloquently of 
doubt, of loss of hope. It was at this time, too, that scandals 
about Poe were being circulated to his detriment. He was poor 
and harassed. He had, from time to time, taken drink and 
narcotics, which, because of bodily weakness and perhaps under- 
nourishment, took greater effect upon him than they would 
have done upon another. All these things, and perhaps others 
which we can never hope to know in detail, went to the making 
of the current situation which presented itself to him as a problem, 
only to be solved by running away from it; by leaping over the 
intervening years which lay between him and seemingly golden 
infancy. This could be done only by obliterating every step 
of the sequence which began with the entrance into the Allan 
home and ended with the writing of ‘“ Hop-Frog.”’ 

In effect, then, “ Hop-Frog” is Poe’s indictment of Allan 
_for the failure of his life. It was in Allan’s house that the boy 
first tasted wine ; forced upon him, Poe alleges, by one who knew 
that single glass of wine excited him to madness. ‘This is the way 
in which an episode, whose details we know, presented itself to 
the consciousness of a mature man who knew that the single glass 
of wine had so often betrayed him, and that his reputation had 
suffered in consequence. Griswold’s malicious and untruthful 


1Caroline Ticknor—Poe’s Helen. (London—John Lane—1917). 
p. iil. 
?Ingram—op. cit.—p. 400. 


50 A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 


memoir, in all probability, merely committed to print much that 
was already gossip regarding Poe’s habits. Poe, apologising 
for intemperance, had blamed on one occasion “ the temptation 
held out by the spirit of Southern conviviality”’ 1, and on another, 
insanity resulting from worry about the imminent death of his 
wife.? There is, nevertheless, the story that when he lived 
with the Allans he was sometimes placed on the table to toast the 
assembled company in a glass of sweetened wine and water. 
“Much,” says Hervey Allen, “has been made of this fact, 
which in all conscience seems harmless and trivial enough’. The 
point to be made here, however, is not that this circumstance 
was to blame for Poe’s drinking, but that it was one upon which 
he could fix should he at any time wish to satisfy himself as to 
how a craving for drink originated in him, and to place the fault 
on other shoulders than his own. 

Hervey Allen has summarised a much relevant material in his 
account of Poe’s early childhood. ‘Sometimes he would be 
called upon to amuse the company by standing upon a high-backed 
chair to recite jungles. Tradition has it that the company was 
both delighted and amused. Even John Allan was not insensible 
to his juvenile talents, and we have a picture of the young Poe, 
mounted shoeless upon the long, shining, dining-room table, after 
the dessert and cloth had been cleared away, to dance ; or standing 
between the doors of the drawing room at the Fourteenth Street 
house reciting to a large company, and with a boyish fervour, 
The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”* Here is clearly material for 
reminiscences which could later, in moods of resentment, present 
themselves in forms suggesting that the child had, for Allan and 
his friends, fulfilled the role of jester. The relish of Allan, or at 
least that of his friends, for practical joking is suggested by the 
popularity in the household of Edward Valentine, Mrs. Allan’s 
cousin, who taught Edgar Poe a number of his tricks. > And, 
if we want to understand the king’s insult to Trippetta, we have 
only to bear in mind that Allan, on occasion, used to fling in 
Poe’s face the profession of his parents: and did not scruple, in 
writing to Poe’s brother, to throw doubts on Mrs. Poe’s fidelity 
to her husband. 2 

1 Robertson—Edgar A. Poe: a Psychopathic Study (New York: 
G. P. Putnam’s Sons : 1923) .. p. 37. 

2 Ingram—op. cit... p. 174. 

3 Hervey Allen—Israfel—p. 53. 


4 Hervey Allen . . Op. cit... p. 52. 
SIbid.... p. 54. 


A NOTE ON “ HOP-FROG ” 51 


Tt was possible, then, even if not rational, for Poe, under the 
infiuence of strong hatred for all that separated him from the 
fantasied golden kingdom of childhood, to see in Allan and those 
resembling him tyrants who were to blame for all the misery 
and privation of the intervening years and the desperation of the 
current situation. He turns them into actors, like the people 
they despised : into the beasts he considers them. He ponders, 
whilst he is preparing them for the fate he had planned, whether 
he should not tar and feather them, as social outcasts were 
treated in the rural communities of the Southern states. But 
no—this would be merely punishment, meted out to people who 
merit nothing less than utter destruction ! 

In the figure of “ Hop-Frog,”’ Poe probably makes an estimate 
of himself—with what degree of deliberate intention we cannot 
tell. He moves painfully and awkwardly over the earth:! an 
admission, perhaps, of the superiority of Allan and his fellow 
merchants in the spheres of business and adminstration. What 
he claims for himself is wit, nimbleness and ease of motion in 
those regions which he considered above the heads of tradesmen. 
It was because of these qualities that he found his escape from 
such men—in aerial regions of fancy and poesy where they could 
not hope to follow him. 

But the picture of the return to infancy must not be inter- 
preted symbolically only. It had literal significance also. For 
it was only a few months after, in the same year, that Poe de- 
termined to travel to Richmond to renew old literary associations 
and to see the friends of his boyhood. What might have resulted 
from this experience we do not know, since he died on his way 
back from Richmond to New York. 

GEORGE H. GREEN, 


-1 Mary Newton Stannard in The Dreamer: a Romantic Tendering 
of the Life-Story of Edgar Allan Poe.” (Philadelphia & London: J. B. 
Lippincott Company: 1925) says that at Stoke Newington Poe easily 
excelled all his fellows at leap -frog. No evidence is given for this 
statement ...Vide pp. 39-40. There is, however, evidence that he 
was extremely vain of his prowess in leaping. 


the 5 nig ey 


y 


oe 
ie 
ie 


ea te 


alee 


SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 


Ameédée Pichot (1825); James Aytoun and J. B. Mesnard (1826) 
Philaréte Chasles (1827); Léon de Wailly (1843); Louis 
Demouceaux (1865); Richard de la Madelaine (1874); Auguste 
Angellier (1893). 


It is not proposed in this article to deal exhaustively with all the 
attempts made in France during the XIXth century to trans- 
late the poetry of Burns, but rather to select from the surprisingly 
long list of such attempts the most interesting and the most 
significant, beginning with that of Amédée Pichot, the infatigable 
translator of so many masterpieces of English and Scottish 
literature, and culminating in the remarkable achievement of 
Auguste Angellier, than whom Burns will probably never have 
a more sympathetic interpreter on the continent. 

Pichot devotes to Burns a chapter of his Voyage historique et 
littéraire en Angleterre et en Ecosse, published in 1825. This 
chapter contains a prose rendering of The cottar’s Saturday might, 
To a mountain daisy, Highland Mary, To Mary in heaven. In 
the following year there appeared in Paris a little volume entitled 
Morceaux choisis de Burns, the work of a Frenchman, J. B. 
Mesnard, in collaboration with a Scott from Ayrshire, James 
Aytoun. Hight poems are translated, among them The cottar’s 
Saturday night, To Mary in heaven, Tam o’Shanter and Scots 
wha hae . . . The authors announce their intention of publishing 
shortly a complete translation of the works of Burns, but they do 
not appear ever to have put this plan into execution. In 1827 
the Revue Britannique published an article on Burns which con- 
tained a prose translation of six of the poems, The cottar’s Saturday 
night, To a mountain daisy, Mary Morrison, two of the shorter 
poems and a ballad, O open the door to me. These renderings were 
the work of Philaréte Chasles, who was already beginning to be 
recognised as an authority on the literature of the British Isles. 
The editor of the review adds a note to the effect that Chasles 
has completed a translation of the works of Burns which will, 
he hopes, be published in the near future; but here again ex- 
haustive researches have failed to reveal any trace of such a 


53 


54 SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 


publication. In 1843 Léon de Wailly published the first (and 
we believe, the only) complete translation which has appeared 
in France. 

A few of the poems, notably Tam o’Shanter are rendered in 
verse, but for the most part, De Wailly has employed the method 
which was later to be that of Angellier, that is, he has translated 
and printed each line as a unit :— 

Oh! pales, pales sont maintenant ces lévres de rose 
Que j‘ai souvent baisées si passionnément ! 
Et fermé pour toujours est le regard étincelant 
Qui s’arrétait si bienveillant sur moi ! 
Et maintenant tombe en poussiére silencieuse 
Ce coeur qui m’aimait si tendrement ! 
Mais toujours au fond de mon sein 
Vivra ma montagnarde Marie ! 

In 1865 Louis Demouceaux published a little volume of 
Poésies imitées de Burns. 1874 saw the appearance of yet another 
volume of prose translations, that of Richard de la Madelaine. 
The poems included in the collection are The cotiar’s Saturday 
night, Highland Mary, To Mary in heaven, To a mouse, Scots wha 
hae... In 1893 Auguste Angellier gave to the public his 
masterly study of Burns in which the numerous poems translated, 
chosen to represent all the different aspects of the genius of the 
poet, are accompanied and completed by commentary and 
appreciation. 


Though the translators whom we have so far mentioned have 
made no attempt to preserve the peculiar charm which the poetry 
of Burns owes to the dialect in which most of it is written, yet 
one of them, Philarete Chasles, has made the suggestion that 
interesting results might be obtained if the medium employed | 
were not modern French, but French of the time of Marot. He 
gives as an example of such translation ‘une gente, accorte et 
douce fillette’ (a bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass). Unfortunately, 
no one followed up his ingenious idea. It would however have 
been astonishing if no one had attempted to translate Burns into 
some dialect of French. . The following passages are taken 
from the spirited renderings of Auld lang syne by George Métivier 
and Judge Langlois which are to be found in Patois poems of the 
Channel Islands (Guernsey, Guille-Allés Library, no date). 


Oubllieron-ju nos vier accoints, 
Not coin d’faeu, nos parens ? 

Oubllieron-ju nos vier accoints, 
Not bouan vier tems ? 


SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 55 


Au bouan vier tems, allon, 
Au bouan vier tems, 
Un p’tit fortificat, buvon, 
Au bouan vier tems ! 
(G. Métivier—Guernsey dialect). 


Oubllierait-nou ses viers accoints, 
Ses anmins, ses parens ? 
Oubilierait-nou ses viers accoints, 
Les jours du vier temps ? 
Pour amour du vier temps, allons, 
Pour lV’amour du vier temps, 
J *bérons ensemblle ocouo, j ’bérons, 
Pour | ’amour du vier temps. 
(Judge Langlois—Jersey dialect). 
George Métivier has also translated John Barleycorn. 


It is possible to deduce from the frequency with which they 
appear in translation, the relative popularity of the poems of 
Burns. The cottar’s Saturday night is the only one which is to 
be found in all the volumes and articles we have mentioned, and 
it is especially by this poem, which was often compared with 
Cowper’s work, that Burns appears to have been known in France 
before 1843.1 For this reason we have taken it as our point of 
departure when comparing the achievement of the different 
translators. As representative of the other aspects of Burns we 
have considered passages from Tam o’Shanter, Mary Morrison, 
Highland Mary, To a daisy, To a mouse, Scots wha hae . . To 
judge of the relative merits of these different translations we shall 
look at them from four points of view, namely, the choice of 
method, the exact understanding of the original, the tone of the 
rendering (choice of words, etc), rhythm and melody. 


All the translators we have mentioned, with the exception of 
Chasles, have the same conception of the art of translation ; their 
chief concern is to depart as little as possible from the original. 
The extreme simplicity of the poet’s language lends itself to this 
almost literal translation. One may nevertheless point to passages 
where the freer method used by Chasles has given better results. 
For example, in Mary Morrison, Chasles is nearer to the meaning 
of Burns when he writes: ‘ Assis je ne vis, je n’entendis rien ; 

. elles passaient toutes sans se faire apercevoir, et je répetais 
tristement, “Non, non, vous n’étes pas Marie, la belle Mary 
Morrison,” than De Wailly and the others who render this passage : 


I See Pichot, Chasles, Sainte-Beuve. 


56 SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 


“< J’étais assis, mais je n’entendais ni ne voyais . . . Je soupirai 
et dis au milieu d’elles toutes, “Vous n’étes pas Mary Morrison.” 

But such comparatively successful passages are rare in Chasles’ 
translation, not because the method is bad but because Chasles 
uses it badly. He had later, as a matter of fact, extremely sound 
ideas about this subject which he set forth in the introduction to 
his translation of Romeo and Juliet, published in 1836, but, at 
the time when he was occupied with Burns, he had not yet 
obtained that mastery of the art which he was later to display. 
Moreover, he was at that time engaged on the composition of an 
oriental poem imitated from Moore’s Lallah Roohk, and something 
of the artificial style of La fiancée de Bénares would seem to have 
overflowed into his rendering of the simple melodies of Burns. 
Chasles’ translation is open to another criticism; over-anxious 
to give to his rendering a form really French, he has paraphrased 
or adapted rather than translated. Not only does he make cuts, 
but he even permits himself to make additions which are not at 
all in keeping with the tone of the original. An example of his 
complete failure to catch the spirit of Burns is to be found in the 
following passage from The cotiar’s Saturday night :— 

Mais on a frappé ; la porte de la chaumiere a retenti sous le coup 
léger d’une main timide. Jenny se hate d ’apprendre a sa famille 
comment un jeune voisin |’a rencontrée et comment, malgré le 
mauvais temps, il 1’a galamment reconduite. Jenny! Jenny! 
une flamme subite s ’est échappée de tes yeux ; ta joues’ est colorée ; 
ta mére connait les artifices de ton sexe. On ne trompe pas une 
mére ! 6 Jenny tu es devinée, etc. 

We have put in italics the expressions which are flagrantly out of 
tone with the original, but the whole rendering is a travesty of 
Burns. 


Louis Demouceaux, the only other among those we have 
mentioned who departs from the literal method of translation, 
disarms our criticism, his claim being only to imitate Burns. His 
imitations in verse are of unequal merit. In A une souris he has 
preserved something of the rapid movement of the original, 
though he has sacrificed its exquisite simplicity :— _ 

Petite béte lisse et vive : 
Quelle panique dans ton sein ! 
Ne crains pas que je te poursuive 
D ’un noir dessein, 
Et que je devienne, chétive, 
Ton assassin. 


In Le samedi soir de la chaumiere, where he uses the alexandrine, 


SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 57 


he fails at once to reproduce the tone and the movement of the 
original :— 

La mere voit briller la flamme accusatrice 

Au front de sa Jenny, son ame est au supplice ; 

Mais elle est satisfaite en apprenant son nom, 

Car d’un sujet indigne il n ’a pas le renom. 


All these translators of Burns seems to have made a serious 
effort to master the difficulties of the Ayrshire dialect, and on the 
whole their renderings are commendably accurate as far as the 
actual meaning of the words is concerned. The most accurate 
of all is, as was to be expected, Angellier, the least accurate, 
Chasles, whose knowledge of the Scotch idiom is not equal to his 
knowledge of English. In Mary Morrison, for example, he trans- 
lates fair and braw (jolie and bien attiffée) as blonde and brune. 
None of the translators of Burns are entirely free from such 
mistakes; even the Scott Aytoun seems occasionally to have 
misread the original, as for example when in J’'am o’Shanter he 
translates slaps (sautoirs) as “ces bréches pratiquées dans les 
vieilles masures, which may be one of the meanings of the word 
in Ayrshire, but which is probably not what Burns meant in this 
passage. 


Pichot is more reliable than his contemporary Chasles, but we 
find occasional departures from strict accuracy, what one might 
call “a peu pres”’ rather than misreadings, for example rives 
couvertes de bruyeres for ye banks and braes. De Wailly misreads 
patile as curoiwr, birk as bouton, chapman as chaland. Even 
Angellier is not always strictly accurate. He writes il a fallu que 
jet écrase for I maun crush, je n’y perdrai rien for And never miss’t. 


In preserving the tone of the original, De Wailly, R. de la 
Madelaine, Mesnard and Angellier are as we have seen far superior 
to the others. Their comparative success is due to the fact that 
they have realised that the essential character of Burns is extreme 
simplicity and directness of thought and expression. Pichot and 
Chasles have given a too literary tone to their renderings. An 
example of this is to be found in the following extract from Marie 
des montagnes :— 

O rives couvertes de bruyéres ; flots qui entourez le chateau de 
Montgomery, que vos bocages verdissent & jamais, que vos fleurs 
soient toujours fraiches, et vos ondes limpides. 

Here the character of the original would have been more faithfully 
reproduced if Pichot had translated streams, woods, waters, by 


58 SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 


ruisseaux, bois and eaux, instead of using the more literary ex- 
pressions flots, bocages, ondes. 'The same is true of Chasles, but he, 
not content with translating the simple expression by the more 
pretentious one, sometimes inserts a literary epithet where Burns 
has used no epithet at all. In A une souris the plough has become 
the charrue wmprudente ; in Le samedi soir du métayer the young 
man who sees Jenny home does it galamment; the lighted ha’ 
of Mary Morrison is la salle éclairee de mille flambeaux, the 
weary slave is a misérable et vile esclave, and Burns has become 
singularly reminiscent of the Abbé Delille. One must however 
do Chasles this justice, that he is sometimes happily inspired, and 
finds the mot juste ; la corde frémissante for example seems to us to 
be a better translation of the trembling cord, than the more literal 
corde tremblante which the others adopt. 

The later translators of Burns have all attempted to pre- 
serve the simplicity and directness of his poetry and have avoided 
the literary pretentiousness which mars the renderings of Chasles 
and Pichot, and which was of course, no longer in the taste of their 
time. But none of them have found any means of reproducing 
the charm of the Scotch idiom, so rich in picturesque terms and 
in diminutives, which give to it an incomparable grace and naivete. 
Their failure in this respect was inevitable ; the French language 
has no equivalents of wee, beastie, breastie, bonnie, sonsie, etc. 

Neither is it surprising that no translator has arisen to render 
in French the rhythm and the melody of the poetry of Burns. 
“Burns,” says Angellier, “se sert de mots tels que rose, mai, 
etc . . de facon a leur donner l’air d ’étre neufs . . .il trouve . . 
des comparaisons charmantes ot. il marie inconsciemment le 
rythme et les ondulations de lV’allure a la musique, donnant ainsi 
la formule de la danse...” This, no translation can hope to - 
reproduce, and no one is more aware than Angellier himself of the 
inadequacy of such a translation as the following, faithful as it is 
in tone and meaning :— 

Mon amour est comme une rouge, rouge rose, 
Qui est nouvellement éclose en juin ; 
Mon amour est comme la mélodie 
Qui est doucement jouée en mesure. 
It is true that one can find in the translations of Burns by Angellier 
passages of beauty, but the rhythm is no longer that of the 
original :— 
* Sous | ’aubépine blanche comme le lait, ou se parfume la brise 
du soir.’ 


SOME FRENCH TRANSLATORS OF BURNS 59 


We conclude then that Burns, faithfully served as he has been 
by his French translators, must nevertheless remain unknown 
save to those who can read him in his native idiom. For the 
Burns of these translations is not the real Burns. Even Angellier, 
with all his extraordinary sympathy with his subject and his great 
poetic talent, has failed to reproduce the essential magic of this 
poetry, its music. Again we are led to ask ourselves whether it 
is worth while trying the impossible task of translating a poet, 
and we are inclined to reply in this case that Angellier would have 
been better inspired to leave his quotations in the original, and 
that his ingenious comparisons with the masterpieces of French 
verse and his perspicacious comments would have had more force 
_had they been used to illustrate the real Burns instead of forming 
the accompaniment to a pale imitation. 


K. M. PHILLIPS. 


THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 


THE great achievements of pre-historic archeology during the 
present century have made it possible to outline with reasonable 
accuracy the main cultural movements in the West for at least 
two millenia before Christ. It is fitting that some attempt 
should be made to re-examine the cultural material of proto- 
historic times in the light of our vastly extended eno nledee 
of the pre-historic pericd. 


A recent survey of the pre-historic and later periods has 
emphazised the importance of the division of Britain into two 
physiographical and cultural provinces. These are the Lowlands 
of the south and east and the Highlands of the north and west. 
The Lowland zone has received its cultures from the continent 
by way of the Narrow Seas, while the Highlands have been in 
contact by way of the Atlantic route which linked the promontories 
and islands of the west. The Lowland zone has been one of cul- 
tural replacement—a land of invasions ; the Highland zone one of 
cultural fusion—a land of the continuity of tradition! It should 
not be assumed, however, that the rdle of the west has been a 
passive one. Ireland, particularly, has been a centre of active 
creative life, adapting and re-moulding cultural elements that 
have reached her from Britain, or directly from the continent. 
along the Atlantic route. Her activity invigorated in turn the 
opposite shores of the Irish Sea, and ultimately most of Highland 
Britain. Sometimes the cultural transmission from Ireland was 
more particularly by way of the Isle of Man, Strathclyde and 
Cumbria, as is indicated by the distribution of the Food Vessel in 
the early and middle Bronze Age. At other times, Irish influence 
spread rather to south Wales and Cornwall, as is shown, for 
example, by the distribution of Ogham-inscribed stones in the 
fifth century a.p. At rare periods, however, the entire shore- 
lands of the western seas were affected by a single cultural stimulus. 
Such a period existed from about 2500 to 2000 8.c. when the 
funerary ritual of the megalith builders was implanted through- 
out the region.2. It would appear that at such eminent periods 

i Fox, C. The Personality of Britain. 1932. 

*Fox,C. Op.cit. p. 35. 

; 61 


62 THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 


in the life of the west, Ireland was linked not only with Highland 
Britain, but also with Brittany and Western France. The 
period from the sixth to the eighth centuries A.D. which has 
become known as the Age of the Saints was, undoubtedly, a 
similar epoch. Ireland, Highland Britain and Western Gaul 
shared the general culture of Celtic Christianity, whose achieve- 
ments at this time stand out in marked contrast to the Saxon 
Heathendom of the Lowland south and east. 

Although it is important to emphasize that the wanderings 
of the Saints embraced the entire Celtic Fringe, nevertheless, a 
more detailed investigation reveals beneath the general impression, 
the survival from earlier times of the subdivision of these western 
seas into a northern and southern sphere. One group of Saints 
journeyed from northern Ireland to south-western Scotland, Cum- 
bria and the Isle of Man, while another group operated in southern 
Treland, south Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. North Wales, 
apparently, belonged sometimes to one, and sometimes to the 
other sphere but seldom in the life work of individual saints do 
we hear of these provinces overlapping. St. Columba journeyed 
from northern Ireland to establish his monastery at Iona, whence 
his successors spread all over the northern area. Perhaps, we 
have the last echo of the peculiar individuality of this region in 
the territorial limits of the bishopric of Sodor and Man in the 
eleventh century. St. Samson, the subject of the present study, 
belongs equally clearly to the southern sphere. His activities 
embraced south Wales, southern Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany. 
In St. Samson’s sphere of influence therefore we have a reflection 
of the major cultural groupings in the west which had remained 
virtually unchanged for over two thousand years before his time. 

St. Samson’s Life dates from the beginning of the seventh 
century and thus is almost contemporary with the events it 
describes. It is the work of an anonymous writer who states that 
his sources were a Life of the saint written by the deacon Henoc, 
a nephew of St. Samson and handed on to an old monk of the 
monastery of Dol, and also additional facts told to him by this 
aged man and by the monks of Llantwit. The most ancient 
extant manuscripts of the Life are, however, not older than the 
eleventh century, but internal textual evidence agrees in ascribing 
the original composition to the seventh century.! The information 
afforded by the Life of St. Samson therefore is especially valuable 
for a study of this kind as the Lives of almost all the other saints, 


1 Taylor, T. The Life of St. Samson. 1925. Introduction p. xlv. 


THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 63 


though representing] ancient traditions are the products of later 
ages and much coloured by medieval monkish imaginations.! 

Briefly St. Samson’s story was as follows. A native of south 
Wales, he became a pupil of the great St. Iltud at Llantwit. 
After ordination he entered the monastery of Piro (usually thought 
to be on Ynys Pyr or Caldy Island, off Tenby). After a visit to 
his parents he returned to find the abbot dead and was appointed 
to succeed him. Shortly afterwards the monastery was visited 
by Irish monks on their way home from a visit to Rome. He 
proceeded with them to Ireland and after a short stay he returned 
to Ynys Pyr taking with him an Irish “chariot” that he thought 
might be useful to him in his future wanderings. On arrival 
at the monastery he refused to resume his rule over the community 
there and retired toa “ very desolate wilderness ’’ near the banks 
of the Severn. His retreat was discovered and he was brought 
back to the monastic life and consecrated bishop. Soon after- 
wards in response to a “ vision’”’ urging him to travel “‘ beyond 
the sea’”’ he sailed towards Cornwall. On his way he visited 
his family and friends presumably in south Wales. He arrived 
in Cornwall at or near the monastery of Docco, the modern St. 
Kew. His name was remembered in the neighbourhood as there 
formerly stood a chapel in Padstow parish dedicated to St. Samson 
and St. Cadoc. After a brief stay in this neighbourhood “he 
arranged his journey so as to completely traverse the country,” 
travelling overland to the estuary of the Fowey river on the south 
coast of Cornwall. Nearby, again, is a church and parish which 
bear the saint’s name. How long Samson remained in Cornwall 
is not known, but from the Fowey estuary he passed over to 
Brittany, landing in the estuary of the Guioult. Henceforth, Dol 
was the centre of his activities, though he is known to have visited 
Paris on a political mission. He achieved great fame as the 
founder of the monastic bishopric of Dol. After his lifetime his 
followers continued to spread his fame, while his sarcophagus at 
Dol was the object of many pilgrimages from Cornwall and Britain 
in ages to come.? 

The importance of sea traffic at this time is clearly demon- 
strated in the outline of Samson’s wanderings recorded above. 


1 Williams, H. Christianity in Harly Britain. 1912. pp. 297-8. 


2This account is based on the Life printed in Taylor (Op. cit.) 
together with the translator’s introductory statement, and also on 
Baring Gould and J. Fisher The Lives of the British Saints. Vol. IV. 
1913. pp. 130-170. 


64 THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 


Dr. Cyril Fox has pointed out to me that although the Lvfe of 
St. Samson is full of miraculous elements and divine interventions, 
nevertheless, in the accounts of his sea passages there is never 
any reference to events of a supernatural nature, although it is 
here that one might have most expected it. Samson’s first 
voyage to Ireland with the Irish visitors to Ynys Pyr is not even 
mentioned in the text. ‘“‘ Now it came to pass that certain dis- 
tinguished Irishmen on their way from Rome arrived at his 
dwelling and ... he determined to accompany them to their 
own land. And there he stayed a short while, and by God’s help 
practised many virtues.” On the return voyage we hear of 
Samson waiting in the citadel at Acre Etri (which is thought to 
be on the promontory of Howth at the extremity of Dublin Bay) 
for ‘‘ fair weather for his return to Britain.” A slight hitch 
occurs in the arrangements but “ when night was over, at day- 
break, with a fair wind they proceeded on a prosperous voyage 
with God as their helmsman and on the second day they reached 
that island in which he had previously dwelt.’ ? Crossing from 
Wales to Cornwall was uneventful ; “ freely bestowing the power 
of his benediction upon them all, with a favourable wind after 
a happy passage he arrives . . . at a monastery which is called 
Docco.’”® The voyage from Cornwall to Brittany is described 
in similar terms. “... with God for his guide he directed his 
course towards this side of the sea * in accordance with his promise 

. after a favourable voyage they reached their desired port in 
Kurope’.' We may conclude that the crossing of stormy seas 
in open boats, without compass, or even the assurance of the stars 
by night was something quite usual at this time and called for — 
no special comment. We have reason to believe from the 
archeological record that movement by sea from headland to 
headland and peninsula to peninsula had been the normal method 
of communication in these lands since megalithic times. In St. 
Samson’s time it was too commonplace to need comment. 

The distribution of certain pre-historic finds on these western 
peninsulas is seen to form definite transpeninsular patterns. This 
suggests that in early times it was usual to transport goods across 
the peninsulas rather than risk the dangers of a sea passage around 


‘1 Taylor, T. Op.cit. Translation. p. 39. 

2Taylor, T. Op.cit. Translation. pp. 40-41. 

3 Tbid. p. 47. 

4 From the point of view of the Breton monk writing the narrative. 
5 Taylor, T. Op.cit. Translation. p. 52. 


THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 65 


the stormy headlands. Long distance movement was part by 
land and part by sea. Cornwall, naturally, had many such 
transpeninsular routes. Crawford suggested some twenty years 
ago that finds of gold lunule of Irish origin in Cornwall indicated 
an “isthmus ”’ road from St. Ives Bay to Mounts Bay.! More 
recently, Fox has demonstrated from a composite map of Bronze 
Age finds the existence of similar routes across our western 
peninsulas. In Cornwall he shows the importance of the route 
from Padstow to the Fowey at this time.2 Hencken also has 
shown the significance of this route in the Bronze and Iron Ages 
and he points out also its relation to the pre-historic tin trade and 
its continued importance in the Dark and Middle Ages. Thus, 
when St. Samson journeyed this way he was following a route 
_ that had been well trodden for nearly two thousand years and 
was to remain important for centuries to come. St. Samson also 
was well aware of the time honoured scheme of travelling in 
western lands. When leaving south Wales en route for Brittany 
he took with him in the boat his Irish ‘ chariot’ for the journey 
across Cornwall. When he was safely landed on that peninsula, 
his biographer proceeds, ‘‘ sending away his ship at the same place 
he arranged for a cart to convey his holy vessels and books, and 
harnessed two horses to his chariot which he had brought with 
him from Ireland.’”4 


It is convenient at this point to return to consider St. Samson’s 
previous journey from Ynys Pyr to Ireland. Unfortunately, 
we do not possess direct evidence from the text that he utilized 
the transpeninsular routes across south-west Wales on this 
occasion. ‘That such routes existed in pre-historic and proto- 
historic times there is no doubt® and when we consider the 
circumstantial evidence from the text it seems very probable 
that St. Samson actually did travel across the peninsula. On 
the outward journey the fact that the Irish travellers called at 
Caldy en route from Rome to Ireland is in itself suggestive, 
while the return journey, after leaving Ireland early one morning 


1Crawford, O. G. 8S. The Distribution of Early Bronze Age 
Setilements in Britain. Geogr. Journ. Vol. XL. 1912. p. 196. 

* Fox, C. The Personality of Britain. p. 60. 

3 Hencken, H. O’N. The Archeology of Cornwall and Scilly. 
The County Archzxologies. 1932. pp. 181-2. 

4Taylor, T. Op. cit. Translation. p. 49. 


5 Fox, C. Op. cit. p.60. See also map of Ogham-inscribed 
stones. p. 36. 


66 THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 


and reaching “that island in which he had previously dwelt” 
‘“‘on the second day ’’, suggests too short a time with the craft 
at his disposal to have come from Dublin Bay right around - 
St. David’s Head and St. Gowan’s Head to Caldy. The time 
would suggest rather an arrival on the coast of south Cardigan- 
shire or north Pembrokeshire and thence by the overland route 
to Caldy. Furthermore, we know that St. Samson had secured 
a ‘ chariot’ while in Ireland and had it with him in the boat, so 
that he was prepared to undertake part of the journey by land. 
There is evidence also of the cult of St. Samson in south-west 
Wales, and it appears from the map that the cult of the saint is 
closely associated with the routes along which he is supposed 
to have travelled. 

It would be incorrect to think of these routes traversed at 
this period only by solitary wandering saints. St. Samson did 
not travel alone. He arrived in Cornwall “ attended by the before 
mentioned three and many others’”’ and in Brittany “ with very 
many monks.” It is thought that the migration of St. Samson 
and other Welsh Saints to Brittany represents but one aspect 
of a general folk movement from Britain to northern Brittany 
during the fifth and sixth centuries. The newcomers seem to 
have been made up mainly of the Dumnonii of south-western 
England and the Cornovii from eastern Wales. By the sixth 
century the name, language and customs of north Brittany had 
been changed. The reasons for this migration are harder 
to find, but continued pressure from the North due to raids by 
the Picts and Scots and perhaps the arrival of the sons of Cunedda 
in Wales? and the ravages of successive plagues’ are often quoted 
in this respect. Whatever the reasons may have been, it is the 
close association between Wales, Cornwall and Brittany at this 
time that is the point to be observed in this context. 

The adventures of St. Samson while travelling on land in 
Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and northern France are in the main 
of greater interest to the hagiographer than to the archaeologist. 
Such happenings usually involve demonstrations of miraculous 
powers in healing, the ejection of serpents and the casting out of 
evil spirits, but one incident recorded on the way across Cornwall 
is worthy of note. St. Samson and his followers passed by a 
hill called Tricurtus (possibly connected with the more modern 


1 Loth, J. L’ Emigration Bretonne. p. 93. 
2 Hencken, H.O’N. Op.cit. p. 220. 
3 Baring Gould and Fisher. Op.cit. p. 161. 


THE CULT OF SAINT SAMSON 
EACH DOT INDICATES A VILLAGE,CHURCH, WELL SHRINE, 
MEGALITH ETC. BEARING THE NAME OF THE SAINT 

| (AFTER F.QUINE ‘SAINT SAMSON’ RENNES, 1909, WITH 
ADDITIONS) 


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THE TRAVELS OF ST. SAMSON OF DOL 67 


Trigg! a district comprising the north-westerly flank of Bodmin 
Moor). Here they saw some people worshipping “ an abominable 
image.” St. Samson advanced and denounced them and by 
performing a miracle persuaded them to be baptized. To mark 
this achievement he cut a cross upon a menhir which appeared 
to be associated with the pagan rites. The writer of his Life 
tells us: “‘on this hill I myself have been and have adored, and 
with my hands have traced the sign of the cross which St. Samson 
with his own hand carved by means of an iron instrument on a 
standing stone.”? Here then is interesting evidence of the 
attempt to convert megalithic remains around which pagan 
ceremonial had gathered to Christian uses. St. Samson’s name 
is, moreover, still closely associated with megalithic remains in 
Wales and Brittany. Carreg Samson occurs at least five times 
as the local name of a megalith in west Wales? while the menhir 
de S. Samson near Dinan is well known in Brittany. Whether 
it was St. Samson himself or one of his monks or later devotees 
of his cult who actually visited the sites of these megaliths is not 
known, but the association of the name of the Saint with the 
stones clearly indicates that the traditions of the Celtic West 
were for cultural assimilation rather than for cultural replace- 
ment. 

Our increasing knowledge of the pre-history of Western 
Europe is helping in no small measure to re-interpret the Dark 
Ages. The life of the Celtic Fringe lived on alongside of Imperial 
Rome and when that power waned in the East we see that the 
main currents of life in the West were still flowing in the same 
channels as they had done for nearly three thousand years before. 


EK. G. BOWEN. 


1? Hencken, H.O’N. Op. citi. p. 214. 

2Taylor, T. Op. cit. Translation. p. 49. 

3 Baring Gould and Fisher. Op. cit. pp.150-170; Sansbury, 
A.R. Unpublished MSS ; Roy. Comm. Anc. Mon. Pembrokeshire. 

4Duine, F. Saint Samson. Rennes. 1909. p. 21. 


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WAZZAN : A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


WazZAN, a town of some twenty thousand people which has 
played an important part in the religious, political and commercial 
life of the state of Morocco, is remarkable as being the only urban 
agglomeration on the whole of the well-populated southern slopes 
of the vast mountain arc which fringes the Mediterranean coast 
of that country. It is built at an altitude of some one thousand 
feet on the lower northern slopes of Jebel Ait Sokha, a rather 
isolated mountain, over two thousand feet high which is part 
of the divide between the rivers Lekkous and Sebou. 

Until the second quarter of the seventeenth century A.D., 
Wazzan appears to have been in no way different from any other 
small Berber village of the Jebala region. But, when in 1627(?) 
Moulay Abdallah esh-Shareef made this village his abode, its 
destiny was completely changed from that of an obscure moun- 
tain settlement, known only locally, to that of a foyer of religion 
for Western Islam, and, a centre of pilgrimage whose powers of 
attraction extended not merely over the whole of Morocco, but 
throughout Barbary, across the Sahara as far as the Western 
Sudan, into the Nearer East, and even as far as India.* 

Irs Strz. Apart from the spacious terrace which is suitable 
for the gathering of a large number of men and _ beasts, 
and which is now used for the large weekly suq,! there 
appears to be nothing particularly advantageous in the site of 
Wazzan,? as compared with that of other villages within a radius 
of a few miles, which might be considered as having led to its 
original selection in preference to them. 

Neither does history, as opposed to legend,®? contribute any- 
thing which might be so considered. Consequently, it seems as 

*Watson, R.S. A Visit to Wazzan, p. 22. (London, 1880). 

1A kind of market. see Michaux-Bellaire, E. ‘ Le Gharb’ 
Archives Marocaines, tome XX, ch. VIII. (Paris, 1907); Fogg, W. 
‘The Suq: a Study in the Human Geography of Morocco’ Geography 
Vol. 17, (Manchester, 1932). 

*Even the water supply is poor, see ‘ Rabat et Sa Région’ in 
Villes et Tribus du Maroc, tome IV., p. 223. (Paris, 1918). 

3 The following is narrated :— 


* According to tradition, when he (Moulay Abdallah esh-Shareef) 
was in Guezrouf, by way of earning his living he taught the Koran 


69 


70 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


if the choice by Moulay Abdallah, of Wazzan for his abode, in 
preference to any of the neighbouring villages, must be ascribed 
to chance. 

Irs GEOGRAPHICAL Postrion. On the contrary, the selection 
of the geographical position of this site has the appearance 
of having been deliberate. For, Jebel Ait Sokha is approxi- 
mately midway between the high crest of the Riffan mountain 
arc and the plain which bounds this to the South-West. 
In the latter direction from Wazzan, hills and vales succeed each 
other in increasingly open arrangement and decreasing altitudes, 
until the vast plain of the lower Sebou, only slightly above sea’ 
level, is reached, at some twenty miles distance. In the opposite 
direction, deep, narrow valleys, and rugged, broken mountains, 
increasing in altitude and difficulty of access, culminate at some 
twenty miles distance, in the main crest of the Jebala-Riff chain, 
which has a general summit altitude of some seven thousand feet. 
Moreover, this physical difference is emphasised by the marked 
difference between the human occupants* to South-West and 
North-East respectively, for the low plains and open vales have 
been occupied for long by Arab tribes,1 semi-nomadic and 
primarily pastoralists,? whereas the rugged hills and mountains 
have been held against all invaders within historic time, by 
Berber tribes,2 sedentary and primarily cultivators.* (See 
Plate I). | 


to the children, as a fegih or school master. Out of his savings he 
bought a cow which the people of the village killed for an ouza 
(purchase in common, by the whole of a village, of a cow for killing, 
each villager taking his share of the meat and paying his share of 
the price) and which he brought back to life. The same thing 
happened at the village of Miqal. 

As he complained about it, the villagers replied ‘ Take the 
Bou-H’lal from us’ meaning that he would obtain absolutely 
nothing from them. But he took them at their word, and called 
the adoul (lawyers) who drew up a document by which the people of 
Migal gave to Moulay Abdallah in exchange for his cow, the Jebel 
Bou-H’lal with all its territory as far as the Wad Zaz, i.e. a piece of 
land some four miles long and over half a mile wide. It is thus that 
the Wazzan shareefs became owners of this land.’ 

Rabat et Sa Région, op. cit. pp. 241-2. 


1 at present, Beni Malek, Sofyan and see ‘Carte des Tribus du 
Khlot tribes. Maroc’ 1 : 500,000, Service 

2 at present, Rhouna, Ghezaoua, Beni ) Géographique du Maroc, 
Mestara, Beni Ahmed and Beni Mesguilda { Rabat, 1923. 

3 Nouvel, S. Nomades et Sédentaires au Maroc, Chaps. III and V. 
(Paris, 1919). 

* see note on p. 83. 


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WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 71 


Politically, too, the difference is sharp, for, since the rise of 
the state of Morocco, the plain and vale country to the South- 
West, has usually been under the close control of the central 
power, whereas the rugged and inaccessible country to the North 
East has almost always remained unsubjected to it. Hence, 
Jebel Ait Sokha has always been in the border zone between 
Blad el-Makhzen—tribal lands in tribute to the Sultan—and 
Blad es-Siba—tribal lands not under the Sultan’s control. The 
strategic value of this border zone for a centre of politico-religious 
influence is clear, therefore, and it seems safe to assume that 
Moulay Abdallah, himself a native of the Jebala, and a disciple 
of Sidi Ali ben Ahmed, whose zawia! was in the Jebel Sarsar, 
only a few miles from Wazzan, was well aware of the advantages 
which would accrue from the establishment of a zawia somewhere 
in this zone, and therefore, unlike its site, the geographical position 
of Wazzan has the appearance of having been selected for its 
particular advantages although in this case also, history affords 
no confirmation. 

COMBINED EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF WAZZAN 
AND OF RELIGIOUS PRESTIGE OF SHAREEFS. Due to this geo- 
graphical position, and to their very great religious prestige, 
the shareefs? of Wazzan were able to exercise a powerful political 


1* The town or village round the shrine of some great saint, is often 
called his zawia’ and in this sense the town of Wazzan is the zawia of 
the Wazzan shareefs. The term is ‘ further applied to a house close to 
the tomb of a certain saint in which his followers are accommodated 
when they come there; as also to a house erected by them for 
congregational purposes, in another place than that where he has his 
shrine. There they assemble on Fridays, on the seventh day of the 
ereat religious feasts, on the day when the saint has his mousem, and 
whenever his descendants visit the place ; and there also his followers 
are lodged when they are travelling.’ The term may also be * applied 
to a house where a saint is living, or in which a departed saint used to 
live and which is now inhabited by his descendants, who there show 
hospitality on a large scale to his followers and poor people, and in 
return receive gifts from the followers.’ 

Westermarck, E. Ritual and Belief in Morocco. Vol. 1. p. 65. 
(London, 1926). 


2° A shareef (feminine shareefa) is a descendant in the male line of 
Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Muhammed. As a result, he is 
possessed of baraka.’ ‘The Arabic word baraka means ‘* blessing.’ 
In Morocco it is used to denote a mysterious wonder-working force 
which is looked upon as a blessing from God, a ‘ blessed virtue.’ It 
‘may conveniently be translated into English by the word ‘ holiness.’ 
No man has possessed more baraka than the prophet himself, but this 


72 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


influence over the neighbouring tribes, and, as the Makhzen} 
clearly saw, according to the inclination of the heads of the con- 
fraternity, this influence could be exercised either in co-operation 
with the central power, to extend its authority, and make for 
peace, or against the central power, to the extent, perhaps of 
establishing an independent state, with Wazzan as its capital. 
For these reasons, the Makhzen found it politic to adopt a policy 
of attracting the Wazzan shareefs to the throne, by making it 
greatly to their personal economic advantage to be amenable. 
This was effected by granting valuable azibs? in rich plain and 


was transmitted to his descendants. Every shareef and shareefa is 
thus born with more or less baraka, but only comparatively few have 
so much of it that they are actually regarded as saints ; and it is much 
diluted in the children of a shareef and a woman who is not a shareefa.’ 
(Westermarck, op. cit. pp. 35-6). 

‘The number of shareefs in Morocco is immense. They are 
particularly numerous in towns, and among the Arabic-speaking 
mountaineers of Northern Morocco, but many shareefs are found 
even in Berber-speaking tribes. These may be descendants of 
immigrants belonging to the religious nobility of the Arab invaders, 
who settled down there and married into Berber families, with the 
result that their descendants forgot the language of their fore- 
fathers, adopting that of the race among which they lived, and 
took their wives from the tribes-people of their mothers. Or they 
may belong to genuine Berber families whose claims to have 
descended from the Prophet are the sheerest fiction. Among the 
Arabic-speaking population of Morocco fictions of this kind are 
extremely common. By simply moving from his native place to 
another district and there pretending to belong to a family of 
shareefs, a person may, both for himself and his descendants, gain 
a title to which he has no claim whatever.’ bid. p. 37. 

1° The word Makhzen taken in its wider meaning, signifies the 
Moroccan government, but it is more frequently used in Morocco itself - 
to indicate the central power ; the sultan, his viziers and his military 
establishment. As its name indicates, the makhzen (storehouse, reserve) 
is at one and the same time the place where is concentrated the power, 
and where are collected the resources which serve to enforce it. What 
is called Dar el-Makhzen, the government house, is materially, the 
whole of the buildings which contain the Sultan’s palace, i.e. his own 
apartments and those in which live a large number of members of his 
family, his stables, his private treasure, and above all the Bit-el- 
mal-el-meslemin, the musulmans ‘ war treasure.’ Bernard, A. Le 
Maroc’ pp. 240-1. (Paris, 1921). 

2° An azibis ... a village, the inhabitants of which, from father 
to son, are conceded by the Sultan to a shareef and his descendants. 
These collect from its inhabitants, the legal alms and all dues of 
sovereignty.’ 

‘In a word the shareef is substituted for the Sultan with regard 
to the inhabitants of the azib,’ Rabat et sa Région tome iv. p. 221. 


WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 73 


valley areas which would provide an abundance of the cereals, 
and the cattle, with which the mountain lands were not well 
provided, and the products and revenues from which, therefore, 
the shareefs would be most unwilling to lose. But so as to be 
able to exercise pressure when necessary, these azibs were located 
in the heart of the Blad el-Makhzen, and, moreover, were made 
revocable. Hence the Makhzen could, both in law and in fact, 
eut them off at will. Thus the shareefs with their zawia on the 
confines of the mountains and on the borders of the Blad es- 
Siba, were given a vital economic interest in the plain lands of 
the Blad el-Makhzen, so that indirectly, they might be led to 
exert their political influence among the mountain tribes of the 
Blad es-Siba towards maintaining peace with the Makhzen. 


The azibs were so rich that they formed one of the most 
important sources of revenue! to the shareefs, and, largely con- 
tributed to that wealth which permitted the latter still further 
to extend their influence by means of liberal material support of 
pilgrims. 

The sultans contemporary with the earlier Wazzan shareefs 
were further influenced by the position of Wazzan, as related to 
_ that of other religious centres of potential political importance. 
Tazerout in Beni Arous territory, and El-Haraig in Ghezaoua 
territory, both exercised considerable influence at that time, and, 
located in the very heart of the Blad es-Siba, were relatively in- 
accessible, and both were of sufficient strength to become potential 
capitals of small independent states. Therefore the accessibility 
of Wazzan on the one hand, and its position relative to the Blad 
es-Siba of North Morocco as a whole, along with the relative 
inaccessibility of these other centres of religious influence within 
the Blad es-Siba of North Morocco, on the other hand, made it 
still more politic on the part of the Makhzen, discreetly to foster 
the influence of the Wazzan shareefs so as to diminish that of 
Tazerout and El-Haraig, over which they could exercise no control, 
and which, if not checkmated, might become dangerous. All 
these manceuvrings have been of great importance indirectly, 
in the growth of the town. 


1 Among other sources of revenue were (a) property in and around 
Wazzan, (b) the ziyara, offerings to a saint by the faithful, those by 
natives of the Touat oasis in mid-Sahara being among the most valuable 
and reliable. Westermarck (op. cit.) p. 170, and Rabat et sa Région 
tome iv. p. 230. 


74 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


RELIGIOUS dle AND ITs EXPLANATION. Wazzan has had 
several important functions, but as religion is its raison d’étre 
it will be logical to discuss its religious réle first. Before this 
can adequately be appreciated, however, it will be necessary to 
indicate the reasons for the deep veneration in which the Wazzan 
shareefs are held. 

Throughout Islam, all the descendants of the Prophet, although 
by now very numerous, enjoy deep respect and veneration, due 
to their lineage, however poor they may be. In Morocco, how- 
ever, it is especially the descendants of Fatima and Ali (daughter 
and son-in-law of the Prophet) through the line of Idris I., founder 
of the holy city of Moulay Idris in the Zarhoun massif, and of his 
son Idris II., founder of Fez, who are most deeply revered. 
Moulay Abdallah esh-Shareef, founder of the zawia of Wazzan, 
was of direct descent from this line.* Further, he was directly 
descended from the brother of Moulay Abd es-Salam ben Mechich, 
who had been recognised as the ‘ Qotb + of Western Islam, and 
who had been very deeply revered in Morocco generally, but even 
more deeply in the Jebala, where he was styled the Sultan el- 
Jebala. Moulay Abdallah, therefore, enjoyed throughout the 
Islamic world, the general respect which followers of the Prophet 
have for his descendants, while, in Morocco, he enjoyed the special 
veneration given to direct descendants of Idris I. and, further, 
in the Jebala, he enjoyed the special local reverence which the 
Jebalians had for the descendants of the family of Moulay Abd 
~es-Salam ben Mechich. : 

He travelled widely as a poor tolba? and studied in some of the 
famous Islamic universities of his day, and in 1626 A.D. went into 
retreat at Guezrouf, two and a half miles North-West of Wazzan, — 
seeing nobody but his servant, for fourteen months. 


On his emergence, people flocked to him from all parts of the 
Western Islamic world, as, not merely was he deeply venerated 
for his lineage, for his learning, and for his saintly life in retreat, 
but also because, towards the close of his period of retreat, the 
* see Généalogie des Chorfa d’Ouezzane in Rabat et sa Région, 

tome iv. 

1 The Qotb is ‘ The sole being in the whole world and in all time 
upon whom God casts His glance.’ Originally, the Qotb was only to be 
found in the East, but due to the schisms in Islam, there arose the — 
belief in a Qotb in Western Islam, also. 

see Rabat et sa Région, tome iv., p. 240. 

and Westermarck op. cit. footnote to p. 39. 

2 Student. if 


WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 75 


Prophet had appeared to him in a dream, and had promised 
immunity for all those who should come to Moulay Abdallah and, 
because, thereby, the Qotb of Western Islam had become estab- 
lished in the person of Moulay Abdallah. 

As soon as he emerged from retreat, Moulay Abdallah began 
his teachings. At the same time he ensured that all those who 
should come to him would receive material upkeep, and sometimes, 
as many as twenty-four thousand disciples were being supported, 
himself leading a simple and austere life of poverty withal. 

In view of the foregoing, therefore, and, as it is considered 
that the Qotb of Western Islam is still to be found in the direct 
line of the Wazzan shareefs, there is no difficulty in understanding 
not only the religious importance of Moulay Abdallah himself, 
but also the continued religious prestige of his family, and par- 
ticularly that of the direct line possessing the baraka.* 

As A Foyer oF ReEticion. As a result of this prestige, 
Wazzan, the home of these shareefs, habitual residence, and 
burial place of most of them, is, in itself, a living centre of 
religion. ‘The faithful of Wazzan do not seek elsewhere the 
ideal necessary to their religious faith, they live in the very 


* see footnote 20n page 71. ‘ When the shareef of Wazzan is amongst 
his devotees, the latter almost crush each other to death in their effort to 
touch the edge of his burnous, they kiss the ground he has walked over, 
they revere every object he has touched ; for him to take a mouthful 
of food prepared for him, is an inestimable favour ; and they beseech 
him to spit on food, which they eat immediately after. When the 
crowd is too big, those who cannot reach the shareef with their hand 
touch him with their stick or their gun, or even pick up a stone, which 
they mark and then throw at the shareef and try to find again. Their 
fanaticism goes even further ; it is related that Moulay Abd es-Salam, 
shareef of Wazzan, only just missed being killed by the Beni Mguild 
tribesmen ; they wanted to bury him in their territory so that the 
tomb of the great saint would sanctify their tribe.’ Bernard, op. cit. 
p. 198. 

‘ The acting head of the Wazzan house and depository of its baraka 
is in some parts of the country more influential than the Sultan. On 
coming to the throne the latter seeks the ratification and blessing of 
the great shareef of Wazzan, and in times of difficulty has not in- 
frequently appealed to him for assistance. There is a saying that, 
although no Wazzan shareef can rule as sultan, no sultan can rule with- 
out the support of the great shareef of Wazzan. ... . and when one 
of the late bearers of the name made the journey to Mecca, he was 
even there the object of marked veneration, the worshippers actually 
leaving the Ka’bah to prostrate themselves before him.’ Westermarck, 
op.cit. pp. 37-8. 


76 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


foyer of that ideal. The objects of their veneration, and almost 
of their cult, are around and among them, and their whole life is, 
so to speak, impregnated with this saintly emanation.’4 

Being, therefore, in itself, at once a generating and disseminat- 
ing centre of religion, not merely for Morocco, but for Western 
Islam, in general, it is easy to understand that the influence of 
Wazzan should have extended far beyond the limits of Morocco 
itself. To-day there are in Algeria alone, between fifteen thousand 
and twenty thousand? fougaha,? and, in Morocco, there is at least 
one zawia of the house of Wazzan in every town. 

As A CENTRE OF PILGRIMAGE. In view of these facts, there- 
fore, it is not surprising that the town should have become 
an important centre of pilgrimage. As such, Wazzan is visited by 
very large numbers, especially at the Mouloud and Achour 
festivals. The pilgrims come, not merely out of devotion to the 
living members of the Wazzan line, but also equally, out of venera- 
tion for the memory of the ancestors of this line, enshrined in 
their tombs, which are either within or on the confines of the 
town. ‘That of the founder, in the main mosque, is of outstanding 
influence, and, the carefully preserved small thatch-covered 
dwelling in which the founder lived, is a further object of pil- 
grimage and deep veneration. 

Arising from the religious importance and consequent power 
of the shareefs, and the geographical position of Wazzan, along 
with the general political conditions, and the conditions of inter- 
nal administration prevailing in Morocco as a whole, Wazzan had 
two other closely related réles. | 

SANCTUARY dle. (a) Political In that all the land on 
which the town itself was built, as well as a considerable area 
in the immediate surroundings, belonged outright to the 
shareefs, as well as most of the property thereon, and, further, 
in that the local power of the shareefs was such that the Makhzen 
could not enforce any countermand to it, even if it were impolitic 
enough to issue such, the town could act as a political sanctuary 
from a Makhzen, which was in general, corrupt and grasping. 
Much was made of this potentiality, the major part of the cards 
and notables of tribes in the immediate surroundings, in the 
Gharb, and in the mountains proper, maintaining houses in 
Wazzan, in which they could take refuge in case of need, and 


1 Rabat et sa Région. tome iv., p. 236. 
Ibid. p. 253. 
3 teacher-disciples. 


WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 17 
whither they could remove from the exactions of the Makhzen. 
and the uncertainties of the tribal lands, any valuables they might 
have. In this way, Wazzan became a political sanctuary for a 
large region. 

(b) In tribal feud and private quarrel. Moreover, its sanc- 
tuary réle was not limited to the sheltering of notables, in political 
affairs, but extended, also, to the humblest members of surround- 
ing tribes in their private quarrels and tribal feuds. Any tribes- 
man who fled his tribe for any reason, could either rent a humble 
dwelling in Wazzan, or, under certain conditions, build one there, 
and be sure of protection for his person and property. The 
importance of the sanctuary rdle of the town in pre-protectorate 
days,? therefore, can hardly be over-estimated. 

As ReaionaL Soorat Capitan. In addition, by virtue of 
this réle, the town became a sort of regional social capital for 
the Jebala and neighbouring lands, and a sort of ‘safe’ or 
‘repository for valuables ’ for the same regions. 

As MANUFACTURING CENTRE. The town early developed 
some industrial activity, the main industry being wool 
manufacture, a natural one in a sheep-rearing region, where 
every household has manufactured wool for centuries, and, among 
a primitive population whose main clothing is of wool. But 


1 The following are specific examples of the use of Wazzan by 
refugees, within relatively recent years. 

‘Some time after 1900, Sidi El Hosein succeeded his father as the 
caid of the Raouga fraction of the Sofyan tribe (established in the 
Rdat valley near Jebel Aouf.) A little later, the government of 
the Raouga was bought from the Makhzen, over the head of Sidi 
El Hosein, by another Sheikh. Without any other justification 
than the foregoing, the arrest of Sidi El Hosein was decided upon, 
and Makhzen horsemen were sent to take possession of him, his 
household and his property. But Sidi El Hosein who was very 
brave, an excellent shot, and a good horseman, rode out in the 

_ night, with his brothers and a few horsemen surrounding the women- 
folk, also mounted. The small family troop charged through the 
Makhzen horsemen, killing some of them, and rode rapidly to 
Wazzan, where they found a sure refuge.’ Michaux-Bellaire op. cit. 
pp. 37-38. 

‘Some time about 1900, on the death of Sidi Idris, governor of 
the Beni Malek, his son Sidi Ahmed succeeded him for a short time. 
Very soon, however, the Makhzen decided to arrest him because 
another Shevkh who could pay well, wanted to buy the governorship 
of the Beni Malek tribe. Sidi Ahmed was therefore obliged to flee 
to Wazzan.’ idem. pp. 39-40. 


2i.e. before 1912. 


78 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


there seem to be no particular historical reasons for the develop- 
ment of the manufacture of the special kinds of cloth which are 
peculiar to Wazzan. Perhaps merely a long-established regional 
preference in the Jebala was simply further developed and refined 
under town conditions of skill-inheritance by the descendants of 
Jebala tribesmen with established manufacturing traditions, who 
had settled around the zawia. Whatever the reasons, Wazzan 
is famed throughout Morocco for two kinds of wool cloth which 
are peculiar to itself. They are, Bou Hobba, a fairly thick white 
fabric studded with tiny lumps, and, Wharbla, a thick and exceed- 
ingly wet-resisting brown fabric manufactured from wool of 
natural colour. The major part of the women of Wazzan, includ- 
ing the wives of the shareefs, wash, comb, and spin wool, and 
the spun wool is then woven in the town, by numerous weavers, 
who are usually men. 


A further industry of much importance is that of soft-soap 
manufacture, again a natural industry in this hill and mountain 
region where the olive is grown around almost every hamlet, and 
where the smallest village has its oil-press. The olives for this 
industry are obtained mainly from the rich olive groves which 
surround the town, the several pressing establishments being 
located in the groves themselves, and the soap, although manu- 
factured by rather primitive processes from olive oil and the ash 
of green lentisk wood, is of excellent quality. 


Wazzan snuff, manufactured from locally-grown tobacco, 
has a widespread reputation. Formerly, also, there was an 
important gun-powder manufacturing industry,! the sulphur 
and saltpetre for this being the object of a contraband trade via 
the Riff and Larache. This industry, however, has completely 
disappeared, as powder of native manufacture is no longer used, 
in view of the now almost universal use of European arms by the 
tribesmen, and with the complete disappearance under the 
protectorate of the armed guard of the shareef-baraka. 


There are also tanners, shoemakers, and manufacturers of 
sabre blades and daggers, as well as gunsmiths, and numerous 
blacksmiths. Further, due to the marked skill of one family, 


1 This industry owed its origin to Sidi Ali ben Ahmed (1780-1811) 
the first shareef-baraka to have an armed guard. His successors 
followed his example and developed the industry still further, so that 
a few years before the protectorate “the Wazzan shareefs ... had a 
veritable small army, and a whole arsenal.’ Rabat et sa Région, tome 
iv., p. 246. 


WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 79 


which has acquired a widespread reputation, there is a consider- 
able production of copper and brass boiling-pots, coffee-pots, and 
platters, which are much sought after. 

ComMMERCIAL Réle. But even before Wazzan had developed 
into a centre of industry, in view of the large population 
which very early gathered around the founder of the zawia, it 
must have developed a considerable trade, if only to supply the 
wants of those gathered at the feet of the saint, and, with the 
development of the town in its permanent form, this branch of its 
activities was confirmed, as an essential part of its life. 

Now, the Sug el-Khemis of Wazzan, held just without the town 
walls, is the most important weekly sug in the Jebala, and is the 
principal means of general supply, and of disposal of surplus for 
the neighbouring tribes, although, as should be indicated, this 
sug is much less important than some of the larger ones held in the 
plains to the South-West. For, although it attracts large numbers 
of mountain tribesmen, these are, in the main, poor, and to a large 
extent self-supporting, and therefore, neither sell a great deal nor 
buy a great deal. Yet, the sug is of very great importance as the 
principal supply centre of goods from the plains, and of imported 
foreign goods, for all the tribal groups between Wazzan and the 
main summit ridge of the Riffan arc to the North-East. 

The products brought to the suq by these mountain tribesmen 
include excellent grapes and figs, fresh or dry according to season ; 
fresh apples, pears, plums and apricots; almonds; olive oil and 
soap; honey; goat and sheep skins; charcoal and firewood. 
Their purchases are, in the main, restricted to a few objects of 
prime necessity, such as the indispensable green tea, sugar loaves, 
candles, matches, cotton goods and muslins of low quality. A 
considerable exchange takes place, also, of pack animals (mules, 
asses, and a few horses), together with a few cattle, some sheep 
and goats. 

Further, Wazzan is an important market centre for the tobacco 
and hemp! which are grown in the gardens of the mountain 
tribes and for soap and olive oil, much of the latter finding its 
way to the suqs of the Gharb and Beni Ahsen plains to the West, 
where the olive is cultivated to a much less extent. Conversely, 
much wheat and barley, and also numbers of cattle from these 
plain lands are sold in the Wazzan suq to the tribesmen from 
the mountains where these commodities are more scarce. Hence 


1for manufacture of Kif, an opiate much indulged in, clan- 
destinely, in Morocco. 


80 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


through the medium of this large swq in the border lands, there 
is much exchange of typical products of the plains against typical 
products of the mountains. 

A further feature of the commerce of Wazzan is the luxury 
trade which has arisen due to the presence of the shareefs. For, 
although the earlier shareefs-baraka led austere and simple lives, 
the later ones beginning with Sidi Ali ben Ahmed (shareef-baraka 
from 1780 to 1811) have all maintained a certain pomp, as already 
mentioned. Such commodities as silks, fine muslins, finely-chased 
silver tea-urns, delicate porcelain tea-cups, and also Fez goods 
such as silk-embroidered women’s slippers, satchels and belts, 
silk head-kerchiefs and waist-cords, as well as jewels, are sold. 
This trade however takes place mainly in the bazaars of the town 
proper, rather than in the weekly suq, and is carried on by local 
traders, as opposed to the travelling merchants of the weekly sugs. 

As ‘Hus’ or Communication Lines. As a centre of 
pilgrimage of wide appeal, and as the principal exchange 
centre for a considerable area of the Jebala, Wazzan has been, 
since its foundation, an important centre of track conver- 
gence. First, there are the minor local native tracks, all 
of which, for a radius of some five miles, necessarily have 
Wazzan as their main objective. Then, there are the more 
important native tracks which now, have been slightly improved 
by the French to take wheeled vehicles under necessity, i.e., 
the pistes carrossables which converge from the major compass 
points upon the town. From the North there is the main track 
from Sheshuan via the upper Lekkous valley and the pass of 
Bab el-Klel. From the West there are the two tracks, via the 
middle Mda valley, one from El Ksar el-Kbir, and the other from 
Sug el-Arbaa du Gharb, the latter of which has now been made 
into a metalled road, connecting Wazzan with the Gharb, and with 
the Tangier-Rabat road. From the South-West there is the main 
track from Suq el-Had Kourt and Mechra bel-Ksiri, and, lastly, 
from the South and South-East there is the former main track 
from Fez via Ain Defali, and the more direct metalled road built 
by the French, which has superseded this since 1927. 

Further, because after its occupation by the French in 1920, 
Wazzan was selected as the site of a very important military 
camp, native tracks to the East and North-East were made 
carrossable in a number of instances, to give easier communica- 
tion between the main military base of this part of the front 
dissident and its outposts, i.e., blockhouses and forts. Again, 


PLATE Il. 


60886 MAIN 
et ae TANGIER — 
ammnas MAIN ape 
oxomemses SUBSIDIARY | —f f§% 
® 
e 
@ 


PORT— 
LYAUTEY 


NORTH WEST MOROCCO, 
Towns, RAILWAYS, AND ROADS. 


Taken from 


Maroc: Carte dressée et publiée par le Service Géographique du Maroc, 


Echelle au 1,000,000e, Rabat, 1930. 


WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 81 


after the outbreak of the very critical ‘ Riff War’ in 1925,1 with 
Wazzan at once the main French military base and the main 
object of attack by the revolted tribes, in this part of the Jebala, 
there arose the most urgent necessity for Wazzan to be connected 
by rail with the rest of the protectorate. Thus, a narrow-gauge 
line was very rapidly built, to connect Wazzan, via the Biod and 
Upper Rdat valleys, Ain Defali and Mechra bel-Ksiri, with the 
Tangier-Fez railway line. Hence Wazzan is now directly acces- 
sible by rail from Port Lyautey, its port, and Rabat, the capital 
of the French protectorate, as well as from Tangier. Finally, 
after the establishment of peace, and the subjection of the dissi- 
dent tribes to the East, and South-East of Wazzan, the French 
built an entirely new metalled road from Fez. Now, therefore, 
Wazzan is on a through road between Fez and Tangier. Hence 
the town has an important regional and extra-regional réle as a 
convergence point of communication lines. (See Plate II). 


Réle IN FRENCH PROTECTORATE. From the earliest days 
of the French occupation in 1920, in view of the large 
agglomeration of none-too-friendly population on the spot, 
and especially in view of the definitely hostile and unsubjected 
tribes everywhere to the East and North-East, in country almost 
unknown to the French and of very difficult access from Wazzan, 
and from which raids on the town could easily be effected, Wazzan 
necessarily became an important military post, as already men- 
tioned, with a large military camp to the North-East of the town. 
Further, because of the fact that it is the only urban agglomeration - 
in this borderland region, Wazzan became the military staff 
headquarters of the French part of the Jebala. Moreover, with 
the organisation of French Morocco into administrative units, 
as, by the nature of the country and of its inhabitants, the 
region to the North-East of Wazzan, was necessarily designated 
‘military territory,’ i.e. territory governed by the military 
authority, as opposed to the ‘ civil territory ’ of the open plains, 
which, on account of its accessibility and long-accustomed subjec- 
tion to the Makhzen, was peaceful and secure enough to be 
governed by civil authority, Wazzan became the administrative 
centre of the Territoire d’Ouezzane in the military Région de Fez. 
Even under the protectorate, therefore, although its political 
sanctuary rdéle has ceased with the establishment of la sécurité 


1 see the articles by Thierry, R. ‘ L‘Agression des Rifains contre 
Le Maroc Frangais’ in L’ Afrique Francaise (Bull. et Rens. Col.) 1925, 


82 WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 


francaise, Wazzan still derives much political importance from 
its geographical position, although of a different kind from that 
which it had in pre-protectorate days. 


PopuLaTIon. Excluding the military group of the large 
camp to the North-East the resident population of the town 
and of its suburb Kachrine, is, with the exception of a very 
small number of European traders, gathered since 1920, and, 
the small Jewish colony,! introduced at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century by Sidi Ali ben Ahmed, for the purpose of — 
developing the commerce of the town, composed almost entirely 
of shareefs, and, former tribesmen from all the surrounding tribes. 
Its population is predominantly Berber, therefore, since the 
former tribesmen are the more numerous group. | 


APPEARANCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. In conclusion, it 
remains to discuss the present aspect of the town. This is 
a compound of the consequences of its site, of its shareefian 
population, of its population of Jebala tribesmen become 
townsmen, and of its important. religious, sanctuary, and 
social réles, which have endowed it with a number of houses 
and other buildings of considerable dignity, and also many 
gardens. The town rises in tiers up the lower slopes of Jebel 
bou Hlal,? and has the appearance of an amphitheatre. In 
the centre is the zawia, with its scintillating green-tiled roofs, 
surrounded by the rather large lime-washed, and _ flat-roofed, 
houses of the shareef-baraka and of the more wealthy residents, 
all of which are typical Moorish town houses as seen in Fez, 
Rabat, or Tetouan. Around these, and grouped in several 
quarters, are large numbers of small, thatched-roof dwellings, 
typical of the Jebalian villages, the slovenly, dark brown thatch 
of which contrasts strongly with the neat white terraces of the 
foregoing. There are seven mosques in Wazzan, and the stately 
minaret of the grand mosque, forms the culminating feature in 
any view of the town. Gardens, where the shareef-baraka enter- 
tains pilgrims, and also gardens of other residents, with olive, 
almond, and fig trees, as well as a few orange trees, are inter- 
spersed through the cascade of Jebalian dwellings, Moorish houses, 
and mosques, and much of the immediate surround of the town 
is covered with rich olive groves. 


1 This is the only Jewish colony in the Jebala, as the Jebalians 
will not permit the settlement of Jews in their villages. 
2 part of Jebel Ait Sokha. 


WAZZAN: A HOLY CITY OF MOROCCO 83 


The aspect of Wazzan itself, therefore, is very pleasing, and, 
if the hill and mountain panorama which embellishes the town 
with a superb background in all directions be added, it will easily 
be understood that the scenic ensemble of Wazzan has considerable 
charm. In the past, this scenic charm cannot fail to have been a 
contributory factor in the attraction to Wazzan of its constant 
stream of pilgrims, and, under the present political conditions, 
with the rapid development of Morocco as a pays de grand 
tourisme, it seems to be playing a similar supplementary part in 
the attraction of European tourists, many of whom visit the town 
primarily, as the scene of much of the poignant story of an English 
lady of some distinction, who, for a time, was the Shareefa of 
Wazzan.* 


W. FOGG. 


*see Emily, Shareefa of Wazzan, My Life Story. (London, 1911). 


Notre CONCERNING ‘ ARABS’ AND ‘ BERBERS.’ 


Historically the Berbers are the earliest known inhabitants of 
Morocco. Large numbers resemble the inhabitants of Spain, Italy, 
and Southern France, and belong to the short, dark, Mediterranean 
race, but also many are tall and blond. They are a linguistic group 
rather than a race, but, even when strongly Arabised in culture, they 
are physically distinct from the Arabs. 

The Arabs are Semitic invaders from the Arabian peninsula who 
reached Morocco entirely after 700 a.p. The first invasions took place 
in the early 8th century, but these were insignificant numerically, 
and it was only with the Hilalian invasions of the llth century that 
considerable numbers arrived. In later years, the Arabs became, 
relatively, a still more important element in the population of Morocco, 
due to the continued exodus of Berbers to Spain, and to the custom 
of successive Sultans, in relying on certain Arab tribes for the main- 
tenance of their power, of transplanting these, in whole or in part, from 
the Sahara, and from the part of North Africa now known as Algeria, 
in Morocco. 

Arab tribes are never found in the mountains of Morocco, although 
Berber tribes frequently occupy the low-altitude plains and plateaux. 
Further, Arab tribes are never more than slightly Berberised, whereas 
often, Berber tribes are profoundly Arabised both in language and in 
culture : for example, all the tribes of the Jebala, although very pure 
Berber racially, are completely Arabised linguistically, and profoundly 
Arabised culturally. To the North East of Wazzan, beyond the main 
water-parting, however, the Berber tribes have retained intact, both 
their Berber language and their Berber culture. 


See :—Bernard, A. et Moussard, P. ‘ Arabophones et Berbéro- 
phones au Maroc,” Annales de Géographie, Paris, 1924. 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES IN THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY 


I 


Historica records show that the trade in livestock between 
Wales and England has been important for many centuries. 
It is difficult to trace the origins of the trade, but it is difficult 
not to believe that it has existed from the early days of a settled 
husbandry in this country. The topography of this island with 
high mountain ranges, and expansive foothills in North and West, 
opening on to the Central English plain, provides the general 
basis of the direction of the trade in livestock. 

The broken country in West Wales can only be used effectively 
for livestock and the poor quality of much of the land has limited 
production to store animals, to be finished on better land in the 
valleys to the East or more often in the fertile plains of England. 
_ The slopes of the mountain ranges provide keep for thousands of 
sheep, while the narrow valleys and the lower foothills carry the 
horned stock. These areas have been for centuries used for breed- 
ing and rearing cattle and sheep to be drafted Kastwards for 
finishing before slaughter or to be used for breeding purposes. 


Again, Wales has been a country of scattered homesteads, with 
very few industries until quite recently and few busy centres of 
population to consume the surplus products of the farming dis- 
tricts. Livestock provided at one time the principal export of 
the Principality and the value of the trade to the peasants of 
Wales cannot be overestimated. Another feature which con- 
tributed to the success and the growth of the trade were the 
number of natural routes leading from the fastnesses of the 
West to the broad acres of the East. It is even at present more 
difficult to travel from North to South within the Principality 
than to enter England from almost any corner of Wales. The 
natural valleys lead from West to East, and these have contributed 
greatly to the growth of the livestock trade along the centuries. 
This natural course eastwards has been perpetuated by the rail- 
ways, and while the iron road has undoubtedly failed to connect 
the Principality into one unit it has succeeded in establishing 


85 


86 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


the course of trade across the border which has benefited both 
peoples from the early days. The topographical layout of this 
island ; the poor land of Wales suitable only for purposes of live- 
stock rearing ; the sparse peasantry of Wales; the rising popula- 
tion of England; and the natural water courses facilitating 
transport East across the border, are all important factors which 
have contributed to the lasting growth of the livestock trade 
between the two countries. 


There are no doubt some records of this trade available which 
varry back to the early centuries. Tales of hearsay of the 
personnel of the trade in many districts have survived right into 
modern times. History has added a certain glamour and a touch 
of romance to the story of the drovers, and the human aspect of 
the business still remains to be adequately described. The story 
of the drovers is closely linked with the history of the fairs in most 
districts, and with the taverns and the turnpike gates, an excellent 
background to one of the most interesting pages in Welsh history. | 


The materials of this study may provide some guidance to 
the writer of the true history of the livestock trade between the 
two countries from the earliest times. In that history there 
will have to be reference to the trend in values from period to 
period, as well as to the gradual evolution of the present 
situation in the trade. 

The data of this study has been analysed wholly from the 
original books of account belonging to a family of prominent 
dealers in Cardiganshire. These have only become available 
quite recently, and although they by no means give a com- 
prehensive picture of the trade in all its aspects over the 
period, the record of economic facts is valuable, and some 
deductions can be made from this faithful record of this trade in 
West Wales in the nineteenth century. 

This family of dealers lived circa 1840, near Dihewid, and 
the first records refer to the year 1839. The volume of trade 
increased considerably towards 1850 and reached a peak about 
1860. The business was conducted by the dealer personally 
until about 1875, when his sons took over and handled the 
business with some success until about 1905. The account books 
are all clearly entered in neat handwriting with all the details of 
purchases in individual lots, numbers and prices being carefully 
recorded. Unfortunately, several account books have been lost 
so that there are gaps of a number of years each in the complete 
series 1839-1880. ‘The trade included cattle, sheep and pigs up 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 87 
to about 1860, when trading in pigs was discontinued. The three 
classes of trade will be treated separately in this study. The 
nature of the trade in each class of stock was entirely different, 
there was a special district or districts for purchase of cattle, 
sheep or pigs, and special destinations where each class of live- 
stock was sold, and special routes from district of purchase to 
district of sale. Practically all stock were purchased in the three 
counties Merioneth, Cardigan and Pembroke, with occasional 
excursions into Montgomery, Carmarthen and Brecon. The 
records are so full of interesting material that it has been difficult 
to decide what to exclude, but the emphasis has been laid through- 
out on the economic aspects of the trade. Muchof the more 
colourful story could undoubtedly be built up from the material 
in the books of account, but that phase has been left to the 
writer of the greater story to be fitted into the complete picture 
along with the other materials available for other periods and 
other districts. 


The analysis of the documents has been done as accurately as 
possible, but all incomplete material has been discarded. Records 
of total expenses incurred in handling the trade for example are 
often incompletely summarised, containing some items which 
are obviously accurate while others may be part entries and some 
missing altogether. But the examples of each feature occur so 
frequently in the records over this long period that the abstractor 
could afford to discard and use only the best material. At some 
periods important records are missing, but no attempt has been 
made to reconstruct by interpolation. It was felt that the materials 
available were adequate for accurate historical record, and selec- 
tion and presentation have been arranged with this purpose 
in view. The documents have now been lodged at the National 
Library of Wales, where they may be referred to for much informa- 
tion that obviously cannot be included in this brief extract. 


THE CATTLE TRADE 1839-1882. 


It may be assumed for all practical purposes that the cattle 
trade between Wales and the English counties at the date of these 
first records consisted mainly of drafts of strong store cattle. 
These were mainly Welsh ‘‘blacks,’’ generally three or more years 
old, commonly called ‘runts’ in the English grazing districts. 
There were no doubt some younger cattle included in the droves 
from some districts, and some barren cows, and calving heifers 
at special seasons, but the generality of the trade were the hardy 


88 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


black runts of the Western counties. Towards the close of the 
century cattle at a younger age were preferred in some English 
districts and Welsh farmers in many districts deserted the native 
breed and introduced shorthorns for quick growth and early 
maturity to meet the demand. But throughout our period the 
Welsh Blacks were predominant, and the runts were in great 
demand both in the grazing areas of the Midlands and the yard 
feeding districts of the Eastern counties. 


At special seasons, mainly in the spring and autumn, these 
surplus cattle from the Welsh farms were driven to the local fairs, 
where the dealer would buy possibly a hundred or more beasts 
of a, certain type to meet the needs of his customers. This batch 
would be assembled at the close of the fair and driven to meet 
other lots of cattle purchased at other fairs to form one batch 
in preparation for the long tramp across the border into England. 
For the first twenty years of these records it is shown that the 
cattle were driven regularly from special assembling centres in 
West Wales to Leicester, Northampton or Rugby, in the spring 
and early summer, and into Chelmsford, Colchester and market 
towns around London in the autumn months. The train services 
extended first to Salop, thence to Welshpool, Machynlleth and 
Aberystwyth in the sixties, and the dealers were quick to take 
advantage of rail facilities. The conditions of purchase and of 
sale remained much the same after the railways came, but instead 
of a variety of items in the records of expenses of drovers at 
taverns and toll gates and costs of shoeing cattle, there was 
substituted one single entry of the rail charge for beasts, and the 
process was transformed almost to simplicity. 


In the books of account of the dealer each batch of cattle 
purchased at a fair is separately enumerated, with the name of 
the seller, number of beasts, and purchase price carefully recorded. 
Up to about 1865, the principal centres of operation were at 
Machynlleth, where there was a favourite tavern called the “White 
Lion,’ and at Llanbadarn Fawr with headquarters at a tavern 
under the proprietorship of a Mr. Killin. Purchases of cattle during 
that period were especially important around these two centres, 
but with regular visits to fairs in other districts situated in all 
directions. ‘Towards 1870 and later, the sons of the original 
dealer were in charge, and the focus of operations moved South 
into Pembrokeshire with only occasional visits North to Aber- 
ystwyth and Machynlleth. Mid-Cardigan, quite naturally was 
throughout the period a fruitful field of operations, and all the 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 89 


cattle fairs in this district were visited regularly. The following 
is a digest of two accounting years illustrating the scope of the 
business, area of operations, and the chronicle of dates of the old 
fairs as recorded in the diaries. 


CHRONICLE OF PURCHASES, 1851. 


Date | Place or District. | Number beasts 
purchased. 
March 5 Machynlleth. | 37 
sc Llanbrynmatr. 26 
eae Machynlleth. | 38 
April = 7 | Machynlleth. | 38 
ae 12 Dinas Mawddwy. 35 
mee AG Llanbrynmair. | 50 
ee | Dolgelley. | 59 
May 9 | Llandalis (Dihewid). 40 
aoe Aberystwyth. | 55 
June 2 Dinas Mawddwy. 32 
October 7 Llechryd. 46 
ee LO Llanfynydd. | 67 
Bae ok Talybont. 59 
eae 20 Capel Cynon. | 55 
Bs 28 | Abergwili. 104 
se 28 Talsarn. 16 
Nov 8 | Llanbadarn Fawr. | 83 


This shows clearly the importance of Machynlleth as a centre 
of operations, and also gives some idea of the distances travelled 
by the dealers on horseback from fair to fair. The above list 
includes Abergwili in South Carmarthen and Dolgelley in the 
heart of Merioneth. The dealer did not visit each centre personally, 
but he had agents, possibly his best drovers, buying on his behalf 
if dates of two important fairs clashed. 


90 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 
CHRONICLE OF PURCHASES, 1878. 


ee pede Number beasts 
“Date. + — »-  Plaée or District. purchased. 

Jan. 7 Aberystwyth. * 17 
March 5 and | 

11 ‘ About the County’ (Cardigan) 169 

a A | Henllan. e 84 

ao. 19 | Haverfordwest. 43 

ee Oe | Newcastle Emlyn. 128 

eo. 26 “bout te County. | 56 

April 1 Aberystwyth. 40 

AG 8 Eglwyswrw. | 136 

se LO Aberayron. 25 

eo Carmarthen. | ay 

is 30 Eglwyswrw. 111 

May 10 Newcastle Emlyn. : 182 

ee: Haverfordwest. 82 

Paonia 4 ; Eglwyswrw. 122 

Sot e289 Llanarth. 74 

June 11 Haverfordwest. 158 

Pe 17 Llanarth. 16 

July 10 Lampeter. 29 

August 19 Cilgerran. 189 

Sept. 2 Aberystwyth. 32 

Be aA) Newcastle Emlyn. 132 

Be HOE. Henfeddau. 52 

Oct... 16. . Erefdraeth. __. eI 95 

oss 22 |..Haverfordwest.  _—_.. 50 

30 _._| Henfeddau. : : 23 

Nov.© °1° ° | | .“Llanybyther. ‘12 


met ery peso TE Pielsarm: =. 10. 


Frequent references are made. to purchases ‘About the 
County’ at this period, referring mainly to the district around 
Aberystwyth and Aberayron. As far as can be gathered from 
the records, purchases were confined almost entirely to the fairs 
until about 1870. Prices improved considerably in the 
next decade and it is quite probable that the practice of buying 
on farms was directly connected with the rising tendency in the 
markets. The phenomenon is quite common even at the present 
time, and most knowing farmers recognise the subtle warning 
given when dealers eagerly scour the countryside. 


CATTLE ROUTES AND DESTINATIONS. 


In the period 1840-50 before the railways extended across 
England and long before the main lines connected the two 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 91 


countries, the cattle were driven regularly on foot from the West 
coast to the East. There is frequent reference in the histories 
of this and other periods to the practice of shoeing cattle before 
commencing the journey and once or twice subsequently on the 
road. ‘The records here show the usual charge for throwing and 
shoeing to have been from ninepence to a shilling per head. 
There are frequent reminders of this practice to be found in the 
“Cae Pedoli’ frequently found on the outskirts of villages where 
fairs were held in the old days. 

The records show that the cattle business was divided into 
two well defined sections. During spring and early summer the 
great part of the droves of beasts were sold in the district around 
Northampton and Leicester. This is the heart of the rich grazing 
districts of the English plain, and the Welsh ‘runts’ were long 
favoured on the strong growing pastures around Market 
Harborough. The scope of this dealer’s business in cattle was 
inconsiderable until about 1845, but by 1855 he was moving more 
than 2,000 beasts a year into England. From about 1846, 
the village of Spratton in Northamptonshire is mentioned fre- 
quently in the records as the distributing centre of the beasts 
into the surrounding markets. In later years, towards 1865, 
_ the dealer rented a whole farm of more than 200 acres at Spratton 
paying a rental of over £400 annually. Here the beasts were 
rested on arrival from Wales, and they could be drafted into the 
markets as opportunity offered to be marketed under the best 
conditions. But this was in the period after the dealer had 
established the business, and collected capital sufficient to manage 
both the buying and selling to the best advantage. In the earlier 
period, 1840-60, grass and hay had to be purchased as occasion 
demanded around the various market centres, and sale had to be 
effected on a poor market for lack of keep and capital reserves 
to carry the beasts forward to a more favourable time at the 
market, or on to a new market centre. The markets of this 
district most frequently mentioned in the records are Rugby, 
Northampton, Leicester, Market Harborough, Uppingham and 
Daventry. A considerable proportion of the beasts in the later 
period were ‘purchased on the order of a grazier, or were sold 
directly off the pastures at Spratton to customers in the area. 
But in the first ten years or so the cattle were pitched at the 
regular markets or occasional fairs in the towns around. The 
dealér.and:his drover would then return, sometimes by coach, 
along the main routes to Shrewsbury or more frequently on their 


92 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


ponies to purchase more cattle and repeat the process. As far 
as can be gathered from the records, the journey with the beasts 
from the Welsh coast into Northamptonshire took from fifteen 
to twenty days. There were frequent resting and feeding periods 
and the utmost care was taken of the beasts so that condition was 
not impaired before they were sold, and the transaction completed. 
The drovers were generally mounted on ponies, and generally two 
of them accompanied a drove. The dealer occasionally moved 
with the cattle, but more generally he followed by coach and took 
charge of the selling when the beasts arrived. At other times 
the dealer entrusted the selling process to a trusted head drover, 
and this dealer, when the business had developed, arranged for a 
brother, and later a son to be permanently stationed at the 
receiving end to take charge of all selling. 

The cattle were moved into the grazing districts in the spring 
and summer, but during autumn and early winter the demand 
moved to the Eastern counties, where the beasts were needed in 
the yards to trample straw and make the manure for the arable 
fields of the Essex and Suffolk farms. This journey was much 
longer, but the route was practically a continuation of the way to 
the grazing Midlands and very often cattle which could not be sold 
in Northampton were moved forward to the markets in the 
Eastern counties. The names of Chelmsford, Colchester, Brain- 
tree, Romford, Brentwood, Hertford, Bedford appear often in 
the schedule of fairs and markets where the cattle were sold in 
those districts. The journey over to these centres occupied 
from. twenty-five to thirty days, and the return journey, including 
some days engaged in selling, invariably took more than a com- 
plete month for the drovers. | 

The actual course of the drovers’ route to the Midlands varied 
according to the district where the beasts were purchased. In 
the busy months of spring lots up to fifty beasts were purchased 
at four or five fairs in South Cardigan and Pembroke, and the 
final assembly was generally made at Llanddewi Brefi or Tregaron. 
Purchases in Aberystwyth were driven through Figure Four, and 
Lledrod into Tregaron. Lots from Haverfordwest, Narberth 
would be walked through Newcastle Emlyn up to Rhydowen, 
Abercerdinen, Nantygelly into Lampeter and thence to Llanddewi 
Brefi and Tregaron. Cattle even from Abergwili would come 
through Carmarthen, Alltwalis, Lampeter, Llanddewi to Tregaron, 
the general point of assembly. The process of assembly from 
the different districts at Tregaron, preparatory to the great 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 93 


tramp, is shown in the Appendix Diagram I. From _ the 
point of assembly at Tregaron, the route was directed over the 
mountain track to the North, through Cwmberwyn, past Nanty- 
stalwyn to Abergwesyn, thence through Cwm Dulas into the Wye 
Valley at Newbridge-on-Wye. Mention is made of Llandrindod, 
Radnor and Kington and then over the border through Pembridge, 
Leominster, Bromyard, Worcester, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick, 
Daventry to Northampton. The main route is shown clearly 
on the map Diagram I. with the various stopping places for rest, 
grass and ale identified as far as possible from the records. Cattle 
going further to the markets of the Eastern counties, generally 
followed the same route to Northampton, and thence through 
Bedford to Chelmsford, Ongar, Brentwood or Romford. Occa- 
sionally these cattle followed the sheep route east from Worcester 
and Straftord through Banbury, Buckingham and Aylesbury. 

The general practice with cattle purchased in North Cardigan 
or Merioneth was to assemble lots at Machynlleth and proceed 
with the droves through Cemmaes, Mallwyd, Cann Office, Llanfair 
Caereinion, Welshpool to Shrewsbury, and then follow the Watling 
Street through to Lutterworth, Rugby, and the familiar 
Northampton district. There are only one or two examples of 
droves of cattle going from the assembly point at Llanbrynmair, 
to Carno, Newtown, Welshpool and Shrewsbury. 

In the dealer’s account of the expenses of each lot, the place 
names are mentioned where some expense was incurred either 
for grass or hay for the beasts, toll at the turnpike gates, or 
tavern expenses for lodging and food, and this gives a complete 
picture of places en route, and the customary stopping places. 
The following example of a list of expenses incurred illustrates 
the nature of the journey from the point of assembly to the final 
destination. This is reproduced here exactly as entered by the 
dealer in the record with some spelling corrections. 


OCTOBER 14th, 1841. 
ACCOUNT EXPENSE 58 BEASTS FROM TREGARON. 


x Sac dd. 
Cwmdulas House .. Gigs fe e ate ae 5 0 
Abergwesyn tavern Ea a cies = te 15 0 
Boy drive the beasts si wt se Ls ee mG) 
Newbridge on Wye tavern* ale .. acs BS ae 0 6 
Llandrindod Wells grass Ay a a ie 13 6 
Smith, tavernt ae see ee a hs ane 6 0O 


*Ale apparently cost threepence a pint. 
TSmith was probably the proprietor of a favourite inn between 
Llandrindod and New Radnor, possibly in the latter. 


94 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 
: 


Y 


Ditto, grass s 
Maesyfed (Radner) Bake me ous fe ane 
Pay John (at Radnor) for shoeing ea as ij igh 
Kington gate 5 : 

Ditto grass 

‘ Half the Road ’ ane 

Two more gates—2/6d. each 
Westinton grass Bo ie sie a Sa 
Ditto gate 
Bromyard gate 
Bontwillt gate 

Ditto tavern 
Worcester tavern 
Whilbercastle tavern 
Ditto gate 

Stratford grass 
Ditto tavern 

Ditto gate 

Warwick tavern 
Southam tavern 
Warwick gate 
Windmill tavern 
Ditto gate 

Daventry grass 
Ditto tavern 

Ditto gates 


bo 


face! — 


DWE D WOTWNWwWaA TWO WRF =I 


fom 


a 


4 
= = ke 
Or & HH bo C& bY CO CO 


Northampton tavern 18 
Ditto gates : oe uh os aa os 2 
Wellington gate .. Bud ~ Re Ete <A 2 
Ditto gate 30 ve Ne ie ad ae 2 
Ditto tavern a ae ois AS Ee 13 
William Wells ‘yonpeeti se se Ss a ni 8 
Ditto gate i os a a oe ate 2 
Elstow tavern =. oe a sch Sas pagal nea HY) 
Ditto grass a a ws tts ae UND Bee) 
Ditto gate : ; 2 
Man mind beasts . Sis ts Dey Gis 1 
Hitchin tavern - sts ae ee oe ae 16 
Ditto gate a ae of nt ee ie 1 
Hertford gate ee oe a Ls eS, ue 2 
Ditto gate . : a ie i aye 2 
Stanstead tavern .. oe aS as a es 13 
Ongar grass us a a oe ta eo eas 
Ditto tavern oe i Sas ia fa oe 5 
Chelmsford ae : ae Teak 0 
Other expenses at fair one Toeara jowsney Ge ee LS 


Total aS . es ye lea 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 95 
Conditions changed for the better when the railways came to 
be operated over large tracts of the country. The first suggestion 
of using the railway for transport of beasts comes in the record 
for 1856, but it is probable that railway facilities had been used 
in two or three years previous, for which records are incomplete. 
In the year 1856, the railway was available between Shrewsbury 
and Nuneaton, and later to Tamworth, so that we find in the 
records that the familiar route through Abergwesyn, was deserted, 
and the beasts regularly railed from Shrewsbury to Nuneaton 
or Tamworth and driven to Rugby or Northampton. This was 
the position up to 1860, the railways extending slowly east and 
west until eventually about 1866, the railway reached Aberystwyth 
and the story of the Welsh drovers was at an end. 

It is interesting to show the schedule of expenses in 1856 for 
comparison with the earlier list shown for 1841 above, when the 
whole distance was tramped. ‘This list was recorded on November 
7th, 1856, and refers to about 300 beasts bought in Cardiganshire 
and Merioneth. 


th 
n 


Aberystwyth and Carreg gates ., 
Machynlleth tavern ae 3 
Ditto gates ae a se ewe 5 en 0 
Boy mind beasts .. sist ae oo a ae 
Cemmaes gate é 0 
Dinas Mawddwy pote 
Mallwyd gate 
Cann Office gate 
Cann Office tavern : si ie she ae: 
Llanfair Caereinion “pve a fe on ee 
Llanfair gate 
Welshpool gate 
Welshpool tavern .. pee - ce 
3 gates Welshpool to Shrewsbury 50 side Se I 
Halfway house (tavern) 

- Drovers Welshpool to el) 
Shrewsbury tavern 
Train to Feazley 
Feazley tavern and gate 
3 gates to Three Pots (tavern) 
Three Pots tavern Bo 
2 gates to Rugby 


bo 
UNMWAOTATWIwWwWHwWNwWHEaAan! 


SARARSCOROCCCOCOCRLOCOAMAMADOSE 


a Oe PHD WO = 
— 
ho 


| 
| 
| 
| 


Total ats as See OO 


96 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


The ‘tavern’ expenses in this schedule includes grass and 
hay for the beasts. There is another long series of items of 
expenses at the selling end, including gate expenses from centre 
to centre; grass, and maintenance expenses for drovers and 
dealer at the various taverns between Northampton and Chelms- 
ford, which was the final destination in this case. 

After 1870, the schedule of expenses become quite short and 
uninteresting, consisting only of a main item for railage of beasts 
and rail fares of the dealer and his representative. 


PURCHASE AND SALE PRICES OF CATTLE. 


The entries in the books of account show in detail the purchase 
of cattle at each centre, the number of beasts in each lot; the 
cash paid and the name of the seller are all entered in an orderly 
manner, and the totals made for the day’s activities. At some 
periods, however, the records of sales are incomplete, and through- 
out the records there is considerable difficulty in following the 
transactions through to final disposal. Some beasts of one lot 
were frequently held over to a subsequent lot, and the accounting 
of lots separately became very mixed. Again, beasts were often 
drafted into the droves, from the dealer’s own farms, so that 
receipts and costs could not give a reliable comparison. The 
records were much clearer for some years than others, and where 
it has been possible the complete analysis of purchase prices ; 
operating expenses; and sale prices have been used. 

Some of the best material in the records refers to the purchase 
prices of cattle over this period. ‘Trading began on a small scale 
in 1839, and the business grew to considerable proportions during 
the first decade. Towards the close of the period in 1882, the 
records become incomplete, and spasmodic, and only samples 
of trading are used in the closing years. The following Table 
gives in summary form an idea of the growth of the business with 
total cash turnover in cattle and the average purchase price of 
the beasts in each year. It should be emphasised that the average 
price of the beasts is a representative figure in most seasons, 
covering purchases both in spring and autumn, at various centres 
in at least three counties. In comparing prices shown with those 
ruling at present, the reader should make due allowance for the 
difference in age and size of beasts in that period. For the most 
part, the cattle purchased were Welsh runts at about three 
years old. There were some younger cattle and older barren 
cows included in the droves, but prices of all classes ranged closely 
around the averages shown here. 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


CATTLE PURCHASES, 


1839-1882. 


97 


Number 
purchased. 


Totals and 
average 
1839-46. 


Totals and 
average 
1849-52 


Totals and 
average 
1856-58 


Totals and 
average 
1862-67 


Average 
price per. 
head. 


Price Index 
1839-1846. 
=100. 


——— 


SS ee 


—————————— 


SSS SS ee 


98 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


CATTLE PURCHASES, 1839-1882— Continued. 


Average Price Index 
Number Cash price per 1839-1846. 
Year. Purchased. paid. head. == 100: 
28 Se Cle ear Sig.) Cie 
1876 1,518 17,448 5 O! 1110 0 186 
1877 1,745 205230 0. 0). Vi IT 1 187 
1878 2,337 29,654 10 0! 12 13 10 205 
1879 741 8,605 16 6) I1 12 3 187 
1880 1,217 13,890 19 0; 11 8 4 184 
1881 458 4,905 4 0} 1014 2 173 
1882 312 3,892: 4 0) 12 9 6 202 
mee oe ee ee eee [eS cE la 
Totals and | 
average 
1876-82 8,328 98,626 18 6; 11 16 10 A 


The most significant feature of the table is the striking upward 
trend of prices of cattle over this period, rising from about £4 6s. Od. 
per head in 1839 to over £12 in 1882. There were fluctuations in 
individual years, especially in the first period, 1839-46, but these 
may be caused by the small turnover and the possibility of different 
classes of cattle being handled in individual seasons. The average 
for this first period gives the best indication of the level of prices. 
Prices were very low around 1850, and they remained reasonably 
steady between £6 and £8 from 1856-67. There was a significant 
rise in the ‘ seventies,’ and prices from 1876-1882 were more than 
double those realised forty years earlier. It should also be borne 
in mind, that this dealer purchased the best and strongest cattle. 
They moved into the area of best pastures in the spring and 
summer, and into the yard fattening areas.in the Eastern countries 
during the autumn, and these areas still maintain their pride of 
position in the demand for the best quality store cattle. 

It is interesting to follow the variations in prices of individual 
lots of cattle purchased at different centres within each year. 
Price variations are partly the result of the different classes of 
cattle forward at each centre, and it is natural to assume that 
cattle purchased in Towyn differed somewhat in age and size if 
not in quality from the cattle typical of the better areas of South 
Cardigan and Pembroke. But it has not been practicable to find 
any significant trend to illustrate this from the records. The 
data of prices. paid at. each centre are available, but these show 
[pSHChs variations according: to ‘season, without. showing any 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 99 


regular scale of difference in prices between districts. There are 
exceptions to this, for example, low prices ruled in most seasons 
at Abergwili and Cilgerran, suggesting that cattle at those centres 
were younger and smaller than the normal class handled in the 
business. Variations again can be expected from the degree of 
competition experienced by the dealers at the different fairs for 
the supplies available. The following examples of average prices 
of individual lots in seasons chosen in each main period illustrate 
the variations in prices paid at different centres and the trend 
of prices in spring and autumn. 


AVERAGE PRICES OF CATTLE AT DIFFERENT CENTRES. 


First period, 1843. 


Average 
; Number |price per 

Date Centre. purchased. head. 

I a ac ces iy RE Ae inten 
| | fis. .d 
May 9 Llandalis fair. 37 8 16 0 
June 13 Cilgerran. 25 612 6 
July 18 Newcastle Kmlyn district. 49 5 15 6 
Aug. 5 Maenclochog. 33 6 4 0 
hie made) Newcastle Emlyn. 64 Om. F 3 
Sept. 3 Haverfordwest. 58 615 0 
Ocha 7 2 Abergwili. 78 5 5 0 
39. 7.26 | Narberth and Abergwili. 57 414 6 
Second Period, 1851 

March 5 Machynlleth. 37 519 0O 
April 21 Dolgelley. 59 6 1 0 
May 9 Lljandalis. 40 5 12 0 
oe. 14 Aberystwyth. 55 5d 12-19 
Jaune-.2 - Dinas Mawddwy. 32 416 4 
Oct. 23 Capel Cynon. 55 3.13 4 
‘aha 28 Abergwili. 51 34 9 
4 4 8 


Nov. 8 Llanbadarn. 29 


100 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


Third Period, 1856. 


March 22 

es Lye 
April 14 
May 9 
June 12 
June 24 
Sept. 20 
Oct. 27 
Nov. 17 


Welshpool. 


Llanidloes. 
Lianbrynmair. 
Machynlleth and district. 
Mid Cardigan. 
Haverfordwest. 
Lilanarth. 

Machynlleth. 

Abergwili. 


Fourth Period, 1864. 


March 2 

ss 12 
May 9 
June 14 
Aug. 19 
Oct. 17 
Nov. 1 
Nov. 7 


Machynlleth. 

Welshpool. 

Llandalis and Mid Cardigan. 
Haverfordwest. 

Cilgerran. 

Welshpool. 

Llandyssul. 


Talsarn and Dinas Mawddwy. 


Fifth Period, 1878. 


March 5 

ee 14 
April,.8 

os 15 
May 10 
June 17 
Aug. 19 
Sept. 20 
Oct. 16 
Nov 4 


Machynlleth and district. 
Henllan. 

Eglwyswrw. 

Carmarthen. 

Newcastle Emlyn. 
Llanarth. 

Cilgerran. 

Newcastle Emlyn. 
Newport (Pem.). 
Aberystwyth. 


161 


100 
217 


92 
84 
136 
37 
182 
16 
189 
132 


66 


1] 


AVERAGE PRICES OF CATTLE—Continued. 


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Prices showed a tendency to decline towards the autumn 
months in most years, and this may be evidence of a decline in 
demand, and, or possibly increase of supply of stores after the 
grass season, but it is more than probable that the cattle supplied 
in the autumn to the arable districts were younger and possibly 
slightly inferior in quality to the selections for the graziers during 
the spring. Again, the cattle purchased for the graziers for 
wintering and clearing the pastures were younger and probably 
less carefully chosen’ than the cattle moved into the same district 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 101 


in the spring, to be fattened in the short summer season. In 
a year of good demand and relatively high prices like 1878, how- 
ever, there appears to be no trend in prices over the season. 
Prices paid at the different centres were very regular on the 
average, and there was only very gradual decline from spring 
to autumn. This feature was common for the series of years 
1876-82, but for all the other series there was considerable varia- 
tion as illustrated in the examples above. 


The seasonality of the movement of prices must, however, 
remain wncertain, while the possibility exists that the purchase 
prices refer to different classes and ages of cattle at the different 
seasons, and it can only be established that prices on the average 
were higher in spring than autumn, without explaining the cause 
of the phenomenon. 


THE DEALER’S MARGIN. 

With the great attention given in the discussion of profits of 
middlemen trading in farm products of recent years, it is interest- 
ing to attempt to follow the profits and losses of this dealer in the 
last century. Unfortunately, the accounts are not recorded in 
such a way that a profit and loss statement can be made out for 
-each season’s trading. Indeed, the records are so complicated 
that it is practically impossible to tell except for individual lots 
whether trading was profitable or not. Some records of sales are 
missing, others are only partly recorded. There are bundles of 
letters, referring to what were apparently bad or doubtful debts, 
from purchasers in England who failed to honour their transac- 
tions. The closing pages of almost every account book contains 
a record of money lent and money borrowed, and it is certain 
that the financial ramifications of the business of the livestock 
dealer were almost as complicated in the nineteenth century as they 
are to-day. It can be said with truth, however, that this dealer 
commenced business in 1839, in a small way, with very uncertain 
capital, and the total turnover was not more than two thousand 
pounds. Profits apparently accumulated to provide adequate 
capital support to a business showing turnover of not less than 

£50,000, towards 1865. But the financial standing of the dealer 
‘was considered to have been uncertain until about 1860. The 
period of relatively high prices of cattle, 1865-1880, was a fortunate 
one for the dealer, and substantial profits were made. Suffice 
it to say that he died in the < eighties,’ the owner of a small estate, 
the occupier of three substantial farms—a considerable fortune 
in the lore of the countryside. A period of forty years almost 


102 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


continuous dealing in livestock did not bring him a fortune in 
the modern sense, but he was reasonably successful in rendering 
service which few were capable of in those days of difficult and 
cumbersome trading conditions. 


The details of sale prices are not available from the records 
for comparison with purchases for complete trading years. But 
there are a number of records complete which show the 
purchase and sale prices and the detailed schedule of expenses. 
An effort has been made to present examples of such satisfactory 
records to illustrate conditions of each series of years in the 
trading period. But it should be realised that the margin of 
profit shown does not represent the actual profit over the year. 
Some individual lots made money, others failed to cover expenses, 
and these examples merely show the nature of the margin of 
profit, and the normal scale of expenses. 


PURCHASE AND SALE PRICES AND PROFIT MARGINS. 


EXAMPLES OF TRADING IN INDIVIDUAL YEARS. 
(All figures per head.) 


Average | Re- Net 
Number | pur- Average | Maryin | corded profit + 

of chase sale gross Ex- or 
Year. Cattle. price.* price. profit. | penses. | —Loss. 
£ 8.2 Gd. 6k.* Ss. dee as... |e Se. a ees 

1839 58 4 6 2| 5 3 O- 0 16 10) 0.13°101 +0 3 
1840 95 4 7 11).5 4. 4) O16 5) OO 1o. 2105 4 
1846 137 qe Te 9) 8 17 207. 9 1-0 Peo 2 
1849 278 615 8; 710 T)' 0 14 5] 0 8 IT} +0 5 
1856 476 | 8  4:51li 97.5. Ofo:0-°19 10). 0 9 2) 40-10 
1858 190 9 16 0710 10 9; 0 14 9| 010 3!+0 4 
1862. | 1,216-.|6 17 8| 7.14 8|.0.1m-0| 0 8 3/40 18 
1863 | 1,319 748 -O| 8 14° 4] 0 1674 0 It 10-0 4 
1864 1,268 S74 Oh OO 7 | 0 1a O10 12? 620 45 
1865 | 987 |10°16° 4/12" 40 10/ I 8° Gl 202029) “obts 
1666. | 162 |.9 -32|-9 10! 10| 0 16 8| @ ‘7.8 )eewesy 


*These prices differ shghtly from those given above because these 
only refer to a few lots, whereas the others represent the 
average of the total turnover for the year. 


The normal margin appears to have been -around fifteen 
shillings per head, but with considerable: range as -would be 


ARR RAOADARMwWoO 


¢ 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE. IN WEST WALES 103 


expected. § The records for the three years, 1862-64 were com- 
plete in all respects and the figures can be treated with confidence. 
There was a big turnover of cattle in each year, and the gross 
average margin per head was fairly constant at around sixteen 
shillings. Recorded expenses showed more variation, from eight 
to more than twelve shillings, and the net profit varied from 
3s. 4d. to 8s. 9d. per head. In those three years the recorded net 
profits from trading in cattle were as follows 


Total Gross Total Net 

Year Cattle Profit. Expenses. Profit. 
£ sod (£i- si “d Fe Sea 
1862 1,216 l=O30.bz.-01 497019. 8+ B32 LT. 4 
1863. - 1,319 LaO7O718. 6 TSS. 1h. 2 296 7 4 
1864 1,268 | 1004 15 Bf) WO We ey ey 


These figures are arrived at without any allowance made for 
the dealers time, and use of capital, but as far as direct expenses 
incurred have been recorded, they have been deducted from the 
gross margin of profit. Expenses varied considerably from trip 
to trip. Sometimes the weather made travelling difficult, and 
hay and grain had to be purchased in quantity on the road. In 
other. cases there were difficulties in selling, so that cattle had 
to be maintained for a number of days at the selling end, on 
purchased hay and grass. Expenses were naturally lower for 
summer trips, but on the whole the figures ranged from ten to 
fourteen shillings per beast over the period. Part of the expenses 
recorded were for maintenancé of the personnel ;’ the dealer, 
agents and drovers; in the local taverns. Ale flowed freely 
and there are numerous entries of ale for men both at the Welsh 
and the English fairs. At most of the taverns in Wales, the ale 
cost about three pence a pint over most of the period. 
The great part of the expenses, however, were incurred on the 
journey, providing hay and grass to the beasts, and later in the 
period, the charges for railway transport. A simple analysis of 
expenses in some individual years is given below to illustrate 
the distribution of costs. 


104 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


ANALYSIS OF EXPENSES : PER CENT. DISTRIBUTION 


OF TOTAL. 

| | | | lays 3) 

| Toll Personal | Drovers’ grass 
Year | Taverns gates ex- | wages, and Total. 

| penses. | ete. | rail. 
1839 36 | 8 5 29 29 100 
1840 | 26 8 4 15 47 100 
Ieee = | | 10 Ss go ot 46 100 


There is little or no evidence that total expenses were reduced 
after the coming of railway facilities to Shrewsbury, because the 
beasts had to be driven across Wales, and again driven from 
Tamworth to Nuneaton, to the final markets at Northampton 
or Rugby. But towards 1865 or 1870, when the beasts were 
railed from Aberystwyth to the final destination, then there was 
a definite saving in time, trouble and charges. The cost of the 
toll gates alone amounted to a considerable sum over the long 
journey from West to East. In general these toll gate charges 
amounted to about a shilling per beast per journey. Although 
it cannot be absolutely certain that all the gates are separately 
entered in the records, there are itemised not less than twenty- 
four gates on the Northern route through Cemmaes, Welshpool 
and Shrewsbury to Rugby, and over twenty-two gates on the 
route through Abergwesyn and Leominster. The actual records 
of toll gates and charges paid are as follows :— 


(a) Northern route—Hxample taken from 1852 records with 129 beasts. 


a Sar ds 
Llanbadarn Ne “is ae et A 1. oO 
Tre’rddol ae ee Be ee a 1 6 
Garreg : i 6 
Cemmaes ) 
Maliwyd si Ses se aes 7.0 
Cann Office 
Dinas Mawddwy ; ae “is Be 280 
Cann Office to Wiclenyaor 3 artis a se Jryon wlelen. 29 
Welshpool to Shrewsbury, 4 gates... ae eee Oy cS 
. Shrewsbury to Kettle, 2 gates Ss — og ORT 
To Four Crosses, 2 gates 3 ae ae oe S98 
Wingwood P oe oe ie a og 5 5 
To ty 5 pace 66 56 one oo 2h gist Seon 


(b) 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


Llanddewi Brefi 
Radnor 

Kington 

Half the Road 
Westinton 
Bromyard 
Bontwillt ? 
Worcester, 2 gates 
Bomhagith ? 
Whilbercastle, 
Stratford 
Warwick 
Windmill 
Daventry, 2 gates 
Northampton 
Wellington, 2 gates 
William Wells 
Elstow 

Hitchin 

Hertford 


Abergwesyn route——1839—-40 beasts. 


MNF NNAINWNONNNNNONWWWE WL 


J. LLEFELYS DAVIES. 


105 


ARPDWDRMRODRSOSCARDHAHOwosaoascake 


eS 
vay 
is 


CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES—Continued. 


Votume VI. 

MHKOC and XPONOC: The “ Unity of Time’’ in Ancient Drama, by Professor 
H. J. Rose. James Howell once more, by Professor E. Bensly. Hamlet 
and the Essex Conspiracy (Part I), by Lilian Winstanley, M.A. Croce’s 
Doctrine of Intuition compared with Bradley’s Doctrine of Feeling, by Valmai 
Burdwood Evans, M.A. 


VoitumE VII. 
The Principles of Quaternions, by the late Assistant Professor W. J. Johnston. 
The descriptive use of Dactyls, by A. Woodward, M.A. Hamlet and the 
_ Essex Conspiracy (Part II), by L. Winstanley, M.A. Sainte-Benve and the 
English Pre-Romantics, by Eva M. Phillips, M.A. The General Theories of 
Unemployment, by J. Morgan Rees, M.A. The Intention of Peele’s ‘‘ Old 
Wives’ Tale,’’ by Gwenan Jones, M.A., Ph.D. 


Vorume VIII. 

The Teka of the Conventional Woman: Deianeira, by Professor H. J. Rose, 
Two Fragments of Samian Pottery, in the Museum of the University College 
of Wales, Aberystwyth, by P. K. Baillie Reynolds, M.A. Additional Notes 
of the Familiar Letters of james Howell, by Edward Bensly, M.A. Some 
Arthurian Material in Keltic, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. The Keltic 
God with the Hammer, by J. J. Jones, M.A. 


VoLuME IX. 

The Scenery of Vergil’s Eclogues, by Professor H. J. Rose and Miss Winstanley, 
M.A. More Gleanings in James Howell’s Letters, by Edward Bensly, M.A., 
St. Cadvan’s Stone, Towyn, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. The Influence of 
Valencia and its Surroundings on the Later Life of Luis Vives as a Philospher 
and a Teacher, by Professor Foster Watson. The Philosophy of Giovanni 
Gentile, by Miss Valmai Burdwood Evans, M.A. The Problems of 
Psychological Meaning, by George H. Green, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt. 


VOLUME X. 
THE HYWEL DDA MILLENARY VOLUME. 

- Facsimiles of MSS. Hywel Dda: the Historical Setting, by Professor J. E. 
Lloyd, D.Litt, M:A. The Laws of Hywel Dda in the light of Roman and 
Early English Law, by Professor T. A. Levi, M.A. The Land in Ancient 
Welsh Law, by T. P. Ellis, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. Social Life as reflected in 

the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones, M.A. The Language 

‘of the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Professor T. H. Parry-Williams, M.A. A 
‘Bibliography of the Laws of Hywel Dda, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. 


VotumeE XI. 
i William Wilson’ and the Conscience of Edgar Allan Poe, by George H. Green, 
-  M.A., Ph.D., B.Litt. The Celtic Stratum in the Place-Nomenclature of 

East Anglia, by O. K. Schram, M.A., Ph.D. Dialects and Bilingualism, by 

Professor T. Gwynn Jones, M.A. An Enquiry into the Conditions of Subject 
, Teaching in Secondary and Central Schools in Wales, by A. Pinsent, M.A., 
BSc. Corydon and the Cicadae: A Correction, by Professor H. J. Rose, 
pis M. A., and Miss Winstanley, M.A. 


a VoLuME XII. 
. The Ge soaitiba of ‘ The Raven ’, by y George H. Green, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt. 
Be _. March ap Meirchion: a study in Celtic Folk-lore, by J. J. Jones, M.A. The 
£ pee OSORDY of Cardinal Mercier, by Valmai Burdwood Evans, M.A., B.Litt. 
_ A Part of the West Moroccan Littoral, by Walter Fogg, M.A. 
pie Vale, I-III, out of print; Vol. IV, price 6/-; and Vols. V, VI, VII, 
* SUN LLL, IX, X, XI and XII, price 3/6 each, may be obtained from the 
Secretary, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, or from Humphrey 
_ Milford, Oxford University Press Warehouse, London, 


CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES, as : : 


VoLuME I. . a he 
The Anglo-Saxon Riddles, by G. A. Wood, M.A. An Analysis of the re cae 
characters of Grillparzer’s Dramas contrasted with those of Goethe’s and 
Schilier’s, by Miss Amy Burgess, M.A. Norman Earthworks near Aber- 5 
ystwyth, by F. S. Wright. A List of Research Publications by Members of. 
the College Staff for the Session 1910-11. : 


VoLume II. 
The Anglo-Saxon Riddles (continued), by G. A. Wood, M.A. Some Ancient 
Defensive Earthworks near Aberystwyth, by F. S. Wright. Whitman and 
Verhaeren, by P. M. Jones, B.A. | | He; | 
VoLuME III. Se 
The Greek Agones, by Professor H. J. Rose. A few Notes on the Familiar Letters 
of James Howell, by Professor E. Bensly. Fable Literature in Welsh, by _ 
Professor T. Gwynn Jones. Trajano Boccalini’s Influence upon fa ger 
Literature, by Richard Thomas, M.A. 


VOLUME IV. 

Pagan Rewwalicn under the Roman Empire, by Sir William M. Ramsay, F.B.A. 
The Bronze Age in Wales, by Harold Peake, F.S.A. Dionysiaca, by Professor 
H. J. Rose. The Calusule of A‘schines, by R. A. Pope, M.A. Further 
Notes on the Familiar Letters of James Howell, by Professor Edward Bensly. 
Further Notes on “the Owl and the Nightingale,’’ by Professor J. W. H. 
Atkins. The Arthurian Empire in the Elizabethan Poets, by Miss L. Win- 
stanley, M.A. A Note on a passage in ‘“‘ Beowulf,’’ by G. N. Garmonsway, 
B.A. Welsh Words from Pembrokeshire, by Professor T. Stanley Roberts. 
An English Flexional ending in Welsh, by Professor T. H. Parry-Williams. 
A “Court of Love’’ poem in Welsh, by Professor T. Gwynn Jones. The 
Evolution of the Welsh Home, by Timothy Lewis, M.A. A Washer at the 
Ford, by Miss Gwenan Jones, M.A. An Outline History of our Neighbour- 
hood, by Professor H. J. Fleure. Some Notes on the Industrial Revolution in — : 
South Wales, by J. Morgan Rees, M.A. Industrial Training in South Wales, ee 

by W. King, M.A. Conduct and the Experience of Value, by L. A. Reid, M.A. 
Some sources of the English Trial, by Professor T. A. Levi. A Renascence — 
Pioneer of Women’s Education, by Professor Foster Watson. Instruction in 
Religion, by Professor C. R. Chapple. A new document bearing on the Welsh 
Education Commission of 1846-7, by F. Smith, M.A. On Stokes’s Formula 
and the Maxwell-Lorentz Equations, by Professor W. H. Young. Recent 
Investigations of the scattering of X- and y-Rays, by Professor G. A. Schott. — 
The Addition of Hydrogen to Acetylenic Acids, by the late D. Emrys Williams, © 
B.Sc., and Professor T. C. James. The Action of Reducing Agents on some 
Polynitrodiphenylamines, by N. M. Cullinane, M.Sc: Some Reactions of — 
Tetranitroaniline, by C. W. Davies, B.Sc. The Origin of the Seed-Plants — 
(Spermophyta), by D. H. Scott, LL.D. Investigations into the Fauna of the . 
Sea Floor of Cardigan Bay, by Professor R. Douglas Laurie. The Fauna ORY 
the Clarach Stream (Cardiganshire) and its Tributaries, by Miss K. Carpenter, ; 
B.Sc. Additions to the Marine Fauna of Aberystwyth and District, by Miss — 
E. Horsman, M.Sc. The Bryophyta of Arctic-Alpine Associations in bias oa 
by C. V. B. Marquand, M.A. 


ee Vi pga 

The Government of Nicolas de Ovando in Espafiola (1501-1509), by Cecil oe 

M.A. Arx Capitolina, by the late Professor G. A. T. Davies and Professor 

H. J. Rose. James Howell again, by Professor E. Bensly. The Cauldron in 

Ritual and Myth, by J. J. Jones, M.A. Conduct and the Experience of 

Value, Part II, by L. A. Reid, M.A. Sir Henry Jones and the Cross Com- 

mission, by J. Hughes, M.A. Notes on the History of Cardiganshire Lea 
mines, by Miss K. Carpenter, M.Sc. 

(Continued on page 3 of Cover.) 


: OF WALES: 
‘THE COLLEGE 


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UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES | 
, - ABERYSTWYTH 


Lie RA RY 


TELEPHONE 


A. ap GWYNN, M.A. - 
Librarian 346-347 — 
une 1958 


1/RH 


The Librarian, ip aia 
British Mase (Wbared History), 
Cromvell Road, 
London, S.W.¢. 


Dear Sir, 


Your letter of the 31st of May, addressed | 
to the Registrar, has bee ssed to mee Volume | 
14, 1936 of Aberystwyth § * is the latest a 
published; it appea hat further * 
volumes will be publi: adies were being 


sent to you on an exe: Ad I believe “@ 
{been told of 


that your exchange de 


the suspension of publication. 


Yours faithfully, 


aRSITY COLLEGE OF WALES 


ABERYSTWYTH ~ 
Vol. XIV 


- ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 


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- S NY 


ABERYSTWYTH STUDIES 


BY 
MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE OF WALES 


VoL. XIV 


PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES 
PRESS BOARD ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGE 
1936 


Printed in Great Britain by the Cambrian News (Aberystwyth), Ltd. 


CONTENTS 


POE'S NOTES TO AL AARAAF. By Grorer H. 
GREEN, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt. 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF THE POETRY OF 
DAFYDD AP GWILYM—PENIARTH MS. 
48. By Trmotuy Lewis, M.A. 


THE PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AS A SOURCE 
OF ROGER DE WENDOVER’S FLORES 
HISTORIARUM AND OF RANULPH 
HIGDEN’S POLYCH RONICON. By Tuomas 
JONES, M.A. ; ‘ ; 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE (c. 1230-1296). (Continued). 
By Frank R. Lewis, M.A. 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES IN 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. (Continued). 
By J. Luzretys Daviess, M.Sc. ‘ : 


PAGE 


30 


53 


69 


93 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


Any attempt at an exposition of the creative process must 
necessarily be preceded by exhaustive investigations of the works 
which have been produced by it. It is not sufficient to posit 
entities, such as the “creative imagination,’ and to explain 
a mysterious creation through the evocation of something no less 
obscure: the positing of entities must be postponed until hypo- 
theses have been outlined, and these again must wait until a 
survey of facts has made apparent exactly what has to be ex- 
plained. 

The pioneer work of Professor Livingston Lowes is an indication 
of the standard it is possible to attain in this field. Guided by 
Coleridge’s own notebooks, he has been able to track down to its 
source in Coleridge’s extensive reading every borrowed element 
used in the making of “ Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the 
Ancient Mariner.” Not until we have ascertained the nature and 
extent of the borrowing are we able to begin to investigate the 
second stage of the creative process, the shaping of this varied 
material into something new and original. Without such in- 
vestigation of sources, we cannot begin to estimate what part has 
been played by the material, and what by the creator, in the 
shaping of the final product. To understand nest-building we 
must take into account both the nature of twigs and the form of 
the nest. Or, to employ a fresh analogy, we cannot appreciate 
the different design of chairs made of bent wood, of steel tubing 
or of cane unless we know something of the purpose a chair is 
intended to serve and the peculiar properties of the varied 
materials which may be used for its construction. 

Poe’s “ Al Aaraaf”’ was written at a time when many people 
were engaged in the creation of artificial paradises. Seventy 
years earlier, Johnson had written “ Rasselas,’’ with its de- 
scription of the Happy Valley. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre had 
written an idyllic account of simple life on a tropical island. 
Beckford, with whose work Poe was acquainted, had squandered 

1 


2 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


the greater part of his patrimony in building Fonthill Abbey 
as a retreat from ordinary existence, and had given bizarre 
expression to his capacity for creation in “‘Vathek.” Coleridge 
had created a palace of pleasure in “ Kubla Khan,” and James 
Thomson a “Castle of Indolence.”’ Tennyson’s “ Palace of 
Art’ was yet to appear. Moore, Shelley, Byron and Scott had 
all, in their different ways, created worlds which offered the 
greatest possible contrast to that in which they and their readers 
alike were compelled to live and work. 

“Al Aaraaf” is, too, a paradise—a retreat from ordinary 
mundane existence. It differs, however, from the retreats Poe 
was to describe later in “‘ The Fall of the House of Usher.” 
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Philosophy of Furni- 
ture,’ “‘ The Masque of the Red Death,” ‘“ The Assignation,”’ 
‘“* Landor’s Cottage ”’ and “ The Domain of Arnheim,” in that it 
is not deliberately designed. Its beauty and charm are mainly 
natural, the loveliness of sunshine and moonbeams, of sky and 
clouds, of trees and flowers and streams. ‘The title of the poem 
is an indication that Poe had fallen under the spell of the Kast, 
as it was presented in the literature of his day. Galland’s free 
rendering of the collection of the oriental tales known as “‘ The 
Arabian Nights Entertainments ” had been drawn upon exten- 
sively by translators and imitators; MHeron’s translation (in 
1792) being followed by that of Beloe (in 1795). D’Herbelot’s 
‘ Bibliotheque Orientale,”’ first published in 1697, had been 
augmented and re-issued in four large volumes in 1777, and was 
available as a source-book and work of reference for authors who 
wished to give their work an authentic eastern background. In 
1734 George Sale, who had assisted in the correction of the 
Arabic New Testament published by the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Christian Knowledge, made a translation of the Koran, 
to which he prefaced a Preliminary Discourse. Many volumes 
of travel in the Near East, in India, Persia, and other countries 
had appeared, and the collected works of the distinguished jurist 
and orientalist, Sir William Jones (1746-1794) were edited and 
published by Lord Teignmouth in 1799. From a wide variety 
of sources Thomas Moore was able to collect the material he used 
in the composition of “Lalla Rookh,”’ which appeared in 1817. 

Perhaps some part of the great impression Moore made upon 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 3 


Poe, and the influence he exerted upon his work, was due to the 
great standing of Moore in the eyes of Americans in general, and 
the people of Richmond in particular. Moore visited Richmond in 
the course of his American and Canadian tour. He left Bermuda 
in the Boston, about the beginning of June, 1804, and was pre- 
sented at Washington to President Jefferson. After this, he 
sailed for Norfolk, Va., “‘ from whence,” he wrote, “‘ I proceeded 
on my tour to the northward, through Wiliamsburgh, Richmond, 
etc. At Richmond there are a few men of considerable talents. 
Mr. Wickham, one of their most celebrated legal characters, is a 
gentleman whose manners and mode of life would do honour to 
the most cultivated societies. Judge Marshall, the author of 
Washington’s Ivfe, is another very distinguished ornament of 
Richmond.’ Poe came into close contact with Judge Marshall 
and with Mr. Wickham and his family later on. It is significant, 
however, that in spite of all that Moore has to say regarding the 
American lack of culture and refinement, he has to admit that 
“the title of ‘Poet —however unworthily in that instance 
bestowed—bespoke a kind and distinguishing welcome for its 
wearer: and that the Captain who commanded the packet in 
which I crossed Lake Ontario, in addition to other marks of 

courtesy, begged, on parting with me, to be allowed to decline 
payment for my passage.’ + A somewhat amusing instance of 
the lasting character of the impression which Moore made upon 
Americans is recorded by Jim Tully, ? who tells of an American 
safe-breaker, named Langdon W. Moore, who operated directly 
after the civil war. This man was reputed to have studied for 
the priesthood in Ireland, and he would, when in his cups, boast 
of an alleged kinship with Tom Moore, to impress his fellow 
safe-breakers. 

There are reasons, to be presently discussed, for believing that 
Poe was influenced, when writing “ Al Aaraaf,”’ probably at some 
time in 1828, by Moore’s “‘ The Loves of the Angels,” published 
in 1823. Moore was preparing a poem whose subject was the 
episode described in Genesis, VI. 1, 2 :—‘“‘ Andit came to pass .. . 
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were 

1'These citations are from Moore’s Epistles, Odes and other Poems. 


'2In Yeggs, an article published in the American Mercury, Vol. 
AXVIII., No. 112—April 1933—pp. 395. 


4 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” By a 
remarkable coincidence, Byron published, on January Ist, 1823, 
a “mystery” dealing with the same theme. Moore realised 
that it was wiser to prepare his own work for the press, rather 
than to continue with it in the leisurely fashion he had contem- 
plated. Consequently, ‘‘The Loves of the Angels” and 
“Heaven and Earth” appeared during the same year, within 
a very short time of each other. 

Now Poe’s poem deals with the loves of angels, but he has 
located it, not in heaven or earth, but in a place between, in the 
Mahommedan purgatory. Poe may have obtained his notion of 
this intermediate bourne either from D’Herbelot or from Sale’s 
translation of the Koran. D’Herbelot, quoting the surah of the 
Koran entitled ‘* Al Araf,”’ writes :—‘‘ Entre les bien-heureux 
et les damnez il y a un voile ou separation ; et sur l’Araf il y a 
des hommes ou des Anges en forme d’hommes qui connoissent 
chacun de ceux qui sont en ce lieu-la par les signes qu ils portent.”’ 
He goes on to say, however, that there are great differences of 
opinion between Mohammedan commentators both as to the 
nature of Al Araf and its occupants. According to some, it is a 
limbo; and, according to others, a purgatory in which are con- 
fined those whose good and bad deeds are in such proportions 
that they merit neither hell nor heaven. From Ai Araf they may 
behold the happiness of the blessed ; and this distant prospect of 
happiness is all that they may hope to enjoy, since their strong 
desire for happiness holds them where they are. 

Poe’s note upon the title of his poem is as follows :— 

Al Aaraaf. A star was discovered by Tycho Brahe which 
appeared suddenly in the heavens—attained, in a few days, a 


brillianey surpassing that of Jupiter—then as suddenly dis- 
appeared, and has never been seen since. — 


The precise meaning of this note I do not know. It may be, 
as most commentators upon the poem appear to take for granted, 
an indication that Al Aaraaf and Tycho Brahe’s star are identical. 
It may equally be intended only as a defence against those who 
might ridicule this creation of a youth’s imagination, asking where 
this fantastic world can possibly be located: asserting that its 
very existence is impossible. There is nothing at all impossible 
in the conception, Poe insists, even before the reader has read a 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 5 


line of his poem. A world swam into man’s ken once, for a few 
days. Its existence was guaranteed by one of the greatest of 
astronomers. Its brilliance assured observers that it was of the 
order of importance of a major planet. Yet no-one has seen it 
since. What point, then, is there in denying the existence of Al 
Aaraaf, merely on the ground that it cannot be located by as- 
tronomers ? 

This suggestion is altogether in line with much of Poe’s later 
work. However fantastic may be the suggestions he asks his 
readers to accept, he takes the trouble to make them appear 
plausible. He explains, for example, in terms of chemical 
changes, the phenomena which might cause the enlarged image 
of a black cat to be imprinted on the wall of a house damaged by 
fire.1 He recounts the successful voyage of a party of balloonists 
from England to Virginia in such a way that the American public 
is able to accept it as authentic news.? He gives a character of 
verisimilitude to his account of a mesmerist who kept a man in a 
state of trance for weeks after death and the story is seriously 
regarded in England as a contribution to science ; * and his de- 
tective stories had so much the appearance of fact that a reader 
felt it incumbent upon him to point out that there was no Rue 
Morgue in Paris. The point is important, since Poe developed, 
later on, interesting theories about the purpose of imaginative 
writing in producing an effect upon the reader. ‘To what extent 
he had consciously outlined a theory at the time he wrote “ Al 
Aaraaf’’ it is difficult to say, but we apparently find him anxious 
that no conviction of impossibility shall stand in the way of the 
reader’s acceptance of the illusion he is invited to share as he 
reads the poem. ‘There is nothing inherently impossible in the 
notion of a world we cannot see, and it may well be like this ! 

Hervey Allen reasonably conjectures that “Al Aaraaf”’ 
took shape at the time that Poe was serving with the First United 
States Artillery at Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island. This 


1The Black Cat—Tales of Mystery and Imagination. 

2 The Great Balloon Hoax. 

3 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar and Mesmeric Revelation. 

4The Murders in the Rue Morgue. For comments upon it in France 
by its first translator and by Baudelaire, see Life and Letters of Edgar 
Allan Poe, by J. H. Ingram (London: Ward, Lock, Bowden and Co. : 
1891) pp. 151. 


6 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 


is possible, for one at least of his notes to the poem suggests that 
it was written at a time when he was away from the books to 
which he might be supposed to have ready access. But it is 
not so easy to agree with Allen when he suggests that the “‘story- 
plot and general architecture are negligible, although the con- 
ception is poetic.’! The story must have importance, since it 
presents the ideal persons who people the imagined paradise in 
their ideal relations to one another. Woodberry 7 summarises 
the poem in these words :—“ Its obscurity is largely due to Poe’s 
attempting, not only to tell a story, but also to express in an 
allegoric form some truth which he had arrived at amid the un- 
eventful leisure of the barracks. In the rapid growth of his 
intelligence, beauty, which had been merely a source of emotion, 
became an object of thought,—an idea as well as an inspiration. 
It was the first of the great moulding ideas of life that he appre- 
hended. Naturally his juvenile fancy at once personified it as 
a maiden, Nesace, and, seeking a realm for her to preside over, 
found it in Al Aaraaf,—not the narrow wall between heaven and 
hell which in Moslem mythology is the place of the dead who are 
neither good nor bad, but the burning star observed by Tycho 
Brahe, which the poet imagines to be the abode of those spirits, 
angelic or human, who choose, instead of that tranquillity which 
makes the highest bliss, the sharper delights of love, wine, and 
pleasing melancholy, at the price of annihilation m the moment 
of their extremest joy. At this point the allegory becomes cum- 
brous, and the handling of it more awkward, because Poe tries to 
imitate Milton and Moore, at the same time. By the use of 
incongruous poetic machinery, however, he contrives to say that 
beauty is the direct revelation of the divine to mankind, and the 
protection of the soul against sin... 7” | 

Why “naturally ”’ his juvenile fancy should personify the 
idea of Beauty as a maiden, Nesace, is not altogether clear. 
‘““ Nesace ’ has nothing “natural” about it, even if we admit 
that the personification of ‘‘ Beauty ” is exactly what we should 
expect from a young man who had read a great deal of poetry. 

1 Hervey Allen—IJsrafel (New York: George H. Doran Company : 
1927), Volk pp. 222. 

2 George E. Woodberry—EHdgar Allan Poe (Boston and New York— 


American Men of Letters. Series—Houghton Mifflin Company: 1885 
and 1913) pp. 48-9. 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 7 


If the name is of Poe’s own invention, we have to discover the 
elements he has utilised and explain why he has assembled them 
as he has, rather than in another fashion. If the name is taken 
from some other source, the grounds of its choice have to be 
ascertained. It is surprising that Marie Bonaparte, who has 
studied Edgar Allan Poe and his work from the psychoanalytic 
standpoint has not, in any one of her five references to ‘““Nesace,”’ 
referred to this important problem, whose significance is obvious 
to anyone acquainted with Freud’s “ Psychopathology of Every- 
day Life.” } 

Two possible sources immediately suggest themselves. The 
closing lines of “Tamerlane” recall Milton’s reference, in 
“ Lycidas,” to the “tangles of Neera’s hair.” “ Ligeia,’ who 
is referred to a little later in “ Al Aaraaf,’’ is also mentioned in 
Milton’s “Comus.” But in the fourth book of the Georgics, 
Virgil names a number of nereids :— 

Ryne oad Around her sate the Nymphs, 

Spinning fine fleeces, full-hued, glassy-green, 

Drymo, Ligea and Phyllodoce, 

And Xantho, whose bright tresses as a stream 

Fell o’er their glistering necks: Nesza too, 

Spio, Thala and Cymodoce....... Mae 

‘““Nesea’’ is remarkably close to ‘“ Nesace,” as “‘ Xantho ”’ 
is to “Ianthe,’ also introduced into ‘Al Aaraaf.’” The 
picture which Virgil gives of Cyrene, “ chambered deep beneath 
the watery dome,” with her attendant nereids about her, has 
something in common with the description which Milton puts 
into the mouth of Comus, “my mother Circe and the sirens 
three *’: Ligeia is the traditional name of one of the sirens. 

These points may be borne in mind, whilst we attempt to pursue 
another line of enquiry. Hervey Allen and Professor Woodberry 
concur in believing it likely that “Al Aaraaf” was composed during 
Poe’s stay in barracks. The date of his enlistment, as given by 
Hervey Allen from the War Department records, is May 26th., 
1827, and the date of his discharge is April 15th., 1829. It was 
during this period of service, on February 28th., 1829, that 


1 Marie Bonaparte—Hdgar Poe: Htude Psychanalytique (Paris: 
Les Editions Denoél et Steele: 1933) pp. 52, 71, 74, 104 and 464. 

2 Virgil’s Hclogues and Georgics, translated by T. F. Royds (London : 
J. M. Dent and Sons: Everyman Edition) pp. 169-170. 


8 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 


Frances Keeling Allan, who had given Poe all but legal adoption, 
died—“ the sweetest and truest friend that a certain poet ever 
knew.” 1 Apparently she had realised that she was dying, and 
had done all that she could to prevail on her husband to summon 
Poe to her bedside. When at last the message was sent, it was 
too late, so that her burial was actually taking place while Poe 
was making the journey from Fort Monroe to Richmond. Poe 
visited the grave on the day after, and was overcome: “the 
servants remembered helping him into the carriage which bore 
him away.” ? 

It is difficult not to believe that “‘ Al Aaraaf’’ is Poe’s monu- 
ment to the woman he loved intensely, and that the paradise 
he creates and fills with flowers and the loveliness of the dead 
past is intended for her and for himself. Later, in the 
‘Philosophy of Furniture,’ he was to speak of the “ female 
heads, of an ethereal beauty—portraits in the manner of Sully.” 
Frances Keeling Allan’s portrait was perhaps the first of these 
he knew.* He was to write later, in ‘‘ Eleonora,” a love-scene 
which was certainly inspired by memories of the story of Paolo 
and Francesca, and the closing quatrain of “ Al Aaraaf” is 
also reminiscent of Dante’s unfortunate lovers. 

** Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away 
The night that waned and waned and brought no day. 
They fell : for Heaven to them no hope imparts 
Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.”’ 

Mrs. Allan had a place in that succession of women whom 

Poe loved, and who died, so that already in 1831 he could write :— 
‘“ I could not love except where Death 
Was mingling his with Beauty’s breath— 
Or Hymen, Time and Destiny 
Were stalking between her and me.’’ 

The death of Mrs. Allan was an event which brought Poe 
sharply face to face with realities. While she lived he knew 
that someone was trying constantly to influence John Allan 
favourably on his behalf. No breach between the two men 
was altogether irreconcilable, whilst she was able to plead. 

1 Hervey Allen—op. cit.—Vol. I., pp. 231. 

2 Hervey Allen—op. cit.—Vol. I., pp. 223. 


$ Hervey Allen—op. cit. The portrait of Frances Keeling Allan, in 
half-tone reproduction, faces pp. 20. Vol. I. 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 9 


There was always a possibility that, even if he were not made 
Allan’s sole heir, something would be done for him. Disillusion 
followed sharply on her death. What Poe says, in the “‘ Sonnet 
—to Science’ which appears with “ Al Aaraaf,’’ might have 
been said with equal propriety of this event . . 
‘* Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood, 

The Elfin from the green grass, and from me 

The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree? ”’ 

A point of some importance, to which sufficient attention has 
never yet been given, is Poe’s play with words. Often enough, 
this appears to be nothing more than the fatuous punning which 
so often passed for humour in his day. But the matter some- 
times goes very much farther, and the word-play possesses signi- 
ficance. Mrs. Helen Whitman, discussing the origin of ‘‘ Lenore,” 
a name which Poe used more than once, one which (he alleges 
in “ The Philosophy of Composition ’’) satisfied his ear, says :— 
“In the earlier versions . . the verses are addressed not to 
Lenore but to Helen, from which Lenore is, as Poe once told me, 
in some sense, a derivation. You will see—Helen, Ellen, Ellenore, 
Lenore. Poe liked to trace these subtle relations in words and 
things...” 1! A little word-play of this kind, no greater in 
extent than that which Poe has used on other occasions, with 
the name “ Frances Keeling” gives us the essentials of the 
puazimoe name ~“Nesace~ ... . 

FR/ANCES KEE/LING 
and when these elements are re-assembled on the lines of the 
patterns of Nezra and Nesza, Nesace emerges. 

This can, of course, be speculative only, and cannot in the 
nature of things be proved. But there is much material in the 
poem itself which is entirely consonant with the theory that 
“ Al Aaraaf’’ is a monument, not only to Poe’s dreams, but to 
the memory of Mrs. Allan. 

‘* Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth, 
Whence sprang the ‘ Idea of Beauty ’ into birth, 
(Falling in wreaths thro’ many a startled star, 
Like woman’s hair ‘ mid pearls, until, afar, 


It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt) 
She looked into Infinity—and knelt. 


1 Poe’s Helen, by Caroline Ticknor (London: John Lane: 1917) 
pp. 189. Italics not in original. 


10 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


In the summer of 1815 John Allan, accompanied by his wife 
and Edgar Poe, then six-and-a-half years of age, came to Liver- 
pool. They first went to Irvine, and later came to London. 
Edgar returned to Irvine, where he attended a school for a time : 
early in 1816 he came to London again, and was sent to a boarding- 
school in Chelsea. In the summer of 1817, the family moved to 
83, Southampton Row, and Edgar was sent to the Rev. John 
Bransby’s Manor House School at Stoke Newington. He used 
to return home for holidays. 

The British Museum was just round the corner from 83, 
Southampton Row, and it would be straining credulity to believe 
that Edgar was not taken by Mrs. Allan to see the exhibits there. 
There were collections of Italian and Egyptian antiquities, and 
passages in Poe’s stories suggest the strength of the impression 
made upon the boy by the sight of mummies and sarcophagi. 
But there were also the Elgin marbles, purchased by the British 
Government, and exhibited in the Museum in 1817. At some 
time, then, in 1817 or 1818, when Poe was eight or nine years of 
age, he saw, for the first time, the incomparable friezes of the 
Parthenon. He might well, looking back upon that visit, 
remember it as the occasion on which the ‘ Idea of Beauty,’ for 
him at least, had its birth. 

The device of creating a paradise in memory of a woman, or 
in honour of one, was one to which Poe resorted more than once. 
“The Domain of Arnheim ”’ is in all probability in essentials a 
memorial to his mother, Elizabeth Arnold, for whose name 
° Arnold’ Arn-heim is an obvious substitute. “ Landor’s 
Cottage’ is definitely mentioned by Poe as being “ something 
for Annie ’—Mrs. Richmond: a friend of his last years. In 
Moore’s “‘ Lalla Rookh,” in the prose passage which immediately 
precedes “* Paradise and the Peri,’ Poe had certainly read :— 
‘““In an evening or two after, they came to the small Valley of 
Gardens, which had been planted by order of the Emperor for his 
favourite sister Rochinara, during their progress to Cashmere, 
some years before and never was there a more sparkling as- 
semblage of sweets, since the Gulzar-e-Irem, or Rose-Bower of 
Irem. Every precious flower was there to be found, that poetry, 
or love, or religion has ever consecrated ; from the dark hyacinth, 
to which Hafez compares his mistress’s hair, to the Camalata, 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 1] 


by whose rosy blossoms the heaven of India is scented.’ Poe 
has taken the hint, and “ Al Aaraaf’’ contains a wealth of 
flowers, the loveliest and most interesting which Poe had dis- 
covered in his reading up to this time. Those who have drawn 
pictures of deliberate reading for the purpose of decorating the 
poem, or have imagined the youth poring over learned and 
obscure works, are mistaken in part, if not altogether. Others, 
misled by the fact that Poe borrowed from the library of the 
University of Virginia, during his brief stay there, Dufief’s 
“Nature Displayed ” think it a source of picturesque informa- 
tion, and are totally mistaken. Hervey Allan has fallen into 
error, when he speaks of Poe gathering up “ those honeyed fancies 
that cloy the too sweet lines of Al Aaraaf,’ and goes on to 
describe Poe’s discovery of the Sephalica “from the pages 
of Nature Displayed flung at random on the table.” ! 

Never was title more deceptive than that of this book. The 
student of Poe who buys or borrows it, expecting to find there 
plates and descriptions of exotic flowers, will realise his error 
when he reads the title-page :— 


NATURE DISPLAYED 


IN HER MODE OF 


Teaching Language to Man; 


METHOD OF ACQUIRING LANGUAGES 


WIMEIsh (UINIE AIR AUB IC ISILIS ID) SCAU EBITD NA 
DEDUCED FROM 


THE ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND, 
AND CONSEQUENTLY SUITED TO EVERY CAPACITY: 
AVIDIAIPIEIEID) IQ) Tes IBN Ola! 

BY N. G. DUFIEF, 


Author of The Pbilosopby of DZanguage; and The New Umiversal Pronouncing 
Dictionary of the French and Enghsh Languages. 


Poe’s knowledge of rare plants was certainly not derived from 
Dufief ! 

The notes, so liberally appended to the poem, tell us clearly 
how few sources of material were really accessible to Poe at this 


1 Hervey Allen—op. cit—pp. 173. 


12 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


time ; showing clearly that he depended upon a few books, and 
upon his memory. Woodberry says :—*‘ In the annotations to 
‘Al Aaraaf,’ it must be noticed, Poe began the evil practice, 
which he continued through life, of making a specious show of 
learning by mentioning obscure names and quoting learned 
authorities at second hand.’ ! There is a good deal of truth in 
what Woodberry says, but it must be remembered in Poe’s favour 
that he was very seldom, throughout his life, in a position to have 
access to books. He was not, like Lowell and Longfellow, a 
member of a university: not could he ever afford a private 
library of his own. He was generally far too hard-worked to 
have time to make much use of the public libraries in the towns 
in which he lived. 

Further, Poe trusted to his memory, which was by no means 
as reliable as he believed it to be. It led him into queer errors at 


times. More than once he misquotes Bacon as saying :—‘‘ There 
is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the pro- 
portion.” What Bacon said was:—-“‘ There is no _ ezcellent 


beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”’ ? 
An error of this kind occurs in the fifth section of the first part 
of “Al Aaraaf” . . 


‘* All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed 
Of flowers: of lilies such as rear’d the head 
On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang 
So eagerly around about to hang 
Upon the flying footsteps of—deep pride— 
Of her who loved a mortal—and so died.”’ 
To this the note is appended :— 
1. 44. On the fair Capo Deucato. On Santa Maura—olim Deucadia. 


b) 


In “ Evenings in Greece’’ Moore speaks of a maiden of Zia 
who has visited the cliffs from which Sappho leapt to her death, 
and speaks of the “scented lilies . . . Still blooming on that 
fearful place.’ The name is, however, Leucadia and not 
Deucadia. The latter name indicates Poe’s lapse of memory, 
and the “Capo Deucato”’ suggests with what confidence he 
could invent. Moore’s note on “ Leucadia ’”’ is :—-‘‘ Now Santa 
Maura,—the island from one of whose cliffs Sappho leaped into 
the sea.”’ 


1 Woodberry—op. cit., pp. 51. 
* Bacon—LHssays, No. XLIIT. Of Beauty. 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 13 


Byron, too, had spoken of ‘“ Leucadia’s cape’”’ in the Second 
Canto of “ Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” ! and told the story of 
Sappho’s suicide in the following stanza. His own note is :— 
“Leucadia, now Santa Maura. From the promontory (the 
Lover’s Leap) Sappho is said to have thrown herself.”’ 

It is impossible. apparently, to decide whether Poe’s note has 
been taken from Byron or from Moore. Nor is it possible to 
give an explanation of why he should distort Leucadia into 
Deucadia. The mistake is not a printer’s error. since it runs 
uncorrected through all the editions. We cannot doubt, in 
view of Freud’s work on the “ psychopathology of everyday life ”’ 
that the unwitting slip has significance, even though we cannot 
say precisely what it is. 

But that the mention of Sappho should follow the reference to 
the Parthenon so closely in the early part of “ Al Aaraaf”’ is 
perhaps important—the woman who “loved a mortal—and so 
died.”’” The circumstances of Frances Allan’s death whilst Poe 
was away in the United States Army, her frustrated desire to 
see him before she died, permitted the thought that she might 
have died because she could not have her beloved adopted son 
with her. There seemed to be grounds for thinking of the 
poetess, no longer young, who destroyed herself because Phao ? 
was cold and indifferent, with the woman who died in the ab- 
sence of the youthful Poe who, in place of enduring for her sake 
the sneers and taunts of her dour husband, had deserted her. 
That Poe’s reference is to the Greek poetess is made clear by 
his note :— 

1. 47. Of her who loved a mortal—and so died. Sappho. 


The following six notes refer to the flowers Poe mentions in 


the poem :— 
1. 50. And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnamed. This flower is 
much noticed by Lewenhoeck and Tournefort. The bee, 
feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated. 


1 Stanza XL. 

2 Poe may have gathered his knowledge of Sappho from (with other 
sources) Lempriére’s Classical Dictionary. If so, he would probably 
have used the American edition, which differed from the contemporary 
British editions in that Professor Charles Anthon had made more 
‘than three thousand additions to it. The article on ‘‘Sappho”’ includes 
four interpolations added by him. 


14 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


In Moore’s ‘‘ The Fire-Worshippers ’’ (“‘ Lalla Rookh ’’) there 
iS a passage :— 
‘* Kv’n as those bees of TREBIZOND, 
Which, from the sunniest flowers that glad 
With their pure smile the gardens round 
Draw venom forth that drives men mad.” 
to which is appended the note :— 

“There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose 
flowers the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives people 
mad—TouRNEFORT.”’ 

Poe’s mention of Trebizond “ misnamed’’ may refer to one 
of Anthon’s additions to Lempricre’s dictionary. “ Its ancient 
name” (viz. Trapézus) writes Anthon, “ was derived from the 
square form, in which the city was laid out, resembling a table.” 
It may have occurred to Poe that a square city ought not to be 
called by a name suggesting “trapezium ”’ or “trapezoid.” 

The text of “Al Aaraaf”’ :— 


Biome aR Ae oleae a ie its honied dew 
The fabled nectar that the heathen knew) 
Deliriously sweet, was dropped from Heaven.” 
may stand related to a foot-note of Moore’s to “Paradise and the 
Peri’ (“ Lalla Rookh’’), which is as follows—‘‘ The Nucta, or 
Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt precisely on St. John’s 
Day, in June, and is supposed to have the effect of stopping the 
plague.’’ Moore’s text, of course, compares this miraculous 
drop to the “ precious tears of repentance ” which serve to admit 
the Peri to Paradise. Could Poe have confused “nectar ’”’ and 
‘““nucta,’’ misled by the similarity of sound? It may seem un- 
likely to those who speak forms of English in which “r’s”’ are 
strongly sounded : Poe was brought up in Virginia and in London. 
Some of the notes which directly follow are obviously taken 
from Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Poe had probably read a 
great deal of Saint-Pierre in the original. Thus, some years 
later, he introduces his “‘ Marginalia ’’? with a French citation :— 
‘This making of notes, however, is by no means the making of 
mere memoranda—a custom which has its disadvantages, beyond 
doubt. “Ce que je mets sur papier,’ says Bernardin de St. Pierre, 
‘ge remets de ma memoire, et par consequence je Voublie ;’ and, in 
fact, if you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that 
this thing is to be remembered.” Apparently Poe quotes Saint- 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 15 


Pierre with approval, because he found the advice so much to 
his own mind. He believed he could remember perfectly, with- 
out the help of notes and reminders. Some of the people who 
knew him testify to the fact that he could repeat long passages 
of prose and verse without difficulty or hesitation, from memory 
and perfectly ; though there are no records of the tests they 
applied. Certainly, unless they knew the passages perfectly 
themselves, or had the books open before them, they could not 
accurately check their statements. Either alternative is un- 
likely. The fact would appear to be that they were misled by the 
facility with which Poe could invent a credible substitute of the 
word or phrase which eluded him. Because the thing sounded 
right, for them it was right. 
To resume discussions of the notes themselves :— 


1. 68. And Clytia, pondering between many a sun. Clytia—the 
Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or to employ a better known 
term, the turnsol—which turns continually towards the sun, 
covers itself, like Peru, the country from which it comes, 
with dewy clouds, which cool and refresh its flowers during 
the most violent heat of the day.—B. DE St. PIERRE. 


This is a fairly close translation of the following passage :— 
*““Le chrysanthemum peruvianum, ou, pour parler plus simple- 
ment, le tournesol, qui se tourne sans cesse vers le soleil, 
se couvre, comme le Pérot d’ou il est venu, de nuages de rosée 
qui refraichissent ses fleurs pendant la plus grande ardeur du 
qour.’” 1 

1. 70. And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth. There is 

cultivated in the king’s garden at Paris, a species of serpen- 
tine aloes without prickles, whose large and _ beautiful 
flower exhales a strong odour of the vanilla, during the 
time of its expansion, which is very short. It does not 
blow till towards the month of July—you then perceive 
it gradually open its petals—expand them—fade and 
die.—StT. PIERRE. 


Saint-Pierre writes :—‘‘ On cultive au Jardin du Roi une 
espéce d ’aloés serpentin sans épines, dont la fleur, grande et belle, 
exhale une forte odeur de vanille dans le temps de son 
épanouissement, qui est fort court. Elle ne s’ceuvre que vers le 
mois de juillet, sur les cing heures du soir: on la voit alors entr’- 
ouvrir peu & peu ses pétales, les étendre, s’épanouir et mourir.”’ 
Poe’s note is a close translation, but there are omissions of the 


‘ Bernardin de Saint-Pierre—Collected Works, Vol. IV., pp. 252. 


16 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


kind we should expect if he were writing from memory. Saint- 
Pierre says that the flower opens at five o’clock of the afternoon, 
and goes on to say (the further passage is not cited here) that it 
has totally withered by ten at night. ? 

1. 74. And Vieleanerian lotus, thither flown. There is found, in 
the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the Valisnerian kind. Its 
stem will stretch to the length of three or four feet—thus 
preserving its head above water in the swellings of the river. 

Poe has not acknowledged the source of this note. But in 

Saint-Pierre’s works there may be found :—”’ La Vallisneria, qui 
croit dans les eaux de Rhone, et qui porte sa fleur sur une tige 
en spirale, qu’elle allonge a proportion de la rapidité des crues 
subites de ce fleuve ... ’ 2 In a note attached to the final 
edition of his work, Saint-Pierre says that the story of the 
mechanism lifting the plant with the rising waters is an error, 
since the device is merely intended to ensure fertilisation ; the 
plant being dioecious. The mistake found its way into print in a 
work written by an Englishman in 1750. Poe may have found 
the statement there, or in an earlier edition of Saint-Pierre’s 
work, in which there was no amending foot-note. If the latter, 
the translation is less close than that of the other passages cited. 
Poe has not troubled to append explanatory notes to the lines 
in which he mentions :— 
The Sephalca, budding with young bees, 
or 
Nyctanthes, too, as sacred as the light 
She fears to perfume, perfuming the night. 

The first of these is apparently borrowed from Moore’s lines in 
“The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan ”’ (“‘ Lalla Rookh ’’) :— 
SOUT cee Utcaucaiac | eet ated uae ans uae neces the still sound 
Of falling waters, lulling as the song 

Of Indian bees at sunset, when they throng 
Around the fragrant Nilica, and deep 
In its blue blossoms hum themselves to sleep.” 


lines which Moore has annotated :— 


‘“ My pundits assure me that the plant before us (the Nilica) 
is their Sephalica, thus named because the bees are supposed 
to sleep on its blossoms.”—Sir W. JONES. 


1 Ibid. pp. 251. 
2 Bernardin de Saint-Pierre—op. cit.—Vol. IV., pp. 363. 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 17 


And the reference to Nyctanthes is apparently taken also from 
the same poem, where Moore describes how Zelica 
‘Sat in her sorrow like the sweet night-flower, 
When darkness brings its weeping glories out, 
And spreads its sighs like frankincense about.”’ 
Moore’s footnote is :— 
‘“'The sorrowful Nyctanthes, which begins to spread its rich 
odour after sunset.” 
Poe’s next note to “Al Aaraaf” is as follows :— 
1. 76. And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante. The Hyacinth. 


The source of this becomes clearer when the line is read in its 
context :— 
“ And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante ! 
Isola d’oro. Fior di Levante !”’ 

Zante is referred to by Chateaubriand in his “ Itinéraire de 
Paris a Jérusalem,’ where he writes :—“ . . je souscris! @ ses 
noms d’Jlsola d@Oro, de Fior di Levante. Ce nom de fleur me 
rapelle que Vhyacinthe étoit originaire de | ‘ile de Zante, et que 

cette ile recut son nom de la plante qu’elle avoit portée.’’? 
The list of flowers terminates with mention of 


MRD Cec Oh = Fs the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever 
With Indian Cupid down the holy river.” 


y) 


Poe’s own note on these two lines is :—“‘ It is a fiction of the 
Indians, that Cupid was first seen floating in one of these down 
the river Ganges—and that he still loves the cradle of his child- 
hood.’ Moore, in “The Light of the Haram” (“‘ Lalla Rookh’’) 
speaking of “ young Love,” writes :— 

mre stirs 8 Nah = He how well the boy 

Can float upon a goblet’s streams, 
Lighting them with his smile of joy :— 
As bards have seen him, in their dreams, 


Down the blue Ganges laughing glide 
Upon a rosy lotus wreath.” 


_ And Moore gives as a foot-note :— 


‘“ The Indians feign that Cupid was first seen floating 
down the Ganges on the Nymphaea Nelumbo.’’—See PENNANT. 


1 Not ‘Je souriais’ as printed on page 195 of the Oxford Edition 
of the Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 

'2 QEUVRES COMPLETES DE CHATEAUBRIAND (Paris: Librairie 
Garnier Freres.) Tome V. Itinéraire de Paris a Jerusalem. pp. 117. 


18 POE’S NOTES TO * AL AARAAF” 


Poe’s next note calls for no comment. It is simply a verse 
taken from the Revelation of St. John. 


1. 81. To bear the Goddess’ song, im odours, up to Heaven. And 
golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the 
saints. 


That which follows is, however, one of the longest, and, more 
than those already cited, gives the impressions of wide reading 
and unusual erudition. With the exception of a note to be cited 
later, it is perhaps the best instance of the failing which Wood- 
berry was so strongly to condemn. “ Al Aaraaf” contains the 


lines :— 
Tho’ the beings whom thy Nesace, 
Thy messenger hath known 
Have dream’d for thy Infinity 
A model of their own— 
Thy will is done, O God! 


Poe’s note is :— 


1. 105. A model of their own. The Humanitarians held that 
God was to be understood as having really a human form. 
Vide CLARKE’S Sermons, vol. i, p. 26, fol. edit. 


The drift of Milton’s argument leads him to employ lan- 
guage which would appear, at first sight, to verge upon 
their doctrine ; but it would be seen immediately, that 
he guards himself against the charge of having adopted 
one of the most ignorant errors of the dark ages of the 
church.—Dr. SuMNER’S Notes on Mailton’s Christian 
Doctrine. 


This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the con- 
trary, could never have been very general. Andeus, 
a Syrian of Mesopotamia, was condemned for the opinion 
as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the fourth 
century. His disciples were called Anthropomorphites. 
—Vide Dv PIN. 


Among Milton’s minor poems are these lines : 


‘ Dicite sacrorum presides nemorum Deae, &e. 
Quis ille primus cujus ex imagine 
Nature solers finxit humanum_ genus ? 
Eternus, incorruptus, aequaevus polo, 
Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei.’ 


| And afterwards— 


* Non cui profundum Caecitas lumen dedit 
Dircaeus augur vidit hune alto sinu, Se. 


The first part of this note, including the reference to Clarke’s 
Sermons, is taken verbatim from a footnote of Dr. Sumner’s to 
the translation he had prepared of the MS. treatise in Latin, “ De 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 19 


Doctrina Christiana” of John Milton, discovered by Robert 
Lemon in the state paper office in 1823. It was published in two 
volumes: one the original Latin text, edited by Sumner, and the 
other the English translation by him.! Sumner’s own note is 
longer, but Poe omits the latter part of it. The reference certainly 
conveys the impression that Poe knew Clarke’s “‘ Sermons,” 
as he possibly may have done, but the interpretation of Clarke’s 
argument is Sumner’s and not his own. ‘The reference to Du 
Pin is probably to the English translation, but contains an error, 
which Poe apparently never corrected, presumably not recognising 
it as such. The name of the Anthropomorphite heretic was 
Audeus, not Andeus: Chateaubriand refers to him as Audeée. 2 
The Latin poem is taken from Milton’s “Silvarum Liber ’— 
“De Idea Platonica quemadmodum Aristoteles intellexit.’’ 
It would be interesting to know whether Poe quotes the lines 

from Milton from memory or with the text before him. The 
“ &e” is the prelude to an omission of five lines, of which three 
at least are relevant to the point he is trying to illustrate in his 
note. ‘The omitted passage reads :— 

Tuque, O noveni perbeata numinis 

Memoria mater, quaeque in immenso_ procul 

Antro recumbis, otiosa Aeternitas, 

Monumento servans, et ratas leges Jovis, 

Coelique fastos, atque ephemeridas Detm. 
Warton’s comment on these lines, and those cited by Poe, is :— 
“This is a sublime personification of Eternity. And there is 
great reach of imagination in one of the conceptions which 
follows, that the original archetype of Man may be a huge giant, 
stalking in some remote unknown region of the earth, and lifting 
his head so high as to be dreaded by the gods.” ? The “ &e.” 
may be taken as implying that Poe was relying on his memory, 
which failed him at this particular point, or it may mean nothing 


1 A / TREATISE / on / CHRIsTIAN DocTRINE / compiled from the 
Holy Scriptures alone / by / JoHNn Mitton. / Translated from the 
Original / by / Charles R. Sumner, M.A. / Librarian and Historio- 
grapher to His Majesty, / and Prebendary of Canterbury. / Printed 
at the Cambridge University Press by J. Smith, Printer to:the Univer- 
sity. 1825. 

* Hdn. cit. Tome IX., pp. 392. 

3 Warton. Quoted by Todd—The Poetical Works of John Maulton, 
Vol. VI. (London: MDCCCI.) pp. 329. 


20 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


of the kind. The only other suggestion that he had not the text 
before him is the use of the capital “‘C ” in “ caecitas ’?: T know 
of no edition of Milton in which the capital letter is used. 
_ The rest of the notes to the first part of “ Al Aaraaf”’ call for 
little comment. There is a citation from Goethe’s poem, “ Meine 
Gottin,’ in which the positive is used in place of the super- 
lative form of the adjective, “seltsamen” for “ seltsamsten.”’ 
The note runs :— 
1.114. By winged Fantasy. 
Fantasy. Seltsamen Tochter Jovis 
Seinem Schosskinde, 
Der Phantasie.—GOETHE. 

After a brief note quoting Legge as a justification for the use 
of “sightless ’ as the equivalent of “ too small to be seen,” there 
follows one which exemplifies Poe’s close observation of living 
creatures, so often utilised in his subsequent work. 


1. 145. Apart—tlike fire-fles in Sicilian night. I have often 
noticed a peculiar movement of the fire-fliles; —they 
will collect in a body, and fly off, from a common centre, 
into innumerable radii. 


But though this note probably embodies, as Poe claims, his own 
observations, Moore was sufficiently impressed, during his 
American visit, with the “idea of enchantment” which fire- 
flies gave him by “ the lively and varying illumination’ with 
which they lit up the woods at night, to write a short “‘ Ode to 
the Fire-Fly’’ included in the “ Epistles, Odes and Other 
Poems.’ But neither Poe’s observations nor Moore’s poem 
explain the introduction of the “ Sicilian night.” | 
1. 158. Her way, but left not yet her Theraseaean reign. Therasaea, 
or Therasea, the island mentioned by Seneca, which, in 
a moment, arose from the sea to the eyes of astonished 
mariners. 

The American edition of Lempriere, already referred to, con- 
tains an article on this island, contributed by Professor Anthon, 
which does not appear in the contemporary British editions. 
Anthon, however, does not use either of the alternatives given 
by Poe in his note, but writes Therasia—as do both Seneca and 
Pliny.1 Seneca’s mention of Therasia may be translated :— 

1 Seneca—Nat. Quaest. Lib. VI. 21, 1-2. 


C. Plinii Secundi—Nat. Hist. I1. 87 (89). 
Nat. Hist. 1V. 23. 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” Ml 


““Can anyone possibly doubt that There and Therasia, as well 
as the island which in our own day. and under our very eyes arose 
from the A‘gean sea, were borne up to the light by the force of 


air?”’ There is no mention, apparently, by either Pliny or 
Seneca, of the “eyes of astonished mariners?” Pliny merely 
records :—* Ex ea avolsa postea Therasia, atque inter duas 


enata mox Automate, eadem Hiera, et in nostro aevo Thia iuxta 
easdem enata.”’ Poe is apparently quoting from memory, and 
adding details which have originated with himself. His modi- 
fication of the island’s name has, however, at least served him 
usefully, furnishing him with an adjective which makes his verse 
scan. “‘ Therasaean’’ serves his purpose: “ Therasian’’ would 
not have done so. 

Poe’s first note to the second part of “‘ Al Aaraaf’’ comments 
upon the matter of two of his lines by reference to the opening 
of the seventh stanza of Milton’s Ode “ On the Death of a Fair 
Infant dying of a Cough.”’ 

11. 174-5. Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall 

Thro’ the ebon avr. 
Some star, which from the. ruin’d roof 
Of shaked Olympus, by mischance, did fall.— 
—MILTON. 
Here the punctuation appears to be Poe’s own, for the commas 
in the second line do not appear in any edition | know. Further, 
Milton wrote “ did’st’’ and not “ did.” 

The second note is as follows :— 

1. 194. Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis. Voltaire, in 
speaking of Persepolis, says, * Je connois bien V’admira- 
tion quinspirent ces ruines—mais un palais érigé 
au pied dune chaine de rochers stériles—peut-il etre 
un chef-doeuvre des arts ? 

Poe is quoting from the ‘‘ Essai sur les Moeurs,” Chapitre V. 
He has omitted a great deal, and his citation has errors which 
suggest very strongly—even prove—that he was depending 
upon his memory. The original is as follows :— 

“Si quelque reste des arts asiatiques mérite un peu notre 
curiosité, ce sont les ruines de Persépolis décrites, dans plusiers 
livres, et copiées dans plusiers estampes. Je sais quelle admira- 
tion inspirent ces masures échappées aux flambeaux dont 
Alexandre et la courtisane Thais mirent Persépolis en cendre. 


22 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


Mais était-ce un chef-d’oeuvre d’art, qu'un palais bati au pied 
d’une chaine de rochers arides ?”’ 

The long note which follows is one of those which led Wood- 
berry to point out Poe’s tendency to use material gathered at 
second hand for the purpose of making a specious parade of 
erudition. 

1. 196. Of beautiful Gomorrah! O, the wave. Ula Deguisi is the 

Turkish appellation ; but, on its own shores, it is called 
Bahar Loth, or Almotanah. There were undoubtedly 
more than two cities engulfed in the *‘ Dead Sea.’ In 
the valley of Siddim were five—Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, 
Sodom and Gomorrah. Stephen of Byzantium mentions 
eight, and Strabo thirteen (engulfed)—but the last is 
out of all reason. 

It is said (Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel of St. Saba, 
Nau, Maundrell, Troilo, D’Arvieux) that after an excessive 
drought, the vestiges of columns, walls, etce., are seen 
above the surface. At any season, such remains may 
be discovered by looking down into the transparent lake, 
and at such distances as would argue the existence of 
many settlements in the space now usurped by the 
* Asphaltites.’ 

The source of all this material is Chateaubriand’s “‘Itinéraire 
de Paris a Jerusalem.” The relevant passages are as follows :— 

‘““ Le lac fameux qui occupe | emplacement de Sodome et de 
Gomorrhe est nommé mer Morte ou mer Salée dans I’ Kcriture, 
Asphaltite par les Grecs et les Latins, Almontanah et Bahar-Loth 
par les Arabes, Ula-Degnist par les Turcs! . . . .Strabon parle 
de treize villes englouties dans le lac Asphaltite; Etienne de 
Byzance en compte huit ; la Genése en place cing in valle silvestri : 
Sodome, Gomorrhe, Adam, Seboim et Bala ou Segor, mais elle 
ne marque que les deux premieres comme détruites par la colere 
de Dieu; le Deutéronome en cite quatre : Sodome, Gomorrhe, 
Adam et Seboim ; la Sagesse en compte cing sans les désigner : 
Descendente igne in Pentapolin . .. Plusiers voyageurs, entre 
autres Troilo et D’ Arvieux, disent avoir remarqué des débris de 
murailles et de palais dans les eaux de la mer Morte. Ce rapport 
semble confirmé par Maundrell et par le pére Nau. Les anciens 
sont plus positifs a ce sujet : Josephe, qui se sert d’une expression 
poétique, dit qu’on apercevoit au bord du lac les ombres des cités 
détruites. Strabon donne soixante stades de tour aux ruines de 


1 Note that Poe has substituted “ Deguis:’’ for “* Degnisv.”’ 


POE’S NOTES TO * AL AARAAF ” 23 


Sodome; Tacite parle de ces débris: je ne sais s’ils existent 
encore, je ne les ai point vus; mais comme le lac s’éleve ou se 
retire selon les saisons, il peut cacher ou découvrir tour a tour les 
squelettes des villes reprouvees.”’ 4 

The same work of Chateaubriand is borrowed from once more 
for the material of the note 

1. 373. Was a proud temple call’d the Parthenon. It was entire 

in 1687—the most elevated spot in Athens. 

'This note is made up of two passages viz :—‘ Le Parthénon 
subsista dans son entier jusqu’en 1687.’’? and “ Enfin, sur le 
point le plus éminent de LTAcropolis s’éleve le temple de 
Minerve.”’ 3 

In his note to 


1. 200. That stole upon the ear, in EHyraco. Eryaco—Chaldea. 


Poe is evidently making use of a word derived from a form of the 
Arabic “Al Iraq,” the name of the country which corresponds 
to the Biblical Mesopotamia. It is the subject of an article by 
Anthon (under the heading “ Mesopotamia ’’) which does not 
appear in the contemporary British editions of Lempriere. 
Anthon states, at the end, “the lower part of Mesopotamia is 
now Irak Arabi.” D’Herbelot * has a long article under the 
heading “ Erac et Irac,’”’ and mentions that some writers speak 
of “ Erac Babeli”’ or ‘‘1’Iraque Babylonienne ”’ to establish a 
distinction from the Persian Iraq; thus linking up “ Iraq’”’ with 
“Babylon ” and so with the land in which astrology originated 
—the science of the “ wild star-gazer ’’ mentioned in line 201 
of “ Al Aaraaf.” ‘There is, however, a passage in the Preliminary 
Discourse of Sale to his translation of the Koran which reads :— 
“The other kingdom was that of Hira, which was founded by 
Malek of the descendants of Cahlan in Chaldea or Irak.” It 
seems clear enough that Poe’s “ Eyraco” is derived from Iraq, 
and that it probably originated with Poe himself. I have not 
been able to discover that another author has used the word. 
Iraq or Irak would be pronounced by most English-speaking 
1 Chateaubriand—LHdn. cit.—Tome V.—pp. 256-6. 


2 Chateaubriand—Itinéraire de. Paris a Jerusalem.—Edn. cit., 


pp- 191. 
mewlood. op. 187. 
4 D’Herbelot—op. cit. 


24 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 


¢ 


people, ignorant of Arabic, as “ eye-rack”’ ... and the termina- 
tion “‘-o” is a likely addition, at some time after the word has 
been seen or heard, should occasion arise for including it in a poem 
where it should rhyme with “a-go.” I feel, in the absence of 
evidence to the contrary, that Poe coined the word himself, 
using as the basis of his invention the word “ Iraq”; though 
whether he derived this originally from D’ Herbelot, Anthon or 


Sale, I cannot say. 
Poe’s note :— 


1. 205. Is not ws form—its voice—most palpable and loud? I 
have often thought I could distinctly hear the sound of 
the darkness as it stole over the horizon. 


takes the form of a personal confession, interesting in view of 
much of Poe’s later work. The darkness Poe speaks of is dissi- 
pated in the poem by the return of Nesace and her attendants, 
and the scene changes to something which has the character of 
a midsummer night’s dream ; to something which, at all events, 
calls up a reminiscence of the fairy scene with which the comedy 
of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor” terminates. The note on 
this part of the poem is :— 
1. 218. Young flowers were whispering in: melody. Fairies use 
flowers for their charactery.—Merry Wives of Windsor. 
The next note includes a scriptural text, whose wording, as 
given by Poe, differs from that of the Authorised version of 
Psalm CX XI, verse 6 . . “ The sun shall not smite thee by day, 
nor the moon by night’’ Poe uses the word “ harm ”’ in place of 
‘“ smite.” His complete note runs: 
1. 229. The moonbeam away. In Scripture is this passage— 
‘The sun shall not harm’ thee by day, nor the moon 
by night.’ It is perhaps not generally known that the 
moon, in Egypt, has the effect of producing blindness 
to those who sleep with the face exposed to its rays, to 
which circumstance the passage evidently alludes. 
The close association between the scriptural text and the alleged 
power of the moon to produce blindness, which evidently exists 
in Poe’s mind, suggests that it is possible that he obtained this 
“not generally known ” information from an annotated Bible or 
a biblical commentary. The older commentaries such as those 


Le NGt Vie SCs ay 


POE’S NOTES TO * AL AARAAF ” 25 


of Calvin and Matthew Henry, link nocturnal danger with the 
“night air,” rather than with the moon itself.1 Later editions of 
Matthew Henry’s commentary, with additions by Scott, insert an 
account of the alleged actual effect of the moon in inducing blind- 
ness, attributed to Carne. John Carne, in “ Letters from the 
Kast ” (1826) writes :—‘ The effect of the moonlight on the eyes 
in this country is singularly injurious . . The moon here really 
strikes and affects the sight, when you sleep exposed to it, much 
more than the sun, a fact of which I had a very unpleasant proof 
one night, and took care to guard against it afterwards; indeed, 
the sight of a person who should sleep with his face exposed at 
night would soon be utterly impaired or destroyed.’ 
For the matter of his next note, viz., 


1. 265. Like the lone albatross. The albatross is said to sleep 
on the wing. 


Poe has returned to Moore, who appends to his lines :-— 


A ruin’d temple tower’d, so high 

That oft the sleeping albatross 
Struck the wid ruins with her wing, 
And from her cloud-rock’d slumbering 
Stanbeduyr wh. Le % 


the footnote—" These birds sleep in the air. They are most 
common about the Cape of Good Hope.” ? 


I have not been able to trace the source of the belief to which 
Poe refers in his next note :— 


1. 299. Have slept with the bee. The wild bee will not sleep in 
the shade if there be moonlight. 


The rhyme in this verse, as in one about sixty lines before, 

has an appearance of affectation. It is, however, imitated 

' from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claude Halcro—in whose 
mouth I admired its effect: 


Oi 2. . the moon, the governess of floods, 
Pale in her anger, washes all the air, 
That rheumatic diseases do abound.”’ 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Se. 1. 
2 Carne—“ Letters from the Hast.” Carne left England with the 
- intention of travelling to the Holy Land in March, 1821. He visited 
Constantinople, Greece, the Levant and Palestine. He sent accounts 
of his travels to the New Montly Magazine for serial publication. 
Afterwards they were republished (1826) in a volume dedicated to 
Sir Walter Scott. Poe may have seen the account of moonlight in 
Egypt either in the New Monthly Magazine or in this volume. 
3 Moore—Lalla Rookh—The fFure-Worshippers. 


26 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


‘“Oh! were there an island 
Though ever so wild, 
Where woman might smile, and 
No man be beguiled,’ ete. 


Scott consistently spells the name of the hero of “ The Pirate” 
as Claud, and not as Claude. Poe has taken his extract from the 
song in the twelfth chapter of the novel; and the second half 
of the final stanza (which Poe omits) has a very close bearing on 
the subject matter of “ Al Aaraaf.” 


Too tempting a snare 
To poor mortals were given, 
And the hope would . fix there, 
That should anchor on heaven. 


Poe’s next note seems to be largely his own composition, based 
on the accounts of “ Al Aaraaf”’. or “ Al Araf”’ given by Sale. 
But he has included in it a fragment of a poem by Luis Ponce de 
Leon. 


1. 331. Apart from Heaven's Hternity—and yet how far from Heli ! 
With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven 
and Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do 
not attain that tranquil and even happiness which they 
suppose to be characteristic of heavenly enjoyment. 


Un no rompido sueno— 

Un dia puro—allegre—hbre— 

Quiero :— 

Libre de amor—de zelo— 

De odio—de esperanza—de rezelo.—— 
Luis PoncE DE LEON. 


Sorrow is not excluded from ‘ Al Aaraf,’ but it is that 
sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and 
which, in some minds, resembles the dehrium of opium. The 
passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spirit 
attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures— 
the price of which, to those souls who make choice of ‘ Al 
Aaraaf’ as their residence after life, is final death and 
annihilation. 


Poe’s equation of the ‘delirium of opium’ with the ‘ sorrow 
which the living love to cherish for the dead ’ is interesting, and 
is probably of importance for the study of his theory of poetry, 
and his belief in the relation of beauty and melancholy. Curiously 
enough, he gives no indication in his notes that he is aware of a 
special class of persons, in like case with himself, who were ad- 
mitted to the Muslim purgatory, viz., those who had gone to war 
without the consent of their parents: denied Heaven because of 


POE’S NOTES TO “AL AARAAF ” 27 


their disobedience, they could not be condemned to Hell because 
they were martyrs! It is true that Poe did not actually go to 
war, yet he had nevertheless enlisted in the army, and would 
certainly have been liable for active service had war broken out 
at the time, and he had enlisted without the knowledge or 
consent of his foster-parents. It is very likely that he knew 
all this very well and his failure to mention it is part of his sup- 
pression of the fact that he had ever served as a private soldier 
and a non-commissioned officer. 

The passage from De Leon is very badly misquoted. An 
entire group of lines has been omitted. Words are mis-spelt. 
The lines are badly broken up and punctuated incorrectly. The 
extent to which Poe’s memory has played tricks on him will be 
seen by comparing the citation with the original :— 


Un no rompido sueno, 

Un dia puro, alegre y libre quiero: 

No quiero ver el ceno 

Vanamente severo 

De a quien la sangre ensalza 6 el dinero 
Despiertenme las aves 

Con su cantar suave no aprendido, 

No los cuidados graves 

De que es siempre seguido 

Quien al ageno arbitrio esta atenido. 
Vivir quiero conmigo, 

Gozar quiero del bien que debo al cielo, 

A solas sin testigo, 

Libre de amor, de celo, 

De odio, de esperanza, de recelo.! 


This poem is itself based on Horace’s Ode—* Beatus alle qua 
procul negotws,’ possibly well known to Poe in the Latin 
original. 


Milton’s “‘ Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester ” gives 
Poe the matter for his note :— 


1. 339. Unguided Love hath fallen—’mid ‘tears of perfect moan.’ 
There be tears of perfect moan 
Wept for thee in Helicon.—MILTON.? 


Milton, however, wrote ‘ here’ and not ‘ there.’ 


1 Luis Ponce de Leén—Oda en alabanza de la vida rustica. 
2 Milton—LHpitaph on the Marchioness of Wvrnchester, 11. 55-6. 


28 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


For the note :— 


1. 375. Than ev’n thy glowing bosom beats withal. 
Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows 
Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love.— 
Martow.! 


Poe has borrowed from Valdes’ speech to Faustus describing the 
spirits of the elements who are to be at the service of the three 
friends through success in the practice of magic. 

The final note on ‘ Al Araaf”’ is merely an explanation of a 
single word in one of the lines :— 


1. 390. Fail’d, as my wpennon’d spirit leapt aloft. Pennon— 
for pinion.—MILTON. 


the reference being to a note by Newton, reprinted in Todd’s 
edition of Milton’s Works, on the lines :— 


RANGA tia age ePN EMCEE ct All unawares 
Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops 
Ten thousand fathom deep..... 2 


Newton’s note reads :— 

Ver. 933.—pennons. This word is vulgarly spent pinions, 
and so Dr. Bentley has printed it; but the author spells it 
pennons, after the Latin penna.® 

The examination of the sources of the notes to “ Al Aaraaf”’ 
therefore proves no such wide and intensive reading as has been 
attributed to Poe by many of those who have written about him. 
~The notes tell us that Poe read not only the works of his 
favourite poets, such as Moore, but that he read their annota- 
tions carefully. They give us evidence, through slips and errors, 
that Poe trusted to his memory a great deal more than he 
should have done, unless, indeed, he found himself compelled to 
do so because books were not accessible to him. 

There is one note, however, which adheres too accurately to 
the original text to allow us to believe that Poe relied upon his 
memory alone in relation to it. This is the reproduction of the 
passage from Sumner’s translation of Milton’s Christian Doctrine. 
This work was published in London in 1825. The circumstances — 
of its discovery were romantic enough to create an unusual 
interest in the work on the part of the general public; and the 


1 Marlowe—The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus. 

2 Milton—Paradise Lost, Bk. II., ll. 932-4. 

3 The Poetical Works of John Milton—Henry John Todd—in Six 
Volumes (London: 1801). Vol. II., p. 162. 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 29 


great Puritan’s exposition of Christian Doctrine, based on the 
Holy Scriptures and on no other authority, would be eagerly 
examined and discussed by a great many people in the United 
States. When and where had Poe an opportunity, at the time 
when we may suppose him to have been writing “ Al Aaraaf,” 
for an examination of this work? An answer should be possible. 

Chateaubriand’s “Itinéraire” and SBernardin de Saint- 
Pierre’s “‘ Etude de la Nature ’”’ were very likely read by Poe 
in the original, either whilst he was working at the University of 
Virginia or before he entered. It is possible that he made transla- 
tions of them as school exercises. Perhaps the same thing is 
true of his highly inaccurate citation of Voltaire, which was not 
taken from the one work of that author which we know was 
borrowed from the university library. There is at least the 
suggestion that he remembered something of Seneca through 
studying him asa school author ; and it is possible that either he 
was set to translate the Latin verses of Milton, or was sufficiently 
interested at attempt to discover their meaning for himself. 

Una Pope-Hennessey has recently pointed out the similarity 
of passages of “ Al Aaraaf’’ which are “reminiscent of Paradise 
Lost’’.1 Poe had mastered not only the matter of Milton and 
the foot-notes of his commentators but had caught something 
of his music as well. 

It is interesting to attempt to discover exactly the range of 
Poe’s interest at the time when these notes were compiled. He 
remembers the scene of Sappho’s suicide, as described in a note 
of Moore’s: he has remembered lines from two of Milton’s odes 

upon dead persons. He has recalled lines written by Goethe to 
“his goddess—Fantasy. He has carried in his mind details of 
antique loveliness, the labours of the “heathen ”’ which have been 
visited by decay or sudden destruction. He has mentally noted, 
sometimes with meticulous care, the rare and curious flowers 
which his authors have mentioned in their works; and these 
have interested him more than bizarre costumes or strange 
manners—Kashmir is forgotten and Nyctanthes remembered. 

He might have made this paradise of “ Al Aaraaf” in the 

fashion of the city which spread itself before the eyes of Lalla 


- 1 Una Pope-Hennessey—EHdgar Allan Poe: a Critical Biography 
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 1934). p. 92. 


30 POE’S NOTES TO * AL AARAAF ” 


Rookh when she reached her journey’s end, as, indeed, he did 
some years after, when he wrote “The Domain of Arnheim.” 
Instead he makes use of “ Parian marble,’ ‘Greek columns,” 
‘“ Achaian statues,” “‘friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis” ; 
planting the “ glory that was Greece’ in the midst of a garden 
of exotics. Men and women interest him hardly at all. He con- 
fesses to Ianthe, speaking in his role of Angelo, that the Parthenon 
seems to him more beautiful than she; and his flight through 
space shows him the garden of the globe and the tenantless cities 
of the desert. | 

Hervey Allen has commented upon the careful observation of 
the insects near Fort Moultrie which enabled Poe at a later period 
to fuse together two beetles into the scarab whose part in “ The 
Gold Bug’’ is so important. There is evidence in the notes to 
“Al Aaraaf”’ of the extraordinary interest in the behaviour of 
bees, the flight of fireflies, and the habits of the albatross—all of 
extreme importance when considered in relation to the apparent 
indifference to men and women. He is interested in the power of 
moonbeams to produce blindness—much more, to all seeming, 
than in the people who live beneath the Egyptian moon. 

Religious speculation was obviously interesting to Poe, as to 
most young men. ‘The poem itself suggests that he had speculated 
a good deal about heaven, hell and purgatory, and his repudiation 
- of heaven in favour of a purgatory opens up a whole range of 
probable reasons for his choice. He may have considered that 
the heaven described by the church he attended did not accord 
with his desires, or he may have particularly wished to avoid the 
company of people who were assured that this heaven was their 
certain destination—John Allan, amongst others. Since, too, 
this paradise of his was to be created for two lovers, he may 
have felt that the Christian exclusion of marrying and giving in 
marriage from heaven made necessary a domain whose interests 
were less abstract and spiritual. It is at least interesting to dis- 
cover that Poe was reading, as far as opportunity allowed him, 
about other religions than Christianity. Later, in a story which 
makes use of the knowledge of the country about Charlottesville 1 
which Poe gained whilst an undergraduate of the University of 
Virginia, he was to dabble with the theme of metempsychosis, 


tie. A Tale of the Ragged Mountains. 


POE’S NOTES TO “AL AARAAF ” 31 


which is the subject of a chapter in Voltaire’s “‘ Histoires Parti- 
culieres ’—a book which we know him to have borrowed from 
the university library. He was interested, too, in Islam, though 
how much he took directly from Sale’s translation of the Koran 
we do not know.! 

A point which is worth mentioning, particularly in connection 
with a man so given to word-play as we know Poe to have been, 
is the name he assumed for purposes of enlistment. It is common 
with people who change their names for some reason or other 
(Coleridge is an instance) to select an alias whose initials are the 
same as those of their true name. Edgar A. Poe became Edgar 
A. Perry. Obviously “ Perry’ was but one of a multitude of 
names which might have been used; and we are compelled, if 
we accept psychic determinism, to assume that there were reasons 
(even if not known to the consciousness of Poe) which made Perry 
more appropriate than any alternative. We know that Poe was 
familiar with ‘‘ Lalla Rookh”’ ; and we think of the “ peri’ who 
vainly sought to enter Paradise, from which she was excluded 
till she could bring to “ the Eternal gate the Gift that is most dear 
to Heaven.” She brings in vain the last drop of blood shed by 
a youthful patriot soldier, and the sigh of a maiden who expires 
on the body of her dead lover. Paradise opens to her when she 
brings the tear of a repentant sinner. To what extent has Poe, 
wittingly or unwittingly, identified himself with the “peri ?”’ 
Clinical analyses have made us familiar with such mechanisms 
in a very great number of cases. We can prove nothing: but 
we can entertain the possibility. 

The ‘“ paradise’ at Richmond, the home of John Allan, from 
which Poe was excluded—until, as he believed, he should be willing 
to become properly humble and repentant—had played a very 
important part in his earlier life. He had been admitted to it 
as a sequel to the death of a woman, his mother. This death 
is a pattern which was to be repeated over and over again in the 
course of his life. Mrs. David Poe, Mrs. Stannard, Mrs. Frances 
Keeling Allan, and Virginia Poe make up a sequence of beautiful 
women whose deaths deprived him of something necessary to 
1 As Woodberry has pointed out, the epigraph to “ Israfel”’ was 

taken, not from the Koran, but from a footnote of Moore’s to “‘ Lalla 


Rookh.” Moore borrowed it from Sale’s “ Preliminary Discourse,”’ 
and Poe fused his recollection with a line from Beranger’s “ Le Refus.”’ 


32 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 


him. But, if the death of Mrs. David Poe removed him from 
miserable rooms in the upper premises of a Richmond shop to 
the comparative luxury of John Allan’s home, the death of 
Mrs. Allan cut him off from all likelihood of returning to that 
home. Further, situations had developed which made the Allan 
home very different to the Edgar Poe of 1829 from what it had 
been to the little orphan of 1811. The ratio of the child of 
under three to the young man, inexpressible by mere numbers, 
is nevertheless expressed in the ratio of Allan’s Richmond house 
to the star-world of “ Al Aaraaf.’’ We have the “ current 
situation,’ of great emotional significance, and the comparable 
“infantile situation,’ in which a comparable problem was 
solved—-the conditions, in brief, of dreaming. The materials for 
this dream; as I believe we may consider “‘ Al Aaraaf” to be, are 
memories recalled in connection with the settings of the event, 
or recalled in connection with it. 

It must be remembered that the news of Mrs. Allan’s death 
came to him with a suddenness which is in strong contrast with 
the lingering death of Poe’s wife, nearly twenty years later. Again 
and again, over a period of years, Poe had reason to believe that 
he was sharing his wife’s last moments. In the case of Mrs. 
Allan, however, Poe knew nothing during a separation of two 
years until the moment at which he received the urgent summons 
to her death-bed. He obtained leave from his duties at Fortress 
Monroe, hastened home by the stage from Norfolk, only to reach 
Richmond on the evening of the day on which the woman who 
had been more than mother to him was buried. 

This appears to have been the crisis in which “Al Aaraaf”’ had 
its birth. The poem deals with a situation in very much the same 
way as a dream deals with lesser situations in the case of men who 
are not poets. If it be confused, it is because Poe was not able 
to meet adequately so oyery Holmning a blow. Its lack of unity 
is due to the fact of the man’s own bewilderment. 

Again, it is not by chance that the young lover in Al Aaron 
bears the name of “ Angelo.” It is necessary only to read The 
Assignation (entitled in the first instance T7'he Visionary) to 
realise how deeply Poe had been impressed, probably when study- 
ing Italian in the University of Virginia, with the Orfeo of Angelo 
Poliziano (or Politian). Later, he was to attempt a poetic drama 


POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF” 33 


bearing the title Polituan, and there is general agreement that 
the principal figure is himself. Be this as it may, the narrator 
of the story of Orpheus, attempting to bring the dead Eurydice 
back from Hades by the charm of his music, made a powerful 
impression upon Poe. He speaks, in The Assignation, of a 
passage of the tragedy which “‘no man shall read without a 
thrill of novel emotion, no woman without a sigh.” John Adding- 
ton Symonds, in the comments he appends to his criticism of 
‘“ Orfeo’ speaks less highly of the work, and indeed it would 
appear that the appeal of the poem to Poe depends upon his own 
personal reaction to it—a reaction determined by purely personal 
experiences. His own aspirations to become a lyrical poet, his 
own loss of a beloved woman through the death of Frances Allan, 
explain the intensity of meaning which Poliziano’s poem assumed 
for him. Poe had suffered as Orpheus has suffered: he would 
tell the story of the tragedy as the first Italian writer of tragedies 
had told it. So he assumes the name of Angelo in Al Aaraaf. 

The study of the notes to “ Al Aaraaf”’ is merely the investi- 
gation of the means which Poe had at his disposal for writing the 
poem, and no more explains the work than the discovery of the 
quarries from which the marbles were taken explains a cathedral. 
It has, however, its place and its importance. It is an essential 
preliminary to any attempt to understand fully the poem and the 
poet. The poem itself has been neglected and ignored, though, 
as more than one commentator has emphasised, it contains lovely 
lines—some of them perhaps the most lovely written up to Poe’s 
time by any American poet. Yet, if the thesis maintained here 
be a correct one, there is a stronger reason for a detailed in- 
vestigation of “ Al Aaraaf”’ than the charm of any of its lines— 
it is the inner document of a crisis in Poe’s development. It 
sharply separates the man of “ Helen” and “Tamerlane” from 
the man of the “ Tales.” It looks back: it looks forward. 

Meanwhile, it is possible to see in it a lovely memorial to the 
woman who, through pity for an orphan, reared a poet; taking 
him from a Richmond garret and giving him to the world. In 
Allan’s family grave at Shockoe Hill Cemetery a stone bears this 


1 John Addington Symonds—WSkeiches and Studies in Italy and 
_ Greece—Second Series—New Edition (London: Smith, Elder and 
Co. 1898). pp. 345 et seg. 


34 POE’S NOTES TO “ AL AARAAF ” 


inscription :— 
Sacred 
to the Memory of 


FRANCES KEELING ALLAN 


how departed 
this transitory life 
on the Morning of the 28th of 
February, 1829. 


This Monument is erected by 
JOHN ALLAN, her Husband, 
in testimony of his gratitude for her 
unabated affection to him, 
her zeal to discharge her domestic duties, 
and the fervour she manifested, both by 
precept and example, 
in persuading all to trust in the 
promises of the Gospel. 


This was all that the Richmond merchant could do. It was 
left for the young sergeant-major, posting back to the detested 
barracks, to build, from recollections of the dead woman and the 
throngs of apparently irrelevant memories that crowded his 
brain, her imperishable cenotaph. 


GEORGE H. GREEN. 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF THE POETRY OF DAFYDD 
AP GWILYM—PENIARTH MS. 48. 


On reviewing what has been written on the poetry of Dafydd 
ap Gwilym since the issue of the first printed edition of 1789, it 
is clear that even the modest plan of the editors of that edition 
has not yet been fulfilled. Owen Jones, in his Welsh preface 
(p. xli) tells us that it was the editors’ original plan to publish 
all the variant readings found in the MSS of Dafydd’s poetry, but 
that when they saw how numerous the variants were, they had 
to modify that ideal, and rest content with choosing what seemed 
to them to be the best reading and drop all the variants, though 
they were conscious all the while that they had probably fallen 
into frequent errors. That is the editors’ description of how the 
printed text was compiled. If the student compares No. IV. 
below with No. CLIX in the edition of 1789 he will realise what 
that may mean. But, even so, they tell us that their edition 
contained little more than half the poems attributed to the Poet, 
though Mr. G. J. Williams (Lolo Morgannwg p.1.) calls it a 
‘“ complete collection.”’ 

Since then, however, the Guild of Graduates and the Board of 
Celtic Studies of the University of Wales have between them 
published the text of four or five MSS., each of which contains 
some poems by our Poet, but it is only the bare text in every case. 

Professor [for Williams also published a text of sixty-four of 
his poems with a few variant readings in his Cywyddau D. ap 
Gwilym ai Gyfoeswyr in 1914, reprinted in his Detholion o 
Gywyddau Dafydd ap Gwilym in 1921. Since Dr. Williams says, 
or implies, in his Doctorate Thesis (Trans. Cymmrod, 1913-14., 
pp. 84, 174 note) as well as in his Cywyddau and Detholion, that 
the text he provides there had been compared with, and corrected 
from the oldest MSS., students have come to assume that this 
text of sixty-four poems can be used for critical purposes. Dr. 
Williams, however, tells us that that text has been written in 
modern orthography as far as he could do that without doing 
violence to the original, or what appeared to be the original, 

35 


36 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


rhyme and assonance. That of itself should have put the student 
on his guard and it really emphasizes the need of constant reference 
to the original MSS. In addition, this oldest MS. contains I 
think six poems not found in Dr. Williams’ collection. 

Dafydd ap Gwilym’s Cywyddau are said to be the earliest known 
poems in the Cywydd metre as employed by him ; and before one 
can be sure that no wrong has been done to this metre in modern- 
ising the text, one must first of all have as basis a text as reliable 
as an exhaustive study of all the available MS. sources can make it. 

I am aware that Sir J. Morris-Jones has dealt at length with 
this Cywydd metre in his Cerdd Dafod (pp. 143 sqq.), but as is 
clear, and as Sir John himself says on p. vil. he depended to a 
large extent for his basic material on this modernised text of Dr. 
Williams. He himself made no effort to provide a true text from 
which to evolve his metrical rules, and thus one can only accept 
the Cywydd rules in Cerdd Dafod as of doubtful validity. 

Many of the grammatical and orthographical rules evolved 
from Dafydd’s poetry are based upon still flimsier grounds. The 
late Sir Ed. Anwyl wrote a series of articles on the rules or 
standards of D. ap Gwilym (Safonau D. ap Gwilym; Geninen, 
1907, pp. 15-19; 129-132; 207-9; 282-6), but he not only made 
no attempt to provide a sound text, but, as he says on p. 15, he 
reduced the text of the old printed edition into modern ortho- 
graphy. He even justifies this by saying that though the ortho- 
graphy of the poet varied widely from that of modern Welsh, 
nevertheless the sounds had, on the whole, the same value as the 
letters of our time. It stands to reason, however, that until a 
text has been provided, such metrical or orthographical rules can 
not be accepted with any confidence. | 

Prof. W. J. Gruffydd says (Encycl. Brit. § Welsh Literature 
p. 507) that Dafydd’s most important advance was in poetic 
diction, that he had discarded altogether the conventional and 
archaic language of earlier Welsh poetry and wrote in the 
ordinary language of educated Welshmen of his time. Dafydd’s 
vocabulary, however, has never been studied as a whole as far as 
I am aware, yet far-reaching conclusions have been drawn from 
isolated words found in some texts which were in some instances 
only copies of modern copies of modern manuscripts. 

Professor [for Williams (Cywyddau D. ap Gwilym p. 83) reports 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 37 


that there is in Bangor a copy in Owain Myfyr’s hand [i.e., one of 
the editors of the 1789 edition] “ of all the works of Dafydd ap 
Gwilym found in the MSS of Lewis Morris and William Morris, 
together with additions from several other old books copied in 
London in the year 1768.” He adds that in that Bangor MS. 
there is not a copy of asingle poem published in the “Appendix ”’ 
of the 1789 edition. This statement is reprinted verbatim in 
Detholion p. {lu) XXXIV, and important conclusions are based 
upon this. 

Sir J. Morris-Jones (Cerdd Dafod p. 250 note 1) makes im- 
portant use of this note and says that this paragraph of Dr. 
Williams’ was the first uncovering of the perfidy of Iolo 
Morgannwg in the matter of the poems printed in the “ Appendix”’ 
to the 1789 edition. He accepts Dr. Williams’ statement as a 
true basis for the imputation and employs it vigorously. 

If the student turns to the Report on British Museum Add. 
MS. 14,870 (No. 53) and reads Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans’ report 
on it on p. 1144, he will find that, according to Dr. Evans, this 
Brit. Mus. MS. formed apparently the basis of the published 
edition of 1789. On the title-page of this MS. is written : “ This 
collection was made by me Lewis Morris about the year 1748 ”’ 
1.e. it is twenty years older than the Bangor MS. Mr. G. J. 
Williams in Jolo Morgannwg p. 1. says that the basis of the 1789 
edition was B. Mus. MS. 14,932 but that is immaterial to our 
argument here. Dr. Evans thought that only a small part of the 
B. Mus. MS. 14,870 was written in Lewis Morris’ hand, and 
Dr. Ifor Williams does not explain whether the Bangor MS. is 
a copy of the 6. Mus. MS. or not. If it is a true copy, then the 
above statement about the “ Appendix ’”’ poems should be 
modified, for the 6. Mus. MS. does contain at least one poem 
found in the “ Appendix.” If it is not a true copy, then it 
appears misleading to use it as a criterion by which to judge the 
‘““ Appendix ”’ poems insomuch as the older Lewis Morris MS. is 
definitely against this. In any case the Bangor MS. appears to 
be only a copy made in 1768 of a copy made about 1748, and 
that should have been made clear. 

Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans’ report on MS. 14,870 does not specify 
- which of the poems of that MS. are written in Lewis Morris’ hand, 
but Dr. H. I. Bell, the keeper of the MSS. in the B. Museum, 


38 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


tells me that the “ Appendix” poem “ Y Bilain a fabolaeth in 
that MS. is in Lewis Morris’ hand. 

Dr. Ifor Williams Dethohon D. ap Gwilym p.[L|XXXIV 
refers to B. Mus. MS. 53 as containing one of the “Appendix” 
poems, but assumes, presumably, that it is not in the hand of 
Lewis or William Morris, otherwise it destroys his argument. 

Unfortunately one cannot well avoid drawing attention to the 
above statements, for I find my own students using them as well 
established facts, and as a standard by which to judge the work 
of others. 

I have not referred above to Dr. Sterne’s important article on 
D. ap Gwilym’s poetry in ZfcP. Vol. vii, for he deals in general 
with the substance of the poetry, and he depends upon the 
printed text. Likewise Dr. Chotzen in his study of the poet, he 
also depends upon printed texts, though he was within easy reach 
of the oldest and best MSS. 

The need for a sound text as a basis for a better knowledge of 
the matter, metre, and diction of the poet is self-evident, and it 
has often been pointed out. Mr. J. D. Lester, of Wellington 
College, Wokingham, who had learnt Welsh in order to under- 
stand D. ap Gwilym’s poetry, wrote to Mr. Wynne, Peniarth, on 
May 3, 1874: “I am profoundly interested in all that concerns 
Datydd ab Gwilym’ 73-2... A correct and well-known text of 
his polite lyrics would probably do more to elevate the tone of the 
literature of the Principality than anything else.” 

The concluding paragraph of Prof. E. B. Cowell in his pioneer 
lecture on the poetry of Dafydd, before the London Society of 
Cymmrodorion on May 29, 1878 will carry more conviction. He 
said : 

“It is surely incumbent on them [the Scholars of Wales] to 
prepare a critical.edition of Ab Gwilym’s works. The two editions 
which we have are not edited with any critical care; and a 
scholarly edition of the text, with the various readings of the 
oldest MSS. would be indeed prized by all who are interested in 
medizval Welsh literature. Ab Gwilym abounds with hard 
passages and obscure allusions ; but the best of all commentaries 
is a carefully edited text ; for every student knows, to his cost, 
what it is to spend his strength uselessly in attempting to solve 
some enigma which at last turns out to be no dark saying of the 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 39 


_ poet, but some dull blunder of a scribe!’ Dr. Idris Bell supports 
Dr. Cowell’s plea in Library 1909. p. 44. 

Cowell, a great friend and helper of Edward Fitzgerald and 
the teacher of Strachan—whose scholarship according to Strachan 
was only equalled by his modesty—had clearly a high opinion of 
Ap Gwilym’s poetry, and he leads one to think that he considered 
Dafydd a greater poet than any of the Troubadours. 

When Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans sent out about 1887 the original 
circular letter soliciting subscribers to the “ Old Welsh Texts 
edited and revised by John Rhys, M.A.” D. ap Gwilym is not 
included in that projected series; but when Dr. Evans sent out 
his own programme of “ Welsh Classics for the People”’ in 1888 to 
be edited by himself, the complete works of D. ap Gwilym are 
included. 

Dr. Evans transcribed the poems of Dafydd from time to time, 
copying what appeared to him at the time the best texts, and 
filling in the variant readings systematically in prepared wide 
margins. We know that he had transcribed Peniarth MSS. 48 
and 49 in 1888, 1890, and we find him busy transcribing Dafydd’s 
poetry in 1893-7. As he told me a short while before he passed 
away, he thought he had lent his transcript of Pen. MS. 48 to 
Sir J. Morris-Jones, but he did not feel disposed at that time 
to ask for its return. He handed all his other transcripts of 
Dafydd’s works over to me, to add to those that I myself had 
been making as opportunity occurred, and he advised me to 
write for his transcript of MS. 48 if I survived him. [I have, 
however, not been able to trace that transcript, but I can find 
no evidence in Sir John’s writings that he had made any use 
of it. 

As parts of MS. 48 are somewhat difficult to read, I realise keen- 
ly the loss of that transcript, for Dr. Evans had copied it when 
his eyesight was at its best. Jam afraid that students infer from 
the preface to Llawysgrif Hendregadredd p. xiii that Dr. Evans’ 
latter work “‘ was not nearly so careful and trustworthy as his 
customary work.” It should be explained in justice to Dr. 
Evans that that statement appears to imply two misconceptions : 
(a) that Sir J. Morris-Jones’ text is correct and diplomatically 
reproduced (5) that Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans attempted to publish 
a similar text of the same MS. When the student notices the 


40 THE OLEEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


peculiar 7 and w of the MS. reproduced in Sir John’s printed 
text, he probably assumes that Sir John had done here what 
Dr. Evans had done in his earlier work ; but if Sir John’s printed 
text is compared with the MS. it will be seen that the peculiarities 
of the original are reproduced only in a very haphazard way, for 
no notice is made of the hgatured J or the old dotted y, and the 
hyphen and points as well as the » and w are edited in a way even 
the trained student finds difficult to follow, while some conjec- 
tured letters are printed as if they were in the MS with nothing 
to warn the student of that. Dr. Evans announced his volume 
as already edited in 1910 before the Hendregadredd MS. was 
available, and it is clear from his Prefaratory note to Poetry Vol. 
II. that he had edited his published text from the Hendregadredd 
MS. as well as from Dr. John Davies’ copy of it which he had 
used for the edition announced in 1910. 

The Peniarth MS. 48 which is printed below appears to be the 
oldest known MS of the poetry of D. ap Gwilym, and, as far as I 
am aware, it has never been published. 

According to a note by Mr. Wynne of Peniarth which is attached 
to the MS. this MS. was long supposed to have been written by 
Dafydd himself. One of the reasons given for this was that 
the poems here bear the subscription D dd., or Ddd ap G., and it 
was assumed that if these poems had been copied by a scribe, 
the poet’s name would have been given in full. They had not 
noticed probably that on p. 17 the form Ddd ap Gwilym occurs 
and thus, that argument is robbed of any force it might have had. 

Further, in a note dated Feb. 27, 1863 Mr. Wynne says: “ This 
day I was told by Mr. Burtt at the Public Record Office that the 
earliest part of this MS. is about the date 1360”. 

Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans, however, in a letter (attached to the 
MS.) to Mr. Wynne dated Nov. 12. 89 says: “‘ MS. 450 [the Old © 


Hengwrt No. of the MS.] was sent off this morning........ I 
think the oldest part of the MS. cannot be earlier than the second 
quarter of the XV century...... Your father, trusting too much 


in the opinion of the Record Office was inclined to think the oldest 
part was in the autograph of D. ap Gwilym himself; but the 
orthography is conclusive against the inference.”’ : 

In the Report on this MS. Dr. Evans says “ It is doubtful if the 
oldest part can be earlier than 1450.” 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 41 


Though it appears to be the oldest known MS of the poet, that 
does not imply that it is the best text, but it stands to reason 
that until this MS. is published and studied carefully all metrical 
and orthographical rules evolved from later copies can only be 
accepted with caution and as provisional. 

Only the poems written in the older hand are published here, 
and no attempt has been made to reproduce the peculiarities of 
the writing—that could be of use only to the experienced 
paleographer who would in any case prefer to look at the original 
MS. The MS. has two symbols for d and two for dd at the end of 
a word : final d is written something like a Greek 6 and final dd 
is written as this final d with a tail added. In the printed text 
they are printed with their modern equivalents and no distinction 
is made between medial and final. 

Many letters in the text are obscure or boggled. I have tried 
to read these with the aid of the ultra-violet lamp and photographs, 
but in II. 3-4, 17-18 where the lines are partly written over I 
cannot guarantee that I have disentangled the older from the 
later. IL. 49 o charat may possibly be read o cham, and in VII. 38 
the last d of dyddydn may possibly be crossed out. For the student 
of Dafydd’s language and poetry | hope this text can be treated 
with reasonable confidence in all things essential. A vocabulary 
had been prepared also, but as the MS. is only a fragment, the 
vocabulary is merged in a more comprehensive one which I hope 
to publish some day. 

20. ij. 36. TIMOTHY LEWIS. 


POEMS BY DAFYDD AP GWILYM FROM PENIARTH 
MS. 48. 


Index to first lines. 


iKereolaier mah vamevoGce sty. se 45. .,c es - No. viij. 
Dai livoiwyd-dvill iownwedd ............ No. vij. 
Wom pericl yi idolei ee pe ee. No. vj. 
Dov wmoyddwn diovyrreddyliy. | 250.5... No. v. 
Hawddamawr ddevlawr ddilyth .......... No. i. 
lend kas im hivadeygiceisiwiys 9. oa No. iij. 
Morvydd weddaidd anghywir ........... No. iv. 


Tost oydd ddwyn trais gynhwynawl ...... No. ij. 


42 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


I 


[p. 3] Hawddamawr ddevlawr ddilyth 


[p. 4] 


hayddai vawl i heddiw vyth 

yn rragorol dwyol daith 

rrac doy ne echdoy nychdaith 
nidoyd debic ffrengic ffriw 
Dyhvddiant doy i heddiw 

Nid vnwawd nevd anwadal 
heddiw a doy hoywdda dal 

Je dduw dad a ddaw dydd 
vniliw a heddiw hoywddydd 
heddiw i kefais hoywddawn 

her i ddoy hwyr yw i ddawn 
kevais werth gwnayth ym chwerthin 
kanswllt a mork kwnsallt min 
kvsan vvn kyson wyf i 

kain lvned kann olevni 

kylenic lerw ddierwin 

klyw ir mair klo ar y min 
keidw ynof serch y verch vad 
koyl mawr gvr kwlym ai gariad 
kof a ddaw ynof yw ddwyn 
kiried mawr kariad morwyn 
koron am ganon genav 

kayr vyrddin kylch y min mav 
kain baks min diorwak serch 
kwlm hardd rrwng meinvardd a merch 
kynx eddf hwn neb niw kenyw 
kynadl dav anadl da yw 

kevais ac wi or kyvoyth 
karodyn min dyn mwyn doyth 
kryf wyf oi gayl yn ayl nod 
krair min disglair mwyn dwysglod 
kriaf i wawd ddidlawd ddadl 
krynais gan y kroyw anadl 
kwlm kariad mewn tabliad twhl 
kwmpasgayr min kampvsgwbl 
kyd kefais ddidrais ddwydrin 
heiniar mawl hwnn ar y min 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD APGWILYM 43 


Trysor ym yw trisawr mel 
teiroch ym os kaiff tvrel 
ac os kaiff hevyd bryd brav 
mvrsen vyth mowrson vwythav 
ni bv ddrwe i gwe a gaf 
lai no dwrn lvned arnaf 
Jnseiliodd a hayddodd hi 
Mvl oyddwn vy maw! iddi 
Na ddaw om tavawd wadair 
Mwy ir merch berw serch a bair 
Kithr a ddel vthr wedd wylan 
Ar vyngtred i lvned lan 
EKiddyn anad1 kariadloys 
A dduw mwy a ddaw im oys 
y rrvw ddydd havl wenddydd wiw 
Am hoywddyn yma heddiw 

D dd ai kant 


II. 


Tost oydd ddwyn trais gynhwynawl 
tlws on mysc taliesin mawl 
Tristeaist nid trais diarw 
Trwm oer val y trywr marw 

[p. 5] dros vyngran ledchwolan lif 
trideigr am wr tra digrif 
Grvffydd hvowdl i odlef 
Gryc ddoyth myn y groc oydd ef 
Oys dic am i osdecion 
Ysgwir mawl eos gwyr mon 
Ilvniad pob dyall vnion 
A llyfr kyvraith yr iaith iown 
y gwyddor y rai gwiwddoyth 
A ffynon kerdd a ffen koyth 
Ai chweirgorn ddiorn dda 
ai chyweirdant och wyrda 
Pwy a gan ar i lan lyfr 
Prydydd golevddydd lywddytr 
Parodd 01 ben awengerdd 
Primas ac vrddas y gerdd 


44 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


Ni chair son gair o gariad 
Ni chan neb gwn ochain nad 
ir pan ayth alayth olvd 
Ydan vedd i dewi n vvd 
Ni chwardd vdvardd 0 advyd 
Ni bv ddigrivwch na byd 
[p. 6] Ni bv edn glan a ganai 
Nid balch keilioc mwyalch mai 
Ni chynydd mewn serch anoc 
Ni chan nac eos na choc 
Na bronvraith ddwbl iaith ddiblye 
Ni bydd gwedi Gruffudd gryc 
Na chywydd dolydd a dail 
Na cherddi yn iach ir ddail 
Tost o chwedl gan vvn edlays 
Roi nhor llawn vynor llan vays 
gemin dior gem an deiryd 
o gerdd ac a royd i gyd 
Royd serchowgrwydd y gwyddor 
ymewn kist y min y kor 
o gerddi swllt agwrdd sal 
Ni chaid vn gistiaid gysdal 
O gerdd evraid gerddwriayth 
doy rym i gyd yn derm gayth 
llywiwr iowngamp llariangerdd 
Ilyna gist yn Hawn o gerdd 
Och hayl grair dduw vchelgrist 
Na bai a y gorai y gist 
O charai ddyn wych eirian 
gan dant glywed moliant glan 
[p.7] gweddw i barnaf gerdd davawd 
Ac weithiain gwan ydiwn gwawd 
edn glwys i baradwyslef 
ederyn oydd o dir nef 
o nef i doyth goyth gethlydd 
i brydv gwawd i bryd gwydd 
Awenvardd awen winvayth 
J nef gwiw oydd ef i ddayth. 
D dd ab G. 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


[p. 8] 


[p. 9] 


IIT. 
hoyd kas ir hyd y keisiwyf 
hvdol serch yhvdlas wyf 
herwydd maint yr awydd mav 
hely diol havl y deav 
hardd yw yn gayn ar vayn vaink 
hoyw ddvayl hi a ddiaink 
Ni chaf i hi oi hanvodd 
A bvn nim kymer oi bodd 
Ni thawaf odaf heb dal 
mwy noc eos mewn gwial 


- Mair a duw a mordeyrn 


A rrai a wyl vy chwyl chwyrn 
A wnel hynn ywr rryvelnwyf 
imi y naill am vynwyf 

Ai byan varw heb oir 

Ai kayl bvn hayl a byw n hir 
Rydebic medd rrai dibwyll 

na wn panid hwn yw twyll 
prydv gair pryd a garwyf 
eithr ir vn athro oyr wyf 

o ganmol bvn hvn heirddryw 
O gerdd dda a garwydd yw 
Ni roy rvw borthmon Ilonn Ilwyd 
ir vgeinpvnt a ganpwyd 

Ni royd ym nowrad owmal 
gwerth hynn ond gware a thal 
Mul anrrec oydd mal vnrryw 
O bai wr a bwa yw 

Yn saythv lle sathr angor 


gwylan gayr marian y mor 


heb goyl bvdd heb gayl y byllt 
nar edn ewinwedn wenwyllt 
gwydn wy n bwrw gwawd yn ov*x 
al gwayth bwrw a sayth y ser 

pe prytwn gwn gan henglyn 

ir duw a bryais ir dyn 

hawdd i gwnai yrof o hawl 

vyw 0 varw vwyaf eiriawl 


45 


46 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


Ni wnai hi yrofi vaint 
Y mymryn gwenddyn gwynddaint 
Gwell gan vvn ninn gad hvn hawdd 
i hensail klyd ai hansawdd 
No bod yn rrith gayr gwlith gwedd 
gwirvawl gain gwevrvyl gwynedd 
Ni newidie ne wowdair 
lle may a bod garllaw mair 
Ni aned merch dreiglserch draidd 
velenwallt mo vileiniaidd 
O gwrthyd liw eiry gorthir 
Y vav wawd honn a vv wir 

[p. 10] gwrthodiad y myrchnadoydd 
gwrthodiaith vanwyl wyl oydd 
klwyf pa glwyf gloywa veinwenn 
plwm a ffals pla am i ffenn 

Ddd ai kant. 


IV. 


Morvydd weddaidd anghywir 
govwy gwawd gwayvi al gwir 
Kto n wyf iti vynyn 
diovrydv dy vrowdyn 
yr hwn ni wn i eni 
nith eigr dec nith ddigar di 
A gadayl i gayl galar 
oth gof y trvan ath gar 
nawir tyngaf ni weryd 
ni bv am brydv om bryd 
Myn y gwr mewn kyvlwr kawdd 
ddavydd a ddioddevawdd 
Mwy karwn ol mewn dol goyd 
di brvdd drin dy ebrwydd droyd 
nom godlawd wr priawd prvdd 
ne a ddeirid yw ddevrudd 
ef a ddaw byd bryd brydv 
i wr doth wedi eiry dv 

[p. 11] Dvgost lid a gwrid im grvdd 
Dyn vowr valch da iewn vorvydd 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 47 


Nirygeisiwn ar gyswr 
Na chydvydd ithydd ath wr 
Na ffar i eiddic ddic ddv 
lin hwyad lawen hav 
Ni chaffwyf dda gan dduw vry 
O chai modd o chymyddy 

D dd ai kant. 


V. 


Doy yroyddwn dioyr eddyl 
Dann y gwydd gwayr dyn niw gwyl 
Gorsevyll dan gyrs vvydd 
ac aros gwenn goris gwydd 
Gwnayth ari hwyl ym wylaw 
Gwelwn pann edrychwn draw 
Ilvn gwrab lle ni garwn 
Iwynoc koch ni char len kwn 
yn eisde val dinasdwrch 
gayr i ffav ar gwr i ffwrch 
ynylais rrwng vynwylaw 
vwa yw drvd a vv draw 
Ar vedr val gwr arvodvs 
Ar ayl y rriw arial rrvs 
arf i redec ar vrodir 
i vwrw a sayth ovras hir 

[p. 12] Tynais i evrgais ergyd 
heb y gern heibio i gyd 
Mav och ayth vy mwa i 
Yn drichnap anawn drychni 
llidiais nid arswydais hynn 
Arth ovidvs wrth vadyn 
gwr yw ef a garai iar 
a choyc edn a chic adar 
gwr ni ddilyd gyrn ddolef 
garw 1 lais ai garol ef 
gwridoc yw ymlayn grodir 
gwedd ab ymlith y gwydd ir 
Ilvman brain gar llaw min bryn 
llamw erw lliw marorvn 


48 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


Drych nod drain a ffiod ffair 
Draic vnwedd dyroganiair 
kynwr vryn knowr iar vras 
knv diareb knawd eirias 
Taradr dayargadr dewrgav 
tanllestr ar gwrr ffenestr ffav 
bwa latwm didrwm drayd 
gevel vnwedd gelvinwayd 
Nid hawdd i mi ddilyd hwn 
ai dy anedd hyd anwn 

[p. 13] dev gwayr talwrn i digwydd 
delw ki yny dolwg gwydd 
Rodiwr koch rrydayr y kaid 
Redai mlayn rrawd ymlyniaid 
llym irvthr llamwr eithin 
llewpart a dart yni din. 


D dd ai kant 
VI. 


Doy ym pericl y kiglef 

ynglyn avr angel o nef 

Ac adrodd pynkie godrist 

Ac adail gron ac owd grist 

Disgibl mab duw am dysgawdd 

Val hynn i dyvod vawl hawdd 

Ddd o beth diveddw bwyll 

dygymar gerdd da gymwyll 

dod ar awen dy enav 

Nawdd duw ac na ddywaid av 

Nid oys o goyd tri oyd trwch 

Na dail ond anwadalwch 

Paid a bod gan rianedd 

Kais ir mair kysavr medd 

Ni thale flayn gwyrddvlayn gwy« 

Na thavarn eithr iaith ddovydd 
[p. 14] Myn y gwr bie heddiw 

May gwayw im penn am wenn wiw 

Ac im tal may govalnwyf 

Am aur o ddyn a marw ddwyf 

D dd ai kant. 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


[p. 15] 


[p. 16] 


VIL. 
Da i Ilvniwyd dvll iownwedd 
Dwy vron y mab duw vry an medd 
Royd yn llew mewn tabl newydd 
Ar lvn walch ar loywon wydd 
Da Ilvniwyd iesu lwyd ion 
O ddysc abl ai ddisgyblon 
Tyviad agwrdd twf d gabl 
Tri ar ddec pantec y tabl 
Duw ior glan yny kanawl 
delw vwyn da i dyly vawl 
Ar devddec lawendec lu 
a iaswd yng hylch iesu 
chech o rann ar bob haner 
devwn oll ynghylch duw ner 
Ar yr haner mvner mwyn 
deav iddo duw addwyn 
I may pedr da gwyr edrych 
A ievan wiw awen wych 
a ffylib orevwib ras 
gwyndroyd yw a gwiw andras 
Iago hayl wiw gv hylwydd 
A sain simon rroddion rrwydd 
Lle aur ar y llaw arall 
Ir arglwydd kyvarwydd kall 
Y may pawl weddawl wiw ddoyth 
A thomas gyweithas goyth 
Martha ni wnayth ymwrthod 
Mevvs glayr weddvs i glod 
Mwythvs liw mathevs lan 
A iago rrai diogan 
sain svd y mewn sens hoywdec 
Llyna ntwy Ilynynaid tec 
llawn o rad ynd bellynd bwyll 
lle doded mewn lliw didwyll 
ystr doyth ysdoria dec 
Dydd a gavos y devddec 
kerdded y byd gyd ac ef 
kain dyddyd n kyn dioddef 


49 


50 THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 


[p. 17] 


[p. 18] 


Gwedir loys ar groys y groc 
A gavas krist ai gyvoc 
Ai varw ni bu overedd 
Hevyd ac or byd ir bedd 
Pan gyvdes duw iesu 
Yn iowngar or ddyar ddv 
Dve yni blaid llygaid Ilvs 
Y devddec an rrydeddvs 
Gwir vab mair gair o gariad 
Goresgyn tyddyn y tad 
Gair lles yw dywedvd iesu 
Gore vn gair gan vair vv 
Gair kariad yw or gadair 
Or mab rrad a gad or gair 
Duw ywr gair diwyr g «« 
Ar gair yw duw ar gwirx« 
Duw von porth an kymhorthwy 
Amen nid addvnwn mwy 

D dd ap Gwilym. 


VITl. 


kredaf i naf y nevoydd 

kredo gwych kyredic oydd 
Dor am keidw rrac direidchayn 
Dawn y blid a duw ny blayn 
Rodded ym vaith berffaith bor 
Rac angen y rrvw gyngor 

J volanv ngv gywair 

Tesu a molianv mair 

Jewn 1 bawb enw heb awbrim 
Molianv duw ym layn dim 

Da vv iesu ddewisiad 

A da oydd i vam ai dad 

Gore tad llathr di athrist 

o dadav kred vv dad krist 
Gwerin nef an kartrevo 

Gore mam oydd i vam vo 
Gwarant vydd i bob gwirair 
Gore vn mab yw mab mair 


THE OLDEST KNOWN MS. OF DAFYDD AP GWILYM 51 


Gore merch:dan aur goron 
tekaf a haylaf yw hon 
Da oydd ddwyn deddf ddayoni 
Gwr o nef yn gar ini 
Hwnn vv ddewis yr israyl 
Hen vv a iyuank a hayl 
Ganed oi vodd ir goddef 
Yn ddyn aur ac yn dduw nef 
Gwnayth iesu ner 01 gerant 
Swrn yn ebysdl a sant 
Gwnayth bader ac efferen 
Gwnayth oriav a llyvrav llen 
Roys gred ir bobl gyffrx« 
Roys yw plyth gwenith«x 
Roys i gorff heb ddim fforffed 
«r bren kroys i brynv kred 
(end lost) 


TIMOTHY LEWIS. 


Bieta ae 
PR 


Fi i 


Lene ete 
= 


Se 


THE PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AS A SOURCE OF ROGER 
DE WENDOVER’S FLORES HISTORIARUM AND 
OF RANULPH HIGDEN’S POLYCH RONICON. 


Investigations that were recently conducted to determine the 
original Latin text of a Mediaeval Welsh tract known as Y Beibyl 
Ynghymraec led to a comparison between the Welsh text and 
certain portions of Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon and the well- 
known series of chronicles that are closely associated with the 
Abbey of St. Alban’s. This brought into relief a number of 
passages in the Polychronicon and the other chronicles, that 
correspond to a certain extent. ‘These passages had hitherto 
escaped notice, but they throw a new light on the sources of the 
earlier parts of the compilations in question. In short, they 
combine to discredit the belief, hitherto unchallenged, that the 
earlier portions of the St. Alban’s chronicles are derived directly 
from Peter Comestor’s Historia Scholastica, and to nullify the 
main argument (based on the “ fact ’’ that the Historia Scholastica 
was the true source), that has been brought forward to date 
Roger de Wendover’s Flores. ‘They also enable us to show that 
Higden is not always ingenuous when he refers to Comestor or 
the Bible as immediate authorities for certain passages in his 
Polychronicon. 

To avoid misunderstanding and repetition it is best to outline 
the inter-relationship that exists between “the St. Alban’s 
chronicles ’’ referred to above. 

Towards the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century there seems to have been extant at St. Alban’s 
a historical compilation of some sort. We have, however, but 
few references to this original text and they are utterly inadequate 
to form any definite opinion as to its characteristics.! The 


1 There is no real basis for the description given by Claude Jenkins 
in The Monastic Chronicler (S.P.C.K., London, 1922), pp. 31-3—only 
the assumption that Walter’s compilation was identical in plan with 
that of Wendover. 


53 


54 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


authorship is sometimes attributed to a certain Walter who 
wrote in the time of John de Cella, the twenty-first Abbot of St. 
Alban’s. 1 

About the year 1230-1? Roger de Wendover became semi- 
official historiographer, as it were, at St. Alban’s and he appears 
to have used Walter’s compilation when he composed his Flores 
Historiarum.*? He was succeeded in 1236 by Mathew Paris who 
in turn, made use of Wendover’s work in compiling his Chronica 
Maiora. Lastly, there also exists a still later text called Flores 
Historiarum attributed to one “ Mathew of Westminster.” It 
has been shown, however, that there was no such person as 
“Mathew of Westminster ” 4 and that the work ascribed to him 
is but a further redaction of the chronicles of Wendover and 
Paris. ° 

As one would naturally expect from the fact that each com- 
piler made extensive use of the work of his predecessor, these 
three texts are similar in plan. Each contains an abridged 
history of the world from the creation down to the year in which 
the respective compilers wrote, and each is divided into two 
parts or books, the first extending from the creation to the birth 
of Christ, the second from the Nativity onwards. Moreover, the 
first part is further subdivided according to the traditional “five 
ages.” 

It is with this first part—which is very much the same in all 
three texts—that we are concerned. The whole of Paris’ 
Chronica Maora has been published in the Rolls’ Series ;* so too 
the Flores Historiarum attributed to ‘‘ Mathew of Westminster.” 
But the first part of Wendover’s Flores still remains in manu- 
script form.’ For our purpose it would be well if we could quote 


1 Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of MSS. relating to the History of Great 
Britain and Ireland (London, 1862—), III. pref. xxxix. Cf. p. 59 below. 
2 Hardy, wbid. *Cf. ‘“‘ There is some evidence that after the year 1180, 
Walter, a monk of St. Alban’s, wrote a chronicle of English affairs, 
entitled “‘ Anglicarum Rerum Chronica” . . . This compilation 
of Walter, Roger of Wendover found prepared to his hand when he 
became historiographer of his abbey. and dealt with it according to 


his own fashion.’ (Hardy, op. cit. III, xxxvi). 4 Flores Historiarum 
(Rolls) I.p. xi-ii. °7d. pp. xxxix-xlv. ¢ Matthaei Parisiensis . .. . 
Chronica Majora .:.. 2 vols. London, 1872—. 7 In 1841-4 H. O. 


Coxe edited the whole of the second part (in 5 vols.) for the English 
Historical Society : the only part published in the Rolls’ Series in 1886 
(ed. H. G. Hewlett) is that dealing with the period from 1154. 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 55 


from Wendover’s work rather than the Chronica Maiora, be- 
cause it is said to be slightly fuller, in its first part, than the latter 
compilation.! In the circumstances, however, we have no 
alternative but to quote from the Chronica Maiora, and to em- 
phasise the point that everything quoted is also to be found in 
Wendover’s Flores. 

Excessive quotation will be avoided by considering at the out- 
set the import of the similarity between the following passages 
taken respectively from Higden’s Polychronicon ? and the Chronica 
Mora : 


(a) “‘ Genesis. Inde Thare, non (6) Iste Nachor genuit Thare, qui 
valens ferre injurias sibi illatas non valens ferre injurias sibi ill- 
de adorando igne, in Chaldea, atas de adorando igne in Chal- 
ubi et Aram _ primogenitum daea, ubi et filium suum primo- 
suum extinxerant, peregrin- genitum Aram extinxerunt, per- 
atus est cum Abram, et Nachor, egrinatus est cum Abraham, 
et familia Aram usque ad Char- et Nachor, et familia Aram in 
ram Mesopotamiae, ubi com- Carram Mesopotamiae, ubi com- 
pletis ducentis quinque annis pletis ducentis quinque annis, 
mortuus est.’’ (Polychron. Lib. mortuus est’’ (Chronica Majora. 
II. Cap. X.—-Vol. II. 286). 1L5 @p)) 


The two passages are seen to be almost verbally identical and 
in some way or other they must be closely related. A possibility 
that suggests itself at once is, that Higden appropriated the 
passage from the Chronica Maiora or from Wendover’s Flores 
Historiarum. ‘There is no chronological objection to such a 
supposition, for it was in 1363 ° that Higden died, whereas the 
Flores was compiled before 1236, the date of Wendover’s death, 
and the Chronica Maiora a few years later. Fortunately, how- 
ever, Higden prefaced his work with a list of the sources 4 which 
he used in compiling it, and in addition, throughout the work, 


1Cf. Chronica Majora, I. p. xii: “‘ Under the name of Roger of 
Wendover, and with his name at the end, there exist two MSS...... 
The first of these begins. . . after a prologue chiefly copied from 
Rohert de Monte (to which, however, it adds an additional paragraph) 
_ with the Creation, and goes through all the early Scripture and Roman 
history much in the same way (sc. ‘as the Chronica Majora’), except 
that it is usually fuller.”’ 

2 Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis . . . London, 
1865—. (Rolls). 
. 8 Polychron. I. xi. 472d. I. Cap. 2: “ Recitantur hic auctorum 
nomina de quibus haec potissime abstracta est Chronica.”’ 


56 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


made more or less detailed references to his authorities for various 
passages.1 But neither in the formal bibliography at the be- 
ginning, nor in the sources quoted in the course of the work, does 
he refer to Roger of Wendover, Mathew Paris or any anonymous 
chronicle that could represent the work believed to have been 
composed under the supervision of John de Cella, the twenty- 
first Abbot of St. Alban’s, that is, between 1195 and 1214.? 
Further, it will be noticed that Higden quotes Genesis as the 
source of the above passage. Unfortunately not one of the St. 
Alban’s compilers refers to his authorities. Moreover, the passage 
in the Polychronicon is not a strict quotation from Genesis, but 
a synopsis of certain parts of that book; and the corresponding 
_ passage in the Chronica Maiora proves that this same synopsis 
was to be found as early as 1236, that is, in Wendover’s Flores 
Historiarum. From this one naturally concludes that Higden’s 
immediate source was not Genesis as such. As it is impossible to 
believe that he happened to summarise certain passages of Genesis 
in the very same words as those that already occurred in the St. 
Alban’s chronicles, there are only two alternatives : 
(1) Higden may have quoted the passage from Wendover or 
Paris (or from the shadowy Walter, the former’s pre- 
decessor) without acknowledgment 
r 
oe (2) both passages may have been derived independently from a 


common original text that is not referred to in either com- 
pilation. 


Since Higden makes no reference to the St. Alban’s historians 
and there is no reason, apart from the above passage, to believe 
that he appropriated anything from their works without ack- 
nowledgment, the first alternative is hardly tenable. The 
second possibility remains to be examined more closely. 

The question, therefore, is whether we can still trace some text 


1Cf. id. J. Cap. 1.(—Vol. I. 18-20): Quamobrem in hac assertione 
historica periculum veri statuendi per omnia mihi non facio, sed quae 
apud diversos auctores legi sine invidia communico..... Et quamvis 
alienum sit quod assumo, meum tamen facio quod meis aliquando 
verbis antiquorum saepe sententias profero, adeo ut quos auctores in 
capite libri praescripsero, illis utar pro clypeo contra sugillantes. 
Quum vero compilator loquitur sub hac figuratione (R.) littera praescrib- 
itur. ?So Sir Frederick Madden in Historia Anglorum (Rolls), I. xi. ; 
Hardy’s date is “‘ after 1180 ” (op. cit. IIT. xxxvi) 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 57 


which may have been the common source of the two passages. 
Now an author to whom Higden repeatedly refers in the first two 
books of the Polychronicon, as an authority especially for passages 
containing Biblical history, is a certain “ Petrus” ; and reference 
is usually made to particular chapters of a work that is left un- 
named, e.g. “Petrus, capitulo xxvj®. Tubalcayn invenit artem 
ferrarium et sculpturam,” etc. (Polychron. Il. Cap. v: Vol. II. 
226). Numerous such references will be found throughout the 
first two books. 

But who is the “‘ Petrus’ referred to, and what work of his 
is meant ? The explanation is found in Higden’s formal list of 
sources, where the fuller reference occurs: ‘“‘ Petrus Comestor, 
in Historia Scholastica ’’ (op. cit. I. Cap. 2: Vol. I. 22). Here, 
suffice it to state that this Petrus Comestor (or Manducator) was 
the Chancellor of the Church of Paris (“‘ Beatae Mariae Paris- 
iensis ’’) from about 1169 to 1178,1 and the author of the 
Historia Scholastica, the most famous of the various “ History- 
Bibles ” (Historienbibeln) that constituted one of the “ popular’’ 
substitutes for the Bible itself in the Middle Ages.?- This Historia 
is a huge compilation and fills six hundred and forty-eight closely- 
printed columns in Migne’s Patrologia (CXCVIII, coll. 1055-1722). 
It is a summary of the historical books of the Bible and gives a 
condensed “ history’ of the world from the creation to the 
martyrdom of Peter and Paul. In addition to the Bible itself, 
Comestor appears to have made use of Latin versions of Josephus’ 
Antiquitates and Bellum Judaicum, the various explanatory 
glosses on the Bible, (pseudo-) Methodius’ Revelationes and 
St. Jerome’s Latin adaptation of Eusebius’ Xpovixoi xavoves. It may 
be noted here that there is definite evidence that the work was 
written before 1176.8 

It was stated above that the St. Alban’s compilers make no 
references to the sources of the earlier parts of their chronicles. 


1 Very little is known of his life: but see Patrologia CXCVIII. coll. 
145-8; Biographie Générale, s.n. Comestor (Pierre): The Journa of 
Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, VIII., 90-1; Materialien zur 
Bibelgeschichie und religidsen Volkskunde des Mittelalters (Vier Bande) . 

. von Prof. D. Hans Vollmer (Berlin, 1912-29), II., I., xiv-v. *See 
Moses Gaster, Ilchester Lectures on Greeko-Slavonic Interature... . 
(London, 1887), Appendix A., pp. 147-208: ‘‘ The Bible Historiale.”’ 
* The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, VIII. 91. 


58 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


The editor of the Chronica Maiora (Rolls’ Series) undertook to 
trace its various paragraphs (even single sentences here and 
there) to their sources, and confidently embodied his conclusions 
as marginal references to the supposed authorities. An examina- 
tion of these references shows that he was of the opinion that 
great portions of the first half of Paris’ chronicle were derived 
from the Historia Scholastica, the very work of which Higden, 
as we have seen, professedly made extensive use. 

Even as early as 1841 H. O. Coxe referred to Petrus Comestor 
as one of the authors used by Roger de Wendover : 


‘‘'The whole of this (se. ‘ the first part of the Flores Historiarum, 
extending from the Creation to the birth of the Saviour’)... 
contains merely an abridged history of the Old Testament, ae 
the Jews, of the Persians under Cyrus and his successors, and 
Egypt under the Ptolemies, compiled from Petrus Comestor, 1 
Josephus, Methodius, Jerome, and other well-known auth- 


29 


oritres.”” ? 
Since this notice first appeared, every scholar who has touched 
upon one or more of the chronicles that issued from the St. 
Alban’s scriptorium, has endorsed the statement that Petrus 
Comestor was the chief source of the first half of the Flores 
Historiarum and, of course, the Chronica Maiora. Sir Thomas 
Duffus Hardy and Sir Frederick Madden went beyond this and 
used this ‘fact’? as an argument to determine the date of 
composition of the Flores. This point must be referred to some- 
what in detail, as it will be shown that the argument has only 
a negative value. 

It is recorded ? that a copy of the Historia Scholastica was 
made for St. Alban’s in the time of John de Cella, the twenty- 
first Abbot. (We know that John de-.Cella was Abbot from 
1195 to 12144). From this and the implication contained in the 
record that this was the first copy of the book that was seen at 


1The italics are mine: but the fact that ‘‘ Petrus Comestor’”’ is 
given the first place in the list suggests that Coxe regarded him as 
Wendover’s chief source. 

"Coxe: Op. Cit. ls 1x. 

3“* Praenominati insuper Domini Reymundi (i.e. the Prior under 
John de Cella) industria et licita adquisitione libri nobiles et perutiles 
seripti sunt et huic ecclesiae collati praecipue Historia Scholastica cum 
Alegoriis, liber elegantissimus.” (Gesta Abbatum St. Albani (Rolls). 
I. 233-4). 

4Madden, Historia Anglorum, I. xii. 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 59 


St. Alban’s, scholars have inferred that Walter, Wendover’s 
predecessor, cannot have used the Avstoria at all, and that it was 
later than 1214 that the Flores Historiarum was compiled : 


‘‘ Tt is clear from the additions and alterations made by him (sc. 
Roger de Wendover) that he had access to materials which 
were unknown to or disregarded by his predecessor. J must 
eall especial attention to one instance in proof of this remark 
ee viz. Peter Comestor, whose style is peculiar. His 
‘* Historia Scholastica ’’ though frequently used by Wendover, 
must have been an unexplored source of information to all 
writers in the Abbey of St. Alban’s before his time. Neither 
to Walter of St. Alban’s nor to any other compiler there before 
1214, could Peter of Comestor’s work have been known, as it 
was first introduced into the Abbey of St. Alban’s in that year. 
I mention this fact, as a proof that the “ Flores Historiarum ” 
was written after that date at St. Alban’s. 


All this is accepted by the editors of Paris’ Historia Anglorum 2 
(Rolls) and Chronica Maiora.2 We quote the following words as 
they will be shown to be more significant than their author 
intended them to be: 
*“‘ As to the compilaticn itself (sc. the Chronica Maiora), it is evident 
that the compiler followed no fixed law in the way he culled his 
“flores” ; in most cases, especially in the earlier portion, he 


follows his authorities word for word; sometimes, however, 
especially in the case of Comestor, he gives merely an abridgment . .’*4 


One naturally asks the question why the compiler chose to give 
an abridgment of certain parts of the Historia Scholastica rather 
than make quotations from it as he did from his other sources. 
The answer to this question will become evident in the remarks 
that follow. 

Are we, then, to assume that the Historia Scholastica is the 
common original text to which we are to trace the passages 
quoted from the Polychronicon and the Chronica Maiora ? There 
is no difficulty in proving that this explanation is inadequate. 
The corresponding passage in the Historia (Lib. Genes. Cap. 
XLI—II.) is much fuller, and even if we suggest that it was this 
that Higden summarised, rather than the pertinent parts of the 
first book of the Bible, as he professes, we are still faced with the 
question why it should have happened that his synopsis is almost 


- 1 Hardy, op. cét. III., pref. xliii. Cf. also pref. xxxv. ?* I. xii. 
81. xxxi. *Chronica Majora, 1. xli. The italics are mine. 


60 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


absolutely identical with the abridgment of the same passage 
that we find in the Chronica Maiora. The only possible ex- 
planation is that there must be some text intermediate between 
the Histcria Scholastica’ and the Chronica Marra (and, of 
course, the Flores Historiarum). In fact, the St. Alban’s com- 
pilers appear to have made no direct. use of Comestor’s work. 
Rather, they made extensive quotations from a widely-circulated 
mediaeval Latin text which is mainly ! a summary of the Historia 
Scholastica. 

It is beyond the scope of this article to deal exhaustively with 
the text referred to. Only the minimum number of points will 
be noted here. It was composed by Petrus Pictaviensis (or 
Pictavinus), Comestor’s successor as Chancellor of the Church 
of Paris. Manuscript versions of the work, several of which 
date from the early thirteenth century, have various titles. ? 
The title we shall use is Promptuarium Bibliae,? as being the most 
useful and suggestive. This Promptuarium is one amongst a 
series of texts which contain a summary, in much more con- 
densed form than that of the various History-Bibles, of the 
historical books of the Bible from the Creation to the Nativity or 
a few years later—the Promptuarium, for example, extends as 
far as the martyrdom of Peter and Paul—and which are known 

by the general term of Bibliae Pauperum. Arranged in syn- 
- chronistic and genealogical form it was obviously designed, in 
the first place, for a roll manuscript although many of the earliest 
versions that are still extant, are found in codices. Some of these 
‘* Bibles of the Poor,” for example, Aurora (Maor), Aurora Minor, 
Roseum or Rosarivum Bibliae and Index Bibliae, are in metre, 
while others, such as the Promptuarium Bibhiae and the Biblia 
Picta are in prose. Those in metre may be described as mnemonic 


1The exceptions are a few passages based on the Bible itself, and 
one other passage which is a strict quotation from Hugo de Sancto 
Victore’s Ercerptiones, Lib. V.: Patrologia CLX XVII. col. 225. 

2 e.g. Arbor geneseos ab Adam usque ad Christum ; Biblia Abbreviata ; 
Compendium hisioriarum sacre scripture; Haxucerptum Biblie; Geneal- 
ogia Christi ab Adam; Summa hystorica Biblie. * The Mediaeval 
Welsh tract mentioned on p. 53 is a translation (with additions) of this. 
French, German and English versions ave extant. The German text 
alone has been edited: by Prof. D. Hans Vollmer in Deutsche Buibelau- 
zuge des Mittelalters zum Stammbaum Christi mit thren lateinischen 
Vorbildern und Vorlagen (—Bibel und deutsche Kultur I), Potsdam, 
1931. pp. 127-88. 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 61 


keys to the historical books of the Bible. The majority of these 
texts, however, both prose and verse, are summaries of the 
Historia Scholastica, the History-Bible, rather than of the Bible 
itself. They were all designed primarily for the use of the im- 
pecunious Mediaeval “ clerk” : 

“Toutes ces Bibliae pauperum ont pour caractére commun d’étre 
des résumés mnemoniques et des ouvrages & bon marché, 
destinés 4 tenir lieu d’une Bible compléte pour les personnes 
peu fortunés, pauperes, qui n’avaient pas de quoi s’en acheter 
Tnbale\g Acs Be Résumés de la Bible, concordances et généalogies 
bibliques, toutes ces Bubliae pauperum devaient étre destinées 
a des cleres: les pauperes dont i] s’agit sont les pauvres cletcs, 
qui n’avaient pas de quoi se constituer une ‘librarie’.’’ } 

Phone are two printed versions of the Promptuarium Bibliae. 
The first was edited, along with a collection of Sermons, by 
Huldreich Zwingli in 1592: 

M. Petri Pictaviensis Gali GHN EALOGIA ET CHRONOLOGIA 
Sanctorum Patrum, antehac typis non excusa: Quae a Tulio 
Caesare, usque ad nostra tempora continuata est ab Hulderico 
Zwinglio Iuniore, Novi Testamenti in Schola Tigurina Pro- 
WICSSONC Janes ale. 

Basileae, Per Leonhardum Ostenium, Anno 1592. 


_ This edition was based on a text transcribed by D. M. Vincentius 
Prallus from a manuscript written in 1460 (op. cit. p.1.), and which, 
it is stated, was difficult to read in parts. This edition, however, 
is of no value as it was based on a late, incomplete and corrupt 
text. 

A better version is that edited by Prof. D. Hans Vollmer on 
pp. 127-87 of his Deutsche Bibelauziige des Mittelalters.2 This 
text is taken mainly from a manuscript written towards the end 
of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century (op. 
cit. p. 33), though two other MSS. were also consulted (zd. pp. 
31-2). ‘This edition too leaves much to be desired: the text is 
comparatively late and is interpolated by passages from the 
Historia Scholastica.® 


1 Speculum Humanae Salvationis (Texte critique, Traduction inédite 
de Jean Mielot...... ed. J Lutz et P. Perdrizet. 2 Tomes. Mulhouse, 
1907), I. p. 277. Cf. also the words in which Albericus de Tribus 
Fontibus (d. 1241) refers to Petrus Pictauinus, the author of the 
Promptuartum: “...... qui pauperibus consulens clericis, excogitavit 
arbores Historiarum Veteris Testamenti in pellibus depingere.” 
(Patrologia CCXI. col. 779 sqq). 2 Cf. p. 60 note *. *% The reference 
in Histoire Inttéraire de la France. . . (Paris, 1733-93) XVI., 487-8 to 
an edition of the Promptuarium by Dom Bernhard Pez (1683-1735) is 
apparently incorrect. 


62 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


Because of the defects in the printed versions of the Promp- 
tuarrum such quotations as are made from it below, are taken 
from the text found in B.M. Royal MS. 8C ix, a manuscript 
written in the thirteenth century. The references are to the 
folios of that MS., and in each case the quotations have been 
punctuated according to modern usage. 

Now a comparison of the passages quoted at the beginning 
from the Polychronicon and the Chronica Maiora shows that they 
are both identical with the corresponding passage in the Promp- 
tuarvum : 


‘* Iste Thare non ualens ferre iniurias s7bz illatas de adorando igne 
in Caldea, ubi et filium suum primogenitum Aran extinxerant, 
peregrinatus est cum Abraham et Nachor et familia Aran in 
Carram Mesopotamiae ubi completis CCV annis mortuus est.”’ 
(fol. 4a). ; 


Higden, therefore, did not summarise Genesis, as he professes 
to have done; neither did the St. Alban’s compiler make a 
synopsis of certain parts of the Historia Scholastica, as numerous 
editors have averred. Rather, both historiographers appropriated 
the passage from the Promptuarium, and Higden concealed 
his true source with the reference to Genesis. Nor is this the 
only place where Higden has misled the reader with a wrong 
reference. Another example is found in the following passage : 


Petrus, Senecharib, qui et Salmanazar, rex Chaldzorum, devicit 
Oses (al. Osee, Ozee) regem Israel, Samariamque tribus annis 
obsessam cepit ; decem quoque tribus, id est septem residuas 
tribus, captivas transtult in montes Medorum juxta fluvium 
Gosan (al. Gozan) Giraldus, id est ultra montes Caspios, ubi 
magnus Alexander inclusit duas immundas gentes, Gog et 
Magog, quas Antichristus cum venerit, liberabit et educet ; 
hunc etiam Judaei expectant et Messiam credunt.” (Polychron. 
Ino. II. Cap. XXXIV: Vol. III. 68-70). 


Here it is seen that Higden professes that his sources are Berar 
(Comestor) and Giraldus. The editors of the Polychronicon, 
however, regard the reference to Giraldus as incorrect.2,_ Never- 
theless, the very words montes Caspios occur in a similar context 
in Giraldus Cambrensis’ [tinerarium Kambriae (Rolls’ Ed.) IT. 
Cap. XVI. (—p. 199) : 

1 Sir George F. Warner and Julius P. Gibson, Catalogue of Western 
MSS. in the Old Royal and King’s Collections (4 Vols. London, British 


Museum, 1921), I. 236 ff. 
2 Polychron. II, 68. 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 63 


“Item Alexander Macedo, gentilis, montes Caspios transtulit, et 
decem tribus intra eorundem promontoria, ubi usque in hodier- 
num resident, et usque in adventum Heliae et Enoch residebunt, 
miraculose concludit.”’ 


It will be agreed, however, that this can hardly have been Hig- 
den’s true source for the latter part of the passage quoted above. 
Here again he appears to have made use of the following passage 
in the Promptuarvum : 


Hee sunt nomina regum qui post Salomonem regnauerunt super 
Israel, id est super X tribus, usque ad Salmanasar regem Assir- 
iorum, qui posuit eas ultra fluuium Gozam ultra montes 
Medorwum et Persarum, id est ultra Caspios montes. Legitur 
in Historia Alexandri Macedonis quod in eodem loco duas gentes 
immundas inclusit Alexander ne tota terra ab eis contaminaretur. 
Hos autem Antichristus liberabit et inde educet et hunc Judei 
expectant et credunt esse Messyam.” (fol. 7b). 

Likewise Higden’s account of Daniel’s fourth and fifth vision 

suggests direct borrowing from the same text. In this case we 

will quote only the Prompiuarvum versions : 


Quartam uisionem uidit sub Baltasar de i1°T uentis, id est 
angelis, i1° bestiis, leone, urso, pardo, apro, id est iiii° 
regnis, et x cornibus, id est x regnis, de i114 bestia procedentibus 
a modico cornu, id est Antichristo, subiciendis, positis in aduentu 
Christi bestiis interfectis. 


Quintam uidit visionem sub eodem de ariete habente cornua 
imparia, id est regno Medorum et Persarum, et hirco, id est 
Alexandro, in eum etferato ; cui succrescebanét 1111 cornua, id est 
successores, de quorwm uno modicum cornu, id est Antiocus 
Epiphanes processit.’’ (fol. 10a). 


The corresponding passages by Higden will be found in the 
Polychronicon Inb. III. Cap. I.: Vol. III., pp. 122, 126-8. In spite 
of this evidence that he borrowed certain passages from the 
Promptuarium Bibliae, neither in his formal list of sources nor 
in the course of his work does he make the slightest reference to 
that text. Indeed, it may be suggested that these echoes of the 
Promptuarvum that are heard in the Polychronicon, do not 
necessarily imply that Higden had a copy of it before him when 
he was writing. We know that he was a monk of Chester, and 
as such he may very well have made his first acquaintance with 
the contents of the Bible through the medium of this Bibha 
Pauperum. We may well believe that he had committed parts 
of it to memory, so that when he came to condense certain 
passages of the Historza Scholastica in compiling his Polychronicon, 


64 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


it is quite conceivable that, consciously or unconsciously, he 
wrote down portions of the compendium which he had already 
stored in his memory. ‘This view is supported by the fact that 
the echoes of the Prompiuarium in the Polychronicon are not 
frequent. In addition to those already cited we may refer to the 
following passages, as being in origin quotations from the same 
source, though in some of them Higden has added a few phrases 
of his own: 


(a) Abram mortuo patre....... dicens Sarai fore sororem 

'  guam. (Lib. II. Cap. X.: Vol. IT. 286). 

(b) Roboas...... adherendo juvenibus. (Lib. II. Cap. XXX: 
Vol. III. 16.) 

(c) Athalia, mater Azariae..... in pastophoriis. (Lb. If. Cap. 
XXX.: Vol. III. 26). 7 

(d) Osyas, qui et Azarias..... regales hortos oppressit. (Lib. 
IT. Cap. XXXI.: Vol. III. 30-2). 

(e) Manasses, filius Ezechiae...... vitam suam correxit. (L7b. 


II. Cap. XXXV.: Vol. III. 74-6). 


It would be impracticable to quote all the passages in the 
Chronica Maiora that have been taken directly and, generally, 
without the slightest change, from the Promptuarium Bibliae. All 
the passages that have hitherto been regarded as the compiler’s 
abridgment of certain parts of Comestor, are really derived from 
the compendium which lay ready to hand in the form of Petrus 
Pictaviensis’ Biblia Pawperum. A list of such passages is here 
appended and since the lines of the Chronica Maiora (Rolls) are 
unnumbered, we quote the first and last words of each passage. 
The references are to the pages of the first volume : 


pp. 1-202) Adam. 0.032 sunt ejecti. 

Si Adan 2.7. ae maledictus. 

3-4: GeneratioCayn ... . perpendit. 

5 : De. primis ..: \conresnavit; Inde Vhare. 
mortuus est (quoted on p. 55). 

7.2 liste Nachor’: . HKhud *Buzites; dramas. 
scilicet Aram fratris sui; Iste Abram..... 
suffocato Aram .. .suscepit; Abram habuit ... 
. . . Nabaioth et Cedar. 

7-8 : Ex Sara genuit ... ignarus benedixit Jacob. 

8 : Esau hispidus . . . pacifice occurrit ; 


Jacob . . . domum purgavit. 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 65 


9 


10 
12 
13 
14 


22 


23 


25 


27 
28 


29 


30 
39 


4] 
42 
77 


=e) ) 


79 


De Job .. . prophetauit ; Ex Rachel ....a sorte 
hereditatis ; Ex Bala . . . Gad et Aser. 

DerSuday ie. 3: se liberauit. 

De quadraginta . . . . Campestria Moab. 

De Josue . . . in volumine scripsit. 

Post mortem Josue... . et Jayr xxii annis ; Jeplite 
ip A eee Sanson xx annis. 

Datan ... . absorpti; 

Amram genuit . . . . Boezi; 

supradictus chore . . . igne diuino. 

Boezi . . . fractis ceruicibus expirauit ; 

peperit Samuelem .. . per phitonissam ; fuit autem 
Be Me aes peperit Samuelem ; Descendit ... rex Saul; 
Iste Saul . . . Merob et Micol. 

De genealogia Salvatoris .. . Jericho; Salmon 
Aetna ee sav, vielolesse) -Delresono David... 3): 
sibi accivit. 

Defuncto David . . . maculavit. 

De regibus Israel . . . a Baasa; Nam ad suasionem 
Rp ai. audiens, expiravit; regnavit ..  sino- 
dochice. 

De Regno . . Iste Roboam . . substituit ; leroboam 
successit . . .dimidiae tribus. 

Roboam .. . Abia tribus annis; Quo. . Juda. 
Post praefatum ... Ozias lii annis; et post eum 
Joathan . . . ab aliis Turris gregis. 

In eodem Sedechia . . . sunt annotati. 

De Sacerdotibus . . . . Seraias, Josedec. 

Abiud, cujus ... oe induxit ; 

Linea Salvatoris . . . . Melchisedech. 

Et notandum quod . . . matrem Domini. 


In Nadition to the passages noted above, numerous sentences 
and disconnected phrases are really derived from the same source. 
We pass them by, however, as there would be no real purpose 
in referring to them. ‘To sum up, it may be said that almost 
all the Biblical history in the Chronica Maiora and, therefore, 
‘the Flores Historiarum was taken with hardly a change from 
Petrus Pictaviensis’ compendium of the Historia Scholastica. 

Many passages in Chronica Maiora I which the Rolls’ editor 


66 PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 


4 


regarded as “ additions of the compiler,” are not such in reality. 
It is said, for example, that “the Linea Salvatoris is the com- 
piler’s own ” because that element is not found, as such, in the 
Historia Scholastica, but in the Promptuarium the Linea Christi 
is the centre genealogical line to which all the other lineae are 
really subordinate. Lastly, it may be noted that the passages 
quoted from the Promptuarvum have been divested of their 
original genealogical garb although some traces of it are still 
visible. ; 

It remains to’be considered whether the fact that the Promptu- 
arium, and not the Historia Scholastica, is the main source of the 
Biblical passages in Flores Historvarum I., in any way affects the 
argument that has been brought forward to date the composition 
of that work. In the first place, it may be noted that since the 
Promptuaritum is a compendium of Comestor’s Historia, both 
texts are often found next to each other in the same manuscript. 
They accompany each other, for example, in Corp. Chr. Coll. 
Camb. MS. 29,1 Edin. Univ. Libr. MS. 18,2 Bodl. Laud. Misc. 
MSS. 151 and 270,°, Koénigl. Bibl. Berl. Lat. MSS. 863 and 864.4. 
If, therefore, one could show that the copy of the Historia 
Scholastica which came to St. Alban’s when John de Cella was 
Abbot,®> was accompanied by a version of the Promptuarium, 
the argument would still be valid. Fortunately that very manu- 
script is still extant: it is B.M. Royal MS 4D. vii,® and it does 
not contain a version of the text which formed the chief source of 
the first book of the Llores. 

We know that Petrus Pictaviensis died in 1205,* and all we can 
say is that the Promptuarium is anterior to that date. We have 
no real evidence to prove when it became known in England, 


1M. R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in the Library of 
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2 vols. Cambridge, 1912) I. p. 60. 

2 Catherine R. Borland, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western 
Mediaeval MSS. in the Hdinburgh University Inbrary (Edinburgh, 1916) 
pp. 23-4. 

3 Coxe, Catalogus Codicum MSS. Laudianorum...... 1858. 

4Valentin Rose, Verzeichnis der lateinischen Handschriften der kénigl- 
ichen Bibliothek zu Berlin. Band II. (1901-5), Pt. 3, pp. 1016, 1018-20. 

° Cf p. 58. 

6 Sir G. F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, op. cit. I. p. 90. Cf. Chronica 
Majora, I. p. xxxiv, note! ; Historia Anglorum , I. p. xii, note. 

7 Migne, Patrologia, CCXI., col. 779 sqq. 


PROMPTUARIUM BIBLIAE AND ITS INFLUENCE 67 


b) 


although versions dated “ early xuith century ”’ are extant in the 
British Museum, Oxford and Cambridge. The Promptuarium, 
however, was so much more “ popular” than the Historia Schol- 
astica, and so much more limited in compass, that the former 
work may have become known to Wendover earlier than the 
latter. It must at the same time be remembered that its date of 
composition is later. Indeed, Wendover may well have seen 
copies of it before his arrival at St. Alban’s in 1230, and until we 
obtain more information than we possess at present concerning 
the nature of the compilation attributed to Walter, it may be 
suggested that he may have begun his Flores Historiarum before 
that date at Belvoir. At any rate, the arrival of a copy of the 
Historia Scholastica at St. Alban’s in the time of John de Cella 
has no bearing whatever on the date of composition of the Flores, 
as it has been shown above that, contrary to the view hitherto 
accepted, Wendover made no direct use of Comestor’s work. 


THOMAS JONES. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE.* 


VI. WILLIAM DE VALENCE AND THE HKARLDOM OF PEMBROKE. 


In the study of William de Valence one cannot neglect the 
interesting question whether he was ever formally created Earl 
of Pembroke or not. So much doubt exists in the matter, and 
so many rash statements have been made, especially by com- 
pilers of lists of the English Baronage, that it is profitable to 
collect the various views which have been expressed, and after 
examining the evidence judicially, to express a guarded opinion. 
The question is undoubtedly the most difficult of those raised 
by the life of William de Valence. 

Doyle in his “ Official Baronage”’ says boldly, quoting the 
Treasury Roll, that William was created Earl of Pembroke 
“before 29 September, 1251.1 Dugdale, relying on Matthew 
Paris, says that at the battle of Lewes “this William” was 
“then called Karl of Pembroke and not before for aught I have 
seen.’’? Nicolas states that “in 1258 when banished by the 
Parliament of Oxford he was certainly not possessed of the 
Earldom which was probably conferrred on him between 1262 
and 1264.’% This view apparently rests merely on the fact 
that while Matthew Paris, whose chronicle ends in 1259, calls 
him William de Valence only, the continuation of the chronicle 
calls him Earl of Pembroke at the battle of Lewes. Clark merely 
calls him William de Valence up to 1285, and after that Earl 
of Pembroke.* G. W. Watson is more guarded and acknow- 
ledges the difficulty of solving the problem. He says “I have 
wholly failed to satisfy myself as to the date when William de 
Valence obtained the title of the Earl of Pembroke.’’> The first 


1 Doyle: Official Baronage iii. p. 9. 

2 Dugdale: Baronage, i. p. 775. 

8 Nicolas : Historic Peerage, p. 376. 

4 Arch. Camb. ill. vi. pp. 266 seq. 

5G. W. Watson, quoted in Cokayne, Complete Peerage, vi. p. 206. 


*The first Part of this Article appeared in Volume XIII. of Aber- 
ystwyth Studies. 


69 


70 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


authentic document in which Mr. Watson finds the title occurring 
is in a charter of Edward I. first Parliament (1275) in which 
as Earl of Pembroke, William agreed to the grant of the custom 
of wool. But from 1276 to 1287 in Parliamentary writs the 
title is again dropped. 

It is this diversity of title which makes the problem difficult. 
If we take various examples haphazardly the difficulty can be 
seen more clearly. In the Fine Roll of 1292, he is called merely 
William de Valence.1 In writs of inquisition of 1268 and 1272, 
he is called Sir William de Valence.2. In the Gascon Rolls of 
Edward I. he is invariably referred to as “ dilectus patruus, 
Willelmus de Valencia’’.2 From the chroniclers William hardly 
ever receives the title of Earl of Pembroke. The continuator 
of Florence of Worcester writing of the year 1266 calls William’s 
brother-in-law, Earl Warenne, but refers to William himself as 
plain William de Valence.* Matthew Paris does not use the title. 
The Annales Monastici call him Willelmus de Valencia to the day 
of his death. One curious point must be noted. After William’s 
death, the instructions to the English escheators refer to the 
owner of the lands as William de Valence, but to the escheator 
in Ireland he is called Karl of Pembroke. This may, however, 
be the result of official uncertainty. 

We cannot do better than to find out what William de Valence 
called himself. There are three well-known letters written by 
him. In the first sent to his wife at Winchester in 1267, written 
in French, William signs himself “seignur de Penbroc.”? A 
second letter written about 1272 to the Chancellor, Richard of — 
Middleton, is in Latin, and William calls himself ‘‘ Dominus 
Penbrochiae.”® In the third, which is in French again and 
written from Aberystwyth, William uses the same title as in 
the first letter, namely, “seignur de Penbroc.”® If we add to 
these the fact that the Inquisitions concerning William’s lands 


1 Calendar of Fine Rolls (1292) p. 314, ete. 

2 Calendar of Inquisitions. Post Mortem, i. pp. 719, 862. 
3’ Roles Gascons, ii. p. 348, ete. 

4Chronicon Florentir Wigorniensis, sub anno. 

5 Annals of Dunstable, iii. p. 452, ete. 

® Calendar of Inquisitions. Post Mortem. iii. p. 220. 

* Royal Letters, ii. p. 311. 

8 English Historical Review, XIV. pp. 506-507. 

®° Royal Letters, ii. p. 345. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE ah 


after his death do not mention the Pembrokeshire lands, although 
taking into account William’s other possessions, the way seems 
a little clearer.1 It seems probable from William’s letters that 
he never regarded himself as “ Earl.” He is ‘“ dominus,” or 
“seignur”’ or “lord” of the lands in virtue of his wife’s 
ownership, but since she owned them as Countess in her own 
right, he was never created Earl. We know that Joan was a 
strong and capable woman, and perfectly competent to occupy 
the position of Countess by right. 

This point of view seems to be confirmed also by a similar 
diversity of style with regard to William’s son, Aymer, who 
succeeded him. Although in Parliamentary writs he is some- 
times included among the counts and at other times among the 
barons, he is never given the title of Earl of Pembroke until 
1307, but after this date he always receives the title. Since 
his mother, Joan de Montchesny died in 1307, it would appear 
that whilst she was alive neither William de Valence nor his 
son Aymer was really allowed the title. Other evidence points 
to this view as being probably correct.. Until her death, Joan 
held the lands of Pembroke, Goderich and Wexford, besides 
other lands in Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Cam- 
bridgeshire.2 And on her death these lands passed to her son, 
Aymer, together with the title of Earl of Pembroke. 

L. O. Pike affords further confirmation of the fact that the 
descent of the Karldom depended on possession of the lands of 
Pembroke. He remarks that Pembroke, an Earldom Palatine, 
like Chester, descended on a different system of inheritance. 
“It is evident’ he says, “ that the descent of the earldom was 
associated according to the prevalent ideas with the inheritance 
of the lands. The inheritance of Aymer de Valence, Palatine 
Earl of Pembroke, devolved upon his sisters to be divided be- 
tween them and their heirs in due proportion:’ Aymer died 
in 1323 and for a time the earldom was vacant.* Pike continues : 
‘““ Nothing appears to have been done with regard to the earldom 
immediately, but Lawrence de Hastings who continued to part 
of the inheritance as descendant of the eldest sister was held 


1 Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem ii. p. 220. 
* Dugdale, Baronage, i. 776. 

~3L. O. Pike: Constitutional History of the House of Lords, pp. 66 seq. 
4Nicolas: Historic Peerage, p. 376. 


72 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


by the lawyers to be entitled to the ‘ prerogative and honour 
of Earl Palatine in the lands which he holds of the inheritance 
of the said Aymer, as fully and in the same manner as Aymer 
had and held them at the time of his decease’. It was clearly 
in virtue of this part of the inheritance that his claim to the 
earldom was recognised”. We note here that Lawrence de 
Hastings, unlike William de Valence, appears to have held the 
lands in his own right and not through his wife. Again in the 
reign of Henry V. and Henry VI. we find the Harldom of 
Pembroke still associated with the possession of the lands of 
the county.! 

It can probably be asserted, therefore, with some degree of 
certainty that William de Valence was never formally created 
Earl of Pembroke. It is indeed possible that Henry III. deemed 
it wiser not to give William the title, or he may have made an 
agreement with Warin de Montchesny to refrain from doing so. 
While royal grants of manors and sums of money might be 
forgotten, the title of earl conferred on a young foreigner would 
rankle in the minds of the native baronage. The Earldom 
Palatine of Pembroke was far more important than the Earldom 
of Warwick. Henry may have profited, too, by the opposition 
to Aymer as Bishop-elect of Winchester. 

William, however, by virtue of the position of importance 
which he held in the kingdom would naturally be called ‘“ Earl ” 
by many people either as a courtesy title or to gratify the King’s 
uncle. The chroniclers who write of the years before 1258, 
and who, one and all, hate William de Valence, obviously will 
not give him the title. But in the reign of Edward I., when 
William had become a valued agent of the Crown, and his loyalty 
to England was no longer in question, he was increasingly 
called Earl of Pembroke from courtesy. The fact that William 
de Valence was the King’s uncle, however, probably militated 
against the general acceptance of the title, for Edward was 
content to call him by the more affectionate style “ dilectus 
patruus.” If William had merely been a great councillor and 
not a relative of the King, Edward might have used the courtesy 
title, Earl of Pembroke, and others would have followed his 
example. 


1 Pike: Constitutional History of the House of Lords, p. 79. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 73 


Vil. WILLIAM DE VALENCE AND THE SUBJUGATION OF WALES. 


It has been shown that Llewelyn alone of the allies of Simon 
gained anything from the Barons’ Wars. Although it is pro- 
bable that Edward could have crushed Llewelyn after the Battle 
of Evesham', the King perhaps fearing an alliance between 
Llewelyn and Gloucester, preferred to sign the Treaty of Shrews- 
bury and leave the Welsh Prince in possession of vastly increased 
lands. A map of Wales in the thirteenth century reveals how 
much Llewelyn gained. Briefly, by the Treaty of Shrewsbury, 
Llewelyn obtained the lands of Brecon and Gwrthennion, 
Whittington, Kerry, Kedeivein, the four Cantreds of Perfedd- 
wlad and possibly Abergavenny. But above all he was re- 
cognised as Prince of Wales and overlord of all the Welsh 
magnates except Maredudd of Rhys. On his side, Llewelyn 
promised to pay Henry 25,000 marks. 

If Edward thought that a paper sanction could bring peace 
to Wales and the March, he was soon to be disillusioned. Llewelyn 
had obtained a taste of power, and ever ambitious, he determined 

to extend his sway further, whilst the wild Marchers had no 
intention of settling down to peace under the conditions of the 
Treaty of Shrewsbury. They had fought with the ultimate 
aim of increasing their territories and not of losing some of their 
lands to their enemy, Llewelyn. Moreover in many details 
the peace provided a very inadequate solution of pressing pro- 
blems. Both Llewelyn and the Marchers were guilty of acts of 
injustice. The records of the time reveal many cases of the 
Marchers’ continuing to rule over lands which now had been 
ceded to Llewelyn. Indeed Llewelyn himself was so elated by 
his success “ that he did not realise the limitations of his power 
and embarked on that career of ambition which in ten years was 
to bring him to ruin.’ 

Llewelyn forthwith started on his progressive career of 
“vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself.””. In 1272, he decided 

1Tout: Wales and the March, p. 123. Most of the material for this 
chapter has been worked out in four books. There is a brief account in 
Tout: Political History of England, 1216-1377. More detailed accounts 
are: J. E. Morris: The Welsh Wars of Edward I. J. E. Lloyd: A 
History of Wales, Vol. ii. ; and T. F. Tout: Wales and the March during 


the Barons’ Wars in Owens College Historical Essays, pp. 76-136. 
* Tout: Wales and the March, pp. 133-4. 


74 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


that he would pay no more of the money which he owed to 
Henry III. He next proceeded to claim the hand of Simon 
de Montfort’s daughter. Finally he refused to appear at Shrews- 
bury or Chester to do homage to Edward I. These acts were 
naturally regarded by Edward as a casus belli, and in 1277 war 
broke out. But Llewelyn could no longer claim the loyalty of 
all Wales as he had during the Barons’ War, and he was unable 
to prolong his resistance as formerly. Only the Four Cantreds 
were really loyal to Llewelyn. 

In the war of 1277, the English forces were concentrated in 
two armies. First Edward himself made the main attack from 
the Palatine Earldom of Chester. Then there was a second 
army under Edmund and William de Valence operating from 
the other Palatine Earldom of Pembroke. Llewelyn was forced 
backward and confined in the Snowdon country where, his 
exits having been blocked, he was forced to submit (November 
9, 1277). 

Previous to Llewelyn’s submission, however, William de 
Valence and Edmund marched northward with very little 
opposition, proceeded through the valley of the Aeron and 
occupied Aberystwyth (July 25, 1277). The foundations of the 
“noble” castle of Aberystwyth were immediately laid. It has 
often been stated! that Edmund, the King’s brother, built this 
castle, but according to the ‘ Brut y Tywysogion”’ Edmund 
came to Llanbadarn on the feast of St. James the Apostle and 
left on the eve of St. Matthew for England.2 This represents 
a period of under two months. The castle was to be stoutly 
built in contrast to the previous flimsy structure on the spot,3 
for it was intended to be the new base of English ascendancy 
beyond the Aeron.* It is impossible that much more than the 
foundations of such a castle could be laid in less than two months. 
After Edmund left, Roger Myles had charge of building opera- 
tions for a time.’ He was soon replaced by the Earl of Lincoln,® 
but the latter did not retain superintendence for long, and 

le.g. T. O. Morgan: Aberystwyth Castle. 

2 Brut y Tywysogion, p. 369. 

3 Professor EK. A. Lewis: The Castle of Aberystwyth. 

4J.E. Morris: Welsh Wars of Edward I., p. 146. 


5 Brut y Tywysogion, p. 369. 
6 Pipe Roll, 6 Ed. I. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 75 


William de Valence took charge.t It is highly probable that 
William de Valence brought the building of the castle to com- 
pletion. A letter written by William to Henry de Bray at 
Abergavenny makes this supposition feasible. William urgently 
demands money lest the masons should depart before the castle 
‘is completed.* The letter reveals the part taken by William 
de Valence in the building of the castle of Aberystwyth, and it 
also gives some indication of the position of importance held by 
William de Valence in Wales during these years. 


In 1282 this castle was partly destroyed by Gruffydd of 
Meredudd and Rhys of Maelgwyn, but William sent the latter 
to Edward I. as a prisoner. He was pardoned and later helped 
Edward in the war.? Edward I. caused Aberystwyth castle 
to be repaired, and it remained in royal hands until the time 
of Owen Glyndwr. 


William did not play a great part in the defeat of Llewelyn in 
1277, but his connexion with the castle of Aberystwyth is ex- 
tremely interesting. Though William played no part in the 
fighting against Llewelyn himself, it was the very fact that 
Edward had a strong ally in the south-west that caused Llewelyn 
to be hemmed in. Llewelyn could not march southward and 
Snowdonia was the only refuge left to him. The double advance 
of English arms westward and northward made the rebellion 
of 1277 a matter of months instead of years. If we hypothetically 
interchange the alliance, it is easy to infer what would have 
occurred if William had been an ally of Llewelyn. West 
Wales would have presented a solid front against Edward’s 
advance, and the great Prince, therefore, could not have massed 
his army and turn the enemy on a narrow front. The Marchers 
had foreseen before 1258 the danger even to themselves if Edward 
had advanced from Chester and William from Pembroke. Even 
more precarious was the position of Llewelyn, for the King and 
his uncle could march as if along two sides of a triangle to their 
point of convergence in the Snowdon country. From now until 
1290, William de Valence, together with Robert de ‘Tibotot, 


1J. EK. Morris: Welsh Wars of Edward I. 
29. E. Morris: Welsh Wars of Edward I. 
® Hnglish Historical Review, XIV. pp. 506-7, 


76 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


was the most conspicuous figure of the English ascendancy in 
South Wales.? 

By the Treaty of Aberconway signed in 1277, Llewelyn was 
reduced to his former position of a mere chieftain in North Wales. 
The Welsh in the ceded districts, however, found the next five 
years of English rule irksome, and Edward’s bailiffs and agents 
were often oppressive. Llewelyn and David, too, were still 
ambitious of recovering their old position, and they planned 
a rebellion in great secrecy. In 1282, David took Hawarden 
castle whilst Llewelyn attacked Flint and Rhuddlan. David 
then marched south and was immediately jomed by the local 
lords in Cardigan and the Vale of Towy. He soon captured 
the castles of the Upper Towy and then marched into Cardigan- 
shire and took Aberystwyth. 3 

Earl Richard of Gloucester was, therefore, commissioned 
by the King to undertake the reconquest of the Vale of Towy. 
But Richard allowed himself to be attacked unexpectedly by 
the Welsh at Llandilo (1282),—where William le Jeune, son 
of William de Valence was slain,—and withdrew to Caermarthen. 
Edward I. would not tolerate the weakness of Richard, and 
William who had seen considerable military service in South 
Wales, and who knew the district far better, was appointed 
as commander of the English forces. He immediately brought 
success to the English arms. William’s clever generalship and 
his excellent co-operation with Robert de Tibotot, the justiciar, 
made this success certain. Robert’s financing and organisation 
of the forces under William represent a masterpiece of efficiency. 
Tibotot supplied and paid the soldiers, and William used them 
to the best military advantage. Further, the loss of his son 
inflamed William de Valence with a desire to avenge his son’s 
death, by crushing the Welsh. So William marched north to 
Aberystwyth after having forcibly pacified Cardiganshire. He 
does not appear to have remained in Aberystwyth but returned 
to Cardigan. 

At the beginning of 1283, however, there was a new rising 
in Cardiganshire, so William raised another force and crushed 
this second revolt with ease. He then marched along the coast 


t¢bid. p. 137. See ibid. pp. 149-204 for the events recounted in the 
rest of this chapter. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE Ha 


to Aberystwyth and took command of the castle which had 
been partly destroyed. By this time Cardiganshire was 
thoroughly subdued by William, for there was no further fighting 
south of Merionethshire. After leaving Roger de Mortimer in 
charge of Aberystwyth castle, William raised an army of about 
1,000 foot in Llanbadarn, and marched further north in search 
of David, who was still at large. David temporarily made his 
headquarters at the castle of Bere in Merionethshire. Roger 
L’Estrange was the first to move towards Bere, but he was soon 
joined by William de Valence who took command of the siege 
operations. So successful was he that the castle submitted 
after a siege of ten days, but David had already escaped. Now 
that his last stronghold was gone, the end was near for David, 
and two months later he was captured, soon to be executed as 
a traitor. In the meantime Llewelyn had been killed, and 
Wales, left without a leader, was forced to submit completely 
to Edward I. 

It has been necessary to describe the conquest of Wales in 
some detail because, otherwise, it would be difficult to evaluate 
exactly the part played by William de Valence in crushing the 
two Welsh rebellions. It is curious that although William did 
not fight against Llewelyn, he probably did more than any man 
except Edward I. to effect the conquest of Wales. 

Edward now began the settlement of Wales and his systematic 
policy of castle-building. The Statute of Wales was passed in 
1284, and in the same year Edward began a royal progress 
through Wales, starting from Flint. William de Valence ac- 
companied him, no doubt with considerable pride in his share 
of the military campaign which had enabled his royal nephew 
to conquer the country. First, he had given his unswerving © 
loyalty to Edward. There was no repetition of the policy of 
Gloucester and Leicester before 1258, when Llewelyn had been 
allowed to have his own way, Secondly, William’s county of 
Pembroke had provided the English arms with a most valuable 
base in West Wales. Thirdly, William had given the benefit 
of his military skill to Edward. For a proof of this skill, one 
has only to compare him as a commander with Richard of 
‘Gloucester and study the admirable co-operation of William 
with Robert de Tibotot. Fourthly, William in the years of 


78 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


peace had established his power, both inside the border of his 
own county and outside its borders, so he was easily able to 
crush the rebellions in Cardiganshire and prevent their spreading. 
And finally in the brief period of ten days he took the castle 
of Bere and left David without a stronghold, to enjoy but two 
months more of precarious liberty. 

One last fact concerning William and Wales remains to be 
noted. In the last Welsh rising of 1294, William was again in 
command of the English forces with the Earl of Norfolk. Few 
details of the fighting are known, but the rising soon collapsed. 


VIII. THe Later History or WILLIAM DE VALENCE. 
(1266-1296). 


The later years of William de Valence do not arouse the same 
interest as his earlier years when he was in the centre of the 
struggle between the King and the barons. He had now settled 
down to be a good Englishman, and like Charles II. he seemed 
resolved not to go on his travels again. ‘There are few evil deeds 
to record of William. He was still unscrupulous and ready even 
‘to make a bastard of his own niece to obtain her lands; but he 
was not the old lawless William. In the words of the chronicler, 
after 1265 he was ‘satis fidelis regno Angliae.” 1 ; 

The earlier years of the reign of Edward I. are years of unpre- 
eedented legislative activity. Despite the fact that he was a 
member of the King’s Council, William de Valence was not a 
statesman. William undoubtedly did good work for his nephew 
in Wales and elsewhere, but since the main interest of the time ~ 
lies in the innovations caused by Edward’s legislation, the account 
of William’s life after 1266 becomes less interesting than the 
account of that exciting decade from 1256 to 1266 when he was 
one of those who were proscribed by the barons. 

After the battle of Evesham, William received back all his 
lands, and also some additional grants of territory to reward 
him for his services to the King. For instance he immediately 
received the lands of his brother-in-law, William de Montchesny, 
who had been a prominent rebel. We read of Montchesny appear- 
ing at the Chancery and “recognising ”’ that he was bound to 
pay two thousand marks to William de Valence to receive back 


1 Annales Monastict ili. p.452. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 08 


his lands.1 Apparently Montchesny paid the money, for in 
February, 1267, he was pardoned by the King? and later re- 
ceived back his lands.?. William de Valence, however, received 
permanent grants of land in Northumberland, in Essex, and half 
the lands in Ixninge, Suffolk, and Claydon, Kent.* In March, 
1268, he also received the manors of Cherdesle, Policot, Passewyk, 
and Reydon.® In 1269, William with John de Warenne and 
Henry of Almain went surety for the Earl of Derby who had 
rebelled twice against Henry III. Derby promised £50,000 to 
Edmund in redemption of his lands, but he was unable to pay 
this sum, and William and the other bailsmen handed the lands 
over to Edmund. ° 

In 1268, Edward had taken the Crusader’s oath.’ William who 
had taken the oath previously in 1250 now renewed his vows, 
and sailed to the Holy Land with Edward on the 20th August, 
1270.8 Little is known of William’s activities in the Holy Land, 
and it has even been suggested that William never accompanied 
his nephew, but this statement is unsubstantiated. William re- 
turned to London on the 11th January, 1273, a little earlier than 
Edward ° and brought with him various relics which were later 
given to Westminister Abbey. 1° 

William, during the reign of Edward I. attempted to strengthen 
his power in Pembroke and to gain some sort of supremacy over 
the other Marchers."' Various royal grants and a fortunate 
marriage helped him in his plans. The castle and land of Cil- 
gerran had passed on the death of Anselm in 1245 to Eva, wife 


1H. F. Jacob: Studies in the Period of Baronial Reform and 
Rebellion, p. 188 n. 
2 Calendar of Patent Rolls (1266-1272), p. 161. 
3 ibid. p. 181. 
4 Calendar of Charter Rolls (1275-1300), p. 84. 
5 abid. p 92. 
6 Jacob : Studies in the Period of Baronial Reform and Rebellion, pp. 
217-218. 
* Annals of Winchester, p. 109. 
8 Shirley : Royal Letters, ii. p. 345. 
® Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 156. 

109 Testamenta Vetusta, 1. 100. 

11 The old lordship of Haverford was favoured by the crown as a check 
on the power of the Earls of Pembroke, a power which was much 
‘increased by William de Valence ; Owen: Old Pembrokeshire Families, 
p. 40. 


80 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


of William de Braose, and then to George de Cantilupe. On the 
death of George de Cantilupe, however, in 1272 the castle and 
lands passed to the King who first appointed Henry de Bray as 
constable, then transferred the castle to Nicholas, son of Martin 
of Kemes, and finally, in 1275, gave the castle to William de 
Valence, together with the lands of St. Clears which were to be 
held by the King in capite.! William’s attempt to extend his 
power was not relished by the other lords. As he himself was of 
a litigious temperament, and the neighbouring Marchers resorted 
to law to put a check on William’s increasing power, the records 
of the time are full of various cases concerned with possession of 
land and jurisdiction.? These long and tiresome cases reveal 
nothing but an attempt at the seizure of small portions of land 
by all the parties concerned. William’s chief opponents in these 
cases are Isabel Marshall, William Martin of Kemes, and Queen 
Eleanor. In particular, one question at issue between William 
and Eleanor dragged out until after the Queen’s death. ? In this 
case, however, William de Valence was probably in the right. 
The Queen, who owned the barony of Haverford, appointed as 
her agent the notorious Hugh de Cressingham, who was universally 
hated. He later fell in battle against the Scots, and to celebrate 
his death, Robert Bruce had a belt made from his skin. Hugh 
exceeded his powers as steward, and quickly came into conflict 
with William de Valence. So various commissions were sent to 
Haverford to restrain Hugh, and to ensure that the men of 
Haverford should do suit of court in Pembroke. 4 

William de Valence was also very interested in any minors 
with whom he might claim relationship. Throughout his life of 
fifty years in England, a very large number of young men were 
under William’s custody at various times. At this time, John 
de Hastings, the great great-grandson of Eva de Braose, one of the 
co-heiresses of Joan, was a minor. He was also lord of Aber- 
gavenny, and William cast longing eyes on the rich lands of that 
area, now named Monmouthshire. So in 1275, William went to 


1 Rot. Orig. Curia Scacce. 3. Ed. I. Rot. 14 see J. R. Phillips, A History 
of Cilgerran. 

2e.9. Rotult Parliamentorum. i 16-17, 30, 35, 38, 69, 84. 

3 Calendar of Patent Rolls. (1292-1301), p. 114. 

4 ibid. (1281-1292), pp. 330-331, etc. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 81 


the length of obtaining a Papal Dispensation for the marriage of 
the young John de Hastings who was only thirteen at this time, 
with his own daughter, Isabel.1 William seems to have been 
very successful with the Popes of the time. Gregory X. gave 
him this dispensation, and later, Nicholas III. took William’s 
side in the case of Dionysia. After the marriage of John and 
Isabel, William held the lands of Abergavenny at farm, and in 
1282, for the last year of John’s minority, he received the custody 
of Abergavenny.” In these years William received many other 
grants of a similar kind. One of the most noteworthy was the 
grant in November, 1295, of the marriage of the heirs of Philip 
Burnel, tenant-in-chief,? which grant William apparently sold 
later to Hugh le Despenser.*. 

So many of William’s acts of lawlessness have to be recounted, 
that it is pleasing to find some definitely good work done by him. 
William appears to have taken a special interest in the town of 
Tenby. He and his wife gave to Tenby a charter which is cited 
in Queen Elizabeth’s confirmation, and by which the burgesses 
of the town were exempted from stallage, toll, lastage, murage, 
and portage. Again, some time after 1280, William and Joan 
founded a hospitium for the poor, both laity and clerks in the 
town.® Apparently this hospitium was endowed with a con- 
siderable amount of lands, for by an inquisition of the reign of 
Henry IV. we find that the burgesses, jealous of the extent of 
lands belonging to the hospitium, had taken part of them for 
their own benefit “to show the heavens more just.’’® It has 
also been stated that William enclosed the towns of Pembroke 
and Tenby with walls.7 ‘This argument rests on the similarity 
between the walls of Carnarvon and Tenby. Carnarvon was 
enclosed in the fourth year of Edward I. and at this time Tenby 
was part of the lands of William de Valence. Both, too, are 
Bastides. ® William did not show the same consideration to- 

1 Calendar of Papal Letters (1198-1304), p. 450. 

2 Calendar of Patent Rolls (1281-1292), p. 30. 

3abid. (1292-1301), p. 167. 

4 ibid. p. 179. 

5 Calendar of Papal Letters (1198-1304), p. 503. 

6 Quoted in Edmund Laws: ILtile England beyond Wales. 

7 Mr. Hartshorne: Cambrian Journal, 1860. 


8 See Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Vol. iv. pp. 26-57. I am 
indebted to Mr. E. G. Bowen, M.A., for information on this subject. 


82 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


wards Haverfordwest, for at a later date he despoiled the town 
and kept it so until 1284. 1 

William de Valence was able to render great assistance to 
Edward in France for, as we know, William was a soldier of no 
mean repute. In 1273, the citizens of Limoges rose against 
Marguerite, the Viscountess of the surrounding lands who, they 
claimed, oppressed them unfairly. The matter was discussed 
on appeal, but “le Parlement rendit ... .un arret par lequel 
il accordait la justice de la ville a la vicomtesse quoique les bour- 
geois eussent déclaré quils n’étaient pas ses hommes mais ceux 
du roi.2 The King of France influenced by Giraut de Maumont 
enraged the burgesses further by demanding that they should 
give up all their prisoners, but said nothing of the prisoners taken 
by Marguerite. So the citizens sought an English alliance, and 
William de Valence arrived with letters from Edward. At a 
magnificent ceremony in the Abbey of Saint-Martial, the in- 
habitants of Limoges swore fealty to William as representative 
of the English King.* As a result of William’s coming, Philip 
III. took a more generous view of the matter. But the old causes 
of friction soon revived, and in 1274, William again came to the 
protection of the citizens of Limoges. He was helped by two 
hundred English knights and they immediately besieged the 
castle of Aixe which belonged to the Viscountess Marguerite. 
It appeared that war was going to break out,- “ C’était une guerre 
Anglaise qui commengait lorsqu’un courrier du roi de France 
apporta Vordre de suspendre toute violence, assignant les partis 
a comparaitre au parlement prochain pour y voir terminer leur 
proces (24 Juillet).”’ 4 

William was again conspicuous in 1279 when he was sent as 
a plenipotentiary to Philip III. concerning the negotiation of the 
Treaty of Amiens. ° At this Treaty, which was the complement 
of the Treaty of Paris signed twenty years earlier, Phillip III. 
ceded to Edward I. the Agenais, whilst Eleanor of Castile was 
allowed to take possession of Abbeville and Ponthieu which she 


had recently inherited. ®° The commissioners of the French King 
1 Annales Cambriae, p. 108. 
2Ch-V. Langlois: Philippe le Hardi, p. 74. 
8 ¢bid. 
4Langlois: Philippe le Hardt, p. 88. 
5 Réles Gascons li. 314, 315. 
6 Lavisse: Histoire de France, i. 2. p. 109. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 83 


actually handed over the Agenais to William as representative of 
Edward I. in June, 1279.1; and William remained in France for 
a time as Seneschal of the Agenais. Both English and French 
now had new boundaries to fortify, and “de 1279 a la fin du 
XIilieme siecle Anglais et Francais construisirent le long des 
nouvelles limites établies par le traité d’Amiens, un reseau de 
pistes fortifies, tres solides, de construction uniforme dont beau- 
coup existent encore.’ * Since one of these new bastides was 
called Valence d’Agen, we are justified in thinking that William 
played a part in inaugurating the work described by Lavisse. 
William, however, did not remain in the Agenais the whole 
time, for in the same year, 1279, he was sent to bring pressure to 
bear on Alfonso of Castile to sign peace with France. The quarrel 
between Alfonso of Castile and Philip III. of France had arisen in 
connection with the succession to the throne of Castile. The 
Cortes of Castile had declared Sancho, Alfonso’s second son, as 
heir on the death of his elder brother, Ferdinand. Edward I. 
was always interested in the affairs of Spain, first because his 
wife, Eleanor, was a Castilian, and secondly because Jeanne of 
Castile had been betrothed to his son Henry who died in 1274. 3 
Mr. Cecil Jane has even suggested that Edward I. was influenced 
by the model of the Castilian Cortes in summoning his own English 
Parliament. So now in 1279, he sent William de Valence to 
negotiate between Alfonso who supported the claim of Sancho, 
and Philip Ill. who favoured his own nephews, the Infantas of 
the Cerda. William was successful in his mission for Alfonso 
consented to sign a truce under his pressure (26 November, 
1279).* The French King obtained nothing from the affair. 
For his expenses incurred in Gascony, William received various 
grants of money from Edward I. In 1279, William de Valence 
had been a very active man; the number of letters which pass 
between Edward, Philip and William reveal this, and the char- 
acter of the letters shows what a trusted agent of the Crown 
William was. So in June, 1279, William was given £1,000, > in 
November, 1279, 200 marks, ® whilst in July, 1280, the constable 


1 Langlois, Philippe le Hardi, p. 219, Foedera i. p. 574. 

* Lavisse: Histoire de France, iii. 2. p. 109. 

3 J. H. Ramsay: Dawn of the Constitution, p. 353. 

4 Foedera 1. 375-6. 5 Réles Gascons, ii. 348. 6 4bid.. 11. 252 


84 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


of Bordeaux was ordered to give him £500.1 William also still 
received his annual sum of £500 from the Exchequer which had 
first been granted to him by Henry III. In these years, however, 
it had not been paid regularly, and in 1283, Edward had to make 
up arrears amounting to £1,125 6s 14d.? William’s wealth was 
as useful to Edward as it had been to Henry, and he frequently 
lent money to the King. In 1291, William granted to the King 
a fifteenth of the movables of his men and tenants in Ireland, but 
care was taken that this should not become a precedent. 4 

In 1282 William lost his son and heir; William, known as 
‘le jeune’ was entrapped by the Welsh in “angusta via ”’ 
and slain. ® The next heir was Aymer who eventually succeeded 
William. 

On June 4th, 1285, William de Valence was appointed Regent 
of England whilst Edward was away in France. It has been 
stated ® that William occupied this position until 1287 when 
Edward returned, but it would appear that William was in France 
in 1286 and 1287.7 Whether William remained in England or 
not, however, the fact that William was able to exercise authority 
for two years during the King’s absence is no less a testimony to 
the truth that the old hatred and jealousy of William had vanished, 
than to the settled state of the country which the wise rule of 
Edward had produced. In these later times it is not William 
who invades the lands of his neighbour, but we find men detained 
in prison for trespassing on William’s lands. ° 

One of the most interesting events connected with William’s 
later life is the case of Dionysia. In itself it is merely a rather 
sordid attempt on the part of William and his Countess Joan to 
bastardise their niece in order to seize her lands, and the whole 
matter reflects great discredit on their grasping methods. This 
ease, too, raises interesting questions with regard to the re- 
spective jurisdictions of the law of England and the Canon Law 


1 ibid. ii. 392. 7% Calendar of Close Rolls, p. 247. 

3 e.g. Close Roll, 16th December, 1283. Printed in Cymrodorion. 
Record Serves, VII. 

4 Calendar of Patent Rolls (1281-1292), p. 447. 

5 Annales Cestrienses, p. 108. 

6 Arch. Camb. ii. vi. p. 270. 

? Calendar of Patent Rolls (1281-1292). 

8 e.g. Calendar of Fine Rolls 1292. pp. 314-315. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 85 
of the Church. Briefly the case is as follows. The death oc- 
curred in 1289 of William de Montchesny, the brother of Joan. 
William and his wife petitioned Parhament in 1290 that they 
had received a bull from the Pope concerning the Montchesny 
lands. They, therefore, asked that the King should commit the 
tuition of Dionysia into the hands of some person who might 
appear before the Archbishop and such other judges named in 
the bull. It was answered in Parliament that such cases of 
hereditary succession should only be determined in the King’s 
courts, and that they should first commence by virtue of the 
King’s special writ, and then, if need required it, be transferred 
to the ecclesiastical courts. ““ Wherefore for as much as it did 
appear that the aim of this William and Joane, his wife, 
was to invalidate the sentence of the Bishop of Worcester !_ which. 
had declared the said Dionysia to be legitimate, and that their 
desire was to make her a bastard to the end that they might 
enjoy the estate they were inhibited to prosecute their appeal 
any further.” ? Nothing dismayed at this, William renewed his 
claim in the same Parliament, still pretending that Dionysia was 
illegitimate. The matter was thoroughly discussed and finally 
it was decided that since William de Montchesny had always 
admitted his daughter to be legitimate, and since the Bishop of 
Worcester in whose diocese she was born had pronounced sentence 
to this effect, she was allowed to enjoy her lands. It has been 
suggested that Dionysia was not illegitimate, but was feeble- 
minded, and this fact prompted William to push forward his 
suit. 4 

Sir Paul Vinogradoff has pointed out the interesting features 
of the case, and remarks how insistent Ralph of Hengham and the 
other magnates were on the rights of the Crown. > William de 
Valence was treading on dangerous ground in the whole matter 
for Edward resisted the encroachments of the ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction with all his power. William, however, does not 
appear to have lost any of the royal favour by his persistence. 

1 Sir Paul Vinogradoff has ‘“* Winchester ”’ erroneously. 

2 Dugdale: Baronage i. p. 776. 

3 Rotoli Parliamentorum i. 16, 38. 

4 Arch. Camb. iii. vi. p. 267. 


5 In Hssays presented to T. F. Tout, (ed. Little, A. G. and Powicke, 
F. M.), pp. 192-193. 


86 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


In 1289, William de Valence was helping Edward in con- 
nexion with Scottish affairs. After the unexpected death of 
Alexander III. of Scotland in 1286, Edward began to be in- 
terested in Scottish affairs. The only direct descendant was a 
erand-daughter, Margaret, the child of Eric, King of Norway. 
Kdward planned to unite the kingdoms of England and Scot- 
land by a marriage between the Maid of Norway and his own son 
Edward, Prince of Wales. Envoys were sent from Norway and 
Scotland, for the latter country, John Comyn of Badenoch, 
Robert Bruce the elder and two others. These met the English 
envoys, Geoffrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, Anthony Beck, 
Bishop of Durham, William de Valence, and the Harl of Surrey. 
The marriage was successfully arranged by the Treaty of Salis- 
bury. : 

Unfortunately the Maid of Norway died and the succession 
was left open. The Scottish barons asked Edward to act as 
umpire between the rival claimants, and Edward accepted and 
the case was opened at Berwick (3rd August, 1291) before a court 
of Scottish and English barons. Among those on the English 
side was William de Valence. Nothing was settled at Berwick 
for, on the 12th August, Edward returned to London for the 
burial of his mother. He then proceeded to the March to hear 
a case of trespass which had arisen between the Earls of Gloucester 
and Hereford. Wiliam was one of the jury at this case too, and 
the two barons were sentenced to gaol, but the sentence was not 
carried out. ? 

After this there was a return to Norham where the award was 
made in favour of John Balliol. William de Valence himself 
expressed the opinion that the succession should be decided 
according to English law, and such being the case, Balliol had the 
best claim.? The choice, however, was unfortunate. 

About this time William was named as an overseer of tourna- 
ments in the Statute of Arms, but we are now drawing near to 
the end of his life. Hdward’s fortunes in Gascony at this time 
were desperate. He could not spare enough men for a war, and 
a small expedition under John of Brittany and John 


"Ramsay : Dawn of the Constitution, p. 376. 
? Calendar of Patent Rolls. (1281-1292), p. 452. 
3 Rishanger : Chronica et Annales. p. 255. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 87 


of St. John, sent in 1294, was entirely unsuccessful. Next 
Edward tried diplomacy. He spent money in building up a 
coalition, and then on Ist January, 1296, he sent William de 
Valence, the Duke of Brabant, the Counts of Savoy, and Holland 
and Hugh le Despenser to treat for peace with the French at 
Cambrai.! The conference was barren of results. William de 
Valence did not return to England but remained in France until 
his death at Bayonne (June 13th, 1296). He had become a man 
of such importance that he was not buried in Gascony or even 
taken to his native Poitou, but his remains were transported to 
England and he lies buried in Westminster Abbey. 

The manner of his death is obscure. Some annalists state 
that he was killed by the French in a skirmish. The Annals of 
Dunstaple merely say “obit’.2 According to his epitaph, ° 
1304 of his men were killed, and William himself suffered death 
in battle. It is curious, however, that of those men who were 
granted letters of safe-conduct to France with William in 1295 4 
none seems to have died at the same time as William, according 
to the Inquisitions Post Mortem. The problem of William’s 
death is probably impossible of solution. 


TX. THE CHARACTER OF WILLIAM DE VALENCE. 

The final task is to place, as it were, the separate parts into the 
mosaic of a character, and from the scanty materials at one’s 
disposal, it is somewhat difficult to form an exact estimate of 
the character of William de Valence. To fill in the gaps by in- 
ferences or hypotheses would be a violation of the canons of bio- 
graphy. A strong case, of course, can be made out even from the 
comparatively little knowledge which we have of him, to prove 
that he was not a mere “ base adventurer’ ® as he is so often 
described. 

_ In seeking to understand William’s character, one is impressed 
by the manifest change in his habits of life which occurs about 
1265. Before this date he had done little of value in England ; 
he had taken all from his adopted country and shown the utmost 


1J.H. Ramsay: Dawn of the Constitution. p. 422. 
2 Annals of Dunstable. p. 452. : 
Sainfra. 

4 Calendar of Patent Rolls (1292-1301) pp. 177-9. 
5e.g. Treharne: Baronial Plan of Reform. 


88 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


ingratitude for the gifts. But after 1265, William became far 
more lawful in his ways, and in later years served Edward I. and 
England faithfully at home, in Wales, and in France. Thus it 
could be said at his death : 

“Anglia tota doles moritur quia regia proles 

Qua florere soles, quem continet infirma moles 

Guhelmus nomen insigne Valentia prebet.” 

Let us now re-consider the various types of charges which are 
laid against William before 1258. First, the chroniclers recount 
his escapades such as the “ invasion ”’ of the Bishop of Ely’s lands, 
and Simon de Montfort’s lands. The querelae reveal other 
crimes such as the kidnapping of Joan of Badlesmere. Thirdly, 
he rendered himself odious to the barons by accumulating ward- 
ships, escheats, etc., to procure for himself a place in the nobility. 
Finally, he encouraged his servants in their crimes by affording 
them protection from the arm of justice. 

First, with the chroniclers of the times, we may condemn 
William whole-heartedly. On the contrary we may remember 
that these chroniclers are not always strictly accurate, that they 
often colour their narrative for their own purposes, and that 
there is clearly distinguishable in their writings, despite the close 
connexion of France and England in the thirteenth century, the 
beginnings of the traditional English attitude towards foreigners. 
Even in the thirteenth century the Welsh and Scots are traitors 
and the French lawless ruffians, whilst there is a wholesome dis- 
like of the Italians and the Papal agents. Much of the trouble 
seems to be that the English did not understand the Poitevins, 
and the Poitevins made no attempt at once to understand the 
English, their language, laws, customs. Even the chroniclers 
admit this.1 William’s two periods of exile apparently did him 
considerable good, for after 1265 he seems to have lived on far 
more amicable terms with the other nobles. After this date 
William makes no more “invasions ”’ ; we find men in prison for 
trespassing on his lands. 

There are extenuating circumstances which force us, after an 
unbiassed consideration of the materials, to adopt a more kindly 
view of the character of William de Valence. There is a story in 


te.g. ““Opus Chronicarum’” pp. 4-5, in Johannis de Trokelowe 
Chronica et Annales et Anonymorum 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 89 


Professor Tout’s Edward I. which throws some light on the 
standards of conduct and mode of living of these times. The 
young Prince Edward was one day passing through a wood. A 
peasant happened to cross his path, and Edward from sheer 
malicious humour ordered his servants to put out the young 
man’s eyes.! The chroniclers seem to regard such examples of 
grim humour as the prerogative of a King, but if a foreigner, 
whom they hate, does much less, his deeds are magnified. No 
deed equalling this in cruelty is attributed to William de Valence, 
yet. we do not call Edward I. a base adventurer. Moreover, it 
was a lawless age, which we must not judge by modern standards. 
When Simon de Montfort was killed at Evesham, a certain 
Marcher sent one of Simon’s hands to his wife.? We have 
stated previously that William had no example of lawful dealing 
among the fierce Marchers, but on the contrary the crude and 
effective methods of Prince Llewelyn. Simon de Montfort and 
the Earl of Gloucester and other of the older barons showed 
exceptional temperance and moderation in 1258 and the follow- 
ing years. The younger members of our “nobility” have, 
however, never been the most law-abiding of citizens, and 
William de Valence was no worse than the young Bohuns or the 
young Bigods. 3 

Many of William’s misdeeds can be attributed to the rashness 
of youth. We know that one of William’s chief characteristics 
was his hot temper. He had inherited Isabella of Angouléme’s 
imperious ways, and his easily aroused anger was never better 
shown than in the two scenes with Simon de Montfort in Parlia- 
ment. With the impatience of youth, and the prejudice of a 
foreigner, he would never examine the facts to see whether his 
servants were in the right or not in their constant quarrels with 
the English, but always believed his servants’ side of the story. 
The royal favours which Henry III. showered upon him at first 
changed William’s imperiousness into arrogance. Afterwards 
his two periods of exile and the determined nature of the opposi- 
tion with which he had to contend, tempered his first wildness 


1 Tout: Hdward I. p. 8. 

2 Chronica de Mailros, p. 202. 
'§“ Sweet reasonableness was a quality hardly to be assumed in a 
young feudal baron.” Treharne: Baronal Plan of Reform, p. 285. 


90 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


and arrogance and moderated him to a wiser man. This seems 
the only feasible explanation of the great change in William’s 
ways after 1265, which left him henceforth a faithful servant of 
Edward and England.! He may have been Anglicized ; perhaps 
the fiery times of his earlier life had purged the dross of his char- 
acter ; or he had gained wisdom in the school of experience. 

Thus the first characteristics we can attribute to William de 
Valence are his rashness, his arrogance, and his hot temper. 
Secondly, William throughout his life showed a great desire to 
obtain land and riches. In his early days his habit of accumulat- 
ing wardships, marriages, and King’s debts might be attributed 
to a youthful ambition after position and wealth. But in later 
years this turned to a kind of grasping. William was always on 
the outlook to obtain a piece of land here and a wardship there, 
and frequently entered into litigation to obtain quite small parcels 
of territory. His unscrupulousness cannot be denied. The most 
discreditable affair connected with William’s life was probably 
the case of Dionysia when he was willing to make a bastard of his 
own niece in order to obtain her lands. His grasping ways are 
the worst of all William’s characteristics. 

Despite his avarice, William seems to have inherited some of the 
personal charm of his father, that gay troubadour, Hugh X. of 
Lusignan, whose shiftiness was well remembered by Simon de 
Montfort. 2 William may have inherited some of his father’s 
finesse too. The most suave and charming men are often the 
most deceitful, and the definition of an ambassador as one who 
is sent to lie abroad for his country is well known. William, who 
definitely infatuated Henry III. and the Prince Edward * seems 
to have been an ideal diplomatist for he was employed again and 
again in this role by both Henry II]. and Edward I. 

One cannot fail to be impressed by the unswerving loyalty of 
William to his brother and his nephew. He was a member of 
the King’s Council, and his influence was considerable. Never 
for an instant did he waver from their side, and he was a 
potent force in securing the ultimate triumph of the royal arms 
in the Barons’ Wars and in the war against Llewelyn. More- 

1 Annales Monastici, iv. p. 452. 


2 Matthew Paris: Chronica Majora, v. p. 677. 
3 ibid. vi. p. 403. 


WILLIAM DE VALENCE 91 


over, perhaps, as a result of his constant practice in tournaments, 
William was an excellent soldier and a born general, and _ his 
military qualities were of great service to Edward I., for he 
proved his value on many a field of battle. He was not only a 
good general but a courageous fighter himself. He was known 
for his personal bravery and on one occasion offered to fight a 
duel on behalf of Edward I. 1 

William seems to have shown the same loyalty to his wife. 
Throughout a long married life, they co-operated together in 
fair weather as well as foul, oftentimes in rather unscrupulous 
work. When William was exiled to France, Joan’s first thought 
was to rejoin her husband, and she perhaps smuggled some 
money over to him at great risk to herself. 

Not many positive good deeds are recounted of William, but 
he founded a hospital for the sick and poor at Tenby and en- 
dowed it munificently. He appears to have shown considerable 
interest in the inhabitants of his adopted county of Pembroke, 
and even encouraged commerce among them. 

William also seems to have been a man of great persistence. 
Whether he was helping the King in war or in furthering a lawsuit 
in the courts, he was never satisfied until the matter at issue had 
been seen through to the bitter end. A temporary set-back 
stimulated him to a fresh endeavour. This persistence was the 
greatest asset on one occasion to Henry III., for William by coming 
back to Pembroke in 1265, after being twice exiled, started the 
revival of the royal cause. 

Of William’s countess, Joan, little is known. She reciprocated 
William’s loyalty to her. She seems to have been a strong and 
capable woman, and after bearing nine children to William lived 
to an advanced age. She was courageous enough to take com- 
mand of Winchester Castle, and give orders to a knight acting 
under her.? But she seems to have been more unscrupulous and 
grasping than her husband, and certainly did not inherit the 
noble character of her father, Warin de Montchesny.? 


1 See Gavrilovitch: Htude sur le Traite de Paris, p. 93. 

* Royal Letters iu. 311. 

3 See also D. L. Uffelmann: A great lady and her travels in the 
XIiith century. Church Quarterly Review, Vol. xcix, pp. 218-230. 
This is a year in the life of Joan de Montchesny from three unpub- 
lished Household Accounts. 


92 WILLIAM DE VALENCE 


At his death, about sixty-six years of age, William de Valence 
was buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey,—an 
evidence of the position of importance and trust which he occupied 
in the kingdom. He has a large altar tomb adorned with four 
shields, two of Valence and two of England. ‘On a wainscot 
chest above lies the wooden figure covered with gilt copper in a 
round helmet with a studded fillet and complete mail, the surcoat 
sprinkled with six small metal enamelled shields . . . all charged 
with the arms of Valence . . The helmet had a flowered fillet set 
with stones now pickt out. The belt is finely enamelled 
with the coat of arms. A lion lies at his feet.””! William’s arms 
are given as “ Burelle d’argent et d’azure de 10 pieces oile de 
martlets gules.” 

Finally, a word must be said of William’s issue, though they 
provide no commentary on his character. He and Joan had 
nine children. Their sons were John who died young, William 
‘le jeune,’ who was slain by the Welsh at Llandilo in 1280, and 
Aymer who became Harl of Pembroke and died in 1323, leaving 
nosons.? Of their daughters Yves died young, and also Margaret. 
Ann or Agnes, their sixth child, married first Maurice Fitzgerald 
and secondly Hugh de Baliol. Isabel, the seventh married John 
de Hastings, thus uniting the Pembroke and Braose lands, and 
became the ancestress of the Hastings, Earls of Pembroke. The 
other two children were Joan de Valence, who married John 
Comyn of Badenoch, and Elizabeth de Valence who died young. 

1Gough: Sepulchral monuments, pp. 75 seq. 


2 On account of his great height and paleness Piers Gaveston nick- 
named him “Joseph the Jew.’ Dugdale: Baronage, 1. 777. 


m. 


ugh X. m. Isabella 


K. John. 
| 


7 Ce gee aaa 


pffrey. Aymer. d. d. d. a.| 


JES Ee 


— 


| OE 
rabeth. William (°). 


L 


-awrence de Hastings. 


b) 


1 of the table. William ‘‘Ié Jeune ’ 


Henry Richard Joan. Eleanor m. 


of 
Cornwall. 


Simon de 
Montfort. 


was the eldest son actually. 


FRANK R. LEWIS. 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES* 
THE TRADE IN Pias, 1839-1862. 


The first activities of the dealer, were in connection with 
the pig trade, and for some years, the cattle and sheep business 
was subsidiary to it. The trade connection in pigs had 
been handed down to the dealer from his father, and it was 
natural in the early years for him to specialise in this line, 
while building up the business in sheep and cattle. Records 
of the trade in pigs are available in fairly complete form until 
about 1862, and it is probable that he gave up this line about 
that time, owing to the development of the cattle and sheep 
side of the business and the extension of railway facilities in 
South Wales enabling supplies of pigs to be transported easily 
and quickly into centres of demand. There is not much 
specific evidence which describes the pig enterprise on 
Cardiganshire farms in the forties of last century. But the 
published material indicates and the data of these records 
confirm the view that pigs were bred and reared on mixed 
farms very much as they are now. Farmers kept one or more 
breeding sows regularly, and sold some weaner pigs mainly 
to cottagers in the surrounding district, and reared other pigs 
in preparation for fattening for the bacon markets. The con- 
suming market in South Wales had developed considerably 
by 1840, and provided a market for the surplus produce of 
farms in Cardiganshire. 

The business of this dealer was confined throughout this 
period to the purchase of pigs in the autumn and winter 
months for sale in the South Wales valleys. Presumably, the 
production of baconers was the principal feature of pigs on 
mixed farms, and the considerable arable cultivation for both 
cereals and potatoes facilitated the enterprise. There is no 
evidence in the records of the ages at which pigs were sold, but 


.*The First Part of this Article appeared in Volume XIII of Aber- 
ystwyth Studies. 


93 


94 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


the data on weight of the animals suggest that they would not 
be less than 12 to 15 months old when ready for slaughter. 
Pigs were probably allowed free run in the summer to attain 
the requisite size of carcase for intensive fattening in the autumn 
months. It is clear from the records, which show a large 
number of entries for one or two pigs purchased, that the 
cottagers and small holders took a prominent part in this pro- 
duction of pigs for both bacon and pork. 

Generally, the pigs were purchased at the fairs in the dis- 
trict and driven to an assembling centre prior to the final 
journey to slaughter. Operations were confined mainly to 
districts Mid and North Cardiganshire, but in some seasons, 
especially in the earlier years, Towyn and Newcastle Emlyn 
were also important centres of purchase. After assembly at 
a convenient centre, sometimes at the dealer’s farm, but more 
often at Llanddewi Brefi or Lampeter, the pigs would be driven 
slowly across the Teify and into Llandovery, through Trecastle 
into Glanrafon, and finally to Tredegar in Monmouthshire. 
The process there was for the pigs to be slaughtered by arrange- 
ment with the owner of the slaughterhouse, and the carcases 
sold to butchers and other traders in the district. The business 
was old established, and the dealer had a valuable trade con- 
nection in the district, so that a system which would outwardly 
appear to be cumbersome to handle, was undertaken easily 
and without undue loss of time. There is no evidence that 
purchases were made on a commission basis, and the dealer 
took the risk of both purchase and sale. The business, however, 
was so well established that very frequently the series of trans- 
actions were conducted by his trusted head drover, while the 
dealer personally handled the cattle or sheep. 

Numbers of pigs in each separate lot handled varied from 
about thirty to over a hundred, with an average of fifty or sixty, 
and these were moved almost invariably over the same main 
route, but with slight variations according to need of assembly 
of individual lots at one centre. Pigs purchased at Aberystwyth 
were driven through Llanrhystyd Road, via Lledrod to Tre- 
garon and thence to Llanddewi Brefi. Similarly pigs purchased 
at Towyn were brought to Aberdovey, and they there crossed 
the estuary at low water and thence to Aberystwyth. Purchases 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES _ 95 


in Newcastle Emlyn were driven up the valley to Lampeter to 
_ join other lots going south. Details of the routes taken may be 
seen in the lists of expenses compiled by the dealer in his trans- 
actions ; one of these may be quoted for illustration. 


Hzpenses Pigs purchased at Towyn, Dec. 6th, 1843. 


n 


Dara FENMNNOCKR TORE NWF KO: 


Towyn tavern 

2 Drovers at Towyn 

Towyn gate 

Cross the river (Dovey) 

Carry the pigs 

Ditto. 

Foelynys tavern 
Rhydypennau tavern 

Drive the pigs 

Aberystwyth gate 
Llanbadarn tavern 

Figure four ie 

Lledrod 

Drive the pigs Ko ihlenedent 
Carry the pigs ot 
Lampeter tavern .. 

Drivers 

Carry the pigs fom leaieapetes 
Carry the pigs fs 
Caio tavern 

Llandovery tavern 

Carry the pigs from ici, 
Trecastle gate aA j 
Trecastle tavern 

Hill gate a 
Pontstikill tavern 

Capelnant tavern .. 
Rhymney gate 

-Troedyrhiw tavern 

Tredegar tavern 


= 


jal 


a 


Selo e Gro OoOoeaoeGcerPooeeeoooeoocecoqeo 
— 


SCONDDOCOROCHRCCH GAB CCAOADtD OMDB BM DOCOOFS 


ks = SS eS 
NOoreNMONANRP RP ONMWF OC a 


The actual routes taken naturally varied according to cir- 
cumstances. If there were two sub-lots arranged one from 
the North, and the other from the South to join at Lampeter, 
then the main route would be taken from Llanddewi Brefi to 
Lampeter and thence through Pumpsaint. But if there were 
no assembling at Lampeter, the pigs would move over the 
mountain from Llanddewi out to Cilyewm and Caio for Llan- 


96 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


dovery. Again a short cut was regularly taken from between 
Trecastle and Sennybridge over the Moors into Penderyn, and on 
to Troedyrhiw and Tredegar. ‘Towards 1860 conditions changed 
greatly and pigs were moved from South Cardigan, through 
Llandyssul, Alltwalis and Carmarthen where they were railed 
as far as Merthyr and driven again to the centre of slaughter. 

The process of driving pigs over long distances was naturally 
more difficult than driving either cattle or sheep. Progress 
was slower, and with the perversity characteristic of the pig, 
there were many forced halts and individual pigs had to be 
conveyed in carts for considerable distances to the next resting 
place, when they would again decide to walk in the morning. 
There are continual references to “ carry’ the pigs in the notes 
of expenses incurred, and these refer to the normal procedure 
of hiring local carriers to follow the drove and pick up the 
stragglers. 

WEIGHT AND SIZE OF PIGS. 

One of the main weaknesses of these records of a dealer’s 
activities is that purchase and sale was generally made per 
head with no actual information provided of the weight and 
size of the animals. That system of valuation by observation 
only, has been retained up to modern times with store stock 
in Wales, although in many districts all fat stock is weighed 
whether sold through the auction or privately. It is however 
fortunate that in these records of dealing in pigs there is some 
data of weights of live pigs and of carcases given in the dealer’s 
accounts which add considerably to the value of the in- 
formation of prices. In general, pigs were purchased on a per 
head basis at the local fairs, without accurate knowledge of 
live weight. But for some reason the weights in pounds, of pigs 
purchased in Towyn, were always recorded. It has not been 
possible to follow the Towyn pigs through to final slaughter, 
and to compare carcase weights with liveweights of pigs, 
because they were generally merged into other lots from other 
districts and slaughtered together. But following the details 
of carcase weights, there is some evidence that the pigs from 
Towyn were appreciably heavier than pigs generally purchased | 
in Cardiganshire, so that it is not possible to compare the average 
of all carcase weights with liveweights of Towyn pigs. The data 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 97 
from Towyn are limited to the decade 1840-1850, and purchases 
in the later period were more confined to Mid-Cardigan. 


Inveweight of pigs purchased at Towyn, 1840-1850. 


Average 

Number | live- live- price price per 
Year. of | weight. weight. per score 

| pigs. Ibs. lbs. pig. liveweight. 
| £)Usid Ss; di. 
1841 36 323 244403 | 48> O 5 6 
1842 . 50 339 299—392 ZW ae 3.5 
1843 54 364 208 436410 3. 3 a 38 
1845 128 340 | 282—399 412 0 5 5 
1846 53 330 272—404 4 6 0 5 3 
1849 | 140 348 | 263424 0) oe 40 
1850 92 370 285—462 3.14 4 4 0 

Average 

1841-50 | 345 277—417 3716.) 6) 4 6 


The figures in the table give some idea of the size of pigs 
purchased at Towyn, ranging in some years from fourteen to 
over twenty-three score, with an average liveweight over the 
period of about seventeen score. The price per score was very 
low even when compared with prices ruling in recent depressions 
of the pigs market. In the two years 1842 and 1843, the price 
paid to the producer was only very slightly more than two- 
pence per pound liveweight. Over the period, the average 
price was only 4s. 6d. per score or less than 2?d. per pound. 
The animals were driven a distance up to a hundred miles 
from Towyn to Tredegar, and there must have been con- 
siderable wastage and loss of weight between purchase and 
slaughter. The schedule of expenses show that the journey 
was made as quickly as possible with only occasional feeds of 
potatoes and tavern scraps to the pigs. As far as can be as- 
certained from the records the carcase weight of the Towyn 
pigs varied from about eleven to thirteen score deadweight, 
or an average of twelve score. Comparing this with the normal 
liveweight of seventeen score, the carcase weighed equivalent 
to about 70 per cent. of the live pig. Fully grown pigs of 
mature age would not normally show a 30 per cent. loss in 


98 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


slaughter, so that there was an appreciable net loss of live- 
weight in the journey to the centre of slaughter. This com- 
plicated the dealer’s calculation of the purchase price in relation 
to the market value of the carcase. The margin per score be- 
tween purchase price of pigs and the sale price of meat show 
clearly that allowance was made for the loss in weight in transit, 
and the not inconsiderable risk of losses in this long distance 
movement of pigs. 

Normally the pigs were sold on carcase weight. and all 
details of weights and cash received are faithfully entered in the 
records. The mass of material, available for each season is very 
uniform and selections have been made to bring out the main 
features of sales over the period. 


Sales of Pig Carcases in South Wales. 


Sample Average Average | Price 
Number carcase sale Index 
Year. of weight | price 1840-45= 

pigs. per pig. | per score. 100. 

| Score. Lbs. Samad: es 

1840 47 10 10 tr, 112 
184] 134 10 9 7 6 109 
1842 217 11 4. 6 0 88 
1843 393 11 1 6 0O 88 
1845 94 10 5 he 103 
1852 391 9 18 7 6 109 
1853 268 9 a fone 125 
god <i) | Mls8 9 8 9 9 142 
1855 12] 9 0 9 5 137 
1858 101 9 7 8 10 129 
1859 149 11 0 7 9 113 
1860 189 i> 2 9 0 131 
1861 188 ee | 9 8 141 
1862 ! 229 | 9 12 9 5 137 
Average | 193 [ae SLORY (3 | Si a2 119 


The sale price per score is seen to have risen only slightly in 
the twenty years 1840-60. There were variations from season 
to season and for individual lots within each season, but prices 
on the whole remained reasonably stable. The data is ob- 
viously insufficient to bear testimony to the existence or other- 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 99 


wise of the now familiar cycle in pig prices. But there may be 
some trace of a cycle to be seen in the table where the years 
seem to pair off naturally with high and low price figures. 
It has not been possible to compare live and dead weight prices 
over this period, but the comparison between the dead weight 
prices in period 1840-45 in this Table and the liveweight pur- 
chase price of Towyn pigs in the previous table is very interest- 
ing. The average sale price of carcases was about 6s. 10d. per 
score, against 4s. 6d. per score liveweight purchase price; almost 
exactly two-thirds of the sale price. If the actual expenses 
of handling the pigs were about 2s. 6d. per head or threepence 
per score and these are added to the purchase price, then the ratio 
is almost exactly 100: 70 between sale and purchase price. This 
coincides with the estimate of 70 per cent. carcase weight sug- 
gested above, but without allowing a margin of profit to the 
dealer, so that this estimate should be modified somewhat up- 
wards between 72 - 75 per cent. Using this latter figure for 
carcase percentage of liveweight the average liveweight of 
Mid-Cardigan pigs would appear to have been around fourteen 
score, compared with seventeen for the Towyn pigs. 


PURCHASE AND SALE Prices PER HEAD. 

It has been mentioned above that pigs were purchased 
normally on a per head basis, and price figures on this basis 
established the trends of the market over this period. They 
ean be used in conjunction with the information of live and 
dead weights in the preceding section in order to give some 
guidance to economic conditions on Welsh farms at that time. 

Purchases were restricted almost entirely to the months from 
November to February, so that it is impossible to examine the 
data for seasonal movements in prices. But prices varied from 
centre to centre, and to some extent these variations reflected 
differences in the quality and weight of pigs or they may have 
been partly due to changes in market prices. However the 
variations in most seasons were only slight, and the range was 
very close about the average. Two examples of the range of 
prices during the season will illustrate the normal fluctuation. 
Hach price figure represents the purchase of a number of pigs 
at a fair or market centre or in some cases on the farms about 
the county. 


100 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


| | Average 
| price 

Number per head 

Market or Fair. Date. purchased. | shillings. 
Aberystwyth .. ..| January ord... 49 83.4 
Lampeter | s llth .. 55 | 102.5 
Llanarth | (eed eenae 29 107.2 
Aeaicagh | gen | 90 $8.9 
de a us x“ Deel 58 | 83.2 
MidCardigan(onFarms)| February 7th .. | 42 | 86.2 
i. - November 8th .. | 28 93.9 
Aberystwyth .. ee | November 2lIst .. 42 88.5 
53 55 December 19th ..| 48 83.2 
Talybont bes. Beihai 82.4 

(b) 1843. 

Aberystwyth | January 2nd 46 58.0 
Lampeter 30 ita: 88 58.8 
Llanarth sp 12th . 27 60.0 
Aberystwyth a Lith”. 4] 56.4 
Taly bont : ue ., 25th .. 68 61.7 
Capel Sansilin i | February 7th .. 99 62.5 
Neweastle Emlyn 5 Otho: 33 64.3 
Aberystwyth .. | PAIS eee 59 55.7 
Mid Cardigan : 95 30th .. 93 58.8 
Aberystwyth | March Cia 3% 37 53.9 
Tregaron 50 Wala 3 5 | 51 50.5 
Mid Cardigan .. oe | October 4th ..| 28 BOO 
Capel Cynon .. a i 19th .. 39 56.7 
Llanybyther .. ..| November Ist .. 35 56.6 
Aberystwyth .. ae os Oth. 55 60.2 
Mid Cardigan .. “tbe ss 21sth ce. 26 55.3 
Newcastle Emlyn Alp a MSVRO Ng B 38 61.6 
Towyn .. be -. |) December) 6th). 54 68.5 
Llanwnen ie a - Oth 2.3) On 57.0 
Mid Cardigan .. oe 3 26th .. 93 56.0 


es ee ne 


The variation in price at different centres is shown to have 
been very small, but with a tendency for the price to be slightly 
higher in Mid-Cardigan than at Aberystwyth. The example 
of the pigs from Towyn is brought out clearly in the example 
above for 1843. While the average price of pigs at all centres 
was about 58s. the average price at Towyn was over 68s. per 
head. The difference of ten shillmgs per pig at the price of 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 101 


3s. 9d. per score of the Towyn pigs in that year confirms the 
statement that they were on the average more than two scores 
heavier than pigs normally in Cardiganshire. 

The best statement of average purchase prices of pigs on 
analysis of all the data is set out in the Table below. 


Average Purchase Prices of Pigs 1839-1862. 


Wear Average price | Year. Average price 
| shillings per head. | shillings per head. 
1839 | 71.3 1850 69.5 
1840 67.6 1852 71.5 
1841 75.9 1853 77.3 
1842 68.3 1854 88.0 
1843 58.4 1858 78.3 
1844 61.5 1859 C62 
1845 72.4 1860 376 
1846 78.1 1861 81.0 
1849 | 66.9 | 1862 | 82.7 


The data for 1842 for example shows that prices moved around 
80 shillings in the early part of that year, while in November 
and December they dropped as low as 55s. per head. This was 
not a normal seasonal movement, as can be seen in the examples 
of prices over the season given above p. 100. Prices remained 
low from November 1842 till the close of 1844 when they rose 
gradually to 70 and 80 shillings per head at the close of 1845 
and remained only very slightly higher in 1846. Prices were 
considerably lower in 1849 when the records are again available, 
and they rose very gradually to 1854. The evidence is ob- 
viously insufficient to establish the cycle, but the familiar 
phenomenon of rapid changes in prices over a short period can 
be detected. If the conditions of the modern cycle can 
be traced, the period of the complete cycle was definitely 
longer ; probably nearer six than four years. 

The next step in the analysis is an attempt to measure the 
dealer’s margin of profit in the pig trade, and for this purpose 
selections of records of complete transactions have had to be 
used in each year. The figures of purchase prices will there- 


102 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


fore differ slightly but not materially from those above, 
which were obtained from the total turnover of business. 


Purchase and Sale prices; and Profit Margins. 


| Number of Average Average Gross Margin 
Year. | Pigs in the Purchase Sale Price of Profit 
sample. Price per per head. per head. 
head. ! 
£8. 4d. £ isscd Ss Cle 
1842 191 Py o2 826 3G 6 0 
1843 449 2 19 10 3) O46 5 8 
1852 437 3 11 6 314° 3 2-9 
1853 425 317 3 4 2 0 4 9 
1854 551 4 8 0 4 9 6 1 6 
1858 261 3.16 7 | 4 3 0 6 5 
1859 424 B72 | A 2% 0 4 10 
1860 195 | Di ao DPS 2a 
1861 276 £1 Oa Pa) 6 10 
1862 360 4929 4 eG 4 9 


Only those years have been included in this Table for which 
a sufficient number of complete and accurate records were 
available to justify putting forward representative averages. 
The detailed schedules of expenses incurred in handling the 
pigs from purchase to slaughter are available for a few in- 
dividual lots in some years and for a considerable number in 
others, but the data does not correspond exactly with that 
used for the above Table. Some reference has already been 
made above to the incidence of expenses, and the following 
figures of average expenses per head summarise the position 
as far as the material allows : 
Average Expenses. 


Year. per pig. 
s. d 
1842 2°29 
1843 2 25 
1844 2 0 
1853 2a 
1854 2 7 
1859 29 
1861 3 0 
1862 3° 3 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 103 


It is very probable that some of these are on the low side, 
and a figure of about three shillings per head would appear to 
represent the normal current expenses, in assembling, driving, 
feeding, carrying the pigs to the point of slaughter. Taking 
into account the difficulty of keeping an accurate detailed ac- 
count of these items the small range shown in the figures above 
from year to year is very satisfactory. It is uncertain what 
arrangement existed with regard to offals, but there is no 
reference to them in the accounts with the exception of two 
isolated items shown of lard sold at 25s. and 15s. But if it is 
assumed that the costs of slaughter were met out of the realisa- 
tion value of the offals, then the gross margin of profit was 
greater than the direct expenses in seven out of the ten years 
given in the Table above. The average gross profit over the 
period was 4s. 6d. giving a net profit of about 1s 6d. per head. 
On a turnover of a thousand pigs per season, which was about 
the normal turnover there would be a net profit of about £75. 


THE TRADE IN SHEEP 1839-1870. 

The dealer’s business in sheep developed after 1839, but it 
was never as important as the trade in pigs in the early period 
or the cattle business in the later years. In general, the trade 
in sheep was developed to occupy the summer months, when 
trade in pigs and cattle was almost at a standstill. But from 
small beginnings, with only one or two lots in May or June, 
the turnover of sheep grew year by year, and the buying season 
extended in some seasons from early June to late September. 
In the first years of the period, the records show that the dealer 
operated, only around his home district in Mid-Cardigan, buy- 
ing sheep on commission for dealers at Tregaron, in the 
local fairs. This only lasted for two or three years, and there 
followed another short period, when the sheep were moved to 
Brecon or Builth and sold there to dealers or farmers, at the 
fairs. Before 1845, however, the dealer was moving sheep 
across into England as far as Worcester and later into Bucking- 
ham and Aylesbury. But the sheep business became thoroughly 
established only when the dealer built trade connections 
in the Eastern Counties, and more especially in the district 
‘around London. From about 1847, the records show that 


104 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 
almost invariably the sheep were moved to Harrow-on-the-Hill 
—now a London suburb, and the dealer’s headquarters were 
the house of a Mr. Hodson, who was a farmer on a large scale. 
This gentleman and members of his family purchased regularly 
large numbers of sheep, and this trade connection between 
the Welsh dealer and the English gentleman farmer can be 
followed in these records up to 1870. The details of disposal 
of some lots of sheep show that small batches were sold on 
the way up to Harrow, sometimes at markets en route, and 
other times by private arrangement, or definite orders by 
English farmers, but almost invariably the final destination 
was Harrow-on-the-Hill where most of the sheep were transferred 
to their English buyers. There is no evidence to show that 
the Welsh dealer bought sheep on a definite commission basis 
for the English buyers, but there may have been some under- 
standing of this nature between the dealer and Mr. Hodson, 
who was the chief buyer. The Welsh dealer purchased mixed 
lots, and made the selections from these to suit his English 
customers. On the whole it would appear that the sheep branch 
of the business was less difficult than either cattle or pigs, and 
this may be partly due to the valuable trade connection of the 
dealer around Harrow. There is no record to show difficulty 
in selling sheep, or holding over of the animals for a more 
favourable market as was the case quite often with cattle and 
this suggests that purchases were made more or less on definite 
orders, probably through Mr. Hodson at Harrow. 

In the early part of the period, from 1839-1845, when sheep | 
were purchased on commission for Tregaron dealers, or moved 
for re-sale at Brecon or Builth, purchases were made mainly 
in Mid and South Cardigan, and these were finally assembled 
at Tregaron. The route to Brecon from Tregaron was the 
familiar one outlined in the study of cattle, through Cwmberwyn 
to Abergwesyn. But as soon as the connection was established 
with English buyers, and sheep moved across England to 
Harrow, the assembling centre moved to Machynlleth. Pur- 
chases of sheep were discontinued in Mid-Cardigan, and activity 
was concentrated around Machynlleth, Towyn, Dolgelley and 
Llanbrynmair, and the lots were generally assembled and moved 
from Machynlleth. The explanation for this can only be that 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 105 


the demand for customers favoured the mountain sheep, and 
Machynlleth was a natural centre for assembly of supplies from 
the hills of Merioneth. Occasionally sheep were bought around 
Aberystwyth, particularly at Talybont, and these were driven 
over Plynlymon to Llangurig and Rhayader thence to Cross 
Gates, Penybont, to join the other droves near the English 
border. Sheep bought on the hills around Tregaron, at Pont- 
rhydygroes, and Pontrhydfendigaid were driven, through Cwm- 
ystwyth and to Rhayader, forward to join the main flock before 
entering into England. Driving sheep across country was a 
highly skilled task for experienced drovers, and trained sheep 
dogs. The routes cut across hills and valleys, avoiding toll 
gates, and providing as much free grazing as possible for the 
animals in transit. A very interesting example of a cross- 
country route was the one generally used from Machynlleth to 
the English border. The main stopping places, and taverns 
are mentioned in the records, and the route can be drawn fairly 
accurately from this material. The mountain track was 
followed from Machynlleth to Dylife (there is still a mountain 
road here but it is seldom used) and Staylittle and then bearing 
east to Trefeglwys. The next place mentioned is Llanbadarn- 
fynydd, and the route probably lay across the Severn between 
Llandinam and Lianidloes and over the mountain to Llan- 
badarn, then past Bryn Golfa, and Llangoch to Knighton. Then 
they crossed to Lingen, and Orleton near the border, and across 
country to Worcester. The toll gates are first mentioned at 
Worcester, and presumably the turnpike roads were followed 
across the Midlands, through Broadway, Moreton in the Marsh, 
Buckingham or Aylesbury into Harrow-on-the-Hill. Places, fre- 
quently mentioned on the English section of the route were 
Kingsland, Orleton, Five Bridges, Worcester, Africa Tavern, 
Mickleton, Littlehampton and Icknam. 

The sheep had to be driven slowly across country by the 
drovers on ponies, and the trip took from 20 to 25 days. The 
dealer himself generally jomed the sheep en route or travelled 
by coach to London, to take charge of the selling and returned 
again by coach to a convenient centre in Wales where his pony 
waited to continue the round of more purchases in the local 
markets. In general, two drovers accompanied the sheep for 


106 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


the whole journey, and these men were paid at the rate of from 
three to four shillings per day with an allowance of about ten 
shillings each for the return journey. There were other men 
employed at the assembling centre, and sometimes four or 
more men attended the sheep until they were clear of the Welsh 
mountains, and the track made driving easier. These men 
stayed the nights with the sheep at farms, or in the out- 
buildings of taverns, and there is no record of the dealer paying 
tavern expenses of his drovers. Presumably they had to meet 
their own expenses for food, drink and lodging from the daily 
wage of four shillings provided. In the early part of the period 
there is an interesting record o: the expenses of the dealer at 
taverns on the way when the cost of a night’s lodging was 
generally around ninepence. ‘There is also record of the fare 
from London by coach which varied from about £1 15s Od. to 
£2 6s Od along the years. The following list of expenses recorded 
in 1864 for a lot of nearly 1,500 sheep taken from Machynlleth 
to Harrow-on-the Hill illustrates the main n points of the journey 
from West to Hast. 


Account Hxpenses of Sheep. 


th 
of) 


About the County (buying) 

2 gates to Machynlleth 

Machynlleth Tavern 

3 gates at Machynlleth 

Cawilldin farm—grass 

Driver ; 

Llanbadarn Parga SERS 

Farm at Knighton—grass 

3 Gates at Worcester 

Ale for men at Brickstock 

My expenses to Brentwood : Ws 

Drovers’ Wages: Charles Jones 25 days 
John PRD oss 
John Charles 24 ,, 
Daniel Jones 23 ,, 
John Williams 30 ,, 

Expenses of sheep on the road .. st S eae 

Expenses of buying sheep 

Personal Expenses at Harrow-on-the- Hill 

Personal Expenses coming home 


Hee 
GS © =I 


— 


— 
OSCE WON AaAS FH KP OC} RF WL! 


Sere TOOT AP OOOOH KH OF Onweo?e 


ovale. SM og: oe - te Oks uot LO 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 107 


This total cost is equivalent approximately to a shilling per 
head, and this can be taken as a modal figure over the period. 
The itemised schedules are not given in such detail as with 
cattle, and the cost of sundry toll gates, grass, and tavern 
expenses on the journey through England are included in the 
item “‘ Expenses of sheep on the road.” These expenses were 
met by the head drover as they occurred, and he was repaid 
by the dealer in a lump sum at the destination. 

It was common for more than two thousand sheep to be driven 
in one lot, and it is only natural that losses by death and ex- 
haustion occurred on the way, while some sheep escaped to the 
mountain. In the record of some lots, losses up to fifty head 
were recorded, and the normal loss through death would not 
be less than a score. An example of a record of sheep losses 
or partial losses in transit is as follows. 


Lot No. 3. October 9th, 1862. 


2 dead at Ponterwyd 

1 sold Machynlleth—3/- 
5 lost Machynlleth 

1 dead Abergarog. 

2 left at Caeitha. 

3 sold Staylittle. 

1 dead Cawilldin. 

3 lost on mountain. 

1 dead Trefeglwys 

1 dead Llwyncelyn. 

1 dead Postgwyn. 

1 dead on the road—6d. 
1 dead Hayfield. 

1 dead Uxbridge. 

1 dead Harrow—4/-. 

2 sold ‘*‘ Shoulder of Mutton,” tavern 2/6d. 


_ Occasionally some part of the value of sheep lost on the road 
was recovered, but in general there was a dead loss of between 
twenty and fifty sheep on each journey. 


PURCHASE AND SALE PRICES OF SHEEP. 
Considerable difficulty arises in the interpretation of the 
records of prices of sheep. The trade was confined mainly 
to the four months June to September, but in June and 
duly the trade was mainly in wethers; while in August both 
wethers and draft ewes were handled, and in September the 


108 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


trade was confined to ewes. It is uncertain whether lambs 
were handled in some years; no mention is made in the 
records of this trade and it is very unlikely that lambs would 
be moved these long distances. The final destination of all 
classes of sheep centred around MHarrow-on-the-Hill with 
minor sales in Berkshire and Buckingham. Presumably the 
trade in wethers towards late summer was connected with 
light land farms in these districts where the sheep were fattened 
on the roots. The trade in draft ewes between the Welsh 
mountain areas and these English districts, still exists to some 
extent ; the ewes being used for breeding for one or more seasons, 
and fattened off the turnips. There is no data in the records 
which describes the class of sheep handled, but the districts 
where supplies were purchased give some clue. The wethers 
were generally sold in the second or third season off the Merioneth 
or the Tregaron hills and the ewes were the normal two or three 
crop ewes drafted from the flocks. It can be assumed that 
the sheep purchased in these hilly areas were the Welsh moun- 
tain ewes and wethers, but other sheep bought in the lowlands 
of Mid and South Cardigan, probably included cross-breds of 
various descriptions and slightly bigger in size than the upland 
sheep. 

It would be misleading to present merely the simple average 
of all prices of sheep given in the records for each year, and in 
the table below the average prices in two periods are given, 
together with the average prices for the season. Prices in 
May, June, July are clearly prices of wether sheep, while prices 
in August, September (and occasionally in October) represent 
mainly prices of draft ewes, although numbers of wethers were 
generally included in the lots purchased, even at this period. 
In most of the records the wethers purchased in this latter part 
of the season are specifically mentioned so that it has been 
possible to extract the range of purchase prices for wethers and 
for ewes separately in August and September. This complica- 
tion of the table of purchase prices has been necessary in order 
to provide as much information as possible of prices of different 
categories of sheep as well as giving some idea in the general 
average of prices of the normal returns to Welsh farmers for the 
sheep out-turn of their farms. 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 109 


Purchase prices of Sheep per head 1839-1869. 


| Ewes and Ewes | Wethers Seasonal 
Year. Wethers,; Wethers. August and | August and | Average 
MayJune! August and| September | September | prices all 
July. | September range. range. sheep. 
s. d Sd Se dy LOM Sme Gly cSPo gi! Ol, (Sonex Ole, San ae 
1839 iat © om tbs Mngt ae ae ll 9 
1840 lee) 4 a cree egy ns PO Ne ni a 
1841 Hila guy GOs OMG te POM 91110 
1842 10 9 = Da ie Se iGO 
1843 iss 5 5 SiO 4 Ol GeO On 6 en 6 
1844 ee cor eee Ole si ae OG) cos co 
iea5, aie oe Oh ess SB Ks 6 sol) ha to 
Average | 
1839-45 il 3 6 9 | ay eel ae | Fee QAO ers |" 8. 11G 
1849 | 9 6 SS ae eee hones 9 6 
1850 9 7 bel Srl Ga Ole s. 10=—. 9). 3 7 10 
1851 | ae be 3 A 028 “Se Pee Soi 
1852 NIG 8 0 : Gen OU EGO 1622 119 9 2 
Average |! | | 
1849-52 | 10 5 eel Ae een) WA 9 Oi S) 8 9 
1856 125 o & | 7 O-10 OMI 0-18 TO ay i 
1857 14 0 9 9 7 0-310 3 12 11 | 10 9 
1858 12 9 Q. 5 Oe le ONO. 0==1 6H Ol. 10n 0 
Average | 
1856-58 a Oy 1 S10 Be Ge 0, 10 3 
1862 12 9 GeO ars 0 0lls o-1s ol 9 9 
1863 id B | 10 6 1 0-12 Bi BIA Geet 
1864 16 0 10 10 5 G22) OU Ca Os a 
1865 1a 12 4 S Gol4 O16 e229 Bae 
1866 me Var 4 (oO Ol 19 02293. 31 17" 4 
1867 as a ies Ti G==NO OI 13 G14 6) > 1s 7 
1868 is 3 ie) ee O==NOUE Gl) 6-12 0.01 98. 12 
1869 1D: 8 : 7 4 10== 9) 6110 0-12 0 9 2 
Average 
1862-69 | 14 7 | 10) Opes oie 3 9-15 9| il 6 


The table sets out the information available as clearly as 
possible, without covering up the prices of different classes 
of sheep in a general average price for the season. The data is 


110 THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 


insufficient for this detailed analysis in some periods, and the 
use of the general average of prices only at these points might be 
misleading. For example the sheep purchased in 1839 and 
1840 consisted entirely of wethers, while in 1843 to 1845, all 
the records refer to purchases of ewes. The general average 
shows the price to be halved during the period 1839-45 because 
of this difference in the class of sheep handled in the opening 
and the closing years of the period. The information on the 
other hand for the three later periods is fairly regular and com- 
plete, giving a fair idea of the prices of wethers and ewes in 
each year, while the average of the season gives an indication 
of the trend of prices as a whole. Speaking of the period 
generally, it may be said that sheep did not show the same 
degree of sharp rise in prices as cattle after 1855. There 
were more fluctuations in the sheep market over short periods, 
but with a gradual rising tendency. A regular feature of the 
information is that prices of wethers were higher than prices 
of ewes, the margin bringing from three to seven shillings per 
head more for wethers according to the season. 

The records are not sufficiently complete to enable a sum- 
mary to be made of the margins between sales and purchases, 
with statements of expenses for all transactions in each season. 
But a number of the records of transactions are complete in 
each year, and these have been summarised below to give an 
indication of the dealer’s margin in trading. 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 111 


Average Prices of Sheep and Gross Profit Margins. 


| | 

| | Average Average Average 
Wear: Number | purchase | Sale price gross profit 

purchased. price per per head. margin 

| head.* per head. 

| | cy s. d | Sh Gls 
1839 Ge =e aah 9 19 8 D6 
1840 658 | elena 128 011 
1841 1,200 2 12 0 0 10 
1842 793 | 10 9 ll 0 0 3 
1844 941 i oY 13 1 6 
1845 1,927 le te2, oes 2 6 
1849 894 Ya | 11 11 M4 
1850 1,436. 7102 | OB Le 
1851 3,997 8 6 10 0 | 17 6 
1852 3,615 | 9 2 ll 9 Zhen 
1856 3,082 10 1 eG Iss) 
1857 2,871 10 12 1 10 
1858 3,418 10 0 a 7 ah ee ed a7 
1862 4,607 Bo DY it 22 
1863 4,659 ll 0 4 7 Le yl 
1864 3,709 12 0 13 42 ae 2 
1865 SOLO 71) b=! 1 8 16 3 gg 
1866 3,130 7. 3 1G) 2s 
1867 1,970 ae od 13 8 2 1 
1868 1,957 8 2 10 5 2 3 


*These tigures may differ slightly from those in the previous table 
because selections of transactions have been made in some 
years for this table. 


The margins of gross profit varied from threepence per head 
to over three shillings, giving an average over the whole period 
of about 1/9d. per head to meet all expenses, and to provide 


WEST WALES 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN 


112 


an income to the dealer after allowing some interest on capital. 


Information on expenses incurred lacks completeness in most 
seasons, but accurate data is available for the years 1862-64 


which is helpful to illustrate. 


9 ZL 29 |9 © TLT|O SI FEz|9 IT 1973 |9 81 902%‘% | 6OL‘E [e10.L 
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Z Zi LL 101 0 (£9 10 €1 OF1TIO: SI S16. 10S SLE ESF‘ Ig ‘sny 
@ 6 Sf 16 0-08 10 sl IE 0 0. 199 10:78 6r9 Z18 oz Aine 

‘POST 

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6-9-6 16 G 2o-19 oi ze 0 of OSh 19 GE LIP 9LG gt Aine 

E981 

8 OL PZE\— IT LOT/O 3 Z6r 16 OT 8ELi2|6 8 92'S | LOOF RON 
0’ 81 ZLI1|6 LI GL 16 ST 8rZ| GST 98I‘T F 0 8&6 FIO‘S 6L ‘ydeg 
HL Sly 009) 6 ue 0) 896-6 fl c6L C8L‘T IZ ‘sny 
6 OL 9€ E €l Ig |0 #F 89 |O S&T €s¢ ° Il SIg 088 91 Ane 

| 3 | ‘ZO8T 

*SSO'T LO sosued xq ‘ULB IC IL *PoATOVOY | pred poseyoInd “37ep 
ZU01Id YON SSOI‘) Yysey | Ysey | TQ UT NT pue IC9 A. 


a i 


"F9-ZOSL sHnsey buiposy, Aaoys 


The expenses over these three seasons remained fairly con- 
stant at rather less than a shilling per sheep handled. But the 


net profit varied considerably with individual lots within a 


An actual net loss only 


season and from season to season. 


appears once in the series, but it is extremely likely that there 
were some other expenses incurred which were not recorded as 


THE LIVESTOCK TRADE IN WEST WALES 113 


cash payments and which would convert small apparent profits 
into real losses on a small scale. Examples of these items would 
be the grass provided on the dealers’ own farms for sheep col- 
lected for assembly and for despatch at a later date, various 
personal expenses, and the unpaid work of members of the 
family in connection with the business. The net profits, how- 
ever, shown for both 1862 and 1863 must be considered satis- 
factory on the comparatively small turnover of little more than 
two thousand pounds in the short period of about four months. 
The losses incurred through death and other causes on the 
journey to the English destinations are not allowed specifically 
in the expenses, but they affected the total cash receipts from 
sales, and therefore reduced the gross margin of profit available 
to provide for expenses, and to leave a residue of net profit. 

J. Lurretys DaAviss. 


CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES—Continued. 


VOLUME XI. 

‘William Wilson’ and the Conscience of Edgar Allan Poe, by George H. Green, 
M.A., Ph.D., B.Litt. The Celtic Stratum in the Place-Nomenclature of 
East Anglia, by O. K. Schram, M.A., Ph.D. Dialects and Bilingualism, by 
Professor T. Gwynn Jones, M.A. An Enquiry into the Conditions of Subject 
Teaching in Secondary and Central Schools in Wales, by A. Pinsent, M.A., 
B.Sc. Corydon and the Cicadae: A Correction, by Professor H. J. Rose, 
M.A., and Miss Winstanley, M.A. 


VOLUME XII. 

The Composition of ‘ The Raven,’ by George H. Green, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., B.Litt. 
March ap Meirchion : a study in Celtic Folk-lore, by J. J. Jones, M.A. The 
Philosophy of Cardinal Mercier, by Valmai Burdwood Evans, M.A., B.Litt. 
A Part of the West Moroccan Littoral, by Walter Fogg, M.A. 


VOLUME XIII. 

Alliteration:, Welsh and Scandinavian, by Professor IT. Gwynn Jones, M.A. 
William de Valence (c. 1230-1296), by Frank R. Lewis, M.A.. A Note on 
, Hop-Frog,’ by, George Hi. ‘Green, MCAS PhD Scab aeite Some French 
Translators of Burns, by Eva Margaret Phillips, M.A., Docteur de 1’ Université 
de Paris. The Travels of St. Samson of Dol, by E.G. Bowen, M.A. Wazzan: 
a Holy City of Morocco, by Walter Fogg,M.A. The Livestock Trade in West 
Wales in the Nineteenth Century, by J. Llefelys Davies, M.Sc. 


Note.—Vols. I-III, out of print; Vol. IV, price 6/-; and Vols. V. VI. VII, 
VIII, IX, X, XI, XII and XIII, price 3/6 each, may be obtained from the 
Registrar, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. 


H.J.R Sse, es Howell again, qe Peaiesn £. Ul “The ‘CAuuldeée a uy 
Ritual and Myth, by J. J. Jones, M.A. Comduct and the Experience of | 
Va vn ah by L. A. Reid, M.A. Sir Henry. Jones and the Cross Com- — a 
by ip. ‘Hughes, M. A. Notes on the inal of matinee Lead- We bey 
, by Miss 1 K, ane MSc.) Hah TH Hen ieneduiia| 


+f Ae Laps Essex Conspiracy (Part D, by ‘Lilian Winseintere M. A (ee Shei i 
_ F Doctrine of Intuition Amie ‘ihe availed Ss Be atlas of sch cing uy Valmai i gee i 
| Vouume. vi. i 

ciples « x ‘Quaternions, ue he late Assivtane Professor Wi ne TanBey A) 

a. eee use of Side a A, Woodward, M. AL Hamlet and the 


te Poster ¥ Wea FT the Philosophy ‘of Giovanni. artes 
Burdwood | Evans, M.A. The Problems of — a Maat 


HL. Green, M. A, ies me B. Se., ce Litt, 


"ator by Professor i 2 


a ie eae hvala I. us 

The: eee te Riddles tone ee by G. A, “Wood, ML A, Some 
: Defensive Earthworks near ere by F. Ss. Weert Ww 

Verhaeren, a dP: bleed B. ot ir 

ri eee un he oe ane 

"The Greek Agones, by Profesor H 1: Rose. A pee Noles on 

of James Howell, by Professor. E. ies “Fable | 
Professor T. Gwynn Jones. - : 
_ Literature, 7, Richard ‘Thomas, M, AL 


; : ee Iv. 3 eke 
| Pagan Revival ‘euner the bores Empire, by Sir Willian M. 
_ The Bronze Age in Wales, by Harold Peake, PS.AL Cee 
Hi. J. Rose. The Clausulae of Aischines, by R. of Rope | 
N otes on the F. amiliar Letters of James Howell, by Professor 
cs Pulthes Notes on ‘‘ the Owl and the Nightingale,” by tof 
Atkins. The Arthurian Empire in the Elizabethan Poets, b’ 
stanley, M.A. A Note on. a passage in “ Beowulf,”’ by GN. 
BA. Welsh Words irom Pembrokeshire, by. Professo (Sta 
An English Flexional ending in Welsh, by Professor T i, 
A ** Court of Love’? poem in ‘Welsh by Professor T. Gwyn 
Evolution of the Welsh. Home, by ‘Timothy Lewis, M.A. J ay va 
Ford, by Miss Gwenan Jones, M.A. An Outline ‘History of our } 7 
hood, by Professor H. J. Fleure. Some Notes: on the Ind istrial Re ye n 
South Wales, by J. Morgan Rees, M.A. Industrial Train ng in So 
by W. King, M.A. Conduct and the Experience of Value, t , by. : 
Some sources of the caus ‘Trial, ee Professor a V 


M. re 
and the Maxwell- Hecate queens fe Professor Ww. ae 
Investigations of the ‘scattering: of X- and y-Rays, by] 
‘The Addition of Hydrogen to Acetylenic Acids, by the late: | 
_ BSe., and Professor T. C. Ja ames. The Action of Reduce 1g Age 
_ Polynitrodiphenylamines, by N. M Cullinan BBR 5 R 
‘Tetranitroaniline, by GC. WwW. Davies, EB.S6i 
_ (Spermophyta) » by D. H. Scott, fbb) Iny 
Sea Floor of. Cardigan Bay, by Professor R. 
_ the Clarach Stream (Cardiganshire) and its T: 
By jhe’ a8 Additions to fee Morne: Fauna of A 
idee, Paine M. Se. 


i) 
ah 
wey) 


ee 


ia de Sod oe 
SSP: 


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es lh" he 
Nach ae a