Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

probably made by or for John Edwards of Plas Newydd, is extant in Mostyn MS. 204. Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans erred when he attributed the writing of this manuscript to the compiler (Reports on MSS. in the Welsh Language, I, 276). Thomas ap William compared his collection with that of Erasmus: 'Erasmus Rotrodamus a scrivenodh lyvr mawr weirthiog or Direbion lladin ar groeg yr hwn i mae yn i alw Chiliades, sev yw hynnu miloedh, ag eto yn y llyvr yma i mae tair mil a ffum cant ag ychwaneg. Gan hynnu mwynhaed yn Cymru ni y trysor hum. ('Erasmus Roterodamus wrote a valuable book of the Latin and Greek proverbs, which he calls Chiliades, that is, thousands, and yet in this book there are three thousand and five hundred and more. Therefore, let our Welsh people enjoy this treasure'). 'Sir' Thomas ap William had made a collection of proverbs ready for publication, with an epistle dedicatory, apparently, to Sir John Wynn of Gwydir. Sir John refers to this version in Wynn Paper 914, 21 Oct. 1620: 'Yow tould me that you hadd a Coppie of a diharebion which Salusbury [i.e. probably William Salesbury] lost. I praye you send them me by the bearer that they may be now printed, and withall your epistle dedicatorie, which now would be altered in some points'. 'Sir' Thomas ap William's answer is written at the foot of the letter but not in his own hand. He sends a copy of the Proverbs with an appeal. 'The booke of Diarebion yor wor. shall rec. by the berer, geathered of 2 or 3 severall copies and mad as large as the former coppie lost. Good Sr. as youe tender oure language let it be kepte well least the like shall never be mad agene. for the Epistle Dedicatorie it was lost with the coppie, I knoe not vpon great search whether I shall find any thing thereof. 14 The correspondence is printed in Y Cymmrodor, XVII, 164-85. 15 E. Owen: Cat. of MSS. re Wales in B.M., II, 154, 259. 16 Two letters on this subject are printed in the Cambrian Register, III, 308-9. They are both from D'Ewes to Vaughan. In the first, dated 30 Nov. 1648, he writes- I earnestly desire you alsoe to use your utmost care to recover Doctor Davies his Welch Proverbs, which as I can shew you by his owne letter in Latine, he did bestow upon me, having formerly sent me off them written with his owne hand, which I have still by me The second is more specific: 'For the Welch proverbs, whosoever hath gotten the copy of them, I can prove by a letter from Doctor Davies, under his owne hand, that they are mine, onely, upon the delivery of them, I was to have restored his first copy againe unto him, which I have by me ready to performe; but, that good man being deceased, and he that hath these proverbes into his custody being not willing, it seemes, to lend me my owne, which I would now be content withall, I must have the use of them, till you can procure me that favour, for I must have them written into the end of a booke in folio, which I have bound up with spare paper in it for that purpose'. 17 Owen: op. cit., 259. 18 B.M. Addl. MS. 14883. 19 'Y Diharebion or blaen a'u cyfieithiad i'r Lladin a gopiwyd allan o sgrifen lyfr yn awr yn eiddo Ieuan Fardd ac Offeiriad a hwnnw yntau a gymerwyd allan o lyfr a ysgrifenwyd gan y Dr. Davies ei hun, ac y sydd yn Llyfrgell Coleg yr Iesu yn Rhydychen. Yr oedd chwaneg o draethodau wedi eu cyfieithu yn yr un MS., sef Casbethe Gwyr Rhufain ac eraill bethau sydd yn niwedd Geirlyfr y Dr. Davies. Ond ni chaf amser i'w copio. Da dyfod hyd yman Mydwyf Gwilym Amhorys'. 20 This collation disclosed the omission of the proverb 'Doeth dyn tra tawo' from the larger work. John Davies proceeded to enter it and having written the 'dy' of 'dyn' crossed the two letters out and changed the expression to 'pawb tra y tawo'. 21 e.g. The bungled proverb 'Dangof Ilwyr i gyfarwyre' of Dictionarium Duplex is changed to 'Dangos llwybr i gyfarwydd' and is consequently translated without difficulty into 'Monstrare semitam perito. Docere doctum & scientem'. 22 Apart from a few of the latest insertions which he did not translate the only proverbs which were left un- translated because they proved too difficult to render were: i. Bychodedd minialed. 2. Colles ei glydwr a gyrch- awdd ty yadwr. 3. Ni chein sywedydd yn vnfron. 4. Nid asgyr a gaffa trefgordd. 5. Nid ysgar anghenawg ac anhychfryd. 6. Trengis a fremmis. 23 Wynnstay MS. 10. 'Membrana lxxviija. Llyfr Diharebion Cymraeg (gwedy eu trosi yn Llading y gann y Dr. Davies) o law Robert Vaughan. It. y xxiv camp. It. Cas-bethau gwyr Rhyfain, yn Llading o'r unrhyw law. In 40, modfedd a hanner'. 24 The modern Hengwrt MS. 78 is Peniarth MS. I 55-The Book of Richard Phylip of Picton. Similarity of contents was some justification for placing Peniarth 78 in this gap, but W. W. E. Wynne rightly observed in his catalogue in Arch. Camb., that he could not find the Latin translation here. 25 The K of Dictionarium Duplex is a misprint for R. 26 William Maurice adopted Robert Vaughan's suggested emendation. In Panton MS. 23, p. 116, a copy by Evan Evans of what appear to have been additions made by Dr. John Davies in his own hand on a copy of his Dictionarium Duplex, 'ynfyd' is glossed by 'ufudd'. 27 A copy in Peniarth MS. 255, made in July and September, 1663, probably from Vaughan's transcript, left blank spaces for the Arabic and Greek quotations. The first sheet is missing from this copy and it does not in- clude the miscellaneous material following the proverbs proper. 28 Peniarth MS. 275, p. vii.