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DAVYTH AP GWILYM.
xxiii

a proverb for a long time after[1]. We must now leave Morvyth as the lawful wife of the Bwa Bach, only observing that her faithful bard continued his attachment, and his muse was ever constant in her praise. Hence he has been compared to Petrarch; and it must be allowed that, in the fervour of his homage to the lady of his heart, the Italian poet did not surpass the Demetian Nightingale[2], who composed one hundred and forty-seven poems to his beloved Morvyth!

We may take it for granted that Davyth ap Gwilym must have lived in habits of intimacy with the poets of his time, amongst whom many perhaps were to be found not insensible to the charms of the mead-horn; but he does not seem to have been much devoted to it, himself, for among those who were, we find it was a custom to impose upon him when they got him into their company[3].

Davyth was equally attached to friendship and the muse—two contemporary poets were his inti-

  1. ‘A ae ef â hi a druted fuasai iddo?’—‘Af (eb ef) yn enw Duw a gwyr Morganwg!’—David Jones o Lanfair’s Collection of British Poetry, p. 164.
  2. ‘Eos Dyfed,’ an appellation by which our bard was often distinguished by his countrymen.
  3. Y bardd oedd ar dro ymhlith ei gyfeillion mewn Gwindy, lle daeth cwsg yn orthrwm arno; a hwythau, drwy y cyfleusdra hwnnw, á dynasant ei ysgor cyfrif o’i amner, a bwriasant eu hysgor eu hunain yn ei le, i fod yn attebol am y gwin à yfesynt. Yntau wrth ddeffro á ddeallodd à ddamweiniasau, ac eb ef wrthynt—

    Hyllais pan welais, hyllwyr ofer!—faith
    Fyth rygnbren i’m hamner:
    Hoyw fydd gwin gloyw gan glêr,
    A chwerw, poen dielw, pan daler!