turdy denunciation of monkish fraudulence to the most delicate and
pathetic recollections of departed joys. He has, besides, considerable
importance as a teacher, as when, for instance, he invites the nun "to
leave her watercress and paternosters of Romish monks," and to come with
him "to the cathedral of the birch to listen to the cuckoo's sermons,"
for, "were it not an equally worthy deed to save his (Dafydd's) soul in
the birch-grove as to do so by following the ritual of Rome and St James
of Compostella"? Even in his old age, when he is beginning to repent of
his rash and merry youth, nature has not deserted him,--the very tree
under which in the old days he used to meet his sweetheart has become
bent and withered in sympathy with him. Though Dafydd yields not the
palm to any poet of his class throughout the world, and though his
influence is still a potent factor in the literature of Wales, we are
certain of hardly a single fact about his life. He flourished between
1340 and 1390. His works were published in London in 1789. This edition
was reprinted by Ffoulkes of Liverpool in 1870. See L.C. Stern,
_Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ vol. vii.

Sion Cent was chaplain to the Scudamores of Kentchurch in Herefordshire,
and though, therefore, in orders, was a most bitter opponent of the
pretentious and the evil life of the monks of his time. All his writings
show signs of the influence of the moralists of the middle ages, and
treat of religious or of moral subjects. His poetry is strong and
austere, interfused here and there with the most biting satire. He died
about 1400. Like many of his contemporaries, Dunbar, Villon, Menot and
Manrique, his dominant note is that of sadness and regret.

Rhys Goch Eryri had a sprightly muse which deals with fanciful subjects.
His themes are often similar to those of Dafydd ab Gwilym, but whereas
the subject of Dafydd's muse was nature and his treatment universal,
Rhys Goch's are simply natural objects which he treats in a vigorous but
narrow and cold manner.

Iolo Goch, that is, Iorwerth the Red, deserves a special mention as the
poet who voiced the aspirations of a new Wales when Owen Glyndwr began
to rise into power, and it is to one of his poems that we owe a most
minute description of Sycharth, Owen Glyndwr's home. His poetry is
slightly more archaic in diction than that of his contemporaries, as his
subject--war and the glory of Welsh heroes--belonged more properly to
the age before h