period we begin to breathe a literary atmosphere
that is gradually but surely changing,--it is the change from the misty
Wales of Roman Catholic times to the modern Wales after the Reformation.
The poetical incoherencies of the old metres and the tricks of fancy of
the old stylists occasionally form a somewhat incongruous dress for the
thoughts of later poets. The old spirit and the glamour were gradually
wearing away, only to be momentarily revived in the poetry of Goronwy
Owen, nearly two centuries later. Two or three figures, indeed, stand
out prominently during these years, among whom are some of the bards
ordained _penceirddiaid_ (master-poets) in the second Caerwys Eisteddfod
held in 1568, viz. William Llyn, William Cynwal, Sion Tudur, and Sion
Phylip. William Llyn (1530?-1580) was a pupil of Gruffydd Hiraethog. His
complicated _awdlau_ are marvels of ingenuity, but many of them are on
that very account almost unintelligible. He was, however, a complete
master of the _cywydd_, in which he sometimes displays a sense of style
and a sweetness of imagery allied to a melodiousness of language
unequalled by the other poets of the period. His best-known work is the
famous _marwnad_ to his master, Gruffydd Hiraethog. Sion Tudur (d.
1602), also a disciple of G. Hiraethog, was connected in some capacity
or other with the cathedral at St Asaph. He is a realist, and delights
in giving vivid word pictures in a less fanciful strain than his
predecessors. Sion Phylip (1543-1620) wrote a famous _marwnad_ to his
father and a _cywydd_ "to a sea-gull," which is a superb piece of
nature-painting in the style of Dafydd ab Gwilym. While dealing with
this second Eisteddfod at Caerwys, we may note that Simwnt Fychan's
"Laws of Poetry" were accepted at this festival.

Two poets of this period, whom an English writer describes as "the two
filthy Welshmen who first smoked publicly in the streets," were captains
in Queen Elizabeth's navy, viz. Thomas Prys (d. 1634) of Plas Iolyn, and
William Myddleton (1556-1621), called in Welsh Gwilym Canoldref. The
former wrote, among other things, humorous _cywyddau_ descriptive of
life in London and in the English navy of those days, in a style which
was afterwards attempted by Lewys Morys. The work of Myddleton, by
which he is best known, is his translation of the Psalms (1603) into
Welsh _cywydd_ metre, a difficult and profitless experiment.

With Edmwnd Prys (1541-1624), the famous archdeacon of Meri