result is that his language is
very poor Welsh, both in spelling and idiom; it is an artificial
dialect. It is a striking testimony, however, to his influence that many
of the constructions and words which he manufactured are found to this
day in correct literary Welsh.

In 1567 was published a _Welsh Grammar_ by Dr Gruffydd Roberts, a Roman
Catholic priest living at Milan (reprinted in facsimile, Paris, 1883),
and in 1583, under the direction of Dr Rhosier Smyth, his _Drych
Cristionogawl_ was published at Rouen. Many other important Welsh books
were produced during these years, but the work which may be regarded as
having the greatest influence on the subsequent literature of Wales was
the translation of the _Welsh Bible_ (1588) by Dr William Morgan
(1547?-1604), bishop of Llandaff, and afterwards of St Asaph. The
Authorized Version (1620) now in use is a revision of this work by Dr
Richard Parry, bishop of St Asaph (1560-1623). In 1592 the _Welsh
Grammar_ of Sion Dafydd Rhys (1534-1609) was published--a most valuable
treatise on the language and on the rules of Welsh poetry. It was
followed in 1621 by the _Welsh Grammar_, and in 1632 by the _Welsh
Dictionary_ of Dr John Davies o Fallwyd (1570?-1644).

There are two prose compositions which stand entirely by themselves in
this period of Bibles and grammars--the _History_ of Ellis Gruffydd, and
Morris Kyffin's _Deffyniad y Ffydd_. The former was a soldier in the
English army during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and wrote a long
history of England from the earliest times to his own day. This
document, which has never been published, and which lies hidden away
among the Mostyn MSS., is a most important and valuable original
contribution to the history of the author's contemporaries, and it sheds
considerable light on the inner life of the court and the army. It is
written in a delightfully easy style, contrasting favourably with the
stiff diction of this period of translations. The work of Morris Kyffin
(1555?-1598?) which we have mentioned is a translation of Bishop Jewel's
_Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae_ (1562) and was published in 1595. This
work is the first piece of modern Welsh prose within reach of the
ordinary reader, written in the rich idiom of the spoken Welsh. It is a
precursor of many other books of its kind, a long series culminating in
the immortal _Bardd Cwsc_. In this sense Morris Kyffin may with perfect
justice be hailed as the father of modern Welsh p