nted first by
Davies Gilbert in 1827 with a translation by John Keigwin, and again by
W. Stokes in the _Transactions of the London Philological Society_ for
1864. The language shows considerable signs of decay, and Lucifer and
his angels are often made to speak English. The only other original
compositions of any length written in Cornish are _Nebbaz Gerriau dro
tho Carnoack_ (A Few Words about Cornish), by John Boson (printed in the
_Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall_, 1879), and the _Story of
John of Chy-an-Hur_ (Ram's House), a folk-tale which appears in Ireland
and elsewhere. The latter was printed in Lhuyd's _Grammar_ and in
Pryce's _Archaeologia_. Andrew Borde's _Booke of the Introduction of
Knowledge_ (1542) contains some Cornish conversations (see _Archiv f.
celt. Lexikographie_, vol. i.), and in Carew's _Survey of Cornwall_ a
number of words and phrases are to be found. Apart from the Cornish
preface to Lhuyd's _Grammar_, the other remains of the language consist
of a few songs, verses, proverbs, epigrams, epitaphs, maxims, letters,
conversations, mottoes and translations of chapters and passages of
Scripture, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Commandments, King
Charles's Letter, &c. These fragments are to be found (1) in the Gwavas
MS. in the British Museum, a collection ranging in date from 1709 to
1736; (2) in the Borlase MS. (1750); (3) in Pryce's _Archaeologia
Cornu-Britannica_ (1790); (4) in D. Gilbert's editions of the _Poem of
the Passion_ (1826) and the Creation of the World (1827). They are
enumerated, classified and described by Jenner in his _Handbook._

AUTHORITIES.--H. Jenner, _Handbook of the Cornish Language_ (London,
1904); A. le Braz, _Le Theatre celtique_ (Paris, 1905); E. Norris,
_The Ancient Cornish Drama_ (2 vols., Oxford, 1859); T.C. Peter, _The
Old Cornish Drama_ (London, 1906); L.C. Stern, _Die Kultur d.
Gegenwart_, i. xi. 1, pp. 131-132. (E. C. Q.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] J. Loth gives it as his opinion that as late as 1400-1600 a
Cornishman and a Breton might have been able to understand one
another.

[2] It is indeed probable that Myrddin is a purely fictitious
character, whose name has been made up from Caer Fyrddin
(=Maridunum), which was certainly not a personal name.

[3] Another derivation of this word is from _llad_, "profit" + _hai_,
a suffix denoting the agent. Others derive it from or connect it with
the Irish _slad-_.