Note 47c — SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT WELSH POETRY.

Cywryd. This Bard is not mentioned either by Mr. Davies or Mr. Edward Llwyd, in their catalogues of British writers. It seems he flourished in the sixth century, as did all the ancient British Bards we have now extant. Here let me obviate what may be objected to me as mentioning so many facts, and persons who lived in the sixth century, within the course of this performance. It was the last period our kings fought with any success against the Saxons, and it was natural, therefore, for the Bards of those times, to record such gallant acts of their princes, and for their successors to transmit them to posterity. Every person, though but slightly versed in the British history of that time, knows that Cadwaladr was the last king of Britain. Since his time there are no works of the Bards extant till after the conquest, as I have shewed in my Dissertatio de Bardis.