360 FALSTAFF'S SALLIES OF WIT. Sir Hugh Evans comes into conflict with Falstaff, and therefore, of course, becomes the butt of Falstaff, because, just as Cromwell, for example, when he was in the field knocked down everybody that opposed him, so Falstaff, although he was apt to run away from the field of battle, yet, in the field of a contest of wit, he was superior to all mankind. Even Prince Henry, afterwards King Henry V., got the worst of it when he went to loggerheads with Falstaff in a tournament of wit. So it was no wonder if the same fate befel Sir Hugh Evans. Sir Hugh Evans was dressed up in the Merry Wives of Windsor as a fairy to pinch Falstaff. That being so, he was the more a fit subject for Falstaff, who called him three things. First of all, he called him a Welsh goat(laughter)-secondly he called him a piece of toasted cheese-(laughter) be and thirdly, when he professed to very much exhausted and dejected, he complained of him and said, "I cannot answer to Welsh flannel." I believe all that Shakespeare said in mischief. You have heard the worst of him and it is very bad. But there is a curious thing, as it appears to me, and that was that there was a Welsh parson at Windsor Since that time they have not taken many Welsh clergymen at Windsor(laughter) but they have imported in the last century a great many English clergymen to be bishops and priests in Wales, with what consequences to the welfare of the Church you know too well. And that is a point on which unhappily there can be no difference of opinion. WALES UNDER THE TUDORS. It is a curious fact that Shakespeare should have produced a Welsh clergyman at Windsor; and my opin ion of it is that the presence of this Welsh clergyman, and also some good words which Shakespeare used about the Welsh, were due to the strong prediliction of Queen Elizabeth. Though there may be in the private character of Queen Elizabeth ground for criticism, yet her memory is entitled to the respect of all Englishmen, and more especially of all Welshmen. We owe to her in the main the translation of the Bible. In Wales that has been what it was in England, a national institution-("Hear, hear," and cheers)-a prop and buttress to the language. I believe that not Elizabeth only, but the prior sovereigns of the Tudor race, had a friendly feeling towards Wales (hear, hear)-and now I am coming to loggerheads with my friend the president. (Laughter.) But don't be afraid. There will be no inconvenient consequence. He said that Henry VIII. passed a law restricting the use of the language. Well, I am a man who likes to be cautious in his operations. (Laughter.) I will not say whether it is so or not. But I will give you what is said by Mr. Lewis in his interesting pamphlet called "The Welshman in English Literature." Mr. Lewis says that there were fifteen penal acts in force against Wales, Welshmen, and the Welsh tongue at the time when the Tudor family came to the throne in the person of Henry VII. But Mr. Lewis declares, and I hope the chairman will not contradict it-(cheers)— Mr. Lewis declares that these Acts were repealed upon a petition of the people of Wales in the reign of Henry the VIII. Therefore, that was a time very favorable to the people of Wales. OTHER SHAKESPERIAN ALLUSIONS. Let us see what Shakespeare says about the Welsh in other places. In MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH AT THE WREXHAM NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD. the first place he introduced Llewelyn in the play of Henry V., and Llewelyn proves himself to be not only a gallant soldier, but a wise captain. Shakespeare has remarked in his favor this line: "There is much care and valor in this Welshman." If you can get care and valor united in a soldier, you have the main part of a good basis upon which to build a solid character. That is not all. I have told you how he speaks in his works with regard to other inhabitants of these islands. He speaks of the "trusty" Welshman; and the Duke of Buckingham when in the field is spoken of as "backed with the hardy Welshman." (Hear.) Well, now, Shakespeare then calls the Welsh trusty, loving, and hardy. What else do you desire? (Great laughter, cheers, and a voice, "Nothing.") There is nothing more. Describe a nation as being trusty, as being affectionate, and as being brave and enduring, and I say you have left very little indeed you can add to its character. Those, I think, were very important times, and Shakespeare was a great man, and you can have no more distinguished and illustrious title to fall back upon by citing what he has thought and what he has said. of the Welsh. (Cheers.) RELIGION IN WALES. Now, ladies and gentlemen, one word more. I am not going to detain you much longer. (Cries of "Go on.") I don't know whether many of you have read a pamphlet written by a very distinguished Welshman, now a professor at Oxford, Mr. Rhys, in which he developed a most curious series of events with respect to the Welsh language. In fact, he says, that about 300 or 400 years ago the Welsh language was in great danger of becoming extinct. It wanted some 361 central prop and stay. It was not found at that time in the institution of the Church. The mass of the people believe that the Welsh have been a very religious people for about 120 or 150 years; but there are a great many who are in the habit of saying that before that time the Welsh were a very godless people. (Laughter.) This is a place, I hope, of freedom of opinion-(hear, hear)-and will you allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to say I don't believe a word of it? (Hear, hear.) I believe that they were a religious people from the time that they have been a people, from the time when they harbored the old Christian religion in the fourth and fifth and sixth centuries, at a time when it was driven out of the great bulk of English counties But I am aware that within the last 100 or 150 years they have had extraordinary calls made upon their devoted zeal, and that they have met these cails in a manner and to a degree out of means comparatively slender, which undoubtedly make the period illustrious in the religious history of the country. VITALITY OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE. But I come to Mr. Rhys. There was no support to the Welsh tongue from the services of the Church. There were many monasteries in the country, but the monasteries were centres of English influence, and around them grew English-speaking populations. As to the castles in the country, every one of which was held by an English garrison, around those castles gathered villages and towns of which we have the remains at Hawarden and in plenty of other places. But in those castles English was the language spoken, and English influence diffused itself from every one of those centres. The consequence was that a tremendous pressure from a great number of centres was brought to bear on the Welsh race and tongue, and that, the native language of the country, the Welsh were in great danger of losing. Mr. Rhys supports his doctrine-I am speaking from memory, and no doubt somewhat imperfectly, but I think it of great interest-he supports his doctrine by showing that for a certain time after the invention of printing there was no room for the Welsh language to get fair play. And then what happened? The services of the Church, formerly in a foreign tongue, came to be in Welsh, and the translation of the Bible into Welsh formed the mainstay and central prop for the Welsh language all through the country. This may be an historical speculation in some degree, but I have always thought it an extremely curious question deserving of all investigation and reply. WHY WALES IS NONCONFORMIST. How is it that the Welsh, who are now in name a nation of Nonconformists, in the middle of the 17th century were the stoutest Churchmen in the country? There is no doubt about the fact that Wales was the stronghold of the Church and Royalist party. I believe that the solution has yet to be found in the circumstances I have mentioned, viz., that in the 16th century it was through the arrangements of the Church that the Welsh people got the support and stay of their language. From that time forward it became certain that if they were attached to it, then it would remain as long as they chose to give it support. What happened? Was it not the intrusion of the English into the country, and of the English language into the churches, irrespective of the capacity of the people to understand it, and the intrusion of English clergymen, English bishops not in sympathy with the people was not that a main cause of producing the estrangement which left the Welsh people in a state of religious destitution from which they have made such wonderful, such heroic, and such effectual efforts to detach themselves? Now, if that be so, it enables me to wind up in a moment. CROWNING TESTIMONY TO THE EIS TEDDFOD. I have endeavored to show you what the Welsh language required. I presume that all of you here present are here for the purpose of commemorating its literature and its arts, and that you wish to maintain the wide usage of it which we find at present in almost every part of Wales. If so, see what has happened in former times? See how the language gave way 300 or 400 years ago (if Professor Rhys is right) for want of institutions to sustain it, the Welsh language rallied, and became more than ever deeply rooted in the minds and affections of the people. And there I say, gentlemen, I have a crowning testimony in favor of the eisteddfod, because it is here that you meet for the purpose of giving it a recognized, an impartial, a universal means and countenance and support. It is here that you rally the whole Welsh nation for the purpose. Long, I hope, gentlemen, after I have gone-I will say more, and add that long after the youngest and heartiest among us has departed to his account may these meetings flourish, and may the attachment of the Welsh people to their institution and tongue always have fair play, and result in its being maintained not only for the gratification of their tastes, but, as I believe, for the elevation of their characters, and for the promotion of the best and the brightest welfare of A VISIT TO ABERDARON, NORTH WALES. the country. (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen, I have detained you a long time, but I trust, I am sure, you will not be insensible to the fact that I have looked seriously at the questions and the purpose for which this institution exists. What I have spoken to you I have spoken in conformity with all the sentiments of my heart, and with the best conclusions at which my judgement could arrive-prosperity to Wales and prosperity to the eisteddfod as a great means of promoting the welfare of Wales. (Loud cheers.) [Concluded.] A TWO HOURS' VISIT TO ABERDARON, N. WALES. BY G. W. GRIFFITH, NEW YORK. On the 5th of August, 1887, towards the close of our two years' ramble through Europe, from the North Cape, where, for a season, there is perpetual daylight, to nigh the heel of the great Boot (Italy) that projects itself into the Mediterranean, I found myself with all my family in the widely renowned village of Aberdaron! with a sky above, serene and blue, as the dream of a Welsh bard. For some three years prior to my emigration to America in 1823, my father had lived here, keeping a country store or shop; and here. social and intellectual life first dawned upon me. I had never revisited the old, old place since our departure; but when our carriage stopped before my father's old shop and house, now ambitiously called by its present occupant a hotel, the whole long cherished picture came to me, and was at once realized. There, unmistakeably, was the old main stone house; adjacent to it the stone stable, where the ponies were kept; and adjacent to that, the henery, where my older brother and I housed our pigeons, chickens and 363 rabbits. It was an exciting moment; I had not dreamed that my sensibilities could have been aroused to such a degree. Inanimate objects had preserved their identity for over 60 years with remarkable fidelity and accuracy. But there was a tinge of deep sadness also present. There was not a voice to welcome my return, not an eye to quicken in token of recognition. "Men had come and men had gone, "but Scott's searching interrogatory, "Breathes there a man whose soul's go dead, Who never to himself has said, This is my own-my native land,'” found that moment a sympathetic echo in my heated breast. With my son I went inside of the hotel, "for the sake of the house,' and soon got into conversation with the landlady, who, singularly, is a namesake, a Mrs. Griffith. She was remarkably active, almost ubiquitous around, attending to the many wants of the several guests. I enquired if she remembered the persons who, many years ago, kept the tavern on the other side of the street, naming them. She brightened up and briskly replied, "Yes, very well. I was a maid in the Tavern when your father left for America." "Well, but," said I, astonished at her knowledge of me, "Mrs. Griffith, how old are you?" "O," she returned, with the vitality and readiness of many a one of 40 years, "I'm only 85." Was such a result of a life of 85 years to be attributed to abstinence from all luxuries? From the hotel I directed my steps to the old church, once so familiar to my infant feet. Here I used to be sent to school, less for instruction, I fancy, than to keep me from the beach, then always a fascination to me, but from which I always returned after wading into the waves, with wet shoes and stockings, and not unfrequently even wet breeches; for all which I had to undergo daily rebukes, and sometimes more tangible corrections. But what reminiscences innumerable crowded upon me as I entered that old portal! I seemed to see the assembled village children-many, doubtless, of my own age-scattered hilariously over its ragged and gloomily lighted floor. But with the exception of one, I could not summon up distinctly the well-defined face of another. That one's delicate features and gentle bearing, with those of the spruce and handsome schoolmaster, afterwards the popular and Rev. John Williams, were then, and still are vivid in my memory. He taught this school, or was supposed to do so, while teaching theology to himself. He was an amiable, friendly, excitable, zealous and very energetic young man. and exercised his talents for speaking with much acceptance at the Uwchmynydd chapel. He was noted for a certain power, freedom, and abandon in prayer that made him then quite popular. This abandon, or loss of self-consciousness, had been to me a marked feature of his prayers in opening and closing his school. When thoroughly warmed up, he would spasmodically and vehemently spit as he uttered words. Well do I remember being one Sunday at the chapel, and whether it was a prayer meeting and no preaching, I have forgotten; but Mr. Williams was called upon for a prayer. He was seated with the blaenoriaid (elders) in front of the pulpit. Without delay he rose to the summons, carefully and decorously opened and spread his handkerchief on the floor to save from soiling the knees of his breeches. From my father's pew, where I could distinctly see and hear, I watched with eagerness for the expected demonstration; and when it came, vas highly amused with the actions of those close to him-they all carefully withdrew from his imemdiate presence, anxious to save their best clothes from such "droppings of the sanctuary." But he, good man, was utterly unconscious, and thoroughly honest and earnest in his solemn work. A conviction of this, no doubt, saved my reputation from an explosion of unseasonable mirth at scene, however comical, was also full of reverence and solemnity. The other one, to whom I have alluded, was a little damsel of but about four years, but was noted as having a sweet musical voice, and the master would not unfrequently call upon her, whether in the middle or close of the school hours, as his humor prompted, to sing a hymn, which invariably was "Mae, mae, yr amser hyfryd yn nesau," &c. I wonder what has become of frail, sweet mannered Amelia? Is she still living, a favorite of society, or sleeps she in peace in the bosom of her Maker? These two were my close, though invisible companions while inside the old, old church. As I was not in Aberdaron on a Sunday, I failed to meet the incumbent of the church. In the old time, when the first bells rang out for the Sunday morning service, I was first on hand at the porch to welcome the parson, of whom I became very fond. embracing his legs with great affection whenever we met; but the moment he put on his white robe, I fled from him in absolute fear. From the old church I wandered to and on the beach. Immediately I directed my steps towards a high, old boulder, well remembered as the once great object of my young ambition to climb its high and slippery sides, and seat myself on its summit |