IC-NRLF 
 
ALVMNVS BOOK FVND 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S 
 WORKMANSHIP 
 
 By SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH, M.A., Litt.D., 
 King Edward VII. Professor of English Literature 
 in the University of Cambridge. Demy 8vo., 
 cloth, 158. net. (Third Impression.) 
 
 ^[ These studies seek to discover, in some of his 
 plays, just what Shakespeare was trying to do as 
 a playwright. This has always seemed to the 
 author a sensible way of approaching him, and 
 one worth reverting to from time to time. For 
 it is no disparagement to the erudition and scholar- 
 ship that have so piously been heaped about 
 Shakespeare to say that we shall sometimes find 
 it salutary to disengage our minds from it all, and 
 recollect that the poet was a playwright. In thus 
 considering some of Shakespeare's chief plays as 
 pieces of workmanship (or artistry) the book 
 follows a new road that is all the better worth 
 trial because it lies off the trodden way. 
 
 T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., LONDON 
 
SHAKESPEARE 
 
 AND 
 THE WELSH 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK J. HARRIES 
 
 T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD. 
 LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE 
 

 
 FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1919 
 
 cU. ^&W\ 
 
 >7g7i/s reserved] 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 FOR the Welsh people everywhere the works of 
 Shakespeare should possess a peculiar interest. 
 Shakespeare, as these pages will disclose, knew 
 the Welsh, if he did not know Wales; for in Strat- 
 ford-on-Avon there existed, in his time, a veritable 
 Welsh colony, and there is reason to think that he 
 may have been on terms of the closest intimacy 
 with more than one of its members. As a result, 
 he has given us some notable portraits of the typical 
 Welshman of his period. But not only was 
 Shakespeare familiar with Welsh society; it seems 
 reasonably proved that he had Welsh blood in his 
 veins, and it may have been from the lips of a 
 Welsh grandmother that he obtained his first 
 knowledge of Welsh tradition and folklore, which, 
 as we shall hope to show, exerted no small influence 
 upon his dramatic and lyrical genius. 
 
 In his analysis of the Welsh character Shake- 
 speare found much to praise, and a singularly 
 friendly attitude toward the Welsh nation is 
 revealed by his introduction in King Henry V t 
 of a scene in which a Welsh captain makes an 
 
 S 
 
 f>6 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 English braggart " eat the leek " a scene very 
 possibly intended to put an end to ridicule of the 
 Welsh. 
 
 There are many Celtic elements in Shakespeare's 
 plays . The motives of two of his greatest tragedies, 
 Macbeth and King Lear, were drawn from the old 
 Celtic chronicles, and a portion of the plot of 
 Cymbeline was taken from the same source. In- 
 deed, a general survey of the Celtic elements and 
 their expression in Shakespeare's works will afford 
 us many striking pictures of the legendary and 
 historic past of the Celtic race. With Lear we 
 move among the barbaric splendours and elemental 
 passions of a Britain " when Joash was King of 
 Judah "; we gaze across the battle-field from the 
 tent of Cymbeline to descry the golden eagle of 
 Augustus Caesar flashing in the sun; with Glen- 
 dower we live again amid the turmoil of the fierce 
 but futile struggle for Cymric liberty and indepen- 
 dence; with Fluellen we witness upon the field of 
 Agincourt the triumph of a " Welsh King" who 
 was one of the " goot men porn at Monmouth"; 
 with patriotic pride we follow the grandson of 
 Owen ap Meredith ap Tudor through conspiracies 
 and deadly conflicts to that serener summit from 
 which we are able to behold the vision of a great 
 
 and glorious Empire; and, lastly, with Sir Hugh 
 
 6 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Evans we leave the treachery and splendour of 
 Courts, the roll of drum, and call of trumpet, for 
 the genial company of the middle-class English 
 citizens of Tudor times, partaking of their hos- 
 pitality and joining in their revels. Thus " in 
 motion of no less celerity than that of thought n 
 we fly from scene to scene, while prince and courtier, 
 cardinal and archbishop, earl and knight, priest 
 and physician, soothsayer and cowled monk, 
 gallant and bravo, minstrel and jester, pass and 
 repass before us, against a background of frowning 
 castles, serried battlements, loopholed gateways, 
 stately fanes, ancestral halls, bustling, slipshod 
 inns, and the high-gabled, timber- framed dwelling- 
 houses that line the narrow, cobbled streets. 
 
 For the benefit of the English reader it may be 
 explained that the name Welsh was originally 
 applied by the Teutons of Britain and the Con- 
 tinent to all whom they regarded as foreigners or 
 strangers; hence the Celts of Britain were known 
 to them as " Welsh." 
 
 In modern German welsch signifies French or 
 Italian, also foreign, outlandish; welscher is an 
 Italian, a Frenchman; while wdlschen or welschen 
 means " to gibber, to speak gibberish." 
 
 ' No Welshman now, 11 says Thomas Stephens, 
 the author of The Literature of the Kymry, "ever 
 
 7 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 thinks of resenting the appellation. If the term 
 Welsh ever had any sting in it, it has long been 
 taken out, and so far from being a term of reproach 
 is a name in which a million Welsh-speaking Welsh- 
 men [there are many more to-day] take a favourable 
 pride, and a name which happily stands for some 
 of the noblest elements in the life of the British 
 people throughout the Empire." 
 
 FREDERICK J. HARRIES. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 INTRODUCTION - 5 
 
 I. STRATFORD-ON-AVON THE WELSH SCHOOLMASTER 13 
 
 II. IN LONDON TOWN THE WAR OF THE THEATRES - 25 
 
 III. " THE SPACIOUS DAYS OF GREAT ELIZABETH " - 37 
 
 IV. SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN OF SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 TIME - '45 
 
 v. SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WELSH - 64 
 
 VI. THE WELSH ANCESTRY OF SHAKESPEARE 70 
 
 VII. WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS IN THE PLAYS - 75 
 
 VIII. THE WELSH CAPTAIN IN " KING RICHARD II." - 112 
 
 IX. OWEN GLENDOWER - 117 
 
 X. SIR HUGH EVANS - - 142 
 
 XI. KING HENRY V. (" HARRY OF MONMOUTH ") - 158 
 
 " XII. FLUELLEN - - - 1 62 
 
 XIII. KING HENRY VII. (THE FIRST TUDOR MONARCH) - 175 
 
 xiv. SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND " MR. w. H." - 186 
 
 xv. SHAKESPEARE'S PUCK AND THE WELSH " PWCCA " 195 
 
 XVI. CONTEMPORARY WELSH PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 2O2 
 
 XVII. WALES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY - 212 
 
 XVIII. SCENES IN WHICH WELSH CHARACTERS APPEAR - 22O 
 
 CONCLUSIONS - - 250 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE 
 WELSH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 STRATFORD-ON-AVON THE WELSH SCHOOLMASTER 
 
 SHAKESPEARE was born at Stratford-on-Avon in 
 the month of April, 1 564, and he died in the same 
 town on April 23rd, 1616. It is believed that his 
 death occurred on the fifty-second anniversary of 
 his birth, but there is no positive evidence of the 
 precise date of the latter event, the only entry in 
 the parish register being that of his baptism, on 
 April 26th, 1564. 
 
 It is proved that a considerable number of 
 Welshmen were settled in Stratford-on-Avon 
 during the years of Shakespeare's youth. Among 
 the names appearing in the town's records are those 
 of Ap Roberts, Ap Rice, Ap Williams, Ap Edwards, 
 Hugh ap Shon, Howel ap Howell, Evans Rice, 
 Evans Meredith, and others. The middle classes 
 had not yet learned to shut themselves jealously 
 in their houses, each man suspicious of his neigh- 
 bour's morals or manners; there was plenty of 
 
 u 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 genial intercourse between fellow-citizens in the 
 market-place, the council-chamber, the churchyard, 
 and the tavern. Such intercourse is not wholly 
 dead in the market towns of the present day; 
 in a town as small as Stratford (whose population 
 could not have been much greater than 2,000), 
 it was one of the conditions of daily life. Apart 
 from daily propinquity, it is likely that the English 
 inhabitants, young and old, would have felt a 
 certain curiosity regarding people rejoicing in such 
 odd patronymics, many of whom would have 
 spoken the English language with a very marked 
 and very " foreign" accent. Shakespeare's inter- 
 course with the Welsh, however, was not merely 
 of a casual nature. Aubrey discovered that he 
 had, as a young man, a warm affection for a boy, 
 some years his junior, the son of Griffin ap Roberts, 
 a butcher. 
 
 The " small Latin and less Greek " which Ben 
 Jonson ascribed to his " Swan of Avon " were 
 acquired at the Stratford-on-Avon Grammar School, 
 which was revived by the charter of Edward VI., 
 in 1555, and was for a time held in the Guild Chapel. 
 Shakespeare, according to the best authorities, 
 attended this school from his seventh until his 
 thirteenth year. He was then, apparently, with- 
 drawn to assist his father in his business of glover, 
 
STRATFORD-ON-A VON 
 
 wool stapler, purveyor of agricultural produce, 
 and possibly butcher. His first schoolmaster was 
 Walter Roche, B.A., Fellow of Corpus Christi College, 
 but Roche was on the point of retiring when Shake- 
 speare entered the school. The new headmaster 
 was Simon Hunt, afterwards curate of Luddington. 
 There is a tradition that Shakespeare and Anne 
 Hathaway were married in that village. Simon 
 Hunt's term of office appears to have ended about 
 the year 1577, when the master's chair was filled 
 by one Thomas Jenkins, a Welshman, who was 
 a Master of Arts of St. John's College, Oxford. 
 These headmasters were appointed by the Council, 
 but were licensed to preach by the Bishop of 
 Worcester. There is no record to show that 
 Shakespeare received any portion of his schooling 
 under Thomas Jenkins he may have left school 
 before Thomas Jenkins was installed; but we may 
 reasonably suppose that he was interested in the 
 change of headmastership, and, as we shall presently 
 see, it is probable that at a later period he came 
 into daily contact with the Welsh scholar. 
 
 John Aubrey, Shakespeare's earliest biographer, 
 tells us that when William Shakespeare was a boy 
 he exercised his father's trade, and" when he killed 
 a calfe would doe it in high style and make a 
 speech " which may be history or an amiable 
 
 '5 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 legend. He further states that the boy had early 
 a love of poetry and the drama. It is the way of 
 headmasters to " keep an eye " upon promising 
 pupils who have left school, and it is not unreason- 
 able to assume that Shakespeare, as a lad of excep- 
 tional parts, would, even as an ex-pupil, have 
 attracted the special attention of Thomas Jenkins. 
 
 As an only son he would, for a time, have 
 remained the playfellow of the Grammar School 
 boys, so that he may have had many opportunities 
 of personal intercourse with the good old dominie, 
 and with the insatiable curiosity of genius he 
 may well have plied him with questions concerning 
 the native country of the Pistolian " mountain 
 foreigners " and " mountain squires " who, as 
 residents and visitors, were a feature of Stratford 
 society. And Thomas Jenkins, as a patriotic 
 Welshman, would doubtless have seized the oppor- 
 tunity to impress his youthful questioner with 
 accounts of the musical aptitude, the poetical 
 leanings, the religious fervour, and the indomitable 
 courage of his countrymen. But we have more 
 than this to go upon. Shakespeare, according 
 to local tradition, was for a time second master, or 
 usher, in the Grammar School a likely enough 
 position for any unusually intelligent pupil who 
 was desirous of continuing his education beyond 
 
 16 
 
STRA T FORD-ON -A VON 
 
 the tender age of thirteen and it is a fact that the 
 desk which was sacred to the second master of 
 Stratford Grammar School has always been known 
 as " Shakespeare's desk." So authentic did this 
 tradition seem that the Corporation presented the 
 desk to the Shakespeare birthplace, and there it 
 is to-day.* If we suppose Thomas Jenkins to have 
 been the prototype of Sir Hugh Evans in the 
 Merry Wives of Windsor (and this view is adopted 
 by many Shakespearian scholars), then the scene 
 in which Mistress Page questions the Welsh parson- 
 schoolmaster as to the progress at school of her 
 son William assumes a special significance as a 
 reminiscence of the poet's boyhood or ushership. 
 Reading Thomas Jenkins for Sir Hugh Evans in 
 the following passage from the play, we have the 
 picture of a Welsh schoolmaster putting some 
 blockish schoolfellow of the youthful poet through 
 his accidence: 
 
 ACT IV. 
 SCENE i. The Street. 
 
 Mrs. Page. Sir Hugh, my husband says my son profits 
 nothing in the world at his book; I pray you, ask him some 
 questions in his accidence. 
 
 Eva. Come hither, William; hold up your head; come. 
 
 Mrs. Page. Come on, sirrah: hold up your head; answer 
 your master, be not afraid. 
 
 * Yeatman, The Gentle Shakespeare. 
 
 2 I 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Eva. William, how many numbers is in nouns ? 
 
 Will. Two. 
 
 Quick. Truly, I thought there had been one number more; 
 because they say, OD's nouns. 
 
 Eva. Peace your tattlings. What is fair, William ? 
 
 Will. Pulcher. 
 
 Quick. Poulcats ! there are fairer things than poulcats, sure. 
 
 Eva. You are a very simplicity 'oman; I pray you, peace. 
 What is lapis, William? 
 
 Will. A stone. 
 
 Eva. And what is a stone, William ? 
 
 Will. A pebble. 
 
 Eva. No, it is lapis; I pray you, remember in your prain. 
 
 Will. Lapis. 
 
 Eva. That is good, William. What is he, William, that 
 does lend articles ? 
 
 Will. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun; and be thus 
 declined, Singulariter, nominativo, hie, h&c, hoc. 
 
 Eva. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog; pray you mark; genitivo, 
 hujus. Well, what is your accusative case ? 
 
 Will. Accusativo, hinc. 
 
 Eva. I pray you, have your remembrance, child; Accusativo, 
 hing, hang, hog. 
 
 Quick. Hang hog is Latin for bacon, I warrant you. 
 
 Eva. Leave your prabbles, 'oman. 
 
 And so it goes on. The result, being unintel- 
 ligible to her, is apparently satisfactory to Mrs. 
 Page, who at the close of the interrogation remarks : 
 11 He is a better scholar than I thought he was;" 
 while Sir Hugh, after the fashion of schoolmasters 
 in the presence of parents, avers that the thick- 
 headed William has " a good sprag memory ' 
 (" sprag " for " sprack " that is, quick, lively). 
 
 18 
 
STRATFORD-ON-A VON 
 
 The probability that this scene represents an 
 actual incident from the days of Shakespeare's 
 attendance at the Grammar School, as pupil or 
 master, and therefore the probability that the 
 character of Evans is based upon the said Thomas 
 Jenkins, is increased by the fact that the scene is 
 dragged into the play. It does not advance the 
 action: it is as though the dramatist had a secret 
 affection for Evans, and could not refrain from 
 setting down his reminiscences of Jenkins. 
 
 Of Thomas Jenkins we hear nothing further 
 after his departure from Stratford - on - Avon 
 Grammar School. 
 
 Before we take our leave, for the present, of 
 Sir Hugh, it may be mentioned that the title 
 11 Sir " bestowed upon Sir Hugh Evans, as upon 
 other clergymen in Shakespeare, was equivalent 
 to the French Sieur or the Italian Ser. It was 
 formerly the common designation of a knight, 
 of one in holy orders, and of a Bachelor of Arts of 
 Cambridge or Dublin; but in the latter instance 
 was always annexed to the surname as " Sir 
 Evans." For centuries " all the inferior clergy 
 in England were distinguished by this title affixed 
 to the Christian name. Hence our author's Sir 
 Hugh in the present play, Sir Topas in Twelfth 
 Night, Sir Oliver in As You Like //, etc." (Malone). 
 
 19 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Mrs. S topes, in her Shakespeare 1 s Warwickshire 
 Contemporaries, gives us a few curious details as 
 to Thomas Jenkins. He became master in 1577, 
 and repairs were made to the schoolhouse for his 
 convenience. An entry dated 1578 shows that 
 the chamberlains " paid to Sir Higges, school- 
 master, io/. [so that Sir Higges would seem to have 
 come between Hunt and Jenkins] ; Item. To Mr. 
 Jenkins, schoolmaster, his half-year's wages, io/.," 
 the second io/. being paid on January i6th 
 following. In the Wheler Collection is a note 
 by Jenkins to the effect that " John Colby [ap- 
 parently a mistake for Cotton], late of London, 
 did covenant and agree to give unto me, Thomas 
 Jenkins, in consideration of my departure from 
 the school, the some of 6/." The receipt for this 
 sum bears the date July 9th, 1579, and on July 
 nth the chamberlain records that he " paid to 
 Mr. Jenkins for Mr. Cotton 6/." In the same year 
 we find, " Paid Mr. Jenkins for his wages, 2O/."; 
 so that he appears to have received the full year's 
 wages and a payment of 6/., apparently engaging 
 to remain for two terms. 
 
 He was a married man, the Stratford register 
 stating that " Thomas, son to Mr. Thomas Jenkins, 
 was baptised 19 of January, 1577." 
 
 We have documentary proof that Shakespeare 
 
 20 
 
STRATFORD-ON-A VON 
 
 used to draw upon his memories of Stratford 
 in naming the characters in his plays. His father, 
 whose adventurous temper led him sadly astray, 
 was in 1592 on the verge of utter ruin. A sensi- 
 tive man, he shrank from encountering his fellow- 
 townsmen in the days of his adversity. He no 
 longer attended the meetings of the Council, so 
 that after seven years an alderman was elected in 
 his place; and he no longer went to church. Now 
 the law required a monthly attendance; and in 
 this year, 1 592, the list of those who failed to attend 
 contained the names of John Shakespeare, Bar- 
 dolph, and Fluellen, and Hunter tells us that the 
 last two names occurred three years later in the 
 Parish Register. 
 
 The lists of " recusants," it is interesting to 
 note, were drawn up by Sir Thomas Lucy of 
 Charlecote Hall. John Shakespeare, it is believed, 
 was inclined to Catholicism; while Lucy, on the 
 other hand, was a hard and uncompromising 
 Puritan, and as one of the commissioners appointed 
 under the statute of 1583, he was invested with 
 a power which would have enabled him to make the 
 lot of the Papists at Stratford-on-Avon anything 
 but pleasant. John Shakespeare's attitude in 
 matters of religion brought him into sharp conflict 
 with the Puritan knight, who certainly could not 
 
 21 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 have been expected to cherish any particular 
 tenderness for a father whose son was believed to 
 have so bitterly lampooned him. There was 
 another reason also for Sir Thomas Lucy's ani- 
 mosity. John Shakespeare, while bailiff of Strat- 
 ord-on-Avon, had given great encouragement to 
 stage plays, which were anathema to the puritanical 
 mind. William Shakespeare was at the time 
 in London. He did not return to Stratford-on- 
 Avon until 1596, but this date is sufficiently near 
 to that of the list of recusants to justify our sup- 
 position that the matter would have been keenly 
 discussed between father and son, and we may 
 guess that it did not increase the poet's affection 
 for Lucy. 
 
 In 1597 Shakespeare's two plays dealing with 
 the first and second portions of the reign of Henry 
 IV. were completed , and in the second play we 
 make the acquaintance of Mr. Justice Shallow, 
 whom Falstaff describes as " a man made after 
 supper of a cheese-paring." Mr. Justice Shallow 
 appears again in Shakespeare's next play, The 
 Merry Wives of Windsor ', which followed closely 
 on King Henry IV ., and Sir Thomas Lucy is so 
 mercilessly caricatured in the former play that 
 John Shakespeare and William Fluellen must have 
 felt themselves amply revenged. In Shakespeare's 
 
 22 
 
STRATFORD-ON-AVON 
 
 next work, King Henry V., written in 1 598, appears 
 the character of Fluellen; while Bardolph appears 
 in no less than four plays. The conjunction of 
 these two names on the list of recalcitrant church- 
 goers and in the plays suggests that in seeking 
 names for his characters, as well as in finding 
 material for subsidiary scenes, the poet turned 
 instinctively to his early years in Stratford. Dur- 
 ing those years it is probable that many Celtic 
 influences were brought to bear upon him, a cir- 
 cumstance which would explain the considerable 
 use of Celtic legend and tradition which a close 
 examination of the plays reveals. 
 
 That Shakespeare was familiar with the Welsh 
 pronunciation of English words is indicated by 
 the consistent way in which Sir Hugh Evans and 
 Fluellen drop their initial w's. W in Welsh is 
 pronounced oo (as in woo), and even to this day 
 unpolished Welshmen would pronounce woman 
 as " ooman " and world as " oorld." Such idioms 
 as " make her a better penny/' " there is pippens 
 and cheese to come/' and " make an end of my 
 dinner," sound very familiar to Welsh ears. There 
 is also a Welsh flavour in Sir Hugh's way of using 
 the noun for the verb or the adjective, as in " can 
 you affection the 'oman," and "it is a fery des- 
 cretion answer." The fact that b is aspirated 
 
 23 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 in Welsh will account for Fluellen's " Alexander 
 the pig." Again, Sir Hugh Evans tells his fairies 
 to " pinse " Falstaff, because, as a Welshman, he 
 has no digraph to help him over the stile to the 
 English sh; while the absence of a v in the Welsh 
 alphabet is responsible for Sir Hugh's use of / 
 in " fery well." To sum up: whether we consider 
 Shakespeare's knowledge of Welsh character and 
 folklore or the English spoken by the Welsh persons 
 in his plays, we are infallibly led to the conclusion 
 that he knew many Welshmen familiarly and was 
 intimate with some, and that his knowledge was 
 of that deep-seated and instinctive kind which 
 speaks of familiarity in childhood. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 IN LONDON TOWN THE WAR OF THE THEATRES 
 
 WHEN William Shakespeare was eighteen and a 
 half years of age he married Anne Hathaway, and 
 in his twenty-second year he left Stratford-on- 
 Avon for London. Shakespearian authorities 
 used to tell us that his departure was due to his 
 having been concerned in what was then regarded 
 as a legitimate pastime of adventurous and high- 
 spirited youth, a deer-stealing expedition at Charle- 
 cote Park, the residence of Sir Thomas Lucy, 
 as a result of which he suffered prosecution at the 
 hands of that gentleman. The story is told by 
 Archdeacon Richard Davies, who was Vicar of 
 Sapperton late in the seventeenth century. It 
 appears that the proceedings against Shakespeare 
 were conducted with a good deal of rancour, which 
 may have been due to religious bigotry or to a 
 previous lampoon; and in revenge for his punish- 
 ment the poet is said to have penned the famous 
 lines beginning with the words : 
 
 A Parliament member, a justice of Peace, 
 At home a Poor Scarecrow, in London an Ass, 
 
 25 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 and to have affixed them to the park gates of 
 Charlecote Hall. The authority for attributing 
 these lines to Shakespeare was an old man bearing 
 the Welsh name of Thomas Jones, who lived near 
 Stratford-on-Avon and died in 1703 at the age of 
 upwards of ninety years. He had heard the tra- 
 ditional account of the deer-stealing episode from 
 the lips of old inhabitants of Stratford. 
 
 Later authorities, however, throw a very dif- 
 ferent light upon the subject. According to their 
 evidence, it was not in Charlecote Park, but in 
 Falbroke Park that the chasing of the deer took 
 place. Now Falbroke had long been unoccupied 
 it had, in short, become " disparked " and the deer 
 within it were under no legal protection. Charle- 
 cote lay on the opposite side of the Avon, a little 
 farther down the stream. It is very possible that 
 Sir Thomas Lucy considered himself ex officio 
 the custodian of Falbroke, or the deer may have 
 broken cover and taken refuge in Charlecote. 
 Be that as it may, there is reason to believe that 
 Lucy had no good legal pretext for prosecuting 
 the poet; for in The Merry Wives of Windsor 
 Justice Shallow, blustering at Falstaff, threatens 
 to make his poaching " a Star Chamber matter/ 1 
 and the Star Chamber was notoriously adapted to 
 trying causes without reference to the laws of the realm. 
 
 26 
 
IN LONDON TOWN 
 
 How Shakespeare travelled to the Metropolis 
 is a matter of conjecture. The distance from 
 Stratford-on-Avon to London is about 121 miles, 
 and we learn that a pack-horse carrier made the 
 journey at intervals for the purpose of conveying 
 parcels to and fro. Coaches had not yet come 
 into general use, and travellers made their journeys 
 on foot or on horseback. Whatever the manner 
 of his conveyance to London, on his arrival we 
 know that Shakespeare became connected with 
 the theatres, at first in a humble capacity, but 
 later as an actor, and eventually as a reviser and 
 writer of plays. 
 
 A detailed description of Shakespeare's progress 
 as a dramatist does not come within the province 
 of this work, but we may mention in passing that 
 when he arrived in the Metropolis one of the com- 
 panies of licensed actors appearing before the public 
 was under the patronage of Henry Herbert, second 
 Earl of Pembroke, and father of William Herbert, 
 the third Earl, whom some Shakespearian authori- 
 ties identify with the " W. H." of Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets * 
 
 The population of London in Shakespeare's 
 time was not more than 300,000, and the popula- 
 tion of the whole country was less than that of 
 See Chapter XIV. 
 
 27 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 London to-day. The Metropolis, in the Eliza- 
 bethan period, was little better than a country 
 town, but it was then, as it is now, the centre of the 
 political, religious, intellectual, and social activity 
 of England. 
 
 The first public theatre erected in England was 
 opened about the middle of Elizabeth's reign, 
 but before the end of it there were no fewer than 
 fifteen playhouses in London alone. Elizabeth, 
 although a lover of the drama, did not attend any 
 of the public theatres it was not the custom for 
 women to do so but she witnessed many of the 
 private performances given at her palaces, and 
 Shakespeare appears to have held a high place 
 in the royal favour. 
 
 Emerson gives us a glimpse of the poet's early 
 method of work. " At the time," he says, " when 
 Shakespeare left Stratford and went up to London' 
 a great body of stage plays of all dates and writers 
 existed in manuscript, and were in turn produced 
 on the boards. Here is the Tale of Troy, which 
 the audience will bear hearing some part of every 
 week; the Death of Julius Caesar and other stories 
 out of Plutarch, which they will never tire of; 
 a shelf full of English history from the chronicles 
 of Brut and Arthur down to the royal Henrys, 
 which men hear eagerly; and a string of doleful 
 
 28 
 
IN LONDON TOWN 
 
 tragedies, merry Italian tales, and Spanish voyages, 
 which all the London prentices know. . . . Shake- 
 speare, in common with his comrades, esteemed 
 the mass of old plays waste stock with which any 
 experiment could be freely tried." 
 
 Publication, it must be remembered, was not 
 regarded as an advantage. Printers in search 
 of copy had often to " pirate " successful plays by 
 stealth. They sent a shorthand writer to attend 
 the performances of such plays, or surreptitiously 
 obtained a sight of the manuscript. Plays would 
 usually have been the property of the players, 
 and, if stolen, could be produced by their rivals. 
 Less successful writers might sell their plays to a 
 printer; the more successful frequently postponed 
 publication until the actual or threatened publica- 
 tion of garbled versions led them in self-defence 
 to issue the authentic text. 
 
 The theatre in the early days of Elizabeth (says 
 Green) was commonly only the courtyard of an 
 inn, or a mere booth such as is still seen in a country 
 fair. The bulk of the audience sat beneath the 
 open sky in the " pit " or yard; a few covered 
 seats in the galleries which ran round it formed the 
 boxes of the wealthier spectators, while patrons 
 and nobles found seats on the actual boards. All 
 the appliances were of the roughest sort; a few 
 
 29 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 flowers served to indicate a garden, crowds and 
 armies were represented by a dozen scene-shifters 
 with swords and bucklers, heroes rode in and out on 
 hobby-horses, and a scroll on a post told whether 
 the scene was at Athens or London. There were 
 no female actors, and the grossness which startles 
 us in words that fall from women's lips took a 
 different colour when every woman's part was 
 acted by a boy. But difficulties such as these 
 were more than compensated by the popular 
 character of the drama itself. Rude as the theatre 
 might be, all the world was there. The stage was 
 crowded with nobles and courtiers. Apprentices 
 and citizens thronged the benches in the yard below. 
 The rough mob of the pit inspired, as it felt, the 
 vigorous life, the rapid transitions, the passionate 
 energy, the reality, the lifelike medley and con- 
 fusion, the racy dialogue, the chat, the wit, the 
 pathos, the sublimity, the rant, the buffoonery, 
 the coarse horrors and the vulgar blood-shedding, 
 the immense range over all classes of society, the 
 intimacy with the foulest as well as the fairest 
 developments of human nature which characterised 
 the English stage. The new drama represented 
 " the very age and body of the time, his form and 
 pressure. . . ." Few events in our literary history 
 are so startling as this sudden rise of the Eliza- 
 30 
 
IN LONDON TOWN 
 
 bethan drama. The rise of the drama led to the 
 building of special theatres. These public play- 
 houses were usually of octagonal or circular shape, 
 and the pit was open to the sky. Under the narrow 
 circular roof there were three galleries, the two 
 lower ones being divided into boxes. The stage 
 ran far into the auditorium. The appliances, as 
 in the case of the improvised theatre of the inn- 
 yard, were, at the outset, of the simplest kind, 
 but as time went on plays were produced with 
 greater elaboration, until in the reign of James 
 curtains and scenic machinery were introduced 
 by Inigo Jones, the famous architect, and after 
 a time the players began to appear in elaborate 
 costumes. Three flourishes on a trumpet an- 
 nounced the beginning of the performance, and 
 a band of musicians supplied the instrumental 
 interludes. 
 
 By 1599, when Shakespeare's position was 
 established, he had become a shareholder in the 
 Globe Theatre, drawing at the lowest estimate an 
 income of more than 500 a year, which repre- 
 sented a condition of affluence, since the value of 
 money was then perhaps eight times as great as 
 it is to-day. In 1609 he became a sharer in the 
 profits also of the Blackfriars Theatre, which for 
 many years had been in the possession of a manager 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 bearing the Welsh name of Henry Evans. There 
 is documentary evidence to show that on Septem- 
 ber 2ist, 1600, Henry Evans leased the Blackfriars 
 Theatre from the Burbages, who were the original 
 proprietors, for a term of twenty-one years at a 
 rental of 40 per annum (about 320 in our money) ; 
 but owing to a breach of covenant on the part of 
 the lessee, who found himself unable to pay the 
 rent, Richard Burbage regained possession of the 
 theatre in 1608. This recovery was obtained as 
 the result of legal proceedings, and in view of the 
 interest of the subject from the Welsh standpoint 
 we give a portion of the petition presented in the 
 course of the proceedings to the Earl of Pembroke, 
 who was then Lord Chamberlain : 
 
 " Now for the Blackfriars that is our inheri- 
 tance; our father purchased it at extreame rates, 
 and made it into a playhouse with great charge 
 and troble which after was leased out to one Evans 
 that first sett up the boyes commonly called the 
 Queene's Majesties Children of the Chappell. In 
 processe of time the boyes growing up to bee men 
 which were Underwood, Field, Ostler, and were 
 taken to strengthen the King's service; and the 
 more to strengthen the service, the boyes dayly 
 wearing out, it was considered that house would 
 bee as fitt for ourselves and soe purchased the 
 
 32 
 
IN LONDON TOWN 
 
 lease remaining from Evans with our money and 
 placed men players which were Hemings, Condall, 
 Shakespeare, etc. And Richard Burbage." 
 
 To these, in 1610, as well as to the dis- 
 possessed lessee, shares in the receipts were 
 granted. 
 
 Henry Evans, during his connection with the 
 Blackfriars Theatre, had under his direction a 
 youthful company of actors known as the Children 
 of the Chapel Royal. These boy actors soon 
 became the rage, and a fierce rivalry ensued between 
 the older actors and the youthful new-comers. 
 The leading dramatists (with the exception of 
 Shakespeare) took sides, and satirical exchanges 
 were made through the medium of the plays pro- 
 duced at the Blackfriars and Globe playhouses. 
 The controversy, in which Henry Evans was of 
 course concerned, is referred to in Hamlet, Act II., 
 Scene 2. Rosencrantz explains that the tragedians 
 in whom the city were wont to take a delight 
 were forced to seek audiences in the provinces. 
 Their " inhibition " was due to <( the late innova- 
 tion. " " An eyrie " [nest] of children, " little 
 eyases " [hawks], were " now the fashion," and they 
 so '" assailed the common stages " that many 
 wearing rapiers " were afraid of goose quills " and 
 dared " scarce come thither." 
 
 3 33 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Hamlet. What ! are they children ? Who maintains 'em ? 
 How are they escoted [paid] ? Will they pursue the quality 
 [actors' profession] no longer than they can sing ? Will they 
 not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common 
 players (as it is most like if their means are not better), their 
 writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their 
 own succession ? 
 
 Rosencrantz. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides 
 and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy; 
 there was for a while no money bid for argument unless the 
 poet and the player went to cuffs in the question. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth showed her personal approval 
 of the children of the Chapel Royal by twice 
 inviting them to perform in Court in the winters 
 of 1 60 1 and of 1602, and Sir Dudley Carleton, 
 the Court gossip, wrote on December 29th, 1601, 
 that the Queen dined that day privately with Lord 
 Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain. He adds: " I 
 came even now from the Blackfriars, where I saw 
 her at the play with all her candidce auditrices" 
 Lord Hunsdon *s house was in the precincts of 
 Blackfriars, and it is pointed out that the per- 
 formance probably took place at the residence of 
 the Lord Chamberlain, as the Queen was not in the 
 habit of attending public theatres. The boys of 
 Blackfriars in 1603-04, when James I. had come 
 to the throne, entered the service of Queen Anne 
 of Denmark, and were given the new title of " Chil- 
 dren of the Queen's Revels." Having, however, 
 
 34 
 
IN LONDON TOWN 
 
 become offensive in their behaviour, and produced 
 some plays which contained political allusions 
 distasteful to the Court, the company was dismissed 
 by Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, as Chamber- 
 lain of the Household. Among the subjects 
 touched upon by the plays which gave such sharp 
 offence to the Court was that of the Welsh mines, 
 which in those days, as in these, appear to have 
 provided other inflammatory stuff than coal. 
 
 At the Globe Theatre a Shakespeare Company 
 held the boards, the members of which occasionally 
 gave performances in the provinces. Upon several 
 occasions they visited Shrewsbury and once, in 
 X 593> Bristol, and there is a record of Shakespeare 
 having accompanied them upon that occasion. 
 There is no evidence to prove that he ever visited 
 Wales, although there are traditions to that effect 
 in Breconshire and Pembrokeshire. With the 
 Breconshire tradition we shall deal more fully in 
 another chapter. As regards Pembrokeshire, the 
 reader will recollect that it figures in several of 
 the historical plays, Milford Haven being the chief 
 landing-place for expeditions from France, Italy, 
 and Ireland. One of the four chief Roman roads 
 was Ryknield Street, which name was sometimes 
 given to the whole route from the extremity of 
 South Wales to the Tyne. Shakespeare has made 
 
 35 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 repeated allusions to it in Cymbeline, in which 
 Milford Haven, on the western extension of the 
 Ryknield Street, is mentioned as the port from 
 which the voyage to Italy was made, and as the 
 landing-place for the " legions garrisoned in Gallia " 
 (Cymbeline, IV. 2). Remembering that Shake- 
 speare, like all poets, instinctively made use of his 
 actual experiences, we may regard these constant 
 references to Milford as tending to support the 
 tradition which speaks of him as visiting Wales, 
 but it is improbable that we shall ever know the 
 truth. Although he may well have known the 
 nearer parts of Wales, it is hardly likely that he 
 would have gone as far afield as Milford. It is 
 far more probable that his Welsh fellow-townsmen 
 had spoken to him of Milford Haven as the great 
 port of South Wales, and the starting-point of long 
 and adventurous voyages. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 " THE SPACIOUS DAYS OF GREAT ELIZABETH " 
 
 SHAKESPEARE was born in the sixth year of the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the Spanish Armada 
 had been defeated about two years after he had left 
 Stratford-on-Avon for London. Elizabeth died 
 in 1603, so that Shakespeare outlived her by thir- 
 teen years, during which time he was a subject of 
 James I., the only child of Mary Queen of Scots 
 and Henry Darnley, grandson of Margaret Tudor. 
 Mary Queen of Scots was herself a grandchild of 
 Margaret Tudor by her first husband, James IV., 
 Darnley being the grandchild of Margaret Tudor 
 by her second husband, the Earl of Angus. 
 
 Elizabeth's was the concluding reign of a dynasty 
 founded indirectly by Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentle- 
 man of a noble Anglesea family. The Tudors traced 
 their descent from Cadwaladr Fendigaid, the last 
 British King, who died, according to Brut y 
 Tywysogion, or the Chronicle of the Princes, in 
 A.D. 68 1, after a reign of twelve years. The 
 royal blood both of North and of South Wales ran 
 in their veins. They fought for Llywelyn the 
 
 37 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Great; they were represented at Cre^y and 
 Agincourt; they supported their kinsman Glen- 
 dower; and they had married into the French 
 and English Royal Families. "It was," writes 
 Sir Owen M. Edwards, " partly good fortune and 
 partly their own determination that their fortune 
 should be good that brought them to the brilliant 
 position they occupied during the sixteenth century, 
 and enabled them to become the creators of modern 
 Britain in all the essential aspects of its history." 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was the only child of Henry 
 VIII. and Anne Boleyn, who was his second wife. 
 Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Boleyn and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, daughter of 
 the Duke of Norfolk. The King was disappointed 
 that she did not bring him a male heir, and she was 
 beheaded on May i9th, 1536, on Tower Green. 
 " From childhood," says Dixon, " she had been a 
 bright and elfin creature, one in whom the Saxon 
 depths were lighted up with Celtic fire." There 
 is a tradition that the unfortunate Queen lived for 
 a time at Tymawr, near Porthcawl. It is also said 
 that the Williamses of Penpont, in Brecon, once 
 bore the name of Bullen, or Boleyn, and that Anne 
 was an offshoot of this ancient stock. 
 
 Elizabeth ascended the throne at a time when 
 the fortunes of England were at a very low ebb, 
 
 38 
 
" THE DAYS OF GREAT ELIZABETH" 
 
 but she made her reign one of the most glorious 
 periods of English history. She was a popular 
 monarch, in spite of her impetuous will, her harsh- 
 ness and pride, and her furious outbursts of temper, 
 which historians attribute to her Tudor blood. 
 
 The Elizabethan period, in addition to being a 
 time of great progress and prosperity, was also 
 a time of ceaseless conflict. " The human mind, 
 awakening from the sleep of Feudalism and the 
 Dark Ages, fastened on all the problems that 
 are inherent to human society, problems which 
 even at the present day are not half solved. The 
 clash of opinions went on in all branches of human 
 knowledge. Men were digging down to the very 
 roots of things Politics, Science, Philosophy, and 
 Religion" (Arber). 
 
 The Spanish menace having been disposed of, 
 the commerce of England advanced by leaps and 
 bounds. Daring sailors, the majority of whom 
 were Devonshire men, sailed the high seas in search 
 of adventure, and opened up new and profitable 
 markets for English commerce. Visions of galleons 
 ' loaded to the brim with pearls and diamonds and 
 ingots of silver " stirred the popular imagination, 
 and England was in a state of continual ferment 
 and effervescence. With prosperity came an 
 increase of comfort, luxury, and enjoyment. In- 
 
 39 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 tellectually, also, great progress was made, 
 For the instruction of the youth of the country 
 Grammar Schools were established throughout 
 the provinces, while through the medium of the 
 classical translations sent out from the Universi- 
 ties the people were made familiar with the literary 
 treasures of Greece and Rome. 
 
 At Christmastide of 1594 Shakespeare received 
 a summons to act at Court with the most famous 
 actors of the day. It is believed that this was due 
 to the interest which Elizabeth took in his plays. 
 Love's Labour's Lost was given at Whitehall at 
 Christmas, 1597. Elizabeth, if we may credit 
 tradition, did not conceal her admiration for 
 Falstaff, and Ben Jonson bears testimony to Shake- 
 speare's popularity with James I., as well as with 
 Elizabeth, in his elegy on Shakespeare, where he 
 speaks of 
 
 Those flights upon the banks of Thames, 
 That so did take Eliza and our James. 
 
 Shakespeare probably saw Queen Elizabeth for 
 the first time upon the occasion of her State visit 
 to Kenilworth Castle on July 9th, 1575, ten years 
 after her gift of it to Leicester. He was then 
 eleven years of age. Kenilworth lies within easy 
 distance of Stratford-on-Avon, and Shakespeare 
 would have had no difficulty in joining the im- 
 
 40 
 
4 THE DAYS OF GREAT ELIZABETH ' 
 
 mense throng which assembled in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Castle to extend to the Tudor Queen 
 a loyal and enthusiastic welcome. We may be 
 sure that among the onlookers there were large 
 numbers of Welsh folk from across the border. 
 The spectacular approach of Elizabeth has been 
 graphically described by Sir Walter Scott in 
 Kenilworth, and we can easily imagine the powerful 
 impression which the cavalcade must have made 
 upon the youthful mind of the Poet. 
 
 " Pedantry, novelty, the allegory of Italy, the 
 chivalry of the Middle Ages, the mythology of 
 Rome, the English bear-fight, pastorals, super- 
 stition, farce, all took their turn " (says Green) " in 
 the entertainment which Lord Leicester provided 
 for the Queen at Kenilworth. A ' wild man ' 
 from the Indies chanted her praises, and Echo 
 answered him. Elizabeth turned from the greet- 
 ings of sibyls and giants to deliver the enchanted 
 lady from her tyrant ' Sans Pitie,' shepherdesses 
 welcomed her with carols of the spring, while 
 Ceres and Bacchus poured their corn and grapes 
 at her feet. 1 ' 
 
 Sir Walter Scott believed that the celebrated 
 vision of Oberon might have been inspired by the 
 impression which the child Shakespeare received 
 upon this occasion,and thewell-known lines alluding 
 
 4i 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 to the Queen are said to have met with Her Majesty's 
 approval : 
 
 That very time I saw (but thou could'st not), 
 Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 
 Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took 
 At a fair vestal throned by the west, 
 And loos'd his love shaft smartly from his bow, 
 As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. 
 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
 Quench 'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, 
 And the imperial votaress passed on, 
 In maiden meditation, fancy free. 
 
 The possibility that Shakespeare was a witness 
 of the Kenilworth pageant becomes almost a 
 probability when we learn that a relative of his 
 mother's (Edward Arden) was at that time in 
 Leicester's service. 
 
 How deeply Shakespeare was impressed by the 
 talents, the wisdom, and the instinct for states- 
 manship of the Tudor sovereign or how neatly 
 he was able to flatter a vain King on demand 
 is revealed by the following noble prophecy which 
 he puts into the mouth of Cranmer in the christen- 
 ing scene at the end of the play of King Henry VIII.: 
 
 Cranmer. Let me speak, sir, 
 
 For heaven now bids me; and the words I utter 
 Let none think flattery, for they'll find 'em truth. 
 This royal infant heaven still move about her ! 
 Though in her cradle, yet now promises 
 Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, 
 Which time shall bring to ripeness : she shall 
 42 
 
THE DAYS OF GREAT ELIZABETH" 
 
 But few now living can behold that goodness 
 A pattern to all princes living with her, 
 And all that shall succeed: Saba* was never 
 More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue 
 Than this pure soul shall be. . . . 
 
 Her own shall bless her; 
 Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, 
 And hang their heads with sorrow: good grows with her: 
 In her days every man shall eat in safety, 
 Under his own vine, what he plants; and sing 
 The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours. . . . 
 Nor shall this peace sleep with her: but as when 
 The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, 
 Her ashes new create another heir, 
 As great in admiration as herself; 
 So shall she leave her blessedness to one, 
 When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness. 
 Who from the sacred ashes of her honour 
 Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was, 
 And so stand fix'd : peace, plenty, love, truth, terror, 
 That were the servants to this chosen infant, 
 Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him : 
 Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, 
 His honour and the greatness of his name 
 Shall be, and make new nations: he shall flourish. 
 And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 
 To all the plains about him: our children's children 
 Shall see this, and bless heaven. 
 
 King. Thou speakest wonders, 
 
 Cyan. She shall be, to the happiness of England, 
 An aged princess; many days shall see her, 
 And yet no day without a deed to crown it. 
 Would I had known no more ! but she must die, 
 She must, the saints must have her; yet a virgin, 
 A most unspotted lily shall she pass 
 To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her. 
 
 * The Queen of Sheba. 
 
 43 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 It will be noted that reference is here made to 
 the early settlements on the shores of New England. 
 
 We catch a glimpse of the Tudor Queen through 
 the Welsh eyes of Lord Herbert of Cherbury 
 in that most individual of books, his Autobiography, 
 wherein he says: " Curiosity, rather than ambition, 
 brought me to Court (in 1600); and as it was the 
 manner of those times for all men to kneel down 
 before the great Queen Elizabeth, who then reigned, 
 I was likewise upon my knees in the presence- 
 chamber when she passed by to the chapel at 
 Whitehall. As soon as she saw me she stopped, 
 and swearing her usual oath [' God's Death '], 
 demanded, ' Who is this ?' Everybody there present 
 looked upon me, but no man knew me, until Sir 
 James Croft, a pensioner, finding the Queen stayed, 
 returned back and told who I was, and that I had 
 married Sir W r illiam Herbert of St. Julian's 
 daughter. The Queen hereupon looked attentively 
 upon me, and swearing again her ordinary oath, 
 said, ' It is a pity he was married so young/ and 
 thereupon gave her hand to kiss twice, both times 
 gently clapping me on the cheek/' 
 
 44 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN OF SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 TIME 
 
 THERE were many notable Welshmen of the latter 
 part of the sixteenth century whom Shakespeare 
 may have known personally, or of whose careers, 
 at all events, he must have been an interested 
 spectator. Other eminent men were of Welsh 
 extraction, or connected with great Welsh families . 
 Among these, it appears, was no less a person than 
 William Cecil, Lord Burghley. According to Hume 
 (The Great Lord Burghley), Cecil, who throughout 
 his life was a diligent student of heraldry and 
 genealogy, devoted considerable attention to the 
 subject of his remote ancestry, and Camden was at 
 pains to trace his descent to a Robert Sitsilt, 
 a gentleman of Wales in the time of William 
 Rufus (1091). There is a written pedigree at 
 Hatfield House, annotated and continued by 
 William Cecil, which traces the descent of the 
 statesman's grandfather, Richard Sitsilt, who died 
 in 1508, possessing considerable estates in Mon- 
 mouthshire and Herefordshire, to the ancient 
 Welsh family of Sitsilt. In his Tudor Statesmen 
 
 45 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Innes tells us that David, one of the sons of Richard 
 Sitsilt, elected to modify his name into Cecil on 
 migrating to Lincolnshire, where he prospered 
 greatly. Jeyes, in his Life and Times of the Marquis 
 of Salisbury, K.G. y says that in the latter part of 
 the fifteenth century one of the members of the 
 Cecil family, whose name was David Cyssell, acted 
 as Sheriff of Northamptonshire and Alderman of 
 Stamford. 
 
 Another of Elizabeth's trusted counsellors was 
 William Herbert, the first Earl of Pembroke (second 
 creation), of whom Sir Owen M. Edwards writes: 
 ' He could neither read nor write, though he signs 
 his name in capital letters. It is said of him also 
 that he only knew his own language well. It is 
 to be supposed that the language was Welsh. . . . 
 But the big, bony, red-haired Welshman with 
 the sharp eye and stern look won the regard of 
 Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, 
 successively, and he served them all faithfully and 
 well. When so many men who could read and 
 write lost their heads, Herbert rivalled Cecil as an 
 adroit politician. He helped Henry VIII. to 
 suppress the monasteries ; he relieved Exeter with 
 two thousand Welshmen during the Cornish 
 rising against Somerset; he helped Northumberland 
 to secure the succession of Lady Jane Grey; he 
 
 46 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 carried the Sword of State before Mary on her 
 wedding day; he persuaded Elizabeth to take up a 
 Protestant policy. He was the chief figure in all 
 the sudden changes which brought so many men 
 low, and died in peace.' 1 
 
 The Herbert family came of a redoubtable 
 Welsh stock. Dircks tells us of a Herbert (Herbertus 
 Camararius) who came over as a comrade of the 
 Conqueror. Early in the thirteenth century a 
 descendant of his had lordships granted him in 
 Wales; his grandson, Peter Fitz Reginald, married 
 a Welsh heiress, and for several generations his 
 successors followed his example, with the result 
 that the position of the family was consolidated 
 in the south of Wales 
 
 Sir William Herbert, eighth in descent from 
 Reginald Herbert, had a son of his own name, 
 who became celebrated in the civil wars for his 
 services to the House of York. He received from 
 Edward IV. large grants of land in Wales and 
 elsewhere. He was summoned to Parliament as 
 Baron Herbert of Chepstow, and in 1461 was 
 created Earl of Pembroke. In 1469 he marched 
 northwards at the head of 18,000 Welshmen to 
 suppress a dangerous Lancastrian rising in the 
 North of England. He was defeated at the Battle 
 of Danes Moor, near Edgecote. Taken to North- 
 
 47 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE JVELSH 
 
 ampton as a prisoner, he was later beheaded. 
 His son and successor surrendered the title of 
 Earl of Pembroke to Edward IV., and was instead 
 created Earl of Huntingdon. He died leaving 
 only a daughter, who carried the Barony of 
 Herbert of Chepstow into the family of Somerset 
 (Duke of Beaufort). The William Herbert who 
 played so important a part in Court and on battle- 
 field in the reigns of the last four Tudor monarchs 
 was the son of Sir Richard Herbert, Kt., of Ewyas, 
 by Margaret, daughter and heiress of St. Matthew 
 Cradock, Kt., of Swansea. He married Anne, 
 daughter of Thomas, Lord Parr, sister of Catherine 
 Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII., and in 1551 
 was created Baron Herbert of Cardiff and Earl 
 of Pembroke. He obtained from the same King 
 and Edward VI. the lordship of Glamorgan. He 
 was Captain-General of the English army in 
 France in 1557. It is recorded that " he rode 
 on February 7th, 1552-53, to his mansion of Bayard 
 Castle with 300 horse to his retinue, of which 100 
 were gentlemen in plain blue cloth with chains of 
 gold and badges of a dragon on their sleeves." 
 The family crest is a dragon. His son held, among 
 other offices, that of President of the Council of 
 Wales. The second Earl's third wife was the 
 daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, K.G. She it was 
 48 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 who was the mother of William, the third Earl, 
 who, as already intimated, has been identified 
 with the " W. H." of Shakespeare's Sonnets 
 whether rightly so we shall consider in another 
 chapter. 
 
 Owing to the outbreak of the plague towards 
 the end of 1603, the Court of James I. was tem- 
 porarily transferred to Wilton, the residence of 
 William Herbert. Late in November, Shake- 
 speare's Company of King's Players went thither 
 in answer to a royal summons, and a performance 
 was given before the new King. Seven years after 
 Shakespeare's death his admirers and fellow-actors 
 collected and published his plays, the collection 
 being known as the First Folio. William Herbert 
 was then Lord Chamberlain. The dedication of 
 the Folio ran as follows: " To the most noble and 
 incomparable paire of brethren William, Earl of 
 Pembroke, etc., Lord Chamberlaine to the King's 
 most excellent majesty, and Philip, Earl of Mont- 
 gomery, etc., Gentleman to His Majesties Bed- 
 chamber. Both knights of the Noble Order of the 
 Garter and our singular good Lords." One portion 
 of the dedication alludes to past favours in these 
 words: " But since your lordships have beene 
 pleas 'd to thinke these trifles something, hereto- 
 fore; and have prosequuted both them and their 
 
 4 49 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Author living with so much favour: we hope that 
 (they outliving him and he not having the fate 
 common with some to be exequutor to his owne 
 writings) you will use the like indulgence toward 
 them you have done unto their parent. There is 
 a great difference whether any Booke choose his 
 Patrones or find them: this hath done both. For 
 so many were your lordships' likings of the severall 
 parts when they were acted as before they were 
 published, the Volume asked to be yours.*' 
 
 Lord Herbert of Cherbury followed the ancestral 
 policy with reference to marriage, espousing Mary, 
 his cousin, the daughter and heiress of Sir. William 
 Herbert of St. Julian's, between Caerleon and 
 Newport. He was born at Eyeton-on-Severn, 
 Shropshire, in 1583, and died in 1648. He went 
 campaigning in the Low Counties in 1610 and 
 1614, and was appointed Ambassador at Paris 
 in 1619. He is regarded as one of the forerunners 
 of the deistical movement of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. Philosopher, historian, diplomatist, cour- 
 tier, dandy, lover, swashbuckler, mystic, he was 
 a typical child of his age and a typical Welshman. 
 His Autobiography, eminently readable, intensely 
 human, and racy of the man, should be familiar 
 to every student of Welsh character. 
 
 George Herbert, the younger brother of Lord 
 
 50 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 Herbert of Cherbury, was born at Montgomery 
 Castle in 1593, and died in 1633. In 1618 he was 
 appointed reader of rhetoric at Cambridge, and in 
 1619 public orator. In 1626 he was given the 
 Lincoln prebend of Leighton Bromswold, Hunts, 
 and in 1630 received the living of Bemerton, near 
 Salisbury. Here he devoted his leisure to the 
 writing of devotional poetry, his Temple being 
 even better known than his brother's Autobio- 
 graphy. 
 
 It was announced during the Shakespearian 
 revival in 1741 that The Merchant of Venice and 
 the Winter's Tale had not been performed for a 
 century, and that All's Well that End's Well had 
 been last acted in Shakespeare's lifetime. It is 
 clear, however, from some notes of playgoing kept 
 by Simon Forman, a London quack doctor and 
 astrologer, that the Winter's Tale was performed 
 at the Globe on May 15th, 1611. We also learn 
 something about its first appearance from the old 
 Office Book kept by Sir Henry Herbert, Master of 
 the Revels to Charles I. " Nothing had been heard 
 of it for nearly a century, 1 ' writes Mr. Elton, " when 
 it was found by a curious accident. Horace 
 Walpole was editing the Life of Lord Herbert of 
 Cherbury from a stained and torn MS. at Lymore, 
 and had made vain inquiries about a duplicate 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 once belonging to Lord Herbert's brother, Sir 
 Henry Herbert of Ribbisford. At last, in the year 
 1727, this duplicate was sent to Lord Powis by a 
 gentleman who had bought the estate at Ribbis- 
 ford; it appeared that a great oak chest had been 
 allowed to go with the house, and in this chest 
 were found the duplicate ' Life ' and various books 
 and papers, including the Office Book of Sir Henry 
 Herbert, with notes from August, 1623, onwards. 
 On the iQth of August, 1623, Sir Henry made 
 a note of a visit from old Mr. Heminge : ' For the 
 King's players. An olde playe called Winter's 
 Tale, formerly allowed of by Sir George Bucke 
 and likewise by mee on Mr. Hemmings his worde 
 that there was nothing profane added or reformed 
 thogh the allowed booke was missing ; and therefore 
 I returned it without a fee.' ' 
 
 A famous Welsh antiquary of Elizabeth's reign 
 was Sir John Price, one of the descendants of 
 Einon Sais. He was born at Oxford, and admitted 
 Bachelor of Civil Law in 1534. He studied at 
 the Inns of Court, and after being called to the Bar 
 was, it is said, noticed by King Henry VIII., by 
 whom he was appointed one of the Council of the 
 Court of the Marches. He married Joan, daughter 
 of John Williams of Southwark. John Williams 
 was a son of William Evan, or William Morgan, 
 
 52 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 of Whitchurch, and elder brother of Morgan Wil- 
 liams, who married a daughter of Walter Cromwell 
 of Putney, from whom descended Oliver Cromwell, 
 the Protector. Sir John Price took a very active 
 part in the Union of Wales with England, and was 
 supposed to be the person who dictated the petition 
 to Henry VIII. He was knighted by Henry, 
 and died probably in 1572. 
 
 After the dissolution of the monasteries in the 
 reign of Henry VIII., the Priory Lands, Brecon, 
 were granted to Sir John Price, and from him 
 descended, through the female line, to the present 
 owner, the Earl of Camden. In his History of 
 Brecknockshire, Theophilus Jones, the Welsh his- 
 torian, says: " To his son Richard Price, who was 
 well known and received at the Court of London 
 during the reigns of Edward VI., Philip and Mary, 
 and the beginning of Elizabeth's, I have reason 
 to believe that Shakespeare was indebted for 
 ' that remnant of Welsh flannel ' Sir Hugh Evans, 
 a character (if such it may be called) which seems 
 to be introduced merely to amuse the audience 
 with the jargon and phraseology of the Briton, 
 and to make fritters of the English tongue, in which, 
 as in everything else the poet has undertaken, he 
 has most admirably succeeded. Sir Hugh Evans 
 [the Breconshire clergyman] was the protege* of 
 
 53 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 our antiquary, Sir John Price, and his son Richard, 
 the latter of whom presented him with the living 
 of Merthyr Cynog in Breconshire in 1572." We 
 are not, I think, to read Jones as suggesting that 
 the real Sir Hugh Evans, whom Shakespeare may 
 never have met, was necessarily the prototype 
 of the Windsor parson ; but rather that the drama- 
 tist may have been indebted to Price for his name, 
 and perhaps for anecdotes relating to the actual 
 Evans; in short, that Shakespeare may have re- 
 produced the personal peculiarities or the accent 
 of Price, and borrowed the name of his protege*, 
 the country clergyman, perhaps to blend them 
 with the characteristics of his old friend Thomas 
 Jenkins. 
 
 Shakespeare's acquaintance with another prom- 
 inent Welshman seems to have been established 
 with something approaching certainty by Sir 
 Sidney Lee. " Sir John Salisbury, a Welsh country 
 gentleman of Lleweni, Denbighshire, and by two 
 years Shakespeare's junior/' he writes, " married 
 in early life Ursula Stanley, the natural daughter 
 of the fourth Earl of Derby, who was at one time 
 patron of Shakespeare's theatrical company. Sir 
 John's surname is usually spelt Salusbury. Dr. 
 Johnson's friend, Mrs. Thrale (afterwards Mrs. 
 Piozzi), whose maiden name was Salusbury, was a 
 
 54 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 direct descendant. Sir John Salisbury spent much 
 of his time in London, being knighted in 1601. 
 A man of literary culture, he could turn a stanza 
 with some deftness, and was a generous patron 
 of many Welsh and English bards, who wrote much 
 in honour of himself and his family. . . . Robert 
 Chester was evidently a confidential protg, 
 closely associated with the knight's Welsh home. 
 It is clear that Sir John was acquainted with Ben 
 Jonson and other men of letters in the capital, 
 and that Shakespeare and the rest good-naturedly 
 contributed to Chester's volume by way of showing 
 regard for a minor Maecenas of the day. J> The 
 volume referred to is Chester's Love's Martyr ; or, 
 Rosalin's Complaint, shadowing the Truth of Love 
 in the Constant Fate of the Phoenix and the Turtle, 
 to which Shakespeare contributed the poem re- 
 printed at the end of the modern editions of his 
 works. 
 
 Shakespeare may also have come into contact 
 with John Williams, goldsmith to James I., whom 
 Drayton (in his introduction to the seven long 
 poems which he devoted to Wales) describes as 
 that " true lover of his countrie (as of all ancient 
 and noble things) Mr. John Williams his majesty's 
 goldsmith, my dear and worthy friend." 
 
 The formation of the New River to carry the 
 
 55 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 springs of the River Lea to the heart of the City 
 of London, in the year 1613, was largely due to a 
 distinguished Welshman, Sir Hugh Myddelton, 
 whose persistence overcame unending difficulties 
 and opposition, and the first official act of his 
 brother, Sir Thomas Myddelton, who was elected 
 Lord Mayor of London the same year, was to 
 perform the opening ceremony. Sir Hugh 
 Myddelton was born at Galch Hill, Denbigh, 
 about the year 1560. There is a tradition that he 
 and Sir Walter Raleigh used to sit together at the 
 door of the former's shop and smoke the newly 
 introduced weed tobacco, greatly to the amaze- 
 ment of the passers-by. He likewise entered into 
 the new trade of clothmaking with great energy, 
 andfollowed it with so much success that, in a speech 
 delivered by him in the House of Commons be- 
 tween 1614 and 1617 on the proposed cloth patent, 
 he was able to state that he and his partner em- 
 ployed several hundred families. 
 
 Sir Thomas Myddelton, who was born in 1550, 
 purchased in 1595 Chirk Castle, an Edwardian 
 stronghold in his native county erected by 
 Roger de Mortimer in the reign of Edward I, 
 He entered Parliament in 1597-98 as Member 
 for Merionethshire. Another member of this 
 family, Captain William Myddelton, born in 
 
 56 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 1556, finished his translation of the Psalms on 
 January 24th, 1595-96, at Scutum, in the West 
 Indies, but the work, which was edited for the 
 press by another Denbighshire man, Thomas 
 Salesbury of Clocaenog, was not published until 
 1603. He was buried at Antwerp. 
 
 An anonymous writer signing himself " E. R. W. M 
 gives in the Welsh Outlook for March, 1915, the 
 following among other particulars of the life of Sir 
 Roger Williams, who is suggested as a probable pro.- 
 totype of Shakespeare's Fluellen (see Chapter XII .) : 
 He was born at Penrhos in Monmouthshire. He 
 probably spent some time at Brasenose College, 
 Oxford, and became a page in the Earl of Pem- 
 broke's employ. He saw service first in the storm- 
 ing of St. Quentin in 1557. The rest of his life he 
 spent as a soldier of fortune, winning for himself 
 a European repute for reckless and personal daring. 
 It is little wonder (adds the writer) that pamphlets 
 of his achievements in the wars entitled Newes 
 from Sir Roger Williams sold like hot cakes in the 
 streets of London, and in Chapman's play, Byron's 
 Conspiracy, Henry of Navarre, no doubt for the 
 benefit of the " groundlings," is made to refer to 
 the " swelling ardour " of Colonel Williams. With 
 the Queen he was on indifferent terms : the soldierly 
 bluntness of his speech and the persistency with 
 
 57 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 which he advocated more radical measures against 
 Spain (thus compromising her policy of " wise 
 passiveness ") did not tend to conciliate her. 
 11 I would refuse no hazard in the Queen's service/' 
 he wrote in 1584, " but I do persuade myself she 
 makes no account of me "; and he feared he would 
 have to serve Duke Mathias in Hungary, or one 
 of the Turkish pashas against Persia. On one of 
 his appearances at Court to prefer some suit, 
 Elizabeth, observing a new pair of boots on his 
 legs, claps her hand to her nose, and cries, " Fah, 
 Williams ! prithee begone; thy boots stink 1" " Tut, 
 tut, madame 1" he replied, with rough wit; " 'tis 
 my suit that stinks." In July, 1 595, when visiting 
 England, he had the satisfaction of being received 
 at Greenwich by Her Majesty and all the Court 
 in "a friendly public welcome." He died in 
 December, 1 595, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathe- 
 dral " in a very good martiall sort," and among the 
 mourners were " all the warlike men of the City of 
 London." He was " literatured " in the wars like 
 Captain Gower, as witness his " Brief Discourse 
 of War, with his opinions concerning some part of 
 martiall discipline," nor could Fluellen (suggests 
 the writer), in his heated disputes with Captain 
 Macmorris, have outdone the vigour with which Sir 
 Roger entered into controversy with his many critics. 
 58 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 We have seen that Shakespeare would have 
 had many opportunities of studying the Welsh 
 character in his boyhood and early youth among 
 his schoolfellows and fellow-townsmen, and in 
 the person of the schoolmaster, Thomas Jenkins. 
 Subsequent opportunities occurred during his as- 
 sociation with Welshmen in London and at the 
 Court. 
 
 That much interest was taken by Englishmen 
 in things Welsh at this period is evident from the 
 numerous references to Wales and Welshmen to 
 be found in the works of the playwrights of the 
 sixteenth and early seventeenth century. In many 
 cases Welsh phrases and even sentences are intro- 
 duced, as, for example: " I do love cawse boby, 
 good rosted cheese " (Andrew Borders Book of 
 Knowledge, 1542), and " Nos da diu cata why" 
 (Nashe, Gros III., 1596). In 1619 King James 
 (Elizabeth's successor) witnessed the performance 
 of an anti-masque written by Ben Jonson " for 
 the sake of variety and the King's amusement/ 1 
 entitled For the Honour of Wales, in which the 
 characters are Griffith, Jenkin, and Evan, a Welsh 
 attorney. The work is interlarded with such 
 Welsh expressions as " Gad vyn lonyth " (Let me 
 alone); " Velhy " (Heyday; or so); " Tawson " 
 (Hold your tongue) ; " Ble mae yr Brenin ?" (Where 
 
 59 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 is the King?); " Docko Ve " {There he is); and 
 11 Strewch " (Hold your peace). Harpists and 
 women in Welsh costumes are introduced, and at 
 the close Griffith talks of the manifold virtues of 
 the Welsh people. 
 
 We know that Ben Jonson once studied a Welsh 
 Grammar, perhaps as a preparatory measure to 
 writing the above-mentioned masque. 
 
 James Howell,* who has been described as the 
 prince of letter writers of his age, kept up an 
 intimate correspondence with Ben Jonson, of whom 
 he was a loving " son and servitor " In one of 
 his letters he tells his (literary) " Father, Mr. Ben 
 Johnson," that he had been unable to " light 
 upon Dr. Davies's Welsh Grammar," but " before 
 Christmas " he was promised one. When the book 
 arrived Howell thought it better than any of the 
 " Accidences " used for teaching Irish and Basque, 
 but, adds Mr. Elton, " he makes no mention of 
 the famous Grammar published by Griffith Roberts 
 at Milan in 1567." In forwarding the volume 
 Howell writes : " Father Ben, you desir'd me lately 
 to procure you Dr. Davies's Welsh Grammar, to 
 add to those many you have; I have lighted upon 
 
 * He was born in 1594, and graduated B.A. at Jesus College, 
 Oxford. Many interesting extracts from his letters are given 
 in William Shakespeare, his Family and Friends, by C. I. Elton, 
 K.C. (1904). 
 
 60 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 one at last, and I am glad I have it in so seasonable 
 a time that it may serve for a New Year's gift, in 
 which quality I send it you. . . ." 
 
 J Twas a tough task, believe it, thus to tame 
 A wild and wealthy Language, and to frame 
 Grammatic toils to curb her, so that she 
 Now speaks in Rules and sings in Prosody. 
 Such is the strength of Art rough things to shape 
 And of rude Commons rich Inclosures make. 
 
 It is interesting to know that, when Howell was 
 a young man, he was sent to Venice to learn the 
 secrets of glass-making. A monopoly for making 
 glass with pit coal at Swansea had been obtained 
 by William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, Sir Robert 
 Mansell, and others. The object in using coal, 
 Howell informs us, was " to save those huge Pro- 
 portions of Wood which were consumed formerly 
 in the glass Furnaces. And this Business, being 
 of that nature that the Workmen are to be had 
 from Italy, and the chief Materials from Spain, 
 France, and other foreign countries, there is need 
 of an agent abroad for this Use." 
 
 One of Shakespeare's " fellows " or members 
 of his own company, who, according to the First 
 Folio, took part in the representation of his dramas 
 was Nathaniel Field, the son of a Puritanical 
 clergyman, and a native of London. The father 
 died in March, 1587-88. " Nat " Field was one of 
 
 61 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 the Boys of the Chapel Royal, and, like most boy 
 actors, affected female parts. His brother was 
 Theophilus Field, Bishop of Llandaif (1619) and of 
 St. David's (1627). Another of Shakespeare's 
 " fellows," Robert Armin, originally a " prentice " 
 to a goldsmith in Lombard Street, is believed to 
 have been the author of the drama The Valiant 
 Welshman, by R. A., Gent. (1615). 
 
 Another notable contemporary of Shakespeare's, 
 whom he may have met through Jonson, was 
 Inigo Jones, the reviver of classical architecture 
 in England. He was of Welsh descent, and his 
 arms are said to have been those of a Denbighshire 
 family of the name. Born in London on July 1 5th, 
 1573, he was at first an apprentice to a joiner; 
 but his talents having attracted the notice of 
 William Herbert, the third Earl of Pembroke 
 (second creation), the latter supplied him with 
 the means of visiting Italy for the purpose of study- 
 ing landscape painting. He went to Venice, 
 where the works of Palladio inspired him with a 
 taste for architecture, and he afterwards devoted 
 all his energies to the pursuit of that branch of art. 
 In 1620, he was appointed one of the commissioners 
 for repairing St. Paul's Cathedral, but this work 
 was not commenced until 1623. He was much 
 employed in preparing masques for the entertain- 
 
 62 ' 
 
SOME NOTABLE WELSHMEN 
 
 ment of the Court and in building the banquetting 
 hall at Whitehall. He designed the scenery for 
 Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness, given at White- 
 hall, but at a later date Jonson held him up to 
 ridicule in Bartholomew Fair. In the church 
 of St. Mary at Llanrwst, North Wales, which 
 was built in the fifteenth century, is a chapel 
 erected in 1633 by Sir Richard Wynne of Gwydir 
 from the design of Inigo Jones. The bridge at 
 Llanrwst, was also built by Jones. In 1648 the 
 south side of Wilton House was destroyed by fire, 
 and was rebuilt by Philip Herbert, fourth Earl 
 of Pembroke, with the advice of Inigo Jones, and 
 there is a belief that Jones designed the old Stepney 
 mansion at Llanelly. As an author, Jones is 
 known by a work relating to Stonehenge, which 
 he pronounced to be a Roman temple dedicated 
 to Ccelus, an opinion which has long been super- 
 seded. He realised a handsome fortune, but being 
 a Roman Catholic and a partisan of royalty, he 
 suffered severely during the Civil War, and died, 
 worn out by sorrow and adversity, on July 5th, 165 1 . 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WELSH 
 
 IN 1896, as the first Chancellor of the University 
 of Wales, King Edward VIL, then Prince of Wales, 
 delivered an address which, affording, as it does, 
 an excellent idea of the intellectual status of the 
 Welsh in the Tudor period, and containing an 
 interesting reference to the Welsh characters of 
 Shakespeare, may usefully be quoted at some 
 length : 
 
 " From very early times, in spite of difficulties 
 and adverse circumstances, the Welsh people have 
 seldom failed to display a marked love for litera- 
 ture and learning. Even in so remote an age as the 
 sixth century, workswere produced inwhich scholars 
 perceive a standard of literary taste very noteworthy 
 for those early days. Schools of systematic learn- 
 ing in Wales existed only in its monasteries, and 
 from St. David's came forth Asser to aid Alfred 
 the Great in his work amongst his West Saxon 
 subjects. Throughout the Middle Ages we find 
 the profession of letters held in universal respect 
 in Wales, its exponents protected by privileges 
 
 64 
 
HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEM 
 
 and treated everywhere as honoured guests and the 
 objects of popular regard; while Welsh scholars 
 absent from home constituted a conspicuous ele- 
 ment in the cosmopolitan crowds which flocked 
 to mediaeval Oxford. The troubles of the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries fatally obstructed 
 the development of permanent educational insti- 
 tutions west of Offa's Dyke; but when England 
 under the Tudors opened its colleges to the scho- 
 lastic ambition of Wales, Welsh students were again 
 found thronging to the English Universities, and 
 adding distinguished names to the rolls of the 
 learned professions. Nor is it without significance 
 that Shakespeare, with his intuitive perception of 
 character, representing at this epoch three highly 
 finished portraits of Welshmen, depicted them all 
 the soldier, the divine, and the feudal chieftain as 
 men of thought and learning. 11 
 
 Shakespeare indeed did this, but he did more: 
 he embodied in his three Welsh personages the 
 outstanding characteristics of the Welsh race. 
 In the character of Glendower we are presented 
 with the mystical, idealistic, and the poetical side 
 of the Celtic nature; Sir Hugh Evans is the shrewd, 
 homely, Bible-loving Welshman; while Fluellen 
 displays the war-like, chivalrous, and loyal at- 
 tributes of the Welsh people. It will thus be seen 
 
 5 65 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 that in his representation of the Welsh character 
 Shakespeare rose above the racial prejudices of his 
 fellow-countrymen, which found congenial expres- 
 sion in the old Anglo-Saxon doggerel wherein 
 Taffy is described as a persistent purloiner of 
 other people's goods. Indeed, we may claim 
 Shakespeare as a champion of Welsh nationality, 
 for in King Henry V . the fiery Fluellen makes an 
 English braggart eat the leek, while Gower severely 
 admonishes Pistol for ridiculing the Welsh. 
 
 There is one trait, however, in the character 
 of the Welsh people which Shakespeare has not 
 represented namely, their mirthfulness, although 
 we catch a glimpse of it in the gusto with which 
 Sir Hugh Evans " turns the tables " on " Mine Host 
 of the Garter," and urges his fairies to " pinse and 
 burn " the too fleshly Falstaff. 
 
 Many explanations may be advanced to account 
 for Shakespeare's friendly interest in and sympa- 
 thetic attitude towards the Welsh people. To begin 
 with, he lived at a time when a Queen of Welsh 
 descent occupied the throne of England a Queen 
 to whom he was personally known, and who, tra- 
 dition tells us, was proud of her Welsh lineage. 
 A second reason that suggests itself is that through 
 his association with Thomas Jenkins and other 
 Stratford citizens Shakespeare may have come 
 
 66 
 
HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEM 
 
 to cherish a liking for the people from beyond the 
 marches. It is also probable that he was influenced 
 by his friend Dray ton, the Warwickshire poet, 
 who had a considerable knowledge of Wales, and 
 wrote much that was highly complimentary to the 
 Principality. A fourth, and it seems to us a very 
 plausible, explanation of Shakespeare's interest in 
 the Welsh nation may be found in the circumstance 
 that the poet was evidently convinced of the truth 
 of the tradition that his paternal ancestors fought 
 at Bosworth Field on the side of Richmond, and 
 received from Henry VII., " in reward for valiant 
 and faithful services, tenements and lands in 
 Warwickshire.' 1 There was also a claim made that 
 his mother, Mary Arden, was descended of an 
 ancient and distinguished family connected with 
 " John Arden, Esquire, of the Body of Henry VII." 
 The poet's father certainly applied for a grant of 
 arms in the year i 596, and on October 2oth of the 
 same year a draft, which is still extant in the College 
 of Arms, was prepared under the direction of 
 William Dethick, Garter King of Arms, granting 
 John Shakespeare's petition. Dethick declared 
 that he had been by credible report informed that 
 the applicant's " parentes and late antecessors 
 were for theire valeant and faithfull service ad- 
 vanced and rewarded by the most prudent Prince 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 King Henry VII. of famous memorie sy thence 
 whiche tyme they have continued at those partes 
 [i.e., Warwickshire] in good reputacion and credit. 1 ' 
 The question as to the accuracy or otherwise of 
 the declaration made to the Garter King of Arms 
 does not concern us here. It is sufficient for our 
 purpose to know that Shakespeare himself believed 
 that his ancestors had fought for and had been 
 rewarded by Henry the Welsh King. 
 
 Shakespeare's Welshmen are all good men and 
 true. Henry V. (" Harry of Monmouth ") is " a 
 mirror of all Christian kings " ; Henry VII . is " Eng- 
 land's hope "; Glendower is brave and affable and 
 generous; Sir Hugh Evans is peaceful and pious; 
 Fluellen is loyal and chivalrous ; the Welsh captain 
 is " trusty "; the supporters of Henry VI. in the 
 Principality are loyal and "loving"; Belarius 
 claims that those who come from Cambria are 
 " gentle " and honest; and it must not be over- 
 looked that Shakespeare described Queen Elizabeth 
 as " a pattern to all princes," though this remark 
 may be due to the courtier rather than the love of 
 things Welsh. With the exception of Westmor- 
 land's report of the Battle of Brynglas there is 
 not a single reflection on the Welsh character in 
 the plays. And it is significant that Shakespeare 
 displayed this independence of judgment at a time 
 68 
 
HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEM 
 
 when the old Taffy slander was in full currency, 
 and Beaumont and Fletcher considered the speak- 
 ing of Welsh a proof of dishonesty. It is probable 
 that Shakespeare's defence of " an ancient tradi- 
 tion, begun upon an honourable respect and worn 
 as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour/' was 
 due to the knowledge that he had Welsh blood 
 in his veins. In the next chapter we shall see 
 what justification exists for this view of the matter. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE WELSH ANCESTRY OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 MANY prominent Shakespearian biographers have 
 declared that Shakespeare's ancestry cannot be 
 certainly determined, but Mr. Pym Yeatman, 
 F.R.H.S. (of Lincoln's Inn, formerly of Emmanuel 
 College, Cambridge), in his spirited essay, The 
 Gentle Shakespeare Vindicated, claims to have 
 discovered a link connecting the Shakespeare 
 family with the Griffins, or Gryffyns, who were 
 descendants of the old Welsh Kings. The author 
 supports his case with a wealth of genealogical 
 and testamentary detail, and explains that the 
 clue which enabled him to complete the Griffin 
 pedigree was found in Mr. Bickly's Register of the 
 Guild of Knowle. " To Mr. Bickly, therefore," 
 says Mr. Yeatman, " the world is indebted for 
 this most remarkable and purely accidental dis- 
 covery, a discovery which, it is perhaps not too 
 much to say of it, utterly confounds the traducers 
 of our Great Poet." 
 70 
 
THE WELSH ANCESTRY 
 
 Of the Griffin pedigree Mr. Yeatman writes 
 (Chapter XIV.): " The author was searching at 
 Northampton Probate Registry for material to 
 illustrate the history of the Griffin family of that 
 county, and the first will he came to was that of 
 one Francis Griffin of Braybrook, dated February 
 26th, s/Henry VIII., in which he refers to his sister, 
 Alys Shakespeare, and, curiously, this was the only 
 will of the family which emanated from that place ; 
 nearly all the Griffin wills are to be found in London 
 Registers. It would not appear from this will 
 that Francis Griffin had any other connection 
 with the county of Warwick, although he refers 
 to his cousins, Sir Edward Griffin (afterwards 
 Queen Mary's Attorney-General), who was closely 
 connected with the county; and he also refers to 
 Edmund Bacon, of a family with whom the 
 Griffins were connected by marriage. In 29 Eliza- 
 beth Sir Robert Bacon was guardian for the chil- 
 dren of Richard Griffin of Warwick, who probably 
 settled there through the marriage of Sir Edward 
 Griffin with the daughter of Sir John Smyth, one 
 of the Barons of the Exchequer also a Warwick- 
 shire man, and allied by marriage to the great 
 Lord Burleigh. There can be little doubt that 
 Sir Edward Griffin mainly owed his advancement 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 to that great man, Sir Nicholas Bacon, who held 
 the Great Seal at this period, and under whom 
 he held his office; and therefore there must have 
 been a close connection between the Griffins, and 
 their connections, the Shakespeares, even with 
 Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam), his son, as well 
 as with the Cecils. In all probability this con- 
 nection, if worked out, will lead to the discovery 
 that Alys Griffin (grandmother of the poet) was 
 akin to the great Lord Bacon. 11 
 
 The pedigree (which Mr. Yeatman publishes) 
 commences with Griffith, King of South Wales, 
 son of " Rise ap Tudor, King of South Wales, heir 
 of King Kadwalider, who died tempe William 
 Rufus, King of England, and Gwenlian, his wife, 
 daughter of Griffith ap Kymme, King of North 
 Wales, " and is continued to Edward Griffin of 
 Berkswell, 1500. 
 
 How Alys Griffin entered the Shakespeare family 
 is shown by the following extract from Mr. Yeat- 
 man 's chart: 
 
 
 Edward Griffin,= 
 of Berkswell, 
 1500. 
 
 = Joyce, daughter of 
 Robert Leigh of 
 Bucks, 1500. 
 
 Henry. 
 
 Thomas. Francis. ALYS ux 
 
 SHAKESPEARE, 
 
 Bailiff of Wroxall, 
 
 14 Henry VIII. 
 
THE WELSH ANCESTRY 
 
 Shakespeare's immediate descent is set forth 
 as follows : 
 
 Richard Shakespeare, 
 Bailiff of Wroxall, had land 
 at Haseley and Snytter- 
 field. D. at Snytterfield, 
 1560-61. 
 
 Alys, daughter of Edward 
 Griffin, of Braybrook 
 and Berks well. She was 
 living 1574 (?). 
 
 John Shakespeare, = Mary, daughter and Henry. Thomas. 
 
 of Snytterfield, 1560, 
 and of Stratford-on- 
 Avon, d. 1 60 1. 
 
 coheir of Robert 
 Arden, of Wilme- 
 cote, d. 1608. 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
 THE POET. 
 
 The interest of this pedigree is obvious. The 
 Celtic strain in Shakespeare's blood may be held 
 to account for the sporadic appearance of genius in 
 an unremarkable middle-class family, as it no 
 doubt accounted for John Shakespeare's restless 
 versatility and almost morbid sensitiveness under 
 adversity. How far Alys Shakespeare was a 
 Welshwoman in her mental habit we cannot know ; 
 but we do know that tradition dies hard with the 
 Welsh, and would be more particularly likely to 
 survive in a family proud of its Welsh lineage. 
 Are we justified in picturing the boy Shakespeare 
 as absorbing the folk and fairy lore of the Welsh 
 at the knee of his Welsh grandmother ? That is 
 another thing that we can never know. But we 
 do know that he was to some extent familiar with 
 
 73 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 the fairy lore of the Welsh, and interested in Celtic 
 legend; indeed, there are not wanting in the plays 
 little loving touches, as of one referring to cherished 
 memories, which might lead us to believe that 
 his knowledge was acquired in childhood, and that 
 the glamour of childhood lay upon his recollections 
 of Welsh lore and legend. The evidence is almost 
 too tenuous to pursue, yet on reading the plays 
 with the knowledge of the poet's Welsh descent 
 we do actually seem to catch glimpses here and 
 there of Alys Shakespeare telling her little grandson 
 the tales that she herself had heard perhaps from 
 an old Welsh nurse, or perhaps from her own 
 Welsh grandmother. 
 
 74 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS IN THE PLAYS 
 
 DID Shakespeare, remembering the Welsh legends 
 from his childhood, weave them instinctively into 
 his work, referring to the printed book only to 
 refresh his memory ? Or did he light upon them 
 simply as an omnivorous reader for ever seeking 
 possible ore for refining ? Or was he sent to the 
 written record by chance allusions of his Welsh 
 acquaintances ? However this may be, whether 
 we are to regard him as an industrious miner among 
 the legends of all times and countries, who would 
 sometimes make use of a Welsh legend or fragment 
 of folklore as at other times he discovered material 
 for his plots in translations from the Greek, Latin, 
 or Italian, we find that Welsh literature provided 
 the plots of two of his greatest plays of Lear y 
 perhaps his greatest tragedy, and of Cymbeline, 
 which, with all its gracious faults, contains passages 
 unapproachable in their lyrical beauty. Concerning 
 the plot of Lear, Gollancz informs us that, " ac- 
 cording to some Celtic folklorists, ' Lir ' represents 
 Neptune, his two cruel daughters the rough winds, 
 
 75 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 and Cordelia the gentle zephyr "; and he adds, 
 :< I know no better commentary on the tempes- 
 tuous character of the play. Shakespeare has 
 unconsciously divined the germ of the myth," 
 which, we have no doubt, would greatly surprise 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 The story of Lear is certainly of extreme anti- 
 quity. The oldest extant version is to be found in the 
 Historia Regum Britannia (" Histories of the Kings 
 of Briton ") of the old Welsh monk Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth,* who was the father of Arthurian romance. 
 
 " When Bladud was thus given over to the 
 destines," writes Geoifrey, " his son Lear was next 
 raised to the kingdom, and ruled the country after 
 manly fashion for three score years. He it was 
 that builded the city on the River Soar, that in the 
 British is called Kaerleir, but in Saxon Leicester. 
 Male issue was denied unto him, his only children 
 being three daughters named Goneril, Regan, and 
 Cordelia, whom all he did love with marvellous 
 affection, but most of all the youngest born, to 
 wit Cordelia. And when he began to be upon the 
 verge of eld he thought to divide his kingdom 
 
 * He was born about or before A.D. noo; was prob- 
 ably educated by the Benedictines at Monmouth; was ap- 
 pointed Archdeacon of Llandaff about 1140; and in 1152 was 
 consecrated Bishop of the see of St. Asaph, which, however, 
 he never visited. He died in A.D. 1155. 
 
 7 6 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 amongst them, and to marry them unto such 
 husbands as were worthy to have them, along with 
 their share of the kingdom. But that he might 
 know which of them was most worthy of the largest 
 share he went unto them to make enquiry of each 
 as to which of them did most love himself." 
 
 Geoffrey goes on to tell of the outcome of the 
 test, and describes Lear as " waxing mightily 
 indignant " at the answer of Cordelia. The leading 
 expositors are agreed that Shakespeare used the 
 narrative of Holinshed* (who in turn got it from 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth), but Holinshed, in his ver- 
 sion, does not bring out into bold relief, as Geoffrey 
 does, the old man's indignation at the unflattering 
 reply of his youngest daughter. " The father 
 being nothing content with this answer," says 
 Holinshed, " married his two eldest daughters," 
 etc. Shakespeare makes much of the storm of 
 indignation which seized upon the old man at what 
 he considered to be the lack of affection in his 
 youngest daughter, and the thought naturally 
 occurs to us that Shakespeare may have con- 
 sulted Geoffrey of Monmouth's works as well as 
 
 * Holinshed was translator for the press of Reginald Wolfe, 
 who undertook the publication of a Universal History. That 
 part of it relating to the British Isles was entrusted chiefly 
 to Holinshed. The first and second editions are dated 1577 
 and 1587. 
 
 77 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Holinshed 's Chronicles. In his Welshman Thomas 
 Stephens expresses the opinion that Geoffrey's 
 Histories had a peculiar fascination for Shake- 
 speare. This, he says, is shown by many striking 
 passages in his plays. What those passages are 
 Stephens omits to tell us, but we may find several 
 that will answer this description in King Lear, 
 Cymbeline, King Henry IV., and King Henry V. 
 
 One passage in King Lear seems to have a bear- 
 ing upon an episode in the legends of King Arthur 
 and his Knights of the Round Table. Kent, in 
 the concluding lines of his anathema of Oswald, 
 uses these words : 
 
 Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain, 
 I'd drive ye cackling home to Camelot. 
 
 Did Shakespeare consult Malory, whom Leland 
 says was Welsh, as well as Geoffrey and 
 Holinshed? In this connection it must be 
 remembered that he had many distinguished 
 friends, and could readily have gained access to 
 libraries well provided with the legendary, romantic, 
 and historical literature of all languages and periods. 
 That he did not slavishly follow Holinshed is 
 proved by Sir Sidney Lee, who states that, although 
 the tragedy was mainly founded on Holinshed 's 
 Chronicle, Shakespeare grafted on to it the distress- 
 
 78 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 ing tale of Gloucester and his two sons, which he 
 drew from Sidney's Arcadia. Hints of the 
 speeches uttered by Edgar feigning madness were 
 also obtained from Harsnet's Declaration of Popish 
 Impostures, and the end which Shakespeare has 
 given to the tragedy differs from Holinshed's. 
 An explanation of the allusion to Camelot is offered 
 by Staunton to the effect that it refers to a quest 
 undertaken in connection with the marriage of 
 King Arthur and Guinevere, the enemies van- 
 quished during this quest being sent to Camelot 
 to make submission to the King. 
 
 A passage in King Lear which some have re- 
 garded as an interpolation may actually be proof 
 of Shakespeare's familiarity with obscure Welsh 
 sources. 
 
 Act III., Scene 2, of King Lear contains the 
 following lines : 
 
 Fool. This is a brave night ! I'll speak a prophecy 
 
 ere I go: 
 
 When priests are more in word than matter; 
 When brewers mar their malt with water; 
 When nobles are their tailors' tutors; 
 No heretics burn'd but wenches' suitors; 
 When every case in law is right; 
 No squire in debt, nor no poor knight; 
 When slanders do not live in tongues; 
 Nor cutpurses come not in throngs; 
 Then shall the realm of Albion 
 Come to great confusion: 
 
 79 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Then comes the time who lives to see't 
 That going shall be used with feet. 
 This prophecy Merlin shall make; for 
 I live before his time. 
 
 As he certainly did; for, according to Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth's reckoning, King Lear was contem- 
 porary with Joash, King of Judah. Fleay remarks 
 that " Merlin's Prophecy" is not in Shakespeare's 
 manner ; that it was " a mere gag inserted by 
 the Fool Actor to raise a laugh among the ground- 
 lings." Here we think Fleay 's scholarship was 
 at fault, for the lines do not bear the least resem- 
 blance to theatrical " gagging," while they are quite 
 in the spirit of Merlin. It seems more probable 
 that Shakespeare was having a sly dig at the sim- 
 plicity of some of the prophecies attributed to the 
 great wizard, many of which are extant, and an 
 axample of which we quote from Wilkins' Wales 
 Past and Present : 
 
 Truth shall disappear and error spread. ( 
 
 Men shall be weak of faith and disputing on alternate 
 
 days, 
 
 And they shall delight in fine garments. 
 Bards shall be empty-handed and priests gay, 
 Truth shall vanish and denials be frequent. 
 
 Although Cymbeline is, no less than Lear, a work 
 of imagination, Cymbeline himself is by no means 
 so shadowy a figure as Lear, the doubly blind. 
 
 80 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 Cunobelinus, to call him by the Latinised form 
 of his name, was a King of Britain in the first cen- 
 tury of our era. His name survives on many coins. 
 He is believed to have been the son of Cassivelaunus, 
 and the father of Caractacus. 
 
 " In Cymbeline,"Sir Sidney Lee tells us, " Shake- 
 speare freely adapted a fragment of British history 
 taken from Holinshed, interweaving with it a story 
 of Boccaccio 's Decameron (Day 2, Novel IX.). The 
 plot of the banishment of the Lord Belarius, who, 
 in revenge for his expatriation, kidnapped the 
 King's young sons, and brought them up with 
 him in the recesses of the mountains, is Shake- 
 speare's invention." 
 
 These mountains were situated in Wales, and 
 with regard to the name Belarius, Thorndike 
 conjectures that it was suggested to Shakespeare 
 by the Bellario of Beaumont and Fletcher's Phi- 
 faster. Shakespeare's Belarius, while in Wales, 
 adopted the name of Morgan, and Charles Wilkins 
 suggests as a possible derivative " Pelagius/' the 
 Latinised name for Morgan. Pelagius was a note- 
 worthy character in the Wales of the fifth century. 
 His real name was Heresiarch Morgan. Morgan, 
 or Pelagius, was a learned and holy man of Bangor 
 Iscoed who won great celebrity by his brilliant 
 talents, but entertaining different religious con- 
 
 6 81 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 victions from his brethren, he was denounced as a 
 heretic. He made a considerable noise in the 
 world, and Shakespeare may have read of him. 
 The suggestion may seem far-fetched; yet we 
 must remember that Shakespeare's mind was 
 dwelling on Wales while writing this scene, which, 
 we are told, was his own invention. Belarius, 
 with the two royal children, retires to a cave in 
 Pembrokeshire, " which is said to have been fairly 
 identified as Hoyle's Mouth, near Tenby" (Wilkins). 
 Imogen, the sister of the two lads, is escorted by 
 Pisano on her journey to Milford Haven, osten- 
 sibly to greet her husband, but in reality to meet 
 the doom which, in a fit of unjustifiable jealousy, 
 he has prescribed for her. She is persuaded to 
 adopt male attire, for greater security in travelling. 
 When she is told by Pisano that her husband is 
 at Milford Haven she becomes feverishly impatient 
 to reach her destination, as we see from the follow- 
 ing lines : 
 
 O 1 for a horse with wings ! Hear'st thou, Pisano ? 
 
 He is at Milford Haven. Read and tell me 
 
 How far 'tis. . . . 
 
 To this same blessed Milford. And, by the way, 
 
 Tell me how Wales was made so happy 
 
 As to inherit such a Haven. 
 
 Pisano has not the heart to carry out his master's 
 harsh instructions, but leaves Imogen to an un- 
 82 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 certain fate. A kindly Providence directs her 
 steps to the cave-dwelling of Belarius and her two 
 brothers, where, under the assumed name of Fidele, 
 she receives a genial welcome. Before leaving 
 her Pisano gives her a cordial which is to be used 
 in case of sickness. One day, during the absence 
 of old Belarius and the boys, she drinks the potion, 
 and thereupon falls into a death-like sleep. When 
 the youths return to the cave they believe her dead, 
 and carrying her frail form to a shady nook Arvi- 
 garius, the younger of the brothers expresses his 
 grief in these beautifullyj tender lines: 
 
 With fairest flowers, 
 
 While summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, 
 I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack 
 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor 
 |The azured harebell, like thy veins; no, nor 
 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
 Outsweetened not thy breath. 
 
 It is interesting to note that this lament was 
 uttered in a country where the decking of the 
 graves of the dead with flowers is one of the most 
 cherished of its national customs ; and it is a curious 
 coincidence that Shakespeare's lines should bear 
 a certain resemblance to the poetic tribute paid 
 by Dafydd ap Gwilym, the famous Welsh poet of 
 the fourteenth century, to the memory of his 
 patron Ivor Hael: 
 
 83 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 " O ! while thy season of flowers and thy tender 
 sprays thick of leaves remain I will pluck the roses 
 from the brakes, the flowers from the meads, the 
 vivid trefoils, beauties of the ground, and the 
 gaily smiling bloom of the verdant herbs; humbly 
 will I lay them on the grave of Ivor." 
 
 There are three lines in Cymbeline which are 
 quoted as showing Shakespeare's accurate his- 
 torical knowledge. When Cassivelaunus was 
 beaten and deserted he went through a form of 
 submission to Caesar, who, after two months in 
 Britain, left for Gaul. Caesar's conquest of the people 
 was only nominal; it was not a real subjugation. 
 Shakespeare, therefore, as Thomas Stephens points 
 out, was justified by the facts when he put into the 
 mouth of the Queen-wife of Cymbeline the words : 
 
 A kind of conquest 
 
 Caesar made here; but made not here his brag 
 Of came and saw and overcame. 
 
 The continuation of the passage contains a refer- 
 ence to Ludstown, the early Celtic name of London : 
 
 For joy thereof 
 
 The fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point 
 (O giglot [i.e., wanton] fortune) to master Caesar's sword, 
 Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright 
 And Britons strut with courage. 
 
 One Silurian god whose altar was found at 
 Lydney, on the Severn/ says Mr. Ernest Rhys, 
 84 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 " seems to be the same as Llud, the name better 
 known in English as the Lud of King Lud, and 
 Ludgate Hill." Geoffrey's version is that London 
 was founded by Brute, a descendant of the Trojan 
 ^neas, and called New Troy, or Troy-novant, 
 until the time of Lud, who surrounded it with walls 
 and gave it the name of Caer Lud, or Ludstown, 
 (Lud's dun), and the Trojans, according to 
 Geoffrey, who displays all the cheerful irresponsi- 
 bility of the mediaeval romanticist, were the pro- 
 genitors of all the Welsh 1 In the Mabinogion 
 (translated from the Red Book of Hergist by Lady 
 Charlotte Guest) we have the following : " Beli 
 the Great, the son of Manogan, had three sons, 
 and according to the story he had a fourth son 
 called Llevelys. And after the death of Beli the 
 kingdom of the Island of Britain fell into the hands 
 of Lludd, his eldest son, and Lludd ruled pros- 
 perously and rebuilt the walls of London, and 
 encompassed it about with numberless towers. 
 And after that he bade the citizens build houses 
 therein, such as no houses in the kingdom could 
 equal. And, moreover, he was a mighty warrior, 
 and generous and liberal in giving meat and drink 
 to all that sought them. And though he had 
 many castles and cities, this one he loved more than 
 any. And he dwelt therein most part of the year, 
 
 85 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 and therefore it was called Caer Ludd, and at last 
 Caer London. And after the stranger race came 
 there it was called London, or Lwndrys." In 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene (II. x. 46) occur the lines : 
 
 [Lud] Built that gate of which his name is bight 
 By which he lies entombed solemnly. 
 
 Belarius (Cymbeline, Act. V., Scene 5) says of 
 himself and the two boys, in answer to a question 
 of the King's : 
 
 In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen; 
 Further to boast were neither true nor modest, 
 Unless I add, we are honest. 
 
 The claim of Belarius, as set forth in the first 
 line, may conceivably have been present to the mind 
 of James I. when he uttered the remark attributed 
 to him in Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales. When 
 King James was visiting Chester he was met by 
 a great number of horsemen, who formed a guard 
 of honour. The weather was warm and the roads 
 dusty, and His Majesty was greatly inconvenienced 
 by the crowd pressing round his coach. So he 
 told one of his attendants to disperse them politely. 
 The nobleman thereupon put his head out of the 
 window and said, " It is the King's pleasure that all 
 who are gentlemen should ride forward." Away 
 they all rode as if for life, save one man. " And 
 
 86 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 so, sir, you are not a gentleman, then," observed 
 the King. " Oh yes, please your Majesty/' was 
 the reply; " but hur ceffyl, God help hur, is not so 
 good." " Every man is a gentleman in Wales," 
 remarked His Majesty. In his Microsmographie 
 (1628) Earle remarks, " They [the Welsh] are 
 born with heraldry in their mouths, and each name 
 is a pedigree." This Welsh pride of lineage was 
 evidently known to Shakespeare. 
 
 The reader will remember how Fluellen prides 
 himself upon " the derivation of his birth " (Henry 
 V., Act III., Scene 3). Giraldus, commenting upon 
 this Welsh characteristic, says : " The Welsh esteem 
 noble birth and generous descent above all things, 
 and are therefore more desirous of marrying into 
 noble than into rich families. Even the common 
 people preserve their genealogy, and cannot only 
 readily recount the names of their grandfathers 
 and great-grandfathers, but even refer back to the 
 sixth or seventh generation or beyond them in 
 this manner: Rhys, son of Gruffydd, son of Rhys, 
 son of Tewder, son of Eineon, son of Owen, son of 
 Howel, son of Cadell, son of Roderic Mawr, and so 
 on." " Genealogies," we are told by Owen, " were 
 preserved as a principle of necessity under the 
 ancient British Constitution. A man's pedigree 
 was in reality his title deed by which he claimed his 
 
 87 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 birthright in the country. Everyone was obliged 
 to show his descent through nine generations 
 in order to be acknowledged a free native, and 
 by this right he claimed his portion of land in the 
 community. He was affected with respect to 
 legal process in his collateral affinities through 
 nine degrees. For instance, every murder com- 
 mitted had a fine levied on the relations of the 
 murderer divided into nine degrees, his brother 
 paying the greatest and the ninth in affinity the 
 least amount . This fine was distributed in the same 
 way among the relatives of the victim. A person 
 past the ninth degree of descent formed a new 
 family. Every family was represented by its 
 elder, and these elders from every family were 
 delegates of the National Council." 
 
 Bearing upon the same subject Wilkins writes : 
 ' Welsh names pronounced by the English 
 gradually became corrupted or modified. Thus 
 lorwerth was transmuted into Edward, Gwilym 
 into William, leuan into John and Jones, Evan 
 into Evans, Ricart into Richard, Rhodri into 
 Roderick, Owain into Owen, Gruffydd into Grift ih, 
 and Dafydd into David or Davies." Which is a 
 curious way of putting the matter, since these 
 names were mostly borrowed from the Bible or 
 from the English or Norman- French. It would 
 
 88 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 be more correct to say that Welsh names were 
 transmuted or reconverted according to their 
 origin. " But here we have the immediate origin 
 of Jones, Williams, Richards, Griffiths, Roderick, 
 and Edwards. By the same process Ap Harry 
 [i.e., the son of Harry] became Parry; Ap Robert, 
 Probert; Ap Richard, Prichard; and Ap Howell, 
 Powell; while Vychan became Vaughan. Piers 
 was possibly the Norman original of Pearce, and 
 Stephen of Stephens, Reynalt of Reynolds, etc. 
 The change is stated to have occurred in the middle 
 of the sixteenth century. Our authority is Ellis's 
 Letters, in which valuable repository of old corre- 
 spondence the following note appears : Robert Lee, 
 Bishop of Lichfield, and in 1535 President of the 
 Marches of Wales, was the first who abridged the 
 long names of the Welsh gentry. Wearied with 
 their numberless aps, he ordered the last name to 
 be retained." Pennant, in his Tour in Wales, 
 describes the circumstances in his account of 
 Tre Mostyn: " Before I quit the house," he says, 
 1 I must take notice that Thomas ap Richard, ap 
 Howel, ap levan Vychan, Lord of Mostyn, and his 
 brother Piers, founder of the family of Trelaere, 
 were the first who abridged their name, and that on 
 the following occasion: In the reign of Henry VIII 
 Lee sat at one of the courts on a Welsh cause, and 
 
 89 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 wearied with the quantity of aps in the jury, 
 directed that the panel should assume the last name 
 or that of their residence, and that Thomas ap 
 Richard, ap Howell, ap levan Vychan should 
 for the future be reduced to the poor dissyllable 
 Mostyn, no doubt to the great mortification of many 
 an ancient line." 
 
 At the battle of Brynglas between Owain Glyndwr 
 and Mortimer, Welshwomen were accused of so 
 misconducting themselves that Henry issued an 
 express law forbidding any Englishman to marry 
 a Welshwoman . Westmoreland conveys the tidings 
 to the King in the opening scene of the first act of 
 Henry IV., Part I ., when he tells how to the Council 
 
 There came 
 
 A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news ; 
 Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer, 
 Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight 
 Against the irregular and wild Glendower, 
 Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken, 
 And a thousand of his people butchered : 
 Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, 
 Such beastly shameless transformation, 
 By those Welshmen done, as may not be, 
 Without much shame, re-told or spoken of. 
 
 K. Hen. It seems, then, that the tidings of this broil 
 Brake off our business for the Holy Land. 
 
 Pennant, referring to this accusation, cites an 
 author who, writing near the time of the battle, 
 says that these barbarities were committed by one 
 
 90 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 Rhys ap Grych, a follower of Glyndwr, probably 
 excited to madness by the fury of the contest, 
 wherein each side fought with the greatest despera- 
 tion. "The barbarity," says Wilkins, "was inex- 
 cusable, but it was unjustifiable to malign a nation 
 for the fault of one man." 
 
 Shakespeare, it may be mentioned, had the 
 incident from Holinshed, who described it in the 
 following words: 
 
 " Owen Glendouer, according to his accustomed 
 manner robbing and spoiling within the English 
 borders, caused all the forces of the shire of Hereford 
 to assemble togither against them under the con- 
 duct of Edmund Mortimer, earle of March. By 
 coming to trie the matter by battell, whether by 
 treason or otherwise, so it fortuned that the English 
 power was discomfited, the earle taken prisoner, 
 and aboue a thousand of his people slaine in the 
 place. The shamefull villanie vsed by the Welsh- 
 women towards the dead carcasses was such as 
 honest eares would be ashamed to heare and conti- 
 nent toongs to speake thereof. The dead bodies 
 might not be buried without great summes of 
 monie giuen for libertie to conueie them awaie." 
 
 Whether Shakespeare credited this report or 
 otherwise, he did not allow it to affect his judg- 
 ment of the Welsh character, as indicated by his 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 subsequent tributes to the courage, and affability, 
 and generosity of Owen Glendower. And as 
 regards the incident breaking off Henry's " business 
 for the Holy Land," Welshmen have since atoned 
 for the interruption by the gallant part which they 
 played in 191 7-1 8, when they pursued the pagans 
 
 In those holy fields, 
 
 Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
 Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd 
 For our advantage on the bitter cross. 
 
 (Henry IV., Part I., Act I., Scene i.) 
 
 There is no visible connection between Hamlet 
 and Wales, yet we are reminded of the old Welsh 
 Plygain by the following lines in Hamlet, which 
 are spoken after the disappearance of the ghost : 
 
 Marcellus. It faded at the crowing of the cock. 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes, 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long ; 
 And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad, 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, 
 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to harm, 
 So hallowed and so gracious is the time. 
 
 The Plygain is the offering of public prayers 
 and singing of carols in the Welsh churches, at 
 cockcrow, on Christmas morning. The etymology 
 of the word is Plu-gan," the feathered one's song," 
 or cock crowing. 
 
 Falstaff and the hostess both mention Wales in 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 the first part of King Henry IV. > Warwick speaks 
 of the " loving Welshmen"" in the third part of 
 King Henry VI. (Act II., Scene i), and Salisbury 
 of the " trusty Welshman " in Richard 11. (Act II., 
 Scene 4). 
 
 It is probable that many Welsh words found 
 their way across the border as far afield as Warwick- 
 shire, while some may have lingered there from 
 British times. Kecksies are the dry hollow stalks 
 of hemlock and similar plants. In King Henry V. 
 (V. 2) Burgundy uses the word 
 
 And nothing teems 
 
 But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, 
 Losing both beauty and utility. 
 
 The word (Dyer thinks) is derived from the Welsh 
 cecys, which is applied to several plants of the 
 umbelliferous kind. 
 
 It may be thought that a reference to Macbeth 
 is out of place in a book on " Shakespeare and the 
 Welsh." But the Cymry are, after all, only one 
 branch of the Celtic race in these islands; so that 
 the divergence is perhaps excusable. 
 
 Here, again, Shakespeare was indebted to Holin- 
 shed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 
 There is a theory that he must also have referred 
 to an adaptation of Bellendon's History. This 
 adaptation, Verity says, was made by a certain 
 
 93 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Master William Stewart at the command of Margaret, 
 Tudor Queen of Scotland, for her son James V. 
 Stewart's chronicle was unpublished, but it is 
 suggested that James I . of England would have had 
 a copy of it in manuscript, and may possibly have 
 lent it to Shakespeare's company, which stood high 
 in the royal favour, so that the players might 
 compare it with Holinshed. The theory is so 
 entirely conjectural, however, that it has failed 
 to receive substantial support, and as far as the 
 leading Shakespearian commentators are con- 
 cerned Holinshed holds the field alone. Boas, 
 in a very fine criticism of the tragedy, makes an 
 interesting reference to its Celtic source. " Shake- 
 speare," he says, " pierced, with an intuition that 
 in an Elizabethan Englishman was wellnigh miracu- 
 lous, into the very heart of Highland romance. 
 The desolate, storm-swept heaths, where the evil 
 powers of earth and sky may fittingly meet and 
 greet in hideous carnival ; the lonely castles, where 
 passions of primeval intensity find their natural 
 home, and where at dead of night murder may 
 stealthily move to its design; the eerie atmosphere, 
 where the hoarse croak of the raven and the scream 
 of the owl, the fatal bellman, foretell the impending 
 doom, and where the wraith of the victim stalks 
 to the head of the board in the assassin's banquet- 
 94 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 ting hall; every detail is steeped in the peculiar 
 genius of Celtic Scotland. Hitherto this fertile 
 poetic material had found its chief expression in 
 ballads of weird imaginative power, but these, 
 though of supreme excellence in their kind, were 
 only Volkslieder, and had no more than a local 
 circulation. But now Shakespeare claimed for 
 universal purposes what had hitherto been the 
 monopoly of the clans. His mighty art preserved 
 all the mysticism and elemental passion of the 
 Highland story while investing it with a stupen- 
 dous moral significance of which its Celtic origina- 
 tors had never dreamed. " 
 
 Whether Shakespeare visited Scotland is not 
 known, just as it is not known whether he visited 
 Wales, but there is a possibility of his having done 
 so, with a company of players, in 1601, just as he 
 might, as Professor Boyesen tells us, have visited 
 Elsinore with them. 
 
 In Act III., Scene 3 of Macbeth, where Banquo 
 and Fleance are assailed by the murderers, Banquo 
 is slain, but Fleance escapes. On this latter episode 
 Malone makes the following comment: " Fleance, 
 after the assassination of his father, fled into Wales, 
 where by the daughter of the Prince of that country 
 he had a son named Walter, who afterwards became 
 Lord High Steward of Scotland, and from thence 
 
 95 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 assumed the name of Walter Steward. From him 
 in a direct line King James I. descended, in compli- 
 ment to whom our author has chosen to describe 
 Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth 
 in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that 
 crime." 
 
 Banquo and Fleance have been proved to be 
 fictitious characters. They were the creatures 
 of the imagination of the old chroniclers, but the 
 suggestion that Shakespeare, being influenced by 
 this account of the ancestry of James I., modified 
 the original story to the extent of depicting Banquo 
 as innocent of complicity in the crime is plausible 
 if incapable of proof. 
 
 It is apparently accepted by Sir Sidney Lee, 
 who writes: " The dramatist lavished his sympathy 
 on Banquo, James's [supposed] ancestor, while 
 Macbeth 's vision of kings who carry ' twofold 
 balls and treble sceptres ' plainly adverted to the 
 Union of Scotland with England and Ireland under 
 James's sway." 
 
 So much for Shakespeare's Welsh or Celtic plots. 
 Of allusions to Wales or the Welsh in his plays there 
 is more to be said. In the first part of the play 
 of King Henry IV. we have some amusing com- 
 ments upon Welsh character, in the person of 
 Owen Glendower, from the lips of Hotspur. Among 
 
 96 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 other remarks is a reply to Glendower's claim 
 to supernatural knowledge: " I think there's no 
 man speaks better Welsh." Hotspur did not 
 intend this to be a compliment, but in the opinion 
 of Welshmen it is one of the highest that could 
 have been paid to the Welsh chieftain. Great 
 is the pride of the Welsh in their language. We 
 all know Welsh to be a language of extreme anti- 
 quity; but if we believed the patriotic scholars 
 of the past, we should be inclined to suppose that 
 Welsh must have been spoken in the Garden of 
 Eden and the Ark. The Rev. Thomas Richards 
 of Coy church, in his preface to A British or Welsh 
 Dictionary, written in 1751, says of the Welsh 
 tongue: " We hitherto not only enjoy the true 
 name of our ancestors, but have preserved entire 
 and uncorrupted for the most part (without any 
 notable change or mixture with any other tongue) 
 that Primitive Language spoken as well by the 
 ancient Gauls as Britons some thousands of years 
 ago. The learned Abbot Pezron mentions this 
 with admiration, and counts it a matter of great 
 honour to us. ' The language of the Titans,' saith 
 he, ' which is that of the ancient Gauls, is after a 
 revolution of above four thousand years preserved 
 even to our time, a strange thing that so ancient 
 a language should now be spoken by the Armorican 
 
 7 97 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Britons of France and by the Britons of Wales. 
 These are the people who have the honour to 
 preserve the language of the posterity of Gomer, 
 Japhet's eldest son, and the nephew of Shem, 
 the language of those princes called Saturn and 
 Jupiter who passed for great Deities amongst the 
 Ancients. And as this language has continued 
 for such a long series of ages past, so we have no 
 reason to doubt but that the Divine Will is that it 
 be preserved to the end of time, as we have the word 
 of God most elegantly and faithfully translated 
 into it. . . .' 
 
 " I know too well there are some who have such 
 an aversion to their mother tongue that they pro- 
 fess a hearty desire of seeing it entirely abolished, 
 that no remains of it may be left in this Island, 
 so great an eyesore is the language of their fore- 
 fathers become unto them. But I shall neither 
 regard nor value what opinion such persons may 
 have of the work, since their prejudice and ignor- 
 ance render them altogether unfit to pass a right 
 judgment upon it. Let them talk what *hey will 
 of the decrease and dwindling away of the Welsh 
 tongue, and forebode that in a few ages it will be 
 quite driven out of Wales. Yet I shall look upon 
 that old Welsh gentleman as the truer prophet 
 who, being asked by Henry II., King of England, 
 
 98 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 what he thought of the strength of the Welsh 
 and of his royal expedition against them, made his 
 answer in these words : ' This nation may suffer 
 much, and may be in a great measure ruined, or 
 at least weakened, O King, by your present and 
 other future attempts, as well as formerly it hath 
 often been, but we assure ourselves that it will 
 never be wholly ruined by the anger or power 
 of any mortal man unless the anger of Heaven 
 concur to its destruction. Nor (whatever changes 
 may happen to the other parts of the world) can 
 I believe that any other nation or language besides 
 the Welsh shall answer at the Great Day before the 
 Supreme Judge for the greater part of this corner 
 of the world/ 1 ' 
 
 Such a defence would be needless in these days 
 of the annual Eistedfodd. 
 
 Another remark of Hotspur's in this play is 
 interesting, as suggesting that Shakespeare was 
 familiar with the old Welsh proverbs. Speaking 
 of Glendower, he complains (Act III., Scene i) 
 that he is " as tedious as a tired horse, a railing 
 wife, worse than a smoky house." Now there is an 
 old Welsh proverb which Vaughan translates thus : 
 
 Three things will drive a man from home, 
 
 A roof that leaks, 
 
 A house that reeks, 
 
 A wife who scolds whene'er she speaks. 
 
 99 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Fluellen, in his conversation with King Henry V. 
 before Agincourt (Henry V. } Act IV., Scene 7), 
 reminds His Majesty of the tradition that at the 
 Battle of Cregy Captain Cadwgan Voel called to 
 the Welsh desiring them to put leeks in their 
 helmets, to distinguish them in the surge of battle, 
 he having led the Welsh contingent into a field of 
 leeks. But as a matter of fact it really is not 
 known how the leek came to be regarded as a 
 national emblem. One tradition states that its 
 use originated at the battle of Meigen, fought in 
 the seventh century between the Angles under 
 Edwin and the British led by Cadwallon. Another 
 version is that on St. David's birthday, A.D. 540, 
 a great victory was obtained by the Welsh under 
 King Arthur over the Saxon invaders, and 
 that, by the order of St. David, the Welsh 
 soldiers were distinguished by leeks worn in their 
 caps. 
 
 There is no reference made to the leek as the 
 national emblem of Wales in the works of any 
 writer before Shakespeare, but twelve years after 
 the date of Shakespeare's King Henry V., Dray ton, 
 in his Polyolbion IV., describes St. David as living 
 in the valley Ewias, amid the Hatterill Hills in 
 Monmouthshire. It was here " that reverend 
 British saint to contemplation lived," 
 
 100 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 And did so truly fast. 
 
 He did only drink what crystal Hodney yields, 
 And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields, 
 In memory of whom, in the revolving year, 
 The Welshmen, on his day, the sacred herb do wear. 
 
 Meyrick thinks that, as the national colours 
 were white and green, the leek was selected and 
 venerated on account of its exhibiting these two 
 colours, a theory which may be held to gain support 
 from the fact that the daffodil is often held to be 
 St. David's emblem. Owen Rhoscomyl gives the 
 following explanation : Henry VII., in exile, remem- 
 bered that the bards were for ever proclaiming 
 anew the old prophecies that a Cymro should yet 
 wear the crown of Britain. By stealth he came to 
 Wales to stir up his countrymen to realise the 
 old dream of deliverance, and he succeeded. 
 
 In two places we get track of him in this wander- 
 ing. In Mostyn Hall the window is still shown 
 through which he escaped to the mountains while 
 the troops of Richard were hammering at the 
 door to take him. At Corsygedol, in Ardudwy, 
 the same chance favoured him, and he set sail 
 for Brittany again from Barmouth, all his plans 
 laid and his friends ready. It was during this 
 wandering that the seed of our national emblem 
 was sown. As grandson of Catherine of Valois, 
 Harry Tudor used the green and white of Valois 
 
 101 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 in his coat of arms. As a sign to each other his 
 partisans used the green and white for a test. They 
 did not carry it about with them. If they met 
 each other in the field they simply pulled up a blade 
 of grass, a wild hyacinth, a daffodil anything that 
 showed a green stem and a white root. If they 
 met in a house they could lift a leek or an onion or 
 any other vegetable which showed the two colours. 
 And so we wear the leek, or scorn it for the daffodil, 
 in forgetful remembrance of that day. 
 
 At the installation of the Prince of Wales at 
 Carnarvon in July, 1911, the daffodil was substi- 
 tuted for the leek, and the Welsh Insurance Com- 
 missioners have also decided to prefer the dainty 
 flower above the humble vegetable. A fierce 
 controversy raged around this substitution, and 
 Mr. Llewelyn Williams, K.C., M.P., entered the lists 
 as the chief champion of the flower, which is known 
 in Wales as Ceninen Pedr. In an article in Wales 
 (March, 1913) he contended that " in the good old 
 days " before the Protestant Reformation, when 
 the native saints of Wales and a few foreign saints 
 of world-wide fame were honoured in our Welsh 
 churches, a festival was assigned to the chairing 
 of St. Peter. In the old Welsh Calendars the day 
 was marked as " Pedr Gadeiriol." It was necessary, 
 therefore (writes Mr. Williams), to decorate the 
 
 102 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 churches with flowers on that day. Now there 
 were no artificial flowers to be bought in Wales 
 a thousand years ago ; nor could our rude forefathers 
 obtain exotic blossoms and hothouse plants. They 
 therefore had to gather whatever wild flowers 
 were in bloom at that time of the year and use 
 them for the decoration of churches on the feast- 
 day of " Pedr Gadeiriol." That is how and why 
 the daffodil came to be used on these occasions, 
 and that is why it is still known in some parts of 
 Wales as " Ceninen Pedr." But why " Ceninen " ? 
 Why should it be called " The Leek of Peter '? 
 Because the daffodil is of the same species as the 
 leek. What rhythm is to prose the daffodil is to 
 the leek. It is the leek transformed, made beautiful, 
 etherealised, transplanted into the odour of sanctity. 
 But how did the daffodil, Peter's Leek, come to be 
 associated with St. David ? How did it come 
 to be known as " Blodyn Dewi " ? This again 
 opens up a very interesting field of inquiry, and I 
 am greatly indebted to my friend, Mr. Griffith, 
 the erudite Vicar of Llangynwyd, for the true 
 answer. Dewi was canonised by his countrymen 
 either during his lifetime or shortly afterwards. 
 All over South Wales churches were dedicated to 
 him. But the ancient British Church was not at 
 the time in communion with Rome, and it was not 
 
 103 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 till the twelfth century, 500 years or so after his 
 death, that Dewi Sant was canonised by the Roman 
 authorities. It would be too tedious to set out 
 here in detail how, after the reform of the calendar, 
 St. David's Day and " Pedr Gadeiriol " came 
 to fall on the same day viz., March ist. My friend, 
 Mr. Griffith, has worked it out most ingeniously 
 and convincingly, and I merely summarise the 
 result of his labour. And so the daffodil, being used 
 for decorating the churches on Dygwyl Dewi Sant, 
 came to be known, not only as " Ceninen Pedr," 
 but also as " Blodyn Dewi." 
 
 Had we been living in the Middle Ages, it is poss- 
 ible that this controversy would have developed 
 into a war of the Leek and the Daffodil, and fore- 
 most among the champions of the Leek might 
 have been found that mediaeval monarch whose 
 fifteenth century effigy in stone (preserved in the 
 crypt of Worcester Cathedral) holds proudly in 
 its hand not one, but two leeks ! 
 
 In reply to Fluellen's sarcastically polite demand 
 that he should eat the leek, which he had despised 
 (Henry V. y Act V., Scene i), Pistol fiercely ejacu- 
 lates, " Not for Cadwaladr and all his goats.' 1 
 Shakespeare evidently knew something of Cad- 
 waladr 's partiality for goats. Now this is a very 
 interesting point which proves that Shakespeare 
 
 104 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 was well versed in the legends of Wales. What 
 precise version of the history of that goat-owning 
 and goat-loving monarch he was familiar with we 
 do not know; but the reader may be interested 
 in an account of one of his adventures as related 
 by Wirt Sikes in his British Goblins: 
 
 " Cadwaladr owned a very handsome goat named 
 Jenny, of which he was extremely fond, and which 
 seemed equally fond of him, and one day, as if the 
 very diawl possessed her, she ran away into the hills, 
 with Cadwaladr tearing after her, half mad with 
 anger and affright. At last his Welsh blood got 
 so hot, as the goat eluded him again and again, 
 that he flung a stone at her, which knocked her 
 over a precipice, and she fell bleating to her 
 doom. Cadwaladr made his way to the foot 
 of the crag; the goat was dying, but not dead, 
 and licked his hand, which so affected the poor 
 man that he burst into tears, and, sitting on the 
 ground, took the goat's head on his arm. The 
 moon rose, and still he sat there. Presently he 
 found that the goat had become transformed into 
 a beautiful young woman, whose brown eyes, as 
 her head lay on his arm, looked into his in a very 
 disturbing way. ' Ah, Cadwaladr/ said she; ' have 
 I found you ?' 
 
 " Now Cadwaladr had a wife at home, and was 
 
 105 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 much discomforted by these singular circumstances, 
 and when the goat yn awr, maiden arose and, 
 putting her black slipper on the end of a moon- 
 beam, held out her hand to him, he put his hand in 
 hers and went with her. As for the hand, though 
 it looked so fair, it felt just like a hoof. They were 
 soon at the top of the highest mountain in Wales, 
 and surrounded by a vapoury company of goats 
 with shadowy horns. These raised a most un- 
 earthly bleating about his ears. One, which seemed 
 to be king, had a voice that sounded above the din, 
 as the castle bells of Carmarthen used to do long 
 ago above the other bells of the town. This one 
 rushed at Cadwaladr, and, butting him in the 
 stomach, sent him toppling over the crag as he had 
 sent the poor nanny-goat. When he came to him- 
 self after his fall the morning sun was shining on 
 him, and the birds were singing over his head. 
 But he saw no more of either his goat or the fairy 
 she had turned into from that time to his death." 
 
 Goats were held in Wales in peculiar esteem for 
 their supposed possession of occult intellectual 
 powers. They were regarded as being on good 
 terms with the Tylwyth Teg (the fairy family), 
 who combed their beards out every Friday night 
 to make them presentable for the Sabbath. 
 
 An interesting discovery is claimed by Mr. H. C. 
 
 1 06 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 Hart in the Arden Shakespeare. He has found 
 in the Quarto of the Merry Wives of Windsor what 
 he believes to be the only Welsh phrase ever at- 
 tempted by Shakespeare. Sir Hugh Evans's vale- 
 dictory greeting to mine Host of the Garter 
 (Act IV., Scene 5) is " Fare you well." On this, 
 Mr. Hart makes the following comment : 
 
 " Instead of ' Fare you well ' the Quarto has 
 4 Grate why, mine host.' I have not seen any 
 note on the words grate why. No doubt they are 
 Welsh, and the letter r is a misprint. They mean 
 ' bless you ' or ' preserve you ' (cadw chwi), as I 
 judge from the expression Du cat a whee (God keep 
 you), which is dealt with by Nares. ... It is 
 pleasant, if I am right, to find one Welsh expression 
 in Evans's mouth the only one, I believe, in Shake- 
 speare. From the position of the words at the 
 close of the speech it seems to me there can be no 
 doubt they were his valediction. 11 
 
 Mr. Hart also points out that in the remark of 
 Dr. Caius," He is pray his Bible well " (alluding to 
 Sir Hugh's absence), the word Bible is used for the 
 only time in Shakespeare, whose other references 
 are to " The Word " and " Holy Writ." 
 
 Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor t 
 mentions Metheglin. Queen Elizabeth is said 
 to have been fond of this ancient British drink. 
 
 107 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 " ' Metheglin/ is derived from the Welsh Medey- 
 glin, and spoken of by Howell, who was clerk to 
 the Privy Council in 1640. The recipe for Methe- 
 glin is as follows : To nine gallons of boiling water 
 put twenty-eight pounds of honey, add the peel 
 of three lemons with a small quantity of ginger, 
 mace, cloves, and rosemary. When it is quite 
 cold add two tablespoonfuls of yeast. Put this in 
 a cask and allow it to ferment; at the expiration 
 of six months bottle it off for use " (Cups and 
 their Customs, London, 1863). 
 
 Metheglin (pronounced metheg-lin) is still made 
 and drunk in various parts of Wales. Medd, 
 from which we have the English name of metheglin 
 i.e., mead is a Welsh word denoting honey. 
 
 An allusion to Carnarvonshire appears in Act II., 
 Scene 3 of Henry VIII. The passage, which is 
 as follows, occurs between the old Lady and Anne 
 Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth : 
 
 Anne. How dare you talk 1 
 I swear again I would not be a queen 
 For all the world. 
 
 Old Lady. In faith, for little England 
 
 You 'Id venture an emballing [investment with the crown 
 
 and sceptre]. I myself 
 
 Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'longed 
 No more to the crown than that. 
 
 Commentators have debated the point as to 
 what Shakespeare meant by " little England. " 
 1 08 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 Whalley and Stevens suggested that the term 
 referred to Pembrokeshire, " the little England 
 beyond Wales "r not unreasonably, perhaps, as it 
 may be supposed that the proposal to make Anne 
 Marchioness of Pembroke was known to the two 
 women. It seems to us, however, that the com- 
 parison is clearly between little England and 
 the big world. 
 
 A character in the same play has been made 
 the subject of some interesting speculations. Lord 
 Mostyn, we are told, has in his collection of Welsh 
 manuscripts a treatise on Henry VIII. and his 
 Times. The author was one Ellis Griffith, who 
 described himself as "A soldier of Calais." It 
 is suggested that this historian is identical with 
 the Griffith of whom Queen Catherine said : 
 
 After my death I wish no other herald. 
 No other speaker of my living actions, 
 To keep mine honour from corruption, 
 But such an honest chronicler as Griffith. 
 
 Mr. Pym Yeatman, however (The Gentle Shake- 
 speare), identifies this character with Griffin, who, 
 he states, was of Welsh descent, and an actual 
 cousin of Shakespeare. But it does not seem very 
 clear why Shakespeare should have confused the 
 name of his own kinsman. 
 
 To leave the Histories for the Comedies awhile: 
 
 109 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 in Much Ado about Nothing is a dialogue of which 
 the following is a fragment : 
 
 Beatrice. By my troth, I am exceeding ill : hey ho ! 
 Margaret. For a hawk, a horse, or a husband ? 
 Beatrice. For the letter that begins them all, H. 
 
 (Act III., Scene 4.) 
 
 Hunter (New Illustrations) suggests that the H. 
 may have-stood for Herbert (see Chapter XIV.), and 
 adds that, as individual persons were sometimes 
 introduced on the Elizabethan stage, it should 
 be "no matter for surprise if we find that the 
 character of a young nobleman of those times is 
 partially reflected in the character of Benedick, 
 and that certain events in the history of that young 
 nobleman's life were the immediate occasion of 
 the writing these scenes of the drama." Hunter 
 alludes to William Herbert, the third Earl of 
 Pembroke, whose disinclination to marriage was the 
 cause of much regret to his literary and other 
 friends, and is supposed to have inspired some of 
 the earlier numbers in Shakespeare's Sonnets. 
 Hunter returns to the subject in his explanation 
 of Pistol's challenge (Henry IV., Part II., Act V., 
 Scene 3): " Under which king, Bezonian ? Speak 
 or die I" The word " Bezonian," he explains, 
 was used in the army for "a raw soldier, unexpert 
 in his weapon and other military points." It is 
 
 no 
 
WELSH LEGENDS AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 thus explained by Barret in his Theorike and Prac- 
 tike of Modern Warres, dedicated to Lord Herbert. 
 Hunter adds: "The dedication to Lord Herbert 
 of a work on this subject is a proof additional 
 to those already produced of the young lord's 
 military ardour, one of the points in which he 
 resembles Benedick. " It is not fanciful, knowing 
 what we do of Mary Fitton, the " Dark Lady 
 of the Sonnets/' to regard Benedick and Beatrice 
 as portraits, no doubt idealised, and in one case 
 perhaps half unconscious, of Herbert and Mary 
 Fitton. 
 
 One of the " doubtful " plays associated with 
 the name of Shakespeare was The Birth of Merlin. 
 It was first issued by Francis Kirkman in 1662, 
 and the title page describes it as having been 
 " written by William Shakespeare and William 
 Rowley." Among the characters of this rather 
 extravagant romance are an Earl of Cornwall, 
 an Earl of Gloucester, and a courtier Oswald. 
 These names are all familiar to the student of 
 Shakespeare, so that it might be worth while to 
 examine the title of this play more closely. 
 Another of the Shakespeare apocryphal plays is 
 Locrine, the theme of which is taken from Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth. 
 
 in 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE WELSH CAPTAIN IN KING RICHARD II. 
 
 OF the Welsh soldiers depicted by Shakespeare 
 in the Histories, the first is the " Captain of a Band 
 of Welshmen " introduced into his play of King 
 Richard II., and in one portion of the play the 
 action moves from Milford Haven to Flint. King 
 Richard II. was strongly supported by the Welsh. 
 His bodyguard consisted of 10,000 Welsh archers. 
 " Sleep in peace, Dickon," was the saying of the 
 Welsh; " we will take care of thee." His expedi- 
 tion to Ireland, which cost him his crown, took 
 place in 1399. No news reached Richard of the 
 landing of Bolingbroke, at Ravenspur in Yorkshire 
 (now swallowed up by the sea), until a fortnight 
 after the event. On his return the King fell into 
 the hands of the Duke of Lancaster at Flint, as 
 described in the play. 
 
 Richard was the son of that Black Prince for 
 whom Welsh archers fought so bravely at Cre9y. 
 In the opening scenes of the play Bolingbroke 
 (who afterwards becomes King Henry IV.) and 
 Lord Mowbray are banished from the country, 
 
 112 
 
THE WELSH CAPTAIN 
 
 but subsequently, when Richard II. is in Ireland, 
 quelling an insurrection, Bolingbroke returns and 
 leads a revolt against the King. Richard is a 
 weak and sentimental monarch, and no match 
 for the masterful Bolingbroke, to whom he even- 
 tually surrenders his crown and sceptre. 
 
 King Richard II. was published in 1597. Its 
 source was Holinshed 's Chronicles (second edition, 
 1586-87), and it is worthy of note that this fact 
 is considered proved by means of the scene in which 
 the Welsh Captain appears. Mr. Stone tells us 
 that many new passages were added to the first 
 edition of Holinshed, and the omen of the withering 
 of the bay trees was not mentioned in the first 
 edition. But there is no mention of Richard's 
 journey to the Holy Land in Holinshed, and it is 
 supposed that Shakespeare must have referred to 
 Stowe's Annals as well as to the invaluable Holinshed. 
 
 King Richard was expected to land in Wales 
 from Ireland on a certain date, but failed to land at 
 the time appointed, with disastrous results, as 
 we may read in Holinshed : 
 
 " But when they missed the King there was 
 a brute [i.e., bruit, rumour] spred among them that 
 the King was suerlie dead; which wrought such 
 an impression and euill disposition in the minds 
 of the Welshmen and others that for anie persuasion 
 
 113 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 which the earle of Salisburie might vse they would 
 not go foorth with him till they saw the King; 
 onelie they were contented to stay fourteene daies 
 to see if he should come or not ; but when he came 
 not within that tearme they would no longer abide, 
 but scaled [i.e., scattered] and departed awaie: 
 whereas if the King had come before their breaking 
 vp no doubt they would haue put the duke of 
 Hereford in aduenture of a field [i.e., have offered 
 battle to him] ; so that the King's lingering of time 
 before his coming ouer gaue opportunities to the 
 duke to bring things to pass as he could haue wished, 
 and took from the King all occasion [i.e., oppor- 
 tunity] to recouer afterwards anie forces sufficient 
 to resist him. In this yeare in a manner throughout 
 all the realme of England old bai trees withered, 
 and afterwards, contrarie to all men's thinking, 
 grew greene again; a strange sight and supposed 
 to import some vnknowne event." 
 
 Upon the foregoing account Shakespeare based the 
 
 following scene: 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 SCENE 4. A camp in Wales. 
 Enter SALISBURY and a Welsh Captain. 
 Captain. My Lord of Salisbury, we have stayed ten days 
 And hardly kept our countrymen together, 
 And yet we hear no tidings from the King; 
 Therefore we will disperse ourselves : farewell. 
 
 114 
 
THE WELSH CAPTAIN 
 
 Salisbury. Stay yet another day, them trusty Welshman: 
 The King reposeth all his confidence in thee. 
 
 Captain. 'Tis thought the King is dead : we will not stay. 
 The bay trees in our country are all withered, 
 And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven. 
 The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth, 
 And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change. 
 Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap, 
 The one, in fear to lose what they enjoy, 
 The other to enjoy by rage and war. 
 These signs forerun the death or fall of Kings. 
 Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled, 
 As well assured Richard their King is dead. [Exit. 
 
 The bay-tree was, of course, symbolical of victory. 
 The import of its withering could not therefore 
 be ignored. "This enumeration of prodigies," 
 says Johnson, "is in the highest degree poetical 
 and striking " ; and Verity adds : " It imports a sense 
 of mystery and awe, and raises the tragedy to a 
 loftier plane. The very heavens are telling the 
 downfall of the King. Note how the speech fits 
 the representative of the imaginative and super- 
 stitious Celtic race.' 1 
 
 So far the Welshmen had been loyal to the King, 
 and were prepared to fight for him, but they lived 
 in superstitious times, and feeling that the fates 
 had decided against Richard, or persuaded that 
 he was dead, they abandoned the field. The 
 suggestion has been made that the Welsh Captain 
 is intended to represent Owain Glyndwr, as Boling- 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 broke speaks in Act III., Scene i of proceeding to 
 fight with " Glendower and his complices." In 
 that case, however, one hardly sees why Shake- 
 speare should have hesitated to give him a name. 
 
 On the other hand, the speech, with its allusions 
 to withered bay-trees, meteors, a bloody moon, 
 and other disastrous omens, is entirely in Glen- 
 dower's vein. 
 
 In Scene 2 of Act III. the Welshmen have 
 dispersed: the mercenaries to join Bolingbroke, 
 since a live and present King is better than a dead 
 one or an absentee; and we meet with Richard, 
 newly landed, but a day too late, on " the coast 
 of Wales. A castle in view." His first words 
 set the commentator a problem. They are these : 
 " Barkloughly Castle call they this at hand?" 
 We shall look on the maps in vain for Barkloughly. 
 Shakespeare found the name in Holinshed. It 
 was probably a copyist's or printer's error for 
 Hertlowlie, or, as we know it, Harlech. 
 
 116 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 IN the last act of King Richard II. Henry Boling- 
 broke, who, having landed in England during 
 Richard's absence in Ireland, has defeated the 
 latter on his return, is overcome with remorse on 
 hearing of the King's assassination in prison; and 
 announces, in a closing passage, which is almost 
 certainly not from Shakespeare's pen, but an 
 unrevised fragment of the old pageant-play "- licked 
 into shape," by- the Blackfriars dramatist, his 
 intention of seeking absolution in a " voyage to 
 the Holy Land." But after his accession to the 
 throne in the first part of King Henry IV. this 
 project is perforce abandoned, for there comes 
 
 A post from Wales loaden with heavy news, 
 
 WTiose worst was that the noble Mortimer, 
 
 Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight 
 
 Against the irregular and wild Glendower, 
 
 Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken. . . . 
 
 lines in which we seem to read something of the fear 
 which irregular troops, operating in familiar country, 
 have always inspired in the leaders of conscript 
 peasants trained in the conventional school of war. 
 
 117 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 To Prince Hal, in the Boar's Head Tavern, the 
 rising is announced by Falstaff in other terms: 
 " There's villainous news abroad . . . you must 
 to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow 
 of the North, Percy, and he of Wales, that gave 
 Amamon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, 
 and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the 
 cross of a Welsh hook what a plague call you 
 him ? Owen, Owen . . . and his son-in-law 
 Mortimer, and old Northumberland; and that 
 sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o' 
 horseback up a hill perpendicular." 
 
 What can we make of this somewhat mys- 
 terious reference? " Amaymon, King of the East," 
 appears in " an inventarie of the names and effects 
 of divels and spirits," contained in R. Scott's 
 Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). But what of the 
 " cross of a Welsh hook "? It might be suggested 
 that neither a Welsh hook nor any other hook is 
 in the shape of a cross, and that Falstaff's reference 
 must be of the nature of mere fooling. Yet a little 
 reflection seems to throw some light on the subject. 
 It was always customary among soldiers to swear 
 by the hilt, or cross, of a sword. To take a Welsh 
 instance, in Dekker's Satiro Mastrix we have Sir 
 Rees ap Vaughan swearing by " the crosse of this 
 sword and dagger." Now the Welsh irregular 
 
 118 > 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 soldiery were largely foot-soldiers and pikemen, 
 and they fought largely against horsemen. We 
 may be sure, therefore, that a favourite form of 
 pike, partisan, or halberd would have been that 
 in which part of the blade is formed as a hook, 
 wherewith to drag heavily-armed knights or horse- 
 men from their saddles, or to lame horses; and 
 above this hook would be a cross-bar or blade to 
 parry sword-strokes or the blows of another pike 
 or partisan. Such a pike might well be known, 
 by those whose knowledge of its uses was entirely 
 disagreeable, " as a Welsh hook." And the bearer 
 of such a weapon, if anxious to emphasise the truth 
 of a statement, or solemnly to pledge his word, 
 would be likely to imitate his superiors, and to 
 swear upon the cross, not of his sword, but of his 
 pike or hook. Or, what is more to the purpose, 
 he might fairly be expected to do so by Falstaff 
 and by Shakespeare, who may have seen such 
 weapons in the houses of Welsh friends. 
 
 Before proceeding to consider Shakespeare's 
 portrait of Glendower. (or Owain Glyndwr, to give 
 him his rightful name), the intrepid champion and 
 leader of the Welsh peasantry, it will be as well 
 briefly to examine the historical situation as it 
 was in fact and as it is depicted in the play. 
 
 The date of the first part of King Henry IV . was 
 
 119 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 1 $96'97> and for the groundwork of the play Shake- 
 speare was as usual indebted to Holinshed. Henry, 
 in his plot against Richard, had the powerful 
 support of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, 
 his brother, Thomas, Earl of Worcester, and his 
 son, Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, but having 
 ascended the throne he was guilty of treating them 
 with something less than proper gratitude. He there- 
 by aroused the wrath of the Percies, who kept the 
 Border against the Scots in addition to garrisoning 
 the castles of North Wales. The Percies, at the 
 battle of Homildon Hill, had taken prisoner many 
 knights and nobles, and, according to usage, they 
 looked forward to ransoming these prisoners as 
 a source of gain. Henry, however, stubbornly 
 denied them the privilege. The Percies, hotly 
 resentful of his treatment of their reasonable 
 demands, were given yet another cause of offence. 
 Sir Edmund Mortimer, one of the Lord Marchers, 
 was taken prisoner by Owain Glyndwr, and the 
 Percies required of the King that he should ransom 
 or otherwise cause him to be delivered out of prison. 
 According to Holinshed, upon whose version 
 Shakespeare or his predecessor relied, (even to 
 confounding Sir Edmund Mortimer with Edmund 
 Mortimer, the Earl of March), the Percies eventually 
 went to Windsor to claim the deliverance of 
 120 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 Mortimer from the hands of Glendower, and he 
 continues : 
 
 " The King, when he had studied on the matter, 
 made answer that the Earle of March was not taken 
 prisoner for his cause nor in his seruice, but willinglie 
 suffered himself to be taken because he would not 
 withstand the attempts of Owen Glendouer and his 
 complices, and therefore he would neither ransome 
 him or releeue him. The Persies with this answer 
 and fradulent excuse were not a little fumed, and 
 they departed vowing to depose the King and 
 entered into their league with Glendouer." A 
 " tripartite deed," continues Holinshed, " was 
 doone (as some have said) through a foolish credit 
 given to a vaine prophesie as though King Henrie 
 was the moldwarpe [i.e., mole] cursed of God's 
 owne mouth, and they three were the dragon, 
 the lion, and the woolfe, which should diuide the 
 realme betweene them. Such is the deviation 
 (saith Hall) and not divination of those blind 
 and fantasticall dreames of the Welsh prophesiers." 
 
 Holinshed further tells us that the King " was not 
 hastie to purchase the deliverance of the Earle of 
 March because his title to the crowne was well 
 inough knowen," and refers to Owain Glyndwr 
 in the following words : 
 
 11 About the mid of August the King to chastise 
 
 121 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 the presumptuous attempts of the Welshmen went 
 with a great power of men into Wales to pursue 
 the Capteine of the Welsh rebell Owen Glendouer, 
 but in effect lost his labor, for Owen conveied 
 himselfe out of the waie into his knowen lurking- 
 places, and (as was thought) through art magike 
 he caused such foule weather of winds, tempest, 
 raine, snow and haile to be raised for the annoiance 
 of the King's armie that the like had not beene 
 heard of; in such sort that the King was constrained 
 to returne home, hauing caused his people yet to 
 spoile and burne first a great part of the countrie. . . . 
 
 "... Edmund Mortimer, earle of March, prisoner 
 with Owen Glendouer, whether for irksomenesse 
 of cruell captivitie or feare of death or for what 
 other cause it is vncertaine, agreed to take part 
 with Owen against the King of England, and tooke 
 to wife the daughter of the said Owen. Strange 
 wonders happened (as men reported) at the 
 nativitie of this man, for the same night he was 
 borne all his father's horsses in the stable were 
 found to stand in bloud vp to their bellies " a state- 
 ment which will make the profane wonder upon 
 what system the said stables were drained. 
 
 Henry IV. found the throne a very uneasy seat. 
 Conspiracy and intrigue disquieted the beginnings 
 of his reign, and the Welsh opposition developed 
 
 122 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 into open rebellion. Well might Shakespeare 
 make the troubled monarch say : " Uneasy lies 
 the head that wears a crown." 
 
 To go back to the opening of the play, we find 
 the King, as already stated, contemplating an 
 expedition to the Holy Land, but abandoning, or at 
 all events postponing, " his holy purpose to Jerusa- 
 lem " on receipt of " the heavy news from Wales," 
 which includes that report of the mutilation, by 
 Welshwomen, of Mortimer's wounded, which we 
 have already glanced at in a previous chapter. 
 This news was immediately followed by the still 
 " more uneven and unwelcome news " of the battle 
 of Holmedon (Homildon), when 
 
 The gallant Hotspur there, 
 Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald, 
 That ever-valiant and approved Scot, 
 At Holmedon met, 
 
 Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour, 
 As by discharge of their artillery, 
 And shape of likelihood, the news was told ; 
 For he that brought them, in the very heat 
 And pride of their contention did take horse, 
 Uncertain of the issue any way. 
 
 But this news is at once followed by the welcome 
 report that the Scots are utterly defeated, having 
 lost ten thousand men with " two-and-twenty 
 knights," while among Hotspur's prisoners are 
 Fife, the son of the Earl of Douglas, and the Earls 
 
 123 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 of Athol, Murray, Angus, and Monteith news 
 which sets the King envying Northumberland the 
 possession of such a son. 
 11 O," he exclaims 
 
 O that it could be prov'd 
 That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd 
 In cradle-clothes our children where they lay. 
 And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet 1 
 
 a passage which reminds us that the theory of 
 the fairy changeling, although not unknown in the 
 Anglo-Norman provinces, was essentially a Celtic 
 superstition, as indeed it remains to this day. 
 Nothing is more likely than that Shakespeare had 
 heard of fairy changelings from Welsh lips it 
 may be from Alys Griffin herself. 
 
 The construction of this first scene is crude; 
 the chief speakers announce the latest news in 
 detail, although it becomes evident that they were 
 already familiar with it. Thus, after envying 
 Northumberland his son, Henry complains of " this 
 young Percy's pride," in that 
 
 The prisoners . . . 
 
 To his own use he keeps, and sends me word 
 I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife. 
 
 At which Westmoreland exclaims: 
 
 This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, 
 Malevolent to jyou in all aspects. 
 
 124 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 M But I, "says Henry- 
 Have sent for him to answer this; 
 And for this cause we must awhile neglect 
 Our holy purpose to Jerusalem. 
 
 Which purpose, as a matter of fact, he had pre- 
 viously stated was broken off by the tidings of 
 the " broil " with Glendower. 
 
 Scene 3 shows us Hotspur, Worcester, and 
 Northumberland arraigned by Henry. Worcester, 
 having hinted at his services in making Henry's 
 greatness " so portly," is promptly dismissed 
 the Court. Northumberland explains that the 
 prisoners taken at Holmedon 
 
 Were . . . not with such strength denied 
 
 As was delivered to your majesty. 
 
 Either envy, therefore, or misprision [misunderstanding] 
 
 Is guilty of this fault, and not my son. 
 
 To which Hotspur adds that he " did deny no 
 prisoners/ 1 but that when " dry with rage and 
 extreme toil, breathless and faint after the battle, 11 
 
 Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dress'd, 
 
 Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new-reap'd 
 
 Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home. 
 
 He was perfumed like a milliner, 
 
 And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held 
 
 A pouncet-box, which ever and anon 
 
 He gave his nose, and took't away again. 
 
 In short, another Osric, whom Hotspur loves 
 rather less than Hamlet loved the " waterfly." 
 
 125 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Having further irritated the rough-and-ready 
 Northcountryman by chiding the soldiers who were 
 bearing the dead from the field for bringing 
 
 A slovenly unhandsome corse 
 Betwixt the wind and his nobility, 
 
 he demands Percy's prisoners on behalf of the 
 King. Hotspur, " all smarting with his wounds, 
 being cold to be so pestered with a popinjay/ 1 
 
 answers : 
 
 Neglectingly, I know not what, 
 He should, or he should not; for he made me mad, 
 To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet. 
 And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman, 
 Of guns and drums and wounds . . . and but for these vile 
 
 guns 
 He would himself have been a soldier. 
 
 The upshot of which is that the hater of " vil- 
 lanous saltpetre " gets no satisfaction out of 
 Hotspur, who probably indulged himself in a much 
 more vigorous and racy reply than either the 
 popinjay or himself cared to repeat to Henry. 
 
 Henry, however, is not to be pacified; Hotspur 
 offers him his prisoners even now only on the 
 condition " that we " (the King is speaking) 
 
 shall ransom straight 
 His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer; 
 Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray 'd 
 The lives of those that he did lead to fight 
 Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower, 
 
 126 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March 
 Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then, 
 Be emptied to redeem a traitor home ? . . . 
 No, on the barren mountains let him starve. . . . 
 
 Henry, be it remarked, already had experience 
 of those " barren mountains," and was to have more. 
 Here already we have some evidence of the 
 dread in which Glendower is held. 
 
 The Earl of Westmoreland (Act I., Scene i) 
 speaks of the Welsh chieftain as " the irregular 
 and wild Glendower," but to the King, who has 
 already had a foretaste of his powers of opposition, 
 he is " the great magician, damn'd Glendower.' 1 
 But Hotspur, in his instant defence of" Mortimer," 
 pays a handsome tribute to the prowess of the 
 Welshman. 
 
 Revolted Mortimer ! 
 
 He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, 
 But by the chance of war; to prove that true, 
 Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds, 
 Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took, 
 When, on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank, 
 In single opposition, hand to hand, 
 He did confound the best part of an hour 
 In changing hardiment, with great Glendower. 
 Three times they breathed and three times did they drink, 
 Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood, 
 Who then, affrighted by their bloody looks, 
 Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds, 
 And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, 
 Blood-stained with these valiant combatants. 
 
 127 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 But the King refuses to accept Hotspur's version 
 of the matter, saying : 
 
 Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him ; 
 He never did encounter with Glendower: 
 I tell thee, 
 
 He durst as well have met the devil alone 
 As Owen Glendower for an enemy. 
 
 Which argues a remarkable respect for the occult 
 powers of Glendower, or a very poor opinion of 
 Mortimer's courage. 
 
 Dismissed from Court with a threat and the 
 summary order to surrender their prisoners, the 
 now disaffected Worcester and Hotspur seek the 
 assistance of Glendower and Mortimer, and the 
 tripartite plot to dethrone the King is devised. 
 
 At the time when Owain Glyndwr figured in 
 Welsh history, a fierce struggle was being waged 
 between the bards and the friars. The friars had 
 fallen into degenerate ways, while the bards repre- 
 sented the rising national spirit. Owain Glyndwr, 
 who sided with the bards, had retired to his beau- 
 tiful dwelling at Sycharth after the abdication of 
 Richard II. Here he assembled the Welsh poets 
 and minstrels, and we may picture him, at this 
 period, seated in the bosom of his family, listening 
 with delight to the rhapsodies of the bards as they 
 told of the prowess of his ancestors the Princes 
 128 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 of Powis. Glyndwr's home at Sycharth is de- 
 scribed with much minuteness by Owen's bard, 
 lolo Goch : " Encircled with a moat filled with water, 
 the entrance to this Baron's Palace, this mansion 
 of generosity, the magnificent habitation of the 
 chief Lord of Powys, is a costly gate. . . . A Neapoli- 
 tan building of eighteen apartments, a fair timber 
 structure on the summit of a green hill, reared 
 towards heaven on four admirable pilasters." 
 Attached to the mansion were orchards and vine- 
 yards, while herds of deer fed in the park. " Loudly 
 chanted the bards the praises of Glyndwr, and 
 many a fine heroic ' Cowydd ' preserves the memory 
 of his deeds and the admiration of his people. 
 A comet appeared in 1402, and was hailed as a great 
 augury for Glyndwr. lolo Goch became so ex- 
 cited in his fervour thereat as to throw himself open 
 to the charge of positive blasphemy " (Wilkins). 
 
 Glyndwr was a fervid patriot, and the dream of 
 his life was to secure the independence of his native 
 country, reform the Welsh Church, and establish 
 two Universities, one in North and one in South 
 Wales. By personal inclination he was a musician 
 and a poet ; by force of circumstances he became a 
 warrior, for, being roused to anger by the tyranny 
 and arrogance of the English Lords of the Marches, 
 he headed a revolt of the suffering peasantry, was 
 
 9 I2 9 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 acclaimed the new Prince of Wales, and actually 
 established a Parliament at Dolgelly and Machyn- 
 lleth, sending his ambassadors to the French Court. 
 
 In Shakespeare's play Glendower makes his 
 first appearance in a striking scene which represents 
 a conference between Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, 
 and himself, in a room in the Archdeacon's house 
 at Bangor. The subject under discussion is a 
 " tripartite deed " for the division of the kingdom 
 should the revolt against the King succeed. Wales 
 " beyond the Severn shore " has been set apart 
 as Glendower 's portion. At the very start of the 
 conference Hotspur, the haughty, quick-tempered, 
 but practical Englishman, falls foul of the mystical 
 Glendower. " At my nativity," declares Glendower, 
 with the naive egoism of the Celt, 
 
 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, 
 Of burning cressets; and at my birth, 
 The frame and huge foundation of the earth, 
 Shak'd like a coward. 
 
 Hotspur. Why so it would have done at the same season, 
 if your mother's cat had but kittened, though yourself had 
 never been born. 
 
 Glendower. I say the earth did shake when I was born. 
 
 Hotspur. And I say the earth was not of my mind, 
 If you suppose as fearing you it shook. 
 
 Glendower. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did 
 tremble. 
 
 " O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on 
 fire, and not in fear of your nativity," says 
 130 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 Hotspur, and proceeds to give a humorous dis- 
 quisition upon the nature of earthquakes : 
 
 Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth 
 
 In strange eruptions: oft the teeming earth 
 
 Is with a kind of cholic pinch'd and vex'd 
 
 By the imprisoning of unruly wind 
 
 Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, 
 
 Shakes the old beldame earth, and topples down 
 
 Steeples, and moss-grown towers. At your birth, 
 
 Our grandam earth, having this distemperature, 
 
 In passion shook. 
 
 This is too much for Glendower, who had already 
 hinted that Hotspur's incredulity and levity were 
 offensive to him. 
 
 Glend. Cousin, of many men 
 
 I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave 
 To tell you once again, that at my birth, 
 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes; 
 The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds 
 Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields. 
 These signs have mark'd me extraordinary; 
 And all the courses of my life do show, 
 I am not in the roll of common men. 
 Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea 
 That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales, 
 Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me ? 
 And bring him out, that is but woman's son, 
 Can trace me in the tedious ways of art. 
 And hold me pace in deep experiments. 
 
 "I think there is no man speaks better Welsh, 11 
 retorts Hotspur dryly: by which, presumably, 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 he means " better gibberish/' " I will to dinner." 
 Mortimer speaks a word of warning : 
 
 Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad. 
 
 Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep. 
 
 Hot. Why, so can I; or so can any man: 
 But will they come, when you do call for them ? 
 
 Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command 
 The devil. 
 
 Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, 
 By telling truth. Tell truth, and shame the devil. 
 If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, 
 And I'll be sworn, I have power to shame him hence. . . . 
 
 Glendower displays a curious characteristic, 
 which is often met with in men possessed of set 
 ideas; while sometimes irascible and taking offence 
 at every word, at other times, when pursuing a 
 train of thought, he is completely oblivious of 
 what is said to him. Mortimer, fearing an explo- 
 sion, breaks in hastily : 
 
 Come, come, 
 No more of this unprofitable chat. 
 
 But Glendower, for once, has not taken offence; 
 pursuing the argument of his greatness, he tells 
 how thrice he has defeated Henry Bolingbroke 
 and sent him " bootless home and weather-beaten 
 back." 
 
 In spite of another indiscreet witticism, he has 
 restored his equanimity by demonstrating his 
 
 132 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 greatness as magician and soldier, and settles 
 down to business in perfect good humour. " Come, 
 here's the map/' he says. 
 
 Shall we divide our right 
 According to our threefold order ta'en ? 
 
 But Hotspur, on hearing the provisions of the 
 !< tripartite deed " drawn up by the Archdeacon 
 of Bangor, declares that his moiety, to the north 
 of the Trent, does not in quantity equal the others, 
 and the quarrel between the imperious Anglo- 
 Norman and the fiery Celt breaks out afresh. 
 
 Hotspur. I'll have it so, a little charge [change ?] will do it. 
 Glendower. I will not have it altered. 
 Hotspur. Will not you ? 
 
 Glendower. No, nor you shall not. 
 
 Hotspur. Who shall say me nay ? 
 
 Glendower. Why, that will I. 
 
 Hotspur. Let me not understand you then; 
 
 Speak it in Welsh. 
 
 An unfortunate speech to make to any Celt; 
 for the Celt is quickly roused by scornful criti- 
 cism, and the Welshman, wrongly thinking that 
 Hotspur is casting a slur upon his mastery of 
 English, is at once up in arms again. 
 
 Glendower. I can speak English, lord, as well as you, 
 For I was trained up in the English Court, 
 Where, being young, I framed to the harp, 
 Many an English ditty lovely well, 
 And gave my tongue a helpful ornament, 
 A virtue that was never seen in you. 
 
 133 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 In which we see something of Glendower's love 
 of, and respect for poetry, music, and scholarship, 
 and his secret contempt for the rude unlettered 
 Englishman. Hotspur's reply is the usual retort 
 of ignorance. 
 
 Marry, I'm glad of it with all my heart. 
 
 I had rather be a kitten and cry mew 
 
 Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers. 
 
 I had rather hear a brazen canstick turned,* 
 
 And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, 
 
 Nothing so much as mincing poetry. 
 
 At which Glendower seems to give up this fore- 
 runner of the typical public-schoolboy as hopeless, 
 for, suddenly changing the subject he says good- 
 humouredly, as one might to a fractious child: 
 "Come, you shall have Trent turn'd." 
 
 Holinshed, again, is Shakespeare's authority for 
 Glendower's claim that he was reared in the English 
 Court : 
 
 41 This Owen Glendouer was sonne of an esquier 
 of Wales named Griffith Vichan: he dwelled in 
 the parish of Conwaie within the countie of 
 Merioneth in North Wales in a place called Glin- 
 dourwie, which is as much as to saie in English 
 as the Vallie by the side of the water of the Dee, 
 
 * The reference is presumably to the grating, chattering 
 shriek of brass turned on a primitive lathe. 
 
 134 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 by occasion whereof he was surnamed Glindour 
 Dew. 
 
 " He was first set to studie the lawes of the realme 
 and became an vtter bairester or an apprentise 
 of the law (as they terme him), and serued King 
 Richard at Flint Castell, when he was taken by 
 Henrie, duke of Lancaster, though others have 
 written that he serued this King Henrie the fourth 
 before he came to atteine the crown in roome of 
 an esquier." 
 
 When Glendower leaves the room to bring in 
 Lady Mortimer and Lady Percy, Mortimer takes 
 advantage of his absence to expostulate with Hot- 
 spur on his constant crossing of his father-in-law. 
 " Fie, cousin Percy ! how you cross my father !" " I 
 cannot choose," replies Hotspur: 
 
 Sometimes he angers me, 
 With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant, 
 Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, 
 And of a dragon and a finless fish, 
 A clip- wing 'd griffin and a moulten raven, 
 A couching lion and a ramping cat, 
 And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff, 
 As puts me from my faith. 
 
 Merlin's prophecies are given at length by Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth, and the allusion to " a finless fish " 
 is a reference to Merlin's prediction that " the 
 lion's whelps shall be transformed to fishes of the 
 
 '35 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 sea," which a modern occultist might claim to be 
 a forecast of submarine warfare. But he would 
 doubtless allow that Merlin might have hit on a 
 better simile for an aeroplane than a " clip-wing 'd 
 griffin." 
 
 The Northumbrian has no patience with mysti- 
 cism. " He held me," says poor Hotspur- 
 Last night at least nine hours 
 In reckoning up the several devils' names, 
 That were his lackeys . . . O ! he's as tedious 
 As is a tired horse, a railing wife. . . . 
 
 To Hotspur's denunciation of Glendower's occul- 
 tism Mortimer makes a reply which may be 
 regarded as Shakespeare's final verdict on the 
 character of Glendower : 
 
 In faith, he is a worthy gentleman, 
 
 Exceedingly well read, and profited 
 
 In strange concealments; valiant as a lion. 
 
 And wondrous affable, and as bountiful as mines in India. 
 
 Worcester also remonstrates with Hotspur on 
 his unreasonable attitude. 
 
 My lord [he says], you are too wilful- blame [the text is 
 
 evidently corrupt]. 
 
 You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault, 
 Though sometimes it shows greatness, courage, blood 
 (And that's the dearest grace it renders you), 
 Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage 
 
 136 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 Defect of manners, want of government, 
 Pride, haughtiness, opinion and disdain, 
 The least of which, haunting a nobleman, 
 Loseth men's hearts and leaves behind a stain 
 Upon the beauty of all parts besides, 
 Beguiling them of commendation. 
 
 Upon Glendower's return with the ladies a sin- 
 gular position is disclosed, for as Lady Mortimer 
 greets her husband the latter cries: 
 
 This is the deadly spite that angers me, 
 My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh. 
 Glendower. My daughter weeps : she will not part with you. 
 She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars. 
 
 Which was not mere extravagance on her part. 
 That Welshwomen could be accused of mutilation 
 shows that they followed their fathers, husbands, 
 or sons to battle, doubtless acting as a supply 
 train, just as the Boer women used to accompany 
 their menfolk, acting as carriers, loaders, cooks, 
 nurses, etc. 
 
 Mortimer consigns her to the care of her father. 
 
 Mortimer. Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy 
 Shall follow in your conduct speedily. 
 
 Glendower, we are told, " speaks to her in Welsh, 
 and she answers him in the same." Then Lady 
 Mortimer, turning to her husband, her eyes be- 
 dimmed with tears, attempts to hold converse with 
 
 137 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 him, but with a pathetic shake of his head Mortimer 
 replies : 
 
 I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh, 
 Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens, 
 I am too perfect in; and, but for shame, 
 In such a parley would I answer thee. 
 
 [She speaks again in Welsh. 
 I understand thy kisses, and thou mine, 
 And that's a feeling disputation; 
 But I will never be a truant, love, 
 Till I have learned thy language; for thy tongue 
 Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penned, 
 Sung by a fair queen in a summer bower, 
 With ravishing division to her lute. 
 
 Glendower (who has perhaps interpreted this 
 speech, thus suggesting to her the idea of song) 
 explains that his daughter wishes to sing to her 
 husband before he departs for the war, whereupon 
 there follows the interesting stage direction: "A 
 Welsh song sung by Lady Mortimer." 
 
 We would give much to know what that Welsh 
 song was, and whether it was accompanied by 
 the harp. Brinley Richards, in his Songs of Wales, 
 tells us that many of the old Welsh airs are very 
 ancient, and with reference to the harp we learn 
 that there was a revival of that instrument in the 
 days of Elizabeth. A celebrated Welsh harpist, 
 Thomas Pritchard (" Twm Bach "), a native of 
 Glamorganshire, died in London in 1597. 
 
 138 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 Hotspur and Mortimer depart for the war, and 
 Glendower makes no further appearance upon the 
 stage, but history tells us that he made a triumphant 
 progress through South Wales, besieging Car- 
 marthen Castle, fighting at St. Clears and Laug- 
 harne, burning the Bishop's Palace at Llandaff, 
 and capturing Cardiff Castle. Nevertheless, he 
 was absent from Shrewsbury at the crucial moment, 
 " being overruled by the prophecies. " And here 
 Shakespeare either purposely or accidentally brings 
 out into strong relief the susceptibility of the Welsh 
 character to the sway of fatalism. Holinshed 
 does not give this explanation of Glendower's 
 absence, so that Shakespeare's allusion to the 
 " prophecies " would seem to be an original touch, 
 unless indeed he had heard some traditional account 
 of the circumstance. 
 
 There are many Welsh critics who feel that 
 Shakespeare treated the character of Owain 
 Glyndwr none too kindly by representing him 
 as a mysterious hero who claimed supernatural 
 powers. Shakespeare, however, as we have seen, 
 based his Henry IV., with other plays, on the 
 romantic chronicles of the old uncritical historian 
 Holinshed, who tells of the belief of the people 
 that Glyndwr could " produce storms by art magic." 
 " It may be/' says Sir Owen Edwards, " that 
 
 139 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Owen Glendower tried to surround himself with 
 mystery. . . . Had he the superstition which is 
 the shadow of fatalism ? He consulted a seer 
 when in Merlin's City, now called Carmarthen, 
 and was told he would be taken under a black flag." 
 
 Shakespeare was doubtless attracted by Glen- 
 dower's reputation; for whether he himself was 
 a believer in the supernatural or merely valued it 
 as dramatic material, he has, like other dramatists 
 of the sixteenth century, made extensive use of 
 supernatural incidents, and we have ghosts in 
 Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Ccesar, and Richard III., 
 fairies and elves in A Midsummer Night's Dream, 
 spirits and a magician in The Tempest, and witches 
 in Macbeth. While recognising the value, from 
 the dramatic standpoint, of surrounding Glendower 
 with an atmosphere of mystery, Shakespeare leaves 
 us in no doubt as to his valour, generosity, affa- 
 bility, and erudition. 
 
 Owain Glyndwr's proper name was Owen ap 
 Griffith Vaughan . He remained unconquered , for al- 
 though he was eventually obliged to fall back before 
 the pressure of the English forces, he never aban- 
 doned the struggle and was never finally subdued. 
 
 The rolls of Parliament and Rymer's Feeder a 
 mention that he was excluded from a general 
 amnesty granted by Henry in 1411. In 1412 he 
 
 140 
 
OWEN GLENDOWER 
 
 was taken prisoner. In 1415, shortly before the 
 Battle of Agincourt, Henry V. commissioned Sir 
 Gilbert Talbot to negotiate with Meredith, Glen- 
 dower's son, with a view to the pacification of the 
 Welsh leader and his followers. After the victory 
 of Agincourt these overtures were renewed, but 
 to no purpose; Glendower " resolved to live and 
 die free, a prince without subjects or country, 
 rather than the subject of the conqueror of Wales. 
 He still continued to haunt the wilds and moun- 
 tains of Snowdon, and, if we may believe one 
 tradition, died peaceably at his daughter's house 
 at Mornington in 1415, while another shows us his 
 burial-place beneath the great window of the south 
 aisle of Bangor Cathedral. Both accounts can very 
 well be true, but wherever Owen Glendower rests there 
 rests the dust of a man who only wanted a wider 
 field and a more numerous people to have become 
 the saviour as he was the true hero of his country/'* 
 Tradition tells us of an incident with the relation 
 of which we may fittingly close this chapter. 
 Early one morning, while the Abbot of Valle Crucis 
 was praying on the hillside near the abbey, Owain 
 Glyndwr appeared and said, " Sir Abbot, you have 
 risen too early.' 1 " No," said the Abbot, "it is you 
 have risen too early by a hundred years/ 1 
 
 * CasselTs History of England. 
 
 141 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 TRADITION has it that Queen Elizabeth, delighted 
 by the escapades of FalstafF in King Henry IV., 
 expressed a wish to see the fat knight as lover; 
 whereupon Shakespeare straightway set to work 
 upon the comedy of the Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 completing the play within a fortnight. The 
 character which concerns us in this comedy is of 
 course that of Sir Hugh Evans, who is described 
 in the dramatis personnce as "a Welsh parson." 
 He was a schoolmaster-parson, just as Thomas 
 Jenkins might have been at Stratford-upon-Avon, 
 for we are told that the headmaster of the Stratford 
 Grammar School acted as chaplain of the Guild 
 chapel adjoining. For a time, indeed, the school 
 was held in the chapel itself. That Shakespeare 
 had Thomas Jenkins in mind when he created the 
 character of Sir Hugh Evans appears more than 
 probable when we remember that the "Welsh 
 parson " is introduced in the company of two 
 Warwickshire worthies, Mr. Justice Shallow and 
 Slender, his cousin, of whom the former is an 
 142 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 undoubted caricature of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charle- 
 cote Park. 
 
 It is "Sir Hugh's highest ambition to be the 
 oracle of the town in which he is schoolmaster. 
 He is fond of popularity; and will readily do little 
 kindnesses for his friends, negotiate marriages for 
 their daughters, and settle their differences when 
 they threaten to be serious; and is nothing loath 
 to enjoy a good dinner at some kind neighbour's 
 expense. We laugh with Sir Hugh rather than 
 at him. There is a vein of shrewdness in Sir Hugh 
 which prevents him from being ridiculous. It is 
 the shrewdness of a Welshman, and it is in precisely 
 the accurate conception of this point that the 
 merit of the dramatist lies " (Newell). 
 
 We learn at the very outset that Sir Hugh is a 
 man of peace. " If Sir John FalstafF have com- 
 mitted disparagements unto you," he tells Mr. 
 Justice Shallow, " I am of the church, and will be 
 glad to do my benevolence to make atonements 
 and compromises between you." He is a man of 
 " goot discretions," a serious man, impatient of 
 ' pribbles and prabbles." His strong regard for 
 the truth is shown by his emphatic, if somewhat 
 tautological declaration, " I do despise a liar as I 
 do despise one who is false, or as I do despise one 
 who is not true." He bids his friends walk in the 
 
 143 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 straight path so that they may not suffer "for a 
 pad conscience." They should also " pray " and 
 not follow " the imaginations of their own hearts." 
 * He is a methodical man ; if they entrust him with a 
 mission he will " make a prief of it " on his note- 
 book and " afterwards 'ork upon the cause with 
 as great discreetly as we can." -He is a man of 
 common sense; Pistol's heroics he dismisses as 
 " affectations." When he declares he is only pre- 
 pared to " description the matter " if his auditor 
 11 be capacity of it " we seem to catch a glimpse of 
 his schoolmaster model. v He loves in his pedantic 
 fashion to be exact. " Let us command to know 
 that of your mouth or your lips," he observes, 
 " for divers philosophers hold that the lips is 
 parcel of the mouth." We get a glimpse of his 
 fondness for good living when, in despatching 
 Simple with a message, he bids him begone, as he 
 " wants to make an end of his dinner," particularly 
 as " there is pippins and cheese to come." Cheese, 
 by the way, presumably in the form of Welsh 
 rarebits, or roasted with pippins, appears to be 
 a weakness of his, for we find Ford exclaiming, 
 " I will rather trust Parson Hugh the Welshman 
 with my cheese than my wife with herself." 
 Attempting to forward the suit of his friend 
 Slender for the hand of Ann Page, he involves 
 144 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 himself in a quarrel which results in a challenge 
 from the fiery Dr. Caius, the French physician, 
 who is Slender 's rival. 
 
 1 By Gar," exclaims the Doctor in his frenzy, 
 " I will cut his troat in the Park. I will teach the 
 jack-a-nape Priest to meddle or make." But Sir 
 Hugh, though a man of peace, is not a man of 
 "peace at any price"; sinking the parson in the 
 Celt, he accepts the challenge, and mine host of 
 the Garter is commissioned to make arrangements 
 for the duel. Mine host, being of a waggish disposi- 
 tion, plays a practical joke upon the intending 
 combatants, arranging that they shall await each 
 other in different fields, with the result that each 
 believes that the other has shirked the encounter. 
 
 In a field near Windsor the Frenchman impa- 
 tiently awaits the coming of the " Jack Priest," 
 and commenting upon his absence to his serving- 
 man, Jack Rugby, he exclaims: "By gar, he is 
 save his soul that he is no come. He has pray 
 his Pible veil dat he is no come ; by gar, Jack Rugby, 
 he is dead already if he be come." 
 
 " He is wise, Sir," says Jack Rugby; "he knew 
 your worship would kill him if he came." 
 
 " By gar," continues the irate Frenchman, " de 
 herring is no dead so as I vill kill him." 
 
 At this point there enters the Host, Shallow, 
 
 10 145 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Slender, and Page, to whom Caius explains that the 
 " coward Jack Priest of the vorld " has not dared 
 to show his face. " I pray you bear vitness," 
 he adds, " that me have stay six or seven, two, 
 tree hours for him and he is no come." 
 
 In a field at Frogmore Sir Hugh Evans and 
 " good master Slender 's serving man and friend 
 Simple, by your name" (and also by nature) is 
 awaiting the coming of the French physician. 
 Sir Hugh discloses the turbulence of his feelings 
 by the words, " Pless my soul, how full of cholers 
 I am, and trempling of mind!" At one moment 
 he sings to keep up his courage, at another moment 
 he has " a great dispositions to cry." 
 
 While he is in this anxious frame of mind Page, 
 Shallow, and Slender appear upon the scene. They 
 affect surprise at the spectacle of the schoolmaster- 
 parson abroad in the fields with sword and doublet 
 and hose on " such a raw rheumatic day." 
 
 Sir Hugh explains mysteriously that " there is 
 reasons and causes for it," but when it is men- 
 tioned that in another field the renowned French 
 physician is awaiting some person from whom he 
 has suffered wrong, Sir Hugh loses his temper for 
 the first time. 
 
 " Got's will and his passion of my heart," he 
 exclaims, " I had as lief you would tell me of a mess 
 
 146 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 of porridge. He has no more knowledge of Hibbo- 
 crates and Galen and he is a knave besides, a 
 cowardly knave, as you would desires to be ac- 
 quainted withal." 
 
 But here the Host and Doctor Caius arrive, 
 and mine Host, having advised the " soul curer 
 and body curer " to put up their swords and to 
 41 hack our English " instead of their limbs, confesses 
 the trick which he has played upon them; and 
 in the end the spectators depart in high feather 
 to celebrate the humour of the situation at the 
 Garter. 
 
 Caius, the true position dawning upon him, 
 shakes his fist in impotent wrath after the retreat- 
 ing company. " Ha I do I perceive dat ? Have 
 you make-a de sot of us ? Ha, ha !" he ejaculates. 
 And the erstwhile enemies become companions 
 in wrathful resentment. " He has made us his 
 vlouting-stog [laughing-stock]," says Evans. " I 
 desire you that we may be friends, and let us knog 
 our brains together, to be revenge on this same 
 scaull, scurvy, cogging companion, the host of the 
 Garter." 
 
 ' By gar, vit all my heart," responds Caius; 
 11 he promise to bring me vere is Anne Page; by 
 gar, he deceive me too." 
 
 " Well," replies Sir Hugh, with a fierceness not 
 
 1*7 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 wholly assumed, for he is still incensed, " I will 
 smite his noddles, Pray you, follow." 
 
 Caius and Evans have not long to wait for their 
 revenge. And thereby hangs a tale: a curious 
 fragment of unimportant history. In the year 
 1593 the Duke of Wiirtemberg visited England, 
 travelling the roads perhaps because he was 
 unwilling, for economic reasons, to bring with him 
 a retinue commensurate with his majesty under 
 the name of Count Mompelgard. He remained a 
 month in this country, visiting the Queen; from 
 August 1 7th to 1 9th he was at Reading, and 
 from there proceeded to Windsor; and he also 
 halted at, or passed through, Maidenhead and 
 Colnbrook. As a royal visitor to the Court he was 
 granted the right to requisition post-horses free of 
 charge. Like a true German, he made the most 
 liberal use of his privilege, and no official compen- 
 sation was forthcoming. He was a pompous 
 person who exacted much deference; in short, 
 he did not make himself beloved. The victims, 
 of course, were loud in their complaints ; the story 
 of the German " cousin " of the Queen ran the 
 rounds of the posting-houses, and must have been 
 a matter of gossip in the London taverns. 
 
 Bearing these facts in mind, we are able to 
 appreciate the humour of Act IV., Scene 3, and 
 148 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 the constant play on the word " cousin " on which 
 Evans wittily and maliciously rings the changes. 
 Bardolph informs the Host that he will be required 
 to furnish horses. " Sir, the Germans desire to have 
 three of your horses : the duke himself will be to- 
 morrow at court, and they are going to meet 
 him." 
 
 ' What duke should that be comes so 
 secretly?" says the Host. " I hear not of him 
 in the court. Let me speak with the gentlemen: 
 they speak English ? . . . They shall have my 
 horses, but I'll make them pay. . . . They have 
 had my house a week at command ; I have turned 
 away my other guests." From which it would 
 seem that the German " gentlemen " had insisted 
 upon having the inn kept empty, either because 
 the duke was expected, or because they chose to 
 pretend that he was expected. The horses are 
 supplied; Bardolph evidently makes one of the 
 party, presumably because he is to bring the horses 
 back. He returns in Act IV., Scene 5. 
 
 Bardolph. Out, alas, sir ! cozenage, mere cozenage ! 
 
 Host. Where be my horses ? speak well of them, varletto. 
 
 Bardolph. Run away with the cozeners; for so soon as I 
 came beyond Eton, they threw me off from behind one of 
 them in a slough of mire, and set spurs, and away, like three 
 German devils, three Doctor Faustuses. 
 
 Host. They are gone but to meet the duke, villain : do not 
 say they be fled; Germans are honest men. 
 
 149 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 The revenge sought by the Welsh parson and the 
 French doctor takes the form of a solemn admoni- 
 tion to lock the stable door after the horses are 
 stolen. 
 
 We may imagine them to have seen the sorry and 
 miry Bardolph limping back from Eton; to have 
 questioned him, or to have heard his tale from 
 the sympathetic townsfolk to whom he no doubt 
 related it as he neared the Garter. Bubbling over 
 with malicious glee, Evans gravely enters the inn. 
 " Where is mine host ?" he says. " Have a care of 
 your entertainments : there is a friend of mine come 
 to town, tells me there is three cousin*-Germans, 
 that has cozened all the hosts of Reading, of Maiden- 
 head, of Colnbrook, of horses and money. I tell 
 you for good-will, look you; you are wise, and full 
 of gibes and vlouting-stogs, and it is not convenient 
 you should be cozened. Fare you well." And 
 no sooner has he gone than Doctor Caius looks in 
 to give the same warning, but whereas Sir Hugh 
 Evans has sufficient self-restraint to leave his ready 
 wit unhampered, Doctor Caius is brimming over 
 with exuberant malice, and blurts out his news 
 
 * It is probable that the document furnished in the Queen's 
 name, to be shown to keepers of posting-houses, etc., began 
 somewhat as follows: " Whereas," or " know by these presents 
 our cousin," etc., and that the wording of it had become 
 public property. 
 
 ISO 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 in a downright manner, forgetting what little 
 English syntax he knows in his excitement. 
 
 Caius. Vere is mine host de Jartiere ? 
 
 Host. Here, master doctor, in perplexity, and doubtful 
 dilemma. 
 
 Caius. I cannot tell vat is dat; but it is tell-a me, dat you 
 make grand preparation for a duke de Jarmany : by my trot, 
 dere is no duke dat de court is know to come. I tell you fof 
 good vill ! adieu ! 
 
 Mine Host is a man of substance, but the loss 
 of three horses is no trifle. Fenton, full of his 
 projected elopement with Anne Page, finds him 
 in the dumps; for once his readiness to take part 
 in any frolic or piece of mischief or adventure has 
 deserted him. " Master Fenton, talk not to me: 
 my mind is heavy; I will give over all." But 
 Fenton is not to be put off with this. 
 
 Fenton. Yet hear me speak. Assist me in my purpose, 
 And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give thee 
 A hundred pound in gold more than your loss. 
 
 At which comfortable assurance the Host takes 
 heart and consents to listen, and, finally, to " pro- 
 cure the vicar " for the runaway match. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the words " Germans 
 are honest men " are not in the Quarto. The 
 statement is not a serious expression of opinion; 
 mine Host is only seeking to comfort himself. 
 Such as it is, it may have been absent from the 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 original version, for it certainly was not Shake- 
 speare's opinion. What he personally thought of 
 the Germans is reflected in the following passage 
 from The Merchant of Venice, Act I., Scene 2 : 
 
 Nerissa. How like you the young German, the Duke of 
 Saxony's nephew ? 
 
 Portia. Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, and 
 most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk; when he is 
 best he is a little worse than a man ; and when he is worst, he 
 is little better than a beast: an the worst fall that ever fell I 
 shall make shift to go without him. ... I will do anything, 
 Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge. 
 
 The Count of Palatine, presumably another 
 German, is " full of unmannerly sadness," with 
 11 a bad habit of frowning." 
 
 In Act IV., Scene 8 of the third part of King 
 Henry VI. Shakespeare speaks of the " hasty 
 Germans." Complaints of articles " made in 
 Germany " were heard long before our time. Biron, 
 in Act III., Scene i of Love's Labour's Lost, compares 
 a woman to 
 
 A German clock 
 
 Still a-repairing; ever out of frame, 
 And never going aright, being a watch, 
 But being watched that it may still go right. 
 
 In Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare de- 
 scribes a German as being " from the waist down 
 all slops " (the slops referring to their nether gar- 
 
 152 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 ments), and in Cymbeline, (Act II. Scene 5) we 
 have, " Like a full-acorned boar, a German one." 
 
 When Falstaff goes through his last ordeal as 
 " Herne the Hunter " (which brings us once again 
 into contact with Welsh mythology), Evans, 
 disguised as a Satyr, calls his fairies into a ring. 
 
 Pray you, lock hand in hand : yourselves in order set, 
 And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be 
 To guide our measure round about the tree. 
 But stay ! I smell a man of middle earth ! 
 
 There is evidently something in that " pray 
 you," and in the accent of the satyr, which falls 
 familiarly upon the fat knight's ear, for he whispers 
 a heartfelt prayer: " Heaven defend me from that 
 Welch fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of 
 cheese." 
 
 ' The Welsh parson," says Hazlitt, "is an ex- 
 cellent character in all respects. He is as respect- 
 able as he is humorous." H. C. Hart endorses 
 this view, and adds: " Like all Shakespeare's 
 schoolmasters, Sir Hugh Evans is at once simple 
 and pedantic. In the duelling scene he is capital. 
 We are indebted to Sir Hugh Evans for a number 
 of interesting allusions. It is satisfactory to find 
 him in an honourable position at the close, not in 
 the ignominious situation occupied by Caius and 
 Slender." 
 
 153 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Hunter has the following interesting comments 
 on the characters of the Welsh parson and the 
 French physician: 
 
 " Sir Hugh Evans, who is the representative of the 
 curate and pedagogue conjoined of the time, 
 speaks in his broad Welsh accent. This kind of 
 speech must have been very familiar to Shake- 
 speare in his youth, so many Welsh people having 
 taken up their abode at Stratford; and that this 
 early familiarity with the Welsh mode of pro- 
 nouncing the English language had something to 
 do with the origination of the characters of Sir 
 Hugh and of Fluellen appears from this, that we 
 have no exhibition of the peculiar pronunciation 
 of either Scottish or Irish persons in any of the 
 plays, or of the peculiar dialect of any particular 
 district in England. The question raised by Dr. 
 Johnson whether Shakespeare was ' the first writer 
 to produce upon the English stage the effect of 
 language distorted and depraved by provincial 
 or foreign pronunciation ' has been set at rest, and 
 Shakespeare was certainly not the first; but he 
 was perhaps the first who introduced Welsh. . . 
 As in Sir Hugh we have the Welsh pronunciation, 
 so in Dr. Caius we have the broken English of a 
 Frenchman. His broken English and his irascible 
 temper are his raisons d'etre ; he is crudely 
 154 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 painted as compared with Evans, and we have 
 no idea what sort of a physician he may have been. 
 He is an amusing character, but the poet has been 
 unfortunate in the choice of a name. There was a 
 real Dr. Caius, an Englishman, whose hereditary 
 name of Kaye was thus Latinised and has been lost 
 in this more scholastic form, who lived so near the 
 poet's time that his name had not passed out of 
 the popular mind, while it was reverenced amongst 
 scholars for his noble foundation at Cambridge. 
 The memory of this admirable person was in 
 danger of being defamed by the supposition that 
 he was the person indicated by the Dr. Caius of this 
 play; and it is to be feared that there are persons 
 still in whose minds the real and the dramatic 
 Dr. Caius are confounded. The Dr. Caius of 
 Shakespeare is a representative of a class of persons 
 who are held in little esteem by the native prac- 
 titioners of the art of medicine foreigners who 
 introduced nostrums or had perhaps attained in 
 foreign Universities a skill beyond that of the 
 English physicians. . . . There is one point in con- 
 nection with Dr. Caius and the Welsh curate which 
 I cannot forbear mentioning, although it is very 
 improbable that it was known to Shakespeare 
 when he made Dr. Caius utter so many contemp- 
 tuous expressions respecting his Welsh antagonist. 
 
 155 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 The point is this: that the real Dr. Caius in the 
 statutes of the College founded by him specially 
 excludes persons who are Welshmen from holding 
 any of his fellowships." 
 
 Hunter's authority for this latter statement is the 
 Cambridge Portfolio for 1839. 
 
 It may be noted that Dr. Caius died in 1573, 
 four or five years before the reputed date of the 
 Merry Wives. He was born at Norwich, but 
 travelled and studied on the Continent. Like 
 Shakespeare's doctor, he was a physician at the 
 Court (of King Edward VI. and Queen Mary). 
 
 Fleay has a theory which would, if well founded, 
 dispose of our suggestion that Thomas Jenkins was 
 the prototype of Evans. It appears, however, 
 to be the merest conjecture. " I believe," he says, 
 " that in Shakespeare's play Evans and Dr. Caius 
 are satirical representations of Drayton and Lodge. 
 Drayton is introduced as Evan, a Welsh attorney, 
 by Jonson in For the Honour of Wales, and Lodge 
 was frequently satirised on the stage as a French 
 doctor." 
 
 The expression put into the mouth of Parson 
 Evans (Act III., Scene i), " I had as lief you would 
 tell me of a mess of porridge," has been cited by 
 the Rev. Thomas Carter as one of the proofs that 
 the Bible which Shakespeare used was the Geneva 
 
 156 
 
SIR HUGH EVANS 
 
 version. " Parson Evans seems to have on his mind 
 the knavery by which Jacob tricked Esau his 
 brother/' says Mr. Carter, though it is more reason- 
 able to suggest that the phrase was familiar to 
 Shakespeare; and " mess of porridge " would 
 seem to be a misquotation for " mess of pottage." 
 Curiously enough, these words do not occur in the 
 Bible narrative itself, but appear in the chapter- 
 heading of Gen. xxv. in the Geneva version: 
 " Esau selleth his birthright for a messe of pottage." 
 The heading does not occur in the Authorised 
 Version." 
 
 157 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 KING HENRY V." HARRY OF MONMOUTH " 
 
 HENRY V. was born at Monmouth Castle, and 
 Monmouthshire, before the Act of Union of England 
 and Wales (passed in the reign of Henry VIII.), 
 was a Welsh county. It was no doubt this cir- 
 cumstance which caused Shakespeare to represent 
 the King as being of Welsh descent. He was not 
 a Welshman by race. He was descended from 
 Edward III., through John of Gaunt, by his first 
 wife Blanche, daughter of Henry Duke of Lancaster. 
 His father was Henry IV., his mother Mary Bohun. 
 It is necessary, for the sake of accuracy, that this 
 should be mentioned; but what concerns us here is 
 that Shakespeare regards him as a Welshman, 
 and makes him announce himself as such when 
 challenged by Pistol. It is worthy of note that, 
 while the King as Prince Hal was sowing his wild 
 oats, nothing was said as to his Welsh nationality, 
 though, had the dramatist any fault to find with 
 the Welsh, here was his opportunity. It was only 
 
 when 
 
 Consideration like an angel came 
 And whipped the offending Adam out of him, 
 
 158 
 
KING HENRY V. 
 
 that any mention was made of the Welsh blood in 
 his veins. 
 
 When Henry ascended the throne his wildness 
 had " mortified " in him. All his dissipated 
 associates had been discarded, the roystering 
 Falstaff had for his own good been banished from 
 the temptations of London, and the reformed 
 monarch took into his favour a more worthy and 
 more suitable follower in the person of the loyal, 
 brave, and high-spirited Fluellen. 
 
 There are many allusions in the play of King 
 Henry V. which are of interest to a Welsh reader, 
 and it is as a Welshman that King Henry speaks 
 when he delivers his famous address to his troops 
 before Harfleur. 
 
 K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once 
 
 more: 
 
 Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 
 In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man, 
 As modest stillness and humility: 
 But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 
 Then imitate the action of the tiger; 
 Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 
 Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage, 
 Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; 
 Let it pry through the portage* of the head, 
 Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,f 
 As fearfully as doth a galledj rock 
 
 * The eye-sockets, f O'erhang. % Worn by the waves. 
 
 159 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 O'erhang and jutty* his confounded base 
 
 Swill 'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 
 
 Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide; 
 
 Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 
 
 To his full height ! On, on, you noblest English, 
 
 Whose blood is fetf from fathers of war-proof ! 
 
 Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders, 
 
 Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought, 
 
 And sheathed their swords for lack of argument. J 
 
 Dishonour not your mothers : now attest, 
 
 That those, whom you called fathers did beget you ! 
 
 Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 
 
 And teach them how to war ! and you, good yeomen, 
 
 Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 
 
 The mettle of your pasture; let us swear 
 
 That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not 
 
 For there is none of you so mean and base. 
 
 That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 
 
 I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
 
 Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: 
 
 Follow your spirit, and upon this charge 
 
 Cry " God for Harry, England, and Saint George ! " 
 
 [Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off. 
 
 In Act. IV., Scene 7, when Fluellen, speaking 
 of the leek and how it came to be the Welsh national 
 emblem, says, " I do believe your majesty takes 
 no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day," 
 whereupon King Henry answers : 
 
 I wear it for a memorable honour ; 
 For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 
 
 Fluellen. All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's 
 
 * Project beyond. f Fetched. 
 
 \ I.e., having placed all their adversaries hors de combat. 
 
 1 60 
 
KING HENRY V. 
 
 Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that; Got pless 
 it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his 
 majesty too ! . . . By Jeshu, I am your majesty's country- 
 man, I care not who know it. ... 
 
 Did Shakespeare fear that his humorous exploita- 
 tion of the Welshman's English might be taken 
 amiss by Welshmen, or even by the Queen, who 
 was of Welsh descent? If so, he makes amends 
 in Act V., Scene i, when Gower, rebuking the 
 discomfited Pistol, says: 
 
 I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice 
 or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English 
 in the native garb, he could not handle au English cudgel. . . . 
 Henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English 
 condition. 
 
 ii 161 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 FLUELLEN 
 
 FLUELLEN is the type of the brave, patriotic, 
 honourable, loyal, high-spirited Welshman. Shake- 
 speare evidently intended him to be a favourite 
 with his audience, for we see more of him, perhaps, 
 than of any non-essential character in King 
 Henry V ., and he is depicted as being on terms of 
 easy familiarity with the King. 
 
 11 Among his thousand characters," says Froude, 
 11 there is not one which Shakespeare has sketched 
 more tenderly or with a more loving and affectionate 
 irony." Fluellen is the most prominent figure of 
 an interesting group of captains Welsh, Scotch, 
 and Irish which the poet may well have intro- 
 duced in order to promote the cause of national 
 unity by representing the four nations of the 
 kingdom as sharing in the glories of a campaign 
 which had for its triumphant termination the 
 immortal victory of Agincourt. It is true that 
 relations between the four representatives are not 
 always perfectly harmonious, but, whatever their 
 personal differences, they are agreed to fight under 
 162 
 
"FLU ELLEN 
 
 the same flag. King Henry expresses his apprecia- 
 tion of the Welshman when he says : 
 
 For I do know Fluellen, valiant, 
 
 And touched with choler, hot as gunpowder, 
 
 And quickly will return an injury. 
 
 He is recognised as an authority on ticklish 
 points of honour; the King himself is glad to consult 
 him as an authority on such matters. Defending 
 his honour to a private soldier, who does not recog- 
 nise him, he wears the man's glove as a gage, giving 
 the man a glove of his own, the understanding 
 being that they will settle their quarrel after the 
 battle. Fluellen is appealed to: is the soldier to 
 keep his word, no matter what the quality of his 
 opponent ? 
 
 King Henry. What think you, Captain Fluellen : is it fit 
 this soldier keep his oath? 
 
 Fluellen. He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your 
 majesty, in my conscience. 
 
 King Henry. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great 
 sort, quite from the answer of his degree. 
 
 Fluellen. Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, 
 as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your 
 grace, that he keep his vow, and his oath: if he be perjured, 
 see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a 
 Jack-sauce as ever his black shoe trod upon God's ground and 
 his earth, in his conscience, la. 
 
 It has been suggested that Sir David Gam was 
 the prototype of Fluellen, but there seems to be 
 
 163 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 little warrant for this assumption. Sir David 
 Gam is mentioned only in the list of the " English 
 dead." If Shakespeare had had the Brecon Welsh- 
 man in his mind in creating the character of 
 Fluellen he would hardly have omitted some 
 reference to the tradition that credits the Welsh 
 Knight with having been instrumental in saving 
 the King's life. Moreover, we may confidently 
 assume that Sir David Gam's quaint report on the 
 force and position of the enemy, " There is enough 
 to be killed, enough to be taken, and enough to 
 run away," would have formed a subject of comment 
 by the King, and the heroic end of Gam and his 
 companions would hardly have been omitted.* 
 
 If the character was sketched from life, Shake- 
 speare's model was more probably Sir Roger 
 Williams, an intrepid Welshman and soldier of 
 fortune, who fought in the armies of Queen Eliza- 
 beth and Henry of Navarre. A writer in the 
 
 * Eighteen French knights banded themselves together 
 to kill the English King. Gam, with two companions, frus- 
 trated the attempt. Tradition says that the three heroes 
 accounted for fourteen of the enemy, but were themselves slain. 
 If Shakespeare had this incident in mind it may account for 
 Henry's suspicion when he sees a party of horsemen on a hill 
 in Act IV., Scene 7. But in Act IV., Scene 8, when Henry is 
 given a list of the dead, he reads " Davy Gam, esquire," without 
 comment, which seems to argue that the incident had escaped 
 the poet. 
 
FLUELLEN 
 
 Welsh Outlook for March, 1915 (Chapter IV.) tells 
 us that " a few years before Shakespeare wrote 
 his King Henry V. there had died in London a 
 Welshman whose name was a household word to 
 every member of the theatre, and whose character 
 presents some very remarkable similarities to that 
 of Fluellen. Sir Roger Williams was one of the 
 most daring and picturesque knights of the sword 
 that even that country which has produced an 
 Owen Lawgoch and a Picton can boast of. . . . 
 He was born at Penrhos in Monmouthshire, and in 
 this connection it is impossible not to recall Fluel- 
 len 's eulogy of the Wye, and the terms of his ad- 
 miration for King Henry. " 
 
 Like Fluellen, Sir Roger Williams " was of an 
 impulsive, choleric, courageous nature/' but yet 
 as ready as that lovable champion of the leek to 
 end his many quarrels and duels amicably. 
 
 Fluellen is a great stickler for the " rules and 
 disciplines of the war/' and Captain Gower is his 
 boon companion, because he is " literatured in the 
 wars." The Welsh captain refuses to yield, in 
 his knowledge of the proper methods of warfare, 
 even to the Duke of Gloucester himself. " Tell 
 you the Duke," he observes to Captain Gower, 
 who has brought a message from Gloucester, 
 " it is not good to come to the mines, for, look you, 
 
 165 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 the mines is not according to the disciplines of the 
 war." 
 
 When Captain Gower mentions that the Duke, 
 to whom the order of the siege has been given, 
 is altogether directed by Captain Macmorris, we 
 learn that Fluellen has no great opinion of the 
 Irish captain ; after close observation the Welshman 
 has come to the conclusion that " he is an ass, as 
 in the world ... he has no more directions in the 
 true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman 
 disciplines, than is a puppy-dog."* 
 
 Of Captain Jamy, the Scotsman, he has a very 
 much better opinion, for the Scotsman, " a mar- 
 vellous falorous gentleman," can " maintain his 
 argument as any military man in the world, in the 
 disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans." 
 
 The Scotsman exhibits all the national love of 
 dialectics, but is as willing to listen to the arguments 
 of others. " I wad full fain heard some question 
 between you tway," he tells Fluellen and Macmorris. 
 The Irishman, although a courageous soldier, is 
 touchy and impatient of argument, making the 
 excuse that " the day is hot, and the weather, 
 and the wars, and the king, and the duke," and 
 ft the town is beseeched," and " the trumpet calls." 
 Captain Jamy declares that he intends to do his 
 
 * This is the only Irish character created by. Shakespeare. 
 1 66 
 
FLU ELLEN 
 
 duty before he sleeps, " ay, or go to death "; but 
 he would be glad to hear a debate between the 
 Welshman and the Irishman. Thus encouraged, 
 Fluellen proceeds, addressing Captain Macmorris: 
 ' I think, look you, under correction, there is not 
 
 many of your nation " But the peppery 
 
 Macmorris sees a covert insult in this reference 
 to his nation, and declares that the man who talks 
 of his nation is " a villain, and a bastard, and a 
 knave, and a rascal." 
 
 Fluellen becomes dangerously polite. " Look 
 you," he says, " if you take the matter otherwise 
 than is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure 
 I shall think you do not use me with that affa- 
 bility as in discretion you ought to use me, look 
 you, being as good a man as yourself, both in the 
 disciplines of wars, and in the derivation of my 
 birth, and in other particulars." Macmorris denies 
 that Fluellen is as good a man as himself, " so 
 Crish save me, I will cut off your head "; but the 
 trumpet sounds in time to break off the quarrel. 
 
 Later in the play are passages between the 
 swaggering Pistol and Fluellen. Pistol, knowing 
 that Fluellen is in favour with the Duke of Exeter, 
 beseeches him to intervene on behalf of Bardolph, 
 who has stolen a pyx out of a church, and is con- 
 demned to be hanged as a discouragement to 
 
 167 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 looters; but Fluellen's respect for discipline is proof 
 against all personal blandishments, and he declares 
 definitely and emphatically that "if he were his 
 brother " he would not under the circumstances 
 ask for his reprieve, " for discipline ought to be 
 used." 
 
 Pistol's ire is aroused, and he expresses a hope 
 that Fluellen may " die and be damn'd." This 
 insult is not lost on Fluellen, for, turning to Captain 
 Gower, who is a spectator of the scene, he observes 
 significantly: "It is very well; what he has spoke 
 to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is 
 
 serve." 
 
 How the time served we learn in Act V., 
 Scene i. 
 
 King Henry, while proceeding on a tour of in- 
 spection incognito, shows his friendship for Fluellen 
 in an interesting passage with Pistol. 
 
 Pistol. What is thy name ? 
 
 K. Hen. Harry le Roy. 
 
 Pist. Le Roy ! a Cornish name : art thou of Cornish crew ? 
 
 K. Hen. No, I am a Welshman. " 
 
 Pist. Know'st thou Fluellen ? 
 
 K. Hen. Yes. 
 
 Pist. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate 
 Upon Saint Davy's day. 
 
 K. Hen. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that 
 day, lest he knock that about yours. 
 
 Pist. Art thou his friend ? 
 
 K. Hen. And his kinsman too. 
 
 168 
 
FLU ELLEN 
 
 Pist. The figo for thee, then ! 
 
 K. Hen. I thank you : God be with you 1 
 
 Pist. My name is Pistol call'd. [Exit. 
 
 K. Hen. It sorts well with your fierceness. 
 
 Immediately following upon this Fluellen and 
 Gower appear upon the scene, and the King, hearing 
 Fluellen 's admonition to Gower to " speak lower " 
 in the presence of the enemy, exclaims, in an ad- 
 miring aside : 
 
 Though it appear a little out of fashion, 
 
 There is much care and valour in this Welshman. 
 
 If there is one virtue more than another that 
 Fluellen possesses it is his intense loyalty to his 
 King. His admiration for Henry is indeed so great 
 that he does not hesitate to compare him with 
 the most famous military leader in the history of 
 the world. This ingenious comparison occurs in 
 a conversation between Fluellen and Gower. King 
 Henry was born at Monmouth, says the admiring 
 Fluellen; "Alexander the Pig" was born in 
 Macedon. If Captain Gower will only look at the 
 maps of the world he will find the situations, " look 
 you," both alike. There is a river in Macedon, 
 and " there is also, moreover, a river at Monmouth." 
 The river at Monmouth is called the Wye, but 
 Fluellen has forgotten the name of the Macedonian 
 river. However, that is of no importance; the 
 
 169 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 point is that they are both alike, and " there is 
 salmons in both." Moreover, while Alexander, 
 " being a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in 
 his ales and his angers, look you, kill his pest friend, 
 Cleitus ... so Harry Monmouth, being in his 
 right wits and his good judgments, turned away 
 the fat knight with the great belly-doublet " 
 namely, Falstaff. " I tell you," he concludes 
 triumphantly, " there is goot men porn at Mon- 
 mouth." 
 
 In the dramatic scene before Agincourt, when the 
 King learns that the French have been defeated, 
 the patriotic Fluellen remembers the services of 
 the Welsh in a previous battle, and at the same 
 time explains the origin of the leek as a national 
 emblem. 
 
 Montjoy. The day is yours. 
 
 K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it 1 
 What is this castle call'd that stands hard by ? 
 
 Mont. They call it Agincourt. 
 
 K. Hen. Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 
 Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 
 
 Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please 
 your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack Prince 
 of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most 
 prave pattle here in France. 
 
 K. Hen. They did, Fluellen. 
 
 Flu. Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is 
 remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden 
 where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, 
 
 170 
 
FLU ELLEN 
 
 which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable 
 badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no 
 scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day. 
 
 K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour; 
 For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 
 
 Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's 
 Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that : God pless 
 it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his 
 majesty too ! 
 
 K. Hen. Thanks, good my countryman. 
 
 Flu. By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care 
 not who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I need not 
 to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be God, so long as 
 your majesty is an honest man. 
 
 K. Hen. God keep me so ! 
 
 In the incident of the glove Fluellen again shows 
 his loyalty to his King, but he does not rise to the 
 full height of his greatness until we come to the 
 scene in Act V. in which he vindicates the honour 
 of his native land by making Pistol devour the leek 
 which he had so frequently disparaged. The scene 
 is an English camp in France. 
 
 Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER. 
 
 Gow. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? 
 Saint Davy's day is past. 
 
 Flu. There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in 
 all things: I will tell you, asse my friend, Captain Gower: 
 the rascally, scauld, beggarly, pragging knave, Pistol, which 
 you and yourself and all the world know to be no petter than 
 a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is come to me and 
 prings me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat 
 my leek: it ,was in a place where I could not breed no con- 
 
 171 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 tention with him ; but I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap 
 till I see him once again, and then I will tell him a little piece 
 of my desires. 
 
 Enter PISTOL. 
 
 Gow. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. 
 
 Flu. Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks. 
 God pless you, Aunchient* Pistol ! you scurvy knave, God 
 pless you ! 
 
 Pist. Ha ! art thou Bedlam ? dost thou thirst, base Trojan, 
 To have me fold up Parca's fatal web ?f 
 Hence ! I am qualmish at the smell of leek. 
 
 Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurvy knave, at my desires, 
 and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek : 
 because, look you, you do not love it, nor your affections 
 and your appetites and your disgestions doo's not agree with 
 it, I would desire you to eat it. 
 
 Pist. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats. 
 
 Flu. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] Will you 
 be so good, scauld knave, as eat it ? 
 
 Pist. Base Trojan, thou shalt die.J 
 
 Flu. You say very true, scauld knave, when God's will is: 
 I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals : 
 come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes him.] You called me 
 yesterday mountain-squire; but I will make you to-day a 
 squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to: if you can mock a 
 leek, you can eat a leek. . . . Bite, I pray you ; it is good for 
 your green wound and your ploody coxcomb. 
 
 Pist. Must I bite ? 
 
 Flu. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question 
 too, and ambiguities. 
 
 * Ancient = ensign. See Othello. 
 
 f The three fates were called Parccs in Latin. The one 
 who cut through the web of man's life was known as Atropos. 
 
 | According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Trojans were 
 the progenitors of the Welsh. This explanation seems to have 
 been missed by most commentators. 
 
 172 
 
FLU ELLEN 
 
 Pis/. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge : 
 
 I, eat and eat ? I swear 
 
 Flu. Eat, I pray you: will you have some more sauce to 
 your leek ? there is not enough leek to swear by. ... Nay, 
 pray you, throw none away; the skin is good for your 
 broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks 
 hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all. 
 
 Was Shakespeare, who evidently liked the Welsh, 
 annoyed by the manner in which the London popu- 
 lace jeered at the savoury emblem ? Did he wish 
 to read the " groundlings " a lesson? It is con- 
 ceivable ; why else, in an historical play, does he stop 
 the action for some six or eight minutes while 
 Fuellen teaches Pistol to respect the national 
 vegetable ? And why else should Captain Gower 
 point the moral in such definite terms ? 
 
 Pis/. All hell shall stir for this. 
 
 Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will 
 you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an honourable 
 respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased 
 valour and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words ? 
 I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice 
 or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English 
 in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English 
 cudgel: you find it otherwise; and henceforth let a Welsh 
 correction teach you a good English condition. Fare ye 
 well. [Exit. 
 
 We have seen elsewhere what various explana- 
 tions have been given of the wearing of the leek. 
 Dr. Owen Pughe suggests that it arose from the 
 practice of each farmer contributing his leek to 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 the common repast when they met at the Cym- 
 mortha, an association by which they gave one 
 another mutual assistance in ploughing the land. 
 
 The wearing of the leek appears to have become 
 a royal custom. In 1695 we read how William II. 
 wore a leek on St. David's Day " presented to him 
 by Sergeant Porter, who hath as perquisites all 
 the wearing apparel his majestie had on that day 
 even to his sword.' 1 
 
 Fluellen's confident bearing and outspokenness 
 in the presence of the King might seem strange to 
 an Englishman unacquainted with Welsh charac- 
 teristics; but Shakespeare had evidently noticed 
 a trait to which Giraldus Cambrensis calls attention 
 in his twelfth-century Description of Wales, that 
 " Nature hath given not only to the highest, but 
 also to the inferior classes of the people of this 
 nation, a boldness and confidence in speaking and 
 answering, even in the presence of their princes 
 and chieftains." (Book I., c. xv.) 
 
 '74 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HENRY VII. (THE FIRST TUDOR MONARCH) 
 
 THE list of the dramatis personce of the third part 
 of King Henry VI. includes the name of " Henry, 
 Earl of Richmond, a youth." In Act IV., Scene 6, 
 there is a gathering in a room in the Tower. 
 The King has just proposed to make Warwick 
 and Clarence protectors of his kingdom, since he 
 wishes to lead a retired life, " and in devotion 
 spend his latter days," when his gaze falls upon 
 Richmond, and the following colloquy takes 
 place between the monarch and the Duke of 
 Somerset : 
 
 King Henry. My Lord of Somerset, what youth is that, 
 Of whom you seem to have so tender care ? 
 
 \Somerset. My liege, it is young Henry, Earl of Richmond. 
 
 King Henry. Come hither, England's hope. [Lays his hand 
 
 on his head.] If secret powers 
 Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, 
 This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. 
 His looks are full of peaceful majesty, 
 His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown, 
 His hand to wield a sceptre, and himself 
 Likely, in time, to bless a regal throne. 
 Make much of him, my lords, for this is he, 
 Must help you more than you are hurt by me. 
 
 175 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 It is interesting to compare this passage with one 
 in Bacon's History of King Henry VII. " One 
 day," says Bacon, " when King Henry VI., whose 
 innocence gave him holiness, was washing his hands 
 at a great feast, he cast his eyes upon Henry VII., 
 then a young youth, and said, ' This is the lad that 
 shall possess quietly that we now strive for." 
 
 The subject of this prophecy was the son of 
 Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, the great- 
 grand-daughter of John of Gaunt by his third 
 wife Catherine Swynford. Richmond was thus 
 descended, on his father's side, from the Welsh 
 gentleman Owen Tudor, and on his mother's side 
 from Edward III. How the royal prophecy was 
 fulfilled becomes apparent during the progress of 
 the play of King Richard III. 
 
 Henry was born at Pembroke Castle in 1456. 
 His father died shortly before his birth, and he was 
 placed in the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor. His 
 early years were spent in the midst of danger, his 
 enemies constantly seeking his life. The news of 
 the murder of Prince Edward reached Jasper 
 Tudor at Tewkesbury, and he returned to Chepstow, 
 taking with him Henry Tudor, now heir to the 
 throne. At Chepstow they were unsuccessfully 
 attacked by the Yorkist, Roger Vaughan, and 
 retired to Pembroke Castle, where they were be- 
 
KING HENRY VII. 
 
 sieged, but finally escaped to Brittany, where 
 they remained for many years in exile. There 
 let us leave them awhile, for Chepstow has a curious 
 interest for the student of Shakespeare. Famous 
 in the border history of Wales, it is notorious for 
 the persistent search undertaken there by Dr. 
 Orville Owen, the American champion of the 
 Baconian theory. Dr. Owen declared that Bacon 
 had secreted full proofs of his authorship, and that 
 the supposed " cyphers " indicated the hiding- 
 place of the documents. As Owen read these 
 " cyphers," they referred him continually to a 
 place called Striguil as the spot where the docu- 
 ments were hidden. On coming to England he 
 learned that Striguil was a Norman corruption of 
 the Welsh Ystraigl, by which name Chepstow was 
 known to the early Welsh. Bacon, it was known, 
 had lived awhile at Chepstow as the guest of the 
 Earl of Pembroke. What more could a Baconian 
 ask ? Only the final proof ! During these visits 
 (the last in 1913), Dr. Owen spent hundreds of 
 pounds in damming the bed of the Wye (by per- 
 mission of the Duke of Beaufort) and excavating 
 sites expected to yield the supposed cache. 
 
 Chepstow, it should be remembered, was in 
 Henry's days in Wales. During the reign of his 
 son, Monmouthshire was declared an English 
 
 12 177 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 county for administrative purposes, but ecclesias- 
 tically it still remains in the diocese of Llandaff. 
 The life of Monmouthshire is even yet thoroughly 
 Welsh, so that Henry V. was most truly a Welsh- 
 man, by early training if not by blood. 
 
 In connection with Bacon, we may mention here 
 that Sir Hugh Evans' Hang, hog, and Mrs. Page's 
 11 Hang hog is Latin for bacon, I warrant you," 
 is claimed by Sir Edwin Burning- Lawrence, Bart., 
 as a part of the Baconian clue. The tale is told 
 by Bacon himself of how a prisoner named Hog 
 who had been condemned to death prayed for 
 mercy on the score of kindred. " Ay," replied 
 the Judge, " but you and I cannot be of kindred 
 unless you are hanged: for Hog is not Bacon till 
 it be well hanged." Nowhere has Lord Bacon 
 indicated in his acknowledged works that he knew 
 anything of Wales or the Welsh people, so that the 
 present volume may provide the Baconians with 
 an excuse for yet more tortuous ingenuity. 
 
 To return to the action of the play. The calami- 
 tous Wars of the Roses had resulted in the dethrone- 
 ment and ultimate assassination of Henry VI., 
 and the capture and beheading, at Hereford, of 
 Owen Tudor, who had actively espoused the Lan- 
 castrian cause. 
 
KING HENRY VII. 
 
 Richard , Duke of Gloucester, who (according to the 
 play) with his own hand murdered King Henry VI . 
 and plotted the deaths of the two young Princes 
 in the Tower, was the last of the Yorkist monarchs. 
 In the realisation of his ambitious dreams he 
 received vital assistance from the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, who was born at Brecon, the lordship of 
 which had fallen to the Stafford family after the 
 death of Sir David Gam. But after Richard's 
 triumph he felt that he owed too much to Bucking- 
 ham; and how he rewarded the unhappy Duke is 
 shown in the following scene, which also reveals 
 Richard's uneasy perception of the threatened 
 rivalry of Harry Tudor of Richmond : 
 
 Re-enter BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 Buck. My lord, I have consider 'd in my mind 
 The late demand that you did sound me in.* 
 
 K. Rich. Well, let that pass. Dorset is fled to Richmond. 
 
 Buck. I hear that news, my lord. 
 
 K. Rich. Stanley, he is your wife's son: well, look to it. 
 
 Buck. My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise, 
 For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd; 
 The earldom of Hereford and the moveables 
 The which you promised I should possess. 
 
 K. Rich. Stanley, look to your wife: if she convey 
 Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it. 
 
 Buck. What says your highness to my just request ? 
 
 * Richard had asked him to undertake the assassination 
 of the two young Princes. 
 
 179 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 K. Rich. As I remember Henry the Sixth 
 Did prophesy that Richmond should be king, 
 When Richmond was a little peevish boy. 
 A king, perhaps, perhaps, 
 
 Buck. My lord 1 
 
 K. Rich. How chance the prophet could not at that time 
 Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him ? 
 
 Buck. My lord, your promise for the earldom, 
 
 K. Rich. Richmond ! When last I was at Exeter, 
 The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle, 
 And call'd it Rougemont: at which name I started, 
 Because a bard of Ireland told me once, 
 I should not live long after I saw Richmond. 
 
 Buck. My lord ! 
 
 K. Rich. Ay, what's O'clock ? 
 
 Buck. I am thus bold to put your grace in mind 
 Of what you promised me. 
 
 K. Rich. Well, but what's o'clock ? 
 
 Buck. Upon 'the stroke of ten. 
 
 K. Rich. Well, let it strike. 
 
 Buck. Why let it strike ? 
 
 K. Rich. Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke 
 Betwixt thy begging and my meditation. 
 I am not in the giving vein to-day. 
 
 Buck. Why, then resolve me whether you will or no. 
 
 K. Rich. Tut, tut, 
 Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein. 
 
 [Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM 
 
 Buck. Is it even so ? rewards he my true service 
 With such deep contempt ? made I him king for this ? 
 O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone 
 To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on I [Exit. 
 
 That " fearful head " was not to be saved, for all 
 its fears. Fighting under the standard of Rich- 
 mond, Buckingham was captured by the Yorkists, 
 1 80 
 
KING HENRY VII. 
 
 and Richard, his erstwhile master, sent him to 
 the block without the slightest consideration for 
 his past services. 
 
 With the news of Richmond's rising the action 
 of the play of Richard III. quickens. Messengers 
 bring Richard news of anti- Yorkist defections in 
 various parts of the country, and the climax is 
 reached when Stanley appears. 
 
 K. Rich. How now, what news with you ? 
 
 Stan. None good, my liege, to please you with the 
 
 hearing ; 
 Nor none so bad, but it may well be told. 
 
 K. Rich. Heyday, a riddle ! neither good nor bad ! 
 Why dost thou run so many mile about, 
 When thou mayst tell thy tale a nearer way ? 
 Once more, what news ? 
 
 Stan. Richmond is on the seas. 
 
 K. Rich. There let him sink, and be the seas on him ! 
 White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there ? 
 
 Stan. I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess. 
 
 K. Rich. Well, sir, as you guess ? 
 
 Stan. Stirr'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Ely, 
 He makes for England, there to claim the crown. 
 
 K. Rich. Is the chair empty ? is the sword unsway'd ? 
 Is the king dead ? the empire unpossess'd ? 
 What heir of York is there alive but we ? 
 And who is England's king but great York's heir ? 
 Then, tell me, what doth he upon the sea ? 
 
 Stan. Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess. 
 
 K. Rich. Unless for that he comes to be your liege, 
 You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes. 
 Thou wilt revolt, and fly to him, I fear. 
 
 Stan. No, mighty liege; therefore mistrust me not. 
 
 181 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 And in Scene 5 of the same act we learn that 
 Richmond, long an exile in Brittany, has landed in 
 Wales. Lord Stanley, in whose house the scene is 
 laid, has heard that his son is a hostage. He is 
 alone with Urswick, who, on being asked what 
 followers the Tudor has, mentions the names of 
 three Welshmen. 
 
 LORD STANLEY'S House. 
 
 Stan. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me: 
 That in the sty of this most bloody boar 
 My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold: 
 If I revolt, off goes young George's head; 
 The fear of that withholds my present aid. 
 But, tell me, where is princely Richmond now ? 
 
 Chris. At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford-west, in Wales. 
 
 Stan. What men of name resort to him ? 
 
 Chris. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier; 
 Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley; 
 Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt, 
 And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew ; 
 And many more of noble fame and worth: 
 And towards London they do bend their course, 
 If by the way they be not fought withal. 
 
 Stan. Return unto thy lord; commend me to him: 
 Tell him the queen hath heartily consented 
 He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter. 
 These letters will resolve him of my mind. 
 Farewell. [Exeunt. 
 
 Richmond with his forces, which were largely 
 Welsh, marched through Pembrokeshire and 
 Cardiganshire, and encamped on Bosworth Field, 
 
 182 
 
KING HENRY VII. 
 
 where his rival was awaiting his coming. In the 
 scene which represents the camps of the two oppos- 
 ing forces on the eve of the encounter we witness 
 the troubled slumbers of Richard and the calm 
 serenity of the sleep of Richmond. 
 
 ' There is no creature loves me; and if I die no 
 soul shall pity me," exclaims the agonised Richard, 
 awaking from the terrible dreams in which his 
 victims reproach him and foretell his doom* But 
 Richmond passes the night in " the sweetest sleep 
 and fairest-boding dreams. " 
 
 Richmond is represented " as the chosen of 
 God," the " destined avenger of the iniquities of 
 Richard III."* That he so regards himself we gather 
 from the inspiring oration which he delivers to his 
 troops before the battle. 
 
 God and our good cause fight upon our side; 
 
 The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, 
 
 Like high-rear'd bulwarks, stand before our faces; 
 
 Richard except, those whom we fight against 
 
 Had rather have us win than him they follow : 
 
 For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen, 
 
 A bloody tyrant and a homicide; 
 
 One raised in blood, and one in blood establish'd; 
 
 One that made means to come by what he hath, 
 
 And slaughter'd those that were the means to help 
 
 him. 
 A base foul stone, made precious by the foil 
 
 * Newell. 
 
 183 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Of England's chair, where he is falsely set; 
 
 One that hath ever been God's enemy: 
 
 Then, if you fight against God's enemy, 
 
 God will in justice ward you as his soldiers. . . . 
 
 Then, in the name of God and all these rights, 
 
 Advance your standards, draw your willing swords. 
 
 God and Saint George ! Richmond and victory ! [Exeunt. 
 
 Then follows the defeat of Richard and the 
 crowning of Richmond on the field of battle; and 
 the new King, Henry VII., announces his intention 
 of espousing Elizabeth of York, and so ending the 
 civil strife between the Houses of York and Lan- 
 caster a marriage which had actually been arranged, 
 at Brecon, by Buckingham and the semi-captive 
 Bishop of Ely. 
 
 " Henry the Seventh, a Welshman leading a 
 Welsh army, had now become King of England. 
 The prophecy that a Welshman was to be King 
 of England, which had brought Llewellyn a crown 
 of ivy and which had deceived Glendower, was at 
 last fulfilled. The Welsh ceased to be rebels, and 
 they entered heartily into the new life of the period, 
 from its literature to its piracy " (Edwards). 
 
 Had Shakespeare dramatised the history of 
 King Henry VII. we might have been told, in 
 imperishable verse, of those remarkable events 
 some of the most remarkable in the history of the 
 world which occurred during the reign of the 
 first Tudor monarch. His own career was not 
 
 184 
 
KING HENRY VII. 
 
 eventful; his activities were not spectacular, im- 
 portant though they were, and we must not forget 
 that his legislative measures laid the foundations 
 of England's greatness, and earned him the title 
 of the " English Solomon "; but it was while he 
 was on the throne that the two Americas were 
 discovered, the sea route to India was opened, 
 printing was introduced into England, and the 
 revival of learning commenced, while British 
 merchants began to lay the foundations of the 
 future British Empire by trading with foreign 
 parts. 
 
 The loyalty of Wales to the English throne was 
 consolidated in the reign of King Henry VIII., 
 who in the preamble to his Act of Union between 
 England and Wales spoke of the singular love which 
 he had for the Welsh people. In the reign of 
 Elizabeth the bonds of union were drawn closer 
 still. Henry VIII ., although the possessor of many 
 of the virtues, as well as most of the less agreeable 
 characteristics, of the Welsh people, was essentially 
 an English Prince. We shall not, therefore, consider 
 the play of Henry VIII. as being one of those 
 which illustrate Shakespeare's opinions of the 
 Welsh nation, although it may be accepted as a 
 glorification of the Tudor monarchy. 
 
 185 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND "MR. W. H." 
 
 THERE are certain circumstances connected with 
 Shakespeare's Sonnets and their publication which 
 have a special interest for the Welsh reader. When 
 the theatres were closed, owing to the plague, 
 in 1592-93, Shakespeare, no longer absorbed by 
 his labours as dramatist of a busy theatrical com- 
 pany, made his first appeal to the reading public. 
 In 1593 he published Venus and Adonis, which was 
 dedicated to his friend and patron, Henry Wriothes- 
 ley, the third Earl of Southampton. In 1594 
 Lucrece made its appearance, and about this time 
 Shakespeare is assumed to have begun the writing 
 of his Sonnets. He did not print them then, how- 
 ever; until 1609 they remained in private circula- 
 tion. Meres, writing in 1598, speaks of Shake- 
 speare's " sugar 'd Sonnets among his private 
 friends," and two of the Sonnets figured in Jaggard's 
 Passionate Pilgrim, published in 1599. On May 
 20th, 1609," a book called Shakespeare's Sonnet tes " 
 was entered on the Stationers' Register by Thomas 
 Thorpe (who had served his apprenticeship with 
 1 86 
 
HIS "SONNETS' 9 AND "MR. W. H." 
 
 a printer named Richard Wat kins), and in the 
 same year the Quarto edition appeared, bearing 
 the title " Shakespeare's Sonnets. Never before 
 Imprinted At London by G. Eld for T. T. [Thomas 
 Thorpe], and to be solde by William Apsley, 1609." 
 It is believed that the publication took place with- 
 out the sanction of the author; at all events, the 
 dedication is not his, but Thorpe's. It runs as 
 follows : 
 
 TO THE ONLIE BEGETTER OF 
 
 THESE INSVING SONNETS 
 
 MR. W. H. ALL HAPPINESSE 
 
 AND THAT ETERNITE 
 
 PROMISED 
 
 BY 
 OVR EVER LIVING POET 
 
 WISHETH 
 
 THE WELL WISHING 
 
 ADVENTURER IN 
 
 SETTING 
 
 FORTH. 
 
 T. T. 
 
 Two controversies have arisen around the wording 
 of this dedication. The first of these is concerned 
 with the identification of " Mr. W. H." and the 
 second with the meaning to be ascribed to the word 
 ' begetter." Many notable Shakespearian scholars 
 are satisfied that " Mr. W. H." was intended to 
 refer to William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, 
 of the second creation, who was born in 1580 and 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 died in 1630, and that the word " begetter " was 
 used by Thorpe in the sense of " inspirer," the 
 inference being that Lord William Herbert was the 
 " sole inspirer "of the Sonnets. Sir Sidney Lee, how- 
 ever, is emphatically of opinion that the " W. H." 
 whom Thorpe desired to honour was a Mr. Wm. Hall, 
 a bookseller's assistant, who was professionally 
 engaged, like Thorpe, in procuring works for pub- 
 lication, and that the word " begetter " in the 
 dedication must be taken as meaning " procurer." 
 Two further suggestions have been made with 
 reference to the cryptic letters " W. H." One is 
 that they were intended as a covert allusion to 
 Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton 
 (the initials of his name having been purposely 
 transposed); and the other that they refer to Sir 
 William Hervey, the third husband of Southamp- 
 ton's mother. This latter suggestion is made by 
 Fleay, who adds: " She died in 1607, and I conjec- 
 ture that the delay in publishing the Sonnets was 
 due to the fact that she wished them to remain 
 in MS., at any rate during her lifetime, and the 
 copy used may have been found among her papers." 
 But this theory, like many of Fleay 's hypotheses, 
 is ingenious rather than plausible. 
 
 The Herbert theory was first advanced by James 
 Boaden, the biographer of Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, 
 
 188 
 
HIS "SONNETS" AND "MR. W. H." 
 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1832; but Hunter 
 claims that Bright had previously come to a similar 
 conclusion, and cites the following letter, addressed 
 to him by Bright: 
 
 " It is now more than thirteen years, in 1819, 
 since I detailed to you the progress of the discovery 
 I had made that William Herbert, third Earl of 
 Pembroke, was undoubtedly the person to whom 
 Shakespeare addressed his first 126 sonnets. 
 Another friend, Dr. Holme of Manchester, had been 
 informed of my secret a year earlier." 
 
 One prominent Welsh supporter of the Herbert 
 theory is Sir Owen M. Edwards, who writes, in his 
 Story of Wales : 
 
 " Sir Henry Sidney's famous children Philip 
 and Mary spent most of their childhood at Lud- 
 low. Mary married Henry, Earl of Pembroke, 
 and it was at their home at Wilton that Philip 
 Sidney wrote his Arcadia. Henry succeeded his 
 father-in-law and father as President of the Court 
 of Wales. He had shown already in a magnificent 
 feast at Cardiff that his policy was one of concilia- 
 tory moderation. Like his wife, he was a patron 
 of learning, and he threw himself with ardour into the 
 activity and hopes of that time of discovery of 
 worlds and truths. When the sixteenth century 
 came to an end Elizabeth was still wielding the 
 
 189 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 sceptre of England, and at the Court of Wales 
 there ruled Mary Herbert, whom Spenser de- 
 scribed as ' the ornament of womankind,' whose 
 youthful beauty Shakespeare saw mirrored in her 
 son, and of whom Ben Jonson wrote : 
 
 Death ! ere thou hast slain another 
 Wise and fair and good as she, 
 Time shall throw a dart at thee." 
 
 The italics are ours. The allusion is to the fol- 
 lowing lines: 
 
 Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee 
 Calls back the lovely April of her prime. 
 
 It might be objected that there is no allusion : 
 that the mother is merely the third term in the 
 argument; but if no specific allusion had been 
 intended it would have been more natural at all 
 events, more logical to mention the father of the 
 person apostrophied. 
 
 ' If a number of the Sonnets principally 1-26," 
 says Elze " must absolutely be considered as 
 addressed to one of the two Earls, it would seem as 
 if there was more reason for supposing the subject 
 to have been the Earl of Pembroke than Southamp- 
 ton. The Earl of Pembroke was first of all a great 
 admirer and patron of poetry, to whom numerous 
 works and poems were dedicated (among others 
 Ben Jonson 's Catiline, 1616). That he was dis- 
 
 190 
 
HIS "SONNETS" AND "MR. W. H." 
 
 inclined to marry is proved by a letter of Rowland 
 White to Sir Robert Sidney (1599), where he says 
 of Pembroke, ' I don't find any disposition at all 
 in this gallant young Lord to marry.' Pembroke 
 was throughout his life considered a voluptuary. 
 Davies, too, in one of his Sonnets urges him to 
 marry (in Wit's Pilgrimage)" Pembroke finally 
 married in 1603. 
 
 Thomas Tyler, who reasoned on the same lines 
 as Boaden, agreed with Shaw, Harris, and other 
 modern writers in identifying the " dark lady " 
 of the second group of Sonnets as Mary Fitton, 
 a lady of Elizabeth's Court, who became the mistress 
 of the Earl of Pembroke. If we accept the con- 
 clusion of Wordsworth, that the Sonnets were 
 the key to Shakespeare's heart, and the identifica- 
 tion of the youth as Wm. Herbert and the " dark 
 lady " as Mistress Fitton, it follows that we find 
 in the Sonnets a real and tragic love-story, which 
 must have reacted on the poet's outlook on life. 
 The Sonnets are usually divided into two groups. 
 In the first group the poet beseeches a beautiful 
 youth to marry, in order that his youth and good 
 looks may be perpetuated in his children, and 
 makes many protestations of his devotion to the 
 object of his appeal. We then find that the youth 
 has won the affections of the poet's mistress in the 
 
 191 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 absence of the obscurer lover, and although the 
 poet forgives the double betrayal, he recognises 
 that he must now lose both friend and mistress- 
 In the second group he describes the lady as pos- 
 sessing a dark complexion and raven black hair and 
 eyes, and denounces her for having beguiled his 
 friend. Sir Sidney Lee, in rejecting the Fit ton 
 surmise, quotes the statement made by Lady New- 
 degate in her Gossip from a Muniment Room (1897) 
 that two well-preserved portraits of Mary Fitton 
 at Arbury show her to have been a lady of fair 
 complexion with brown hair and grey eyes. 
 
 The " Herbert " theorists furthermore claim 
 that the " punning " Sonnets indicate that the 
 name of Shakespeare's friend was the same as his 
 own. The first of these Sonnets is number cxxxv. 
 
 Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will, 
 And Will to boot, and Will in overplus. . . . 
 
 Sonnet cxxxvi. contains the lines: 
 
 If thy soul check thee that I come so near, 
 Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will. . . . 
 Make but my name thy love, and love that still, 
 And then thou lov'st me for my name is Will. 
 
 While Sonnet cxliii. concludes: 
 
 So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will, 
 If thou turn back, and my loud crying still. 
 
 The italics appear in the Quarto, and Tyrwhitt 
 suggests that the lines refer to a "Mr. William 
 192 
 
HIS "SONNETS" AND ''MR. W. H" 
 
 Hughes," as in the seventh line of the twentieth 
 sonnet in the first edition, the word "Hews" (hues) 
 is in italics, and begins with a capital : " A man of 
 hew, all Hews in his controwling." 
 
 In recent years the Herbert theory seems to have 
 secured the largest number of adherents. 
 
 William Jaggard, the publisher, in 1599 issued a 
 collection of poems bearing the title of " The 
 Passionate Pilgrim by W. Shakespeare." Only 
 two copies of this work are known to be in existence. 
 There are twenty poems in the volume, but the 
 experts have decided that only five are by Shake- 
 speare. These five are Nos. 1,2, 3, 5, and 16. The 
 four sonnets (Nos. 4, 6, 9, and n) are credited to 
 Bartholomew Griffin, who died in 1602. Mr. Pym 
 Yeatman's " Griffin Pedigree " shows him to have 
 been of Welsh descent and a cousin of Shakespeare. 
 We hear of him at Bidford in 1582. " There can 
 be little doubt," writes Mr. Yeatman, " that the 
 two poets, William Shakespeare and Bartholomew 
 Griffin, kept up their kinship in blood and in letters 
 both in Warwickshire and amongst the wits of 
 London, since their poems became so intermixed 
 that the true authorship was not properly known. 
 Griffin wrote some exquisite poetry . . . much 
 in the same style as that of William Shakespeare, 
 and the pirate publishers may almost be excused 
 
 13 193 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 for confounding them." As a matter of fact, his 
 verse may be distinguished from Shakespeare by 
 its very frankly sensuous and fleshly tone. 
 
 Bartholomew Griffin's collection of Sonnets, bear- 
 ing the title of " Fidessa more Chaste than Kind," 
 was printed in 1596 "by the Widow Orwin for 
 Matthew Lownes," and is dedicated " To the most 
 kind and virtuous Gentleman Master William 
 Essex of Lamebourne in the County of Berkshire] 
 Esquire." Of Bartholomew Griffin Mrs. Stopes 
 writes: " He might have been one of the Griffins 
 of Dingley, or the son of Mr. Ralph Griffin, the 
 preacher of Warwick, who went out with the Town 
 Council to meet the Queen in her progress thither 
 in 1571, preached a sermon on * Christian War- 
 fare,' and gave her some Latin verses. The Queen 
 ' caused her coach to be opened every part and side 
 that they might see her.' The people let off fire- 
 works in their rejoicing, which burned four houses 
 to the ground and caused great consternation. 
 After great sport at Kenilworth she went to Charle- 
 cote, to the Lord Compton, on her return, an 
 occasion on which Stratford would doubtless pour 
 forth to meet her." If Shakespeare was one of 
 the spectators he was only seven years of age. 
 It is more likely that his first sight of Elizabeth 
 would have been at Kenilworth in 1575. 
 194 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S " PUCK " AND THE WELSH 
 " PWCCA " 
 
 THERE was formerly a very real and widespread 
 belief in fairies among the people of Wales, and the 
 belief still lingers in some of the more rural parts 
 of the Principality. Many were the tales told from 
 village to village of little sprites seen dancing in 
 the meadows on moonlight nights, and the Tylwyth 
 Teg, or fairy family, was regarded with mingled 
 feelings of affection and awe. There were good 
 fairies and bad fairies, but there was also another 
 kind of fairy, neither good nor bad, but simply 
 mischievous, and him the old Welsh people knew 
 as Pwcca. In Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer 
 Night's Dream, we have a " merry wanderer of the 
 night' 1 who is given the name of "Puck." 
 
 That frights the maidens of the villagery; 
 Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, 
 And bootless make the breathless housewife churn, 
 And sometime make the drink to bear no barm, 
 Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm. . . . 
 
 195 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 It may be noted, too, that there is a pauky in 
 Scotland, a pooca in Ireland, and in Iceland where 
 many Irish bards either settled, or were taken as 
 prisoners there is a puki. 
 
 We are told that Shakespeare was the first to 
 use the general term of " Puck " as a proper name, 
 and some Welshmen of letters claim that Shake- 
 speare's ' Puck " was suggested by the little 
 Welsh fairy Pwcca. In his British Goblins Wirt 
 Sikes states the case for Pwcca so concisely that 
 we cannot do better than quote his arguments : 
 
 " Shakespeare's use of Welsh folklore, it should 
 be noted, was extensive, and particularly faithful. 
 Keightly, in his Fairy Mythology, rates the bard 
 soundly for his inaccurate use of fairy mythology. 
 But the reproach will not apply as regards Wales. 
 From his Welsh informant Shakespeare got Mab, 
 which is simply the Cymric for a little child, and the 
 root of numberless words signifying ' babyish, 
 childish, love of children (Mabgar), kitten (Mabgath), 
 prattling (Mabrarth),' and, most notable of all, of 
 ' Mabinogion.' ' Proceeding, the same writer 
 remarks: " There is a Welsh tradition to the effect 
 that Shakespeare received his knowledge of Cam- 
 brian fairies from his friend Richard Price, son 
 of Sir John Price of the Priory, Brecon. It is even 
 claimed that Cwm Pwcca, or Puck Valley, a part 
 
 196 
 
HIS "PUCK" AND THE WELSH "PWCCA" 
 
 of the romantic glen of the Clydach in Breconshire, 
 is the original scene of the Midsummer Night's 
 Dream, a fancy as light and airy as Puck himself. 
 Anyhow, there Cwm Pwcca is, and in the sylvan 
 days before Frere and Powell's ironworks were 
 set up there it is- said to have been as full of goblins 
 as a Methodist's head is full of piety. And there 
 are in Wales other places bearing like names, where 
 Pwcca 's pranks are well remembered by old inhabi- 
 tants. The range given in Wales to the popular 
 fancy is expressed with fidelity by Shakespeare's 
 words in the mouth of Puck : 
 
 I'll follow you, I'll lead you about, around, 
 
 Through bog, through bush, through brake, through 
 
 briar. 
 
 Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, 
 A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; 
 And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn 
 Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn." 
 
 In this connection it is curious to note that in 
 one of the later poems of Welsh mediaeval litera- 
 ture Gwion Bach transforms himself into a hare, 
 a bird, a fish, and a grain of wheat; while 
 similar transformations occur in early Irish 
 poetry. 
 
 According to a letter written by the poet Camp- 
 bell to Mrs. Fletcher in 1833, and published in her 
 autobiography, it was thought that Shakespeare 
 
 197 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 visited the valley of Cwm Pwcca in person. ' It 
 is no later than yesterday," wrote Campbell, "that 
 I discovered a probability, almost near a certainty, 
 that Shakespeare visited friends in the very town 
 (Brecon in Wales) where Mrs. Siddons was born, 
 and that he there found in a neighbouring glen 
 called ' The Valley of Fairy Puck ' the principal 
 machinery for his Midsummer Night's Dream." 
 Campbell's probability, unfortunately for us, 
 does not appear to have materialised into a 
 certainty. 
 
 In this connection Sir Sidney Lee remarks 
 (July 5th, 1917): " I have not been able so far to 
 discover any foundation for the statement that 
 Richard Price of Brecon was a friend of Shake- 
 speare. The allegation seems to rest on no more 
 obvious basis than that which makes, the drama- 
 tist's mother of Welsh descent." As we have 
 seen, however, it was from his father that he 
 derived the Welsh blood that flowed in his veins. 
 
 The theory of Shakespeare's supposed connection 
 with Brecon seems to have originated with the 
 Breconshire county historian, Theophilus Jones, 
 who was influenced by the fact that one Hugh 
 Evans, who was Rector of Merthyr Cynog in 
 Breconshire, and whose executor was Mr. Richard 
 Price of the Priory, Brecon, bore the same name as 
 
 198 
 
HIS " PUCK" AND THE WELSH " PWCCA " 
 
 the schoolmaster-parson in the Merry Wives of 
 Windsor (see Chapter IV., p. 53). " Carnhuanawc " 
 (the Rev. Thomas Price), author of Hanes 
 Cymry, was much with Theophilus Jones in his 
 youth, and communicated this idea to Thomas 
 Campbell, who had some correspondence with the 
 Rev. Thomas Price when writing his Life of Mrs. 
 Siddons. (The celebrated actress was born in 
 1 755 at a house in High Street, Brecon, now known 
 as the Siddons Wine Vaults, but then called the 
 Shoulder of Mutton.) 
 
 Fleay, in his Chronicle History of the Life and 
 Work of William Shakespeare, speaking of the first 
 quarto of the Merry Wives of Windsor, tells us 
 that Sir Hugh Evans in the fairy scene appears 
 as " Puck Hobgoblin " in black. " The prefixes 
 Qu.y Qui. y and Pist." he says, " are mistakes for 
 Queen and Puck. Pistol and Quickly cannot be 
 actors in this scene, nor in the entrance are they 
 placed with 'Evans, Anne Page, Fairies/ but at 
 the ends of the second and third lines, as if by 
 after-thought . All the Pistol fairy speeches belong 
 to Evans (Puck). There seems to have arisen 
 some confusion in the final revision when this scene 
 was probably altered/' 
 
 In the modern versions of the play, Anne Page, 
 as the Fairy Queen, calls upon " crier Hobgoblin " 
 
 199 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 to " make the fairy o-yes," and the speech of Hob- 
 goblin which is interrupted by FalstafFs aside- 
 is continued by Evans. But in the middle of the 
 scene Hobgoblin and Evans have one line of verse 
 divided between them. This looks as if Hobgoblin 
 was originally a separate character, especially as 
 Evans is described as a Satyr. Query : who takes 
 the part of Hobgoblin ? William, apparently. It 
 is by no means clear that Fleay is right in saying 
 that confusion has arisen in the final revision; 
 yet it is certainly curious that both Hobgoblin 
 and Evans act as the fairy crier. 
 
 The music of the Tylwyth Teg has been variously 
 described by those who claim to have heard it, 
 but usually with much vagueness, as " a sweet 
 intangible harmony, recalling the words of Caliban 
 in The Tempest (Act III., Scene 3)" 
 
 The isle is full of noises, 
 Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. 
 
 In A Winter's Tale an essentially Celtic note is 
 struck. The old Shepherd, in Act III., Scene 2, 
 declares : 
 
 This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so; 
 Up with't, keep it close ; home, home, the next way. 
 We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires nothing 
 but secrecy. 
 
 200 
 
HIS "PUCK" AND THE WELSH " PWCCA " 
 
 We have here, as Sikes points out, a traditional 
 belief of the Welsh peasantry in a nutshell. Welsh, 
 Cornish, and Irish fairy lore is full of stories of the 
 fairy gold that vanishes, or turns to withered 
 leaves, if the condition of secrecy is not observed 
 by the finder. 
 
 201 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CONTEMPORARY WELSH PRINTERS AND 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 SIXTEEN of Shakespeare's plays were printed 
 during his lifetime, but Shakespeare had no hand 
 in their publication. As explained in Chapter II., 
 the printing of plays was regarded by the share- 
 holders in theatrical ventures as inimical to the 
 interests of the stage. Publishers, however, were 
 not, in Shakespeare's days, hampered by restric- 
 tions as to copyright; they accordingly printed 
 successful plays when they could obtain copies, 
 whether from actors or from shorthand writers 
 who attended the performances in order to obtain 
 the text. In 1600 the first quarto of The Merchant 
 of Venice was published. It was issued from the 
 press of a Welsh printer named James Roberts, 
 who had a printing-house in the Barbican. In 
 the same year he published also the second quarto 
 of Titus Andronicus, and in 1604 the second quarto 
 of Hamlet. For nearly twenty years Roberts 
 enjoyed the privilege of printing the " players' 
 bills " and programmes, and must almost certainly 
 202 
 
WELSH PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
 
 have come into contact with Shakespeare in a busi- 
 ness capacity. In 1606 Roberts' printing business 
 was acquired by William Jaggard, the publisher 
 of The Passionate Pilgrim ; and it was from the 
 press of Roberts, thus acquired, that William 
 Jaggard, with two of Shakespeare's friends and 
 fellow-actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, 
 issued, in 1623, the celebrated First Folio, or first 
 edition of Shakespeare's collected plays. In 1619 
 Jaggard published reprints of A Midsummer 
 Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice, but he 
 antedated them by nineteen years, and gave the 
 name of the printer as James Roberts. On the title 
 page of each of these reprinted quartos was the same 
 engraved device as that employed by Roberts 
 a carnation with the Welsh motto " Heb Ddieu: 
 Heb Ddim " (Without God: without anything). 
 It has been discovered that this device was first 
 used by a London printer named Richard Jones 
 about the year 1592. When Jones ceased to use 
 it is not definitely known, but it passed into the 
 possession of William Jaggard, who used it in 
 1610, and in whose printing-house it was afterwards 
 employed up to the time of the Civil War by himself 
 and his successors, the Cotes family. Mr. Harry 
 Farr, the Chief Librarian at Cardiff, who has been 
 investigating the history of this device, has found 
 
 203 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 that after the Civil War it was occasionally used 
 by the Cotes family and their successors, and in 
 the early years of the eighteenth century it was 
 employed by Edward Powell, another Welshman, 
 on the title page of the first edition of Ellis Wynne's 
 Bardd Cwsg. In the panels of the device appear 
 the letters R. I. (indicating Richard Jones). 4< The 
 Roberts Jaggard-Cotes and Clark Press," writes 
 Mr. Farr, " was founded by John Charlewood at 
 the sign of the Half Eagle and Key in the Barbican 
 about 1562, and it easily surpasses in interest and 
 continuity every other concerned in the printing 
 of the works of Shakespeare." 
 
 Gollancz gives a number of interesting details 
 regarding the first and second quartos of Hamlet. 
 The authorised text of Hamlet, he tells us, is based 
 upon (i) the quarto edition printed in the year 
 1604 by James Roberts, and (2) the First Folio 
 version of 1623. The 1604 edition is generally 
 known as the Second Quarto, to distinguish it from 
 a remarkable production of the previous year 
 " printed for N. L. and John Trundell." The 
 printer's name is not given, but the following 
 entry appeared in the Stationers' Register under 
 the date 1602, " xxvj. to Juli j.": 
 
 " James Robertes entered for his Copie vnder 
 the handes of Master Pasfield and master Waterson 
 
 204 
 
WELSH PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
 
 Warden A booke called ' the Revenge of HAMLETT 
 Prince [of] Denmarke* as yt was lateli Acted by the 
 Lord Chamber ley ne his servantes . . . vjd." 
 
 James Roberts, who was the printer of the 
 1604 edition, may also have been in Professor 
 Gollancz' opinion the printer of the quarto of 
 1603, and this entry may have referred to the 
 projected publication. On the other hand, this 
 entry may have been made by Roberts in order to 
 secure the play for himself, and some <l inferior 
 and nameless " printer may have anticipated him 
 by the publication of an imperfect, surreptitious, 
 and garbled version, which impudently offered 
 as Shakespeare's such wretched stuff as this : 
 
 To be, or not to be, I there's the point, 
 To Die, to sleepe, is that all: I all ? 
 No, to sleepe, to dream I mary there it goes, 
 For in that dreame of death, when wee awake, 
 And borne before an e'erlasting Judge; 
 From whence no passenger ever return'd, 
 The undiscovered country, at whose sight 
 The happy smile and the accursed damn'd. 
 
 In all probability the shorthand notes of an 
 incompetent stenographer, taken during the per- 
 formance of the play, formed the basis of the 
 printer's " copy " of the 1603 quarto. 
 
 Among the quarto editions of non-Shakespearian 
 plays performed by Shakespeare's company are 
 
 205 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 the following, which were entered in the Stationers' 
 Register : 
 
 1 593-94- January 7: Entered for R. Jones A 
 Knack to Know a Knave. 
 
 (A date between 1595 and 1599). Entered for 
 W. Jones Mucedorus. 
 
 1600. May 27: Entered for J. Roberts Cloth 
 breeches and velvet hose. 
 
 1600. May 29 : Entered for J. Roberts Alarum to 
 London. 
 
 In the year 1600 a publisher of music named 
 Robert Jones (whose name suggests a Welsh origin) 
 issued a First Booke of Songs and Ay res, and in 
 the collection is a concerted vocal piece with lute 
 accompaniment entitled " Corydon's Farewell to 
 Phillis." The words of the song are not by Shake- 
 speare, but they are sung, with various alterations 
 in the words, by Sir Toby Belch and the Clown 
 in their drunken scene in Twelfth Night (Act II., 
 Scene 3) as follows: 
 
 Malvolio. Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My lady 
 bade me tell you, that though she harbours you as her kinsman, 
 she's nothing ally'd to your disorders. If you can separate 
 your selfe and your misdemeanours, you are welcome to the 
 house; if not, and it would please you to take your leave of 
 her, she is very willing to bid you farewell. 
 
 Sir Toby. Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone. 
 
 Maria. Nay, good Sir Toby. 
 
 Clown. His eyes do show his days are almost done. 
 
 2O6 
 
WELSH PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
 
 Malvolio. Is't even so ? 
 
 Sir Toby. But I will never die. 
 
 Clown. Sir Toby, there you lie. 
 
 Malvolio. This is much credit to you. 
 
 Sir Toby. Shall I bid him go ? 
 
 Clown. What, and if you do ? 
 
 Sir Toby. Shall I bid him go, and spare not ? 
 
 Clown. O no, no, no, no, you dare not. 
 
 Sir Toby. Out o' time, sir ? ye lye. Art any more than a 
 steward ? Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there 
 shall be no more cakes and ale ? 
 
 The first two of the five stanzas may be given 
 to illustrate the text: 
 
 Corydon's Farewell to Phillis. 
 
 Farewell, dear love, since thou wilt needs be gone, 
 Mine eyes do show my life is almost done. 
 
 Nay, I will never die 
 
 So long as I can spie 
 
 There be many mo' 
 
 Tho' that she do goe, 
 There be many mo', I fear not, 
 Why then let her goe, I care not. 
 
 Farewell, farewell ; since this I find is true, 
 I will not spend more time in wooing you ; 
 
 But I will seek elsewhere 
 
 If I may find love there. 
 
 Shall I bid her goe ? 
 
 What an' if I doe ? 
 Shall I bid her goe and spare not ? 
 O no, no, no, no, I dare not. 
 
 Of Robert Jones's career very little is known. 
 Mr. W. Barclay Squire, in his introduction to 
 a reprint (published in 1901) of The Muses Gardin 
 
 207 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 for Delights : or the fift Booke of Ayres : Composed 
 by Robert Jones, is unable to tell us more of the 
 composer than that on April 29th, 1597, a grace 
 was passed for his degree of Mus.Bac. at Oxford, 
 in which it is stated that he studied music for 
 sixteen years, and was a member of St. Edmund's 
 Hall. In 1615 (according to Collier's Annals of 
 the Stage, 1879) a Privy Seal for patent was granted 
 Philip Rosseter, Philip Kingman, Robert Jones, 
 and Ralph Reeve, who had bought ground and 
 buildings near Puddle Wharf, Blackfriars, on 
 which to erect a theatre. The building which 
 the partners had acquired was " called by the name 
 of the Ladie Saunders House, or otherwise the 
 Porter's Hall," and was then in the occupation of 
 Robert Jones. The scheme met with great opposi- 
 tion, and when the building was nearly completed 
 the Lord Mayor, by the King's authority, ordered 
 that it should be made unfit for use as a theatre, 
 and the order was executed in three days' time. 
 
 In 1610 Shakespeare, Burbage, and their five 
 colleagues had come into possession of the Black- 
 friars Theatre, and were presumably inimical to 
 the attempt made by Robert Jones and his colleagues 
 to erect a rival theatre at Puddle Wharf, Black- 
 friars. 
 
 Among those to whom Jones dedicated his works 
 
 208 
 
WELSH PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
 
 were Henry, Prince of Wales, Robert Sidney, and 
 Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. The authorship 
 of Cory don and Phillis remains in doubt. There 
 is also a doubt as to the date of the first production 
 of Twelfth Night, and the question arises as to 
 whether it was produced before or after the issue 
 in 1600 of Robert Jones's Booke of Songs and 
 Ayres. The earliest appearance of the play in 
 print was in the First Folio of 1623, but Manning- 
 ham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, mentions 
 in his diary, under the date February 2nd, 1601-02, 
 that " at our feast we had a play called Twelue 
 Night, or What you Will." This is the earliest 
 definite evidence we have of the production of the 
 play, but Shakespearian investigators have col- 
 lected several items of collateral significance. A 
 Latin version of the Italian play from which Shake- 
 speare obtained the central idea of Twelfth Night 
 was produced at Cambridge in 1590 and 1598, 
 while an Italian company may have produced 
 the original at Windsor in 1 577-78. An interesting 
 article on Shakespeare's knowledge of Italy and 
 Italian, by Sir Edward Sullivan, in the Nineteenth 
 Century and After for February, 1918, proves con- 
 clusively that Twelfth Night was based on GV Ingan- 
 nati, produced in Siena in 1531, and brought to 
 England by Italian players. This article is note- 
 
 14 209 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 worthy for showing how quickly and accurately 
 Shakespeare assimilated facts relating to countries 
 which he had not visited. Even when he has been 
 held by many commentators to have made absurd 
 mistakes it now appears that he was right, and 
 they wrong. His knowledge of foreign languages, 
 etc., has been cited as a proof to be Irish that 
 he was Bacon. But this is absurd: on these lines 
 a critic of the future might claim that Kipling must 
 have been a soldier, sailor, member of the I.C.S., 
 engineer, aeronaut, painter, chemist, etc. Genius 
 is an infinite capacity for assimilation. 
 
 Mr. Morton Luce points out that in 1599 Sir 
 Robert Shirley returned from his embassy to the 
 Shah or Sophy of Persia, to which we find a 
 reference in Act II., Scene 5, of the play. In the 
 same year was printed the first edition of Morley's 
 Consort Lessons, which contained the song (believed, 
 however, to have been written by Shakespeare), 
 " O mistress mine, where are you roaming?" which 
 is sung by the Clown in Twelfth Night. The year 
 1599 also saw the publication of " the new map of 
 the Indies " bound up with copies of Hakluyt, 
 and evidently alluded to in Act III., Scene 2, of the 
 play. The words " bibble-babble " (Act IV., 
 Scene 2) might also have been taken from Dr. 
 Harsnet's Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of 
 210 
 
WELSH PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
 
 John Barrel (1599), where they are given some 
 prominence, and it is pointed out that in 1600 the 
 Privy Council issued an injunction which may 
 have prompted the anti-Puritanical allusions of 
 Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Act II., Scene 3, and 
 Act III., Scene 2. These topical allusions in the 
 play are regarded by some commentators as tending 
 to fix the date of the first production of the play 
 as the autumn of 1 599, but Welsh students incline 
 to the opinion that Robert Jones's musical setting 
 popularised the song, with the result that it at- 
 tracted the attention of Shakespeare. 
 
 211 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 WALES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BEFORE the coming of the Tudors, Wales was, 
 to the English, a hostile country. Peace ensued 
 with the Tudor accession, and the country 
 received a considerable degree of legislative relief 
 during the reign of Henry VIII., who practically 
 repealed all the former penal statutes by his Act 
 of Union between England and Wales. This Act 
 ordained that all Welshmen should have equal 
 rights and privileges with Englishmen ; that Welsh- 
 men and Englishmen, being equally the subjects of 
 the King, should rank equally before the laws of 
 the United Kingdom. The importance of this Act 
 to Welshmen will be better understood when we 
 take a glance at the provisions of some of the Acts 
 passed in the reign of Henry IV. By 2 Henry IV., 
 c. xii. (see A Picture of Wales during the Tudor 
 Period, Nevins), a full-blooded Welshman born in 
 Wales of a Welsh father and W T elsh mother might 
 not purchase lands or houses in certain mercantile 
 towns adjoining the marches, and no Welshman 
 might be harboured or received so as to become 
 212 
 
WALES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 a citizen or burgess of such town. In the same year 
 three more statutes were enacted providing that if 
 any Welshman should steal cattle from an English- 
 man and not return them within seven days after 
 demand the Englishman might take the law into 
 his own hands, and steal the Welshman's cattle. 
 By 2 Henry IV., c. xix., no Englishman could be 
 condemned at the suit of a Welshman in Wales 
 except by English justices, and by subsequent 
 Acts no Welshman was allowed to carry arms, or 
 possess cattle, or fortify his house, and no Welsh- 
 man could hold any kind of office, as lawyer, sheriff, 
 constable or the like. A great injustice affecting 
 women was also perpetrated by 4 Henry IV., 
 c. xxxiv., which ran as follows : " It is enacted that 
 no Englishman married to a Welsh woman either 
 friendly or allianced to Owen ap Glendowry, traitor 
 to our lord the king, or to any Welshwoman since 
 the rebellion of the said Owen, or who in time to 
 come shall be married to any Welshwoman, shall 
 be put into any office in Wales or in the marches 
 of the same." 
 
 All these iniquitous Acts were swept away by 
 King Henry VIII., who, being a Welshman himself, 
 strongly disapproved of them. 
 
 Wlien King Henry came to the throne, however, 
 there was still trouble in the marches of Wales. 
 
 213 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 " Neither life nor property was safe there/' writes 
 Finnemore (Social Life in Wales). " Sir John 
 Wynn, of Gwydir, in the County of Carnarvon, 
 was born in 1553, in the latter part of the Tudor 
 period. He wrote a book, in which he set down 
 things he remembered, and things he had been 
 told of the days before he was born. He shows us 
 Wales in the early part of the sixteenth century, 
 full of strife and disorder, in which every man 
 seemed to be against his neighbour, and battle, 
 murder, and sudden death were the ordinary events 
 of everyday life. The strife between kinsmen was 
 often far more savage and bitter than between 
 strangers, and Sir John tells us that when an ances- 
 tor left Eifionydd to settle in Vantconway, a district 
 swarming with robbers and fugitives from the law, 
 he explained his reasons for the change by saying 
 1 that he should find elbow room in that vast 
 country among the bondmen' [servants who had 
 fled from their lords], and that he had rather fight 
 with outlaws and thieves than with his own blood 
 and kindred, * for if I live in mine own house in 
 Eifionydd I must either kill my own kinsmen or 
 be killed by them.' Among these proud and 
 fiery Welshmen the motive of a murderous feud 
 was often of the most trifling nature. Nine times 
 out of ten it lay in a question of rank and dignity, 
 214 
 
WALES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 who should have the highest place at a feast, who 
 should have the right to the first good-morrows; 
 some matter, small in itself, but bringing to the 
 fore all the stiffness of family pride and the resolu- 
 tion to avenge an insult, whether real or fancied." 
 
 Toward the close of the Tudor period the spirit 
 of litigation obsessed the Welsh people, and there 
 was a continuous stream of litigants to Ludlow 
 to demand justice from the great court of Wales. 
 Luckily at that time there was a good man 
 and a lover of justice as President of the Court. 
 His name was Sir Henry Sidney, whose family 
 became closely associated with Wales. His 
 daughter Mary married Henry, Earl of Pembroke. 
 His son, Sir Philip Sidney, was " the jewel of 
 Elizabeth's reign," known to every schoolboy for 
 his conduct on the field of Zutphen, where he was 
 mortally wounded, and behaved with a chivalry 
 that made his name famous. His Arcadia 
 is one of our literary treasures. Sir Philip, we 
 learn from the Stradling Correspondence, was an 
 admirer of the Welsh harp, or, as it was quaintly 
 called, " the instrument with wyars." 
 
 " The fray of Montague and Capulet," says 
 Mr . W . Dircks , ' ' Shakespeare could draw from actual 
 scenes he witnessed in the streets of London." 
 He was living at the time of Lord Herbert of 
 
 215 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Cherbury's fierce encounter with Sir John Ayres 
 in Whitehall, and doubtless heard of it. 
 
 These were the days of duels and hare-brained 
 affrays and escapades, not only in London, but also 
 in Wales. For the details of one skirmish which 
 happened in South Wales in the lifetime of Shake- 
 speare, and which may be considered as typical 
 of others constantly occurring in the Principality, 
 we turn once more to Finnemore's interesting 
 work. 
 
 On Sunday, October pth, 1596, there was a great 
 affray at Llantwit Major, which shows how a 
 turbulent gentleman could keep a whole neighbour- 
 hood in terror of him. On that Sunday morning 
 two great families named Van and Seys, between 
 whom there was no love lost, went to service at 
 Llantwit Church. Edmund Van and his servants 
 arrived at church armed to the teeth; the Seys 
 family, not expecting trouble, had left their weapons 
 at home. When the Vans went into church they 
 found William Thomas, a servant of the Seys 
 family, seated in a pew alone, saying his prayers. 
 Perhaps William had got into a Van pew; perhaps 
 the Vans were only looking for an excuse to start 
 a disturbance, but two of the Van servants went 
 into the pew, caught hold of William Thomas, 
 and began to knock his head against the wall, 
 
 216 
 
WALES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 while Edmund Van stood in the aisle and remarked 
 severely: "Sirrah William Thomas, thou art a 
 saucy Jacke; that is not thy place." Peace, how- 
 ever, was made for the moment, and the service 
 went on. After church the Vans were the first 
 out and beset the great door, waiting for the Seys 
 people. There was a savage scuffle at the church 
 door, and the Vans attacked their enemies with 
 sword and dagger, driving them back into the 
 sacred building. The assailed party escaped from 
 the church by another door, and fled into the town 
 and took refuge in the house of Hopkin ap Rees. 
 The Vans marched through the town with weapons 
 drawn, creating a great uproar, abusing and beating 
 all who dared to resist them, and, in trying to 
 restore order, the parish constable was struck down 
 and severely wounded. As the constable lay on 
 the ground he heard Edmund Van coming up 
 to the place and shouting, " Kill him ! kill them 
 all !" The constable struggled to his feet, and 
 managed to gain the house of Hopkin ap Rees, 
 where he found shelter among the other fugitives. 
 The latter stood in the utmost danger until word 
 was sent to Sir Edward Stradling of St. Donats, 
 who gathered a strong force of well-armed retainers, 
 and came at their head to put down the riot and 
 drive away the Vans. 
 
 217 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 The records of the Court of Star Chamber, the 
 famous tribunal of Tudor times, give us other vivid 
 and striking pictures of feuds and encounters 
 among the Welshmen of the time. 
 
 The religious condition of Wales during the 
 Tudor period was very dark. " The gentry and the 
 wealthy," said Rev. Griffith Roberts, who wrote at 
 the time, " are without thought of faith in the 
 world "; but matters improved in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, who in 1 563 obtained the passing 
 of an Act of Parliament which ordered a translation 
 to be made into vernacular Welsh of the Old and 
 New Testaments, and also of the English Prayer 
 Book, under a heavy penalty for delay, amounting 
 (so Nevins informs us) to nearly a quarter of the 
 value of some of the Bishoprics. In the Preamble 
 to the Act Elizabeth explained that she did this 
 " that thereby Her Highness's most loving subjects, 
 understanding in their own language the terrible 
 and fearful threatenings of God against the wicked 
 and malefactors ; the pleasant and infallible promises 
 made to the elect and chosen flock with a just 
 order to rule and guide their lives according to the 
 Commandments of God, might much better learn 
 to love and fear their neighbours, which book 
 being received as a most precious jewel with un- 
 speakable joy of all such her subjects as did not 
 
 218 
 
WALES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 understand the English tongue, the which tongue 
 is not understanded by the greatest number of Her 
 Majesty's most loving and obedient subjects in- 
 habiting the country of Wales, who therefore are 
 utterly destituted of God's holy word and do remain 
 in the like or rather more darkness and ignorance 
 than they were in the time of the papistry; be it 
 therefore enacted that/ 1 etc. Elizabeth did for 
 Wales in this respect what no King or Queen has 
 ever done for Scotland or for Ireland. " In her 
 days/ 1 wrote Shakespeare, " God shall be truly 
 known.'' 
 
 219 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SCENES IN WHICH THE WELSH CHARACTERS 
 APPEAR 
 
 THE following chapter contains a synopsis of all 
 the scenes of Shakespeare's plays in which Welsh 
 characters (as apart from British or Celtic) play a 
 sustained part. We shall not refer again to Richard 
 11. or the third part of King Henry VL, or to 
 Richard III., as the Welsh scenes or characters 
 in these plays are sufficiently noticed in Chapters 
 VIII. and XIII. The scenes in question are here 
 dealt with from the standpoint of their contents 
 and action, whereas they have hitherto been con- 
 sidered in respect of character and allusions to 
 Welsh tradition. A certain reduplication being 
 inevitable, the unleisured reader may proceed 
 directly to the Conclusions which brings this volume 
 to a close. 
 
 i. " KING HENRY IV." (FIRST PART). 
 
 It is worthy of note that the first part of King 
 Henry IV., in which Glendower plays a significant 
 part, is the first of the plays in which Shakespeare 
 
 220 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 makes an extensive use of prose. In his early 
 plays there is a free use of rhyme, but as his taste 
 matured he realised that blank verse and prose 
 were better adapted to his purpose. For his 
 historical facts Shakespeare, or the writer of the 
 original version, if it be true that the Histories 
 are chronicle-plays revised and expanded by Shake- 
 speare, relied principally upon Holinshed, but 
 he appears to have obtained a hint for Prince Hal 
 and his dissolute companions from an older piece 
 entitled The Famous Victories of Henry V., con- 
 taining the Honourable Battle of Agincourt. The 
 opening of this play gives us a glimpse of the Merry 
 Prince in his madcap days. The first part of 
 King Henry IV. was licensed for publication in 
 1597, the publisher being Andrew Wise. The 
 licence was granted for the publication of " the 
 historye of Henry iiijth. with his battaile of 
 Shrewsbury against Henry Hotspurre of the North 
 with the conceipted mirthe of Sir John Falstaff." 
 The leader of the wild crew with whom Prince Hal 
 associated was at first given the name of " Sir 
 John Oldcastle," and the character was manifestly 
 intended to be a caricature of Sir John Oldcastle, 
 the prominent Lollard leader, who sat in the House 
 of Lords as Lord Cobham, having secured the title 
 by marrying the heiress of a nobleman of that 
 
 221 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 name. Sir John Oldcastle took part in the cam- 
 paigns against Owain Glyndwr; and as the com- 
 panion of Henry, Prince of Wales, he became so 
 distinguished for his gaiety and his readiness to 
 humour the Prince's whims that his enemies called 
 him the " ruffian knight, mainly brought in by the 
 commediants on the stage." But Oldcastle was 
 in actual fact very far from being a Falstaff. As 
 the Prince reformed, so did Lord Cobham. He 
 embraced the principles of Lollardism, and Wycliffe 
 had no more stalwart follower. Under a law 
 passed in the reign of Henry IV., Lollards were 
 burned at the stake as heretics, and in the reign of 
 Henry V. Sir John Oldcastle was arrested and sent 
 to the Tower. The King tried to persuade him to 
 recant, but he resolutely refused. He was allowed 
 to escape, and remained for some years hidden 
 among the hills of Vyrnwy in North Wales. He 
 was again arrested in 1417, and in spite of the old 
 friendship of the King was hung alive in chains 
 with a slow fire beneath his feet. As the result of 
 a representation made in high quarters by a de- 
 scendant of his (Henry Brooke, eighth Lord Cobham, 
 who succeeded to the title in 1596), Shakespeare 
 in his play substituted for the name of Sir John 
 Oldcastle the immortal name of Sir John Falstaff, 
 but he overlooked the reference to the original 
 222 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 name in Act I., Scene 2, where Prince Henry refers 
 to him as " my old lad of the Castle." The only 
 Welsh scene in the play is Scene i of Act III., 
 wherein Hotspur, Mortimer, Worcester, and Glen- 
 dower enter a room in the house of the Archdeacon 
 of Bangor, intending to discuss the " tripartite 
 deed " and map defining the manner in which 
 England and Wales are to be divided between the 
 three leaders. But a compliment paid to Glen- 
 dower's military valour by Hotspur leads to boast- 
 ing on Glendower 's part : not, indeed, the empty 
 vaunting of a braggart, but the dignified recital 
 of incidents calculated to justify Lancaster's dread 
 of him, which the Northumbrian has commented 
 upon how his birth was marked and his high 
 destiny foretold by marvellous signs and celestial 
 wonders, among them shooting stars, comets, and 
 earthquakes. Hotspur's reception of these claims 
 is ribald, and a quarrel is narrowly averted, as 
 described in Chapter IX. Glendower leaves the 
 room to fetch the Ladies Percy and Mortimer, that 
 they may take farewell of their husbands; and 
 while he is absent Mortimer and Worcester reprove 
 Hotspur for his mischievous baiting of the Welsh- 
 man, of whom they both speak in terms of the 
 highest praise. Glendower returning with the 
 Ladies Mortimer and Percy, there follows the scene 
 
 223 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 in which we learn that Mortimer and his bride 
 have no common language but that of passion 
 and affection; and Lady Mortimer, taking her 
 husband's head in her lap, sings " the song that 
 pleaseth " Mortimer a Welsh song which the poet 
 does not name, nor does tradition tell us what it 
 was. 
 
 Glendower, resentful of Percy's sceptical remarks 
 as to his powers of magic, informs them that 
 
 Those musicians that shall play to you 
 Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence, 
 Yet straight they shall be here. 
 
 Had he, although in a stranger's house, con- 
 trived by a little stage-management to secrete a 
 harp, a viol, an oboe or what not behind the arras 
 or panelling? Magicians have been known to 
 practise such deceptions to maintain their reputa- 
 tions; but Shakespeare makes no such suggestion. 
 Then did he hypnotise his hearers? We have no 
 reason to suppose that Shakespeare knew anything 
 of hypnotism, yet he may well have seen or ex- 
 perienced something of it. for it must have been 
 part of the stock-in-trade of the magicians of the 
 day, though how far they themselves understood 
 its nature we do not know. A perusal of The 
 Tempest may be held to suggest that Shakespeare 
 had seen it employed or had himself been hypno- 
 
 224 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 tised. Be this as it may, the magical music plays, 
 but the effect upon Percy is disappointing; his 
 only comment is: " Now I perceive the devil 
 understands Welsh. . . . By'r lady, he's a good 
 
 musician." 
 
 Lady Percy refuses to follow Lady Mortimer with 
 an English song, and is taken to task for swearing 
 " like a comfit-maker's wife." And with that 
 the men proceed to seal the deed " and then to 
 horse " Hotspur all unknowing that his farewell 
 to his wife is for all time; and Worcester that a 
 shameful death awaits him, for Glendower, misled 
 by prophecies and omens, fails to keep his rendez- 
 vous on the field of Shrewsbury, and Northumber- 
 land is sick, and Henry and his son, Hotspur being 
 slain and his forces crushed, march off as the 
 
 curtain falls 
 
 Towards Wales, 
 To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March. 
 
 2. " MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR." 
 
 The main plot of the Merry Wives of Windsor 
 is the presentation of the dilemmas into which 
 Sir John Falstaff is forced through his attempted 
 amours with Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page. His 
 punishments are as ingenious as they are complete. 
 He is carried out in a basket of dirty clothes and 
 
 i5 225 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 pitched into the River Thames; he is soundly 
 belaboured while trying to escape in the disguise 
 of the fat woman of Brentford ; he is pinched and 
 burned in the character of " Herne the Hunter," 
 and his pretensions as a libertine exposed before 
 an unsympathetic audience. There is a sub-plot 
 running through the play, in which the principal 
 figures are Sir Hugh Evans, Justice Shallow, 
 Slender, Dr. Caius, and Mine Host of the Garter; 
 and a love-story, Fenton, Slender 's rival, courting 
 and eloping with " sweet Anne Page." 
 
 Act /., Scene i. The curtain rises to discover 
 Shallow, Slender, and Evans in front of Page's 
 house. Shallow, that merciless caricature of Sir 
 Thomas Lucy, the self-important and unintelligent 
 county magnate, is complaining of an affront 
 which Falstaff is said to have offered him. His 
 negligible cousin, Slender, to salve his wounded 
 vanity, drags in the family coat of arms. The 
 Shallows, he tells Evans, " may give the dozen 
 white luces in their coat " an obvious reference 
 to the Lucys. Evans, who appears to be amusing 
 himself by " ragging " the two simpletons, observes 
 that " the dozen white louses do become an old 
 coat well . . . it is a familiar beast to man." He 
 acts the part of Chorus shrewd, witty, talkative, 
 dryly sarcastic but he is always itching for promo- 
 
 226 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 tion from the Chorus to a leading part. First 
 he wishes to be made arbitrator in the quarrel 
 betwen Shallow and Sir John ; then, Shallow having 
 assured Slender that he may quarter the family 
 coat if he marries, we see the restless Welshman 
 as matchmaker; he bethinks him of Anne Page, 
 an heiress a likely bride for Slender. The latter 
 knows the young gentlewoman (she is very young, 
 being not yet seventeen), and admits that she has 
 " good gifts." Evans dryly agrees that " seven 
 hundred pounds and possibilities [i.e., expecta- 
 tions] is good gifts." 
 
 Page enters; he, too, proffers his " good offices ' 
 between Shallow and Falstaff, and Evans hints 
 that Slender has matter for his ear. Shallow is 
 still resentful. ' Robert Shallow, esquire, saith 
 he is wronged !" 
 
 Falstaff appears with Bardolph, Nym, arid Pistol, 
 and Shallow at once accuses him. It is curious 
 to note that Shakespeare has made Falstaff guilty 
 of his own offence. " Knight," says Shallow, 
 " you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and 
 broke open my lodge." As for Slender, he too has 
 " matter in his head " against the knight and his 
 " coney-catching rascals." They have made him 
 drunk and afterwards picked his pocket. Evans 
 always eager to be in the centre of the stage, and 
 
 227 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 also to have all things ordered in a seemly fashion- 
 suggests that he and Page and mine Host of the 
 Garter shall act as umpires. " I will make a prief 
 of it in my note-book ; and we will afterwards 'ork 
 upon the cause." He is offended by Pistol's "affec- 
 tations." The charge is denied, and the indignant 
 Slender swears that in future he will be drunk 
 ' with those that have the fear of God." 
 
 Here Mistress Anne Page enters, a Hebe-like 
 figure, bearing wine, Mistress Ford and Mistress 
 Page following her. Anne, at her father's bidding, 
 carries the wine indoors again, and the company 
 are invited to dinner. 
 
 Shallow, Slender, and Evans linger without. 
 Poor Slender is in a sweat of nervous dread. He 
 laments that he has not his " book of Songs and 
 Sonnets " with him. His man, Simple, appears. 
 Has Simple his Book of Riddles ? It is obvious 
 that he wishes to shine before the heiress; but his 
 wits have need of adventitious aid. Shallow bids 
 him come to dinner. Does he understand that 
 Evans has made " a kind of tender, afar off?" 
 He does ; he will be reasonable ; he will do as Cousin 
 Shallow says. Evans is impatient. " But can 
 you affection the 'oman ?" He will do his best, to 
 please Cousin Shallow, the head of the family. 
 " If there be no great love in the beginning, yet 
 
 228 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance. . . . 
 If you say marry her, I will marry her, that I am 
 freely dissolved, and dissolutely." Evans is con- 
 tent; this is " a fery discretion answer; save the 
 faul' is in the 'ort dissolutely " ; and Shallow " thinks 
 his cousin meant well." And with this Anne Page 
 again appears. Will they not come in to dinner? 
 Shallow and Evans discreetly comply, leaving 
 Slender with Anne. Slender, having sent Simple 
 to wait upon Cousin Shallow, seeks to make an 
 impression; but also for he is in an agony of 
 self-conscious embarrassment to avoid facing the 
 company within. He would rather walk; he has 
 bruised his shin; he doesn't like the smell of meat ; 
 yet, despite his poor appetite, he is a perfect devil 
 of a fellow ; he is not afraid of bears, but has " taken 
 Sackerson, a famous bear in the Paris gardens, 
 by the chain." Only when Page appears does he 
 finally bow to his fate and go to dinner. 
 
 When at last the twittering Slender has been 
 induced to enter the house, the Welshman makes 
 a brief appearance. Simple is with him, and is 
 bidden to seek " Doctor Caius' house," where 
 " dwells one Mistress Quickly, which is in the 
 manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, 
 or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer." To 
 her he is to take a letter, requiring her to further 
 
 229 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Slender 's suit with Anne Page, for the two are 
 close friends. As for Evans, " I will make an end 
 of my dinner," he says; " there's pippins and cheese 
 to come." To Shakespeare, all Welshmen appear 
 fond of cheese. 
 
 In Scene 4 the letter is delivered. Mistress 
 Quickly bids Rugby, the Doctor's manservant, 
 to watch for the doctor, for " if he find anybody in 
 the house, here will be an old abusing of God's 
 patience and the King's English." Simple is 
 required to describe his master. " Well, heaven 
 send Anne Page no worse a fortune ! Tell master 
 parson Evans I will do what I can for your master." 
 But Caius returns suddenly: Simple is shut in a 
 closet. The Doctor is sent for to Court la grande 
 affaire. At the last moment he dives into the 
 closet ' ' dere is some simples in my closet . ' ' There 
 is also one Simple . . . Caius calls for his rapier; 
 but Mistress Quickly confesses the truth. 
 
 Caius calls for paper. Mistress Quickly is " glad 
 he is so quiet." And while he is writing she con- 
 fides to Simple that " my master himself is in 
 love with Mistress Anne Page." 
 
 The quietness is deceptive. The Welshman's 
 love of having a finger in every pie has led him into 
 hot water. ' You jack 'nape," says the enraged 
 physician, " give-a dis letter to Sir Hugh; by gar, 
 
 230 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 it is a challenge; I vill cut his troat in de park: 
 and I will teach a scurvy jackanape priest to meddle 
 or make." " I have appointed mine host of de 
 Jarterre to measure our weapon; by gar, I vill 
 myself have Anne Page. 11 
 
 In Act //., Scene 3, we find Caius and Rugby 
 waiting in Windsor Park. It is past the hour 
 of the meeting. Caius is impatient, and in a blood- 
 thirsty mood. If Rugby will take his rapier, 
 Caius will show him how he intends to kill the 
 Welshman . Rugby, who is uneasy at this proposal, 
 is saved by the appearance of Mine Host, Shallow, 
 Slender, and Page. Shallow boasts that though 
 old and a justice of the peace, " if I see a sword out 
 my finger itches to make one.' 1 The jolly Host 
 sends Page, Shallow, and Slender to Frogmore, 
 where the misdirected Welshman is waiting. He 
 himself will bring Caius thither by another way. 
 He has an infallible inducement: " I will bring 
 thee where Mistress Anne Page is, at a farm- 
 house." 
 
 Act III., Scene i, reveals Evans, with Simple, 
 in a field near Frogmore. Simple has looked 
 everywhere for Caius. Evans is " full of cholers, 11 
 but also of " trempling of mind." " I shall be 
 glad," he says, " if he have deceived me; how 
 melancholies I am !" If the enemy comes, how- 
 
 231 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 ever, he shall have a rude reception, "pless my 
 soul !" whereat he falls to singing: 
 
 To shallow rivers, to whose falls 
 Melodious birds sing madrigals. . . . 
 
 "Mercy on me; I have a great dispositions to cry!" 
 But here Simple announces the advent of the 
 enemy. " He's welcome," says Evans, and con- 
 tinues to warble of his " shallow rivers." How- 
 ever, it is not Caius who approaches, but Page, 
 Shallow, and Slender. Does he study the word 
 and the sword ? says Shallow. And youthful still, 
 in doublet and hose, this raw rheumatic day ? 
 " There is reasons and causes for it," says Evans, 
 with dignity. Slender, since the dinner, is reduced 
 to babbling: " O sweet Anne Page." Evidently 
 he has discovered that " he can affection the 
 'oman." And here the Host, Caius, and Rugby 
 appear. Evans is quick to read in Mine Host's 
 expansive countenance the fact that a practical 
 joke has been played upon him. He rapidly 
 whispers a conciliatory word or two in the 
 Frenchman's ear, while for the benefit of the 
 company he repeats his previous threats. Mine 
 Host, bubbling over with jollity and good will, 
 confesses his stratagem. Shall he lose his parson 
 and his priest ? Never ; let them shake hands 
 " and let burnt sack be the issue." And in pur- 
 232 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 suance of his invitation they all follow to the Garter ; 
 but the Welshman and the Frenchman, lingering 
 behind, resolve upon vengeance. They will " knog 
 their brains together." 
 
 Act IV. opens with the scene wherein Evans 
 puts William through his paces, as described in 
 Chapter I. In Scene 4 Page, Ford, their wives, 
 and Evans, discuss the vengeance which is to 
 overtake Falstaff, the suggestion of the two 
 women being that the knight shall be induced to 
 meet them " by Herne's oak " " in deep of night/ 1 
 " disguised like Herne, with great horns on his 
 head," when he is to be surprised by a troop 
 of children dressed as fairies, who will pinch, 
 burn, and upbraid him. Evans will " be like a 
 jack-an-apes also," and will " teach the children 
 their behaviours." In Scene 5 the parson and the 
 doctor have their revenge upon Mine Host ; having 
 heard of Bardolph's mishap with the " cousin- 
 Germans," they solemnly warn the Host to look 
 well to his horses " out of good will." 
 
 In Act V. y Scene 3 (The street in Windsor), at 
 night Mistress Page and Mistress Ford and 
 Dr. Caius come upon the stage. Mrs. Page has 
 given her consent to a marriage between Caius 
 and her daughter; he is to seize upon the girl in 
 green and " away with her to the deanery." We 
 
 233 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 learn that the punishment of Falstaff is prepared. 
 " Where is Nan now," says Mrs. Ford, "and her 
 troop of fairies? and the Welch devil, Hugh ?" 
 "They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's 
 oak, with obscured lights/' and "the hour 
 draws on." 
 
 In Scene 4, in Windsor Park, " Enter Sir 
 Hugh Evans and Fairies." The " Welch devil's " 
 opening words tell us that he is master of cere- 
 monies, as arranged; he has " taught the children 
 their behaviours." " Trib, trib, fairies, and 
 remember your parts; be pold, I pray you; follow 
 me into the pit, and when I give you the watch 
 'ords do as I pid you; come, come, trib." 
 
 In Scene 5 the amorous Falstaff, since ' ' the Windsor 
 bell hath struck twelve," appears in the Park, as 
 the phantom Herne the hunter " disguised, with 
 a buck's head on." 
 
 Mistress Ford keeps her tryst; but with her is 
 Mistress Page. Falstaff is nothing loth. " Divide 
 me I" he cries. " Cupid makes restitution I" But, 
 alas ! disillusion is swift. There is a " noise within," 
 and Sir Hugh Evans, " like a Satyr," comes upon 
 the scene with " Anne Page as the Fairy Queen, 
 attended by her Brother and others, dressed like 
 Fairies, with waxen tapers on their heads." 
 
 One is tempted to quote the whole scene for the 
 
 234 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 sake of the delightful verse, only matched in A 
 Midsummer Night's Dream. Anne, Hobgoblin, and 
 the Satyr " make the fairy O-yes " in other words, 
 they give their attendant fairies their orders for 
 the night. The tasks which are set them are 
 peculiarly characteristic of the Welsh Pwcca, 
 though reminiscent of the Hobgoblin or Brownie 
 of the English and Scottish peasantry. " They 
 are fairies I 1 ' cries Falstaff. " No man their works 
 must eye !" And he lies down upon his face. 
 
 Before the fairies disperse to their nightly task 
 Evans (who, besides turning poet, has for the 
 nonce lost his Welsh accent) calls them together for 
 their " dance of custom round about the oak of 
 Herne the hunter." 
 
 Pray lock you hand in hand : yourselves in order set. 
 And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, 
 To guide our measure round about the tree. 
 But stay ! I smell a man of middle earth ! 
 
 " Heaven defend me/' cries Falstaff, " from that 
 Welsh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of 
 cheese !" From which we infer that Evans had not, 
 after all, quite lost his accent in becoming a Satyr, 
 although no trace of it appears in the text of the 
 verse. 
 
 Evans does not transform Falstaff into his 
 favourite form erf nourishment; he treats him as 
 
 235 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 if he were already transformed. Literally and 
 metaphorically, he proceeds to " roast " him. ' If 
 he be chaste " the flame of the fairies' tapers will 
 refuse to burn his fingers; if otherwise . . . The 
 night rings with the protest of sinful flesh, and the 
 fairies dance about him, pinching him. But now 
 other mortals appear. Caius, creeping forward, 
 steals away with " a fairy in green "; Slender with 
 u a fairy in white "; and Fenton with the real Anne 
 Page. Then, at a " noise of hunting," the fairies 
 fly; Page, Ford, Mistress Page, and Mistress Ford 
 appear and " lay hold on Falstaff." " I do begin 
 to perceive," he says, after suffering Ford's gibes, 
 " that I am made an ass." " Have I lived to stand 
 at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English ?" 
 But the fat old rascal, after suffering a round of 
 robust Elizabethan abuse, is forgiven : Page bids 
 him " eat a posset " at his house, being in high 
 good humour. " Laugh at my wife that now 
 laughs at thee," he says. " Master Slender hath 
 married her daughter." For he had arranged 
 with Slender to elope with her, as his wife had 
 conspired with Caius. But Mrs. Page is very 
 sure that Anne is by now the wife of the doctor. 
 
 Here, however, Slender returns, disconsolate, 
 for his bride is " a great lubberly boy," " a post- 
 master's boy." And Dr. Caius, too, is " cozened " 
 
 236 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 in his turn; he has married " un garcon, a boy, a 
 paysan," and will " raise all Windsor." " Who 
 hath got the right Anne ?" cries Ford. 
 
 The mystery is resolved by the advent of Fenton 
 with the " right Anne," whom he has hastily but 
 lawfully wedded. And so, the parents forgiving 
 her and him, the party go homeward to "laugh 
 this sport o'er by a country fire, Sir John and all." 
 
 3. "KING HENRY V." 
 
 The year of the composition of King Henry V . 
 (viz., 1599) has been exactly determined by the 
 well-known allusion to Essex in the prologue of 
 Act V. Essex left London to suppress a rebellion 
 in Ireland on March 27th, 1599. He returned to 
 England in disgrace in September of the same year. 
 From the tenor of this prologue, which is antici- 
 patory as well as complimentary, it is concluded 
 that the play was completed and acted between 
 the two dates we have mentioned. The play was 
 first published in quarto in 1600, and its fidelity 
 to history is greater than that of any of Shake- 
 speare's other plays. " The play itself," says 
 Brandes, " is an epic in dialogue. . . . Its theme 
 is English patriotism, and its appeal is to England 
 rather than to the world. It is a national anthem 
 in five acts." It contains a wealth of beautiful 
 
 237 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 imagery and noble rhetoric which raises its poetry 
 to unusual heights. 
 
 Fluellen appears in no less than six scenes, and 
 through his intimacy with the King is brought 
 into considerable prominence. The Scotch and 
 Irish captains appear only in one scene namely, in 
 Scene 2 of Act III. It is suggested that this scene, 
 in which the four captains are brought together, 
 was a later insertion. The compliment which 
 Fluellen pays to the Scotsman, Jamy, is certainly 
 in conflict with the anti-Scottish sentiments ex- 
 pressed in the second scene of the play. The sup- 
 position is that this scene did not form part of the 
 original version, but was added after the death of 
 Elizabeth to please her successor, King James, 
 " who had been annoyed that year by depreciation 
 of Scotsmen on the stage." If this assumption 
 be correct, then Shakespeare used Fluellen as the 
 medium for mollifying the King. ' The character 
 of Fluellen," says Gervinus, " should be exhibited 
 by the Actor as it was by Hippisley in Garrick's 
 time, without playfulness or caricature." 
 
 In Act III., Scene 2, the British forces are before 
 Harfleur. Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and a Boy are 
 on the stage, Bardolph seeking to drive them to 
 a breach in the French works. But the others 
 demur; " the humour of it is too hot." 
 
 238 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 To them enters Fluellen, who wastes no words. 
 "Got's plood! Up to the preaches, you rascals! 
 will you not up to the preaches ?" And " up to 
 the preaches " he drives them, protesting: all but 
 the Boy, who, as "boy to all three" of the 
 " swashers," entertains the audience with his 
 shrewd Cockney comments upon them. 
 
 Fluellen re-enters with Gower, and the scene 
 with the Scottish and Irish captains follows. 
 Macmorris is unwilling to oblige Fluellen and 
 Jamy by " voutsafmg a few disputations, look you, 
 as partly touching or concerning the disciplines 
 of the war," and takes such offence at a reference 
 to his " nation " that he and the valiant Welshman 
 are on the verge of a quarrel, when " the town sounds 
 a parley." 
 
 In Act ///., Scene 6, the English are in camp 
 in Picardy. Again there is an action in progress 
 near by; Gower, meeting Fluellen, hails him with 
 the query : " Come you from the bridge ?" Fluellen 
 does come from the bridge, and " there is very 
 excellent service committed at the bridge," and 
 " the Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Aga- 
 memnon," while " an ^unchient " is " as valiant 
 as Mark Antony." 
 
 It is to be noted that all three of Shakespeare's 
 chief Welsh characters are diligent readers and 
 
 239 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 students. Evans, perhaps, is rather a grammarian 
 than a lover of letters; but Glendower is widely 
 read in many branches of knowledge, a student 
 of the occult, of ancient Welsh literature, and of 
 music, and is himself a poet and musician; while 
 Fluellen has his Homer and Plutarch and Virgil 
 at his fingers' ends, and is deeply versed in military 
 history and biography and the literature of war. 
 In this Shakespeare, as usual, is true to life. The 
 Welsh have always been great readers ; if they have 
 not figured much in English letters, it is perhaps 
 because they have paid more attention to their 
 own language and to the classics. 
 
 It appears that the ancient who has performed 
 such prodigies of valour at the bridge is one Pistol. 
 Gower denies knowledge of him. And here Pistol 
 enters, to beg Fluellen 's intercession with the Duke 
 of Exeter for the life of Bardolph, who has stolen 
 a pyx and is condemned to die " a damned death." 
 Fluellen refuses, " for disciplines ought to be used " ; 
 and Ancient Pistol departs with a " Die and be 
 damned I" 
 
 The Pistolian jargon has jogged Gower's memory. 
 "Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I re- 
 member him now; a bawd; a cutpurse." Fluellen 's 
 reply reveals the lovable simplicity of a brave 
 and truthful man who is not overburdened with a 
 
 .240 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 sense of humour. " I'll assure you 'a uttered 
 as prave 'ords at the pridge as you shall see in a 
 summer's day/' he says; whereupon Gower en- 
 lightens him: " A gull, a fool, a rogue, that now 
 and then goes to the wars, to grace himself, at his 
 return to London, under the form of a soldier. . . . 
 And what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid 
 suit of the camp, will do among foaming bottles and 
 ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on ; but 
 you must learn to know such slanders of the 
 age. 11 
 
 Now the King enters with Gloster. Henry, 
 on hearing that Fluellen comes from the bridge, 
 asks for a report of the action; he learns that " the 
 perdition of th' athversary hath been very reason- 
 able great; marry, for my part I think the duke 
 hath lost never a man but one that is like to be 
 executed for robbing a church." Henry renews 
 his orders that there is to be no looting, no ill- 
 treatment of the French an act of policy as much 
 as of humanity, " for when lenity and cruelty 
 play for a kingdom the gentler gamester is the 
 soonest winner." 
 
 In Act IV., Scene i, we have the meeting be- 
 tween Pistol and the King, in which the King 
 declares himself a Welshman ; whereon Pistol bids 
 him tell Fluellen since this unknown Welshman 
 
 16 241 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 confesses to knowing him that he'll " knock 
 his leek about his pate upon St. Davy's day." And 
 if the stranger is Fluellen's friend " the figo for 
 him." Whereat the Ancient departs, remarking 
 that his name is Pistol a name, as the King 
 observes, which " sorts well with his fierce- 
 
 ness." 
 
 Here Gower and Fluellen " enter severally." 
 Gower calls to Fluellen, and is taken to task for 
 speaking loudly in the neighbourhood of the enemy. 
 "It is the greatest admiration in the universal 
 ; orld when the true and ancient prerogatifes and 
 laws of the wars is not kept; if you would take 
 the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the 
 Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there 
 is no tiddle-taddle or pibble-pabble in Pompey 's 
 camp." And on Gower objecting that " the 
 enemy is loud; you heard him all night," he replies 
 scathingly: " If the enemy is an ass, and a fool, 
 and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, 
 that we should also, look you, be an ass, and a 
 fool, and a prating coxcomb, in your conscience 
 now ? To which Gower sensibly replies that he 
 " will speak lower." And Henry, who has been 
 an unobserved witness, remarks : 
 
 Though it appear a little out of fashion, 
 
 There is much care and valour in this Welshman. 
 
 242 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 In Scene 7 of the same act Fluellen and Gower 
 enter amid " alarums." Fluellen is in a heat of 
 righteous indignation; a crime has been committed. 
 ' Kill the poys and the luggage!'* he exclaims; 
 1 'tis expressly against the law of arms !" It is 
 said that reprisals have been taken. " Tis certain 
 there 'snot a boy left alive . . . wherefore the king 
 most worthily hath caused every soldier to cut his 
 prisoner's throat." Reprisals in those days did not 
 take the form of Governmental " notes." The 
 morality of vicarious punishment may seem a little 
 doubtful to us, but it is plain that Gower admires 
 it. " O, 'tis a gallant king!" It is here that Fluellen, 
 as we saw in Chapter XII., makes his famous com- 
 parison between King Henry and Alexander. Not 
 only was one born at Monmouth and one in Mace- 
 don ; not only is there a river in both places ; but 
 Alexander "in his rages, and his furies, and his 
 wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his 
 displeasures, and his indignations, did, in his ales 
 and his angers, kill his pest friend." 
 
 " Our king is not like him in that," cries Gower: 
 " he never killed any of his friends." 
 
 Here Fluellen betrays the true touchiness of the 
 Welshman, who does not gladly suffer contradic- 
 tion. ' It is not well done, mark you now, to take 
 the tales out of my mouth ere it is made an end and 
 
 243 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 finished. I speak but in the figures and compari- 
 sons of it : As Alexander is kill his friend Cleitus, 
 being in his ales and his cups, so also Harry Mon- 
 mouth, being in his right wits and his goot judg- 
 ments, is turn away the fat knight with the great 
 pelly-doublet ... I forget his name. ... I can 
 tell you, there is goot men porn at Monmouth." 
 All of which amounts to this: Alexander, drunk, 
 killed his friend; Henry, sober, turned his friend 
 away. One was born in Macedon, one at Mon- 
 mouth, and there is an m and a river in each. It 
 would be difficult to find a better example of the 
 curious Welshman's faculty of seeing what he desires 
 or fears to see in obscure prophecies or omens 
 the very weakness that lost Glendower the Battle 
 of Shrewsbury and a throne, and probably cost 
 his chief accomplices their lives. 
 
 Now enters Henry in a royal rage, " with part 
 of the English forces," accompanied by Warwick, 
 Gloster, Exeter, and others. We may suppose his 
 anger to be due to the killing of the " poys " and the 
 looting of all his luggage. Catching sight of a body 
 of horsemen upon a hill, he bids a herald ride up to 
 
 them. 
 
 If they will fight with us bid them come down 
 Or void the field. . . . 
 If they'll do neither we will come to them 
 And make them skirr away. . . . 
 
 244 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, 
 And not a man of them that we shall take 
 Shall taste our mercy. . . . 
 
 From which we gather that the reprisals on the 
 killing of the camp servants have not yet been 
 taken. But here a French herald appears with 
 crestfallen bearing ; his errand is to beg an armistice 
 that the French may gather up the dead and 
 wounded; " for many of our princes woe the 
 while ! lie drown 'd and soak'd in mercenary blood." 
 Henry is doubtful ; he is not even sure that he has 
 won the day. The herald is in no such doubt. 
 " The day is yours/' he confesses. " Praised be 
 God, and not our strength for it !" cries Henry. 
 " What is this castle call'd that stands hard by ?" 
 11 They call it Agincourt." "Then we call this the 
 field of Agincourt. 11 
 
 And here Fluellen is ready with his knowledge 
 of the " histories of the wars." On this very 
 ground, he says, Henry's grandfather (he means 
 his great-grandfather) and his great-uncle the Black 
 Prince fought an action, in which the Welsh "did 
 goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, 
 wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps," that they 
 might be known from the enemy; wherefore the 
 leek is "an honourable padge of the service " (a 
 commemorative emblem of the occasion), and 
 
 345 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 even the King now wears the leek "upon St.Tavy's 
 day." The King agrees; "for I am Welsh, you 
 know, good countryman." And Fluellen, remem- 
 bering his assertion that " there is goot men porn 
 in Monmouth," exclaims, in a burst of enthusiastic 
 patriotism and loyalty, " All the water in Wye 
 cannot wash your majesty's Welsh plood out of your 
 pody." 
 
 Then follows the scene wherein Fluellen is ap- 
 pealed to as an expert on the point of honour. 
 Henry has caught sight of Williams, with whom 
 he exchanged gloves as a gage of the quarrel between 
 them. " Soldier," he says, " why wears 't thou 
 that glove in thy cap ?" Williams explains. 
 But what, says Henry, if the " rascal that swag- 
 gered " is " a gentleman of great sort ?" " Though 
 he be as good a gentleman as the devil is ... it is 
 necessary, look you, that he keep his vow and oath," 
 is Fluellen 's reply. So the soldier is dismissed 
 with an admonition to keep his vow; and Henry 
 gives Fluellen the glove which he had of Williams. 
 It was plucked from Alengon's helm, says Henry; 
 let Fluellen wear it; if any man challenge it " he 
 is a friend to Alengon," and to be apprehended as 
 an enemy. 
 
 Fluellen is delighted at the prospect of a quarrel 
 " according to the disciplines of war," and is 
 
 246 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 despatched, as Williams was, to summon Gower. 
 Having thus insured that Williams and Fluellen 
 shall meet and perceive one another's gages of 
 battle, Henry requests Warwick and Gloster to 
 follow Fluellen and " see there be no harm between 
 them "; for it has just struck him that his love of 
 practical joking may result in mischief, since 
 Fluellen is " hot as gunpowder, and quickly will 
 return an injury." Having taken which precau- 
 tion, he leaves the stage with Exeter. 
 
 In Scene 8 we find Williams returning with 
 Gower, who has evidently been wondering why 
 Henry wants him. Williams " warrants it is to 
 knight him." And now Fluellen overtakes him 
 with the same message as Williams; he, too, thinks 
 honours are in store for Gower. But he has no 
 time to say more : Williams' challenge is immediate 
 at the sight of his glove, and the challenge is accom- 
 panied by a blow. " 'S blood !" cries Fluellen, 
 horrified to find a friend of Alencon's in the person 
 of an English soldier and the company of the 
 loyal Gower; " an arrant traitor as any's in the 
 universal 'orld, or in France, or in England I' 1 
 and apprehends him in the King's name. For- 
 tunately Warwick and Gloster, followed by Henry, 
 with Exeter, are in time to prevent mischief; and 
 the ' most contagious treason " is explained. 
 
 247 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Williams makes a sturdy but respectful defence 
 and is dismissed with the glove full of crowns, 
 with permission to wear it " as an honour." Fluel- 
 len, not to seem ungenerous, for " the fellow has 
 mettle enough in his belly," offers him an additional 
 twelve pence. " Hold, there is twelve pence for 
 you, and I pray you to serve God, and keep you 
 out of prawls and prabbles and quarrels and 
 dissensions." 
 
 Williams, as touchy in his way as the Welshman, 
 feels that he is being patronised, and refuses the 
 money; whereupon Fluellen, with the curious 
 practical obtuseness and simplicity which prevents 
 him from understanding the sensitiveness of another 
 man, presses it upon him. " It is with a goot will 
 . . it will serve you to mend your shoes: come, 
 wherefore should you be so pashful ? your shoes 
 are not so goot: 'tis a good silling ... or I will 
 change it." 
 
 In Act V., Scene i , we have the famous encounter 
 between Pistol and Fluellen, wherein the " turkey- 
 cock," the " beggarly, pragging knave," is com- 
 pelled, by the wrathful Welshman, to eat the leek 
 an incident fully commented upon in Chapter XII. 
 It reveals a man of great self-control, despite his 
 fire-eating propensities ; able to measure his revenge 
 by the measure of his will; not carried away by 
 248 
 
SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR 
 
 his anger, but disciplined even in his wrath. 
 And with this scene as a fitting climax a scene 
 which, as we have suggested, may have been 
 devised to put an end to English ridicule of 
 the Welsh we take our leave of this notable 
 character. 
 
 249 
 
CONCLUSIONS 
 
 IT is impossible to consider Shakespeare's Welsh- 
 men as fully as we have done in the foregoing 
 pages without realising that the poet had made a 
 close and careful study of the Welsh character. 
 His allusions to Welsh traditions and beliefs prove 
 that he knew at least something of Welsh literature. 
 His fairy poetry gives us reason to believe that he 
 was at least moderately familiar with Welsh folk- 
 lore. There remains the question, Did he ever 
 travel in Wales? To which we may reply, Why 
 not ? Stratford is only fifty miles from the border 
 of Monmouthshire, which in his days was reckoned 
 part of Wales, and sixty from the Welsh border 
 as we know it, while Herefordshire was but a day's 
 walk distant. Is it likely that an active boy, 
 with the love of adventure and the insatiable 
 curiosity of genius in his veins, had never gone so 
 far afield ? As the son of a prosperous trader, 
 too, it is likely enough that he went on journeys 
 with or for his father. Welsh drovers were con- 
 tinually coming to Stratford and returning; there 
 was a weekly market in the town, and five yearly 
 fairs, four of which were for cattle. Welsh 
 farmers and gentlemen, singly and in parties, must 
 continually have ridden in from Wales. John 
 Shakespeare, as fellmonger, wool-stapler, glove- 
 250 
 
CONCLUSIONS 
 
 maker, and butcher, would have had business 
 with many of these, and it would be strange if the 
 young Shakespeare had not made many journeys 
 as his father's agent. 
 
 At the same time, there is no absolute proof 
 of such journeying, nor can we argue that Shake- 
 speare's knowledge of Wales and the Welsh may be 
 held to afford a proof. On those lines we might 
 argue that he must have travelled in Italy; for his 
 knowledge of Italy and things Italian is singularly 
 accurate, as Sir Edward Sullivan has recently 
 shown us.* As well argue, with the Baconians, 
 that he must have been a courtier, a diplomatist, 
 a soldier, because of his knowledge of affairs. As 
 we have asked elsewhere, What, on these lines, 
 would a future commentator make of the works 
 of Mr. Rudyard Kipling ? We need postulate 
 no more than the assimilative powers of genius; 
 we have reasonable proof that Shakespeare had a 
 Welsh grandmother, Welsh cousins, and Welsh 
 friends ; moreover, there was what we may fairly call 
 a small Welsh colony in the town in which he grew 
 to manhood. So, if our study of the poet's Welsh 
 characters and Welsh allusions cannot add anything 
 of importance to our knowledge of his life, it will 
 at least convince us that he had many opportunities 
 of observing Welshmen, and we may take his Welsh 
 characters and allusions as the expression of his 
 considered opinion of the Welsh people. 
 
 * See The Nineteenth Century and After, January and 
 February, 1918, " Shakespeare and Italy." 
 
 251 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABBOT of Valle Crucis, 141 
 Agincourt, 38, 141, 162, 245 
 All' s Well that ends Well, 51 
 Arber, Edward, 39 
 Arden Mary, mother of Shake 
 
 speare, 67 
 Armin, Robert, 62 
 Arthur, King, 78, 79, 100 
 Aubrey, John, 14, 15 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 72, 176-178, 210 
 
 Banquo, 95, 96 
 
 Bardolph, 23, 149, 150, 167, 227 
 
 Bardolph, George, 21 
 
 Barret, in 
 
 Bay trees, omen of the, 114, 115 
 
 Beatrice and Benedick, no in 
 
 Belarius, 68, 81, 83, 86 
 
 Blackf riars Theatre, 31, 208 
 
 Blodyn Dewi, 104 
 
 Boaden, James, 188 
 
 Boleyn, Anne, 38, 108, 109 
 
 Boyesen, H. H., 95 
 
 Brecon, 53, 179, 180, 184, 198, 199 
 
 Bright, 189 
 
 Bristol, 35 
 
 Brooke, Henry (8th Lord 
 
 Cobham), 222 
 Brute, 85 
 
 Buckingham, 179, 180 
 Burbage, Richard, 32 t* 
 Burleigh, Lord, 45, 71 
 Brynglas, battle of, 90, 91 
 
 Cadwaladr, 37, 72, 104, 172 
 Caius, Dr., 107, 145-148, 150 
 _ 151- "6 230-233, 236 
 Caius, Dr., of Cambridge, 154-156 
 Camden, Earl of, 53 
 Camelot, 78, 79 
 Campbell, Thomas, 197-199 
 Caps, Monmouth, 245 
 Captain, the Welsh, 112-116 
 Cardiff, 139, 189 
 Carmarthen, 139, 140 
 Carnarvonshire, 108 
 Carter, the Rev. Thomas, 156 
 Cecil, William (Lord Burghley) 
 45,71 
 252 
 
 Ceninen Pedr, 102 
 Charlewood, John, 204 
 Cheese, 144, 230, 235 
 Chepstow, 176, 177 
 Chester, Robert, 55 
 Children of the Chapel, the, 32, 
 
 33, 62 
 Church, Glyndwr and the Welsh, 
 
 129 
 
 Condell, 33 
 Cotes family, the, 204 
 Cre 9y. 38, loo, 112 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 53 
 Cwm Pwcca, 196, 197 
 Cymbeline, 36, 75, 80, 81, 84, 86 
 Cymmortha, the, 174 
 
 Daffodil, the, 102-104 
 Dafydd ap Gwilym, 83 
 David, St., 100, 101, 103 
 Da vies, Archdeacon. 25 
 Dekker, 118 
 Dircks, W., 215 
 Dixon, 38 
 Dolgelly, 130 
 Drayton, 55, 67, 100, 156 
 Dyer, Rev. T. E. Thistelton, 
 93 
 
 Earle, 87 
 
 Edward VII., King, and Shake- 
 speare's Welsh characters, 64 
 65 
 
 Edwards, Sir Owen M., 38, 130 
 184, 189 
 
 Einon Sais, 53 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 28, 34/37, 38, 
 40-44, 46, 58, 66, 68, 107, 108, 
 161, 164, 185, 189, 218. 219 
 
 ilhs's letters, 89 
 
 Elton, C. I., 51, 60 
 
 Elze, K., 190 
 
 Evans, Sir Hugh, the Brecon- 
 shire clergyman, 53, 54, 198 
 
 Evans, Sir Hugh, 17, 19, 23, 53, 
 65, 68, 107, 142-148, 150, 153, 
 *54. 156, 157, 178, 199, 200, 
 226-236 
 
INDEX 
 
 Fairy folklore, Welsh, 105, 106, 
 
 124, 195-198, 200, 201 
 Falbroke Park, 26 
 Falstaff, 40, 66, 92, 118, 143, 153, 
 
 159. *7> 2O . 222 > 22 5 22 7 
 Farr, Harry, 203, 204 
 Field, "Nat," 61 
 Field, Theophilus, Bishop of 
 
 Llandaff, 62 
 
 Finnemore, John, 214, 216 
 First Folio, 49, 203, 209 
 Fitton, Mary, in, 191, 192 
 Fleay, F. G., 80, 156, 188, 199 
 Fletcher, Mrs., 197 
 Flint. 112, 135 
 Fluellen, 68, 104, 160, 162, 167- 
 
 169, 170-174, 241-243, 245, 
 
 247, 248 
 
 Fluellen, William, 21, 22 
 " For the Honour of Wales," 59 
 Froude, J. A., 162 
 
 Gam, Sir David, 163, 164, 179 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, 76, 77, 
 
 Germans, the, 148-151, Shake- 
 speare's opinion of, 152, 153 
 
 Gervinus, 238 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, 87, 174 
 
 Glendower, 65, 68, 90, 92, 96, 
 97, 99, 117-141, 223-225, 244 
 
 Globe Theatre, the, 31 
 
 Glyndwr, Owain, 91, 115, 119- 
 122, 128, 129, 134, 139-141, 
 
 213, 222 
 
 Goats, Cadwaladr and the, 105, 
 
 106 
 
 Goch, lolo, 129 
 Gollancz, Israel, 75, 204, 205 
 Gower, 161, 165, 166, 168, 169, 
 
 I7 2 > 173. 2 4i~ 2 43. 2 47 
 Grammar Schools, 40 
 Griffin, Bartholomew, 193, 194 
 Griffin pedigree, the, 70-73 
 Guest, Lady Charlotte, 85 
 Guinevere, Queen, 79 
 Gwion Bach, 197 
 
 Hal, Prince, 118 
 
 t, 33, 92, 202, 204 
 
 Harfleur, 159 
 
 Harlech Castle, n6 
 
 Harp, the, 138 
 
 Harris, Frank, 191 
 
 Harsnet, 79, 210 
 
 Hart, H. C., 107, 153 
 
 Hathaway, Anne, 25 
 
 Hazlitt, W. C., 153 
 
 " Heb Ddieu: heb ddim," 203 
 
 Heminges, 33 
 
 Henry IV., 22, 93, 96, no, 117, 
 
 119, 123-126, 128, 139, 220- 
 223, 225 
 
 Henry IV., 112, 113-117, 120- 
 
 128, 135, 212, 213 
 Henry V., 5, 23, 66, 68, 100, 
 
 159, 162, 163-165, 168-171, 
 
 241, 247 
 
 Henry V., 158, 164, 178 
 Henry VI., 68, 93, 175 
 Henry VI., 176, 178, 179 
 Henry VII., 67, 68, 101, 179, 
 
 182, 184, 185 (see Richmond) 
 Henry VIII., 42, 109, 185 
 Henry VIII.. 46, 52, 53, 212, 
 
 2I 3 
 
 Herberts, the, 46-49 
 
 Herbert, Lord, of Cherbury, 44, 
 50, 51, 215, 216 
 
 Herbert, Mary, Countess of Pem- 
 broke, 215 
 
 Herbert, William, supposed 
 " W. H." of the Sonnets, 27, 
 49, 61, 62, 186-193 
 
 Hereford, 178 
 
 Hervey, Sir William, 188 
 
 Holinshed, 77, 81, 93, 94, 113, 
 
 120, I2i, 134, 139 
 Hoyle's Mouth, 82 
 Homildon (Holmedon), battle 
 
 of, 120, 123 
 
 Hook, a Welsh, 118, 119 
 Hotspur, 96, 99, 120, 125, 126, 
 
 128, 130-134. r 36, 139. 32 3. 
 
 224 
 " H," the letter in Much Ado 
 
 About Nothing, no 
 Hunter, the Rev. Joseph, 21 , 
 
 no, 189 
 
 253 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Imogen, 82, 83 
 Ivor Hael, 83 
 
 Jaggard, William, 193, 203 
 James I., 34, 40, 43, 49, 86, 94, 96 
 Jamy, 166, 238, 239 
 Jenkins, Thomas, the Welsh 
 
 schoolmaster, 15-20, 66, 142 
 Johnson, Dr., 54, 115, 154 
 Jones, Inigo, 31, 62, 63 
 Jones, R., 206 
 Jones, Richard, 203, 204 
 Jones, Robert (" First Booke of 
 
 Songs and Ayres "), 206-209, 
 
 211 
 
 Jones, W., 206 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 14, 40, 59, 60, 190 
 
 Kecksies, 93 
 Keightley, 196 
 Kenilworth, 40, 194 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 210, 251 
 Kirkman, F., in 
 
 Lawrence, Sir Edward Durning, 
 
 178 
 
 Lear, 6, 75-80 
 Lee, Sir Sidney, 54, 78, 81, 96, 
 
 188, 192, 198 
 Leek, the, as national emblem, 
 
 100-104; King Henry V. and 
 
 the, 1 60; Pistol eats the, 172; 
 
 William II. and the, 174; at 
 
 Crecy, 245 
 Leland, 78 
 Llywelyn, 37 
 "Locrine," in 
 Lodge, 156 
 
 London, 27, 28, 59, 159, 193 
 Love's Labour's Lost, 40, 152 
 Luce, Morton, 210 
 Lucy, Sir Thomas, 21, 22, 25, 
 
 26, 226 
 
 Lud, King, 85 
 Ludstown, 84 
 Lydney, 84 
 
 Mab, 196 
 
 "Mabinogion," the, 85, 196 
 Macbeth, 6, 93, 95 
 Machynlleth, 130 
 
 254 
 
 Macmorris, 166, 167, 239 
 
 Malory, Sir Thomas, 78 
 
 Manningham, 209 
 
 Mansell, Sir Robert, 61 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 37, 46, 47 
 
 Merchant of Venice, the, 51, 203 
 
 Merioneth, 134 
 
 Merlin, 80, 135, 136 
 
 "Merlin, Birth of ," in 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, 17, 22, 
 
 26, 107, 142, 225-237 
 Metheglin, 107, 108 
 Meyrick, 101 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, A, 
 
 195. 198, 203 
 
 Milford Haven, 35, 36, 82, 112 
 Moldwarp, 121, 135 
 Mompelgard, Count, 148 
 Monmouth, 158, 169, 243, 244 
 Monmouthshire, 178, 250 
 Mortimer, 120, 121, 126-128, 
 
 130, 132, 135-137, 223 
 Mortimer, Lady, 135, 137, 138, 
 
 223-225 
 Morgans, the, of Whitchurch, 
 
 52, 53 
 
 Mostyn, Lord, 109 
 Much Ado About Nothing, no 
 Music, Glendower's magical, 224, 
 
 225 
 Myddletons, the, 56, 57 
 
 Newdegate, Lady, 192 
 Newell, E. J., 143 
 Nevins, J. B., 212, 218 
 
 Oberon, 41 
 
 Oldcastle, Sir John, 221, 222 
 
 Owen, 87 
 
 Owen, Dr. Orville, 177 
 
 Page, Anne, 144, 147, 151, 199, 
 
 227, 229, 230-234, 237 
 Passionate Pilgrim, the, 203 
 Pedr Gadeiriol, 102-104 
 Pedigrees, Welsh, 87-89 
 Pelagius*, 81 
 Pembroke Castle, 176 
 Pembrokeshire, 35, 82, 182 
 Pennant, 89, 90 
 
INDEX 
 
 Percy, Lady, 135, 225 
 
 Percies, the, 120, 121 
 
 Pisano, 82, 83 
 
 Pistol, 66, 104, no, 144, 158, 
 161, 167, 168, 171; eats the 
 leek, 1 72, 1 73, 227, 240-242, 248 
 
 " Polyolbion, the," 100 
 
 Porthcawl, 38 
 
 Powell, Edward, 204 
 
 Powis, Lord, 52 
 
 Price, Sir John, 52-54 
 
 Price, Richard, 53, 196 
 
 Price, the Rev. Thomas, 199 
 
 Proverb, Welsh, 99 
 
 Puck, 195-199 
 
 Pughe, Dr. Owen, 173 
 
 Pwcca, the Welsh, 195, 196 
 
 Religionin Wales (i6th Century), 
 
 218, 219 
 
 Rhoscomyl, Owen, 101 
 Rhys, Ernest, 84 
 Rhys ap Grych, 91 
 Richard II., 93, 112, 116, 117 
 Richard II., 112-115 
 Richard III., 176, 179-184 
 Richard III., 179, 181 
 Richard, the Rev. Thomas, 97 
 Richmond (afterwards Henry 
 
 VII.), 68, 175, 179-184 
 Roberts, son of Griffin ap, 14 
 Roberts, Griffith, 60 
 Roberts, James, printer, 202-206 
 Rugby, 145, 231 
 
 Salisbury, 114, 115 
 
 Salisbury (or Salusbury), Sir 
 John, 54, 55 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 41 
 
 Seys, the, 216, 217 
 
 Shakespeare, Alys, the Poet's 
 grandmother, 5, 71-74 
 
 Shakespeare, John, the Poet's 
 father, 21, 22, 67, 251 
 
 Shakespeare, William, his birth, 
 13; at Stratford - on - Avon 
 Grammar School, 14; his 
 school-masters, 1 5 ; Thomas 
 Jenkins, the Welsh school- 
 master, 15-17, 19; second 
 
 master's desk, 17; memories 
 of Stratford, 21 ; father in list 
 of recusants, 21; lampoon on 
 Sir Thomas Lucy, 22; Welsh 
 influences in youth, 23; mar- 
 riage, 25 ; deer stealing escap- 
 ade, 25 ; departure for London, 
 25, 27; method of work, 
 28, 29; income, 31; Globe 
 and Blackfriars Theatres, 31, 
 32; the war of the theatres, 
 33; at Bristol, 35; traditions 
 about Breconshire and Pem- 
 brokeshire, 35; summons to 
 act at Court, 40; first sight 
 of Elizabeth, 40; tribute to 
 Elizabeth, 42, 43; notable 
 Welshmen of Shakespeare's 
 time, 45-63; contribution to 
 Chester's volume, 55; treat- 
 ment of Welsh characteris- 
 tics, 65; champion of Welsh 
 nationality, 66 ; explanation 
 of Welsh sympathies, 66-68; 
 Welsh ancestry, 70 - 73 ; 
 Welsh legends and allusions 
 in his plays, 75-111; only 
 Welsh expression in his works, 
 107; opinion of the Germans, 
 152, 153; first to introduce 
 Welsh-English pronunciation, 
 154; use of Geneva Bible, 156, 
 157; describes the leek as 
 Welsh national emblem, 100, 
 170, 171, 173; glorification 
 of the Tudor monarchy, 185; 
 the Sonnets and " Mr. W. H.," 
 186-194; kinship with Bar 
 tholomew Griffin, 193; Puck 
 and the Welsh Pwcca, 195; 
 use of Welsh folklore, 196; 
 suggested connection with 
 Brecon, 198; contemporary 
 Welsh printers and publishers, 
 202-211 
 
 Shallow, Mr. Justice, 22, 142, 
 143, 226, 227 
 
 Shaw, Bernard, 191 
 
 Shrewsbury, 35 
 
 255 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELSH 
 
 Shirley, Sir Robert, 210 
 
 Siddons, Mrs., 198, 199 
 
 Sidney, Henry, 215 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 79, 189, 215 
 
 Sidney, Robert, 209 
 
 Sikes, Wirt, 105, 196 
 
 Simple, 146, 229-232 
 
 Sir Tony Belch, 206, 207 
 
 Slender, 142, 145, 146, 226-229, 
 
 236 
 
 Snowdon, 141 
 Southampton, Earl of, 186, 
 
 1 88, 190 
 
 Squire, W. Barclay, 207 
 Stanley, Lord, 181, 182 
 Star Chamber records, 218 
 Staunton, H., 79 
 Stephens, Thomas, 7, 78 
 Stevens, G., 109 
 Stewart, Master William, 94 
 Stone, 113 
 
 Stopes, Mrs., 20, 194 
 Stowe, 113 
 
 Stradling, Sir Edward, 217 
 Striguil, 177 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 5, 13, 14, 21, 
 
 25-27. 37. 2 50 
 
 Sullivan, Sir Edward, 209, 251 
 Swansea, 61 
 
 Tempest, The, 224 
 
 Tewkesbury, 176 
 
 Theatres, i6th Century, 28, 
 
 29; war of the, 33-35 
 Thorndike, A. H., 81 
 Thorpe, Thomas, 186-188 
 Thrale, Mrs., 54 
 Trojans, The, 85, 172 
 Tudor, Jasper, 176 
 Tudor, Margaret, 37, 94 
 Tudor, Owen, 37, 176, 178 
 Tudor, Rise ap, 72 
 Tudors, the, Welsh descent of, 37 
 Twelfth Night, 206, 209, 210 
 Tyler, Thomas, 191 
 
 Tylwyth Teg, the, 106, 195, 200 
 Tyrwhitt, 192 
 
 Universities, Owain Glyndwr, 
 and Welsh, 129 
 
 Vans, the, 216, 217 
 Vaughan, 99 
 Vaughan, Rees ap, 118 
 Vaughan, Roger, 176 
 Verity, A. W., 93, 115 
 Vyrynwy, 222 
 
 Wars of the Roses, 178 
 
 Watkins, Richard, 187 
 
 Warwickshire, 71, 93, 142, 193 
 
 Welsh, the, etymology of name, 
 7; pride of lineage, 87; anti- 
 quity of language, 97-99 
 
 Welsh colony at Stratford, 5, 
 
 13. 251 
 
 Welsh mines, 35 
 Welsh names, derivation of, 88 
 "Welsh Outlook, The," 57, 165 
 Welsh phrases in old plays, 59 
 Whalley, 109 
 White, Rowland, 191 
 Wilkins, Charles, 80, 81, 88, 91, 
 
 129 
 
 Williams, 246-248 
 Williams, John, goldsmith, 55 
 Williams, Llewelyn, K.C., M.P., 
 
 102 
 
 Williamses of Penpont, 38 
 Williams, Sir Roger, Penrhos, 
 
 57, 58, 164, 165 
 Winter's Tale, A, 51, 52, 200 
 Wis,e. Andrew. 221 
 rcester, I2B, 
 cliSe, 222 
 Wye, the, 165, 169, 171, 177 
 Wynn, Sir John of Gwydir, 214 
 
 Yeatman, J. Pym, F.R.H.S., 17, 
 
 70, 72, 73, 109, 193 
 Yorke's Royal Tribes, 86 
 
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