Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg: Yn cynwys I. Gweledigaeth cwrs y byd, II. Gweledigaeth angau; III. Gweledigaeth uffern. At ba un yr ychwanegwyd mynegiad o'r geiriau mwyaf annualladwy trwy gorph y gwaith

WYNN, Ellis ~( Ellis Wynne )

Published by L. E. Jones, Caernarfon, 1825

About this Item

~Original full dark red polished calf, ornate blind frames to boards. Low raised bands, gilt lettering, and gilt decor to spine. Blind decor to board edges and turn-ins. Spine slightly faded. Mild wear to board and spine edges. Cracking starting over top front hinge (1cm). 8vo (11.7 x 18.2cm). All edges marbled. Marbled endpapers. Front endpaper cracked at gutter; rear endpaper starting. Front hinge slightly slack but holding, rear hinge sound. Binder's label of 'W. Morris, Holywell' to inside front board. Welsh dedicatory inscription dated 1889 to verso of final blank front endpage. Small hole to first leaf of text (loss of a couple of letters). Text in Welsh. Text block interleaved with two blank leaves for every printed leaf, a very few blank leaves with minor pencil annots. Glossary of difficult words to rear. Ellis Wynne (1671-1734), Welsh-language author and Church of England clergyman. Wynne's fame largely rests on this work, Gweledigaetheu y bardd cwsc ('Visions of the Sleeping Bard'), based on Roger L'Estrange's and John Steven's English translations of Don Francisco de Quevedo's 1627 satirical dream vision Los Suenos. Wynne's version sees his sleeping bard led through the earthly world, the kingdom of Death, and hell itself, accompanied by an angel through the world and through hell, and by Master Sleep through Death's kingdom. Though very distinctly the product of a conservative Anglican royalist and a man of the eighteenth century - the languorous evocation of a view across Welsh hills on a summer noon that opens the work is facilitated by the dreamer's telescope - Wynne's work offers, as well as 'panache, wit, and a satirical disgust that is worthy of Jonathan Swift', the 'great rhetorical sonorousness of a prose tradition that goes back, in Welsh, to the translation of the Bible into Welsh (1588) and beyond that to the cultivated style of the Welsh tradition of court poetry' (ODNB). The work was immediately acknowledged as a masterpiece of Welsh prose, and the expectation of close engagement by the reader is indicated in this edition by the provision of blank leaves for note-taking. One of two 1825 editions, this one printed by Lewis Evan Jones at Caernarfon and likely the 12th edition since the work was first published in 1703 (Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society, 4.5, 199-208). ~Robust packaging. Overseas orders trackable on request. Size: 94pp. Seller Inventory # LL6373

Bibliographic Details

Title: Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg: Yn cynwys I. ...

Publisher: L. E. Jones, Caernarfon

Publication Date: 1825

Binding: Hardback

Condition: Very Good

Book Type: Text block sound