WITH HEAVY HEART.

With heavy heart I sought th’ infernal coastAnd saw the vale of everlasting woes,The awful home of fiends and of the lostWhere torments rage and never grant repose—A lake of fire whence horrid flames aroseAnd whither tended every wayward pathIts prey to lead ’midst cruel dragon-foes;Yet, though I wandered through withouten scath,A world I’d spurn, to view again that scene of wrath.

With heavy heart oft I recall to mindHow many a loving friend unwarnèd fellTo bottomless perdition, there to findA dread abode where he for aye must dwell;Who erst were men are now like hounds of HellAnd with unceasing energy enticeTo dire combustion all with wily spell,And to themselves have ta’en the devils’ guise,Their power and skill all ill to do in every wise.

With heavy heart I roamed the dismal landThat is ordained the sinner’s end to be;What mighty waves surge wild on every hand!What gloomy shadows haunt its canopy!What horrors fall on high and mean degree!How hideous is the mien of its fell lords,What shrieks rise from that boundless glowing sea,How fierce the curses of the damnèd hordes,No mortal ken can e’er conceive or paint in words.

With heavy heart we mourn true friends or kinAnd grieve the loss of home, of liberty,Of that good name which all aspire to winOr health and ease and sweet tranquility;When dim, dark clouds enshroud our memoryAnd pass ’tween us and heaven’s gracious smiles,’Tis sadder far to wake to miseryAnd feel that Pleasure now no more beguiles,That sin has left nought but the wounds of its base wiles.

With heavy heart the valiantest of menLays low his head beneath th’ impending doom;In terror he descends death’s awsome glen;While there appear flashing through the gloomThe lurid shades of deeds which in the bloomOf youth he dared; at last the conscience criesWith ruthless voice: “There’s life beyond the tomb;”His dying thoughts all vanities despiseAs on the threshold of Eternity he lies.

The heavy heart that suffers all such griefMay, while the breath of life doth still remain,Hope for a joyous peace and blest relief;But if grim Death his fated victim gain,Woe’s him that entereth the realm of pain—For e’er on him its frowning portals close,Nor gleam of hope shall he perceive again,For in that vast eternal night he knowsA woe awaits that far surpasseth earthly woes.

The heavy heart beneath its weight is crushed,And at its very name—Damnation writ,All men their vain and froward clamors hushed;But when within the fiery gaping pitWhose flaming ramparts none will ever quit,Above the thunder’s roar th’ accursed hostRaise such loud cries, it passeth human witTo dream of aught so dire, for at the most,All woes of earth as pleasures seem unto the lost.

From every vain complaining, cease, my friend,Since thou art yet not numbered with the deadBut turn thy thoughts unto thy destined end,Behold thy Fates spin out the vital thread,And oftèn as thy mind to Hell be led,To contemplate the doleful gloom aglow,There will forthwith possess thee such a dread,Which Christ’s unbounded mercy doth bestow,Lest thou be doomed to that eternal realm of woe.

In the book this note section contains footnotes for the preceding text. Each note is numbered by the page on which it occurs and as such are just footnotes poorly done. They have been turned back into footnotes in the eBook.—DP.

[0]The genealogical tables in the book are in graphical form. The content is reproduced below as text—DP.

ELLIS WYNNE’S PEDIGREE

William Wynne of Glyn [Cywarch]. Sheriff of Merioneth 1618 & 1637. D. 1658. 12th in direct male descent from Osborn Wyddel = Catherine, daughter of William Lewis Anwyl of Park. Died 1638. Child: Ellis Wynne [1], 3rd son who probably lived at Maes-y-garnedd, Llanbedr.

Ellis Wynne [1] = Lowri, only daughter and heiress of Ed. Jones of Maes-y-garnedd, eldest borther of Col. Jones, Cromwell’s brother-in-law who was executed in 1660 as a regicide. Children: Edward Wynne [1]

Edward Wynne [1] = . . . heiress of Glasynys. Children: daughter;Ellis Wynne[2].

Ellis Wynne[2] = Lowri Llwyd of Hafod-lwyfog Beddgelert. Children: William [1] Rector of Llanaber; Ellis, died 1752; Catherine, died young; Edward [1], Rector of Penmorfa; Mary [1].

William [1] = . . . Lloyd of Trallwyn. Children: Daughter [1].

Daughter [1] = Robert Puw of Garth Maelan: Child: John Wynne Puw.

John Wynne Puw’s children: Robert and John.

Edward [1] had children: Frances; Ellis [3], Rector of Llanferres.

Ellis [3] had children: Elizabeth; Ann; Edward; John, Rector of Llandrillo; Frances; Ellis.

Mary [1] = Robert Own of Tygwyn Dolgellau.

THE RELATION BETWEEN ELLIS WYNNE & BISHOP HUMPHREYS.

Meredydd ap Evan ap Robert (11th in male descent from Owen Gwynedd). Died 1525. = Margaret, daughter of Morris ap John ap Meredydd of Clunnenau. Child: Humphrey Wynne ap Meredydd [1] of Gesail-gyfarch.

Humphrey Wynne ap Meredydd [1] = Catherine, daughter and heiress of Evan ap Griffith of Cwmbowydd. Children: John Wynne ap Humphrey [1] of Gesail-gyfarch; Evan Llwyd [1] of Hafod-lwyfog.

John Wynne ap Humphrey [1] = Catherine, daughter of William Wynne ap William of Cochwillan. Child: Robert Wynne [1] died 1637.

Robert Wynne [1] = Mary, daughter of Ellis ap Cadwaladr of Ystumllyn. Children: John Wynne [2]; Margaret, [2] succeeded to Gesail-gyfarch on her nephew’s death.

John Wynne [2] = Jane, daughter of Evan Llwyd of Dylase. Child: Robert Wynne of Gesail-gyfarch, Barr.-at-law. Ob. s. p. 1685.

Margaret [2] = Richard Humphreys of Hendref Gwenllian, Penrhyndeudraeth. Desceneded in male line from Marchweithian. An Officer in the Royal Army through Civil War. Died 1699. Children:Humphrey[1]. Born 1648. Dean of Bangor, 1680, Bishop 1689. Bishop of Hereford, 1701. Died 1712; John, died at Oxford; Catherine.

Humphrey[1] = Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Morgan Bishop of Bangor 1678, son of Rd. Morgan, M.P. for Montgomery Boroughs. Children: Ann, ob. s. p. 1698; Margaret [1], died 1759.

Margaret [1] = John Llwyd of Penylan, Barr.-at-law, son of Dr. W. Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich, deprived in 1691 as one of the Nonjurors.

Evan Llwyd [1] = Catherine, Daughter of Griffith Wynne of Penyberth. Child: John [3]

John [3] had children: Griffith [1] and Evans.

Griffith [1] had children: William ob. s. p.;Lowri.

Lowri=Ellis Wynne.

[0a]“A Catalogue of Graduates in the University of Oxford between 1659 and 1850” contains the following entry:—“Wynne (Ellis) Jes. BA., Oct. 14, 1718, MA., June 13, 1722.” But one can hardly suppose this to have been theBardd Cwsr, as in 1718 he would be 47 years of age.

[0b]The following entries are taken from the register at Llanfair-juxta-Harlech:—“Elizaeus Wynne Generosus de Lâsynys et Lowria Lloyd de Havod-lwyfog in agro Arvonensi in matrimonio conjuncti fuere decimo quarto die Feb. 1702.”

[0c]“Elizaeus Wynne junr. de Lâsynys sepultus est decimo die Octobris A.D. 1732.”

[0d]“Owenus Edwards cler. nuper Rector hums ecclesiae sepultus est tricesimo die Maii A.D. 1711.” (From the Llanfair parish register.)

[0e]“Lowria Uxor Elizaei Wynne cler. de Lasynys vigesimo quarto die Augti. sepulta est Ano. Dom. 1720.”

“Elizaeus Wynne Cler. nuper Rector dignissimus huius ecclesiae sepultus est 17mo. die Julii 1734.” (From the parish register at Llanfair.)

[0f]“The Visions of the Sleeping Bard. First Part. Printed in London by E. Powell for the Author, 1703.”

[1a]The opening lines.—Ellis Wynne opens his vision as so many early English poets are wont, with a description of the season when, and the circumstances under which he fell asleep. Compare especially Langland’s Visions,prologus:

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonneI went wyde in this world wondres to here,Ac on a May mornynge on Malvern hullesMe befel a ferly of fairy me thoughte,I was wery forwandred and went me to resteUnder a brode bank bi a bornes sideAnd as I lay and leued and loked in the wateresI slombred in a slepyng it sweyved so merye.

[1b]One of the mountains.—The scene these opening lines describe was one with which the Bard was perfectly familiar. He had often climbed the slopes of the Vale of Ardudwy to view the glorious panorama around him from Bardsey Isle to Strumble Head, the whole length of rock-bound coast lay before him, while behind was the Snowdonian range, from Snowdon itself to Cader Idris; and often, no doubt, he had watched the sun sinking “far away over the Irish Sea, and reaching his western ramparts” beyond the Wicklow Hills.

[1c]Master Sleep.—Cp.:

Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh’dMy senses down.—Dante: Inf. C.I.(Cary’s trans.)Now leaden slumber with life’s strength doth fight.—Shakespere:Lucrece,124.

Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh’dMy senses down.

—Dante: Inf. C.I.(Cary’s trans.)

Now leaden slumber with life’s strength doth fight.

—Shakespere:Lucrece,124.

[4a]Such a fantastic rout.—Literally “such a battle of Camlan.” This was the battle fought between Arthur and his nephew Medrod about the year 540 on the banks of the Camel between Cornwall and Somerset, where Arthur received the wounds of which he died. The combatants being relatives and former friends, it was characterised with unwonted ferocity, and has consequently come to be used proverbially for any fray or scene of more than usual tumult and confusion.

So all day long the noise of battle roll’dAmong the mountains by the winter sea,Until King Arthur’s table, man by man,Had fallen in Lyonness about their Lord.—Tennyson:Morte d’Arthur.

So all day long the noise of battle roll’dAmong the mountains by the winter sea,Until King Arthur’s table, man by man,Had fallen in Lyonness about their Lord.

—Tennyson:Morte d’Arthur.

[4b]To lampoon my king.—The Bard commenced this Vision in the reign of William III. (v. also p. 17, “to drink the King’s health”) and completed it in that of Queen Anne, who is mentioned towards the end of the Vision.

[7]The Turk and old Lewis of France.—The Sultan Mustapha and Lewis XIV. are thus referred to.

[14]Clippers.—The context seems to demand this meaning, that is, “those who debase coin of the realm,” rather than “beggars” from the Welsh “clipan.”

[20]Backgammon and dice.—These games, together with chess, were greatly in vogue in mediæval Wales, and are frequently alluded to in the Mabinogion and other early works. The four minor games or feats (gogampau) among the Welsh were playing the harp, chess, backgammon, and dice. The word “ffristial a disiau” are here rendered by the one word “dice”—ffristialmeaning either the dice-box, or the game itself, anddisiau, the dice.

[21]This wailing is for pay.—Cp.

Ut qui conducti plorant in funere dicuntet faciunt prope plora dolentibus ex animo.—Horace:Ars Poetica,430–1.

Ut qui conducti plorant in funere dicuntet faciunt prope plora dolentibus ex animo.

—Horace:Ars Poetica,430–1.

[23]The butt of everybody.—Whenever a number of bards, in the course of their peregrinations from one patron’s hall to another, met of a night, their invariable custom was to appoint one of the company to be the butt of their wit, and he was expected to give ready answer in verse and parry the attacks of his brethren. It is said of Dafydd ap Gwilym that he satirized one unfortunate butt of a bard so fiercely that he fell dead at his feet.

[24]Congregation of mutes.—At the time Ellis Wynne wrote, the Quakers were very numerous in Merioneth and Montgomery and especially in his own immediate neighbourhood, where they probably had a burying-ground and conventicle. They naturally became the objects of cruel persecution at the hands of the dominant church as well as of the state; their meetings were broken up, their members imprisoned and maltreated, until at last they were forced to leave their fatherland and seek freedom of worship across the Atlantic.

[25]Speak no ill.—A Welsh proverb;v. Myv. Arch. III. 182.

[26]We came to a barn.—The beginning of Nonconformity in Wales. In the Author’s time there were already many adherents to the various dissenting bodies in North Wales. Walter Cradoc, Morgan Llwyd and others had been preaching the Gospel many years previously throughout the length and breadth of Gwynedd; and it was their followers that now fell under the Bard’s lash.

[28a]Corruption of the best.—A Welsh adage;v. Myv. Arch. III. 185.

[28b]Some mocking.—Compare Bunyan’s Christian starting from the City of Destruction: “So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain. The neighbours came out to see him run, and as he ran, some mocked, others threatened and some cried after him to return.”

[29]Who is content.—Cp.

Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortemSeu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illaContentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?—Horace:Sat. I. i.

Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortemSeu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illaContentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?

—Horace:Sat. I. i.

[34]Increases his own penalty.—Cp.

—the willAnd high permission of all-ruling heavenLeft him at large to his own dark designs,That with reiterated crimes he mightHeap on himself damnation, while he soughtEvil to others.—Par. Lost:I. 211–6.

—the willAnd high permission of all-ruling heavenLeft him at large to his own dark designs,That with reiterated crimes he mightHeap on himself damnation, while he soughtEvil to others.

—Par. Lost:I. 211–6.

[36]Royal blood—referring to the execution of Charles I.

[37]The Pope and his other son.—The concluding lines of this Vision were evidently written amidst the rejoicings of the nation at the victories of Marlborough over the French and of Charles XII. over the Muscovites

[43a]Glyn Cywarch.—The ancestral home of the Author’s father, situate in a lonely glen about three miles from Harlech.

[43b]Our brother Death.—This idea of the kinship of Death and Sleep is common to all poets, ancient and modern; cp. the “Consanguineus Leti Sopor” of Vergil (Æneid: VI. 278); and also:

Oh thou God of Quiet!Look like thy brother, Death, so still,—so stirless—For then we are happiest, as it may be, weAre happiest of all within the realmOf thy stern, silent, and unawakening twin.—Byron:Sardanapulus,IV.

Oh thou God of Quiet!Look like thy brother, Death, so still,—so stirless—For then we are happiest, as it may be, weAre happiest of all within the realmOf thy stern, silent, and unawakening twin.

—Byron:Sardanapulus,IV.

[44]An extensive domain.—Compare what follows with Vergil’s description (Dryden’s trans.):

Just in the gate and in the jaws of Hell,Revengeful cares and sullen sorrows dwell,And pale diseases and repining age—Want, fear, and famine’s unresisted rage;Here toils and death, and death’s half-brother, Sleep,Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep.—Æneid:VI. 273–8

—Æneid:VI. 273–8

[48a]Merlin.—A bard or seer who is supposed to have flourished about the middle of the fifth century, when Arthur was king. He figures largely in early tales and traditions, and many of his prophecies are to be found in later Cymric poetry, to one of which Tennyson refers in hisMorte d’Arthur:

I think that weShall never more, at any future time,Delight our souls with talks of knightly deedsWalking about the gardens and the hallsOf Camelot, as in the days that were.I perish by this people which I made—Though Merlin sware that I should come againTo rule once more—but let what will be, be.

[48b]Brutus,the son of Silvius.—According to the Chronicles of the Welsh Kings, Brwth (Brutus) was the son of Selys (Silvius), the son of Einion or Æneas who, tradition tells, was the first king of Prydain. In these ancient chronicles we find many tales recorded of Brutus and his renowned ancestors down to the fall of Troy and even earlier.

[48c]A huge,seething cauldron.—This was the mystical cauldron of Ceridwen which Taliesin considered to be the source of poetic inspiration. Three drops, he avers, of the seething decoction enabled him to forsee all the secrets of the future.

[48d]Upon the face of earth.—These lines occur in a poem of Taliesin where he gives an account of himself as existing in various places, and contemporary with various events in the early eras of the world’s history—an echo of the teachings of Pythagoras:

Morte carent animae; semperque priore relictaSede, novis habitant domibus vivuntque receptae.—Ovid:Metam. XV. 158–9.

Morte carent animae; semperque priore relictaSede, novis habitant domibus vivuntque receptae.

—Ovid:Metam. XV. 158–9.

[48e]Taliesin.—Taliesin is one of the earliest Welsh bards whose works are still extant. He lived sometime in the sixth century, and was bard of the courts of Urien and King Arthur.

[49a]Maelgwn Gwynedd.—He became lord over the whole of Wales about the year 550 and regained much territory that had once been lost to the Saxons. Indeed Geoffrey of Monmouth asserts that at one time Ireland, Scotland, the Orkneys, Norway and Denmark acknowledged his supremacy. Whatever truth there be in this assertion, it is quite certain that he built a powerful navy whereby his name became a terror to the Vikings of the North. In his reign, however, the country was ravaged by a more direful enemy—the Yellow Plague; “whoever witnessed it, became doomed to certain death. Maelgwn himself, through Taliesin’s curse, saw theVad Velenthrough the keyhole in Rhos church and died in consequence.” (Iolo MSS.)

[49b]Arthur’s quoit.—The name given to severalcromlechauin Wales; there is one so named, near the Bard’s home, in the parish of Llanddwywe, “having the print of a large hand, dexterously carved by man or nature, on the side of it, as if sunk in from the weight of holding it.” (v. Camb. Register,1795.)

[54]In the Pope’s favor.—Clement XI. became Pope in 1700, his predecessor being Innocent XII.

[55]Their hands to the bar.—Referring to the custom (now practically obsolete) whereby a prisoner on his arraignment was required to lift up his hands to the bar for the purpose of identification. Ellis Wynne was evidently quite conversant with the practice of the courts, though there is no proof of his ever having intended to enter the legal profession or taken a degree in law as one author asserts. (v. Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry, sub. tit. Ellis Wynne.)

[67]“The Practice of Piety.”—Its author was Dr. Bayley, Bishop of Bangor; a Welsh translation by Rowland Vaughan, of Caergai, appeared in 1630, “printed at the signe of the Bear, in Saint Paul’s Churchyard, London.”

[69]At one time cold.—Cp.:

I comeTo take you to the other shore across,Into eternal darkness, there to dwellIn fierce heat and in ice.—Dante:Inf. c. III.(Cary’s trans.).

I comeTo take you to the other shore across,Into eternal darkness, there to dwellIn fierce heat and in ice.

—Dante:Inf. c. III.(Cary’s trans.).

[71]Above the roar.—Cp.:

The stormy blast of HellWith restless fury drives the spirits on:When they arrive before the ruinous sweepThere shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans,And blasphemies.—Dante: Inf. c. V.(Cary’s trans.).

The stormy blast of HellWith restless fury drives the spirits on:When they arrive before the ruinous sweepThere shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans,And blasphemies.

—Dante: Inf. c. V.(Cary’s trans.).

[73]Amidst eternal ice.—Cp.:

Thither . . . all the damned are brought. . . and feel by turns the bitter changeOf fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce!From beds of raging fire to starve in iceTheir soft ethereal warmth, and there to pineImmoveable, infix’d and frozen roundPeriods of time; thence hurried back to fire.—Par. Lost,II. 597–603.

—Par. Lost,II. 597–603.

[85a]Better to reign.—This speech of Lucifer is very Miltonic; compare especially—

—in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition, though in hell;Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.—Par. Lost,I. 261–3.

—in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition, though in hell;Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

—Par. Lost,I. 261–3.

[85b]Revenge is sweet.—Cp.:

Revenge, at first though sweetBitter ere long, back on itself recoils.—Par. Lost,IX. 171–2.

Revenge, at first though sweetBitter ere long, back on itself recoils.

—Par. Lost,IX. 171–2.

[87]This enterprize.—Cp.:

—this enterprizeNone shall partake with me.—Par. Lost,II. 465.

—this enterprizeNone shall partake with me.

—Par. Lost,II. 465.

[95a]Barristers.—The wordcyfarthwyr, here rendered “barristers,” really means “those who bark,” which is probably only a pun of the Bard’s oncyfarchwyr—“those who address (the court).”

[95b]Sir Edmundbury Godfrey.—A London magistrate who took prominent part against the Catholics in the reign of Charles II. At the time the panic which the villainy of Titus Oates had fomented was at its height, Sir Edmundbury was found dead on Primrose Hill, with his sword through his body; his tragic end was attributed to the Papists, and many innocent persons suffered torture and death for their supposed complicity in his murder.

[102]Einion the son of Gwalchmai.—This is a reference to a fable entitled “Einion and the Lady of the Greenwood,” where the bard is led astray by “a graceful, slender lady of elegant growth and delicate feature, her complexion surpassing every red and every white in early dawn, the snow-flake on the mountain-side, and every beauteous colour in the blossoms of wood, meadow, and hill.” (v. Iolo MSS.) Einion was an Anglesey bard, flourishing in the twelfth century.

[104]Walking round the church.—Referring to a superstitious custom in vogue in some parts of Wales as late as the beginning of the present century. On All Souls’ Night the women-folk gathered together at the parish church, each with a candle in her hand; the sexton then came round and lit the candies, and as these burnt brightly or fitfully, so would the coming year prove prosperous or adverse. When the last candle died out, they solemnly march round the church twice or thrice, then home in silence, and in their dreams that night, their fated husbands would appear to them.

[106]Cerberus,et seq.—Compare the seven deadly sins in Langland’sVision of Piers Plowman, Pride, Luxury (lecherie), Envy, Wrath, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth. See also Chaucer’s Persones Tale,passim. A description of these seven sins occurs very frequently in old authors.

[107]What brought you here.—Pride is the greatest of all the deadly sins. Compare Spenser’sFaery Queen I. c. IV, where “proud Lucifera, as men did call her,” was attended by “her six sage counsellors”—the other sins. Shakespere names this sin Ambition:

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition,For by this sin fell the angels.

[108]Sarah.—v. Apocrypha, the book of Tobit, c. VI.

[110]If she and her scholars—Cp.:

At nos virtutes ipsas invertimus atquesincerum cupimus vas incrustare. probus quisnobiscum vivit multum demissus homo: illitardo cognomen pingui damus. his fugit omnesinsidias nullique malo latus obdit apertum pro bene sanoat non incauto fictum astutumque vocamus.—Horace:Sat. I. iii.

—Horace:Sat. I. iii.

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