Reviews of Books. LECTURES ON CELTIC PHILOLOGY. BY JOHN RHYS. Trübner, By London. 1877. WHILE its sheets were yet flying through the press, we were permitted to examine portions of these Lectures of Mr. Rhys, and to maks quotations for the Cymmrodor. We then offered our hearty congratulations both to author and readers for the valuable additions the book made to Celtic philology. Now that we have it before us in its completeness, we not only endorse our previous judgment, but we would add considerably to the high praise we then gave. Mr. Rhys has already made important discoveries in deciphering the early forms of our Cymric tongue and the laws by which consonantal mutations are governed; and we predict, now that the first sods have been turned up, that we shall have something like a royal rail-road through the territory of the Celtic languages. We impress on every Cymric student, be he an advanced scholar, or a mere beginner, the necessity of a careful study of these valuable Lectures. The first edition is, we understand, nearly expended. We take this opportunity of heartily congratulating Mr. Rhys on his appointment to the Celtic Chair at Oxford. Even in these degenerate days, merit is often acknowledged and rewarded. Despite the wail of the "... Laudator temporis acti," Time's wheel, in its revolutions, often raises aloft the right man into the right place'. Our space will not allow us to lengthen this short notice either of Mr. Rhŷs, or of his Lectures; but our readers need not be troubled at that. We shall hear of him again. THE EPIC OF HADES. By the Author of Songs of Two Worlds. Henry S. King and Co., London. 1877. THIS work completes Mr. Morris's beautiful poem, and will add greatly to his fame. Although the subject is foreign to the purposes of Y Cymmrodor, it is impossible not to make mention of any work of importance by the great-grandson of our celebrated antiquary, poet, and philologist, Lewis Morris -Y Llew of the last century. No mere make-believe, the poetry of this volume is thoroughly genuine. We have read it throughout with no common interest; but we confess our deepest sympathies are with Phædra. Exquisite, indeed, is Mr. Morris's description of a storm in that admirable little poem. We feel we must quote the following passage:— 66 . . . But on the verge, As I cast my eyes, a vast and purple wall Swelled swiftly towards the shore; the lesser waves The spume-flecked waters, from the strand drawn back, Then like a bull Upon the windy level of the plain Lashing himself to rage, the furious wave, Poising itself a moment, tossing high Its wind-vexed crest, dashed downward on the sand With a stamp, with a rush, with a roar.” If "good wine needs no bush", it is a work of supererogation to commend poetry such as this. THE LITERATURE OF THE KYMRY. By THOMAS STEPHENS. Second Edition. Edited by the REV. D. SILVAN EVANS, THE Literature of the Kymry, by Mr. Stephens, is so well known and appreciated as to require no eulogy from us. That it is not perfect-nay, that it is in places a very imperfect production-we are aware. As a pioneer, however, and the leader of a long train of diggers and delvers into our Cymric literature, Mr. Stephens has wrought well, and bestowed upon his countrymen an invaluable boon. The author has cleared the way, and every Welsh scholar will be grateful for the help rendered him towards unravelling the intricacies of our old prose and poetry writers. It would require volumes to open up the extensive domain of Cymric literature; and years must elapse before the work can be accomplished. But it will be done. Among all the IndoEuropean languages, there is none that lays a firmer hold of linguistic scholarship than the Celtic, especially in its Cymric form. It has a literature also to be developed, that will one day surprise the cavillers who are ever taunting us for our want of it. We hail, therefore, with no little satisfaction, the re-appearance of a book, that will not only assist in enlisting and marshalling many a new scholar under our Celtic banner, but speed him on his march. The work is carefully edited, but only edited, by Mr. Silvan Evans. Scarcely anything has been added to the original text. We exceedingly regret this. The book was placed in the right hands for revision and alteration. The accumulated labours of author and editor would have added greatly to its value, even if they had not made it all we could wish. Still we are thankful for it in its present state. The Life', by the Recorder of Carmarthen, is excellent. It pourtrays the man as well as the scholar. And so should it ever be with biographies. Authors intertwine themselves with our thoughts and affections. We are anxious for intimate acquaintance with their persons, their haunts, their daily life, and even their foibles. Mr. Williams has done all this, entering, as far as it was inner life of the man; and he has done it well. It affords us no little satisfaction to find that the expounder of our Cymric literature was not one that proper to enter, into the “Varied from the kindly race of men"; but an amiable and benevolent patron of our rising literati, and a friend of humanity even in its lowest forms. The episode of "The Welsh Writer and Bard", at page xxxi, is so graphically given by Mr. Williams, that we must henceforth style him the 'Recorder of touching incidents in human life', as well as the Recorder of Carmarthen'. The volume is an exceedingly handsome one, and has an excellent portrait of Mr. Stephens,-just such a volume as we should expect from the house of the Messrs. Longman. THE MABINOGION, translated, with Notes, by LADY CHARLOTTE GUEST. B. Quaritch, London. 1877. Of the many places of interest in which London abounds, there is none more deserving of a visit than Mr. Quaritch's great book-shop in Piccadilly. If the visitor be an admirer of rare old books, and of Aldine and Elzevir editions; or if he be devoted to linguistic studies, he need not fear but that he will be gratified to the utmost. Ere he enters he will find. the windows crowded with large folios, royal and imperial, nay, with larger still, if larger there be; each seeming as though it would thrust its next neighbour into the street. Making his way within, he will find the same wonderful gathering of duodecimos, octavos, and quartos; shelf rising above shelf, and heap over heap: Books to the right of him, Books in the front of him, Bound, gilt, and lettered. And as he goes still onward, he will reach a part of the shop considerably raised above the rest, where the Bookseller himself sits at a table, not exactly a "Rex Eolus antro," but rather the personification of the ruler of Olympus, swaying his attendant gods. This impression will be confirmed, as he turns round and beholds the myriads that are gathered around him, in the shape of glorious conceptions and imaginations wrought and hammered into form by the mighty men whose works are strewn around. Among them he will find a host of Celtic lineage-Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, Gwalchmai, with a long retinue reaching down to Goronwy Owen, the greatest of modern Cymric poets. And it is because he deals thus largely in Welsh books, that we dwell on Mr. Quaritch's extraordinary place of business. But this is not all. Mr. Quaritch is an enterprising publisher; and we could not adduce a better proof of it than this beautiful edition of Lady Charlotte Guest's Translation of the Mabinogion. Although the linguistic character of the work is destroyed by the excision of the Cymric original, it is still most valuable-unrivalled as it is as a specimen of the chivalrous and romantic legends of the Middle Ages. It is well known how popular the Arthurian stories have become through the graphic illustrations of Mr. Tennyson; this book will be deemed, therefore, an invaluable acquisition by the many admirers of the poet. The typography and illustrations are of a high character— we had almost said, equal to those of the former edition; and seeing that the work has been brought within reach of a wide class of readers, by means of a moderate price, we predict a |