Transcribed from the 1860 John Murray edition , . Many thanks to Birmingham Library, England, for the generous provision of the material from which this transcription was made. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/libraries.bcc.
TRANSLATED FROM THE CAMBRIAN BRITISH
by
GEORGE BORROW,
author of
“the bible in spain,” “the gypsies of spain,” etc.
london:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1860.
The Sleeping Bard was originally written in the Welsh language, and was published about the year 1720. The authorof it, Elis Wyn, was a clergyman of the Cambro Anglican Church, and a native of Denbighshire, in which county he passed the greater part of his life, at a place called Y las Ynys. Besides the Sleeping Bard, he wrote and published a book in Welsh, consisting of advice to Christian Professors. The above scanty details comprise all that is known of Elis Wyn. Both his works have enjoyed, and still enjoy, considerable popularity in Wales.
The Sleeping Bard, though a highly remarkable, is not exactly entitled to the appellation of an original work. There are in the Spanish language certain pieces by Francisco Quevedo, called “Visions or Discourses;” the principal ones p. ivbeing “The Vision of the Carcases, the Sties of Pluto, and the Inside of the World Disclosed; The Visit of the Gayeties, and the Intermeddler, the Duenna and the Informer.” With all these the Visions of Elis Wyn have more or less connection. The idea of the Vision of theWorld, was clearly taken from the Interior of the World Disclosed; the idea of the Vision of Death, from the Vision of the Carcases; that of the Vision of Hell, from the Sties of Pluto; whilst many characters and scenes in the three parts, intowhich the work of Elis Wyn is divided, are taken either from the Visit of the Gayeties, the Intermeddler, or others of Quevedo’s Visions; for example Rhywun, or Somebody, who in the Vision of Death makes the humorous complaint, that so much ofthe villainy and scandal of the world is attributed to him, is neither more nor less than Quevedo’s Juan de la Encina, or Jack o’ the Oak, who in the Visit of the Gayeties, is made to speak somewhat after the following fashion:—
“O ye living people, spawn of Satan that ye are! what is the reason that ye cannot let me be at rest now thatI am dead, and all is over with me? What have I done to you? What have I done to cause you to defame me in every thing, who have a hand in nothing, and to blame me for that of which I am entirely ignorant?” “Who are you?” said I with a timorous bow, “for I really do not understand you.” “I am,” said he, “the unfortunate Juan de la Encina, whom, p. vnotwithstandingI have been here many years, ye mix up with all the follies whichye do and say during your lives; for all your lives long, whenever you hear of an absurdity, or commit one, you are in the habit of saying, ‘Juan de la Encina could not have acted more like a fool;’ or, ‘that is one of the follies ofJuan de la Encina.’ I would have you know that all you men, when you say or do foolish things, are Juan de la Encina; for this appellation of Encina, seems wide enough to cover all the absurd
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