PB (38 «1>1E? « »T^^« ♦»!-/»"". * 1. '^^^ 4^V>vl^'*.^ President White Library, Cornell University. Cornell University Library PB 2591.G8 1863 Gwreans an bys 3 1924 026 878 334 f3 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026878334 :gr^:a-p^ A r2-¥0, [The Philological Society is indebted to Mr. EDWIN NORRIS the editor of " The Cornish Drama" &c. for seeing this work through the press, and adding a few various readings &c. distinguished by his initials, — on account of Mr. Stoltes's absence in India. F. J. F.J J>3 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. The text of the 'Creation', the Cornish drama now printed, was, like the poem of the 'Passion', which forms part of our last volume, thrust forth on the world by Mr. Davies Gilbert. In the case of the ' Creation', as in that of the ' Passion', Mr. Gilbert interpaged the Cornish text with an English version by John Keigwin. ' So erroneous is Mr. Gilbert's book, in text as well as in translation, that no argument seems needed to justify the Philological Society in printing a corrected edition of the only important relic of Cornish literature which, since the late publi- cation of the Passion, has been unattainable in a trustworthy form. Mr. Edwin Norris, in his Cornish Drama, II, 441, good- naturedly observes that the average number of errors in Mr. Gilbert's edition of the 'Creation' is not more than twenty in a page. Two or three examples will give some notion of the nature, though not of the number, of these mistakes: — Pp. 2, 3. Try Person yn idne Dewaes ow kys rayny a bys vickar "Three Persons in one Godhead Do reign of the world sovereign." The same, rightly read and translated: — Try person yn idn dewges ow kys raynya bys vickan "Three Persons in one Godhead, Reigning together for ever." ' The title of Mr. Gilbert's edition of the 'Creation' is as follows:— The Creation of the "World, with Noah's Flood; written in Cornish in the year 1611, by William Jordan; with an English translation, by John Keigwin. Edited by Davies Gilbert, F. E. S., P. S. A. &c. London, 1827. 2 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. Pp. 4, 5. Can hasawe them danveys Rage ou servia bys Vichar "Songs unto me sending For the serve me the world's Sovereign." The same rightly read and translated: — Canhasawe them danvenys rage ow servia bys vickan "Messengers sent to me to serve me for ever." Pp. 6, 7. Them y fethow can, hag ow av Hag y wrowgb ow aradowa. "To me you shall be singing and answering And doing my commands." The same rightly read and translated: — Them y fethow canhagowe hag y wrewgh ow aradowe "To me ye [the Angels] shall be messengers, And ye shall do my commands." Pp. 66, 67. May moyghen y lavyerhy Der weyll o gorhemen trogha " But most of her labour shall be. By gripings I shall command to cut;" The same rightly read and translated: — May myghea y lavyer hy der weyll ow gorhemen troghe. " Let her travail increase Through breaking my command." Genesis iii. (16.) The division of the lines in the printed copy is also mar- vellously inaccurate. Four copies of the present drama are known. A. (from which the text now printed has been taken) is the oldest; it is a paper MS., in small foUo, dated Aug. 12°, 1611, preserved in the Bodleian library, and marked N. 219. B. is a copy of A. contained in the first volume of a quarto paper MS. lately presented by Mr. Ley of Bosahan to the Bodleian. C. is in the British Museum, Harleian, N. 1867. It appears from a note in Welsh at the end that Lhuyd collated this copy with A. in 1702. D. is preserved in a paper folio MS. lately in the possession THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. 3 of Mr. Hotten of Piccadilly, and containing also a copy of the 'Passion'. The language of the mystery now printed differs from that of the 'Passion' and of the drama published by Mr. Norris chiefly in the following respects: — 1°. The vowel e has often become a, as in arna 'until' = erna: carenga 'love' for kerenge, kerense, *Aa 'to' for '