Brut Y Brenhinedd and Continuation Chronicle, and Its 15Th Century Aberystwyth Scribe, Dafydd Ap Maredudd Glais
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The Peniarth MS 22 Brut y Brenhinedd and continuation chronicle, and its 15th century Aberystwyth scribe, Dafydd ap Maredudd Glais A thesis submitted to the University of Aberystwyth for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Katherine Himsworth Department of Welsh 2015 Dafydd’s colophon on page 133 of the Peniarth 22 manuscript ‘Llyma ual y terfyna ystoria y brenhinedd brytaneit o 6rutus hyt CatWalydyr 6endigeit yr hon a yscriuenawdd dauid ap meredith Clais:- Llyma ual i dechreu ystoria brenhinedd y saesson a ymchoelawdd y racddywededic david o ladin yn gymraec oet crist Mil CCCCxliiij˚: -‘ This extract from page 133 of Peniarth 22 is reproduced by permission of the Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales. 1 Contents Declarations 5 Summary 6 Acknowledgements 7 Abbreviations 8 Chapter 1 Introduction 9 Chapter 2 Dafydd ap Maredudd Glais; a scribe of many parts 14 The Glais Family 15 Was Dafydd a cleric? 17 Dafydd the scribe 21 Chapter 3 The Peniarth 22 manuscript 25 The manuscript 26 The script 27 Abbreviations, errors and additions 29 A single scribe 30 Chapter 4 The relationship of Peniarth 22 to other Brut MSS 31 Relationship between 3036 and P22 34 The position of Havod 1 and the ‘5266’ branch in the stemma 41 The Llanstephan recension; the relationship of Llanstephan 1 to Havod 2 50 Conclusion 52 2 Chapter 5 Orthographical innovation in Peniarth 22 53 Summary of Peniarth 22 orthography 55 Comparison with other manuscripts 60 Metathesis 81 The last four pages 83 Annex A 85 Annex B 88 Chapter 6 Grammatical innovation in Peniarth 22 90 Nouns 91 Pronouns 96 Prepositions 100 Verbs 108 Verbal particle ry 114 Mutations 117 The last four pages 122 Annex A 123 Annex B 124 Chapter 7 Stylistic differences between the Dingestow MSS 132 Shortening the text 133 Other stylistic points 142 Gwnaeth and gorug 153 Conclusion 159 3 Chapter 8 Dafydd’s own Brenhinoedd y Saesson 160 The division of England by the Saxons 161 The kings of England 165 Conclusion 176 Chapter 9 Concluding Summary 178 Bibliography 182 Appendices A Transcription of Peniarth 22 (with NLW 3036B) B Suggested corrections to the transcriptions of other Dingestow Version manuscripts C Summary concordance of the Brut MSS D Concordance of the early Dingestow Version (and, in part, the early Llanstephan Version) manuscripts 4 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed…………………………………………………………………………………… Date………………………………………………………………………………………. STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where *correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed…………………………………………………………………………………… Date………………………………………………………………………………………. *This refers to the extent to which the text has been corrected by others. STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed…………………………………………………………………………………… Date………………………………………………………………………………………. An E-thesis declaration form will be completed for the submission of the final, post-viva, version of the thesis. 5 Summary Candidate’s Surname/Family Name Himsworth Candidate’s Forenames Katherine Joan Candidate for the Degree of PhD Academic year the work submitted for examination 2015/16 Full title of thesis: The Peniarth MS 22 Brut y Brenhinedd and continuation chronicle, and its 15th century Aberystwyth scribe, Dafydd ap Maredudd Glais Summary: The Peniarth 22 manuscript is, except for the last four pages, a fifteenth-century copy of Brut y Brenhinedd, the Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae; it was penned in 1444 by one Dafydd ap Maredudd Glais. It belongs to the Dingestow family of manuscripts, which in turn is related, in part, to the Llanstephan Version and Liber Coronacionis Britanorum manuscripts, although the detail of this relationship - and that of the Dingestow manuscripts to one another - still begs a number of questions. Peniarth 22 itself is very similar to, though not a copy of, the early fourteenth-century NLW 3036B manuscript. But there are differences in the orthography, and to a lesser extent in the grammatical constructions used by Dafydd which shed light on the changes that were being gradually adopted in the fifteenth century. This is particularly true of the last four pages, which contain Dafydd’s own translation of a Latin chronicle, which comprises a continuation of the Brut. While incomplete, largely formulaic and in parts illegible, it includes detail of historical as well as linguistic interest. Dafydd himself, far from being an institutional scribe, led a colourful life including both murder and public service in fifteenth-century Aberystwyth. But he was not, as previously thought, a cleric. 6 Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to the School of Welsh, Cardiff University, for making available the files of transcriptions of the NLW 3036B, Havod 1, Peniarth 45 and Peniarth 46 MSS. These have been particularly valuable in the preparation of the concordance of the Brut manuscripts. I am also much indebted to Dr Susan Davies and Prof. Ralph Griffiths, for their assistance in deciphering and interpreting the medieval Latin of the Cardigan Ministers’ Accounts, to Mr. Graham Thomas for his experienced eye in tackling some of the more illegible phrases of the Peniarth 22 manuscript, and to Mr. Daniel Huws for his help and sight of part of the draft of his forthcoming ‘Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts’. Finally, I am most grateful to my supervisors, Prof. Patrick Sims-Williams and Dr Simon Rodway for their wise counsel and constructive advice throughout. I would also like to thank Prof. Sims-Williams for sharing with me the provisional outcomes of some of the work that he is currently undertaking. 7 Abbreviations Manuscripts and versions DV Dingestow Version Jesus Oxford Jesus College H Havod LCB Liber Coronacionis Britanorum Llst Llanstephan LlV Llanstephan Version P NLW Peniarth RBH Red Book of Hergest Titus D.xxii BL Cotton Titus D.xxii Where MSS have NLW prefixes this has been omitted, e.g. NLW 5266 is referred to as 5266. Similarly the suffix B (denoting the size of the MS) has been omitted, e.g. 3036B is for the most part referred to as 3036. Grammatical and linguistic adj. adjective MW Middle Welsh aux. auxiliary n. note c. circa p(p). pages col. column pers. personal fem. feminine pret. preterite imperf. imperfect pron. pronoun l(l). line(s) pl. plural masc. masculine plup. pluperfect ModW Modern Welsh poss. possessive MS(S) manuscripts sg. singular ! , as in, e.g., ‘ym!deith’, indicates a word that has been written as two words by the scribe. 8 Introduction Chapter 1: Introduction About five miles south-west of the town of Monmouth lies the village of Dingestow. Not a name perhaps that is familiar to many, but the name of the nearby house, Dingestow Court, is well-known to those with even a passing acquaintance with the Welsh translations from the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (HRB) his History of the Kings of Britain. In all there are 15 Dingestow MSS which were brought together by Sir Bernard Bosanquet, Justice of the Common Pleas,1 and which included what was then thought to be the oldest known Welsh version of the Brut y Brenhinedd, written in the fourteenth century.2 They were preserved at Dingestow Court and when sold at auction in July 1916 were bought and given to NLW by two anonymous donors.3 The name Dingestow subsequently attached to the family of MSS which are related to the Dingestow Court MS and of which the Peniarth 22 (P22) MS is a mid-fifteenth-century member. Henry Lewis’ transcription and publication in 1942 of his Brut Dingestow (BD) led to its becoming the most familiar published version of the complete Brut,4 until the recent creation of the thirteenth-century and 1300–1425 prose websites.5 Our knowledge of Geoffrey himself is limited. That he had connections with Oxford is clear from his having been a signatory to six different twelfth-century charters. He was also ordained as a priest at Westminster in 1152 and consecrated a week later as Bishop of St Asaph. But there is no evidence that he ever visited his see. He did use the Latin name 1 Sir Bernard died in 1848. 2 Huws (2000:58) has now placed 5266 in the second half of the thirteenth century. 3 NLW Annual Report (1909:24–5). John Ballinger, the first librarian at NLW, believed that the credit for the discovery of 5266 in recent times was due to Egerton Phillimore. It was collated by J. G. Evans when he was engaged on the text of The Bruts from the Red Book of Hergest (see bibliography). 4 There were two earlier published (diplomatic) versions: the Red Book of Hergest, published in 1890 by Rhys and Evans, and the Cotton Cleopatra Version, published in 1937 by J. J. Parry (see bibliography). Brynley Roberts published in 1971 his Selections from the Llanstephan MS 1 Version. 5 Rhyddiaith Gymraeg o Lawysgrifau’r Drydedd Ganrif ar Ddeg, Fersiwn 2.00, and Rhyddiaith Gymraeg 1300- 1425. Introduction Galfridus6 Monemutensis, which suggests that he came from Monmouth,7 but there is no evidence as to his ancestry, Welsh or otherwise.8 Geoffrey wrote his Historia9 in about 1138, following his writing of Prophetiae Merlini a few years earlier. Unlike his contemporary, William of Malmesbury,10 Geoffrey did not set out to produce a chronicle of historical accuracy.