months are given together under mis, and the days of the week with the principal Sundays, Saints' days, and festivals of the year, under dyw, not in their proper places in the alphabetical list. The names of a number of towns are given under Kaer; and in order to introduce English words which have no exact equivalents in Welsh, he gives definitions of them which he inserts under some prominent Welsh word in the definition. Thus under Edling, we have "Edling y brenhin ffrencic, dolphyn"; and under Klwyfo, comes Klwyfo march a hoyl yny byw, cloy". Again to facilitate the acquisition of an English Vocabulary, he very wisely gives in the Welsh column a large number of English words, some of which had been introduced into the popular speech, and many also which could not have become common, as debursio, efidens, eklypsys, and which he is obliged to explain by Welsh words or phrases: sometimes the English word is simply transliterated, probably in order to show the pronunciation, as pasteim.

The late Rev. Robert Jones (to whom we owe the beautiful reprint of the Dictionary), in his paper on "William Salesbury and his Dictionary", in the first vol. of Y Cymmrodor, takes it for granted that the "Dictionary" is intended for a Welsh Dictionary. He accounts for its defects, regarded as such, by suggesting that the author worked " without help, without material, save the spoken language, and the few MSS. within reach"; for most of his material he "had to traverse the streets and lanes, the highways and hedges"; there were no printed books, and MSS. " were both rare and difficult of access". All this may be quite true, and these facts would go far to excuse great imperfections in a first attempt to compile a Welsh Dictionary, in the first half of the sixteenth century. At the same time it is quite certain that if Salesbury's object had been to "elucidate the old Cymric tongue", he could have produced a very much

fuller and more satisfactory work. Whatever MSS. he may or may not have had, he had at his disposal much ampler materials than he has used. He certainly knew the different forms of the article, of the pronouns and numerals, and yet these are not all included in the vocabulary. Nothing would have been gained by giving Mi, myfi, minnau, myfinnau, as English has only "I" for them all: therefore, to give once "mi ne myfi, I" is enough for the author's purpose; and so for and so for y and yr, dau and dwy, etc. But the book itself supplies proof that the limited vocabulary is not due to want of material. Salesbury uses in his Welsh Address to the Reader, and in the explanations he gives occasionally of words in the vocabulary, some scores, probably hundreds, of Welsh words, which are not included in the Dictionary. The very first page of the Welsh Preface contains over forty words not registered in their proper places in the vocabulary. Indeed, if the deficiencies of the work were to be attributed to want of knowledge on the author's part, they would suggest imperfect acquaintance with English, rather than with Welsh, as many Welsh words and phrases are given without English renderings. It appears probable that the "Dictionary" was hastily compiled; and this is rather implied by the author's statement, that the words have been arranged, as far as memory served, (“hyd y deuei kof”) in alphabetical order. Any slip of memory in this respect could, of course, have been corrected by re-writing. But this may have been rendered impracticable by some circumstances connected with the presentation of the book to the King, which may have called for prompt action. And when it is considered that the author lived in Wales, it is easy to conceive that he may have been forced subsequently to print under conditions which left no opportunity for revision and completion.

But, however these things may have been, in forming an

opinion of the work we must compare it, not with our Welsh Dictionaries, but with our. Welsh-English Vocabularies, Welsh-English Handbooks, "Cymhorth i Gymro, i ddysgu Saesneg," etc. Judged in this way it must be admitted to be a very meritorious production. The author's object was a most worthy one, and his own example fully justified his earnest appeal to his learned fellow-countrymen to make themselves, according to St. Paul's words, all things to all men, and to feed the unlearned with the crumbs of their great learning. In this as in other matters, Salesbury was a pioneer. He set the example of "utilising" the Welsh Language in education; an example which was rejected by other educationists, but followed by Griffith Jones and Thomas Charles with the result of creating an educational revolution.

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Reviews.

A DICTIONARY OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE. By the Rev. D. SILVAN EVANS, B.D., Rector of Llanwrin, Machynlleth. Part I. [A-Awys]. Carmarthen William Spurrell. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; Trübner and Co. 1887.

THE issue of this first instalment of Mr. Silvan Evans's Welsh Dictionary is an event on which students of Welsh, and the learned author himself, are alike to be heartily congratulated. The want of an improved Welsh Dictionary has long been grievously felt, especially by those who have paid any attention to the older remains of the language. Not that Welsh was in a much worse position than most other modern languages. As long as Greek and Latin were regarded as the "learned" languages, and the "Classics" alone deemed worthy of special study as literary models and as instruments of culture, it was inevitable that the lexicography and grammar of the "vulgar tongues" should be left in a defective state. To this general disregard, shared until a comparatively late period by all modern languages, must be added in the case of Welsh, as of Irish, the contempt for everything Celtic entertained and professed by the vulgar learned and unlearned in this country. The student who laboured to advance Celtic scholarship in any direction. could hope for no material reward and very little fame. Welsh lexicography, nevertheless, counts among its promoters a number of devoted workers, at the head of whom William Salesbury has generally but somewhat unjustly been placed. Dr. Davies in the seventeenth century, Richards in the last,

and Dr. Pughe in the present, stand forth prominently among a number of humbler contributors. It cannot be said that the work has been very materially advanced, in the highest sense, since the publication of the second edition of Dr. Pughe's Dictionary.

During the half century which has since passed the study of modern languages has been revolutionised under the influence of comparative philology; the need of a regular historic treatment has been felt, early texts have been published, and as a result, it has become possible to give to the dictionaries of modern languages something of the fulness of detail and completeness of analysis which was previously aimed at only in classical lexicons. In these directions a good deal of work, more or less excellent, has been done in connection with the Welsh Language during the last forty years; important works previously existing only in MS. have been published and made generally accessible, especially by the Welsh MSS. Society; the philological study of the language, placed on a solid foundation by Zeuss, has been developed by the labours of British and continental scholars in the pages of Kuhn's Beiträge, the Revue Celtique, and other publications; and finally Professor Rhys's Lectures have at once advanced the work, and popularised the results. The progress effected in these directions rendered it an imperative necessity that Welsh lexicography should also be advanced a stage. This somewhat thankless task Mr. Silvan Evans, whose previous labours on the English-Welsh Dictionary had helped to prepare him for the work, undertook and executed with a patient devotion unhappily but too rare. The first fruits of his long toil are now before the public in a form of which he may justly feel proud.

The first thing that strikes the reader is that the work is on a larger scale than anything of the kind which has hitherto appeared in Welsh. This first part, including only