Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- pughe [2018/01/01 18:38]
admin
+++ — (current)
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== William Owen Pughe ======
-(7 August 1759 – 4 June 1835)\\
-Pioneer Mabinogi Scholar * Lexicographer * Grammarian * Editor * Antiquary * Poet
-^  William Owen, later known as Willaim Owen Pughe, holds the honour of first publishing and translating Mabinogi tales in modern print in 1795.  ^
-His pioneering text appeared in 1795 in his own journal the //Cambrian Register//, the first episode of //Pwyll//. Like almost all his other Mabinogi publications it was bilingual Welsh and English.
-[Pughe], William Owen, ‘The Mabinogion, or Juvenile Amusements, Being Ancient Welsh Romances’, //Cambrian Register//, I (1795), pp. 177–87. Bilingual. He did not adopt the name 'Pughe' until 1806.
-A second and a third instalment followed (1799, 1819), a repeat of the first (1821), and ‘Math’ 1829 followed by Taliesin (1833).
-(([William Owen [Pughe], ‘The Mabinogion, or Juvenile Amusements, Being Ancient Welsh Romances’, //Cambrian Register//, I (1795), pp. 177–87. Bilingual. He added the name 'Pughe' in 1806.\\
-William Owen [Pughe], ‘The Romantic Tales called Mabinogion, or Juvenile Amusements’, //Cambrian Register//, II (1799), pp. 322–27. Bilingual. 2nd instalment, up to Pwyll riding after the marvellous lady at Arberth.\\
-William Owen Pughe, ‘The Romantic Tales of the Mabinogion’, //Cambrian Register//, III (1818), pp. 230–46. Bilingual. 3rd instalment up to the Maids discovering the baby has gone.\\
-William Owen Pughe, ‘The Tale of Pwyll’, (ed.) John Humffreys Parry, //Cambro-Briton Journal//, 2 (1821), pp. 271–75. Repeat of the 1795 text, but the English tranlation only. Not formally attributed to Pughe.\\
-Pughe, William Owen, ‘The Mabinogi: Or, the Romance of Math Ab Mathonwy’, //The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repository//, I and V (1829), pp. 170–79. Bilingual.\\
-Pughe, William Owen, ‘The Mabinogi: Or, the Romance of Math Ab Mathonwy’, //The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repository//, 1833, pp. 198–214. Bilingual.
-Pughe, William Owen, ‘The Mabinogi of Taliesin (First Part)’, //The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repository//, 5 (1833), Part 1, pp. 198–214; Part 2, pp. 198-214.))
- He completed a full transcription and translation of all the //Mabinogion// tales, raised financial subscriptions for the complete publication, and designed a skilful set of illustrations for //Pwyll//. Sadly he died in 1835 before he could publish the prepared work.\\
-His son Aneirin Owen, though a noted scholar himself who had been strongly supportive of his father’s work, was unable to complete the project. The work was redone independently by [[guest|Charlotte Guest]] who published her series of seven volumes 1838 -1849.
-**Pughe was the leading scholar of the London Welsh societies from 1783 to 1835. These were the heart of Welsh scholarship during the 18th-19thC Welsh Renaissance.**\\
- He was renowned as lexicographer and grammarian, regarded as the principal authority on the Welsh language and on everything relating to Welsh scholarship. He worked in close collaboration with his patron Owain Myfyr, and the Iolo Morgannwg. Between them they published the monumental //Myvyrian Archaiology//, collected works of Welsh literature: however this did not include the Mabinogi. It was however a key source of Welsh texts for a century, although Iolo's work in vols. 2 and 3 was increasingly questioned.
-((William Owen [Pughe], Iolo Morgannwg, and Owen Jones (eds.), //Myvyrian Archaiology//, 3 vols (1801-07)\\
- Pughe's Welsh Dictionary and grammar (1803) served authors and students for a century.
-(([Pughe], William Owen, //A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, [Preceded by] A Grammar of the Welsh Language//, 2 vols (London: E. Williams, 1793). However his Welsh constructions were considered eccentric even in his own time. <https://archive.org/stream/adictionarywels01pughgoog/adictionarywels01pughgoog_djvu.txt>))\\
-Pughe gave constant and generous assistance to Welsh, English and international authors when they were dealing with Welsh or Celtic subjects. His letters show that he corresponded with some of the principal writers in England, Europe and America, and that the most noted scholars sought his opinion. He also composed poetry. He became President of the Society of Gwyneddigion in three separate years, was recognised as D.C.L. University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
-**Names: Born William Owen**, he adopted the name William Owen Pughe in middle age in 1806, to honour his uncle who bequeathed him financial independence with an estate. For simplicity this article follows the convention in referring ‘Pughe’ even before 1806.
- He was also known by the bardic names of Gwilym Owain, ‘William Owen’ in English, Gwilym Dawel, ‘Silent William’, and Idrison, ‘Son of Idris’.
-===== Biography =====
-Born at Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, Meirionnydd, in Gwynedd, N. Wales, William Owen was sent to boarding school at Altrincham, Manchester, where he continued to stubbornly and privately sustain his native Welsh language. At 17 in 1776, he went to London to work as a solicitor’s clerk, then as a school teacher. He was to live in central London, or later often visit the city, over almost 50 years until 1825.\\
-As a young man of 24 William joined the **Society of Gwyneddigion** (1783), through which he won the respect and patronage of Owen Jones, 'Owain Myfyr', a wealthy and generous London Welsh merchant. William Owen became the secretary of the society (1784), then its president in 1789 , 1804, and 1820. He was also involved with the **Society of Cymmrodorion**. These were jolly drinking clubs which networked Welsh people in London, raised funds for both Welsh charity and publications, and established a respected Welsh school.\\
-William Owen married Sarah Elizabeth Harper (at 31, 1790). At the time he taught in a girls’ school, and tutored privately. When the school closed in 1804 Owain Myfyr housed and pensioned him and the family for two years to support his work, chiefly the Myvyrian Archaiology while some publishers also gave him pieces of paid work. William and Sarah had three children.\\
-**In 1806 at 47 William Owen inherited a property from his uncle the Rev. Rice Pughe, of Nantglyn, Denbighshire**. William began using the name **William Owen Pughe** in gratitude for the inheritance which meant financial security for the rest of his life. He settled in Egryn, near Nantglyn, but continued to visit London until poor health prevented travel in his last few years.
-===== Pughe: the Mabinogi, The Mabinogion =====
-**Pughe astutely realised that the mediaeval prose tales would be popular**, and he wanted to make them available in both Welsh and English translation to widen the literary audience for Welsh culture. He was persistent and resourceful in raising subscriptions from the Welsh societies in London, England and Wales.\\
-**His pioneering 1795 Mabinogi debut publication was titled 'The Mabinogion**, or Juvenile Amusements, being Ancient Welsh Romances'(see above). This first article presented the first episode of //Pwyll// bilingually: his sojourn in Annwfn minus the sexual scene between Arawn and his Queen. The second episode of //Pwyll// followed (1799) with Rhiannon’s courtship horse chases. Much interest was stimulated in a forthcoming complete //Mabinogion//. An eminent poet, George Ellis, offered both a preface and part finance.\\
-In spite of a crushing workload of Welsh research, translation and other substantial publications, Pughe published most of //Pwyll//, some //Math//, and a //Taliesin//.
-Pughe’s title ‘The Mabinogion‘ has a complicated history. What matters here is that this was an established collective name in the 18thC and 19thC for various pieces of Welsh prose stories in mediaeval manuscripts. It derives from a mediaeval copyist mistake of grammar found once only in the Mabinogi text. It should be noted that Charlotte Guest popularised the title for her Mabinogion publications (1838 – 1877) but she merely adopted it from her Welsh mentors, who in turn followed Pughe and his generation. The name has proved so stubborn a title that books of these tales are still published today under it.[4]
-Pughe’s chosen subtitle ‘Juvenile Amusements also had far reaching effects on Mabinogi culture. It framed the Mabinogi as ‘tales for the young’ via the root word ‘mab’ boy, child, young person. This is logical etymology, and based on the title attached to each of the Branches, in the MSS. However a complexity of characterisation and plot structure, together with explicitly sexual content, suggest young children are not the primary audience.
-Welsh antiquarians worked assiduously to reclaim their culture from colonialised obscurity, and salvaged history was a primary tool. Heritage poetry had a tradition of praise poems for powerful leaders which recorded much historical data. But mediaeval prose offered far less help as it did not aim at much historical accuracy.[5] In addition the 18thC culture of novels was associated with hot, scandalous, sexual fiction, not a helpful partnership for men in the serious task of rebuilding a nation. Pughe’s use of the whimsical tag ‘Juvenile Amusements’ may have been a way to avoid that pitfall, and ease acceptance. In his 1821 version of ‘Pwyll,’ and for his ‘Math,’ he dropped the tag. (See Juvenile article for the longer term complexities.)
-In 1803 Pughe published The Cambrian Biography which listed Welsh heroes, A-Z, attempting to distinguish categories of historical and legendary people. He included some Mabinogi persons: Bendigeidfran, Pryderi, Rhiannon; as well as Culhwch and Arthur (the latter listed twice, as historical and legendary).[6]
-However the inheritance in 1806, though it gave him and his family long term security, was a mixed blessing. Property management was a huge learning curve for which Pughe had little prior experience. He was also distracted by a growing dedication to the cult of the prophetess Joanna Southcott; he became an Elder.
-Pughe has been charged with neglecting his Welsh scholarship for more than a decade. Arthur Johnston (1957-8)[7] finds it very sad there are eight volumes of papers of Southcott work in NLW archives, indicating how much time and effort was directed away from his Welsh research. This is true but needs some context moderation. Pughe’s output in the years 1789 – 1807 was absolutely prodigious, of outstanding quantity and quality (making allowances for entrenched contemporary ideas). That is eighteen years of consistently peak performance, a career in itself, and would for most spell burnout. It is not surprising that when his life changed radically to become a landowner, and by now he was no longer young, so he slowed down and coasted on his considerable laurels.
-Pughe can also be critiqued as too open minded, as his espousal of Iolo Morgannwg’s forgeries and theories suggests; as well as Pughe’s own promotion of Welsh as close to the pure, primitive mother tongue of humanity. Again we need context. The Southcott movement numbered 144,000 at its peak and drew on all levels of society: it was not a completely eccentric fringe cult. Iolo’s forgeries, theories of bardism, and Welsh as close to the primal language, were all an accepted part of Pughe’s times.
-Southcott died in 1814, and so did Owain Myfyr, the grand old man who had been the benefactor of Pughe’s younger days. Pughe was also widowed the following year in 1815. By now he was 56, an old man by the calibration of his day. The triple bereavement must have hit him hard. He turned to publishing Coll Gwynfa, a translation of Milton ‘s Paradise Lost in 1819.
-In 1821 he returned to the Mabinogi, publishing a slightly edited version of his first translation of Pwyll.[8] In 1825 he advertised for subscriptions to fund a full Mabinogion publication. Support was slow to come in, perhaps because his delays in the past, and failure to follow through with previous sponsors, affected trust in him.
-His health began to fail, and he moved back to Wales in 1825, at 66 years. Four years later in 1829, he lamented in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine about lack of support for the project. Then the Cymmrodorion Society, and the Gwynedd, Powis, Gwent and Dyved Societies all finally offered funds. He published “The Mabinogi: Or, the Romance of Math ab Mathonwy” 1829.[9]
-In 1833 Pughe published his Taliesin, in two parts, which Guest later noted was incomplete. It was taken from an inexact copy of Llyfr Coch, possibly from Moses Williams’ Llanstephan MSS. 90. By 1834 he had thoroughly revised his Mabinogion manuscripts, structuring them into groups: I, Pwyll, Branwen, Manawydan, Math; II, Culhwch, Peredur, Geraint; III, Maximus, Rhonabwy, Lludd. The Lady of the Fountain was not placed in any group. All was finally ready for publication: but Pughe died in 1835 before it was carried out.
-The charges of not taking the Mabinogi seriously, dismissing it as children’s literature, and neglecting its modern development, cannot be fully sustained. Pughe did not use the label ‘Juvenile Amusements’ after his first publication of Pwyll. He was involved in his property, and other interests, from 1808 – 1819, a period of little scholarly output of eleven years. His personal chronology of scholarship of 44 years shows a gap of a quarter of that time. He returned to the project with stubborn determination, and even in failing health he continued to produce material and canvass support. Had he lived just a year or two longer, or even if he son had been more entrepreneurial, the story might have ended in triumphant success.
-For a more detailed biography see Pughe, William Owen on the Dictionary of Welsh Biography site.
-Glenda Carr (1993) ‘William Owen Pughe’ Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, in Welsh.

Mabinogi Study

User Tools

Site Tools

Differences

Page Tools