The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-13
WELSH NATIONAL
DICTIONARY
A Life Work By Chancellor Daniel
SiIvan Evans.
MONUMENTAL WORK OF A SCHOLAR
One of the First Welsh Books Ever
Printed Was II Welsh Dictionary,
Exactly Three Hundred Acars Ago,
by William Salesburv--Notes. Etc.

Welshmen have always shown a
fondness for dictionaries, a fact, it is
supposed, which must be attributed
partly to the blingual conditions under
which they have lived and partly to
their keen appreciation of England.
one of the first Welsh books ever print
ed was Welsh dictionary, that of
William SALISBURY, the founder or
Welsh printed literature, exactly three
hundred and fifty years ago Since
Salesbury's time,w have had numer-
Gus succession OF dictionaries, some or
them works of great erudition and
merit, the best known being those of
Pughe, Walters, Richards, Spurrell,
and the English-Welsh dictionary by
SilVan Evans. But 1t remained for the
last decade OF the nineteenth century
to produce the greatest of all Welsh
dictionaries. a work in Welsh what
Murray's monumental work purports to
he in England. and having for its au-
thor the prince of Welsh lexicogra-
piers, the distinguished rector of Liam
wrin. Chancellor Evans has made
Welsh and its cognate languages the
study of his lifetime, and pretty long
and active life it has been, for, unfor-
tunately, the most versatile Of living
Welshmen is nearly an octogenariap.
So far as Welsh literature is concerned,
whether published or unpublished from
the time of Aneurin to the latest issue
of the Geninen,' he is simply omnis-
cient. He knows everything about
Welsh authors and Welsh words, knows
by whom. and where. and when, and
how the meanest little sprite of word
Is employed. Would that the gods
spared him as long as Welsh is spoken
and written. If only FOR example of life
and instruction Of manners" as critic,
an author, and a stylist! Long, long
ago, before most of our present day
masters and teachers had been initi-
ated into the mysteries of their horn
books, Silvan Evans was an author of
distinction, and his '"Telynegion," the
first-fruits of his strength, which drew
forth the blessing and encomium of the
late DR.. Lewis Edwards, are, we verify
believe, the best lyrics we still possess.
Alas for Welsh poetry! the flame which
should have been burning and a shin
ing light was but scantily fed at Liam
degwning and Llangan and Liam
ymawddy, though such treatment, that
would otherwise have been simply an
objectionable neglect. proved immense
ly serviceable to Welsh authorship and
Welsh scholarship 1t gave US the
'Llythyraeth' and the two Svo. vol
umes of the dictionary of 1858 and
library of carefully edited works.
"Gweithiau Gwallter Mechain," "Bardd
Cwsg," ''Hanes Ffydd," Rowland's
'Bibiogra ply" "Ysten Stoned" and a
host of occasional articles on all sorts
of topics in the "Archaeologia Cam
brensis," the most learned of Welsh
magazines to the editing of which Sill
van gave some of the best years of his
life. All his past efforts, however, are
cast to the shade by this present work
OF hls-his Dictionary of the Welsh
l-anguage'-a work on which he has
for his collaborateur Mr.. Henry Silvan
Evans, a chip of the old block. The
dictionary" is published by the we'll
known firm of Spurrell and Son. Car
marthen, and appears in parts of which
four have already been issued, the total
number of pages being 1,S2S This not
withstanding, the last page only brings
the work over the fourth letter of the
Welsh alphabet-D-a fact which will
give some idea of its encyclopaedia
character. 1t is evidently the slow ac-
cumulation of years-forty, or perhaps
more-ot painstaking and Well-directed
labor How much reading. how much
hunting up of manuscripts, how much
consulting and comparing of authors
how much observation and how much
application to pen and paper those
years represent can only be known TO
the industrious author himself.
Welsh photographers hitherto have
almost entirely confined their attention
TO the written or literary language of
Wales, ignoring Welsh dialects, and ex-
Guiding from their pages hundreds of
words which they deemed unworthy of
insertion owing to those words having
local or provincial stamp and accent
1t remained for Silvan Evans to see
their linguistic value and rescue them
from oblivion. His dictionary TEEN
with these forms. for which it is use
less to look in any other similar work
like Murray's and the Century Die
tionary." SilVan Evans proceeds on
the historical method, and thus his
pages at every step acquire fresh in
terest to the student Of Welsh litera-
ture for they largely supply him with a
key TO a number of Welsh authors
from the earliest times to the present.
The student is able to see at a glance
how a certain word is used by different
writers at different times. This at some
future time may serve a very good pur-