RHYS
,
JOHN DAVID
(or ‘
Siôn Dafydd Rhys
’, and in his own day ‘
John
Davies
’ only;
1534
-
1609?
),
physician and grammarian
.
Born in
Llanfaethlu
,
Anglesey
, of a humble family, but descended from ‘uchelwyr.’ After spending some time at
Christ Church College
,
Oxford
, he departed for the Continent about
1555
and travelled extensively — he himself states that he visited
Venice
,
Crete
, and
Cyprus
— finally becoming a member of the
University of Siena
, where he graduated as a
doctor of medicine
. He was also a
teacher
at a school in
Pistoia
. It is not known for how long he remained on the Continent, but he was back in
Wales
by
1579
, and in
1583
he was practising as a
physician
at
Cardiff
. He later settled at
Clun Hir
in
Brecknock
. His wife was
Agnes
, daughter of
John
Garbet
of
Hereford
, and they had seven sons. It is sometimes stated that he d. in
1609
, but certain sources seem to suggest that he was alive in
1617
. Two books by him appeared during his stay on the Continent. One was
De Italica Pronunciatione
(
Padua
,
1569
), which was probably intended for the use of
Welshmen
visiting
Italy
, and which proves the author's familiarity with all the principal
European
languages. The other work was a
Latin
grammar published at
Venice
, and said to have been very popular with students, but no copy seems to have survived. After returning to
Wales
and devoting some years to the collection of material
Rhys
published, in
1592
, his famous
Welsh
grammar,
Cambrobrytannicae Cymraecaeve Linguae Institutions et Rudimenta
. The book was dedicated to
Sir
Edward
Stradling
of
S. Donats, Glam.
, who had defrayed the cost of printing. It consists of a grammar of the
Welsh
language together with a lengthy and laborious discussion of
Welsh
prosody. As a work of scholarship it has very little merit, because the
author
, who had none of the gifts of
Gruffydd
Robert
or
Dr.
John
Davies
for analysing the structure of language, adopted the grammatical framework of
Latin
and forced the
Welsh
language into that. In the section on prosody, whole passages have been taken word for word from the bardic treatises, and time and again it becomes apparent that
Rhys
did not comprehend the meaning of these quotations. It should be observed however that the book contains items of knowledge which are not found elsewhere.
The author's aim was to make known outside
Wales
the peculiarities of the
Welsh
language and the main features of the bardic tradition, and this is the reason why the book was written in
Latin
. Other works by
Rhys
occur in manuscript.
Pen. MS. 118
contains a long treatise by him on early British history, an attempt to refute the arguments of
Polydore
Vergil
and others against the validity as history of
Geoffrey of Monmouth
's
Historia Regum Britanniae
. The same manuscript contains a
Welsh
translation, probably incomplete, of a
Latin
poem by
Thomas
Leyshon
on
S. Donats castle
and its gardens. Everything considered,
Rhys
can be regarded as a characteristic example of the
Renaissance
Welshman
.
Sources:
-
W. J. Gruffydd
,
Llenyddiaeth Cymru o 1450 hyd 1600
,
Rhyddiaith
, 155;
-
T. Parry
, ‘Siôn Dafydd Rhys’ in
Y Llenor
, ix, 157, 234, x, 35;
-
‘Gramadeg Siôn Dafydd Rhys,’
Bulletin of the Board of Celtic
Studies
, vi, 55, 255;
-
G. J. Williams
,
Iolo Morganwg a Chywyddau'r
Ychwanegiad
(1926)
, 65.
Author:
Sir Thomas Parry, D.Litt., (1904-85), Bangor /
Aberystwyth
