RELICS OF THE OLD CORNISH LANGUAGE.

BY THE REV. W. S. LACH-SZYRMA, M.A.

(Read May 16th, 1906.)

HERE is one class of antiquities in England: of a philological nature, which is almost unique in Europe: I mean, the relics of an ancient language. Nowhere, except in England, I believe, can we even fix any death-place of a language. One of the reasons for this is that languages die so hard: the only European language, besides the Cornish, that has died out in modern times is the Prussian, and I question if we can fix the time or place of its expiring.

As to the dying languages of Europe, none expired in the nineteenth century, and I rather question if any will die in the twentieth: unless, at least, the strong feeling of nationality which now prevails in the smaller nations of Europe, and which seems to be growing rather than declining, should suddenly yield and die out. Most of these lesser languages are more vigorous now than in the middle of the nineteenth century. A hundred years ago, one might have prophesied that they would expire before the twentieth century, but now they are very vigorous. Political reasons and the spirit of nationality have much to do with this.

1. The Lithuanian.-I lately had in my house a ballticket in Lithuanian, used in London. Even in this metropolis, Lithuanian is used by some hundreds of persons. In its own country it is used by tens of thousands, and a literature is rising in it.

2. As for Wendish, it has its literature, magazines, and

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newspaper. National spirit supports this Slavonic language in the heart of Germany.

3. As for Manx, only lately there was a petition to the Education Department for grants for teaching Manx in the Isle of Man schools. The title of the laws decreed by the House of Keys are read in Manx at the Tynwald.

4. As for Irish, it is far more vigorous than some years ago. In London, I see Irish bills in the old Erse alphabet. 5. Mordvinian is lively still, although the Russian Government seeks to stamp it out.

6. Servian and Bulgarian are safer than ever, as being now the languages of established and independent

nations.

We had a lively reminder of the vigorous life of the Celtic languages of Western Europe at the Pan-Celtic Congress of 1904. There were gathered in the charming old Welsh town of Carnarvon ("the chief eagle of the eagles of Snowdonia") the representatives of the six Celtic nationalities of Western Europe:

1. The Welsh ; 2. The Breton; 3. The Cornish of the Brythonic group. 4. The Irish; 5. The Scottish Highlanders; 6. The Manx-of the Goidelic group.

The Cornish had not been recognised at the Dublin Congress, but was accepted at Carnarvon, and will be noted among the six races of the Celts.

I may say that, in my opinion, this is not an exhaustive list of the Celtic races of Europe.

1. The old Gauls of France were true Goidels, although now Latinized and mixed with other races. The greatest Celtic nation of Europe is really the French.

In Cornwall one is often reminded of this: the country-folk, especially the agriculturalists, are in many ways and customs, and in physical aspect, like the French peasants, i.e., those of true Gallic descent.

2. The Walloons of Belgium are Celts, but their nationality is obscured. The Walloon tongue is like French, and is being superseded by it.

3. The Cumbrians are a vestige of the Strathclyde Celts, but now nearly absorbed in the English.

All this shows the interest we have in the last relics of

the old Cornu-British language, which marks the existence of an ancient race in England, distinct from the AngloSaxons, but also not the same as the Welsh. What was the origin of this race? I have dealt with this problem already in my paper on "The Mining Tribes of Ancient Britain." I suspect the Cornish are the descendants of the ancient Damnonii, the "old men"-as miners call them of the western peninsula of Britain. These Damnonii were, I suspect, a mixed race, partly of the ancient Euskarian mining tribes-the cromlech-builders, who spread at one time not only over the western coast of Europe, but over North Africa and Central Asia (to judge by Ferguson's records of their monuments)—and partly of the Celtic Britons of the Brythonic tribes, many of whom seem to have taken refuge in Devon and Cornwall from the Roman and still more from the Saxon conquerors of Britain. It is with the linguistic relics of this ancient race that I would now deal. It is in ethnology one of the most interesting regions in Europe-a mingling of the aboriginal race of the western horn of Great Britain with the Brythonic race of the Celtic Aryans.

The existing relics of the Cornish language may be thus summarized :

I. The manuscripts of the Cornish Dramas, and the Epic of Mount Calvary. (All these are published.)

II. Certain writings, some printed and some still in manuscript, of the language in its later stage.

III. The names of places.

IV. The names of families: "Tre, Pol, and Pen," etc. V. The tradition of the numerals and some words. VI. The Celtic words absorbed in the Cornish dialect -words not "naughty English," as Andrew Borde called them, but true Celtic words.

I.

As for literary records, I must only briefly give their chief heads, since I have already dealt with this topic.

A. The Scriptural Dramas.

1. The Creation.

2. The Passion Play.

3. The Resurrection.

4. The Mors Pilati.

5. The Ascension.

B. Then we have Jordans Creacon, the last Cornish drama of 1611, in the reign of James I.

C.-The last-discovered Cornish drama is the Beunans Meriasek, with which is bound up the "Life of St. Sylvester" (dealing with Constantine the Great), and the "Woman and her Son"-a little interlude.

These all exist in manuscript, but have been published and translated into English. On them chiefly rests our academic knowledge of Cornish, and on them are mainly founded the Cornish Grammars of Norris and of Zeuss, the Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum of Williams, the Cornish Dictionary of Dr. Jago, and, above all, the valuable Manual of the Cornish Language of Mr. Jenner.

There is thus quite a little literature of Cornish, even though the language is dead. Yet for academic and philological purposes it has been preserved (like a mummy in a museum), and we now know nearly all we can expect to know about Cornish. If anything has yet to be discovered, it probably will be merely by the careful comparison of Cornish with other Celtic languages. This was done to some extent by Mr. Williams in 1865, in his elaborate and learned Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum ; but, unfortunately, that great work was published before the discovery of the Beunans Meriasek, and possibly the manuscripts still existing and unprinted may add a little. I question if we can ever expect to know much more than we do of this obscure subject. I may suggest, however, that some of the seeming complexities of Cornish may be due to the fact that the records we have are of divers ages, and so represent the language in divers states of development or degeneration.

II. CORNISH MANUSCRIPTS.

The subject of Cornish manuscripts yet unprinted, in the British Museum and elsewhere, is of more special interest

to archæologists than the published works in and on the Cornish language.

Of these, probably the Gwavas manuscripts in the British Museum are the most important. They include several Cornish letters by John Boson, Gwavas, and others, a copy of the "Creation," a Cornish vocabulary, etc. Some of these have not yet been printed. They mostly belong to the later period of the language, from 1693 to 1741, when William Gwavas died. It is very desirable that these manuscripts should be printed, with proper editing and translation. Until this is done, they cannot be available to all Celtic scholars throughout Europe.

I may remind you that these scholars are not confined to Great Britain; they are not only Englishmen or Welshmen, or learned Gaelic or Irish scholars, but also

1. In France there is much enthusiasm for Celtic researches. In them we can find the clue to some of the obscurer points of early French or Gallic ethnology and history. The Revue Celtique, of Paris, is one of the most important of the Celtic magazines of Europe. Also we should remember that the Cornish language, when most neglected and despised, had as its chief patron and student a Frenchman, Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, who put up the tomb to Dolly Pentreath, the last woman, it is commonly supposed, who talked Cornish fluently.

2. As in almost every science, we are much indebted to learned Germans for Cornish studies, and Prof. Zeuss did much in his Grammatica Celtica.

3. Some Slavonic scholars have shown enthusiasm in Celtic studies at the Carnarvon Congress, though how far they have added to our knowledge is a moot point.

About 1880, Mr. William C. Borlase, a Cornish M.P., agitated for a Cornish Manuscript Society, for publishing and preserving Cornish manuscripts. The scheme fell through, but may well be renewed. Until there is such a society, with sufficient funds at its disposal, we cannot hope for the permanent printing and re-editing of all the Cornish manuscripts. Some of them have small literary value, and only represent the later stages of the language. Still, they are of some philological and historic worth, and are of interest to all archæologists.