Christiansborg, to express their condolence on the catastrophe. The diplomatic body also deputed one of their members to wait on His Majesty for the same purpose. The king has ordered the conservators of the museums of Copenhagen to proceed to the scene of disaster, in order to collect any objects of value which may have escaped the flames." His Majesty, as one of the most learned and indefatigable archæologists of our day, is sincerely to be condoled with, for the loss is irreparable! We have here another warning of the danger that attends the heating of libraries and museums; surely the attention of architects cannot be too seriously called to the subject. Reniems. THE ANCIENT CORNISH DRAMA. By EDWIN NORRIS, Esq., Sec. R.A.S. (Second Notice.) We return to this important work at the earliest available opportunity, and with interest, not only undiminished, but greatly increased, by more leisurely perusal and study of its contents. In our former review we gave a general idea of the nature of the dramas themselves, and of the MSS. from which they have been printed. We do not purpose, even in this present notice, quoting anything from the dramatic portion of the book, but shall still request our readers to follow us with the Appendix. Without intruding upon their attention by any superfluous remarks of our own, we think that we shall be discharging our editorial duties more satisfactorily by quoting copiously from the book itself. And here a curious portion of the subject is treated of under the head of " Representation of the Dramas"-the passages quoted below being worthy of the most careful perusal by all Cambrian and Breton readers; because, though the former have nothing of the same kind to produce, the latter will find themselves quite at home, and will readily understand all about it. In Wales, and Scotland too, as far as the drama is concerned, all is gloom and ignorance; in Britanny and Cornwall, cheerfulness and intelligence have prevailed, and still exist. A modern Welsh or Scottish peasant-we had almost said one of the middle-class in the agricultural districts— is so surrounded with a peculiar moral atmosphere, that the drama is, to him, an abomination in every form. It was not so in Cornwall, as these volumes attest; nor is it so now in Britanny, where dramas, sacred and secular, are still in full vogue. But, to proceed with Mr. Norris's observations on the manner and plan of representing these dramas: he observes,— "We have no notice of the performance of the Cornish plays earlier than that of Richard Carew, whose survey of Cornwall was first printed in 1602. In his time they were played in regular amphitheatres, and the account he gives is well worth extracting, as it affords a vivid picture by one who was in all probability an eyewitness, nearly three centuries ago. "The Guary miracle, in English, a miracle play, is a kinde of Enterlude, compiled in Cornish out of some Scripture history, with that grossenes which accompanied the Romanes vetus Comedia. For representing it, they raise an earthen Amphitheatre in some open field, hauing the Diameter of his enclosed playne some 40 or 50 foot. The Country people flock from all sides, many miles off, to hear & see it for they haue therein, deuils and deuices, to delight as well the eye as the eare; the players conne not their parts without booke, but are prompted by one called the Ordinary, who followeth at their back with the booke in his hand, and telleth them softly what they must pronounce aloud. Which maner once gaue occasion to a pleasant conceyted gentleman, of practising a mery pranke: for he vndertaking (perhaps of set purpose) an actors roome, was accordingly lessoned (beforehand) by the Ordinary, that he must say after him. His turn came quoth the Ordinary, Goe forth man, and shew thyselfe. The Gentleman steps out upon the stage, and like a bad Clarke in scripture matters, cleauing more to the letter then the sense, pronounced those words aloud. Oh (sayes the fellowe softly in his eare) you marre all the play. And with this his passion, the Actor makes the Audience in like sort acquainted. Hereon the promptor falles to flat rayling cursing in the bitterest terms he could deuise: which the Gentleman with a set gesture and countenance still soberly related, vntill the Ordinary, driuen at last into a madde rage, was faine to giue ouer all. Which trousse, though it brake off the Enterlude, yet defrauded not the beholders, but dismissed them with a great deale more sport and laughter, then 20. such Guaries could haue affoorded.'1 "Dr. Borlase, who wrote a century and a half later than Carew, mentions the amphitheatres in which the Cornish dramas were represented, and describes in detail two of those places, which were popularly styled Rounds, one in the parish of St. Just, near the Land's End, and the other at Piranzubuloe; illustrating his description with plans drawn to a scale, shewing that Carew had by no means exaggerated the dimensions of these theatres, or rather had seen only the smaller specimens. The following is extracted from Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall: In these continued rounds or Amphitheatres of stone (not broken as the cirque of stones erect) the Britans did usually assemble to hear plays acted, to see the sports and games, which upon particular occasions were intended to amuse the people, to quiet and delight them; an Institution (among other Engines of State) very necessary in all Civil Societies: these are called with us in Cornwall (where we have great numbers of them) Plân an guare; viz. the level place, or plain of sport and pastime. The benches round were generally of Turf, as Ovid, talking of of these ancient places of sport, observes— In gradibus sedit populus de cespite factis, "We have one whose benches are of stone, and the most remarkable monument of this kind which I have yet seen; it is near the church of St. Just, Penwith, now somewhat disfigured by the injudicious repairs of late years; but by the remains it seems to have been a work of more than usual labour and correctness. [Here a plate is referred to, which accompanies this account.] It was an exact circle of 126 feet diameter; the perpendicular height of the bank, from the area within, now seven feet; but the height from the bottom of the ditch without, ten feet at present, formerly more. The seats consist of six steps, fourteen inches wide, and one foot high, with one 2 Second edition, p.207. 1 Carew, fol. 71. on the top of all, where the Rampart is about seven feet wide. The plays they acted in these Amphitheatres were in the Cornish language, the subjects taken from Scripture History, and "called Guirimir, which Mr. Lhuyd supposes a corruption of Guari-mirkle, and in the Cornish dialect to signify a miraculous play or interlude. They were composed for begetting in the common people a right notion of the Scriptures, and were acted in the memory of some not long since deceased.' In a note, the last few lines quoted are stated to be from Bishop Nicholson's Letter to Dr. Charlett, dated November 14, 1700, in the possession of Mr. Ballard, of Magdalen College, Oxford. "The Rev. Geo. Hadow, vicar of St. Just, has very kindly favoured me with a notice of the amphitheatre above described by Dr. Borlase :-'This old structure still remains in St. Just Church town, close to the principal inn; the clear outline of the circus is quite apparent, being formed externally by a stone wall of about four feet perpendicular height, whilst a green bank slopes inwards; there is now no outside ditch, nor are there any steps. It is the usual resort of all the idle boys of the town to play their games, and a pathway leads right through it from the town to the marketplace:-no one can pass through that part of the town, or go to Cape Cornwall without seeing it, though it has been sadly neglected as regards any repairs.' "Another amphitheatre of larger dimensions is figured and described by Dr. Borlase in his Natural History of Cornwall, published in 1758, where he gives an elaborate account of the ancient dramas contained in these volumes. After some detail, commencing at p. 295, he says, 'The places where they were acted were the Rounds, a kind of amphitheater, with benches either of stone or turf. Of the former sort that exhibited in the Antiquities of Cornwall (p. 196, Pl. xvi. fig 1.) served this purpose; but a much larger one, of higher mound, fossed on the outside, and very regular, is the amphitheater in the parish of Piran-sand, which, as it has some peculiarities, I have planned with the following references.' "A plan of the amphitheatre is given in the work, exhibiting a perfectly level area of 130 feet diameter; this was surrounded by a continued earthen mound, eight feet high, having seven turf benches on the inside; the top of the mound or rampart was seven feet in width. A peculiar feature of this Round was a pit in the area, described as 'a circular pit, in diameter thirteen feet, deep three feet, the sides sloping, and half way down a bench of turf, so formed as to reduce the area of the bottom to an ellipsis:' this hollow was connected with the circular benches by a shallow trench four feet six inches wide, and one foot in depth; the length is not given in the text, but the scale shews it to have been forty feet: where it reaches the side, a semicircular breach about ten feet in diameter is made in the benches. Borlase suggests that the hollow pit might have generally served for representing Hell, and that in the drama of the Resurrection it might have served for the Grave. The trench he conjectures to have aided in representing the Ascension, but he does not clearly shew how this was done. "These extracts will allow us to figure to ourselves the scene and the performance of Cornish Mystery-plays: the bare granite plain of St. Just, in view of Cape Cornwall, and of the transparent sea which beats against that magnificent headland, would be a fit theatre for the exhibition of what in those days of simplicity would appear a serious presentation of the great History of the Creation, the Fall, and the Redemption of Man, however it might be marred occasionally by passages of lighter, or even of ludicrous character. The mighty gathering of people from many miles round, hardly showing like a crowd in that extended region, where nothing ever grows to limit the view on any side, with their booths or tents, absolutely necessary when so many people had to remain three days on the spot, would give a character to the assembly probably more like what we hear of the so-called religious revivals in America, than of anything witnessed in more sober Europe. No doubt there was a good deal of readiness for sport and merriment, as there is generally in all large bodies of men assembled for receiving impressions rather than for action; but in times of less refinement, transitions of feeling are proportionately more rapid, and the comic parts of the drama would afford scope enough for laughter and mirthful excitement. The ludicrous scene described by Carew, where the Ordinary, whom Borlase calls the chief manager, was excited to violent rage by the indecorous behaviour of a performer, is a proof that in general good order was maintained. We may assume on the whole, that the representation of the Mysteries was more suitably made under circumstances like these, than with cumbrous machinery in the crowded streets of a city." We have malice enough to suspect that some of our friends, after reading what we have just quoted, may at once be inclined to modify their opinions about "druidic circles," and to declare their long latent suspicion as to many of our lone mountain circles, raths, and other similar inclosures, having been originally used as "play-places," and spots of joyous assembly. Theory for theory, we are not disposed to quarrel with them. The assumption of circular inclosures being indicative of popular assemblies for pleasure, as well as for politics or religion, has nothing peculiarly improbable in it. It is certainly more consonant to reason than all the trash of modern bardism, and eisteddfodic absurdity. For all this, however, we doubt the possibility of any place of representation of medieval dramas being proved to exist within the Principality; and this is the point in which Wales differs from Cornwall and Britanny. Antiquaries, however, will do well to bear all this in mind; and perhaps, at some future period, that obscure, unread corner of our Journal, where "Notes and Queries" are crammed, may bear traces of an over-inquisitive mind panting for information about the circular drama of Wales. What if it should be found that Welsh dramas were performed "four-square," or "threecornered," like the famous but difficult triangular duel? Mr. Norris, in the next portion of the Appendix, attacks the much controverted point of language; and this part of his work will be of greater value than any other to some of our readers. He opens thus: "The Cornish is one of the Celtic languages; these are divided into two distinct classes, which may be conveniently called the Cymric and the Gaelic. The Gaelic class includes the Irish, Scottish, and Manks languages; the Cymric comprehends Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric: the two classes differ from each other perhaps as much as Latin and Greek. Of such notions as must necessarily exist in all human communities, a proportion may be found represented by words common to Gaelic and Cymric, as large as of those common to Latin and Greek; and the paradigms of the verbs, together with other grammatical relations, have a like analogy in the two classes of language respectively the alleged absence of declension in the Cymric class, which appears to separate it from the Gaelic in so trenchant a manner, is removed by the existence of a genitive case in Cornish, in exact analogy with Irish, a fact mentioned by Lhuyd more than a century and half ago, but hardly noticed. It may be asserted without hesitation that the Cymric was separated from the Gaelic before the division into Cornish and Welsh was effected: and the writer is of opinion that the Cornish is the representative of a language once current all over South Britain at least. "In the Gaelic class the Irish and Scottish may be called one language; they differ from each other little more than English does from Lowland Scotch, and a student who reads one will find little difficulty with the other: Manks appears to be a corrupted and uncultivated Irish, of which O'Donovan says in the Introduction to his Irish Grammar, p. lxxx, 'An Irish scholar would find it difficult to understand a Manx book without studying the language as a distinct dialect.' Of the Cymric class, the Welsh differs from the two others as much as French from Spanish, while Cornish and Armoric stand in a closer relation; these resemble each other more than Dutch and German, as much perhaps as Portuguese and Spanish, but not so closely as Irish and Scottish. In spite of statements to the contrary, the writer is of opinion that a Breton, within the historical existence of the two dialects, could not have understood a Cornishman speaking at any length, or on any but the most trivial subjects; he is himself unable to read a sentence in Armoric of more than half a dozen lines without the help of a dictionary. Mr. Scawen, near the close of the seventeenth century, made a similar remark, as quoted in the Preface to Pryce's Vocabulary: he observes, Words of one another, 'tis true, all those three sorts of people [Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons] do understand alternately (mutually?); not all, but mostly such as are radical. Colloquies of one another they do not enjoy." " The author then proceeds to state his reasons for considering the antiquity of the Irish language superior to that of the British; and thinks that the cause of the latter differing in many important points from the former is, that the British came in contact with a language totally distinct, and spoken by a nation of more feeble organization. He adds, "The separation between the two Celtic tongues the writer believes to have been effected after the arrival of the primitive stock in Britain; and he further is inclined to believe, that the people with whom the amalgamation took place were the men of the 'stone period,' the men of narrow skulls, whose skeletons, flint weapons, and tools, have been frequently dug up in Britain. These men, he would suggest, were præ-Celtic; but there is no evidence to show that they were extinct when the first Celts arrived; the balance appears rather to preponderate the other way. All the accounts left us by ancient writers indicate two different races simultaneously inhabiting Britain; the one a tribe who went naked and painted their bodies, who dwelt in tents, and indulged in promiscuous intercourse, were ignorant of agriculture, used stone hatchets and arrows, and probably were cannibals; the others men who built houses, dressed in black garments or in skins, coined money, constructed chariots, grew a good deal of corn, extracted metals from the ore, made bronze tools, and had probably some use of letters. It seems difficult to believe that these were one people, though confounded by the classical writers, who received without criticism the accounts brought home by casual travellers. But this was in early times, and the less civilized race may have been destroyed or absorbed by the time the Romans became better acquainted with the island; and yet St. Jerome in his youth, about the middle of the fourth century, saw in Gaul the Aticotti gentem Britannicam' feeding on 3 See the Grammar, p. 233. Usually named Attacotti. Zeuss, p. 837, restores Atticotos or Aticottos to the |