Twm o'r Nant

Twm o'r Nant.

Twm o'r Nant was the pen name of the Welsh language dramatist and poet Thomas Edwards (January 1739 – 3 April 1810), also known as Tom of the Dingle. He was famous for his anterliwtau (interludes or short plays), which he performed mainly around his native Denbighshire.^[1][2]

Earlier life[]

Edwards was born in Llannefydd, Denbighshire (now in Conwy County Borough). When he was a child, his parents moved to Y Nant Isaf (Welsh for 'Lower Brook'), near Nantglyn, from which he took his pen name. Edwards had little formal education: he attended one of Griffith Jones's circulating schools, where he learnt to read, and attended a school in Denbigh for two weeks to learn English.^[1][3] However, he was eager to learn to write – he cadged writing paper and wrote with ink that he made from elderberries.^[4]

In 1749 Edwards joined a local company of touring actors, who typically performed on an improvised stage such as a cart. He wrote seven interludes before he was twenty years old, all of which have been lost.^[2][3]

In 1763 Edwards married Elizabeth Hughes, the wedding having been conducted by the poet-priest Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd). The couple settled in Denbigh, where Edwards worked hauling timber, performing in his interludes throughout North Wales and selling printed copies of them. After financial problems caused by the bankruptcy of his uncle, for whom he had stood surety, Edwards moved to South Wales, where he again worked in timber haulage and for a time kept an inn in Llandeilo. He returned to North Wales in 1786 to resume his performances of interludes, and became a stonemason. In 1808 he was working for William Madocks on the construction of the Porthmadog embankment.^[1]

Social comments[]

The interludes Edwards wrote comment on the social evils of his day. He frequently notes unpopular taxes, greedy landowners, swindling lawyers and immoral clergymen.^[3] The interludes form a link between the medieval and modern traditions of Welsh drama.^[5] He also wrote and published ballads, of which about 200 remain, some as fragments.^[3] His short autobiography appeared in the periodical Y Greal in 1805.^[3]

Edwards took part in the annual eisteddfodau of the Gwyneddigion Society, the precursors of the National Eisteddfod. His failure to win the main prize at the Corwen Eisteddfod in 1789 may have been due to a dispute over an impromptu composition competition with Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain), in which Edwards was supported by David Samwell (Captain Cook's surgeon). Samwell named Edwards The Cambrian Shakespeare and gave him a silver pen as a consolation prize for having been unfairly beaten. The silver pen remains in the collection of National Museum Wales.^[3][6]

Edwards died on 3 April 1810. He was buried at , Denbigh, where there is a memorial to him.^[1]

Legacy[]

Edwards's interludes were published after his death: a collection of six appeared with Isaac Foulkes in 1874.^[7]

George Borrow devotes two chapters to Edwards in his 1862 travel book Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery. He includes a translation of part of an interlude by Edwards, entitled Riches and Poverty.^[4][8]

In 1974 the Welsh playwright published Bard: a play on the life and times of Twm O'r Nant, which was commissioned as the opening play of the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.^[9][10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twm o'r Nant.

References[]

External links[]

• Works by Thomas Edwards at Project Gutenberg