Revue celtique<\/a><\/em> 47, 1930. (Auto translated from the French and lightly polished for clarity)<\/p>\nMoins d’un an apr\u00e8s sir John Morris Jones, John Gwenogvryn Evans entre \u00e0 son tour dans l’\u00e9ternel repos. Si ces deux bons Gallois se rencontrent aux Champs-Elys\u00e9es, il faut esp\u00e9rer que leurs ombres, d\u00e9livr\u00e9es des passions terrestres, poursuivront dans le calme et la s\u00e9r\u00e9nit\u00e9 les discussions qu’ils menaient ici-bas si \u00e2prement. La violence qu’ils mettaient \u00e0 se combattre, \u00e0 se d\u00e9ni- grer, d\u00e9passait toute mesure. Comme le motif s’en ramenait tou- jours \u00e0 l’interpr\u00e9tation d’un texte ou \u00e0 la lecture d’un manuscrit, c’\u00e9tait pour tout spectateur impartial un sujet \u00e0 la fois de tristesse et d’\u00e9tonnement. Dans une pol\u00e9mique aussi excessive les torts \u00e9taient \u00e9galement partag\u00e9s : on ne trouvait \u00e0 qui donner raison. La post\u00e9rit\u00e9 oubliera heureusement ces vaines disputes et ne retiendra d’eux que les bons services qu’ils ont, chacun dans leur genre, rendus \u00e0 la philologie galloise.<\/font><\/p>\nLess than a year after Sir John Morris Jones, John Evans Gwenogvryn also turns to his eternal rest. If both Welsh good-men met in the Champs Elysees, it is to be hoped that from their ghostly shadows would depart all their earthly passions, and that they would continue in peace and quiet the discussions they had set down in print so fiercely. Put aside the violence that they put into their fight, which involved denigration beyond [any seemly] measure. Since the final pattern of meaning is always found in the reader’s own interpretation of a text or a manuscript, then their quarrel seemed to any impartial spectator a subject of both sadness and amazement. In such a controversy the excessive wrongs were evenly split: and no-one was right. Fortunately posterity will forget these vain disputes and we shall retain these men in our memory for the good service they have, each in their way, given to Welsh philology.<\/p>\n
John Evans \u00e9tait n\u00e9 le 20 mars 1852 \u00e0 Ffynnon Yelved, Llany- byther (Carmarthenshire), et fit son \u00e9ducation premi\u00e8re au Presby- terian Coll\u00e8ge de Carmarthen. Entr\u00e9 de bonne heure dans le minist\u00e8re sacerdotal, il fut quelque temps pasteur de l’\u00c9glise uni- tarienne \u00e0 Preston (Lancashire). Atteint de tuberculose pulmo- naire, il dut cesser son service paroissial, et les m\u00e9decins lui d\u00e9clar\u00e8rent qu’un d\u00e9nouement fatal ne pourrait \u00eatre retard\u00e9 \u2014 et seulement retard\u00e9 \u2014 que s’il se d\u00e9cidait \u00e0 partir pour l’Australie. Il s’y d\u00e9cida. Mais l’am\u00e9lioration de sa sant\u00e9 lui parut trop lente \u00e0 venir; il quitta brusquement Melbourne le 6 f\u00e9vrier 1882 pour rentrer dans sa patrie et il d\u00e9barqua \u00e0 Gravesend le 25 mai suivant. Il se rendit alors \u00e0 Oxford, br\u00fblant de l’ardeur de l’\u00e9tude ; il y retrouva son grand ami O.-M. Edwards, qui nous a laiss\u00e9 un portrait touchant de cet \u00ab invalide \u00bb, pour lequel vingt minutes de lecture \u00e9taient alors une p\u00e9nible \u00e9preuve. Mais cet invalide avait une \u00e9nergie farouche; il s’ent\u00eata si bien au travail qu’il eut raison de sa mauvaise sant\u00e9. A Oxford, dans l’entourage de sir John Rhys, il trouva des condisciples qui partageaient son ardeur et dont l’\u00e9mulation l’excita. Il se proposa l’\u00e9dition aussi exacte que possible des vieux textes gallois, si souvent maltrait\u00e9s dans les publications modernes, et il devint pal\u00e9ographe. C’est comme tel qu’il faut le juger pour appr\u00e9cier tous ses m\u00e9rites. Il publia successivement un facsimile autotype du Black Book of Carmarthen (R. Celt., IX, 297) puis, avec la collaboration de sir John Rhys, l’\u00e9dition diplomatique des Mabinogion et des Bruts d’apr\u00e8s le Red Book of Hergest (ibid., VIII, 192 ; IX, 290 ; XI, 504 ; XII, 294). Vint ensuite, toujours avec la collaboration de Rhys, l’\u00e9di- tion du Book of Llandav (ibid., XIV, 205). En 1894, il fut nomm\u00e9 inspecteur des documents en langue galloise, fonction qu’il occupa jusqu’en 1906. Prenant sa charge au s\u00e9rieux, il entre- prit la vaste enqu\u00eate qui porta sur environ 900 manuscrits et aboutit au monumental Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, en deux volumes (ibid., XIX, 343 ; XXIV, 95 et XXXI, 533) : c’est son \u0153uvre ma\u00eetresse ; elle est pour la philologie galloise d’une importance capitale.<\/font><\/p>\nJohn Evans was born 20th March 1852 at Ffynnon Yelved, Llanybyther (Carmarthenshire), and was educated first at the Presbyterian College in Carmarthen. He came early in the priestly ministry, and was for some time pastor of a Unitarian Church in Preston (Lancashire). Suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, he had to stop his parish work. Doctors declared to him that a fatal outcome could be delayed – and only delayed – if he decided to leave for Australia. He decided on it. But the improvement in his health seemed too slow in coming; so he abruptly left Melbourne on 6th February 1882 to return to his homeland. He landed at Gravesend on 25th May. He then went to Oxford, burning with the ardor of the study; there found his great friend O. M. Edwards, who left us a touching portrait of this “invalid”, a man for whom twenty minutes reading time were a painful ordeal. But this was an invalid with a fierce energy; he persisted in his scholarship and he had time to work because of ill health. At Oxford he became part of the entourage of Sir John Rhys, in whose company he found fellow students who shared his ardor and the interests which excited him. He also proposed the need for exact editions, as exact as as possible of the old Welsh texts – which were then so often abused in modern publications. He became a palaeographer, and it is on such work that we must judge and appreciate its merits. He successively published a facsimile autotype the Black Book of Carmarthen and with the collaboration of Sir John Rhys, a diplomatic edition of the Mabinogion and the ?? from the Red Book of Hergest. Then came, working in collaboration with Rhys, an edition of publishing the Book of Llandav. In 1894 he was appointed inspector of manuscripts in Welsh, a position he held until 1906. Taking his charge seriously, he undertook extensive investigation which brought about 900 manuscripts and leads into the monumental Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language in two volumes. It is his masterpiece; it is for the Welsh philologist a work of paramount importance.<\/p>\n
Il avait \u00e9pous\u00e9 Edith Hunter, fille du principal du Presbyterian Coll\u00e8ge de Carmarthen \u2014 elle mourut en 1923 \u2014 ; et il avait \u00e9t\u00e9 s’installer dans le voisinage de Llanbedrog, en un lieu qu’il appela Tremvan. Sa maison \u00e9tait b\u00e2tie sur la hauteur dans un site mer- veilleux, dominant cette r\u00e9gion si pittoresque du Carnarvonshire, ayant vue sur la mer de deux c\u00f4t\u00e9s et par un ciel clair permettant m\u00eame, disait-il, de d\u00e9couvrir la c\u00f4te d’Irlande. C’est l\u00e0 que tout en dirigeant attentivement l’exploitation de ses terres, il poursuivit sans rel\u00e2che sa carri\u00e8re d’\u00e9diteur de textes. Successivement parurent : les Mabinogion du White Book of Rhydderch (ibid., XXXI, io\u00e9), le Book of Aneirin (ibid, XXXII, 209), le Book of Taliesin (ibid., XXXVII, 137), les po\u00e9sies du Red Book of Hergest et les lois du Book of Chirk. Il a publi\u00e9 dans la Revue Celtique (t. XL et XLI) le manuscrit le plus ancien des Gogynfeirdd. C’est \u00e0 Tremvan que la mort est venue le frapper en plein travail, le 25 mars 1930.<\/font><\/p>\nHe married Edith Hunter, daughter of the principal of the Presbyterian College Carmarthen – she died in 1923 – and settled in the neighborhood of Llanbedrog, in a place he called Tremvan. His house was built on a site high up in a marvelous site overlooking this picturesque region of Carnarvonshire, with sea views from both sides and clear skies allowing him, he said, to sometimes discern the coast of Ireland. This is where – while careful directing the use of the surrounding lands – he continued relentlessly his career as a text editor. Successively he produced: the Mabinogion of the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin, the Book of Taliesin, the poems of the Red Book of Hergest and laws of the Book of Chirk. He has published in the Celtic Review the oldest manuscript of Gogynfeirdd. It was at Tremvan that death came while he was still hard at work, 25th March 1930.<\/p>\n
Ses m\u00e9rites comme pal\u00e9ographe \u00e9taient universellement reconnus ; ils lui valurent le doctorat honoris causa de l’Universit\u00e9 d’Oxford (en 1903) et de l’Universit\u00e9 de Galles. On peut regretter qu’ils n’aient pas suffi \u00e0 son ambition. Les tentatives qu’il fit pour la critique et l’interpr\u00e9tation du Book of Aneirin et du Book ol Taliesin lurent des moins heureuses. Le meilleur service \u00e0 rendre \u00e0 sa m\u00e9moire est de n’en pas parler. Mais comme dernier titre de gloire, il faut signaler la part qu’il prit \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation de la! National Library of Wales \u00e0 Aberystwyth. Dans une s\u00e9rie d’articles publi\u00e9s par le Western Mail en ao\u00fbt 1928, il raconta: lui-m\u00eame comment son action personnelle aupr\u00e8s de sir John Williams fut d\u00e9finitive. Il \u00e9crivait avec esprit et sa conversation avait beaucoup de piquant. Tous ceux qui ont pu le conna\u00eetre de: pr\u00e8s conserveront le souvenir d’un travailleur enthousiaste et obligeant.<\/font><\/p>\nHis merits as palaeographer were universally recognized. They earned him an honorary doctorate from Oxford University (1903) and from the University of Wales. It is regrettable that these awards were not enough to stay his ambition. The attempts he made at the criticism and interpretation of the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin proved less happy. The best service we can render to his memory is not to talk [of the contention that these aroused]. But I have left to the last his other great claim to fame – it should be noted the part he played in creating the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. In a series of articles published by the Western Mail in August 1928, he told of how his personal appeal to Sir John Williams had clinched the matter. As a writer he wrote with wit and his conversation had a lot of pizzazz. All those who have known him will retain the memory of an enthusiastic and helpful worker.<\/p>\n
— J. Vendryes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m just ‘reading this into the record’, so I can link it from another post… Obituary: JOHN GWENOGVRYN EVANS, J. Vendryes in Revue celtique 47, 1930. (Auto translated from the French and lightly polished for clarity) Moins d’un an apr\u00e8s sir John Morris Jones, John Gwenogvryn Evans entre \u00e0 son tour dans l’\u00e9ternel repos. Si […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}