Probably one of the earliest illustrative notices we have in print of Wales and the Welsh is contained in the second chapter of Borde's Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, of which W. Copland printed two (or more) editions about 1550.

A play called The Welsh Traveller is mentioned in Sir Henry Herbert's Diary, under date of May 10, 1622, as a new play licensed for performance by the Children of the Revels. It is not known to exist in print or MS. Three other dramas, in which Welshmen are made to figure, are described by Mr. Halliwell in his Dictionary of Old Plays, 1860-viz. The Welsh Embassador, (circa 1625), The Welshman, 1595, and The Welshman's Prize, 1598. They all appear to have perished.

The editor is inclined to regard Crouch as the person to whom the modernized and lengthened version of the famous history of Tom Thumb should be ascribed. It will be found printed, with the older one, in the second volume.

OR

The Unfortunate WELCHMAN:

If any Gentleman do want a Man,
As I doubt not but fome do now and than,
I have a Welchman: though but meanly clad,
Will make him merry, be he nere fo fad:
If that you read, read it quite ore I pray,
And you'l not think your penny caft away.
BY HUMPHRY CROUCH.

N this Dull age to recreate

the minds of friends and strangers, Hur1 tell hur of hur evil Fate,

and hur unlookt for dangers.

Was travel over mountains high
and in the vallies low,

Was see great wonders in the skie
that others little know.

Hur was a welch Astrologer,

was tell of matters strange,
So deep was learn'd was tell to hur,
how oft the Moon doth change;
Was tell hur of a Shepherds star,
Of wonders old and new,

If hur have peace, hur have no war,
all this hur prove is true.
Was tell hur too in loving words
things shall be as before,

10

1 Orig. has he; but as the author evidently intended, here and throughout the poem, to satirize the Cambro-British peculiarity of hur, the latter form has been adopted in preference to one in which there is no meaning.