xxvîiî Appreciatîon of the Worh.
the bullc of his readers as a careful and therefore reliable historian. Finally, the success and popularity of the Drych as history is not a little due to its inimitable style : a style which com- pletely fascinates the reader and impels him to read and re-read until the statements of the writer, by dint of sheer repetition, if for no other reason, come to bc, or tend to become, accepted as facts by many of even the more critical of his fellow countrymen. In the Introduction to Pwyll y Pader^ referring to his mode of translation, he says : " Ac yma, yr wyf yn addef^ na chanlynais i agos y Llythyren air yngair yn ôl Defod gyffredin; Ac etto, os yw y Rhydd-did a gymmerais i yn gwneuthur y Llyfr yn fwy rhwydd a deallgar, nid ei Fai ond ei Rinwedd yw hynny." ^ This also is thc key to his treatment of his authorities in the Drych, Though he generally quotes the sources of his information, and his quotations purport to be ^erbatim, he often paraphrases in order to give a vividness of touch and a personal glow to his narrative. His is a living portraiture of the past. We see "as though in a mirror "2 the ancient drama, or what passes here for it, re-enacted before us. We hear the leader haranguing his men before the battle, the men
" Stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start,"
and thus the average reader touched with a glow of enthusiasm feels in the midst of the fray, and is too interested in the sequence of events and the fortune of war to stand aloof and examine the narrative critically and dispassionately. When his style is analysed we find that much of his
^v, Ashton's Llenydd. Gyni,^ p. 147. ^ v. his Latin
Dedication.
