Several have since been edited, some by individuals, as
Sir Walter Scott and the poet Southey, others by antiquarian
societies. The class of readers which could be counted on for such
publications was so small that no inducement of profit could be
found to tempt editors and publishers to give them to the world.
It was therefore only a few, and those the most accessible, which
were put in print. There was a class of manuscripts of this kind
which were known, or rather suspected, to be both curious and
valuable, but which it seemed almost hopeless to expect ever to
see in fair printed English. These were the Welsh popular tales
called Mabinogeon, a plural word, the singular being Mabinogi, a
tale. Manuscripts of these were contained in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford and elsewhere, but the difficulty was to find
translators and editors. The Welsh is a spoken language among the
peasantry of Wales, but is entirely neglected by the learned,
unless they are natives of the principality. Of the few Welsh
scholars none were found who took sufficient interest in this
branch of learning to give these productions to the English
public. Southey and Scott, and others, who like them, loved the
old romantic legends of their country, often urged upon the Welsh
literati the duty of reproducing the Mabinogeon. Southey, in the
preface of his edition of "Moted'Arthur," says: "The specimens
which I have seen are exceedingly curious; nor is there a greater
desideratum in British literature than an edition of these tales,
with a literal version, and such comments as Mr.
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