Yr Hen Iaith part 72: Staging the evils of Nonconformism – The Anterliwt part four

Jerry Hunter

Far from being uniform, Welsh-language literature and culture constituted a hotly contested field in the eighteenth century.

Published texts and public performances could be used as weapons wielded in ideological struggles.

Perhaps the best example of this is found in the war of words waged between Nonconformist religious reformers and those who composed, acted in and supported the popular plays known as anterliwtiau.

The former has been discussed in some detail already in this series, and now it’s worth looking at the ways in which the anterliwtwyr struck back at their critics.

Religious radicals

Two plays provide extended attacks on the religious radicals. Huw Jones of Llangwm composed Protestant a Neilltuwr, a title which translates as ‘Protestant and Nonconformist’, although we might render it as ‘Anglican and Nonconformist’.

The conservative Anglican is the true Protestant in this work, and the value, comfort and legitimacy of the established church is set against a construction of Nonconformism which paints it as dangerous, misleading and discomforting.  For example, at one point the Protestant’s criticism of the Nonconformist contrasts the music central to their different methods of worship:

A’r organ sydd yn llais hyfrydlon

Gyda lliaws o gantorion,

Gwell na’r hymne rych chiw’n ganu

Mewn ysgubor neu mewn beudy.

‘And the organ is a delightful voice

Along with a multitude of singers,

Better than the hymns which you sing

In a barn or a cowshed.’

As we’ve seen in past instalments, the fool’s bawdy humour is one of the traditional features of the anterliwt. In this play, the fool Falster claims to have taken part in the Methodist’s worship, providing a version of what transpired which contrasts lewdly with the Nonconformist’s ecstatic description of their prayer session:

Neilltuwr:  O! roedd yno weddïo hwyr a bore.

Ffalster:    Yr oeddem ni’n bur amal ar ein glinie,

                  A llawer gwraig yn cael tywmo’i thrwyn

                  Rhwng Hywel fwyn a m’finne.

Nonconformist:  Oh! There was praying there morning and night.

Fflaster:              We were often on our knees,

And many a woman got to warm her nose,

Between dear Hywel and me.

Hywel Harris

The Welsh Methodist leader, Hywel Harris, is made a partner in the fool’s sexual escapades, and Huw Jones leads his audience to believe – or perhaps supports a rumour already circulating amongst them – that the Methodist fathers took advantage of women who came under their influence.

The religious struggle is politicised and set within a broad historical context, as contemporary Nonconformists are described as the descendants of the Puritans who destabilized society during the previous century.

The Protestant states that it was their ‘ilk’ (epil) ‘who warred against Charles the Fist’ (a fu’n rhyfela / yn erbyn Charles y Cyna’), likening Oliver Cromwell to the biblical rebel, ‘Cain son of Adam’ (Cain fab Adda).

Not surprisingly, the conservative status quo triumphs when the Protestant’s arguments win out and the Nonconformist sees the errors of his ways. The transformation is completed with Truth (Gwirionedd) personified comes on stage commanding all to ‘agree’ (cytunwch) and accept ‘pure undefiled religion’  (crefydd burt ddihalogedig).  At this point the Nonconformist agrees readily to mend his ways:

Mae eich ymadrodd i’m cynhesu;

Ni ymneilltuaf byth ond hynny;

Mi ddof i’r eglwys lân gatholig,

Gobeithio byddaf yn gadwedig.

‘Your speech warms me;

I will never dissent again;

I will come to the pure true church,

In the hopes that I will be saved.’

Negated

Thus the Ymneilltuwr (nonconformist, dissenter, separatist, withdrawer) promises that he will never again ymneilltuo (dissent, separate, withdraw). The identity of the religious radical is completely negated at the play’s end.

The spicey title of a composition by William Roberts of Llannor, Ffrewyll y Methodistiaid can be read either as ‘The Methodist’s Scourge’ or as ‘The Scourge of the Methodists’.

Both are apt descriptions of the play’s message. The destabilizing Methodists are portrayed as a threat to society; the can be described as wielding a fflangell (‘whip’ or ‘scourge’) which injures others. However, the entire composition is also a ‘scourge’ wielded to punish the Nonconformists for their supposed errors and crimes.

While the anterliwt tradition seems to have been confined for the most part to mid and north Wales, the Methodist Revival first took hold in the south-west of the country. Interestingly, the way in which this plays stages the Anglican-Methodist struggle is inflected by a sharply drawn North-South dichotomy as well.

Scheming

Hywel Harris is a charter in this anterliwt, and at point crucial point we see him scheming with his henchman Siencyn, planning to spread their false religion northwards in pursuit of personal profit:

Pe doit ti gyda mi tua Gwynedd,

Nyni a gaem aur ac arian ddigonedd;

Nhw dybian’ yn glir ym mhob gwlad

Ein bod ni’n ddwy gennad gogonedd.

‘If you come with me to Gwynedd,

We will get plenty of gold and silver;

They will clearly think in every region

That we are two messengers of glory.’

Siencyn consents readily to the plan, exclaiming ‘I’ll come with you’ (mi ddof fi gyda chwi), adding a heretical blessing, ‘may Whitefield keep you’ (Chwitfield a’ach cadwo).

The Methodist father, George Whitfield, is made into a figure of divine worship. ‘I don’t fear anybody’ (Nid ydwyf fi’n ofni neb), the Methodist henchman boasts, adding ‘If I will be left in peace and not beaten up’ (Os caf lonydd heb fy lainio).

One can imagine the crowd at a fair, market or gwylmabsant in north Wales laughing heartily at this. There were incidents during Methodism’s early push northwards when mobs attacked the religious radicals. This play reflected a partial reality even as it sought to influence the perception of a shifting cultural, religious and ideological landscape.

Darllen Pellach/Further Reading:

Cynfael Lake (ed), Huw Jones o Langwm (Caernarfon, 2009).

A Cynfael Lake (ed.), Ffrewyll y Methodistiaid William Roberts  (Cardiff, 1998)

Dafydd Glyn Jones, ‘The Interludes’, yn Branwen Jarvis (ed.), A guide to Welsh literature c.1700-1800 (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifsygol Cymru, 2000).

Jerry Hunter, Llywodraeth y Ffŵl: Gwylmabsant, Anterliwt a Chymundeb y Testun, book in press an appearing in 2026 (University of Wales Press).