Thomas Gray and recovering the ancient poetry in the eighteenth century ---His interest in and contribution to Welsh Poetry

This research studies the ideas of the ancient Welsh bards and historical backgrounds to depicting them, focusing on three 18^<th>-century English and Welsh poets ; Thomas Gray's "The Bard", William Mason's Caractacus and Evan Evans' Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards. Gray had influential discourses with the other two, and his "Bard" exemplified an ideal of the national poet for both England and Wales. In "Gray and the Making of the Ancient ‘British' Bard," I argue that Gray had a positive idea of setting forth an image of a valorous ancient British bard, who prophesizes the triumphs of Britons despite of the suppression by the Plantagenet. To describe a bard, Gray used mythical images of Druidic, Scaldic, and biblical prophet-poets. He also subsumed a legendary episode of the massacre of Welsh bards under historical facts of King Edward I's invasion of Wales. Thus he incorporated ancient mysticism into medieval historicity. I also considered Gray's nationalistic concerns under England-France frictions in the mid-1750s to protect liberty. This paper was read in 2003 Wordsworth Summer Conference and will be published for the Anniversary Edition of Essays in English Romanticism. I also read a paper on Mason's Caractacus, which abounds in mystic images of Druids, Bards and warriors in ancient Briton at 2004 annual meeting of Japan Association of English Romanticism. We can see again the nationalistic attitudes to defend liberty against Roman invasion. Although Mason's work has been neglected, this poetical drama shows his notions of Druidic mysticism. In addition to these, I wrote on Gray's "Elegy" in From Denham to English Romanticism, arguing that Gray strongly suggests poetry's sustainability through the metaphor of "gravestone" in the conclusion. I also talked on James Thomson and Gray and ideas on ut pictura poesis in a symposium of Japan Johnson's Society.