Evan Evans (poet)

Evan Evans (20 May 1731 – 4 August 1788) (bardic name Ieuan Fardd, also known as Ieuan Brydydd Hir) was a Welsh language poet, clergyman, antiquary and literary critic.

Evans, son of Jenkin Evans, was born at Cynhawdref, in the parish of Lledrod, Cardiganshire. He received his education at the grammar school of Ystrad Meurig, under the scholar and poet Edward Richard. He moved to Oxford, and entered Merton College in 1751 but left without graduating. He had conveyed a small freehold in Cardiganshire to his younger brother for £100, in order to support himself at the university.

By 1754 he had been ordained as a priest, and he served as curate in at least eighteen different parishes, including at Newick in Sussex, at Towyn in Merionethshire, at Llanberis and Llanllechid in Carnarvonshire, and at Llanfair Talhaiarn in Denbighshire.

From an early age he cultivated poetry, and he was soon noticed by Lewis Morris the antiquary. He diligently applied himself to the study of Welsh literature, and employed his leisure time in transcribing ancient Welsh manuscripts, for which purpose he visited most of the libraries in Wales. At one time he received small annuities from Sir Watkin Williams Wynn and Dr John Warren, when bishop of St David's, to enable him to pursue his research. His first publication was entitled ‘Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards, translated into English; with explanatory notes on the historical passages, and a short account of men and places mentioned by the Bards; in order to give the curious some idea of the tastes and sentiments of our Ancestors, and their manner of writing,’ London, 1764, reprinted at Llanidloes [1862]. This work gained for its author a high reputation as an antiquary and a critic, and furnished Gray with matter for some of his most beautiful poetry. In it is included a Latin treatise by Evans, ‘De Bardis Dissertatio; in qua nonnulla quæ ad eorum antiquitatem et munus respiciunt, et ad præcipuos qui in Cambria floruerunt, breviter discutiuntur.’

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