Pennod 47 – ‘Swydd y Beirdd sydd heb Urddas’: Beirdd, Dyneiddwyr a Karl Marx

The Job of the Bards is without Dignity’: Bards, Humanists and Karl Marx

This episode concentrates on the factors which were undermining the Welsh bardic order during the second half of the sixteenth century. We discuss three challenges specifically, beginning with the fact that the pool of patronage was shrinking and making it more difficult for a bard to earn a living by composing praise poetry.

We also consider the challenge posed by the ideas and attitudes of the humanists and the struggle between two kinds of learning in the period.

Finally, we note the way in which the new technology of the printing press was presenting a different kind of challenge.

You’ll hear an anecdote about an uchelwr who showed his contempt for a praise poet in a memorable manner and there is ample opportunity to explore a Marxist analysis of these changes in the course of our literature’s history.