Evan Evans, poet, Welsh scholar, and curate, was born at Gynhawdref farm in the parish of Lledrod, Ceredigion, Wales, on 20 May 1731. Following his ordination, he wandered through over eighteen cures in twenty years, searching in vain for a place where he felt both at home and appreciated, and his contemporaries knew him as perpetually ragged and impoverished. In spite of the grinding poverty which his position as a lowly and wandering curate brought, as well as the unfortunate “incorrigible” addiction to “strong drink” noted by Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) (qtd. in Bristow 42), his tireless copying of neglected manuscripts meant that he managed to publish Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient …
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Citation: Jenkins, Bethan M.. "Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd or Ieuan Brydydd Hir)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 November 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13979, accessed 24 November 2024.]
