The Dialogue of the Government of Wales (1594)

This is a new edition of an Elizabethan text, previously printed in 1906. The author (curiously not named on the title-page) is George Owen of Henllys—better known for his The Description of Pembrokeshire—a Pembrokeshire gentleman legally trained in London, as his father had been before him. Professor Gwynfor Jones, a leading historian of sixteenth-century Wales, has modernised spelling and grammar to produce an accessible text. He provides an excellent introduction and extensive and informative footnotes. The ‘Dialogue’ is between two imaginary characters, ‘Demetus’, representing the author, and ‘Barthol’, a somewhat improbable German civil lawyer who has just completed a tour of Wales. I find it less impressive as an example of ‘Socratic dialogue’ than does the editor; Bartholus, in spite of an exciting life (wife and two children killed by the Spanish in Antwerp) seems to be a stooge whose function is only to move Demetus’ matter along. The title is misleading by modern standards. Aspects of government such as taxation or military service, even representation in Parliament and the process of legislation, are mentioned only incidentally. The same applies to religion, which, in a ‘confessionalised’ sixteenth century, most historians would now regard as an integral part of government

Art history · George (robot · German · Government (linguistics · Linguistics · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Spelling · Wife · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy · Scottish History and National Identity