ROBIN CLIDRO (fl. 1580), itinerant minstrel

a native of the Vale of Clwyd, according to some authorities. (Cludro occurs as a place name in the parish of Llangefni, Anglesey). His verse is of the humorous kind, such as the elegy on his cat, the story of his visit to Ludlow, and the description of certain fishermen. The humour of these songs is often ribald. He employed a metre which is only found in the works of the lower bardic grades and which seems never to have been used for serious poetry. It is a variation of the metre known as cyhydedd hir, with a touch of cynghanedd between the third and fourth lines. An elegy upon Robin, full of faulty cynghanedd in the manner of the bard himself, was sung by Siôn Tudur, and it is stated in the title that he was murdered by highwaymen in South Wales. But this may, like many another, be a mock elegy.

Author

• Sir Thomas Parry, (1904 - 1985)

Sources

• Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol o Enwogion Cymru (1870)
• Canu Rhydd Cynnar (1932), cxvii, 146-66
• T. Gwynn Jones, Llenyddiaeth Cymru o 1450 hyd 1600 (Lerpwl 1922), iii, 69
• Cennard Davies, Robin Clidro a'i ganlynwyr (1964)

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: Robin Clidro

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q7352324

Published date: 1959

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