Twm composes and sends to his mistress his CYWYDD Y GOVID. Visits her in
disguise, and obtains the solemn promise of her hand. Description of the
romantic hill of Dinas, and the excavation in it, since called Twm Shôn
Catti’s cave. Twm suspects himself jilted.
WHILE our hero was thus pursuing his vagaries, the unhappy lady of Ystrad
Fîn, who had not known a day’s peace since his absence, was daily
wavering between a resolution to send for him back, to bestow on him her
hand, and a deference for her father and proud relatives, who insisted
that if ever she married again, it should only be to a title and fortune;
by which they should themselves share in the honor. In the mean time
information was brought to her, of his wild tricks and excesses, greatly
exaggerated to his disadvantage, which gave that kind-hearted lady the
greatest concern, as she conceived herself in part the authoress of his
misfortunes. Twm, at the same time, felt that his tedious absence from
the fair widow was no longer to be endured; and as he knew her conduct to
be daily watched by her father’s spies, he determined on paying her a
visit in disguise. Previous to putting his design into execution, he
composed and sent her the following poem, in which he dwells on, and
over-rates his own misfortunes, in a strain calculated to move her
tenderness in his favor.