Cornish Literature

Cornish Literature, written material in Cornish, the Celtic language of ancient Cornwall. The earliest known fragment (c. 1400) deals in verse with the theme of marriage. The Passion of Our Lord, or Mount Calvary, a poeticized version of the Passion based partly on the gospel, is attributed to a later date in the 15th century. It marks the flowering of Cornish literature and is followed by a series of miracle plays and biblical dramas derived in large part from Breton and medieval English sources. The most notable are Origo Mundi, Passio Domini, and Resurrectio Domini. These works constitute the Ordinalia, which scholars now recognize as being of greater literary merit and independence than had previously been thought. The rare instance of a nonbiblical theme occurs in a 16th-century play, The Life of Saint Meriasek, which is also derivative. The Creation of the World (1611) marks the virtual close of the creative cycle in Cornish letters. A few plays and stories, however, were written in Cornish in the 20th century.